PopCult Reviews

How I Read a Poem: The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats

So why should you spend any time reading poems? Isn’t the world in a state of crisis so severe that we don’t have time for such frivolousness? Or, shouldn’t I numb my brain with endless streams of Netflix binging? Well, I mean suppose. You don’t have to read poetry. I am sure you could go your whole life and never feel like you missed much by not reading poetry. But that could be said of lots of things like traveling abroad or eating at a fancy restaurant, but those things are nice to do, and they add richness to your life.

Movie Review – A Night at the Opera

A Night at the Opera (1935)
Written by George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Al Boasberg, and James Kevin McGuinness
Directed by Irving Thalberg

With this film, many changes happened to the Marx Brothers going forward. It was their first picture at MGM, having left Paramount on reasonably bad terms. Their contract expired, and they had no interest in renewing it with Paramount. Zeppo left the pictures and joined brother Gummo in working on the business side of things, forming a talent agency that would take on clients like Jack Benny and Lana Turner. Irving Thalberg played cards with Chico and worked as a producer at MGM. During their games, he began discussing the Brothers make a move to MGM but had some terms and conditions.

Movie Review – The Invisible Man (2020)

The Invisible Man (2020)
Written & Directed by Leigh Whanell

Once upon a time, Universal Pictures wanted some of that sweet cinematic universe money, and they introduced The Dark Universe, a rebooting of classic monsters from their film catalog but modern and basically like superheroes. The opening film, The Mummy, was released, performed terribly, and received scathing reviews, and thus the Dark Universe died. Now Universal has pivoted and handed the reins to Blumhouse, a company quite skilled at coming way under budget and making lots of money with gimmicky B-horror movies. I’ll admit, I found the first Insidious to be pretty good, but the rest of their films are not my particular cup of tea. So, how does The Invisible Man stack up?

Movie Review – Duck Soup

Duck Soup (1933)
Written by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Arthur Sheekman, and Nat Perrin
Directed by Leo McCarey

Duck Soup is arguably the Marx Brother’s masterpiece. It is their last pre-code movie meaning it’s their last chance to push the boundaries of content in cinema. Duck Soup is also the perfect mix of the Brothers’ anarchic style and a semi-cohesive narrative structure. We still get gags and skits, but they feel much more connected to what is happening to the characters. Duck Soup wasn’t the smash hit that Horse Feathers was, and there was a lot of conflict between the Marx Brothers and Paramount during and after the production. The movie would mark the end of their relationship with that studio and send them to MGM for their next feature.

TV Review – Tales From the Loop Season One, Episode Three

Tales from the Loop (Amazon Prime)
Season One, Episode Three – “Stasis”
Written by Nathaniel Halperin
Directed by Dearbhla Walsh

We’ve all had those moments in our life that we wistfully drift back to from time to time. There’s a very distinct emotion we feel when thinking about them, a yearning to go back there, and our senses recalling smells and sounds that further recreate the scenario. More likely than not, if we were to have a way to be in that moment perpetually on closer examination, we would discover flaws & incongruities with our memory. Emotion has such a strong ability to cloud the mind and create false pasts that feel better, editing the problematic parts.

Movie Review – Extra Ordinary

Extra Ordinary (2020)
Written and Directed by Enda Loughman & Mike Ahern

The Conjuring meets Edgar Wright would be one of the best ways to describe this hilarious horror-comedy. Wright has such a distinct visual style, and it’s clear these filmmakers are great fans of his, putting those little touches without becoming a knock off. There is still enough of a distinct comedic voice that it differentiates itself but remains firmly in the same subgenre where these two types of films meet. There are some missteps along the way and some underused cast members, but overall it’s a refreshing break from the typical comedic pablum seen in theaters most weekends.

Movie Review – Horse Feathers

Horse Feathers (1932)
Written by S. J. Perelman, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Will B. Johnstone, and Arthur Sheekman
Directed by Norman Z. MacLeod

College comedies have been a staple of motion picture since the silent era with Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman and Buster Keaton’s College being the most memorable. It made sense for the Marx Brothers to follow in those footsteps because, at the end of the day, their movies were often a vehicle to get them on screen doing routines and gags. They take advantage of the setting by using the pending football game as the crux of the plot and a finale set-piece. Some anachronistic elements could confuse contemporary viewers, but it’s not enough to make the movie unwatchable, just demanding a little more attention from the audience.

TV Review – Devs

Devs (FX)
Written & Directed by Alex Garland

How do I know I am making a choice to type these words right now? How do I know that I chose to watch all eight episodes of Devs? Are these actions free choices of my own making or merely preprogrammed behaviors, following a path I was set on by some cold, indifferent force of nature? Devs explores these ideas in its roughly eight hours and is my favorite of filmmaker Alex Garland’s work to date. I’m reasonably positive about Ex Machina but found myself underwhelmed by Annihilation. I think long-form mini-series may be the structure that best suits Garland’s style of pacing and cerebral storytelling.

Movie Reviews – Animal Crackers

Animal Crackers (1930)
Written by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, George S. Kaufman, and Morrie Ryskind
Directed by Victor Heerman

Who were the Marx Brothers? Zeppo. Chico. Harpo. Groucho. Gummo. They were the children of French/German Jewish immigrants born into a family of artists and performers. Each brother mastered multiple instruments, and Groucho and Zeppo became accomplished singers. They became a Vaudeville act thanks to their uncle and began traveling the circuit, making money, and laughs. As time went on each brother honed their stage persona, Groucho became the de facto leader with his sharp, caustic comedy. When World War I struck, the Marx mother learned that farmers were exempt from the draft, so she bought a chicken farm in Illinois, but the boys found agrarian life was not their style.

My Favorite Movie Musicals

Yesterday, I reviewed the atrocity that is Cats, a film that falls apart because of a mix of a muddled story and, most importantly, an over-reliance on computer-generated effects. I thought sharing my favorite musicals could be some fun. These are definitely all not your classic Broadway productions but things that skew more towards my particular tastes.