1990s – Page 8 – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible (1996)
Written by David Koepp, Robert Towne, and Steven Zallizan
Directed by Brian De Palma

There is a formula. At the time of this writing, I have watched five of the six currently released Mission Impossible films, and there is most definitely a list of things that have become expected for nearly every installment. That said, each film (up to Rogue Nation) has its own director and a distinct style, which sets it apart from much of the copy/paste nature of its contemporaries, like Marvel movies, where the directors are made to suppress their style to be, well, bland, I suppose. I don’t think the MI films are a boon to cinema, but they do feel like something completely different from what we are served today.

PopCult Podcast – Showing Up/Sleepless in Seattle

From the present, we have a film about a struggling artist trying to determine if she has anything of value to say and where she fits in with the larger art community. From the past, it’s a film about falling in love but with some heavily problematic messages and weird stalker-ish, parasocial behavior.

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.

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.

Movie Review – The Watermelon Woman

The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Written & Directed by Cheryl Dunye

The intersection of queerness and Blackness is where a lot of contemporary culture has emerged from. When watching Paris is Burning, I noticed how much of their slang is now part of American slang, particularly among Millennials and Zoomers. It’s nothing new. Elvis’s entire career was started by co-opting Black music and putting it with a white face. Rap/Hip hop has transcended its roots as a purely Black musical form. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with deriving inspiration from another culture to make art as long as the artist actively acknowledges the cultural roots and adheres to authenticity rather than appropriation.

Movie Review – But I’m A Cheerleader

But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
Written by Jamie Babbit and Brian Wayne Peterson
Directed by Jamie Babbit

America is a land rife with pseudoscience. The COVID-19 pandemic showed how deep those roots are, with all sorts of unfounded remedies being churned out via reactionary social media. My mother apparently visits an herbalist regularly who runs magnets over her body to suss out any sneaky infections. And what do you know? The herbalist happens to sell the very remedy my mother needs for these infections. The same nonsensical thinking drove Christians to create conversion therapy camps where adolescent queer people or suspected queer people are sent to be “cured.” Over time, various cruel methods have been used to torture people for being attracted to those deemed “wrong.” These methods include but are not limited to brain surgery, surgical castration, electroshock, nausea-inducing drugs, and other dehumanizing reconditioning techniques that would make a Nazi proud. While the camp in this film may not be those extremes, it still displays the emotional cruelty intended to teach children that love from trusted adults comes with a cost, meaning a suppression of your Self to please them.

Movie Review – My Own Private Idaho

My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Written & Directed by Gus Van Sant

A person’s inner life can be such a vast, complex landscape. The way we process experiences & emotions may have some universality, but ultimately, the way you feel inside going through these things is something no one else can ever truly know. For the character of Mikey in My Own Private Idaho, almost his whole life is made up of this intimate inner world due to his chronic narcolepsy. He can never quite get anywhere or finish a conversation before passing out. Gus Van Sant tells his story from this character’s perspective, which means the audience sees the narrative in fragments. We’re in one place, then another, only to return to where we started. Did we really go anywhere at all? Or was this just the lovely dream of a lonely person with a very uncertain future ahead of them? Maybe it’s all these things. Perhaps the dream world is just as real as the tangible one for someone like Mikey.

Movie Review – Paris Is Burning

Paris Is Burning (1990)
Directed by Jennie Livingston

Exclusion is a standard tool used by the institutions that make up the United States. The ones who get excluded are typically BIPOC, LGBTQ, economically destitute, and/or disabled in some fashion. By pushing these people to the fringes of society, often by reactionaries who ultimately gain nothing through the act of exclusion, they are forced to create subcultures. These subcultures respond to being told they are not beautiful or have value. The marginalized simply redefine the terms of what beauty & value can be.

Patron Pick – The Daytrippers

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 Matt Harris.

The Daytrippers (1996)
Written & Directed by Greg Mottola

The American independent film had its heyday in the 1990s. There are dozens of names & faces I will always associate with this period. There’s a certain tone & style that feels like it only existed in that decade and vanished after bleeding over just a bit into the 2000s and hasn’t returned since. The advent of digital cameras did a lot to change how low-budget films feel for better & worse. I can understand the convenience and affordability that digital brought filmmakers; however, there is a texture to shooting on film that you lose. I have yet to see any sort of filter that can restore it. The Daytrippers is one of those movies where you can feel the low budget, but that in no way diminishes the picture; it enhances it and gives the whole thing a sense of personality.