historical – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Vera Drake

Vera Drake (2004)
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh’s second foray into historical drama takes us back to the early 1950s. The UK is still healing from the wounds of World War II, and people get on with their lives. It’s also the first of his films that I don’t think quite hits the mark. There’s a very potent moral space to be explored with Vera Drake, but Leigh and his acting collaborators seem to avoid it. That would be the more interesting place to go than where we do, which is a fairly bog standard story. If you have even the slightest experience with cinema, then you’ll likely know where this film is going the minute you learn about Drake’s side gig and the volunteer work she does for her community.

Movie Review – Topsy-Turvy

Topsy-Turvy (1999)
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

Following the success of Secrets & Lies, Mike Leigh got more financial backing for his next project. It would be his first foray into making a historical film, and of course, it would focus on something closely associated with the British. In this case it was the comic operas of Gilbert & Sullivan. While critics loved the picture & it won two Oscars for design, audiences did not show up like they did for the last one. Topsy-Turvy failed to make back its budget, but this would not be the end of Leigh’s exploration of England’s past. In the meantime, he gave us a very different style of historical film that doesn’t try to hide some of the uglier aspects of the time.

Movie Review – Camp de Thiaroye

Camp de Thiaroye (1988)
Written and directed by Ousmane Sembene and Thierno Faty Sow

Few things are accepted as fundamental as a person being paid for their labor. However, it was not that long ago that slavery was an open practice in the West and its colonized territories. Don’t get me wrong. Slavery isn’t gone. The specific Transatlantic slave trade was dissolved, yes, but slavery persists to this day. Prison labor is a form of slavery. Debt of all kinds is used to keep people under the boot. Human trafficking is a rampant problem that sees no end in sight. The Thiaroye massacre should come as no surprise then, yet still, it outrages the decent among us.

Comic Book Review – Monica

Monica (Fantagraphics)
Written & Illustrated by Daniel Clowes

When I think of the great indie comics creators from my younger days, I typically think of three names: Charles Burns (Black Hole), Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth), and Daniel Clowes (Ghost World). Each artist has a distinct style, and their personality comes through in all their work. The common theme between them all is a bleak look at humanity. Clowes’ work, in particular, focused on the alienation of Generation X, whose identities were tied to ironic nostalgia and difficulty being vulnerable with others. But time has passed, and Clowes is no longer a young man. As good as his early work is, he’s matured into something incredible, and Monica is a perfect example of this sophistication.

Patron Pick – The Zone of Interest

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.

The Zone of Interest (2023)
Written and directed by Jonathan Glazer

A droning echo from deep in the bowels of the underworld is the first thing you hear as the screen remains black. This is a descent into Hell. The music distorts and warps, communicating this mood of decay & rot. It is also a signal that this will not be a film about the spectacle of war or even the direct horrors of the Holocaust. Instead, this will be a story from right on the periphery. The title, The Zone of Interest, was a term Nazis used euphemistically to refer to the complex of over 40 death camps in Auschwitz, Poland. Filmmaker Jonathan Glazer uses his talents to deliver a story about genocide unlike any other I’ve seen. This is a film where the details are withheld, and it is through inference that the true horror emerges.

Movie Review – The Time That Remains

The Time That Remains (2009)
Written and directed by Elia Suleiman

Filmmaker Elia Suleiman tells all his stories through an autobiographical lens. I imagine it can feel overwhelming to tell the story of the Palestinians when you are one of them, especially when multiple experiences are happening at once within the occupied territory. You have the Palestinians of Gaza, the Palestinians of the West Bank, and those who live outside these two yet are still not free. Suleiman presents himself and many of his characters in his work as cold & distant from what is happening. To be in the torment your people have endured for decades just isn’t something that a person can be expected to walk away from with their sanity intact. The camera is another distancing tool and film tropes, too. They allow a person to examine something painful without needing to be directly inside of that pain.

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.

Book Update – September/October 2023

Books of Blood Volume 2 by Clive Barker

Because it was October and I enjoyed Books of Blood Volume One so much (I have read it twice), I decided to pick up the following collection by Clive Barker. This one does not have stories as strong as volume one. There are good ones here, but the weaker entries make volume one much more substantial.

“Dread” – This is one of the best and most fully developed stories in the collection. A college student comes under the thrall of a svengali who is fascinated with making people confront what they dread. This has a fantastic conclusion that is vividly rendered by Barker.

Movie Review – Eyes of Fire

Eyes of Fire (1983)
Written and directed by Avery Crounse

The American folk horror genre is surprisingly sparse compared to its British counterpart. Starting in the 1970s and continuing through today, British filmmakers continually find new angles to approach the horrors of rural life. With the States being such a vast landmass with plenty of myth & danger sprinkled through its most sparsely populated corners, you would expect more. Robert Eggers’ The Witch is the most prominent American folk horror film, and it becomes hard to name another. Avery Crounse wrote & directed his first feature film by focusing on the expansionist period of American history, following pioneers poorly prepared for what they would find and facing ancient evils tied to the land.

Movie Review – The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff (1983)
Written & Directed by Phillip Kaufman

It’s pretty silly to say with a straight face that the United States “won the space race.” This win is predicated on a single event, landing a man on the moon. That’s an awe-inspiring feat, but I don’t understand why that was the thing that made America the winner. From a narrow-minded jingoistic sense, I understand why it was the only thing the United States focused the full force of mass media on. Thus, it was made the winning event through the propagandistic media. Let’s review the space-faring accomplishments made during this time.