Category: drama

My Favorite Television Watched in 2024

X-Men ‘97 Season One (Disney+)
Read my full review here

I was skeptical of the animated X-Men revival. Like many others, I have been burned out on superhero shows and films for a while now. However, this was the one Marvel thing in 2024 that I actually enjoyed. It was probably aided by reading Chris Claremont’s 16-year run on Uncanny X-Men this year, where so many stories on X-Men animated old & new drew from. Stylistically the ‘97 revival felt like the 1990s version, but with slightly more sophisticated storytelling and some major upgrades regarding the animation. There were a few duds; the Jubilee/Mojo episode was meh. The season overall was fantastic. I was very happy to see characters like Nightcrawler added to the regular roster; it always felt odd that he wasn’t included as a regular. We get a big cliffhanger that suggests some twists for a second season. Hoping they can keep the quality levels just as high going forward.

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Movie Review – The Double Life of Veronique

The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
Written by Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve found the idea that people shouldn’t have regrets incredibly strange. I know that on my deathbed, there will be things I look back on with shame or think about what I could have done differently. I do these things now, and I believe I have quite a while before I pass. In my opinion, to live and never regret is to have never lived. It means you avoided the tough choices, one thing that lets us know we are alive. So many of those choices aren’t even up to us; they remain in the hands of chance. Why did I end up living where I do, married to this partner, and working this job? If I could go back in time, I would certainly change some things, but I would want other things to remain the same. Yet, those changes would make me a different person living a different life, right? Is our existence just a series of possible realities collapsing into a single material reality as we encounter each moment?

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Movie Review – The Spirit of the Beehive

The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
Written by Víctor Erice and Ángel Fernández Santos
Directed by Víctor Erice

Despite the best efforts of Hollywood and Peter Pan, childhood is often a melancholy, mysterious experience for most children. They are born into a world already in flux, expected to adhere to systems & institutions they had no say in creating, and shouted at when they hesitate or show fear. The Spirit of the Beehive is a film that lives in that space, told through the eyes of a child living in the early years of the Franco regime in Spain. Filmmaker Victor Eric pulls off this dreamlike atmosphere by letting us pivot between the complicated world of the adults and the rich, imaginative inner life of our young protagonist.

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Patron Pick – Anora

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.

Anora (2024)
Written and directed by Sean Baker

Of Sean Baker’s films that I have seen (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket, and this one), it is pretty clear he has an interest in sex workers. More specifically, Baker is fascinated with the class politics of being a sex worker. It is a job where the class divide is screamingly evident every second of the transaction. In this way, sex work is one field of labor that highlights the contradictions in the United States, where lies are fed to us from birth about the “American Dream” and meritocracy. It is also very important to Baker that these characters be presented as human beings so that the audience sees the desperation of our protagonists to escape their economic lot in life. He also doesn’t fear these characters being deeply flawed and often unlikable. 

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PopCult Podcast – The Apprentice/Last Summer

Well, that was a…week. One of our films purports to tell the story of a contemporary despot and the mid-century ghoul that helped to shape him. The second film is a French picture about a woman who takes a risk that could destroy her life.

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TV Review – Ripley

Ripley (2024)
Written and directed by Steven Zaillian

There are few protagonists in modern literature as challenging as Tom Ripley. He’s a captivating figure because he’s pretty pathetic yet so cunning. In many ways, Ripley is the shadow underdog, a guy who, by all evidence, should lose, yet he manages to commit multiple murders and steal millions while evading capture. Despite coming from a poor/working-class background, Ripley has evolved refined tastes mainly because he believes he deserves to live the best life possible. Other people are inconveniences most of the time, hindrances to him enjoying the luxury offered to the wealthiest among us. If ever there was a character to highlight the negative aspects of sociopathy, an actual condition that isn’t as one-dimensional as much media would like you to think. Ripley can’t seem to care about anyone other than himself; it troubles him, but it is not enough to stop his pursuit of comfort.

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