historical – PopCult Reviews

Comic Book Review – American Cult

American Cult: A Graphic History of Religious Cults in America from the Colonial Era to Today (2021)
Edited by Robyn Chapman
Written and illustrated by Steve Teare, Emi Gennis, Ellen Lindner, Rose Colon Guerra, Janet Harvey, Jim Rugg, Andrew Greenstone, Lara Antal, Josh Kramer, Mike Dawson, Ryan Carey, Mike Freiheit, Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg, Ben Passmore, Jesse Lambert, Vreni Stollberger, J.T. Yost, Robyn Chapman, Robert Sergel, Lonnie Mahn, and Brian “Box” Brown

The United States has been a place where the religiously fanatical have flocked since its founding. Most people who studied what passes for U.S. history in schools will know about the Puritans and the Salem Witch Hunts. You’ve probably heard of Jonestown and The Heaven’s Gate cult. The Westboro Baptist Church made sure they became infamous to convince themselves they were “beloved” by their demonic image of god. American Cult touches on several of these well-known cults and still delivered surprises to me. It also presents several cults you may not have heard about, with some continuing to have a place in your life through the goods they manufacture to stay afloat. What can’t be argued is that the particular nature of America and Americans makes them susceptible to cults in a way few other societies ever have been.

Movie Review – The Message (1976)

The Message (1976)
Written by H.A.L. Craig (English Version)
Directed by Moustapha Akkad

The Biblical Epic, while a film genre that has fallen off in recent decades, is quite well known as part of the Hollywood industry starting in the early 20th century. Cecil B. DeMille directed two versions of The Ten Commandments, one silent film (1923) and the more famous Charlton Heston version (1956). Ben-Hur received multiple versions as well as adaptations of the stories of Samson and Delilah, David and Bathsheba, and more. A film titled The Bible, directed by John Huston, even covered the first 22 chapters of Genesis. That’s not even getting into the multitude of movies based on the life of Jesus.

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 – Julius Caesar (1953)

Julius Caesar (1953)
Written by William Shakespeare, adapted by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Once upon a time, I was a student at university who didn’t know exactly what to major in. I had chosen mass communications, but after taking some of the English prerequisite classes for all students at my liberal arts college I found I really loved those teachers and the subject matter. Upon becoming an English major, I had some new required classes. Two of those were Shakespeare: Comedies and Shakespeare: Tragedies. I wasn’t a stranger to the work of the Bard. I was homeschooled but still assigned Romeo and Juliet to read. An afterschool Literature Club that our local homeschool group formed had us read Julius Caesar and even performed excerpts from it at the homeschool group talent show. I got to deliver Mark Antony’s “Friends, romans, countrymen” speech which I am sure if I reviewed the crumbling VHS tape I’d pick on several areas of improvement.

Movie Review – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Written and directed by Andrew Dominik

I have watched the films of Andrew Dominik in a slightly odd order. First, I saw Killing Them Softly, his third film. Then I watched Blonde, his dismal adaptation of a Joyce Carol Oates novel about Marilyn Monroe. Now I come to his second film, the one that garnered him attention in the States, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It was an excellent film; kept its focus on the characters and never got caught up in the tropes of cinematic Westerns, which is the point.

31 Days of Character Creation #5 – Flabbergasted!

Today we will be making a character from the unique comedic tabletop RPG Flabbergasted! This is the game as described on its official website:

Flabbergasted is a rules-lite and narrative-driven tabletop RPG set in the roaring 20s! Comedic scenarios and light-hearted adventures are at the heart of Flabbergasted, drawing inspiration from the likes of Jeeves and Wooster and Fawlty Towers.

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.

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.

Book Update – September/October 2024

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I had this recommended when I asked for people’s science fiction novel recommendations on a social media platform. I can’t say I loved it as intensely as I’ve seen others, but it has some incredible ideas and moments that have stuck with me. The parts I liked appealed to some existential ideas I have been thinking about for years, particularly humans, disregarding that they are ultimately just a type of animal who benefited (or were cursed) by being taken down an intense path of evolution.

Movie Review – The Devils

The Devils (1971)
Written and directed by Ken Russell

They don’t make movies like this anymore, but I wish they did. The Devils was a Warner Brothers production based on the stage play of the same name, which in turn was based on the Aldous Huxley novel The Devils of Loudon. 1971 was a very fruitful year for director Ken Russell. This was released alongside The Music Lovers, a Tchaikovsky biopic, and The Boy Friend, a 1920s period musical starring Twiggy. These weren’t his first films, but they did come after his picture Women In Love garnered Russell Golden Globes and Oscars nods. In classic Ken Russell fashion, The Devils is not adhering closely to the tropes associated with the genre – in this instance, historical drama. It is a wild experience, visceral and hallucinatory, aided by the production design of the great Derek Jarman.