PopCult Reviews

Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Galatea

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Galatea
Written & Designed by S. Kaiya J.
You can purchase this game here.

The Wretched by Chris Bisette has spawned a whole subgenre of solo ttrpgs using that game as its framework. Many provide variations on that base game’s mechanics of dice, playing cards, and block tower. Galatea’s take on these mechanics perfectly fits its premise and tone.

The title references the Greek myth of Pygmalion. In the story Pygmalion, the sculptor carves a statue of a beautiful woman out of ivory. He prays to Aphrodite that she might come to life as he’s fallen in love with the image of her. His wish is granted, and the two marry and live happily ever after. This story has inspired many narratives about artificial life, including the origins of the Wonder Woman character.

Comic Book Review – Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Volume Three

Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Volume Three (2020)
Reprints Batman: The Return #1, Batman Incorporated v1 #1-8, Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes #1, Batman Incorporated Special #1, and Batman Incorporated v2 #0-13
Written by Grant Morrison (with Chris Burnham)
Art by David Finch, Yanick Paquette, Chris Burnham, Scott Clark, Cameron Stewart, Frazer Irving

Grant Morrison’s Batman run entered its third act with quite a significant speed bump. Eight issues into Batman Incorporated, the book was canceled along with every other DC Comics title to make way for the New 52. The New 52 was an attempt in 2011 to inject fresh talent and get new eyes on the company’s comics and characters. There was undoubtedly an initial boost of interest, but over the following five years, the company would backtrack many of the changes until the current status quo, which is “embrace everything and continuity will just be hyper-flexible.” At the time, then Editor-in-Chief Dan Didio abruptly ended Morrison’s tenure on Batman with the promise to fans that at some undecided point soon, it would be wrapped up. There is a conclusion, but it still has some frustrating parts due to not knowing how this fits in with how Batman’s timeline was altered.

Movie Review – Beau Travail

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Beau Travail (1999)
Written by Claire Denis & Jean-Pol Fargeau
Directed by Claire Denis

Everything about Beau Travail is felt rather than intellectualized. It’s a movie spilling over with texture & an evocation of the senses. So much of the tension on screen is never acknowledged in words but through visual language. In some ways, it is close to a silent film in how much restraint is used in the dialogue. It is an erotic film in the classical definition of eros as the aspect of love we call desire. The main character wants another so badly, but due to the circumstances of their jobs & where they are, this isn’t going to happen. We know this is a tragedy, but like watching two cars about to collide, there is little you can do but bear witness. It is a movie born out of defiance on the part of the director, a challenge to heteronormative masculinity that never preaches its themes to you. Those emerge organically, and it’s the job of the audience to examine & contemplate them.

Movie Review – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Written by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Dave Callaham
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson

In January 2019, I was sitting at home on a weekday due to an unexpected week of snow. By the end of the week, the snow was melting, but there was still ice on the rural backroads, so we were still closed out of precaution. Buses wouldn’t handle these conditions well. I got a text from one of my sisters asking if I wanted to see this new animated Spider-Man movie with her and my nephew. I’d been aware of it but wasn’t chomping at the bit to go see it. However, getting to spend time with her and my nephew was something I always loved to do.

Movie Review – The Watermelon Woman

The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Written & Directed by Cheryl Dunye

The intersection of queerness and Blackness is where a lot of contemporary culture has emerged from. When watching Paris is Burning, I noticed how much of their slang is now part of American slang, particularly among Millennials and Zoomers. It’s nothing new. Elvis’s entire career was started by co-opting Black music and putting it with a white face. Rap/Hip hop has transcended its roots as a purely Black musical form. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with deriving inspiration from another culture to make art as long as the artist actively acknowledges the cultural roots and adheres to authenticity rather than appropriation.

Movie Review – But I’m A Cheerleader

But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
Written by Jamie Babbit and Brian Wayne Peterson
Directed by Jamie Babbit

America is a land rife with pseudoscience. The COVID-19 pandemic showed how deep those roots are, with all sorts of unfounded remedies being churned out via reactionary social media. My mother apparently visits an herbalist regularly who runs magnets over her body to suss out any sneaky infections. And what do you know? The herbalist happens to sell the very remedy my mother needs for these infections. The same nonsensical thinking drove Christians to create conversion therapy camps where adolescent queer people or suspected queer people are sent to be “cured.” Over time, various cruel methods have been used to torture people for being attracted to those deemed “wrong.” These methods include but are not limited to brain surgery, surgical castration, electroshock, nausea-inducing drugs, and other dehumanizing reconditioning techniques that would make a Nazi proud. While the camp in this film may not be those extremes, it still displays the emotional cruelty intended to teach children that love from trusted adults comes with a cost, meaning a suppression of your Self to please them.

PopCult Podcast – Fast X/Succession & Barry

Whether your family are a quasi-cult of car ninjas, a media empire owning cluster of ghouls, or living in a doublewide on the plains homeschooling via YouTube this episode has what you are looking for.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Ex Novo

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Ex Novo (Sharkbomb)
Written & Designed by Martin Nerurkar & Konstantinos Dimopoulos

You can purchase this game here.

Worldbuilding and mapmaking make up many of the solo games I come across on itch.io. It makes sense because these activities are things people already do casually. These games provide formal structures to guide your imagination and create an end product that can stand on its own or be used as a jumping-off point for another solo system or as a setting for a campaign you’re running for others. Ex Novo is one of the more popular and well-known of these types of role-playing “toys.”

Patron Exclusive – Double Down Episode Two

The second of six episodes for a Patron exclusive podcast is now live on our Patreon. It’s Double Down, a series where Ariana & Seth check out six movies that critics Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert gave thumbs down to, but are not obscure films.

Ariana & Seth are back in the theater to share their thoughts on this 1990 sequel to the 1987 hit original. This time around, the Predator is hunting in the jungles of Los Angeles in the distant future of 1997. Danny Glover stars as a cop who seems really bored more of the time trying to figure out who is killing the gangs. Meanwhile, Gary Busey shows up as fed out to capture the enemy’s advanced tech.

Subscribe to our Patreon to check it out as well as our previous tv-focused podcast The Pitch.

Comic Book Review – Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Volume Two

Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Volume Two (2018)
Reprints Batman #700-702, Batman and Robin #1-16, and Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1-6
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Tony S. Daniel, Frank Quitely, Scott Kolins, Andy Kubert, David Finch, Philip Tan, Cameron Stewart, Andy Clarke, Frazer Irving, Chris Sprouse, Yanick Paquette, Georges Jeanty, Ryan Sook, Pere Pérez, and Lee Garbett

The Grant Morrison run of Batman is not a perfect thing. The transition from the first chapter to this second has got to be one of the clunkiest, with desperate attempts to try and mesh Morrison’s intentions with their story with Dan DiDio’s editorial edicts. This is why the first three comics reprinted here focus so much on trying to take the death of Batman we see in “Batman RIP” and the death of Batman we see in “Final Crisis” and have them make a single cohesive narrative. In my opinion, it is a big mess. However, that leads to one of the best parts of Morrison’s run, Batman and Robin. The side story of The Return of Bruce Wayne? Eh, I’m not the biggest fan, but it does coherently tie up the Doctor Hurt storyline that began in the first volume.