2000s – Page 4 – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – The Gleaners and I

The Gleaners and I (2000)
Directed by Agnes Varda

There is a tension in art between planning & spontaneity. I feel it when I write fiction. I’m always wrestling with how detailed an outline I give myself. Where is the room left to be surprised? But I also need to ensure the whole piece feels cohesive and connected. Agnes Varda embraces spontaneity in her documentary The Gleaners and I but strikes a good balance. She sets out with an idea of what she wants to explore but allows herself to be open to drift. Varda is so fascinated with people that she won’t hold back if the people she encounters inspire something new in her. I can see how contemporary filmmakers like Nathan Fielder or John Wilson are inspired by Varda’s work, particularly how she engages with strangers.

Movie Review – [Rec]

[Rec] (2007)
Written by Paco Plaza, Luis A. Berdejo, and Jaume Balagueró
Directed by Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza

If you have read my reviews for a few years, you know I am not a big fan of the found footage subgenre of horror. When Blair Witch came out in 1999, I was a neophyte: a homeschooled little weirdo going into his freshman year at a private Christian college. The Sixth Sense terrified me at the time. However, in the subsequent 20-plus years, I have seen thousands more films and matured in my sensibilities regarding horror. I find films like Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity excruciatingly dull. Part of the found footage concept is that the audience must be convinced of the “reality” of the story, and to do that, you need long periods of boring, mundane scenes. The horror is contained in microchunks or held back until the very end. I’d heard people claim the Spanish language horror film [Rec] was different, that it was good, so I decided to check it out.

Patron Pick – The Pledge

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 Pledge (2001)
Written by Jerzy Kromolowski & Mary Olson-Kromolowski
Directed by Sean Penn

I remember liking this movie more when I saw it in college. It’s not a bad film, but The Pledge is incredibly messy. There’s a clear sense of director Sean Penn getting a day with an actor he likes and shoehorning a scene in with them. The film drips with the essence of being a picture directed by an actor. It’s more interested in being a character study that plays in the tropes of the crime thriller; that’s one of its strongest aspects. However, the script demands a plot, so throughout the entire runtime, we experience tension between Penn’s desire to play with his performers and the genre tropes indicating specific plot beats to the audience. It doesn’t surprise me that The Pledge is a movie that split critics & audiences on its release. And despite all its many flaws, it is one of Jack Nicholson’s great late-career performances.

TV Review – The Venture Brothers Season Four

The Venture Brothers Season Four (Adult Swim)
Written by Doc Hammer & Jackson Publick
Directed by Jackson Publick

The Venture Brothers is a show that still needs to improve its representation at the end of its fourth season (please stop using the r-word), but damn if this wasn’t the best run of episodes so far. The season finale clearly had more production value & time put into the animation, showcasing a level of craft that makes the pilot look like a parody. The cast has also bloomed this season, with Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer finally finding that perfect balance of the Venture family and their supporting players. I will even admit that the final moment at the boys’ homeschool prom got me teary-eyed as Brock looked at this found family. And this is just the halfway point in the overall series.

TV Review – The Venture Brothers Season Three

The Venture Brothers Season Three (Adult Swim)
Written by Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer
Directed by Jackson Publick

Season One of The Venture Brothers was rough, though very inspired. Season Two focused on tightening things up and connecting the elements introduced into this unique world. I remember the episodes from these seasons with much detail. I owned them both on DVD in the mid/late-2000s and watched them on repeat with my then-roommate Eddie. Season three came along as I was starting graduate school and dealing with some new stresses in life, so I watched it, but there were a lot of distractions. It was also the last Venture Brothers season I watched in its entirety, so everything after this will be new territory for me. Season three felt a little new as well, with sudden flashes of memories that I had seen these stories before.

