2020 – Page 14 – PopCult Reviews

Media Moment (04/09/20)

We are in Hell at the moment. Well, the verge of falling into the pit. Between corona and the bubbling up of a new Great Depression, times feel rough. Here are some tv shows you should binge during this time of isolation. They may not make you feel better, but they are damn good and quality television.

Dark (Netflix, two seasons, the third season coming this summer)
Dark is a German production about the small town of Winden. The city was plagued by child disappearances sporadically since the 1950s and another one has just occurred. The series follows teenager Jonas whose father has just committed suicide. Jonas is dealing with his personal grief as well as the unfolding mystery in his hometown. Dark will absolutely surprise you with where it goes, but it can scramble your brains with the twists and turns. Every episode is actually fast-paced and chock-full of character development and information. If you were a fan of the strange places Lost went to during its six-year run, then Dark will scratch that itch.
Check out my reviews of Season One and Season Two.

Movie Review – Gretel & Hansel

Gretel & Hansel (2020)
Written by Bob Hayes
Directed by Oz Perkins

We all know the impact of the Brothers Grimm and their collected and retold fairy tales. The tropes in these narratives have permeated not just popular culture but the human psyche as well. The stories speak to something very primal in us all, our first exposure to horror when we are children veiled by the sweetness and light of cherubic illustrations. But we all know when you look at the core of these tales, they are dark and twisted, warnings from ancient times to kids about what they should be scared of. Hansel & Gretel is one of the primary stories that have manifested itself again and again. Here, director Oz Perkins reimagines the story with Gretel as the elder sibling whose journey into the woods parallels her own frightening path into adulthood.

SXSW Short Film Festival @ Home – Narratives Part 1

Still Wylde ***
Directed by Ingrid Haas

Gertie finds out she’s pregnant and breaks the news to her boyfriend, Sam. They go through the typical fears and excitements of parents to be. The short is an emotional roller coaster that veers between both comedic and dramatic. These are definitely late Gen X/Millennial people, and the comedy comes out of the social signaling of those demographics. The ending, however, suddenly shakes off those tropes and reminds us how some experiences are universal, no matter when you are born. It’s a fine short film, but a little light sitcom-y for my tastes.

SXSW Short Film Festival @ Home – Documentaries Part 2

Quilt Fever ***
Directed by Olivia Loomis Merrion

Here’s something I never knew, Paducah is like the quilt capital of America. The short doc Quilt Fever feels like the seed of a feature-length documentary following women who have taken the annual pilgrimage to the quilt show in said town. We get just the smallest hint of these women’s backgrounds but never the depth I would have liked. This is also a case of a documentary built in post-production. Merrion went out and shot as much footage and interviews as she could and assembled a narrative in editing. This is a very conventional doc, nothing is challenging about the structure. It’s all about the subjects being interviewed and their own natural sweetness and charm.

Movie Review – Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Written & Directed by Eliza Hittman

Throughout every frame of the muted, washed-out colors of this film, we’re presented with contemporary life from the point of view of an older teenage girl. We start in the rainy, crumbling streets of small-town Pennsylvania and end up on the crowded flowing sidewalks of New York City. The world is vast, a background smudge of light, a maze being navigated by two young women nervous and afraid. They want to pass through a moment in their lives so they can move on, but it’s unclear if the world after will be better.

TV Review – Tales from the Loop Season One, Episode One

Tales from the Loop (Amazon Prime)
Season One, Episode One – “Loop”
Written by Nathan Halpern
Directed by Mark Romanek

Tales from the Loop was inspired by the art of Swedish painter Simon Stålenhag, images that provoke a sense of nostalgia but also of the future. His pictures depict the rural landscape outside of Stockholm, with elements of dystopian science fiction peppered in. The presence of these pieces of technology doesn’t clutter the image, but they do dominate, juxtaposed against children in 1980s clothing observing the machines or only going about their daily lives with the monoliths looming in the background. This is the mysterious world of the Loop, out of time, and the home to luminous and breathtaking feats that break the laws of physics.

SXSW Short Film Festival @ Home – Documentaries Part 1

SXSW (or South by Southwest) is an annual gathering of film, music, interactive media, and other creative fields that has been going on since 1986. Because of COVID-19’s spread, this year’s SXSW gathering has been canceled. But one way the organizers are bringing the festival to our homes is through MailChimp hosting over fifty of the short films that were to be screened there. I will be spending April watching and reviewing every short film by category. Our first two screenings will be devoted to documentary shorts.

March 2020 Digest

Features
Pandemics on Film
Single Location Movies
Short Film Showcase #2

Movie Review – Downhill

Downhill (2020)
Written by Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, and Jesse Armstrong
Directed by Nat Faxon

I don’t want to write a review that simply compares Downhill to the film it is remaking, Force Majeure, but my god, I have to. Downhill is a recent example of a horrible way movie studios take foreign films and make butchered rehashes that show total disrespect to the audience. This movie loses every single element that made the original such a sharp, well balanced dark comedy and makes themes and characters way too obvious and on the nose. I laughed, possibly once, a slight chuckle, but spent the rest of the runtime having my worries confirmed.

TV Review – Star Trek: Picard -Season One, Episode Ten

Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access)
Season 1, Episode 10 – “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2”
Written by Michael Chabon & Akiva Goldsman
Directed by Akiva Goldsman

I really loved the idea of Star Trek: Picard. Bringing back the aged captain and seeing what he’s like now, how he relates to the galaxy around him. Of course, we knew going in that Picard would be surrounded by new faces, and I was a little apprehensive but still open to new characters. From looking at Discovery, it was clear that this new show would push the boundaries in terms of violence, language, and sex. That’s acceptable and could make the show more “realistic” in terms of human behaviors. Ultimately though, Picard never becomes the thing so many expected it to be. There are real moments of brilliance, but for the most part, it plays out predictably with characters taking actions and saying things you would expect them to, not much better than mediocre fan fiction.