Mark McPherson's Blog, page 8

“Plankton: The Movie” Review

After the dismally lifeless Sandy Cheeks movie, my hopes for this SpongeBob spin-off movie were low. But armed with a script co-written by the voice actor himself, this film felt like a much-needed shot in the arm for the aging franchise. Free of a dreary live-action villain and daring enough to experiment with multiple mediums, here is a film willing to go to some wild and weird places with comedy centered more around engrossing and exaggerated character growth, which I was not expecting out o...

“All We Imagine as Light” Review

What’s surprising about All We Imagine as Light is not just the tenderness among its struggling women but that it remains present in the mess of modern problems of Mumbai. As in reality, the daily issues of the nurses Prabha and Anu are not exclusive to India. They struggle with long hours, making rent, and romances that are hard to maintain. Through it all, comfort is still found while fighting for what is right when life seems most intimidating, like a breath of fresh air amid so much claustr...

Why Anora Deserved To Win Best Picture

I ranked Anora at the top of my list for the best films of 2024, but I did not expect it to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It was winning most of its nominations during the ceremony, but I tried not to get my hopes up. I thought the top contenders for the big prize were either The Brutalist, a historical epic that I also loved, or Emelia Perez, a messy musical about the transgender experience that would appeal to aged neoliberals and come off offensively misfiring for the left. There w...

“Broken Rage” Review

There’s an irresistible playfulness to how Takeshi Kitano tinkers with his duality of the gritty and goofy. As an actor and director known for both his absurd comedy and vicious crime roles, he seems to fluctuate between two different tones but rarely wants to settle. He’s also been known for weirdly meta approaches to his career, something that has grown less weird over time. But even after such wild films on his filmography, Kitano still comes out swinging and manages to impress with a refres...

“Grand Theft Hamlet” Review

For a film that takes place entirely within Grand Theft Auto Online, it might sound strange that such a film nearly drove me to tears. But there is great drama to be had within a game most notable for its mindless carnage. During the Covid-19 pandemic, this is where we all were. We shifted to the digital realm where we worked and played. In that space, we found freedom from the world’s pains while reminders of its despair lingered in the pixels. Even though a game like GTA was built for violenc...

“Superboys of Malegaon” Review

Though based on Indian movie history, there’s a universal appeal to the ambitions of Superboys of Malegaon. Few outside the country may be familiar with the classic Sholay, but everybody can understand the desire to make their own film. The do-it-yourself mindset of scrappy filmmakers is usually a compelling aspect to highlight, from the cobbling of funds in American Movie to the cheap charms of Be Kind Rewind. While this true story may reserve itself for the safe route of an emotional epic, it...

“Watchmen: Chapter I & II” Review

The animated adaptation of Watchmen exists in this weird void between the highly accurate motion-graphic adaptation and the thematically adrift movie by Zack Snyder. There are some clear strengths this direct-to-video version has over the other versions, and yet, it doesn’t seem to vary much from the comic book. It’s an adaptation so faithful that it lacks any flavor. For as bad as Snyder’s Watchmen was, it still tried something new with the material. The motion comic felt more like a technical...

“Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)” Review

Questlove’s previous music documentary, Summer of Soul, was a fantastic film for going beyond a standard smattering of archival footage and recollection interviews. He goes the extra mile to place you in the era’s mood, evoking every mood to understand the importance of this musical history. For tackling the funk band Sly and the Family Stone, the director once more places us into the world that made this band so iconic. The many hit songs are well known in pop culture, but perhaps not so much ...

“The Monkey” (2025) Review

There’s only so many times you can show people dying that horror turns into a farce. From the creative slashing of A Nightmare on Elm Street to the Rube-Goldberg-style traps of Final Destination, the volume of violence only grows as much as the goofiness mounted on top of the gore. Director Osgood Perkins plunges face-first into this realm of horror for adapting Stephen King’s The Monkey. Although reducing the trauma and destructive fears of the id might make this a lesser adaptation, the abund...

“Paddington in Peru” Review

There’s an enduring nature to how Paddington’s wholesome and clever antics can remain warm and inviting even among the tiredly familiar. An adventure in the jungle searching for a lost treasure is an overused story with a high level of being forgotten. But with Paddington’s Chaplin-esque slapstick and chipper personality at the helm, Paddington in Peru manages to steer this rusted ship to avoid dull waters.

Paddington (voiced by ) is convinced to take off for Peru when he learns t...