Seth Harris

December 2023 Posting Schedule

November 2023 was the busiest PopCult Reviews has ever been. We came in just six views shy of a total of 15,000. The next closest month was October 2023, with just under 13,000. The year will see astronomical growth for the blog, but I will talk more about that when we get to 2024’s State of the Blog in January. December will be a mix of what it always is: trying to cram in as many of the year’s best films to see where they end up on my list and sharing all my favorite pieces of media I’ve had the pleasure to enjoy in 2023. I suspect there will be many movies not listed here that I will be watching in the second half of December, should they become available.

Movie Review – Detachment

Detachment (2011)
Written by Carl Lund
Directed by Tony Kaye

I was a licensed elementary school teacher in the United States for ten years. Before that, I was a student teacher & substitute for three years; before that, I worked as a reading tutor under the banner of AmeriCorps for a year. Altogether, I worked in public education for fourteen years before resigning from my position in December 2020 when our district in Tennessee demanded all students would come back into the building without any vaccines available. Tennessee has one of the highest deaths per capita rates from the virus in the country. I have a former colleague whose husband died within a week of contracting COVID-19. He was healthy and only in his 50s. I know of former students continuing to deal with the effects of long COVID. This was my last straw in education.

Movie Review – Stroszek

Stroszek (1977)
Written and directed by Werner Herzog

Bruno Schleinstein was a German artist & musician whose life was filled with struggles. He was abandoned as a baby during the Nazi regime. Bruno was mentally disabled and became one of those orphans experimented on by the fascists. He never received visits from his family despite knowing who they were and that they were ignoring his existence. Even after the war, Bruno was shuffled from one institution to the next with little regard for his humanity. Along the way, he learned the accordion, and music would become one of the few things that soothed & comforted him. He was eventually dumped onto the streets and made his way as a street performer, being spotlighted in a German documentary about this subculture. This film caused Bruno to come into the purview of Werner Herzog. The director saw great potential in Bruno as an actor and cast him in The Enigma of Kasper Hauser. He followed that up with this semi-biographical film with Bruno playing a fictional version of himself.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Dungeon World Solo Part Four

Begin with Part One here

In my last session, I managed to develop the mysterious purple orc that randomly came up. My thinking behind this character is that I dislike the Tolkien orcs as actual characters. They work as mindless hordes to throw at the heroes, but orcs, as characters in fantasy stories, have a lot of potential. I’ve always liked Warcraft’s handling of them much better, giving them a richer & more complex culture, showing they are not mindless savages but have a whole society of their own. I also liked the idea of Ukrom being an ancient mage (I rolled prehistoric on an Age table) and a reminder of what orcs used to be. While they will pop up near the end of this session, I do have ideas for the species when I continue this Dungeon World solo campaign in the future.

TV Review – Silo Season One

Silo Season One (Apple TV+)
Written by Graham Yost, Jessica Blaire, Cassie Pappas, Ingrid Escajeda, Remi Aubuchon, Aric Avelino, Jeffery Wang, Lekethia Dalcoe, and Fred Golan
Directed by Morten Tyldum, David Semel, Bert & Bertie, and Adam Bernstein

J.J. Abrams changed television as a producer of Lost along with Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse. Abrams’ “mystery box” philosophy inspired dozens of subsequent shows that sought to tell serialized stories on television that slowly spun out mysteries. While I enjoyed Lost for what it was, I don’t feel a strong urge to revisit it anytime soon; the heirs have never come close to capturing the excitement of that series. Lost’s strength was not relying entirely on its mysterious aspects and delivering character-focused solid stories. The flashbacks and what we learned about each person made Lost all the better. Silo is a new show from Apple TV+ and wants to be something like Lost. However, it was a slog for me to get through.

