PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Written & Directed by Céline Sciamma

For the majority of the film’s runtime, we do not see a single male character on screen. In the third act, when a man is found eating breakfast in the kitchen, it is a jolt to the system, signaling that whatever has come before is over. The expectations and duties of these women must be resumed, and the life they were able to experience for a brief time is over. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a subdued and even unsentimental look at a relationship between two women in a time where they had no future where they could stay together.

Movie Review – Star Trek: Generations

Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Written by Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
Directed by David Carson

Star Trek: Generations is not a film that is going to bring new viewers into the franchise, it exists as something for fans of the series. That said, even if you don’t know who these characters are and the legacy bits are lost on you, the story is still comprehensible. It’s a story about regret, how time goes back so fast, and you find yourself thinking about the other life you could have had. Generations is the perfect companion piece to “All Good Things,” the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They both focus on Picard, his sense of aging, and confronting the life not lived.

Comic Book Review – Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows

Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Max Fiumara

This kicks off a marathon of reviews for Jeff Lemire’s World of Black Hammer comics over at Dark Horse. I started reading the series three years ago and like to revisit it every so often. This particular comic is profoundly inspired by James Robinson’s Starman comic that was published during the 1990s/early 2000s. The main character, actually named Dr. James Robinson, was a Golden Age hero of Spiral City. He constructed a device that allowed him to harness the power of distant stars and set off on a lucrative career fighting alongside his contemporaries.

TV Review: Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation Part 11

All Good Things Parts 1 & 2 (original airdate: May 23rd, 1994)
Written by Brannon Braga & Ronald D. Moore
Directed by Winrich Kolbe

We live in an age where the future is a blur, hazy, and unfocused due to so many dire circumstances. The clash of ideologies with fascism gaining a sort of traction that it hasn’t had in a long time. The screaming threat of climate change, setting off klaxons, and demanding our immediate action. The existential crisis of the soul that has come about from two decades of war. The hypernormalization of a system that is collapsing. Star Trek posits that one day this human strife will end, and we will ascend into new enlightenment, a socialist utopia where our species unites with the galaxy. It’s hard to see that while you stand in the middle of the burning forest but I hope this show is correct.

TV Review – Castle Rock Season 2

Castle Rock Season 2 (Hulu)
Written by Dustin Thomason, K’naan Warsame, Scott Brown, Obehi Janice, Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murray, Vince Calandra, Daria Polatin, Michael Olsen, K. Corrine Van Vliet, and Scott Brown
Directed by Greg Yaitanes, Phil Abraham, Anne Sewitsky, Mark Tonderai-Hodges, Loni Peristere, Craig William Macneill, and Lisa Bruhlmann

This season of Castle Rock has brought me through a series of varied emotions but ultimately ended with a stunning finale that did justice to the character of Annie Wilkes. Along the way went through a middle section that I drifted away from. There was definitely a good story there, but it didn’t always feel like progress was being made in character arcs every episode. Often Annie felt like she was going in circles to fill out the episode order. The evil force at work in the series was kept in the background just a little too long, but when they were revealed, the episodes shined.

Movie Review – Uncut Gems

Uncut Gems (2019)
Written by Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, & Bennie Safdie
Directed by Josh & Bennie Safdie

Josh & Bennie Safdie first came to my attention with Good Time, which presented its seemingly simple story with such stylish confidence that it left me stunned. They have a much deeper film career than I realized, and I have also seen Heaven Knows What, which does a similar job of telling a naturalistic story with an evident personal aesthetic. I plan on delving deeper into their filmography in 2020, but for now, I want to look at their latest release, Uncut Gems.

TV Review – Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation Part 10

Parallels (original airdate: November 29th, 1993)
Written by Brannon Braga
Directed by Robert Wiemer

While Parallels is a fantastic, large-scale exploration of alternate realities at its core, it’s a way to introduce and explore a relationship between Worf and Troi. This relationship is a much better fit for Troi than her forced romance with Riker, whom she was ultimately married to (more on that when I review Star Trek: Nemesis later this month). They are such perfect contrasts to each other: Worf being always awkward on how to convey his emotions while Troi is relaxed with who she is and how she feels. From what I have read, not every member of the production team was happy with this idea, but I think it is one of the best crew romances any of the Star Trek shows have ever featured because it feels like the most organic.

Movie Review – Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Written by J.J. Abrams & Chris Terrio
Directed by J.J. Abrams

Let’s just get this out of the way. I hated this movie. It’s everything I hate about fan culture & the bloated cinematic universe fad that is currently what theatrical release films have become. I say this as someone who was so delightfully surprised by The Last Jedi. I appreciated the new directions that film was taking Star Wars thematically, opening the Force up into a more egalitarian essence. I saw it in-universe as a course correction, the Force realizing that it’s existence between two eternally warring factions wasn’t bringing the balance it sought. Instead, we closed The Last Jedi on a moment that reminded the audience of both the young Luke Skywalker and ourselves, dreaming that we too can be the hero, that anyone can.

TV Review – The Mandalorian Season One, Episode Seven

The Mandalorian (Disney+)
Season One, Episode Seven – “Chapter Seven: The Reckoning”
Written by Jon Favreau
Directed by Deborah Chow

And with the return of Jon Favreau in the writing credits, the story of The Mandalorian improves and moves forward. After three weeks of arguable plot-stalling, things start moving again. Dyn Jarren finally hears that message from his old friend Greef Karga, imploring him to return to Nevarro. The Imperial faction in the sector has amassed there in their search for the lost target (aka Baby Yoda). Jarren gathers allies from previous adventures: Cara Dune, Kuiil, and IG-11 to help him even the odds.

TV Review – Watchmen Season One, Episode Nine

Watchmen (HBO)
Season One, Episode Nine – “See How They Fly”
Written by Nick Cuse & Damon Lindelof
Directed by Frederick E. O. Toye

Where previous episodes have taken their time and meditated on their characters and themes, this final chapter in the HBO Watchmen sequel feels more plot-heavy and honestly a little rushed. But that is the way finales work when you are trying to tie up the loose ends of a story as complex as this. The plot beats come fast and furious, leading to a reasonably satisfying conclusion with a nice tease of an ending scene. Did this follow-up to the revered comic book match the power of that work? Not entirely, but it had genuine moments of genius and illuminated characters in deeply meaningful ways.