2020 – Page 7 – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)
Written by Peter Baynham, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Swimer, and Nina Pedrad
Directed by Jason Woliner

My experience was seeing the first Borat film was one of those never able to forget things. I was living in Bellingham, Washington at the time, and a group of friends went to the theater on opening night, so the place was packed. We were all familiar with Da Ali G Show and Borat, but we had no idea what we were in store for with this movie. The sometimes subtle other times explosively over the top manner in which Sacha Baron Cohen skewered American culture was unlike anything I’d see in a movie theater before. I would expect it from indie movies but not from a studio picture. Of course, we couldn’t stop quoting the picture for hours after we left the theater, and eventually, because of cultural overuse, I sort of began to dislike the movie. Having revisited Borat since I think it is a seminal work of satire, one of the most brutal takedowns of the United States at the time.

Movie Review – Kajillionaire

Kajillionaire (2020)
Written & Directed by Miranda July

Miranda July began her career doing performance art videos, some of which I remember coming across online in the 2000s. Her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), was a beautiful little indie about strange people trying to find connections with each other. Six years later, she followed up with The Future, another indie about strange people that didn’t have the widespread popularity of her first film but is still a fantastic picture. And then it was nine years of no original works from July. Instead, she made many appearances acting in things like Portlandia or in the fantastic Madeline’s Madeline. July also published two books of short stories in that time. In 2018, she announced she would be writing and directing Kajillionaire, known only at the time as a “heist movie.” But with everything that Miranda July makes, it isn’t that simple.

Movie Review – The Wolf of Snow Hollow

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)
Written & Directed by Jim Cummings

I was overwhelmingly impressed with actor-writer-director Jim Cummings 2018 debut feature film, Thunder Road. He managed to find both humor and pathos in a character that easily could have slipped into caricature. In some ways, he has returned to that same character in The Wolf of Snow Hollow. He’s a police officer, sharing custody of a teenage daughter and tackling some deep-seated emotional issues. This is done through carefully tailored moments of humor & drama, all against the backdrop of a series of what appears to be killings at the hands of a werewolf.

Comic Book Review – The Dollhouse Family

The Dollhouse Family (2020)
Written by M.R. Carey
Art by Peter Gross & Vince Locke

Hill House Comics hasn’t really lived up to the hype. Other than The Low Low Woods, I haven’t found any of them very enjoyable or all that horrific, really. The Dollhouse Family is one of the most frustrating entries into the DC imprint because it has so many seeds of potential greatness but then gets lost in the plot and ends with a horrible whimper. I would say The Dollhouse Family is the least satisfying Hill House Comics read for me so far, made even more irritating by the fact that it has that previously mentioned potential.

Movie Review – Books of Blood

Books of Blood (2020)
Written by Adam Simon & Brannon Braga
Directed by Brannon Braga

I cannot convey to you how awful this movie is. It’s not rare to find a bad adaptation of a Clive Barker work, but this is possibly new levels of disconnect from the tone of the writer’s stories. It sadly doesn’t surprise me because, for as ambitious as Hulu seems to be about creating original horror content, they have yet to deliver any that is enjoyable to watch. I was pretty let down by the adaptation of Nathan Ballingrud’s The Visible Filth as the Hulu original film Wounds. I didn’t care for that picture for the same reasons I walked away feeling lousy about Books of Blood.

Comic Book Review – The Low Low Woods

The Low Low Woods (2020)
Written by Carmen Maria Machado
Art by Dani

I became familiar with author Carmen Maria Machado from her short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties. It’s a wonderful book of stories that are horror but also a commentary on being a woman. There’s some inventive work going on here, including a mind-blowing story presented as episode recaps of Law & Order: SVU episodes that become a sinister, disturbing & reality-bending tale. When I saw her name attached to a Hill House Comic title, I got pretty excited to see what she had to offer.

TV Review – Raised by Wolves Season 1

Raised by Wolves Season 1 (2020)
Written by Aaron Guzikowski, Heather Bellson, Don Joh, Karen Campbell, & Sinead Daly
Directed by Ridley Scott, Luke Scott, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, Alex Gabassi, & James Hawes

It’s hard to argue about the influence Ridley Scott has had on science fiction since the late 1970s. Through two movies, Alien and Blade Runner, he was one of the chief figures in elevating science fiction movies above the B-flick reputation they had garnered since the 1950s. My feelings on Scott have waned since Prometheus and revisiting some of his work. He is excellent in production design, but most of his work is very shallow thematically and frequently features undercooked plots. I was interested to see what Raised by Wolves would be like, a television series, a format that demands more character development. The result is a mixed bag with many things to love but a season finale that feels like everything went off the rails.

September 2020 Digest

Features
Black Actor Spotlight: September
Superhero Spotlight: Black Canary
Documentary Round-Up – September 2020

TV Review – Pen15 Season 2 Part 1

Pen15 Season 2 Part 1 (Hulu)
Written by Sam Zvibleman, Gabe Liedman, Anna Konkle, Vera Santamaria, Josh Levine, and Maya Erskine
Directed by Sam Zvibleman

The first season of Pen15 was a wonderfully funny, absurd examination of female adolescence at the start of the 21st century. The creators and writers managed to balance the pathos & pain of growing up with inventive moments of comedy, most notably the two leads being played by thirtysomething against a cast of age-appropriate classmates. Season two took a slightly different route and ended up being much heavier & downbeat in its episodes’ conclusions, highlighting the melancholy nature of being a young teen in the 2000s.

Movie Review – The Human Voice

The Human Voice (2020)
Written by Jean Cocteau & Pedro Almodovar
Directed by Pedro Almodovar

The present COVID-19 global pandemic has forced those in the film industry to change many of their practices. From production to distribution, those who are forward-thinking are adjusting to a world where the traditional exhibition of movies just isn’t going to be possible for a while. I have been most pleased to see many film festivals offering limited virtual viewings of the film they show this year. I will likely never travel to Vancouver, Toronto, or New York City to attend their respective film festivals, but I am willing to pay to view festival circuit films in my home. The Human Voice is the first picture I have viewed in this manner, and it has made me excited to do it again.