lgbt – PopCult Reviews

PopCult Podcast – The End/Queer

A group of post-apocalyptic survivors live underground and sing about their feelings. A heroin addicted writer hanging out in 1950s Mexico develops intense feelings for a handsome younger man.

PopCult Podcast – The People’s Joker/Ghostlight

This week it’s two new releases about performance & identity. In one, we see a transgender woman’s story of self-realization through a parody of Batman and his world. In the second, a construction worker happens upon a theater putting on Romeo & Juliet that helps he and his family process a recent trauma

Patron Pick – Tell It To The Bees

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 Bekah Lindstrom.

Tell It To The Bees (2018)
Written by Henrietta Ashworth and Jessica Ashworth
Directed by Annabel Jankel

If you are looking for a passionate love story about two women, might I recommend two other, better films – Desert Hearts and A Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The reason why I promote those films over this one is because they are just simply much better made. From the writing to the directing of the actors to the cinematography, those movies don’t just deliver a lesbian love story; they are masterfully executed films. In discussions about representation in the media, I hate that there’s this rallying cry that groups which have been marginalized should be present in the utter shit that the cis white straight people make. I don’t know why anyone would want to set the bar so low. I want queer people, Black people, Indigenous people, disabled people, et al., to not just be in movies but to be in the best movies.

PopCult Podcast – I Saw the TV Glow/Exhuma

Two recent horror releases make up today’s episode. One is a dark fantasy about queerness in the suburbs of 1990. The second is Korean folk horror about stopping a vengeful ghost.

PopCult Podcast – About Dry Grasses/Housekeeping for Beginners

Two European features make up this week’s episode. One follows a misanthropic rural schoolteacher in Turkey as he burns every bridge around him. The other is about a queer found family in North Macedonia.

PopCult Podcast – Problemista/Civil War

This is a wildly divergent A24 double feature. One film is a comedy about the immigrant experience in NYC. The second follow journalists through a war on American soil.

PopCult Podcast – Love Lies Bleeding/Drive-Away Dolls

As Billy Eichner once said, “Let’s go, lesbians!” On this week’s sapphic episode we look at a two lesbian neo-noirs with two very different takes on the genre.

PopCult Podcast – All of Us Strangers/The Iron Claw

We finally get to talk about two films from 2023 we have been so excited for. The first is a dreamlike queer fantasy about reckoning with the past so you can start living. The second is the tragic real life story of a professional wrestling dynasty.

Patron Pick – Monster (2023)

Monster (2023)
Written by Yuji Sakamoto
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

After seeing Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2017 masterpiece Shoplifters, I was in awe. Watching his follow-up, Broker, was less moving of an experience. It’s a good movie, but it wasn’t as good as the first one I saw. While there is a body of work going back to the 1990s that I want to explore, for now, we move forward to the director’s latest film, Monster. I made sure I went into this film knowing very little other than that the plot focused on two middle-school-age boys. I’m so glad I didn’t know the story’s details because with each loop the narrative made back to its start, I was left wondering where we were being led.

PopCult Podcast – Miracle on 34th Street/The Shop Around the Corner/Christmas Sitcoms

We went to court to learn if Santa was real. Then it was quick stop to pick up some things at a general store in Budapest, before heading home to watch some classic Christmas episodes.