Mark McPherson's Blog, page 13

“The Last Showgirl” Review

Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl is the type of film that feels tailor-made for someone like . This is a film all about the end of an era. When was the last time you thought about the career of a Las Vegas showgirl in a musical stage show? When did you last think of Pamela Anderson or see her in anything? There was a time when you probably thought about them more regularly, but all good things end. This film is about the bittersweet end of all those aspects and more.

Anderson p...

“Cuckoo” (2024) Review

Sometimes, the right atmosphere can work wonders for a horror idea that can’t quite take flight. That is very much the case with Cuckoo, a film that succeeds at being more interesting than its creature-feature angle of human-bird hybrids. There’s a mystery present for dissecting this weirdness, and the creepiness of that investigation makes the picture more compelling than the big reveal of the bird people or the tragic backstories behind it all.

Discovering all this odd terror is the young ...

“Spellbound” (2024) Review

It’s weirdly fitting that Spellbound is an animated fantasy about divorce, considering the rocky road of this film’s production company. This is the second feature from Skydance Animation, which has bounced from distributor to distributor and shuffled in and out a wealth of talent, some of which were controversial and led to several people leaving the studio’s production. Originally to be released by Paramount, Spellbound has finally arrived on Netflix after spending a long time in development....

“Nosferatu” (2024) Review

Director always has an ease for the accuracy in how he stages his many historical horrors. His take on Nosferatu is no different, staging the classic Gothic horror in a manner that never feels stiff. There’s such faith in this material that Eggers does away with the slow staging and fully embraces that surreal nightmare that can explore something deeper than a contemporary gloss.

Eggers would have to make this vampire story his own given how many times it’s been retold and revi...

“Anora” Review

Sean Baker’s films have always had a live-in quality of realism, but Anora goes the extra mile with its furious humanity that never relents. The energy is high enough that this film could easily be a mad-dash comedy around the nightlife of New York City. While it certainly has all the right beats, there’s a fervent nature to the characters and dialogue that transcend mere absurdity via chaos. There’s a beating heart to this film and teeth that chomp hard, never relenting this unorthodox adventu...

“September 5” Review

The newsroom drama of September 5 works so well for focusing more on the nuts and bolts getting mixed with the real-world tragedy covered. It’s perhaps the most intriguing angle to pursue, considering the heated nature of the 1972 Munich Olympic hostage crisis. Rarely does the film veer out of its control room and studio, keeping the audience locked into covering the events and making the tough calls of where to place the camera and what news to report. The hostage crisis is already tense, but ...

“Dear Santa” (2024) Review

What the hell is Dear Santa trying to be? My initial perception was that staging a Christmas comedy of a kid-oriented, deal-with-the-devil scenario was meant to be akin to Bad Santa. But while Bad Santa was admirable for never pulling back too hard on its cynical nature, this comedy pumps the brakes so hard you want to cover your ears as the sentimentality sends this fantastical comedy screeching to an agonizing halt.

This film has a good idea, but it lacks enough creativity or faith to carr...

“Moana 2” Review

It’s hard to get back into the groove with Moana 2. This is not for lack of energy, songs, and all the mythological fantasy wielded once more. It has all the makings of another robust adventure for Disney’s Samoan heroes. And, yet, it never reaches that same level of clever wit and earworm melodies, coming off like those direct-to-video Disney sequels that always felt lesser despite continuing with the same characters and presenting a new threat.

Part of the problem is that the central chara...

“The Piano Lesson” (2024) Review

Based on the play of the same title, The Piano Lesson is a meaty enough script for the best actors to flex and project. Making his directorial debut, Malcolm Washington is wise enough to draw out the finest performances from his all-star ensemble. He gets them to project as loudly as though they were on stage, brimming with joy and rage as trauma of the racist past festers in their souls. It’s that boldness that makes this theatrical adaptation come alive beyond its more frightening staging.

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“Piece by Piece” (2024) Review

But what if it was LEGO? That thought probably crosses the minds of some creatives when they are struggling for ideas, getting drunk, or high (or all three). To its credit, the idea sounds lucrative, considering how many LEGO movies and TV shows have exploded in the past decade. But while LEGO might be versatile enough as a toy to brandish sets for kids and adults, it can’t work miracles. Case in point, Piece by Piece tries to use LEGO to amplify the documentary about . While i...