PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Red Desert

Red Desert (1964)
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni and Tonino Guerra
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

One of the marked changes to the Western landscape following World War II was a boom in technological innovations, particularly the transformation of industrial models. Plastic manufacturing took off, leading to the production of household items that were cheaper as they could be cranked out by machines rather than made by hand. Antonioni had been using landscapes, particularly those shaped by humans, as a constant source of alienation for his characters. They find themselves lost among the new buildings whose architecture looms over them in sinister coldness. In Red Desert, we find ourselves in a unique setting; we are no longer in the cities of Rome or Milan. Now we are in industrial Northern Italy, in a place called Ravenna. Factories sprawl across the landscape pumping bilious clouds of toxins into the air. The noise of machines drowns out the calm of nature. A river is saturated in pollutants.

Movie Review – L’eclisse

L’eclisse (1962)
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Elio Bartolini, and Ottiero Ottieri
Directed Michelangelo Antonioni

How can you love another person in the wake of fascism’s horrible rending of humanity? Loving someone when the death camps of the Nazis are just a train ride away? That feels impossible. Michelangelo Antonioni struggled with this as a human being, an Italian, and an artist. He was fully cognizant as Mussolini’s regime distorted and warped the Italian mind, working in league with other monsters. Antonioni stood in what was left of Italy and looked around. He saw a landscape pulsing with an aura of dread. Yet, somewhere inside of that was love. People whose hearts were aching for it but too scared to reach out. When they did, the hand recoiled quickly, overwhelmed with the anxiety of the love being offered to them as yet another mask obscuring the horror of existence in the modern world.

On My Autism

I originally wrote this in another online space, but I’ve reread it and I wonder if it could help someone in the same state of mind who can’t quite articulate it (as I was for a very long time). I present this to you.

I wanted to write out some thoughts about my autism. In one way, it’s a means to talk to you about it. In another, it’s for me to articulate something externally so that I can make sense of myself, of my mind in comparison to yours. Now that I know I am autistic, much of my past has come into focus as crystal clear. What was chaotic, incoherent, and confusing now makes more sense. Not entirely, but it makes more sense than it did before. I know I’m inside of something, a process of understanding, a movement toward greater clarity. Of course, there will never be complete clarity but no one, neurodivergent or typical, ever really has pure understanding.

Movie Review – La notte

La Notte (1961)
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Ennio Flaiano, and Tonino Guerra
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

You often hear a cacophony of right-wing voices decrying “modernity,” speaking to disaffected & disillusioned people about how this abstract concept is wearing away at their “simple” lives. What even is modernity? It can mean a myriad of things, but in each definition, it is always a rejection of the current forms & systems for a new design. When these pundits speak about modernity, they do so in the context of post-industrialization. For most people alive today, they or someone older in their family can recall a time of factories of a strong working class in America. Today, America doesn’t produce anything tangible. We’re dumping it all into crypto & NFTs or tearing a box of unopened Pokemon cards away from a child because this will be the investment that gets me out of the hole, right? We’re selling ourselves as a brand, streaming 24/7 because fame will be what gets me out of debt, right? We’re going above & beyond what the boss asked because if he sees me putting my soul through the office paper shredder, it will help me have enough money to not feel like dying every morning when I open my eyes to go through all of this again, right? The right-wingers are correct that modernity is a problem, but they certainly offer you zero solutions other than to give them what little money you have for things you don’t need. That is also modernity. Modernity may have done away with the old gods, but in its place, it just offers some plastic ones made in a sweatshop by children whose hands have been gnarled by their labor.

