PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – It Comes At Night

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It Comes At Night (2017)
Written & Directed by Trey Edward Shults

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Something terrible is happening. A virus is killing people, and no one seems to know quite where it comes from how exactly how you contract it. Travis (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) is living under the strict rules of his father, Paul (Joel Edgerton) and mother, Sarah (Carmen Ejogo). Doors are kept locked up and tight and venturing outside is planned for only short bursts. Into their life comes another group of survivors and out of this develops the central conflict of the film. Told from the perspective of Travis we get overhear conversations muffled by floorboards and see the horrific nightmares that keep the young man awake at night.

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Movie Review – The Red Turtle

The Red Turtle (2017)
Written Michaël Dudok de Wit & Pascale Ferran
Directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit

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An unnamed man is struggling to stay afloat during a violent storm on the ocean. He wakes up on the shores of a deserted island. After finding a source of fresh water and fruit, the man decides to use the bamboo that grows on the island to build a raft. His first attempt fails when an unseen force from beneath breaks the raft apart. After two more attempts, he finally spots the culprit, a giant red sea turtle. From there the relationship between the man and this turtle takes some unexpected turns and becomes a film about the stages of human life.

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Movie Review – Hello, My Name is Doris

Hello, My Name is Doris (2016)
Written by Laura Terruso & Michael Showalter
Directed by Michael Showalter

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Doris Miller (Sally Field) has just lost her mother. She’s lived all her sixty-something years on Staten Island with her mom, and now she isn’t quite sure what to do with her life. She does data entry for an apparel company in the city and finds herself becoming infatuated with John (Max Greenfield), the new art director. Doris begins to challenge her own routines and expand her horizons in a film that seeks to play with our expectations of romantic comedies.

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Movie Review – Masterminds (2016)

Masterminds (2016)
Written by Chris Bowman & Hubbel Palmer, and Emily Spivey
Directed by Jared Hess

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It’s 1997 in North Carolina, and Loomis Fargo armored truck driver David Ghant (Zach Galifianakis) is about to be married but developing a crush on his fellow driver Kelly (Kristen Wiig). Kelly’s friend and ex-con Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) convinces her to use this infatuation as a means to have David rob Loomis Fargo for them. David goes along and ends up absconding with $17 million dollars in cash, the largest robbery in American history. They dupe dumb David into hiding out in Mexico with plans to turn him in a while blowing as much money as they can. But through a series of coincidence and dumb luck, David ends up with the upper hand.

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TV Review – The Leftovers Season 3

The Leftovers Season 3 (2017)
Written by Damon Lindelof, Patrick Somerville, Tom Perrotta, Tom Spezialy, Tamara Carter, Lila Byock, Carly Wray
Directed by Mimi Leder, Keith Gordon, Daniel Sackheim, Nicole Kassell, Carl Franklin, Craig Zobel

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Seven years ago while people were going about their day to day lives, the Sudden Departure occurred. 140 million people, 2% of the population, vanished. No trace of them could be found, and the rest of humanity was left wondered what happened, why did it happen, and where did they go? For three seasons, The Leftovers followed Sheriff Kevin Garvey, Jr., Nora Durst, and the extended families that surrounded them. The series began in New York state, wandered to just outside of Austin, Texas, and concluded its run in Australia. With the eighth episode of season 3 the series ended and assured its place as one of the greatest television series of this current golden age.

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Movie Review – Rupture

Rupture (2017)
Written by Brian Nelson & Steven Shainberg
Directed by Steven Shainberg

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Renee (Noomi Rapace) is a single mother in Kansas going about her life when a flat tire leads to her abduction by a mysterious cabal of scientists. She’s put through a series of torturous experiments, gets loose and goes climbing through the vents, only to discover she’s a part of the dumbest conspiracy ever, which you can likely guess in the first 20 minutes of the film. My mind is still boggling at how these actors, who are pretty good, could be in a movie like this.

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Movie Review – Hounds of Love

Hounds of Love (2016)
Written & Directed by Ben Young

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It’s 1987 in Perth, Western Australia and Evelyn and John are on the hunt. What they hunt for are lone young women whom they abducted, sexually and physically violate, and then kill. Teenage Vicki is distraught over her parents pending divorce and slips out at night to attend a party. Her path crosses with the predatory couple who lure her to their home with the promise of weed and a drink. Once inside her nightmare begins and she learns about their interpersonal conflicts she uses it in her fight to survive.

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TV Review – 555

555 (2017)
Written by Kate Berlant, John Early, & Andrew DeYoung
Directed by Andrew DeYoung

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A mall employee finds out a pop song she wrote has been stolen. A mother pushes her near mute son to audition for commercials. Two students in an acting class have meaningless interactions. A couple of actors getting makeup applied talk endlessly about getting their shit together and making YouTube content. Hollywood agents move like predators through every aspect of their lives. This is the world of Kate Berlant and John Early’s 555, a digital anthology series offered by Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/ondemand/fivefivefive).

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Movie Review – Independence Day: Resurgence

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
Written by Nicolas Wright & James A. Woods, Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich, and James Vanderbilt
Directed by Roland Emmerich

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It has been 20 years since the aliens invaded Earth and decimated many a landmark building. Humanity has recovered quite well, using the leftover technology to make multi-centuries’ leap in a couple decades. A base has been established on the moon to continue harvesting the remaining technology and Earth is surrounded by a network of defense satellites in case bad guys happened to come again. Humanity has ended all war, and everyone loves each other now. Well, you know what that means? An even bigger alien ship is coming to destroy even more things, this time so big it has it’s own gravitational field. Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, and some new faces come to the rescue in a film that delivers something the audience was clamoring for: Brent Spiner’s bare ass.

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Comic Book Review – Red Hood & The Outlaws Vol.1

If you haven’t checked out the Hoopla app, I encourage you to do so. Hoopla is a service library systems can subscribe to as a way to offer digital content to their patrons. Hoopla happens to have a magnificent library of DC Comics titles, and I plan to use to explore some of the DC Rebirth titles I may have overlooked when the relaunch occurred. This will be the first of a series of post, length undetermined.

Red Hood & The Outlaws Vol. 1: Dark Trinity
Written by Scott Lobdell
Art by Dexter Moy and Veronica Gandini

Red Hood aka Jason Todd aka the Robin who got killed by The Joker is back in Gotham going undercover as a criminal to infiltrate the criminal empire of Black Mask. He’s given a warning from Batman about making sure he keeps things non-lethal, a warning Jason begrudgingly follows but is tempted to break after he sees the sadistic evil Black Mask is capable of. During a mission where Jason is to prove himself to Mask, he runs afoul of Artemis, an Amazon from an offshoot of Wonder Woman’s people. They form a tenuous alliance to stop Black Mask, but all that changes when they discover what weapon he is after: Bizarro!

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