TV Review – The Venture Brothers Season Two

The Venture Brothers Season Two (Adult Swim)
Written by Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer with Bed Edlund
Directed by Jackson Publick

While the Venture Brothers was primarily focused on parodying children’s shows, from Johnny Quest to G.I. Joe, it could also be strangely poignant. Where season one was about the co-creators Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer finding their footing in this world, season two is about expanding that established universe and adding depth to its characters. The three characters I found to get the most development this season would be Brock Samson, The Monarch/Doctor Girlfriend, and Doctor Orpheus. The show also teases the lore behind Hank & Dean’s origins. Are they clones of Rusty and Brock? Do they have a real mother? Is Dr. Girlfriend their mother? (Of course not). It was all of this with continuous references to the absurdity of genre media & culture.

Comic Book Review – Justice Society of America: The Next Age & The Lightning Saga

Justice Society of America: The Next Age (2007)
Reprints Justice Society of America #1-4
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Dale Eaglesham

Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga (2008)
Reprints Justice League of America #0, 8-12 and Justice Society of America #5-6
Written by Brad Meltzer & Geoff Johns
Art by Shane Davis, Ed Benes, Fernando Pasarin, and Dale Eaglesham

In 2007, Geoff Johns was pretty much the top dog among writers at DC Comics. He’d just finished up one of the Flash runs of all time, authored the company’s most recent crossover event Infinite Crisis, co-authored the follow-up weekly mini-series 52, was in the middle of a Green Lantern run that reinvented the character and was also writing Teen Titans, Booster Gold, and Action Comics. This was all prelude to him getting the job as Chief Creative Officer for DC’s film ventures in the 2010s. I argue that was the moment Johns began to decline. While this Justice Society of America run is good, it is not as strong as the previous JSA series.

Movie Review – Observe and Report

Observe and Report (2009)
Written & Directed by Jody Hill

In 2009, America got two mall cop movies. In January, the Kevin James vehicle Paul Blart, Mall Cop was released, and just a few months later, in April, Observe and Report dropped in theaters. At the time, this film was unfairly maligned and lumped in with Paul Blart. On the surface, they share a lot of elements but are ultimately vastly different movies with very different perspectives on law enforcement. Observe and Report is a film that full-throatedly yells, “All Cops Are Bastards,” and rightfully so. Police were not brought into existence to protect the ordinary person. They were an alliance made between those with systemic power and violent organized gangs with the express purpose of protecting private property. The misconception that police exist to watch over communities and spare them from harm is a myth that is proven false day after day. This isn’t about what a nice guy your cop uncle is or how the policeman gave you a lollipop when you were growing up. Those are anecdotal and ultimately irrelevant. ACAB is about the actual role of police in our societies and how they employ state-sanctioned violence to keep the populace virtually enslaved.

TV Review – The Venture Brothers Season One

The Venture Brothers Season One (Adult Swim)
Written by Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer, and Ben Edlund
Directed by Jackson Publick

In the early days of Adult Swim, it was always a surprise to see what would pop up beside the standards like Space Ghost, The Brak Show, and Aqua Team Hunger Force. One of these surprises was a one-off pilot for The Venture Brothers in 2002. The show combined elements of Jonny Quest and The Hardy Boys to make a spoof of both these shows and their associated genres. The Venture Brothers would run for seven irregularly scheduled seasons and recently culminated with a streaming film on Max that serves as a series finale. It has been about a decade since I last watched the show, so I decided to go back to the beginning to revisit familiar episodes and see where the series went after I moved on to other things.

Movie Review – Lady Vengeance

Lady Vengeance (2005)
Written by Chung Seo-kyung & Park Chan-wook
Directed by Park Chan-wook

Park Chan-wook is a master filmmaker. If you read my review of Decision to Leave last year, you know how much I love this director. South Korean cinema is the most vibrant creative filmmaking scene we have right now, with a diverse array of directors making all sorts of movies that play to their strengths. Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) is fantastic at making biting social satires, Hong Sang-soo (In Front of Your Face) crafts gently paced slice-of-life dramas, Lee Chang-dong (Burning) dark stories of psychological trauma, and Park Chan-wook has mastered the art of telling tense & violent thrillers. Lady Vengeance was part of Park’s Vengeance trilogy, which started with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (still on my Watchlist), Oldboy, and finally, Lady Vengeance. Throughout every film, he follows the response of a profoundly wronged person and explores the effects their quest for vengeance has on them.