comedy – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – One Battle After Another

One Battle After Another (2025)
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

One of the best film experiences I had in 2025 was seeing One Battle After Another with my sister. It was her first Paul Thomas Anderson film, and when we exited the theater she remarked that it might have been the best film she’s ever seen. Unlike me, she is not obsessive when it comes to movies; most of her viewing is limited to films she watches with her kids. That’s not to say they are bad ones—I’ve been recommending a lot since we moved back. Still, it was a special thing for me to introduce her to one of my favorite filmmakers, especially with a film as incredible as this one.

Movie Review – No Other Choice

No Other Choice (2025)
Written by Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, and Lee Ja-hye
Directed by Park Chan-wook

It’s always struck me as strange, bordering on obscene, how completely hands-off society is when it comes to job placement. We build entire educational systems around the promise of employability, saddle people with debt, tell them to “do everything right,” and then, at the moment where guidance would actually matter, shove them into the dark and say good luck. Even with a degree, even with experience, the expectation is that you will wander an increasingly incoherent job market on your own, refreshing dashboards like a lab rat pressing a lever for food pellets that never arrive. The application process is almost entirely online now, regardless of what boomers insist about “walking in and demanding a job.” I’ve played the LinkedIn game; I found nothing of substance. My wife did too and only ended up employed because of someone one of my sisters happened to know.

Movie Review – Weapons

Weapons (2025)
Written and directed by Zach Cregger

The voiceover of a little girl telling us the story of something she may not have experienced herself, a communal trauma, opens the film. This blooms into a nighttime montage of children running with their arms slightly extended at their sides, set to George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness.” The song appeared on Harrison’s first post-Beatles album, All Things Must Pass. The tracks were mainly derived from songs the rest of the band had passed on, which in turn became side projects Harrison would play around with until the band inevitably fell apart. “Beware of Darkness” tells us at the outset to stay clear of people who appear fashionable for the moment and to be wary of destructive thoughts that seek to entangle our minds. The final verses of the song become far more specific when they say, “Take care, beware of greedy leaders / They take you where you should not go / While Weeping Atlas Cedars / They just want to grow – grow, grow…” There doesn’t seem to be an explanation anywhere as to what Harrison meant by this, but he does seem to be referencing something specific. He’s dead now, so we’re left to wonder what he was saying there, knowing there will likely never be an answer.

Movie Review – Universal Language

Universal Language (2025)
Written by Ila Firouzabadi, Pirouz Nemati, and Matthew Rankin
Directed by Matthew Rankin

Universal Language is a hard film to pin down. It has the framing and subtle sense of humor of Wes Anderson, yet it is also informed by filmmaker Matthew Rankin’s love of Iranian cinema, which he discovered as a young man in Winnipeg. That’s the other key element: Rankin’s own feelings about his hometown, a landscape of brutalist architecture and perpetual snowbanks. The languages spoken by the cast are Farsi and French, and almost every cast member is Iranian. If this sounds like an odd mix, you would be right. The humor is offbeat and the world is very strange, while still grounded in authentic emotions, culminating in an ending that will linger with you.

Movie Review – The Phoenician Scheme

The Phoenician Scheme (2005)
Written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Directed by Wes Anderson

There was a time in the mid-to-late 2000s when I was tired of Wes Anderson. I look back on that now and realize I was simply out of sync with what he was doing. I discovered him via Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, and like so many young film fans, I thought a director I liked should keep making things for me. This is where so many of us misunderstand film, seeing it only as a product to be consumed. It seems obvious to me now that Anderson isn’t particularly concerned with making blockbuster movies; rather, he wants to compose images and explore ideas. He’s also the reason I finally sat down and watched Neon Genesis Evangelion after his episode of Le Club Vidéo.

Movie Review – Who Killed Captain Alex?

Who Killed Captain Alex? (2010)
Written and directed by Nabwana I.G.G.

I’ve mentioned several times in this series on foreign films how much American media is saturated with other cultures. This is intentional as it helps spread US hegemony across the globe by portraying the country as the toughest, most heroic culture on Earth. In the 1980s, this was done through the macho action films of people like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. More recently, Marvel movies have been America’s tool of global indoctrination.

Movie Review – I Am Not a Witch

I Am Not a Witch (2017)
Written and directed by Rungano Nyoni

As an American, and especially a homeschooled one raised by evangelical parents, my general knowledge of African geography is abysmal. Let’s not even see what a blank space it is regarding African history. This often makes me sad because I know many facts about European and American history. Africa is where humanity emerged from, so we should know more about this incredible, diverse continent.

Movie Review – The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Written by William Shakespeare, Franco Zeffirelli, Paul Dehn, and Suso Cecchi d’Amico
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli

Shakespeare was a product of his time. Yes, we can find instances of the playwright challenging the mores of his society, and he was a brilliant weaver of language. However, his views on marriage and women weren’t revolutionary, as we can see in the comedy The Taming of the Shrew. Perhaps it should make us feel better that from the play’s debut in the late 16th century, criticisms were leveled at what it says about women. I don’t expect these to have been very loud protests based on how women were treated in the centuries that followed.

Movie Review – Ariel

Ariel (1988)
Written and directed by Aki Kaurismäki

The more I watch Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s work, the more I warm up to him. I haven’t seen a considerable amount so far, only Le Havre, Fallen Leaves, and now Ariel. I found myself adjusting to his tone & style in Le Havre and would probably enjoy it even more if I rewatched it. I loved Fallen Leaves, and Ariel is my favorite of all the films I’ve seen. It is also Kaurismäki’s personal favorite of his films thus far, the middle of what he labeled his Proletarian Trilogy.

TV Review – Northern Exposure Season Six

Northern Exposure Season Six (1994-95)
Written by Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider, Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green, Jeff Melvoin, Meredith Stiehm, and Sam Egan
Directed by Michael Fresco, Jim Charleston, James Hayman, Lorraine Senna, Oz Scott, Michael Vittes, Victor Lobl, Daniel Attias, Michael Lange, Janet Greek, Stephen Cragg, Scott Paulin, and Patrick McGee

Wow. That was…um, something. By the time season six of Northern Exposure ends, you will have been waiting for it to end for a while. David Chase didn’t do too much damage in season five, but by the time six rolled around, it became clear he was disinterested in the whole thing other than ways to shoehorn in his own interests. While watching these episodes, I thought about how weird it would be to watch the pilot and then jump to season six. It would feel like an almost totally different series.