comedy – Page 11 – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Stroszek

Stroszek (1977)
Written and directed by Werner Herzog

Bruno Schleinstein was a German artist & musician whose life was filled with struggles. He was abandoned as a baby during the Nazi regime. Bruno was mentally disabled and became one of those orphans experimented on by the fascists. He never received visits from his family despite knowing who they were and that they were ignoring his existence. Even after the war, Bruno was shuffled from one institution to the next with little regard for his humanity. Along the way, he learned the accordion, and music would become one of the few things that soothed & comforted him. He was eventually dumped onto the streets and made his way as a street performer, being spotlighted in a German documentary about this subculture. This film caused Bruno to come into the purview of Werner Herzog. The director saw great potential in Bruno as an actor and cast him in The Enigma of Kasper Hauser. He followed that up with this semi-biographical film with Bruno playing a fictional version of himself.

Movie Review – Pain & Gain

Pain & Gain (2013)
Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely
Directed by Michael Bay

We started with Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy but have taken a sharp left turn in our “This Is America” series with this film. I am not a fan of Michael Bay’s movies. I can’t name one I have ever enjoyed. His maximalist style of filmmaking is the kind that bores me really fast: a hyperactive editor who makes constant cuts so that the entire picture resembles one extended lumbering trailer. However, if we are looking for films that capture an aspect of what America is, Mr. Bay clearly has his finger on the country’s pulse. His early Transformers movies were glorified ads for the U.S. military. There are lots of American flags waving in the wind. However, this veneer of post-9/11 jingoistic patriotism hides a deep contempt Bay has for his audience. This film, in particular, is dripping with scorn.

PopCult Podcast – The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar/The Killer

Two new releases are the focus of the latest episode. In one, Wes Anderson adapts four short stories by the legendary author Roald Dahl. The second is the latest from the meticulous director David Fincher.

PopCult Podcast – Bottoms/Killers of the Flower Moon

These films couldn’t be more different. One is a comedy based on a series of Comedy Central shorts about two horny lesbian losers. The second is the true story of a series of killings at an Osage reservation in the early 20th century.

TV Review – Paul T. Goldman

Paul T. Goldman (Peacock)
Written by Paul T. Goldman
Directed by Jason Woliner

The “reality television” genre has never been anywhere close to reality. The place you find reality on screen will always be in the documentary form, and even then, a director or editor can shape things to fit the narrative they want. We do the same in our lives every single day. We mentally emphasize & ignore various things because of how they make us, curating a perspective on the world that suits us. There is always a tension, though, between the perception & the real, cracks forming in our psyche as unpleasant things burrow their way in, eventually becoming undeniable. How you handle those unpleasant things defines you, whether you sink into despair or try to connect with others to process them. Paul T. Goldman, in the guise of a true crime series, is actually the exploration of these themes. How do we handle a lifetime of hurt and keep living? Do we hurt others? Do we invent stories that make us the hero?

TV Review – Kevin Can F*** Himself Season Two

Kevin Can F**k Himself (2022)
Written by Valerie Armstrong, Craig DiGregorio, Sean Clements, Kate Loveless, Grace Edwards, and Jasmyne Peck
Directed by Anna Dokoza

There is a moment the audience should immediately expect after watching the first episode of this entire series. We get that moment in the series finale; it comes in the last 10 minutes. That was a perfect moment. It’s a shame that the journey that led us there was so bereft of interesting characters, captivating storylines, and a complete waste of a premise rich with potential to explore. Television has given us plenty of shows that play with genre & structure conventions, whether a series’ entire premise or one-off episodes that seek to explore a change in perspective. I was very excited about this with season one, but by the time it ended, I was contemplating whether to continue watching. There was only one more eight-episode season to go, so I thought, the hell with it, I’ll finish this thing. What a slog lay before me.

TV Review – Reservation Dogs Season Three

Reservation Dogs Season Three (FX)
Written by Sterlin Harjo, Dallas Goldtooth, Tazbah Chavez, Erica Tremblay, Tommy Pico, Bobby Wilson, Migizi Pensoneau, Ryan RedCorn, Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, and Chad Charlie
Directed by Danis Goulet, Tazbah Chavez, Blackhorse Lowe, Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, and Erica Tremblay

Reservation Dogs was one of those rare shows that presented the life of poor people without pitying them. It didn’t dull the edges of poverty or how it feels to come from a marginalized group, but it never wallowed in misery. American Indigenous communities are composed of survivors, those who have endured horrific abuse over generations. This final season of the series centered on the effects of white-run boarding schools on generations removed from them but never made the white perspective anything more than an afterthought. That is the correct way to tell these stories because the Indigenous people carry the trauma of that treatment with them. I can tell that series creator and showrunner Sterlin Harjo wanted to connect two seemingly distant generations to show how history resonates through to the present.

TV Review – The Venture Brothers Season Four

The Venture Brothers Season Four (Adult Swim)
Written by Doc Hammer & Jackson Publick
Directed by Jackson Publick

The Venture Brothers is a show that still needs to improve its representation at the end of its fourth season (please stop using the r-word), but damn if this wasn’t the best run of episodes so far. The season finale clearly had more production value & time put into the animation, showcasing a level of craft that makes the pilot look like a parody. The cast has also bloomed this season, with Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer finally finding that perfect balance of the Venture family and their supporting players. I will even admit that the final moment at the boys’ homeschool prom got me teary-eyed as Brock looked at this found family. And this is just the halfway point in the overall series.

PopCult Podcast – The 100th Episode

We get creative in this one.

TV Review – The Bear Season Two

The Bear Season Two (FX)
Written by Christopher Storer, Joanna Calo, Karen Joseph Adcock, Catherine Schetina, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Alex Russell, Rene Gube, and Kelly Galuska
Directed by Christopher Storer, Joanna Calo, and Ramy Youssef

Ultimately, people don’t want to be in a state of conflict & antagonism. They want to learn, grow, and find ways to work together with others. So much of our world is informed by a media landscape that projects contrived, unnatural division. Reality television, so poorly named, delivers manufactured arguments & clashes intended for us to believe they are the truth. Even scripted narrative content is always about wars or personal contentions that go on and on and on. When do we get to see people heal genuinely or move past petty grievances in an authentic manner that isn’t cloying & artificial? The Bear is not a light show; its themes are weighty & dark. Yet, its characters are brilliantly full of life. They are capable of not living in the same rut their whole lives. Watching them struggle and grow is an absolute delight.