2018 – PopCult Reviews

PopCult Podcast – Vox Lux/The Brutalist

It’s a Brady Corbet double feature starting with a young girl who makes a deal with the Devil after a school shooting. She becomes a pop star whose life never seems to settle. Then, a Holocaust survivor comes to America where his architectural skills clash with the local tastes.

Movie Review – Happy as Lazzaro

Happy as Lazzaro (2018)
Written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher

Since I saw Season Two, Episode Five, “The Betrayal,” of the Italian drama My Brilliant Friend, filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher has shot to the top of my must-watch list. That is hands down one of my favorite single episodes of television ever made. It so beautifully captured the transition of the show’s main character from a childlike perspective on the world to a more adult & fraught viewpoint. How Rohrwacher shot this character’s epiphany was one of the most realistic portrayals I’ve seen for that coming-of-age moment. I fell in love with her most recent film, La Chimera, which led me to put this film on the watch list for December.

Movie Review – The Chambermaid

The Chambermaid (2018)
Written by Lila Avilés and Juan Márquez
Directed by Lila Avilés

I was profoundly impressed by Lila Avilés’s Totem, which will be on my list of favorite films in 2024. Her previous feature, The Chambermaid, was mentioned in an interview I came across about Totem. I put that on my To Be Watched list, and with this December film series, A Christmas Gift to Myself, I had the perfect opportunity to watch it. The film is not focused on a plot, much like Totem; it is a character study about a pivotal moment in a person’s life. They are not someone most of us would likely notice, yet their life is complicated and full of powerful moments of connection.

Movie Review – Luz

Luz (2018)
Written and directed by Tilman Singer

I decided to do a different kind of film series for December. There were several films that I had been adding to my Watchlist based on either enjoying more recent work by the filmmakers or simply curiosity. So, for the first half of December 2024, I will give myself a Christmas present, watch through nine of these pictures, and write up reviews. The last week and a half of the month will be focused on my Favorites of 2024 lists. This first film ended up on the list due to enjoying this year’s Cuckoo, filmmaker Tilman Singer’s sophomore effort. We reviewed that film over on the podcast, and while it didn’t blow me away, I enjoyed the point of view and style and wanted to see what Luz was like.

Movie Review – Insidious: The Last Key

Insidious: The Last Key (2018)
Written by Leigh Whanell
Directed by Adam Robitel

Much like the continuity of Saw or the Fast & Furious franchises, Insidious became a tangled-up non-linear film series. This particular film takes place after Insidious: Chapter 3 (the earliest film in the timeline), though The Last Key starts with a flashback that is the furthest point back in the timeline thus far. That honor used to belong to the prologue of Insidious: Chapter 2. The Last Key takes place around a year before the first film and focuses entirely on the backstory of Elise, the film’s somewhat main protagonist. As I have said in all these reviews, stating unequivocally who the main character or villain is in these films is utterly impossible as they flail around from picture to picture.

TV Review – My Brilliant Friend Season One

My Brilliant Friend Season One (HBO)
Written by Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo
Directed by Saverio Costanzo

We open with a phone call in the middle of the night. An older woman answers. Her friend has gone missing. The friend’s son is worried. The woman chastises him and ends the call. And then she remembers. This is the opening to My Brilliant Friend Season One, an adaptation of the first book in Italian author Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan trilogy. The entire series is couched in the search for meaning from past experiences, piecing together how the friendship of Elena & Lila came to be, mainly how their dreams of where their lives would go went so astray due to being women and growing up in the times that they did. That period is the post-war period in Italy, the universe consisting of a single tenement and the surrounding neighborhood. The result is a powerfully moving exploration of women coming of age and learning how little agency they are given by the society around them.

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Written & Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

I’ve never really been into action movies. I am male, straight, and white; the period where I came of age (1980s thru 1990s) seemed focused on hyper-violent action media that people like me were supposed to eat up. I enjoyed the worlds, designs, and ideas behind many of your typical 80s fare. I was obsessed more with heroes who were not action-oriented. Marty McFly was someone I saw as a fun hero. The same with the superheroes in the comic books I read. I never enjoyed espionage or gun-wielding fare. That still remains today. I am okay with guns being part of a film’s story or nuclear bombs or hand-to-hand combat. I just don’t get a thrill from those things. A story with a strong character arc, especially one that is bittersweet, is what really draws me into a narrative. I know some people adore this movie. I thought it was fine. It’s certainly not the worst Mission: Impossible movie, but I’m doubtful these pictures will ever hook me as they do for many others.

Movie Review – Halloween (2018)

Halloween (2018)
Written by Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green
Directed by David Gordon Green

It began with Rob Zombie stating he would not return to make another Halloween film. Halloween II (2009) was a box office success, and days after its release Halloween 3D was announced. That fell apart, and attention at Dimension went to a potential Hellraiser reboot (they never happened either). There were ideas tossed around like making a direct sequel to Halloween: Resurrection (god why?), doing a found footage film or mockumentary, and even an insane multiverse idea tossed around. John Carpenter returned to act as a producer and chose an unlikely duo to make a trilogy of films: Danny McBride and David Gordon Green.

Comic Book Review – Immortal Hulk Book Two

Immortal Hulk Book Two (2018)
Reprints Immortal Hulk #11-20
Written by Al Ewing
Art by Joe Bennett and Eric Nguyen

Rereading Immortal Hulk has been sparking my interest in going back and revisit Peter David’s Hulk run. That is a daunting task because of its enormity, but Al Ewing does such an excellent job of building on David’s numerous contributions to the Hulk mythos in a way that doesn’t feel derivative. This is done by introducing new aspects to Bruce Banner & The Hulk that complicates their relationship. I also think Jackie McGee is a grounding force, always there reminding the reader and Banner about the human costs of being this green behemoth. In Book Two, Ewing literally takes us to Hell, where Banner confronts those closest to him left as collateral damage.

Movie Review – Her Smell

Her Smell (2018)
Written & Directed by Alex Ross Perry

I don’t think I have felt this sort of whiplash on my feelings about a filmmaker in a long while. When Alex Ross Perry is writing about literary people (Listen Up Philip), he’s nailing it. After watching Her Smell, I am curious about how much research he did when writing this picture. It felt like a cliched musician biopic and was absolutely grating by the end. It does have high points, but overall, I was pleased when the movie was over because it was so unenjoyable to watch. This is one where my wife had a lot to say and articulated some of the things I disliked so intensely about the movie—more on that in a bit.