PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Lady Vengeance

Lady Vengeance (2005)
Written by Chung Seo-kyung & Park Chan-wook
Directed by Park Chan-wook

Park Chan-wook is a master filmmaker. If you read my review of Decision to Leave last year, you know how much I love this director. South Korean cinema is the most vibrant creative filmmaking scene we have right now, with a diverse array of directors making all sorts of movies that play to their strengths. Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) is fantastic at making biting social satires, Hong Sang-soo (In Front of Your Face) crafts gently paced slice-of-life dramas, Lee Chang-dong (Burning) dark stories of psychological trauma, and Park Chan-wook has mastered the art of telling tense & violent thrillers. Lady Vengeance was part of Park’s Vengeance trilogy, which started with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (still on my Watchlist), Oldboy, and finally, Lady Vengeance. Throughout every film, he follows the response of a profoundly wronged person and explores the effects their quest for vengeance has on them.

Movie Review – Walker

Walker (1987)
Written by Rudy Wurlitzer
Directed by Alex Cox

When I see or hear gringos complaining about Central & South American immigrants showing up in large numbers in the States, I can’t help but think in response, “This wouldn’t be a problem if the States and other colonizers just stayed the fuck home and minded their own business rather than imposing themselves and intentionally destablizing already established cultures.” Colonization means disrupting indigenous people’s development and almost always ends with them becoming an exploited class by foreign business interests that make up our extraction economy. Alex Cox is clearly furious, and we can see that broiling on screen in his savage, intentionally historically inaccurate depiction of one American madman’s crusade into Nicaragua. Something that happened long ago and was happening as Cox made this film.

PopCult Podcast – Full Time/Yellowjackets

It’s tough for ladies out there. Whether its trying to commute to work in the midst of French transit strikes or handling the trauma of being a cannibal in your formative years, women are being asked to balance a lot.

Solo Tabletop Actual Play – Supersworn Part Four

Supersworn Pre-Alpha
Designed & Written by Ben Adams

You can check out this game and many other hacks of Ironsworn here.

Read part three of our Supersworn actual play here.

Before I started this Supersworn series, I decided to delve into Tana Pigeon’s The Adventure Crafter and see if I could incorporate elements into this. It has worked really well. The Adventure Crafter has the solo player organize a list of Themes in order of priority for their game: Action, Mystery, Tension, Social, and Personal. Then, to create a plot point, you roll to determine the Theme and then roll a d100 to be given a random plot element related to that Theme. Each plot point can consist of five of these elements, and they generate hooks to get a story going. In the spirit of classic Spider-Man comics, I have a list of five plot points, each following a separate story, that I have randomly rolled on to see if we pivot from where we are to something else. I hoped it would create the sense of a vibrant living world populated by a host of characters, and it has certainly felt like that while playing.

PopCult Presents: Double Down – Child’s Play 2

Sorry Jack, Chucky’s Back! In a first for both Ariana & Seth we watched an entire Child’s Play movie. It was better than we expected but the bar was set pretty low. Siskel & Ebert had a moral panic over this one but we both thought it was mid. To listen to this episode and more of our exclusive subscriber-only podcasts join our Patreon.

My Favorite Willem Dafoe Performances

Happy Birthday to Willem Dafoe, born William Dafoe, who turns 68 years young today (July 22). His unique first name resulted from a high school nickname that the actor kept using to distinguish himself on lists of actors during auditions. Today, he’s become one of the most respected character actors. Below are some of my favorite of his performances, those that stick in my brain the most. He may be named Dafoe, but I like to think of him as Dafriend.

Comic Book Review – Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby

Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby (2017)
Reprints Mister Miracle #1-18
Written by Jack Kirby
Art by Jack Kirby, Mike Royer, and Vince Colletta

Of all Jack Kirby’s DC Comics creations, Mister Miracle (along with Darkseid) has resonated the most with fans and those who would write the comics in the future. It makes sense because Mister Miracle’s comic was the most straightforward superhero book of all the titles Kirby wrote & drew for the company. The character’s design is familiar to capes & tights fans with its use of primary and secondary colors (red, yellow, green) but also different, particularly with the face mask and high-collared cape and clasps. Mister Miracle’s premise is new but feels entirely authentic for the genre, a super escape artist. It’s one of those “of course, why didn’t I think of that” ideas. Kirby does one better, though, and links this character to his grand mythos so that Mister Miracle both stands independently and operates as part of the space opera.

Movie Review – Hi, Mom!

Hi, Mom! (1970)
Written & Directed by Brian DePalma

We often associate Robert DeNiro with the work of director Martin Scorsese. Some of the actor’s best work has been under the guidance of this filmmaker: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, The Irishman. However, DeNiro didn’t make his film debut in Scorsese’s work. Instead, their colleague Brian DePalma first brought the iconic performer to the big screen in 1968 with his dark comedy, Greetings. DeNiro would reprise his role of Jon Rubin, a young aspiring filmmaker. Hi, Mom! is a bitterly angry film about the time in which it was made, so abrasive that it was issued an X rating and had to make one specific cut to drop down to R territory.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Little Town Part Two

Little Town
Designed & Written by Gustavo Coelho

You can purchase this game here.
Read part one here.

Since our last post, Little Town’s creator Gustavo Coelho has updated the pdf with links. That has made navigating the book far easier and was a desperately needed quality-of-life upgrade.

Movie Review – Asteroid City

Asteroid City (2023)
Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
Directed by Wes Anderson

“All Wes Anderson movies are the same,” they shout. From an aesthetic point of view, the director is exceptionally consistent these days with a particular visual sensibility. I would argue that it has changed over time. Go back and watch Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, then compare it to this film and The French Dispatch. They are very different in how they look but share similar rhythms. That’s what I find is true about all his work, the rhythm of the stories, characters, and comedy. Asteroid City is no exception, but I would argue a need to look deeper than the surface level or study how what’s happening aesthetically flows into the themes explored in the story. Asteroid City is a profound film about big emotions, particularly grief, and how we process them.