June 2023 – Page 2 – PopCult Reviews

Comic Book Review – All-Star Superman

All-Star Superman (2011)
Reprints All-Star Superman #1-12
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Frank Quitely

I’m not sure what I think of Superman these days. For anyone claiming to believe there is a single definitive version of him, it shows they don’t actually know the character’s history. The Superman who appeared in the pages of Action Comics #1 wasn’t even Siegel & Shuster’s first attempt to create a character with that name. Over the nearly 90 years that Superman has existed in the culture, he has undergone numerous reboots and minor tweaks. The Golden Age Superman is a different person from the Silver Age version who, in turn, is not the same as John Byrne’s rebooted Man of Steel. Even that iteration from 1985 was changed significantly by the end of the 20th century. In All-Star Superman, writer Grant Morrison is focused purely on the Superman of their youth. This was the Superman of the 1960s, a fatherly figure whose powers bordered on god-like, new ones manifesting as writers needed them. Morrison has chosen what is ironically the least human of Superman’s faces to tell a story about life & death, a Herculean postmodern myth.

Patron Pick – Holes

This special reward is available to Patreon patrons who pledge at the $10 or $20 monthly levels. Each month those patrons will pick a film for me to review. If they choose, they also get to include some of their thoughts about the movie. This Pick comes from Bekah Lindstrom.

Holes (2003)
Written by Louis Sachar
Directed by Andrew Davis

Shortly after moving to the Netherlands, I started recording myself reading children’s books aloud to my niece and nephew. We started with picture books but have since moved on to some of the shorter chapter books. As a primary school teacher, I loved reading Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar to my third graders every year. I discovered that book as a child and found the author’s sense of humor aligned with my own, a celebration of dumb jokes and absurdity. After reading that to my niece and nephew, I decided to try Sachar’s most acclaimed book, Holes. I’d never read it before, and it is a well-done middle-grade novel with some intense themes. I had also never watched the film adaptation from 2003. Getting a screenwriter who wasn’t the book’s author might have helped the picture significantly.

Movie Review – Bad Education

Bad Education (2004)
Written & Directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Few directors working today seem to enjoy the richness of film images more than Pedro Almodovar. Every film he puts out is always full of bold color and intriguing framing & blocking. His stories are complex labyrinths where narratives are rarely linear, the past often haunting the present. Much of Bad Education is set around what the audience doesn’t know, putting us in the protagonist’s shoes. They are learning about the line between fiction and truth, letting the audience enter their imagination and then see how what they pictured matches with the people and events as they actually happened. I wouldn’t blame someone watching this for the first time for feeling confused; it takes at least a couple viewings to fully grasp what is happening in the picture.

Movie Review – Mysterious Skin

Mysterious Skin (2004)
Written by Scott Heim and Gregg Arakai
Directed by Gregg Araki

Growing up in the late 1980s/early 90s, I watched a lot of television. I have vivid memories of certain shows. Unsolved Mysteries, hosted by Robert Stack, was a frequent point of childhood terror that seems silly from the hindsight of an adult. America’s Most Wanted was not as consistently creepy, but a particular type of case terrified me as a child. When AWM would do a story on a child molester and/or murderer who was on the run, it scared the shit out of me. Being only 8/9 years old and homeschooled, I didn’t wholly understand what sex was, but I definitely understood that being touched inappropriately was bad. Pair this with the rampant homophobia in the culture, which was intensified even more through the lens of right-wing propaganda. I was served up in my homeschooling curriculum, and my view of gay men at this time was one of fear. I can’t say when it shifted, but by the time I was in college, I angrily defended gay people in arguments with some of my classmates at a private Christian college.

Autism II

In November 2022, I wrote up some thoughts about learning to understand being a person with autism as an adult. Since then, I’ve jotted down notes and paragraphs from time to time reflecting on it more. Being that 21 June is my birthday, I thought I would share some of these here. I mainly hope that people with autism who find writing down their thoughts difficult may find some connection here. I always appreciate when an author manages to verbalize an idea that has felt incoherent in my own mind for so long.

