Mark McPherson's Blog, page 28

“The Holdovers” Review

There are familiar elements of The Holdovers that could easily make it a passive melodrama. It tells the story of three sad souls coming together on Christmas to find warmth and reliability amid their lonely situation. But there’s a warmth to how this dramedy approaches its nostalgic 1970s setting and character-focused story. From the first few moments, a certain love can be felt that made me feel so good, longing to stay with these broken souls over a cozy and intimidating holiday season.

T...

“Killers of the Flower Moon” Review

Martin Scorsese is a director whose grasp on the nature of crime is so firm he could wield it with any genre, be it a gangster story within cities (Goodfellas) or a religious tale amid villages (Silence). For Killers of the Flower Moon, he weaves that same thoughtful filmmaking over a historical Western of a small town, centering around the 1920s murders against the Osage tribe. As expected, it comes bundled with fantastic performances, stunning cinematography, and a sense of dread that builds ...

“The Exorcist: Believer” Review

The latest iteration of The Exorcist comes from David Gordon Green, who has previously helmed a new Halloween trilogy. Similar to those films, The Exorcist: Believer has many of the same problems. It’s a film that poses unique questions and themes but never builds on them, hoping something comes together if everything is swirled together in a stew of horror nostalgia. It’s a recipe that doesn’t work.

See if you can spot where the film is going from this premise. Single father Victor Fielding...

“The Creator” Review

It’d be easy to go after The Creator for feeling so cliche of the sci-fi genre. It’s an action-filled picture about the dangers and humanity involved with recognizing the controversial topic of artificial intelligence. In the tradition of the sci-fi genre, this film has a lot of familiar tropes: finding love in times of uncertainty, questioning existence, playing god, cybernetic intrigue, etc. Thankfully, director Gareth Edwards has enough faith in this type of film to make those familiar theme...

“Dumb Money” Review

Even though there have been at least two documentaries on the topic, the GameStop short-squeeze remains an intriguing case of Wall Street manipulation. Occurring in early 2021, the stock price for GameStop shot up when a legion of Reddit investors kept buying. The result was a case of hedge fund managers getting rightfully screwed and corrupt brokerages who still manipulated the system. It was a mini-revolution against Wall Street that dealt more of a tent against corruption than a piercing hol...

“A Haunting in Venice” Review

After two attempts at Poirot, the third time is the charm for director/actor . Even though he reprises his roles in front of and behind the camera, Branagh’s latest feels like a much different film compared to Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. It’s more dynamic and charismatic, playing with the material rather than shoving it into a stuffy box with lukewarm revisions. The result is a decent murder mystery, but immaculate compared to its preceding entries.

Bra...

Movies Need More Sex

Oppenheimer has been one of 2023’s bigger successes at the box office, and it’s a surprise hit of sorts. It’s an R-rated biopic centering on the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer. It also features sex scenes. One occurs amid Oppenheimer’s grilling amid a panel and features a fantasy sequence of Kitty imagining her husband having sex with Jean Tatlock when she hears this revelation. The other occurs prior when Oppenheimer states his iconic quote right as Jean starts having sex with him.

In terms ...

“Aporia” Review

Aporia is the low-budget and high-concept science fiction with the most compelling ideas. The familiar question of what life would be like if something was different and changed our lives for the better. The messing of the timeline is easier to accept when one longs to spend more time with a loved one they lost. It’s also far more intriguing watching how the more intimate parts of life are at stake rather than the universe coming to an end.

The film centers on the crumbling life of single mo...

“Gran Turismo” Review

There’s a decent story worth telling around Gran Turismo, even if it has the same level of commercialism coursing throughout its veins. The famous racing game spawned a true story of racing so easily sellable it could’ve been a packaged deal. It’s the story of one player given a chance to prove themselves as a top Gran Turismo player and a racecar driver in reality. It’s an easy sell for a film, and it delivers precisely what it promises, where the tech expertise is more compelling than the so-...

“Strays” Review

Sometime after the fourth bottle of beer or the second edible, someone at a party probably said, “Dude, what if there were a dog movie, but it was, like, adult and stuff with drugs, cussing and sex?” A laugh was had, and the thought evaporated after a few more jokes. Strays is what happens when one of the friends at this inebriated gathering thinks that is a great idea and records the spitballed thoughts. It’s not as compelling once you sober up.

It’s not that the story of Strays couldn’t wo...