adaptation – Page 4 – PopCult Reviews

Patron Pick – Girl, Interrupted

This special reward is available to Patreon patrons who pledge at the $10 or $20 monthly levels. Each month, those patrons will pick a film for me to review. If they choose, they also get to include some of their thoughts about the movie. This Pick comes from Bekah Lindstrom.

Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Written by James Mangold, Lisa Loomer, and Anna Hamilton Phelan
Directed by James Mangold

I was surprised when I saw this film was directed and co-written by the filmmaker behind such pictures as Logan and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. A memoir adapted to film about an emotionally troubled teenage girl living through the tumult of the late 1960s didn’t seem like what I expected from Mangold, but I learned Winona Ryder brought him onto the project. She got the ball rolling on this film after reading the book of the same name by Susanna Kaysen, who Ryder would play in the picture. I wish I loved this movie, but I would be lying. The subject matter should make me invested, but ultimately, the directorial choices and the acting, in particular, held me back from becoming emotionally invested. Ariana said while we were watching that the acting reminded her of a slightly more mature Disney Channel original movie.

PopCult Podcast – Miracle on 34th Street/The Shop Around the Corner/Christmas Sitcoms

We went to court to learn if Santa was real. Then it was quick stop to pick up some things at a general store in Budapest, before heading home to watch some classic Christmas episodes.

Movie Review – The Quiet Girl

The Quiet Girl (2022)
Written and directed by Colm Bairéad

This one got me. I could feel the lump in my throat during the first moments. By the final scene, I was a sobbing mess. Why? The Quiet Girl is a film of tremendous emotional depth, a story about empathy & human connection. It’s also a meditation on how the circumstances of life are simply not fair. Children are born to bad people. Good people lose their children in tragedies. It doesn’t feel right, but it happens. The universe can be a cold place. Yet, humans are capable of bringing great warmth into it. On top of the story, it’s a story spoken in Irish, a language moviegoers don’t often hear, a delicate, lyrical way of speaking that adds to the tenderness of the picture.

Movie Review – Priscilla

Priscilla (2023)
Written and directed by Sofia Coppola

I became aware of Elvis in the late 1980s. Having been born in 1981, I arrived a handful of years after the music icon was found dead, a result of drug addiction & a life not generally lived well. I have faint memories of a rerun of John Carpenter’s Elvis TV movie, starring Kurt Russell as The King. I also remember seeing tabloid news programs talking about Elvis sightings, guessing this was around 1987, the tenth anniversary of his passing. I have never felt any connection to the singer. I know his catalog of songs like anyone of my generation does. They were just in the pop cultural air. I’ve never watched any of his films. I’ve never sat and listened to his albums.

PopCult Podcast – Passages/Cat Person

Two more 2023 releases are spotlighted in this episode. The first is a very modern love triangle centered on a filmmaker who is extremely difficult to like. The second may be one of the worst adaptations of a short story we’ve ever seen.

PopCult Podcast – Earth Mama/Eileen

The end of the year is approaching fast & with it come some fantastic films. In our first feature, we follow a young woman attempting to navigate an near impossible system to get her kids back. In the second, we see the world through the eyes of a disturbed young woman desperately in need of connection.

Patron Pick – Maid

This special reward is available to Patreon patrons who pledge at the $10 or $20 monthly levels. Each month, those patrons will pick a film for me to review. If they choose, they also get to include some of their thoughts about the movie. This Pick comes from Bekah Lindstrom.

Maid (Netflix)
Written by Molly Smith Metzler, Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Brunstetter, Colin McKenna, and Michelle Denise Jackson
Directed by John Wells, Nzingha Stewart, Lila Neugebauer, Helen Shaver, and Quyen Tran

Maid is an American drama mini-series created for Netflix and inspired by Stephanie Land’s memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive. It focuses on Alex (Margaret Qualley) leaving her emotionally abusive boyfriend and struggling to provide for her daughter by getting a job cleaning houses.

I am going to start with the harsh bits. Although it has a lot of good qualities, there is a layer of cringe to Maid that resembles the storyline structures from the US version of Shameless. Their link to this is Molly Smith Metzler, a writer for both, and John Wells, executive producer and director for Maid, who developed, wrote, and directed for Shameless.

TV Review – Silo Season One

Silo Season One (Apple TV+)
Written by Graham Yost, Jessica Blaire, Cassie Pappas, Ingrid Escajeda, Remi Aubuchon, Aric Avelino, Jeffery Wang, Lekethia Dalcoe, and Fred Golan
Directed by Morten Tyldum, David Semel, Bert & Bertie, and Adam Bernstein

J.J. Abrams changed television as a producer of Lost along with Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse. Abrams’ “mystery box” philosophy inspired dozens of subsequent shows that sought to tell serialized stories on television that slowly spun out mysteries. While I enjoyed Lost for what it was, I don’t feel a strong urge to revisit it anytime soon; the heirs have never come close to capturing the excitement of that series. Lost’s strength was not relying entirely on its mysterious aspects and delivering character-focused solid stories. The flashbacks and what we learned about each person made Lost all the better. Silo is a new show from Apple TV+ and wants to be something like Lost. However, it was a slog for me to get through.

TV Review – My Brilliant Friend Season Three

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

I have been very impressed with how this show has made very young actresses appear to age into their late 20s/early 30s. It’s done through the talents of make-up artists, hair stylists, and wardrobe, along with the actresses’ physical and emotional performance. There are moments where the youth of Lenu might slip by all that, but for the most part, this season completely sold our two lead actors as maturing women, worn down by a society that looks all too similar to the one their mothers grew up in. That was the overarching theme of the season: Lenu’s realization that she was living a life as unexamined and pre-planned as her own mother, just with nicer furniture.

Movie Review – Freaks

Freaks (1932)
Written by Willis Goldbeck & Leon Gordon
Directed by Tod Browning

Tod Browning had a solid career as a director in Hollywood during the Silent Era and into the first decade or so of Talkies. He is responsible for a significant first in movies: the first Talkie horror film with Dracula. Based on a popular stage play (which was, in turn, based on Bram Stoker’s novel), Browning kickstarted the age of the Universal Horror Monster with this picture. It also gained him considerable clout and a blank check to make whatever he wanted next. MGM was interested in getting in on the horror game and offered Browning a shot at directing one for them. The filmmaker decided to go with the short story “Spurs” written by Tod Robbins. This film would be considered Browning’s magnum opus & disgusted the studio so thoroughly they cut it down from 90 minutes to 64, and the lost footage was destroyed.