2019 – Page 18 – PopCult Reviews

TV Review – True Detective Season 3

True Detective Season 3 (HBO)
Written by Nic Pizzolatto, David Milch, and Graham Gordy
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier, Daniel Sackheim, and Nic Pizzolatto

In 1980 two children go missing in a small Arkansas town. The detectives assigned to the case are Wayne Hays and Roland West. Hays is a stoic and determined investigator having spent his tour of duty in Vietnam as a tracker, wading deep into the jungle often alone. West is a more boisterous personality, a hard drinker, and a man who knows how to navigate the political game that makes up policing. The two men find themselves going down a rabbit hole of dead-end leads as they race against the clock to locate the children. In 1990, after the case is rushed to a close by the district attorney a new lead emerges that brings Hays back from a desk job. These new revelations confirm doubts Hays had about the person ultimately charged. However, they also create a whole new host of questions and confusion about what happened to the kids. Finally, in 2015, Hays is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and the passing of his beloved wife, whom he met back in 1980. Hays’ son has worked with a true crime television series to have his father sit down and be interviewed about the case that has haunted the old man for so many years. As Hays’ mind slips away his hold on the present begins to crumble and soon finds himself pinballing across decades in his brain, finally intent on uncovering the truth.

Comic Book Review – PTSD Radio Volumes 1-6

PTSD Radio Volumes 1-6 (2018)
Written & Illustrated by Masaaki Nakayama

Urban landscapes are profoundly haunted. Cities are built on the ruins of villages and small towns, turning those who lived there previously into ghosts that linger in the corners. PTSD Radio begins as a series of disconnected horror stories, an anthology centered around tormented spirits, but then patterns start to emerge. The presence of hair and dark figures tugging at the scalps of sleeping victims are recurring motifs. Slowly but surely we uncover a story about a rural village where cultural changes led to the destruction of a primitive idol. This, in turn, unleashes a quiet evil that permeates the lives of the people who grew up in this village, following them into adulthood.

Movie Review – The Hole in the Ground

The Hole in the Ground (2019)
Written by Lee Cronin and Stephen Shields
Directed by Lee Cronin

Sarah has moved to a wooded corner of Ireland with her son Chris to restart their lives. Something terrible happened months ago leaving Sarah with a concussion and scar. She is worried about Chris who doesn’t want to talk about but otherwise seems like a normal nine-year-old. While exploring the woods nearby, Sarah comes across a frightening large bog, a sinkhole that is slowly swallowing the earth around it. She warns Chris to stay away, but one night it appears he sneaks out of the house. The next day his behavior has changed and slowly but surely creeping paranoia sets in. It doesn’t help that Noreen, an elderly neighbor suffered a complete psychological breakdown decades earlier, reportedly screaming about her son not being her child, but something else, something sinister.

February 2019 Digest

Features
TV TryOuts: Mr. Robot
TV TryOuts: Big Little Lies
Best Films of 2009 Redux

Movie Reviews (*** = PopCult Recommends)
Black Swan
Velvet Buzzsaw
Modern Romance ***
A Separation ***
Alps
Elena ***
Monsieur Lazhar
Shoplifters ***
Border ***
Oslo August 31st ***

Comic Book Reviews
Justice League International Volume 4
Justice League International Volume 5
Justice League International Volume 6
Mister Miracle by Tom King

Movie Review – Velvet Buzzsaw

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
Written & Directed by Dan Gilroy

Morf Vanderwalt is a dissatisfied art critic searching for something that will bring inspiration to him both personally and professionally. His relationships with other members of the art community are all transactional leaving him even more hollow. Josephina, a lover of Morf’s and an agent in the art world, discovers a neighbor has died, and his home is full of hypnotic, unsettling artwork. Ventril Dease is the deceased artist and no matter who glimpses his Goya-esque paintings they seem enthralled. Art gallery owner Rhodora Haze sees a long term market for Dease and decides to squirrel away most of the thousands of pictures to trickle them out slowly over time. This is when the strange deaths begin, and Morf starts to realize that there is an evil presence surrounding this artwork.

