independent – PopCult Reviews

PopCult Podcast – The Substance/Good One

A aging star goes to extreme lengths to become young again. A teenage girl goes on a camping trap with her dad & his friend only to discover the disappointing realities of growing up.

Movie Review – Wanda

Wanda (1970)
Written and directed by Barbara Loden

The Actors Studio was founded in 1948 by Elia Kazan and his associates. The building in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, became a training ground for many of the mid-century’s greatest American actors, with Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando as two of the most notable. There are a host of character actors that developed their craft here as well. The most prevalent style of American acting from the late 1940s through 1980 directly resulted from what happened in this place. Barbara Loden was one of those people to hone their skills in the Studio. She would make a name for herself on the Broadway stage, winning a Tony Award for her performance in Arthur Miller’s After the Fall. In 1970, she wrote, directed, and starred in Wanda, an independent feature that earned her the description of “female counterpart to John Cassavetes” by the New Yorker.

PopCult Podcast – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes/Happer’s Comet

Two very different films in runtime, budget, scale, and content are featured in this episode. From a post-human Earth to a ghostly night in Long Island.

PopCult Podcast – Hit Man/Riddle of Fire

Richard Linklater’s latest places Glen Powell in the shoes of a pretend hired killer. Then, we visit a 16mm dreamworld where three kids are on a quest to make a blueberry pie.

Movie Review – sex, lies, and videotape

sex, lies, and videotape (1989)
Written and directed by Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh is a filmmaker I feel ambivalent about. Of his prolific filmography, I’ve seen sixteen of his movies, and I still don’t have a strong opinion about him. This is likely because his subject matter, themes, and tone are profoundly eclectic. The director seems quite at ease making crowd-pleasing Hollywood fare as much as he enjoys experimenting with technology and structure. Often, I have a sense of the filmmaker as a person from their work. Directors like Scorsese, Kubrick, and Altman conjure specific emotions and images for me. Soderbergh remains a blank, an enigma that exists outside of any definitions I can articulate.

PopCult Podcast – Stress Positions/The Last Stop in Yuma County

Well, not every week is a fun one. Our first film is Brooklyn hipster snark against the backdrop of COVID. The second is a dull formulaic exercise in genre that wastes so much talent.

Movie Review – In the Soup

In the Soup (1992)
Written by Tim Kissell and Alexandre Rockwell
Directed by Alexandre Rockwell

One of the misconceptions about being an artist is the glamor of living in squalor. I don’t recommend it as I was someone who has lived in less than stellar circumstances. You can still produce great art without living in poverty if you can avoid it. There’s not much romantic about being unable to afford groceries for a week or feeling an icy winter draft blow through poorly insulated windows. There’s also the misunderstanding that working in the arts is about refusing to compromise your personal vision. The challenge is balancing your perspective with getting work to pay your bills. Writing is a job like any other that involves taking gigs and doing what you can to get to the next one. Along the way, you keep working on the personal pieces, and one day, they come to fruition.

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.

PopCult Podcast – BlackBerry/Ham on Rye

A couple of quirky offbeat films make up our pair for this episode. One tells the story of the rise & fall of the most popular cellphone before the iPhone came along. The second is surreal, dreamlike, unsettling odyssey through suburbia.

PopCult Podcast – Scream 6/How To Blow Up a Pipeline

Young people these days get up to all sorts of crazy things. Some kids in NYC are going to school & trying to avoid attacks from a serial killer. Then you have these kids in Texas blowing up a damn oil pipeline. Zoomers, amirite?