media moment – Page 2 – PopCult Reviews

Media Moment (02/28/20)

In my personal life, I am in the midst of something that could potentially change my life forever. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m an elementary school teacher and have been doing this for fourteen years of my life. I have tried to stay in contact or reconnect with individual students over the years, and this last week one of those relationships has become something more significant. A young woman I taught in 3rd & 4th grade and is now a junior in high school contacted my wife. Her home life has been negatively affected by emotional abuse and neglect to the point that Child Services became involved. Since Monday, she and her younger brother have been living with us. Our goal at this point is to get this extended to longer if not permanent custody. Even though I’ve taught for so long, we have no children of our own, and I’ve always leaned more towards having a childfree home. After this week, I simply don’t want our life to have not have these kids in it. It’s also made me think about the films I would want to share with them if they do stay.

Media Moment (02/22/20)

One of my favorite novels of the last few years has been A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. It’s told with such a deft touch, never careening into camp and walking that sort of ambiguous line that reminds me of The Exorcist. The finale is particularly chilling as it manages to recontextualize the unreliable narrator who has been telling us their story. Since 2018 there has been lots of movement in pre-production on a film adaptation, and this week we finally got a leading actress cast.

Media Moment (02/15/20)

So I don’t really care about the Oscars. I think it was 2005 when they gave Best Picture to Crash that I realized the whole thing was pointless. As I’ve gotten into Film more, I’ve learned that the best films often get ignored by the Academy, so whatever. However, it was quite lovely that Parasite won Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature, Best Director, and Best Picture. It was my favorite film of 2019, so I’m that Bong Joon-ho and his work are getting more recognition. I wish the actors had gotten some nominations.

Media Moment (02/07/20)

Director Scott Derickson had to step down from Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. His rumored replacement should have superhero movie fans very excited: Sam Raimi. Raimi has an important legacy role in the genre as his Spider-Man films arguably paved the way for the MCU and everything else we see in theaters now. The director has struggled with wide release success since. Spider-Man 3 was abysmal but much of that can be contributed to studio interference (see how Sony mishandles almost everything). Raimi’s prequel movie Oz the Great and Powerful was a pretty big creative mess that has not led to the franchise you could tell it was hoping to set up. Raimi’s strengths have always been in over the top horror and the bits and pieces we know about the Multiverse of Madness hint that it could be a perfect match.

Media Moment (02/01/20)

So A24 is looking at developing the film Under the Skin into a television series. I have to say that is an unexpected move but I am sort of into it. The film, based on the novel by Michael Faber, is a minimalist creepy horror picture about an alien walking the Earth disguised as a human. Her purpose is to seduce people and bring them in as food for her own species. The movie doesn’t have much dialogue and relies on the powerful mood developed by director Jonathan Glazer.

PopCult Media Moment (01/24/20)

Last weekend, I reviewed Disney’s The Black Hole, a terribly flawed science fiction horror flick with some great ideas embedded within. I did a little internet sleuthing and found out a sequel was in the works starting back in 2009. Director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) was set to helm the film with Jon Spaights (Prometheus, Doctor Strange) writing. While the film was in the scriptwriting stage, Disney bought Lucasfilm and decided to drop the remake. It was said at the time Spaihts’ script was “too dark for Disney.” Since then, Disney has been busy with many other projects.

Media Moment – 01/18/20

The Batman (2021)

So Warner Brothers are making another iteration of Batman because the Affleck version sucked. I am all for new interpretations of characters as long as the latest version brings something creatively rich to the table and isn’t merely a retread of things we’ve seen before. I am not a fan of most Batman films, and I definitely try to read them through a critical lens that is least favorable to the Batman character. Batman is a wealthy white man who is allowed to transcend the justice system and inflict violence on criminals, with the readers/audience being given the excuse that he had a lousy childhood. I think there is an excellent argument to be made that the same compulsive gimmicks present in the Rogues Gallery are just as present in Bruce Wayne’s psyche, but I digress.

PopCult Media Moment (01/11/20)

I am getting major Safdie Brothers vibes from the aesthetic of this film. It has me intrigued.