PopCult January 2019 Digest

Movie Review – Glass

Glass (2019)
Written & Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Without even realizing it, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has been every present in my adult life. Twenty years ago, this August, I saw The Sixth Sense on one of my first weekends at college, and it messed with my head. Many years later, having seen much darker and more horrific cinema, I don’t think it could affect me as profoundly, but it remains a good film. A year later I was in the theater seeing Unbreakable, a film that was everything I ever wanted in a superhero movie. I remember seeing Signs while I was staying with a friend for a month in Montgomery, Alabama. My first viewing of The Village was at the now shut down Springfield Cinema here in my hometown. I was living in Washington state when I went to the theater on my own the summer of 2006 and saw Lady in the Water. My last Shyamalan cinematic experience was watching The Happening at a theater in Puerto Rico with my then girlfriend (now wife). She yelled at the screen at one point due to how genuinely terrible that movie is. From then on I’ve only ever watched his films outside of theaters and entirely skipped After Earth due to The Last Airbender being so damn bad. Shyamalan is a filmmaker who continually has me wondering how everything went so wrong, how he could go from making something like Unbreakable which still holds up to giving us The Visit, a film that is so flawed and broken. So now, nineteen years after Unbreakable he finally gives us the closing chapter in that story.

My Most Anticipated Films of 2019

Blossoms (dir. Wong Kar-wai)
Wong Kar-wai, the master filmmaker behind so many great films with my favorite being In the Mood For Love, has a new movie due out this year. Blossoms is an adaptation of a short story collection by writer Jin Yucheng, whom the director is working with on the script. The stories alternate between the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the modern Shanghai, emphasizing the changes to this place over the decade. It can be assured that Wong Kar-wai will produce something meditative and meticulous and I can’t wait to see what he gives us.

State of the Blog 2019

I have come out of 2018 very happy with the content I created for my blog, especially the four marathons I worked through during the year: Rick Remender’s Marvel, DC Comics Blockbusters of the 1980s/90s, Red White & Blue Cinema, and the A24 Marathon. Here’s a look at some of the things coming up in 2019.

Favorites of the Decade

With 2020 coming I will be spending a large chunk of 2019 looking back on my favorite pieces of media, especially films, from across the 2010s. I’ll be revising my favorites of 2009 list and, if I have the time, revise my favorites of the 2000s list I wrote up back in 2009. Here’s my schedule for the year of when specific lists will drop.

January – Favorite YouTubers of the 2010s
February – Favorite Films of 2009
March – Favorite Films of 2010
April – Favorite Films of 2011
May – Favorite Films of 2012
June – Favorite Films of 2013, Favorite Comics of the 2010s
July – Favorite Films of 2014, Favorite Viral Entertainment of the 2010s
August – Favorite Films of 2015
September – Favorite Films of 2016
October – Favorite Films of 2017
November – Favorite Films of 2018
December – Favorite Films of 2019, Favorite Television of the 2010s

Annapurna: A Filmmaker’s Godsend (2012 – 2017)
After working my way through the 74 films of the A24 I thought I’d go for something a little less ambitious, yet more focused. I’ll be watching the films of Annapurna, a film production company and distributor that is incredibly selective to the point of releasing only two films from 2014 to 2015. Here are the films I’ll be watching (or rewatching) and reviewing.

Lawless
The Master
Killing Them Softly
Zero Dark Thirty
The Grandmaster
Her
American Hustle
Foxcatcher
Joy
Everybody Wants Some!
Wiener-Dog
Sausage Party
The Bad Batch
Detroit

Hope in the Midst of Darkness Marathon

While the larger world seems to be bathed in darkness these days I decided to do a small marathon at some point this year with films that don’t hide from the bleak parts of life but showcase how hope can emerge from such circumstances. Some of these are films I’ve seen before, some I never have.

To Kill a Mockingbird
Cinema Paradiso
Wings of Desire
My Left Foot
The Thin Red Line
Children of Men

Comics

In 2018 my comic book reading was taken up mostly by Rick Remender’s Marvel work with a break in the summer to read through all DC Comics’ 80s/90s Events. In 2019 I plan on leaning into DC more starting with a read through of the six collections of Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis’ Justice League run. Then I’ll be catching up with the classic Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans run. This summer I will tackle Infinite Crisis, DC’s 2006 event by reading the core series and its surrounding spin-offs. Along the way, I will sprinkle in some one-off reviews. Currently, I am reading Tom King’s Mister Miracle so expect a review of that in January.

Justice League International v1 – 6 (January – February)

New Teen Titans v5 – 9 (March- April)

GL Sector 2814 (May)

Infinite Crisis/52 (June – July)

Batman: Knightfall Saga (August – October)

Seven Soldiers (November)

Batman: Dark Knight Detective/The Caped Crusader (December)

I don’t have every aspect of 2019 pinned down, which is a good thing. I am leaving myself room to set up a small marathon if an idea sparks for me. Overall, I hope you are as excited as I am for the coming year and find somethings you enjoy in my content.