2020 – Page 15 – PopCult Reviews

Media Moment (03/27/20)

We’re in for a very strange restructuring of the film calendar. Wonder Woman 1984 has been delayed from its May release to August, a month not typically seen as where studios put big tentpoles. Black Widow has been moved from late April to November (likely Thanksgiving) for its release. Production for The Batman has been indefinitely delayed, so that should come out in late 2021 or further at this point. Despite all of this, filming for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is set to still begin in June. It appears that this current phase of the MCU is very dependent on certain movies & shows releasing at certain times in relation to each other. Strange is set for release in May of 2021.

Movie Review – Emma.

Emma. (2020)
Written by Eleanor Catton
Directed by Autumn de Wilde

Comedies of manners are always a popular subgenre of film & television. Shows like Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm center their entire premise around social misunderstandings and conflicts centered around etiquette. The master of this narrative is Jane Austen, whose body of work was mainly concerned with the comedy and drama that comes out of what most people would see as everyday interactions. Her novel Emma has been adapted many times, so the question for this film is, what makes it unique from the others?

TV Review – Star Trek: Picard Season One, Episode Nine

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

So many things about this penultimate episode of Picard feel pleasantly familiar while others seem so out of place in a Star Trek story. But that is to be expected with Akiva Goldsman, who delivered one of the most un-Star Trek-like series in recent history (Discovery). He loves things that are conceptually cool and full of visual spectacle. There’s the sense that the final episode of the season will involve a big shooty space battle, which is simply not what Star Trek really is. Star Wars? Most certainly. But I am not looking forward to this conclusion. Star Trek, when it does space battles, is more about one-on-one and the strategy of battle.

Media Moment (03/20/20)

These are worrisome times. I don’t expect we are close to the end of this crisis, and without strong centralized action, it is only going to get worse. I’ve noticed that our “leaders” are passing the buck instead of taking charge. The president says it’s all on the governors, which is one way of saying, “I’m not taking responsibility for this.” Even down to my local state legislature and governor, they refuse to take action and just suggest what should happen. In the meantime, some Hollywood studios are putting up movies for distribution.

TV Review – Avenue 5 Season One

Avenue 5 Season One (HBO)

Written by Armando Iannucci, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche, Georgia Pritchett, Will Smith, Peter Fellows, Ian Martin, Peter Baynham, Jon Brown, Charlie Cooper, Daisy Cooper, and Sean Gray

Directed by Armando Iannucci, Natalie Bailey, Annie Griffin, Peter Fellows, Becky Martin, David Schneider, and William Stefan Smith

In the wake of the fantastic HBO series Veep, I wondered how Armando Iannucci would follow it up. He delivered a solid feature film in the Death of Stalin, and I wondered if he might go the movie route. Avenue 5 is an interesting hybrid of television and film, you could argue that this is an extended feature film. The production value is extremely high here, with Iannucci taking advantage of the clout he now has at HBO. This is an ambitious show that takes a bit to get into, but when it finally clicks, you realize we have something very special here.

Social Distancing Film Festival

These are strange times and many of us are stuck inside waiting to see how things end up. If you are stuck inside and have access to a streaming service I have put together a list of movies from a variety of genres currently available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. Hope you find something here to help get your mind off things and pass the time.

Movie Review – The Grudge (2020)

The Grudge (2020)
Written & Directed by Nicolas Pesce

In the late 1990s/early 2000s, Japanese horror was a pretty hot item in movies. It started with imports to the West of movies like Ringu and Kairo. This type of fear offered a more modern take on tropes with monsters that didn’t find archetypes we were used to. Technology was a crucial piece in these stories, but not in all of them. The most common element was the city, an urban landscape full of ancient evils and a cloud of darkness hanging over it all. This is where The Grudge series comes from. The enemy doesn’t come from cell phones or computers or even a haunted video. It’s classical horror, a simple haunted house. In 2020, the second American Grudge film was released, which is where this review comes in.

TV Review – Kidding Season Two

Kidding Season Two (Showtime)
Written by Dave Holstein, Michael Vukadinovich, Roberto Benabib, Hilary Weisman Graham, Joey Mazzarino, Jas Waters, and Dylan Tanous
Directed by Jake Schrier, Kimberly Peirce, Michel Gondry, and Bert & Bertie

Kidding’s second season most definitely exceeded my expectations, but it’s a challenging thing to explain. The series has a deceptively simple hook, what if Mr. Rogers had a mental breakdown? But it’s so much more than that, and the first season was a very messy delivery of a complex and complicated story. Season two feels more focused and headed towards a definite ending. By the time you reach the tenth episode, this feeling like the end of Kidding, I honestly can’t imagine that there are more stories to tell.

TV Review – Star Trek: Picard Season One, Episode Eight

Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access)
Season One, Episode Eight – “Broken Pieces”
Written by Michael Chabon
Directed by Maja Vrvilo

We went from an episode that really hit on the themes that make people love Star Trek to an episode that is unrecognizable as a piece of the franchise. “Broken Pieces” is attempting to be an entry so full of plot twists that it has no arc, no structure, just a serialized chapter. There are genuinely some low points for Picard in this one, particularly a plot development with Rios that comes entirely out of nowhere and doesn’t read as an organic progression for the character or the story.

Media Moment (03/13/20)

Well, coronavirus has wreaked havoc with movies and television. In these times, they are some of the least important things (or at least they should be). Because the United States is so focused on capitalist consumption, it is notable that the entire Disney theme park/cruise division is shutting down for the rest of the month. Additionally, films like No Time To Die, Fast & Furious 9, New Mutants, and others have been bumped back on the calendar or indefinitely. You have to wonder when movie theaters will starting shutting down due to a decrease in audiences.