Comic Book Review – Spider-Man Epic Collection: Man-Wolf at Midnight

Spider-Man Epic Collection: Man-Wolf at Midnight (2022)
Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #124-142 and Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1
Written by Gerry Conway
Art by Ross Andru, Gil Kane, John Romita, and Paul Reinman

Something terrible happened to Peter Parker, and no one will let him process it and move on. The iconic man behind the spider lives in stasis between two poles: Uncle Ben’s death and Gwen Stacy’s death. There is this brief period between the two where he could be Spider-Man. Yet even in that, Captain Stacy’s death was a way of reigniting the angst of Peter’s guilt. This is who Spider-Man effectively is in popular culture: a perpetually grieving man who can never be absolved of his guilt. At least Batman is allowed to be grim, while Spidey has to joke about everything while psychologically unable to express the weight of his pain. Reading this collection caused me to completely rethink how I feel about this character.

Movie Review – Dogville

Dogville (2002)
Written and directed by Lars von Trier

I remember where I was when I first saw this film. That was twenty-one years ago. It was not until today that I really understood what the message was. Lars von Trier is a controversial figure, to say the least. His art has always been profoundly confrontational & abrasive from my perspective, but I don’t feel upset enough to not want to engage with it. He has undoubtedly spoken without thinking first, but that doesn’t mean he is wrong. I do believe translation between languages plays a big part. I have thought things but cannot articulate them with precision for years. Perhaps the argument should be made that artists have a tremendous gravity in choosing their words carefully, but who determines what it means to “choose words carefully.” Whose feelings are we being told to spare? Those in power have certainly co-opted the language of the oppressed to twist much of our perceptions into seeing the victimizer as the victim. It’s so insidiously done, so precise & sick.

Movie Review – Pain & Gain

Pain & Gain (2013)
Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely
Directed by Michael Bay

We started with Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy but have taken a sharp left turn in our “This Is America” series with this film. I am not a fan of Michael Bay’s movies. I can’t name one I have ever enjoyed. His maximalist style of filmmaking is the kind that bores me really fast: a hyperactive editor who makes constant cuts so that the entire picture resembles one extended lumbering trailer. However, if we are looking for films that capture an aspect of what America is, Mr. Bay clearly has his finger on the country’s pulse. His early Transformers movies were glorified ads for the U.S. military. There are lots of American flags waving in the wind. However, this veneer of post-9/11 jingoistic patriotism hides a deep contempt Bay has for his audience. This film, in particular, is dripping with scorn.

Movie Review – Wendy and Lucy

Wendy and Lucy (2009)
Written by Jon Raymond & Kelly Reichardt
Directed by Kelly Reichardt

I’ve said it before here, and it seems to be an evergreen statement, but shit in the States looks fucking bad, folks. I got out in September 2021, so my experience is through what I read online (always with a grain of salt), chatting with people back there, and my lifelong pursuit of educating myself on the fundamental structures of our societies. Over half of currently homeless Americans are over the age of 50, yet you wouldn’t know it from the Boomers still clinging on to their spoils as they slip further between their fingers. Capitalism is a hell of a drug. I consider myself very lucky that I am where I am and have what I have. It’s not a fortune, but I can breathe reasonably easily daily. I find it highly upsetting that so many cannot do the same, certainly, those I know who have busted their asses harder than me. It serves to underline capitalism’s great contradiction: work hard, and you will be rewarded.

Movie Review – The Creator

The Creator (2023)
Written by Gareth Edwards and Chris Weitz
Directed by Gareth Edwards

I can’t say I’ve ever been greatly impressed by Gareth Edwards’ films. I’ve seen all four of his directorial efforts at this point (this film, Star Wars: Rogue One, Godzilla, and Monsters), and what lingers with me is what a fantastic production designer Edwards is. Writing characters? Eh, not so much. However, the man knows how to convey a sense of scope & scale and, even more importantly, establish the vibe of a movie. The Creator is a film that continues this trend with the director. His characters are flat and one-dimensional, but damn if the world he creates isn’t one I want to explore. He establishes excellent video game settings in many ways but then tries to make movies in them.