2011 – PopCult Reviews

Comic Book Review – Green Lantern: Brightest Day and War of the Green Lanterns

Green Lantern: Brightest Day (2011)
Reprints Green Lantern #53-62
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke and Shawn Davis

Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns (2011)
Reprints Green Lantern #63-67, Green Lantern Corps #58-60, and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8-10
Written by Geoff Johns, Tony Bedard, and Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Doug Mahnke, Tyler Kirkham, Fernando Pasarin, Ed Benes, and Ardian Syaf

Blackest Night was a big success for DC Comics. It did something that few DC Comics event crossovers had done in recent history: put the spotlight on someone other than Superman or Batman. In this instance, it was Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (and their multi-colored kin) that were made the focus. Bruce Wayne was dead (for the moment), and Superman was in the backseat for the story. The success of Blackest Night and Geoff Johns’ prominence was likely why Green Lantern’s continuity was left fairly untouched with the radical New 52 reboot. Brightest Day was a weekly series that followed BN, and the first collection we’re reviewing here are the Green Lantern issues that tied into that. In particular, they are part of an arc known as “The New Guardians.”

Movie Review – The Turin Horse

The Turin Horse (2011)
Written by László Krasznahorkai and Béla Tarr
Directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky

The world is dying. The world will die. This has been the world’s fate since before humans stood upright and began their intellectual evolution. The Turin Horse is a film about the brutal toil it is to be alive in this world, to experience death at all times, and to be able to do nothing about it. The world is going to die whether we are here for it or not. Eventually, billions of years from now, our sun will expand as it goes into its death throes and consume the inner worlds of our solar system. That is beyond the macro view; that is the omni view. On a smaller scale, we have the perpetuation of our species. Will one of us be able to observe this solar gargantuan devour our old homeworld from a safe distance, our species spread out across the Milky Way? That is something that feels very uncertain at this point in our history.

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.

Patron Pick – Like Crazy

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.

Like Crazy (2011)
Written by Drake Doremus & Ben York Jones
Directed by Drake Doremus

Improvisation is a complicated skill. When you see performers who are incredible improvisers, they can make it look effortless. The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual is a comprehensive textbook I’ve read through a couple times over the years, and it taught me a lot about what is happening during an improvised performance that the audience never sees and is likely not aware of. The performers operate at “the top of their intelligence,” meaning they act as a character while intellectually & emotionally analyzing the story and the relationships in a scene. This is immensely hard to do and makes it look so casual. I’ve come to look at improv through this lens, often impressed at how brilliant some performers are. Like Crazy is a film improvised off a 50-page outline. The problem here is the actors needed far more direction and structure for this to work.

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Written by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and Christopher McQuarrie
Directed by Brad Bird

Brad Bird was not a director likely to have been chosen to direct Mission: Impossible. Before Ghost Protocol, he had no live-action directing credits but had helmed The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. Bird proved to be up to the task and partially ended up shifting the tone of the MI series to a style that remains today. He also was part of a change in the types of villains the films presented. Previous MI films featured rogue IMF agents (MI & MI2) and an arms dealer (MI3). One of the biggest problems with a director like Bird is that he is intensely objectivist, following the writings of Ayn Rand. This can be seen most prominently in his box office flop Tomorrowland but is present in nearly all his work. It follows that his villain in Ghost Protocol is someone whose motives are never clear or coherent but is an outsider attempting to disrupt the status quo. This is also a typical villain archetype in Marvel films which has been a primary reason why those films have become increasingly less appealing to me.

Movie Review – The Descendants

Make sure to vote in the poll What Is Alexander Payne’s Best Film?

The Descendants (2011)
Written by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash
Directed by Alexander Payne

It would take six years after Sideways before Alexander Payne released another film. His longest gap to date between movies. During that time, Payne would get divorced from his wife Sandra Oh; they were together for around six years, married for three. I am no psychoanalyst, and everything I say is complete speculation, but…it sure does seem like the divorce did not sit well with Payne. I say that because from this point on, women, who appeared to have a special place in his previous work, suddenly take on a much darker tone. This film and the next two all feature female characters that are “nags” and absurdly vulgar for no apparent reason other than to add levity to the movie?

Movie Review – Madea’s Big Happy Family

Madea’s Big Happy Family (2011)
Written & Directed by Tyler Perry

This is my personal favorite of all the Madea films we watched. It’s all the elements coming together to make what feels like a genuine feature comedy. While it was based on a stage play produced the previous year, Big Happy Family is presented more as a film. It has the highest budget to date of any Madea film at $25 million though it would make considerably less at the box office than the previous entry, Madea Goes to Jail. Here we have Madea at her most animated, doing both physical comedy and some amusing improvised scenes as Tyler Perry brings in Mr. Brown & Cora and introduces Aunt Bam into the mix.

Movie Review – The Skin I Live In

The Skin I Live In (2011)
Written & Directed by Pedro Almodovar

Most of the legendary filmmaker Pedro Almodovar’s films are overflowing with warmth & color. They may touch on sensitive subject matter, but the characters within these stories are usually ones we like and want to be around. This is not the case with The Skin I Live In, Almodovar’s first foray into science fiction/horror. Instead, he has made a cold, desaturated movie that is beautiful in a dark & disturbing way. The film reflects how one of its central characters has become desensitized, literally feeling nothing any longer. Sex in this picture is not an act of love & beauty but discomfort & suffering. There’s no farce or melodrama here. Unlike the rest of Almodovar’s filmography, this is a work that comes out of a dark, angry place.

Patron Pick – Limitless

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

Limitless (2011)
Written by Leslie Dixon
Directed by Neil Burger

If you could take a pill that would make you a super smart guy, would you do it? This month’s patron pick was explicitly chosen to irritate me, and I love it for that. Would I have ever voluntarily chosen to watch Limitless? Hell no. Am I looking forward to writing this review? Of course, I am! This film is what a stupid person thinks an intelligent person is like. It’s Michael Bay’s concept of what a genius would be. The people that fawn over Elon Musk and think he’s a god among men while ignoring that he’s the child of privilege probably rank this picture as one of their favorites. It is absolutely hilarious in how much it gets wrong and in its perception of succeeding is.

Movie Review – The Color Wheel

The Color Wheel (2011)
Written & Directed by Alex Ross Perry

I can’t imagine many people would like this movie. I’m still ambivalent about my own feelings. But that’s the point, I think. Alex Ross Perry is Noah Baumbach but angrier. He’s Wes Anderson without the sentimentality & cuteness. I don’t for a minute think The Color Wheel is Perry’s best film, but he would show marked improvement on his second try. The Color Wheel is an interesting film, grating but very short so you won’t have to endure the unpleasantness for too long. What makes the film so hard to get through is the quality of acting and its deeply unlikeable main characters.