I am 42. I am three years from the age of my maternal grandfather, who died of a heart attack at age 45. My mother was 12 when he passed. It’s a story I’ve known since I was a child, and it wasn’t until a few years ago that it really started to swim around in my mind. I jokingly celebrated when I turned 34 that I’d outlived Jesus, but this one is a little closer to home. I also add that the average lifespan of autistic males is 39 years old. COVID-19 has also made me think more about my mortality. When I reach age 46, I suppose it will be like having navigated a boat through treacherous waters, not entirely safe now but done with a period of intense potential for harm. Though so many seem to be dealing with grasping mortality poorly, I think I’ve come to a healthy place with it. I have no guarantee of when my life will end.

PopCult Podcast – Last Action Hero/Trading Places

It’s birthday time for two movie releases from the past. One signaled the weak spots in a mega movie star’s career. The other was the first steps of a comedy star who would dominate the 1980s.

Movie Review – Happy Together

Happy Together (1997)
Written & Directed by Wong Kar-wai

Wong Kar-Wai has been named by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk) as one of his primary filmmaking influences. Both directors are less interested in intricately plotted narratives than powerfully atmospheric mood pieces. They like to focus their cameras on characters without any pressure for that character to grow or learn any lessons. It’s merely observing a person as they struggle with the challenges of their lives. Wong’s core theme in his work is longing, particularly how people long for each other or, in many cases, the idea of another person. Because this is ultimately a desire that cannot be satisfied, his characters often end up in some form of misery, haunted by what didn’t happen.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Galatea

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Galatea
Written & Designed by S. Kaiya J.
You can purchase this game here.

The Wretched by Chris Bisette has spawned a whole subgenre of solo ttrpgs using that game as its framework. Many provide variations on that base game’s mechanics of dice, playing cards, and block tower. Galatea’s take on these mechanics perfectly fits its premise and tone.

The title references the Greek myth of Pygmalion. In the story Pygmalion, the sculptor carves a statue of a beautiful woman out of ivory. He prays to Aphrodite that she might come to life as he’s fallen in love with the image of her. His wish is granted, and the two marry and live happily ever after. This story has inspired many narratives about artificial life, including the origins of the Wonder Woman character.

Comic Book Review – Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Volume Three

Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Volume Three (2020)
Reprints Batman: The Return #1, Batman Incorporated v1 #1-8, Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes #1, Batman Incorporated Special #1, and Batman Incorporated v2 #0-13
Written by Grant Morrison (with Chris Burnham)
Art by David Finch, Yanick Paquette, Chris Burnham, Scott Clark, Cameron Stewart, Frazer Irving

Grant Morrison’s Batman run entered its third act with quite a significant speed bump. Eight issues into Batman Incorporated, the book was canceled along with every other DC Comics title to make way for the New 52. The New 52 was an attempt in 2011 to inject fresh talent and get new eyes on the company’s comics and characters. There was undoubtedly an initial boost of interest, but over the following five years, the company would backtrack many of the changes until the current status quo, which is “embrace everything and continuity will just be hyper-flexible.” At the time, then Editor-in-Chief Dan Didio abruptly ended Morrison’s tenure on Batman with the promise to fans that at some undecided point soon, it would be wrapped up. There is a conclusion, but it still has some frustrating parts due to not knowing how this fits in with how Batman’s timeline was altered.

Movie Review – Beau Travail

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Beau Travail (1999)
Written by Claire Denis & Jean-Pol Fargeau
Directed by Claire Denis

Everything about Beau Travail is felt rather than intellectualized. It’s a movie spilling over with texture & an evocation of the senses. So much of the tension on screen is never acknowledged in words but through visual language. In some ways, it is close to a silent film in how much restraint is used in the dialogue. It is an erotic film in the classical definition of eros as the aspect of love we call desire. The main character wants another so badly, but due to the circumstances of their jobs & where they are, this isn’t going to happen. We know this is a tragedy, but like watching two cars about to collide, there is little you can do but bear witness. It is a movie born out of defiance on the part of the director, a challenge to heteronormative masculinity that never preaches its themes to you. Those emerge organically, and it’s the job of the audience to examine & contemplate them.