PopCult Reviews

The Filtered World: Observations

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” — Steve Biko

To be raised in the United States is, in many ways, to grow up inside a carefully curated reality. The nation that prides itself on “freedom of speech” and “freedom of the press” maintains one of the most tightly managed flows of information among modern democracies. This is not through overt censorship, but through structural control, ideological gatekeeping, and algorithmic isolation. Americans do not live under a dictatorship of thought, but they do live inside a media ecosystem that selectively filters the world. Global events are not hidden. Instead, they are reshaped to align with American interests via decontextualizing & minimizing.

This is not merely a media issue. It is a cultural condition, a learned blindness, fostered by corporate consolidation, state influence, entertainment soft power, and educational neglect.

New Short Story

I made my first post on my fiction blog, PopFic.

Variations on a Life in Macaroni & Cheese

Movie Review – Dog Man

Note: I will be pausing the blog for a few months. I’ll certainly be back, but there are a lot of things Ariana and I are getting in order as we go through a big life change.

Dog Man (2025)
Written and directed by Peter Hastings

While making the Star Wars prequels, George Lucas was asked why so many elements seem directly lifted from the original trilogy of films. His response to this was, “It’s poetry. It rhymes.” I’ve come to find that life as a whole is like that. The older I get, the more connections and parallels I can draw between one event and another. In reality, these are just moments that happen to me, but the meaning I personally derive from them turns these interactions into a kind of poetry. I recently had a moment that reminded me of another from nearly four years ago.

TV Review – Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop (1998)
Written by Shinichirō Watanabe, Keiko Nobumoto, Michiko Yokote, Ryōta Yamaguchi, Sadayuki Murai, Dai Satō, and Akihiko Inari
Directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, Yoshiyuki Takei, Ikurō Satō, Kunihiro Mori, Tetsuya Watanabe, Ikurō Satō, Kunihiro Mori, and Hirokazu Yamada

Last year, after a lifetime of not finding anime TV series really appealing, I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion. I enjoyed it and decided to check out another anime series. I’ve been well aware of titles over the years but never felt like sitting down and watching them. One show I heard about over and over in the early 2000s was Cowboy Bebop. I watched a lot of Adult Swim comedies, and I can recall a vague image of Cowboy Bebop, but I don’t think I had ever seen an entire episode. I saw reviews later of people claiming it was the best anime of all time, in their opinion, and several people I know adore it. This seemed like a good choice for my next watch.

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 – 21 March 2025

I first saw Ken Russell’s incredible horror film The Devils for the first time last year. It’s a movie that feels decades ahead of its time. The British Board of Film Classification, their equivalent to the US’s MPAA, shares an article about the history of The Devils’ censorship.

Movie Review – Who Killed Captain Alex?

Who Killed Captain Alex? (2010)
Written and directed by Nabwana I.G.G.

I’ve mentioned several times in this series on foreign films how much American media is saturated with other cultures. This is intentional as it helps spread US hegemony across the globe by portraying the country as the toughest, most heroic culture on Earth. In the 1980s, this was done through the macho action films of people like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. More recently, Marvel movies have been America’s tool of global indoctrination.

PopCult Podcast – The Electric State/I’m Still Here

We look at two very different films about people living under oppressive connections. One is a bloated, charmless Netflix original. The other is a passion project about a family struggling to stay together in Brazil during the military dictatorship. Check out our reviews of The Electric State and I’m Still Here.

Movie Review – Osama

Osama (2003)
Written and directed by Siddiq Barmak

Over twenty years, during the US occupation of Afghanistan, an estimated 176,000 died as a result of the conflict. Well over six thousand US soldiers, contractors, and soldiers from allied nations were killed. What was it all for? It doesn’t seem like much that counters those deaths. Afghanistan has historically been a place where armies come to fail. Of all the films I’ve seen from Muslim-majority countries, this one felt the most regressive. The US equivalent would be regions of the States where right-wing militias are growing in power and enforcing their rule. I think it is essential to see this film not as a condemnation of Islam, a religion that has many positive aspects, but as a searing critique of patriarchy. Your average right-wing US pundit will always make it about religion because they ultimately don’t care about the oppression of women.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – A Torch in the Dark

A Torch in the Dark
Written and designed by NotWriting

You can purchase this game here

Last year, I attempted to play Blades in the Dark using Parts Per Million’s solo guide. While there was some helpful advice in that book, it still felt like I was emulating a whole table of players rather than a singular protagonist. I had fun, but I wanted something that provided an actual solo tabletop experience. I decided to try A Torch in the Dark, a game that takes the systems of Blades and tweaks them for a solo play. There is a lot here I like a lot, but there were also elements of Blades that were missing, and I felt the game was lacking as a result. It provides a roguelike experience and uses 52 standard playing cards.