Seth Harris

PopCult Watches: Flowers Season 1, Episode 2

flowers

Flowers Season 1, Episode 2 (2016)
Written & Directed by Will Sharpe

flowers s01e02

Nana Flowers is rushed to the emergency room in the wake of the disastrous anniversary party. A romantic rivalry is stoked over Deborah by the skeevy George and the earnest Barry the builder. Amy is having difficulty processing Nana’s imminent death after the doctors deliver a troubling prognosis. Abigail comes to comfort Amy, but Donald sees it as an opportunity to try to seduce their neighbor. Looming in the background of all this drama is Maurice who is having difficulty explaining just how Nana injured himself. He enlists Shun to dispose of his noose so that his attempted suicide will be kept a secret. However, young Hugo draws something that will force Maurice to open up about what happened.

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Movie Review – Hold the Dark

Hold the Dark (2018)
Written by Macon Blair
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier

hold the dark

Russell Core is a retired naturalist who specialized in wolves. He even wrote a book about them. It’s his book that gets the attention of Alaskan Medora Slone, a woman whose son has been taken by the wolves in her rural community. Her husband, Vernon, is serving in Iraq utterly unaware of what has happened to his son. Medora insists she wants something to show she took revenge for their child. Vernon is injured though and shipped back home. Russell discovers that he’s been lied to and there is more the child’s disappearance than just the wolves. A strange bond exists between Medora and Russell that seems connected to the desolate haunting landscape.

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Comic Book Review – Justice

Justice (2012)
Written by Jim Kreuger & Alex Ross
Art by Doug Braithwaite & Alex Ross

justice main cover

The Justice League of America is the greatest team of heroes on Earth. Their roster includes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and many more. And up until now, they have been the defenders of the weak. Suddenly, across the globe villains like Lex Luthor, Captain Cold, and Poison Ivy offer up help the downtrodden, particularly those with disabilities and people living in the third world. They do more for these people than the League has ever been able to and public opinion begins to turn on the heroes. Batman learns The Riddler has ransacked the databases of Wayne Enterprises and is armed with dossiers on every Leaguer. A psychic assault comes from Gorilla Grodd who incapacitates Aquaman. Meanwhile, Brainiac is constructing a plan that will destroy the heroes for good.

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PopCult Watches: Flowers Season 1, Episode 1

flowers

Flowers Season 1, Episode 1 (2016)
Written & Directed by Will Sharpe

flowers 01

Maurice Flowers is a depressed children’s author living in a quaint country cottage with his family. A few months ago, after his depression began, Maurice entered into an open relationship with his wife, Deborah. Deborah is awkwardly attempting to extend herself and explore this option given to her but is feigning enthusiasm. Their twins, Donald and Amy, are overly ambitious grown children who bicker constantly and are sunk into their obsessions of craft (inventing and music, respectively) but share a mutual love for their neighbor Abigail. Rounding out the Flowers household are Maurice’s aged mother and Shun, a young Japanese artist who illustrates Maurice’s books.

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Movie Review – I Think We’re Alone Now

I Think We’re Alone Now (2018)
Written by Mike Makowsky
Directed by Reed Morano

i think were alone now

When everyone died, Del was finally relieved. He no longer had to live his life as a recluse shuffling between his home and the public library where he worked. This town on the Hudson River was now his, and he spent his days scavenging one block after another, burying the dead and collecting supplies to live out the remainder of his life. Into this seeming apocalyptic tranquility burst Grace, a young woman brings noise and chaos into Del’s ordered existence. She claims to be the last of her family, wandering the highways and living without rules because there’s no one there to enforce them any longer. Tension builds and builds between these two as Del is unwilling to compromise his life and patterns for this interloper. However, Grace holds a very dark secret that will compel Del to face a crisis of conscience.

