political – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – I’m Still Here

I’m Still Here (2025)
Written by Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega
Directed by Walter Salles

In 1964, Brazil experienced a military coup, supported by U.S. forces, against then-president João Goulart and his proposed social reforms. These reforms, including land redistribution, expanded labor rights, and the nationalization of key industries, alarmed conservative politicians, business leaders, the Catholic hierarchy, and much of the officer corps, who framed his government as a step toward communism. The U.S.-backed dictatorship dismantled democratic institutions and installed an authoritarian regime that would last twenty-one years. The dictatorship ruled through censorship, political repression, torture, and forced disappearances, while promoting a narrative of “order” and economic modernization. Though the regime oversaw periods of rapid industrial growth, these gains were unevenly distributed and came at the cost of civil liberties, deepening inequality and leaving lasting scars on Brazilian society that continue to shape its politics and collective memory today.

Movie Review – It Was Just An Accident

It Was Just An Accident (2025)
Written and directed by Jafar Panahi

In 2022, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was arrested while inquiring about the status of two fellow filmmakers who had been detained by authorities. He became the third director taken into custody in less than three weeks. After initiating a hunger strike, Panahi was released 48 hours later. He was barred from leaving Iran while under investigation and was subsequently tried. It Was Just an Accident won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, but the filmmaker was not permitted to leave the country to attend. In December 2025, Iran’s government sentenced Panahi in absentia to one year in prison and imposed a two-year travel ban over alleged “propaganda activities.” During this period, he was also prohibited from joining any political or social organizations. This ruling came a decade after many previously banned Iranian film organizations had been allowed to reopen.

Movie Review – The Seed of the Sacred Fig

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2025)
Written and directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

Our perception of Iran in the West is not an accurate picture. How could it be, after decades of propaganda that have mixed truths about the fundamentalist government with lies meant to keep the country in a perpetually negative light? Too often, American media frames people in cartoon terms: good guys and bad guys; a reductive take, to say the least. Iranian cinema has grown tremendously since the late 1970s and often produces powerful works of art. Common elements include minimalism, which allows for ambiguity that can skirt censorship; children as moral lenses through which to view society; and a moral complexity that refuses easy simplification. Humanism is always more important than rigid ideology. All of this is true of The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

Movie Review – Soundtrack to a Coup D’état

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.”

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.

Weekly Links – 14 March 2025

There’s continuous talk about “the United States sliding into fascism.” We are there. We’ve been there for a long time. Instead, you must realize you are becoming aware that America is a fascist construct to its roots. This has been made nakedly apparent with the rendition of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student who engaged in protest against the Palestinian genocide. If you think putting your head down and “getting through this” is an option, I hope you have the life you deserve.

Book Update – January/February 2025

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen, edited by Ellen Datlow
Another year means another Ellen Datlow Best Horror of the Year. As with all of these, it’s a mixed bag. I loved some stories; others were fine, and even some I forgot as soon as I was done reading them. Here are the stories that were highlights for me.

The Importance of a Tidy Home by Christopher Golden

Set in the winter holiday season, this story follows two homeless men in Germany who encounter the Schnabelpercten. These diminutive creatives are said to go home to home during the Epiphany and inspect homes to ensure they are clean. In this story, if they are unhappy with the house’s tidiness, they murder the inhabitants inside. This is a genuinely creepy and very wintery tale.

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

PopCult Podcast – The Order/A Real Pain

A troubled FBI agent discovers a white supremacist conspiracy in rural Idaho. Two cousins embark on a tour in Poland to reconnect with their deceased grandmother.

31 Days of Character Creation #9 – Cabal

Cabal is a game where the character is the evil corporation you create. Employees are assets the company moves around to work towards its nefarious agenda. Essentially, if you want to play a mix of Succession with horror elements, you have found the game for you. Here’s how Cabal is described on its Kickstarter page:

Cabal is an RPG that works in reverse to the way tabletop RPGs usually function. Instead of each player creating their own character, you create a single character between you. This character is an organisation with its own secret plan and goals. It might be a conspiracy, a corporation, an activist group, an occult society of magicians or even a collection of hidden alien refugees. The size, influence, resources and pawns of the group depend entirely on what attributes the players choose between them for the organisation.