black lives – PopCult Reviews

Patron Pick – Soundtrack to a Coup D’état

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 Matt Harris.

Soundtrack to a Coup D’état (2024)
Written and directed by John Grimonprez

Being a media-obsessed person for my whole life, I have come to a new understanding since my university days about the United States and the way it uses media as a weapon. Depending on how far along your understanding of the mass media’s purpose and how power becomes gained & is wielded, you might not see the reality just beneath the surface. As Michael Parenti said in his book Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media, “Power is always more secure when cooptive, covert, and manipulative than when nakedly brutish. The support elicited through the control of minds is more durable than the support extracted at the point of a bayonet. The essentially undemocratic nature of the mainstream media, like the other business-dominated institutions of society, must be hidden behind a neutralistic, voluntaristic, pluralistic facade.”

Movie Review – Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing (1989)
Written and directed by Spike Lee

Every ten years since 1952, the British film magazine Sight & Sound has conducted a poll among invited critics and directors to determine an ever-shifting list of the 250 greatest films of all time. The most recent list of poll results was released last year, with Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (dir. Chantal Akerman) topping the list. I decided to pick a few films near the top that I have not seen or have only seen pieces of to further my cinematic education.

PopCult Podcast – The Sweet East/The American Society of Magical Negroes

This was a week of films that were not great. One is a Alice in Wonderland picaresque following a hipster down the East Coast. The second is a wildly misguided attempt at racial satire that is woefully hollow.

PopCult Podcast – Fallen Leaves/All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

We’re back with our first two films of the year. One is a Finnish working class romcom inspired by old fashioned movies. The second is a dreamlike expressionistic exploration of a Black woman’s life in Mississippi.

Movie Review – Kokomo City

Kokomo City (2023)
Directed by D. Smith

I have started to feel despondent about the state of documentaries in America. It seems everything that comes out is in the true crime genre. While some of these have been entertaining, like Wild Wild Country, most of them are fancier & longer Dateline segments. I want films that dive into the lives of interesting people or topics like the Maysles Brothers, Barbara Kopple, or Frederick Wiseman. I was so happy to find this doc, which is not just about fascinating people but very artfully made.

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 – Fences

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.

Fences (2016)
Written by August Wilson
Directed by Denzel Washington

There is no argument against the acting in this film. It is solid from top to bottom, with Viola Davis stealing the show from a strong Denzel Washington. The emotions feel real, lived in, and presented with authenticity. The film adheres rigidly close to the original stage play to the point that the deceased August Wilson has sole screenwriting credit. That may not be the best direction for a film based on the play rather than a recorded performance of the stage play. Director Washington does a decent job giving filmic qualities to the material, but not enough. The world feels constricted because we never leave the house while so much time passes. Additionally, some themes about masculinity and fatherhood feel muddled, and the ultimate message is troubling.

PopCult Podcast – A Thousand and One/Return to Seoul

Two women adrift in the world try and make sense of what is happening around them. One is an ex-convict trying to bring order to her life, while the other finds she has a desire to foment chaos as she struggles to reconnect with her roots.

TV Review – I’m a Virgo

I’m a Virgo (Amazon Prime)
Written by Boots Riley, Tze Chun, Whitney White, Marcus Gardley, and Michael R. Jackson
Directed by Boots Riley

When I saw Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You years ago it didn’t click with me. That was weird because so much of the underlying themes of the film meshed with my own beliefs. On reflection, having watched and loved I’m a Virgo, I think this has to do with the conflicting structures of film vs. television. There was so much to the world Riley was creating in his film that never got the time it needed to breathe, so that the audience could fully feel the impact. I’m a Virgo, with seven episodes, is able to avoid that while still feeling like a cohesive seven part film. Ideas are introduced and allowed to be fleshed out. Characters don’t just linger in the background, the focus will shift away from our protagonist to spotlight important figures. And it’s a story of superheroes that doesn’t suck like all the Marvel stuff.

Movie Review – Watermelon Man

Watermelon Man (1970)
Written by Herman Raucher
Directed by Melvin Van Peebles

In 1965, Time Magazine published an article about the most prominent Black comedians of the era. The list was composed of names you’re likely familiar with, like Bill Cosby (what a disappointment), Dick Gregory, and Nipsey Russell. Also on that list was Godfrey Cambridge, and unless you are a comedy historian, I would guess that you have never heard of Cambridge before. He wasn’t so much a comedian as he was a highly experienced actor. Born to immigrants from British Guiana, Cambridge was schooled in Nova Scotia while living with his grandparents after his mother & father became dissatisfied with the options given to Black children in New York City. He dropped out of medical school after three years to pursue acting and held down various odd jobs in what we call today “the gig economy.”