Movie Reviews
Make a Girl Anime Film Review
Three major problems hamper Make a Girl as a film. The first is its very premise. Akira offhandedly makes Zero, a literal living, breathing girl, from nothing. Born a teenager, his lab-grown girl already knows at birth all the information needed to live in human society (like language skills and critical thinking)—even if she lacks the experience to use that data correctly. And to be clear, this isn’t an everyday occurrence in the world of this film—other people aren’t just going around making teenagers on a whim.
Despite this, no one bats an eye at the fact that Akira created life. His friends give little more than an exasperated sigh, and his scientist peers find her interesting but not much more. What he has done logically has world-shaking implications, but there’s no government interference or societal outcry. People just don’t seem to think it’s much of a big deal.
Stemming from the problems with the premise, we have the next major issue: the tone. Much of the film is silly and lighthearted, focusing on Zero adjusting to living in human society and trying to figure out her role as Akira’s girlfriend. It’s so lighthearted that, given the should-be-serious subject material, it rings false. It almost feels like there is some major twist in the works—like the whole world is fabricated or a dream or something similar. It’s incredibly challenging to suspend disbelief. Then comes the final climax, which is so intense and graphically violent that it feels like part of a different (and much more interesting) film.
And here we reach the final issue plaguing the film: its theme. When it comes down to it, Make a Girl is focused on the question of free will. Does Zero love Akira because she was designed that way, or are her emotions all her own? But more than that, how can she prove it one way or the other? That is the personal dilemma at the core of the film. The problem is that rather than truly develop and explore this conundrum, the film jumps directly to the most extreme way of testing it. And while it makes for an exciting, visceral climax, the movie does little thematically to lay the groundwork for such an overreaction.
Of course, the film isn’t all bad—even within the problems stated above are more than a few interesting elements. One interesting aspect of the film is that its hero and villain face the same struggles. Both are bashing their heads against a wall in an attempt to even start to understand the greatest scientific mind of the previous generation: Akira’s mother. Both are going to evermore extreme lengths to try and progress—to step out from the shadow of such a great woman. But the pressure is soul-crushing and leads both to do things they come to regret. When it comes down to it, their core problem is the same: neither can understand Akira’s mother’s thought process and thus can’t continue her work or even build upon it.
Another interesting development is its investigation of love. While romantic love is the catalyst, the film focuses on familial love as well. It also does some fun playing around with the idea of love triangles, childhood best friends, and the ways people use their roles in other people’s lives to fill the voids in their own. Basically, it explores how love can let you see the world in a new way—and can change your life to make you a more balanced and productive person in the process.
On the visual side, Make a Girl is a mixed bag. There are times when the 3D animated film truly does look like a traditionally animated film—however, the majority of the time, it does not. That doesn’t mean it looks bad, however. The more action-packed the scene, the more stunning the film becomes. On the other hand, some noticeable wide shots that are a bit odd. Despite the 3D models used in the film, the characters seem under-detailed. There are also some strange frame-rate drops in the animation.
The music is not bad, but it is definitely forgettable. I honestly can’t remember a single bar of it—or even a moment where the music stood out in the least—positively or negatively.
In the end, Make a Girl has an undercooked premise, inconsistent tone, and underexplored theme. The animation itself is likewise filled with ups and downs in the quality department. It is, simply put, a film with some interesting ideas but poor execution.
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
Desert Warrior, 2026.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt.
Starring Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley, Ghassan Massoud, Sharlto Copley, Sami Bouajila, Lamis Ammar, Géza Röhrig, Numan Acar, Nabil Elouahabi, Hakeem Jomah, Ramsey Faragallah, Saïd Boumazoughe, and Soheil Bostani.
SYNOPSIS:
An honorable and mysterious rogue, known as Hanzala, makes himself an enemy of the Emperor Kisra after he helps a fugitive king and princess in the desert.
With aspirations of being a historical epic harkening back to the sword and sandal blockbusters of yesteryear, Rupert Wyatt’s seventeenth-century Arabia tale is about as generic and epically dull as one would expect from a film plainly titled Desert Warrior. Yes, there appear to be real locations here, and there are some admittedly sweeping shots of various tribes storming into battle on horseback and camels, but it’s all in service of a mess that is both miscast and questionable as the work of a filmmaking team of mostly white creatives.
The story of Emperor Kisraa (Ben Kingsley, a distracting presence even with only one or two scenes) rounding up women from other tribes to be his concubines, which inevitably became the catalyst for a revolution led by Princess Hind (Aiysha Hart), uniting all the divided clans and strategizing battle plans for flanking and poisoning, is undeniably ripe for cinematic treatment. The problem is that what’s here from Rupert Wyatt (and screenwriters Erica Beeney, Gary Ross, and David Self) is less than nothing in the primary creative process; no one seems to have a connection to Arabic heritage or culture, but they have made a flat-out boring film that is often narratively incoherent.