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Comic Book Review – Secret Avengers by Rick Remender

Secret Avengers V1-3 (2012-13)
Written by Rick Remender
Art by Patrick Zircher, Gabriel Hardman, Renato Guedes, Matteo Scalara, and Andy Kuhn

secret avengers 25

Founded in the wake of Norman Osborn’s reign as leader HAMMER, the Secret Avengers set out to deal with rogue nations and terrorists under a veil of secrecy. Initially founded by Steve Rogers, the reins are handed over to Hawkeye with a team consisting of Valkyrie, The Beast, Black Widow, Captain Britain, the original Human Torch, and the Irredeemable Ant-Man. Their first mission has them responding to what appears to be a terrorist attack in Pakistan. Instead, they uncover a conspiracy of robots, androids, and automatons that has been brewing for decades. These Descendants, as they call themselves, are intent on getting their hands on a child born from one of their own, an anomaly in creation. A second threat comes in the form of a life model decoy of Nick Fury that runs the rogue nation of Bagalia. This sends the Avengers into a full-on war with an army of super-villains.

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TV Review -Maniac

Maniac (2018)
Written by Patrick Somerville, Caroline Williams, Nick Cuse, Mauricio Katz, Amelia Gray, Danielle Henderson, and Cary Joji Fukunaga
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga

maniac

Two people: Owen and Annie find themselves as part of a clinical drug trial for a new medication that is touted to eliminate the need for therapy. With a series of three pills, a patient will bring up their trauma, confront their guilt, and process it. There’s no need for any human interaction with the whole process taking place inside the patient’s mind. Owen believes he is a paranoid-schizophrenic, seeing a phantom version of his narcissistic older brother that tells him he’s part of some grand cosmic truth. Annie is unable to move past the death of her younger sister, killed in a way that Annie holds herself responsible for. As they travel into dreamscapes and live the lives of others, something happens that causes Owen and Annie’s created realities to merge. Meanwhile, the inventors of this drug and the supercomputer that makes it possible are dealing with a malfunction that could have significant ramifications.

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TV Review – Barry Season 1

Barry Season 1 (2018)
Written by Alec Berg, Bill Hader, Duffy Boudreau, Sarah Solemani, Ben Smith, Emily Heller, and Liz Sarnoff
Directed by Bill Hader, Maggie Carey, Hiro Murai, and Alec Berg

barry tv series

Barry Berkman lives a lonely, sad life. He spends his time alone and only goes out when his handler, Fuches gives him a call. Barry is a former marine who has become an assassin for hire, traveling around the country and killing members of organized crime cartels. Barry’s latest venture has him holed up in Los Angeles to perform a hit for the Chechen mob. During his off time, the hitman wanders into an acting class and falls in love. Suddenly, Barry is working to be an actor, hiding this fact from Fuches and trying to balance his assassin work with his stage practice. A romance develops between Barry and a fellow student who creates even more trouble for the conflicted.

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Movie Review – Madeline’s Madeline

Madeline’s Madeline (2018)
Written by Josephine Decker, Donna di Novelli, Gail Segal, Sharon Mashihi, and Alexandra Tatarsky
Directed by Josephine Decker

madeline's madeline

Madeline is a 16-year-old girl living in New York City with her single mom and brother. Her only passion appears to be working with a physical theater troupe. The director, Evangeline notices that Madeline has an intense inner world and works to pull that out. As she discovers Madeline’s conflicts with her mother, Evangeline decides to base the troupe’s new production around the material the young girl provides them. This in-depth examination of Madeline’s issues begins to have an adverse effect while the theater director seems to ignore the worst aspects. As Madeline’s grip on reality and fantasy slips, she spirals back into behaviors that sent her to a psychiatric ward years earlier.

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Movie Review – In the Loop

rwbcinema

In the Loop (2009)
Written by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, & Tony Roche
Directed by Armando Iannucci

in the loop

In the UK Minister for International Development Simon Forster makes an off the cuff remark that “war is unforeseeable” when questioned during a radio interview about the Middle East. This does not mesh with the company line coming out of Downing Street and the Prime Minister’s communications head Malcolm Tucker is more than happy to ream Forster out over this. Toby is new to Forster’s staff and, to make a good impression, he gets a spot in a meeting between the UK’s foreign office and a US delegation from the state department. This leads to another verbal flub from Forster and Tucker’s eventual solution to send him to Washington D.C. on a “fact-finding” mission. Problems snowball until all parties, those for and against war end up in a race to head each other off.

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