PopCult Reviews

Thanksgiving Movie Marathon

Thanksgiving is not a holiday known for many films. Compare that to Christmas and Halloween, and the deficit is downright shocking. But Thanksgiving is a significant occasion for so many American families. With that in mind, I scoured my mind and the internet for a list of films that are Thanksgiving-related. Some of these are obvious, others not so much. If you are wondering what pictures to watch to ring in the day of consumption, on the eve of the blackest of Fridays here you are.

TV Review – Watchmen Season One, Episode Six

Watchmen (HBO)
Season One, Episode Six – “This Extraordinary Being”
Written by Damon Lindeloff & Cord Jefferson
Directed by Stephen Williams

Once upon a time, there was a man named Bass Reeves. Reeves was a slave to many prominent men since childhood and eventually became a fugitive, hiding out in the territory of the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole. When the dust settled from the Civil War, Reeves emerged as an expert in Native relations and was made the first black U.S. marshall west of the Mississippi River. Throughout his 32 years serving in this position, he earned accolades as a skilled marksman and phenomenal detective. At one point, he even had to bring in his own son, who had murdered Bass’s daughter-in-law.

Comic Book Review – Superman: Year One

Superman: Year One (2019)
Written by Frank Miller
Art by John Romita, Jr.

I can’t think of many comic book talents who have undergone such a massive in public sentiment in recent years than Frank Miller. Once beloved by the community for his Daredevil, Batman, and Dark Horse work, things changed in the wake of 9/11. Miller sunk into a mire of Islamophobia, giving rants to interviewers about his views on the religion, which was based purely on the 9/11 attacks. He even went as far as to propose Batman: Holy Terror, which would have had the Dark Knight going to Afghanistan to kill Al-Qaeda. DC smartly chose to pass on the project. Miller took the idea to Dark Horse, where he dropped the Batman part and made it about a thinly veiled version of the hero. In that same year, he ranted about Occupy Wall Street, calling them “louts, thieves, and rapists.” In 2018, he walked back from those comments saying he “wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Movie Review – 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys (1995)
Written by David and Janet Peoples
Directed by Terry Gilliam

Having recently re-watched Chris Marker’s short film La Jetee I decided it was time to watch the feature adaptation, 12 Monkeys again. I had only seen 12 Monkeys once before in college and enjoyed it a lot. It is what led me to Marker’s short, which has gone on to become one of my favorite pieces of film. I also developed a love for Terry Gilliam during my college years, with Brazil becoming one of my favorite pictures, even reading up on the complicated history of how it came to the screen. 12 Monkeys is expectedly a strange film, merging the underlying narrative of La Jetee with Gilliam’s own aesthetic sensibilities.

Movie Review – The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch (2019)
Written by Peter Straughan
Directed by John Crowley

I often use sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic to get a sense of how people perceive a movie. I might use this when I’m interested in comparing my favorites with critics and audiences, or in the case of my We Wish You’d Forget film series find movies that universally panned. This year a strange anomaly came across those sites, The Goldfinch. From the trailers, I’d say I was mildly interested in this picture, and I enjoyed Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. I had even planned to see The Goldfinch opening week to review it, but life circumstances got in the way. However, I did read some of the reviews and was astonished that it wasn’t just panned a mediocre film but that critics seemed to revile it. Even more surprising was how audiences had the opposite reaction, and as a majority said they enjoyed the picture.

TV Review – Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation Part 6

I, Borg (Original airdate: May 10th, 1992)
Written by René Echevarria
Directed by Robert Lederman

With Jonathan Del Arco listed in the cast for the upcoming Picard, I suspect this episode will be of core importance to the events that go down in that series. No matter how important this episode proves to be, it is one of the best of TNG, once again focusing on questions about humanity and dignity. The Enterprise comes across a crashed Borg ship with a single survivor. This Borg drone is brought onboard the vessel and becomes disconnected from the Collective. A debate ensues about whether to load this being with a virus that could kill the species or allow him to develop autonomy.

TV Review – Watchmen Season One, Episode Five

Watchmen (HBO)
Season One, Episode Two – “Little Fear of Lightning”
Written by Damon Lindeloff & Carly Wray
Directed by Steph Green

Trauma is an element ever-present in Moore & Gibbons’ graphic novel, and it continues to be a significant component of the television series. The trauma in focus here is Wade Tillman’s, the Tulsa police officer known as Looking Glass. It’s revealed in the cold open that Tillman was Jehovah’s Witness who traveled to Hoboken, New Jersey in 1985 as part of his mission work. This puts him front & center for Adrian Veidt’s massacre of Manhattan when he teleports in his hoax intended to unite the world. From Tillman’s perspective, he’s just been duped by a local into stripping down in a carnival funhouse, and he emerges into a world where everyone around him is dead, their brains having leaked out of their ears.

TV Review – The Mandalorian Season One, Episode Three

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

My question about the expansion of the Star Wars canon has always been, “Are there interesting stories to tell in this universe outside of the Skywalker saga?” The Mandalorian is becoming the first show to prove to me that there are corners of this world are worth exploring further. It also proves that despite staying masked for what appears to be the entirety of the series, Dyn Jarren is a very compelling character with a clear motivation and viewpoint. This doesn’t mean you will be surprised by a single thing that happens in this episode, it’s evident the arc being told, but it is satisfying and has momentum towards more significant story events.

TV Review – Apple TV+ – The First Episodes

Apple TV+ – The First Episodes

We are living in an age of streaming overflow. So many companies have seen the success of Netflix & Hulu and now want to get in that revenue stream with their own content streams. Just in the last couple of years, we’ve seen services like DC Universe, The Criterion Channel, Disney+, and now Apple TV+. Some streaming platforms as niche and focus on specialty programming while others attempting to cast a wide net and appeal to all demographics. I decided to sit down and watch the first episodes of four shows that recently debuted on the Apple TV+ platform. This service is attempting to focus on original content touching on a wide variety of genres with big-name recognition on the creative side as the selling point. Filmmakers and actors like Steven Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan, Jason Momoa, Jennifer Aniston, and Oprah Winfrey are all developing shows for the fledgling channel.

Best of the 2010s: My Favorite Films of 2018

Woman at War (Directed by Benedikt Erlingsson)
From my review: The war in the title is most definitely a cold one, and arguably a conflict Halla is fighting with herself. There is a group of inept police and drones that show up in the second act, but they never really feel like a threat. It’s Halla and the mistakes she makes that lead to the film’s finale. Part of what Halla is moving towards is an understanding that you cannot save the planet alone, and by the end of the movie, there is a small but growing number of supporters. We also see her framed against the immense challenge of repairing the environment, further emphasizing how much she needs help. There are no answers to the big questions in Woman at War; instead, it helps soothe those anxieties and remind us we’re not alone.