Following the death of her father and escaping the clutches of oppression, the honorable Princess Hind joins forces with a troubled, nameless bandit played by Anthony Mackie (he totally belongs here…), who seems to be here solely to give the movie some star power boost without running the risk of white savior accusations. Whatever the case may be, it’s jarring, but not quite as disorienting as how little screen time he has despite being billed as the lead and how little characterization he has. It is, however, equally disorienting as some of the other names that show up along the way.
As for the other factions, Princess Hind talks to them one by one, giving the film an adventure feel that fails to capitalize on using beautiful scenery in striking or visually poignant ways at almost every turn; the leaders of these tribes also often have no character. There also isn’t much of an understanding of why these tribes are at odds with one another. This movie is filled with dialogue that consistently and shockingly amounts to vague nothingness. Nevertheless, each tribe doesn’t take much convincing to begin with, meaning that not only is the film repetitive, but it’s also lifeless when characters are in conversation.
That Desert Warrior does occasionally spring to life, and a bloated 2+ running time is a small miracle. This is typically accomplished through the occasional fight scene between factions that also serves to demonstrate Princess Hind coming into her own as a warrior. When the tribes are united in a massive-scale battle, and that plan is unfolding step by step, one certainly sees why someone would want to tell this story and pull it off with such spectacle. However, this film is as dry as the desert itself.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist
‘4’, the opening track on Richard D James’ (Aphex Twin) self titled 1996 album is a piece of music that beautifully balances the chaotic with the serene, the oppressive and the freeing. It’s a trick that James has pulled off multiple times throughout his career and it is a huge part of what makes him such an iconic and influential artist. Many people have laid the “next Aphex Twin” label on musicians who do things slightly different and when you actually hear their music you realise that, once again, the label is flawed and applied with a lazy attitude. Why mention this? Well, it turns out we’ve been looking for James’ heir apparent in the wrong artform. We’ve so zoned in on music that we’ve not noticed that another Celtic son of Cornwall is rewriting an art form with that highwire balancing act between chaos and beauty. That artist is writer, director and composer Mark Jenkin who over his last two feature films has announced himself as an idiosyncratic voice who is creating his very own language within the world of cinema. Jenkin’s films are often centred around coastal towns or islands and whilst they are experimental or even unsettling, there is always a big heart at the centre of the narrative. A heart that cares about family, tradition, culture, and the pull of ‘home’. Even during the horror of 2022’s brilliant Enys Men you were anchored by the vulnerability and determination of its main protagonist.
This month sees the release of Jenkin’s latest feature film, Rose of Nevada, which is set in a fractured and diminished Cornish coastal town. One day the fishing boat of the film’s title arrives back in harbour after being missing for thirty years. The boat is unoccupied. And frankly that is all the information you are going to get because to discuss any more plot would be unfair on you and disrespectful to Jenkin and the team behind the film. You the viewer should be the one who decides what it is about because thematically there are so many wonderful threads to pull on. This writer’s opinions on what it is about have ranged from a theme of sacrifice for the good of a community to the conflict within when part of you wants to run away from your roots whilst the other half longs to stay and be a lifelong part of its tapestry. Is it about Brexit? Could be. Is it about our own relationships with time and our curation of memory? Could be. Is it about both the positives and negatives of nostalgia? Could be. As a side note, anyone in their mid-40s, like me, who came of age in the 1990s will certainly find moments of warm recognition. Is the film about ghosts and how they haunt families? Could be…I think you get the point.
The elements that make the film so well balanced between chaos and calm are many. It is there in the differing performances between the brilliant two lead actors George MacKay and Callum Turner. It is there in the sound design which fluctuates from being unbearably harsh and metallic, to lulling and warm. It is there in the editing where short, sharp close ups on seemingly unimportant factors are counterbalanced with shots that are held for just that little bit too long. For a film set around the sea, it is apt that it can make you feel like you’re rolling on a stomach churning storm one minute, or a calming low tide the next. Dialogue can be front and centre or blurred and buried under static. One shot is bathed in harsh sunlight whilst the next can be drowned in interior shadows.
Rose of Nevada is Mark Jenkin’s most ambitious film to date yet he has not lost a single iota of innovation, singularity of vision or his gift for telling the most human of stories. It is a film that will tell you different things each time you see it and whilst there are moments that can confuse or beguile, there is so much empathy and love that it can leave you crying tears of emotional understanding. It is chaotic. It is beautiful. It is life……
Rose of Nevada is released on the 24th April.
Mark Jenkin Instagram | Threads
Released through the BFI – Instagram | Facebook
Review by Simon Tucker
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