PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Week End

Week End (1967)
Written & Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

I have never felt as enamored with the French New Wave directors as I thought I should have been. I love the Italian New Wave, the British films of this period, with their social realism, are fascinating, and the later German New Wave is full of movies I adore. But I still struggle to really “get” the French New Wave. No director is a perfect example of this filmmaking movement more than Jean-Luc Godard. He was born to deconstruct and reconstruct cinema as a reaction to World War II and the ripples it continues to make in the West. After a decade of writing film criticism, he kicked off the New Wave with Breathless, examining American mob movie tropes mixed with Godard’s cinematic sensibilities. Week End represents the end of the New Wave period, released at the end of a year when Godard had two other films shown in cinemas.

PopCult Podcast – Blue Jean/You Hurt My Feelings

Two new 2023 releases are spotlighted in this episode. One is a period piece about a lesbian teacher in 1980s England dealing with the pressure of staying closeted to keep her job. The other is a contemporary comedy about an author who overhears her husband saying he doesn’t like her work.

TV Review – Kevin Can F**k Himself

Kevin Can F**k Himself Season One (AMC)
Written by Valerie Armstrong, Dana Ledoux Miller, Kevin Etten, Craig DiGregorio, Noelle Valdivia, Mel Shimkovitz, Tom Scharpling, Sean Clements, Kate Loveless
Directed by Oz Rodriguez and Anna Dokoza

The television landscape has changed wildly in the last few years. When I was growing up, my television screen was filled with cheery families in sitcoms and silly high-concept procedural dramas, ala The A-Team and Knight Rider. Something shifted in the late 1990s with the arrival of The Sopranos, the idea that television could feature highly dysfunctional people in everyday settings doing terrible things. From there, this would grow into something like Breaking Bad, Weeds, Better Call Saul, and more. Yet sitcoms remained. Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens featured the trope of the schlubby idiot husband whose wife tolerates his mediocrity.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Supersworn Part Three

Supersworn Pre-Alpha
Designed & Written by Ben Adams

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

Read part two of our Supersworn campaign.

Here is a map of Forge City with essential locations marked that we have visited, will be visiting, or may visit in the future.

Slingshot travels to South Gardens, where he lives with his Aunt Laurie and sister Mari. He slips in through the upstairs window, which Sling leaves unlocked each night when he goes out on patrol. Stepping gingerly, he attempts to make sure not to wake anyone. It’s 4am, and now, back in his Chris Kelly persona, our hero decides to skip his first class. This is risky as he’s missed so many sessions of his MWF Investigative Journalism classes that the teacher, Professor Mercer, has given him both a verbal and written warning that he is in danger of failing. However, Chris’s body screams at him for rest. He disinfects & bandages his wounds with a first aid kit. He hides in his closet and finally collapses into the warm embrace of his bed. Sleep comes like a wave, washing over him.

(Oracle question: Is anyone in the house when Chris wakes up? 50/50 odds. Answer: No)

Comic Book Review – The Forever People by Jack Kirby

The Forever People by Jack Kirby (2020)
Reprints The Forever People #1-11
Written by Jack Kirby
Art by Jack Kirby, Vince Colletta, and Mike Royer

The Forever People is the most forgotten of Kirby’s Fourth World creations. The New Gods is an epic Biblical-style chronicle of the beings that make up the worlds of New Genesis & Apokalips. Mister Miracle (which we’ll be reviewing next week) is tied into these things but ultimately the most superhero-style book. The Forever People is strange, full of ideas that don’t entirely develop, as well as moments where Kirby is forced to shoehorn in a character he didn’t want to as the title dwindled down to cancellation. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. It is a very slept-on part of the larger mythos that, while certainly not perfect, offers a different experience than the other two books, something that feels more like a Marvel Comics book sneaking into the DC Universe.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Little Town Part One

Little Town
Designed & Written by Gustavo Coelho

You can purchase this game here.

If you have been following this blog for several years, you already know I love Twin Peaks and David Lynch. I first saw the series when it originally aired, and I was only 9 years old. Despite being far too mature for my age, I was captivated by the show’s tone. It was unlike anything my little brain had ever experienced and has permanently affected how I approach art my entire life. When I saw there was a solo tabletop rpg based on Twin Peaks and using the Apocalypse World engine, it was like everything I loved was distilled down into a single object. I also discovered the existence of this game the week of my birthday. It was a no-brainer to purchase this one, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with how it uses elements from other solo game systems to evoke the feel of Twin Peaks.

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Written & Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

I’ve never really been into action movies. I am male, straight, and white; the period where I came of age (1980s thru 1990s) seemed focused on hyper-violent action media that people like me were supposed to eat up. I enjoyed the worlds, designs, and ideas behind many of your typical 80s fare. I was obsessed more with heroes who were not action-oriented. Marty McFly was someone I saw as a fun hero. The same with the superheroes in the comic books I read. I never enjoyed espionage or gun-wielding fare. That still remains today. I am okay with guns being part of a film’s story or nuclear bombs or hand-to-hand combat. I just don’t get a thrill from those things. A story with a strong character arc, especially one that is bittersweet, is what really draws me into a narrative. I know some people adore this movie. I thought it was fine. It’s certainly not the worst Mission: Impossible movie, but I’m doubtful these pictures will ever hook me as they do for many others.

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
Written by Christopher McQuarrie & Drew Pearce
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

And with this film, we reach the McQuarrie Era of Mission: Impossible. When Dead Reckoning Part 2 releases in 2024, McQuarrie will have directed half of the MI franchise. That makes it worth diving into what McQuarrie says about global foreign affairs. MI is a franchise grown out of the Cold War and anti-communism. Currently, communism as an engine of state power has been beaten back by an unrelenting capitalist assault. I know China has a Communist party as its core governmental body, and they implement policies that have undoubtedly lifted people out of poverty. However, I would argue, and many other communists would, too, that they have been teetering on the edge of communism and capitalism since Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms. Communism has never been the offensive threat the West has made it out to be; nations who claim to have communist governments have always been entrenched in defensive positions from outside interference. All that to say, there is no genuinely threatening “commie” bogeyman for these types of films any longer.

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Written by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and Christopher McQuarrie
Directed by Brad Bird

Brad Bird was not a director likely to have been chosen to direct Mission: Impossible. Before Ghost Protocol, he had no live-action directing credits but had helmed The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. Bird proved to be up to the task and partially ended up shifting the tone of the MI series to a style that remains today. He also was part of a change in the types of villains the films presented. Previous MI films featured rogue IMF agents (MI & MI2) and an arms dealer (MI3). One of the biggest problems with a director like Bird is that he is intensely objectivist, following the writings of Ayn Rand. This can be seen most prominently in his box office flop Tomorrowland but is present in nearly all his work. It follows that his villain in Ghost Protocol is someone whose motives are never clear or coherent but is an outsider attempting to disrupt the status quo. This is also a typical villain archetype in Marvel films which has been a primary reason why those films have become increasingly less appealing to me.

PopCult Podcast – Sanctuary/Rye Lane

Love is in the air this week on the PopCult Podcast. Our first film explores the power dynamics between a wealthy hotel heir and his ambitious dominatrix. The second film is about love blossoming between two young people in modern London.