political – Page 3 – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Emitaï

Emitaï (1971)
Written and directed by Ousmane Sembène

To combat the Nazi occupation back home, the Vichy government (the official French State government during WWII) would conscript men from the lands they occupied in West Africa. These men would be shipped into Europe, where they were made to fight in that war. Ousmane Sembène devoted several of his films to this practice. This one focuses on the way the French government would slowly exploit & drain people already living in abject poverty for the sake of the empire. It’s probably Sembène’s most straightforward film, which shows he wanted to be very precise & clear in what he shows us.

Movie Review – Black Girl

Black Girl (1966)
Written and directed by Ousmane Sembène

I had never heard of this film until a few years ago. I didn’t learn the name of its writer-director, Ousmane Sembène (pronounced Oos-man Sem-ben), until last year. I have to ask why that is. Why do I know the names and filmographies of a whole host of directors, but if I were to be asked about African cinema, I would draw a blank? At most, I probably could have come with Neill Blomkamp, a white South African. But no indigenous African filmmakers? I should have known who Sembène was long ago; he’s considered the “father of African cinema” and has been named one of the greatest authors of that continent. The reason I didn’t know this person was because the society I grew up in is profoundly racist, and so someone like Sembène is seen as unworthy of attention.

Movie Review – City Hall

City Hall (2020)
Directed by Frederick Wiseman

At age 94, Frederick Wiseman is still making documentaries. While elements of his style have changed over the decades, and he has very distinctive periods within his filmography, Wiseman has always retained sight of what is important to him in making docs. He believes presenting a moment as true to the heart of what was happening when the camera was rolling is more important than anything else. The process of making movies is inherently biased. There is no way to be objective in the editing bay; each cut is a subjective choice, and we can see that it feels different when someone re-edits a movie. Wiseman does not believe his films are THE final word on anything. They are simply the director and his camera being present in a moment and capturing what happened.

Movie Review – Public Housing

Public Housing (1997)
Directed by Frederick Wiseman

Frederick Wiseman didn’t slow down in the 1980s or 1990s. He continued to put out a film almost every other year about topics as varied as horse racing, a Neiman Marcus department store, Central Park, and a series of docs about people with disabilities. In 1997, he delivered this three-hour exploration of the politics that governed the Ida B. Wells public housing development in Chicago, Illinois. Much like Welfare, Wiseman is trying to capture the voices of the people in power within the institutions as well as the recipients (or people who should be getting, but often don’t get) these services.

Movie Review – Welfare

Welfare (1975)
Directed by Frederick Wiseman

Frederick Wiseman has made his career focusing on institutions, and while he has branched off in later years ever so slightly, the most significant change in his method of filmmaking is going from tight 90-minute movies to large sprawling epics. It makes sense; the topics of his work are vast & challenging to grasp. You need time to let them breathe and for narratives to emerge. Welfare clocks in at nearly three hours long. I argue passionately that not only is this Wiseman’s masterpiece, but it is also one of the greatest documentary films ever made. Within this relatively short time, the audience will experience every stage of life and almost every element that brings drama into our lives.

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.

Book Update – January/February 2024

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

As a teenager, I came across this book in the now-defunct Wizard Magazine. I am trying to remember the context in which it was brought up, but I do remember the striking cover. Years later, when I took Chaucer & Medieval Literature in college, someone told me Hyperion was a retelling of The Canterbury Tales. Only at the end of 2023, at 42, I picked up Dan Simmons’ acclaimed science fiction epic to read. Wow. What an incredible treat to enjoy.

Movie Review – This Film Is Not Yet Rated

This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)
Written by Kirby Dick, Eddie Schmidt, and Matt Patterson
Directed by Kirby Dick

The United States is currently experiencing one of its most consistent features: moral panic. Every generation has gone through multiple cycles of this nonsense, yet we seem to learn nothing from them. Social media is the root of all evil in society. Or it’s LGBTQ people existing. Or it’s an accurate survey of American history. Or it’s rap music, dancing, comic books, video games, television, comprehensive sex education, the list goes on and on and on. Shortly after its creation, the novel was said to be aiding in the decay of society. All these young people spending hours in books thinking about people and places that don’t exist. Oh, the humanity!

Comic Book Review – The Flintstones Deluxe Edition

The Flintstones Deluxe Edition (2022)
Reprints The Flintstones #1-12 and Booster Gold/Flintstones Special
Written by Mark Russell
Art by Steve Pugh and Rick Leonardi

You might see a Flintstones comic book and think it’s some kiddie fare not worth your time. I thought that too in 2016 when I saw DC Comics was publishing it as part of a line of Hanna Barbera books. I was utterly wrong. In my opinion, this is one of the best comic book runs DC has published in over a decade. Writer Steve Pugh delivers a stunning satirical analysis of life in the United States using the Flintstone family and the world of Bedrock. This book left me wondering why The Flintstones has yet to be rebooted as an animated series in this style. That would be stunning.

Movie Review – Gaza Fights For Freedom

Gaza Fights For Freedom (2019)
Written by Abby Martin and Mike Prysner
Directed by Abby Martin

You can watch this documentary in its entirety here. It is age-restricted so I cannot embed it, sadly.

One of the talking points of the pro-occupation crowd is to talk incessantly about 7 October 2023. If you respond by bringing up other relevant dates and incidents that establish a slow-rolling genocide, the counterargument is that they are talking about “right now,” not the “ancient past.” When asked for their justifications of why the occupying force should have any claim in Palestine, they will respond with “evidence” from a dubious religious text by practitioners of the religion this occupying force has appropriated that this is their homeland circa two millennia earlier.