Mark McPherson's Blog, page 14

“Chicken For Linda!” Review

Chicken For Linda is a French animated film with a simple plot and room to play. It surprised me that it wasn’t based on a children’s book. It certainly has that look and feel for how directors Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach style these rough-sketched characters with engulfing colors. While it does meander in its tale of grief and food, there’s just enough charm oozing through its accidents and chase to satiate.

There’s some drama from the start given the conflict between the widow Pa...

“Juror #2” Review

Director has become such a master of his craft that I have held him to a higher degree for his many films. To be blunt, his past few films have not impressed me as much. His double-duty films of Cry Macho and The Mule felt lukewarm for the material explored, while the biographical dramas of The 15:17 to Paris and Richard Jewell seemed to contort more than explore. But Juror #2 is a completely original script where Eastwood stands out of view from the camera and flexes his directi...

“Gladiator II” Review

“Violence is the international language.” This line from Gladiator II is accurate not merely because action films with more blood than words play better abroad. Action also happens to be director strength, made clear from the appeal of 2000’s Gladiator and last year’s Napoleon. While Scott does lean into his strength with big battles of brutality, his dramatic staging for these awesome sequences has the eloquence of a melodrama, feeling like a soap opera placed on top of an epic ...

“Wicked” (2024) Review

It’d be easy for such a lavish and exuberant musical as Wicked to get lost within its glamor, where all the eye-popping visuals and catchy lyrics cake over anything to say about this revisionist history of Oz. However, director Jon M. Chu has a firm enough grasp on this material to be as thematically resonant as it is decadently assembled with humanity so organic that a mere hair flip can generate a chuckle. This is a tale of discrimination and political stife that feels especially topical now ...

“Emilia Pérez” Review

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A musical always runs the risk of the theatrics overwhelming any thematic core it might’ve been aiming for. Emilia Pérez is one such case. It’s a film that tries to swirl aspects of Mexican cartels, transgender s...

“The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” Review

There’s a reason the Looney Tunes was one of the longest-running cartoon reruns of Saturday morning cartoons. There was a versatile nature to the characters where they could be fun in almost any scenario they were slammed with, be it outwitting a hunter or terrorizing a monster. But the Looney Tunes can only work if there’s faith in letting them take the wheel. Most Looney Tunes short films and TV series knew the score. Looney Tunes movies, however, have been another story. From the pastiche an...

“Poolman” Review

The meandering mystery of Poolman is a comedy that relies on the stumbling of its protagonist. It’s a mildly ridiculous take on Chinatown with an unlikely seeker who watched it too closely. We all know that one friend who watches a conspiracy theory movie and they suddenly start getting paranoid about seeing the number 23 everywhere they look. They’re fun for a bit, but their mileage may vary depending on how wild their paranoia is to spiral into absurdity. In the case of directori...

“The Substance” Review

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“Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End” Review

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As the title might have implied, Apocalyse Z is based on series of books centering around a zombie apocalypse. The series now gets the theatrical treatment, but it seems like this type of material...

“Music By John Williams” Review

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You don’t need to see the titular credit to get excited for a movie with a score. You know it when you hear it. The limited notes from Jaws evoke terror in the water. The inspiring horns let you know that Superman is on the way. Every Star Wars entry is made iconic with the blazing orchestra for the openin...