TV Review – Avenue 5 Season 2

Avenue 5 Season 2 (HBO)
Written by Armando Iannucci, Will Smith, Keith Akushie, Jon Brown, John Finnemore, Tony Roche, Rose Heiney, Georgia Pritchett, Ian Martin, Marina Hyde, and Sean Gray,
Directed by William Stefan Smith, David Schneider, Annie Griffin, Ollie Parsons, David Schneider, and Armando Iannucci

I had an interesting conversation with a Dutch person about a year ago. I was curious as to what their perspective on America was. I had a strong point of view about The Netherlands because it was so different, and I wanted to know their thoughts on my homeland. They described the United States as a giant amusement park. It was always fun when they first arrived. There was no end of delightful distractions to keep them busy. However, they were ready to go home by the end of their visits. It was sensory overload, and they needed to get back to a grounded, centered existence. That’s what life is like here in The Netherlands in comparison. It isn’t perfect, but it’s so quiet. You rarely hear the noise you would hear in an American city. There are far fewer cars and more people on bikes. I’ve never been in a place so calm yet so full of people.

Movie Review – L’avventura

L’avventura (1960)
Written & Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Michelangelo. He was born to a wealthy family in Ferrara, Italy. He played with the local children, who weren’t rich, and he remembered them fondly for the rest of his life. Before he died, he was married twice, made some movies, and even had a long relationship with one of his actresses. In July 2007, he passed away. Oh yes, before that, when he was a young man in Rome he worked at Cinema, the official Fascist film magazine of Italy run by Mussolini’s son. This should have been a job that Michelangelo was born for, but he was fired a few months later. He was eventually drafted into the Italian army when World War II began. Oh yes, this one is important too: He survived being condemned to death as part of the Italian resistance against the Fascists. He learned some things in that life of his.

PopCult Podcast – Armageddon Time

Here’s how this works. I made a podcast episode. I have an ad on it. You’re going to listen and then the big money machine is going to give me coins. Let me know what I can do for you. Keep it lazy, folks.

December 2022 Posting Schedule

Well, November was quite a surprising month. I was anticipating breaking 4,000 views, a new record and perfectly reasonable looking at the pace I’d been setting for the last six months. However, my review of the experimental horror film Skinamarink took off like wild. I have to guess I was “in the right place, at the right time,” and my prediction of 4,000+ was woefully underestimating things. On the Skinamarink review alone, I pulled in 2,662 views. My grand total for views in November came in at an impressive (for my little blog) 6,849 views. I’m under no delusions that I will match this or beat it in December. The Skinamarink was a nice fluke, but I have noticed that once views pass a certain threshold, they remain within that range. I would think someone much better at statistical analysis and who has a better understanding of the algorithm would probably be able to explain that. It should be interesting to see how December turns out. Onto the schedule.

Patron Pick – One True Thing

This special reward is available to Patreon patrons who pledge at the $10 or $20 monthly levels. Each month those patrons will pick a film for me to review. If they choose, they also get to include some of their thoughts about the movie. This Pick comes from Bekah Lindstrom.

One True Thing (1998)
Written by Karen Croner
Directed by Carl Franklin

Movies like One True Thing weren’t on my radar in the late 1990s. I was a teenager, a year away from college, sheltered & homeschooled, working at my local public library and discovering all sorts of exciting niche things I would cultivate over the decades. So something like this movie wouldn’t have even been a blip for me. Instead, I was far more interested in exploring weird movies, inching my way towards becoming the art house snob I lived as during college. Now, at age 41, I appreciate this type of movie more, particularly in the face of its near extinction, as something you can see in a theater. The cineplexes are dominated by blockbuster incoherence, and streaming seems to be a flood of mediocrity devoid of soul. So while One True Thing sounds like a Lifetime movie in its description, the performances, mainly Meryl Streep’s (coming as no surprise to anyone), elevate the picture to something of note.

Movie Review – Four Christmases

Four Christmases (2008)
Written by Matt R. Allen, Caleb Wilson, Jon Lucas, and Scott Moore
Directed by Seth Gordon

I hardly ever enjoy disparaging another fellow Seth, but for Mr. Gordon, I will make an exception. He made quite an entertaining pop documentary in The King of Kong, giving us one of the great villains of the 2000s, in video game veteran Billy Mitchell. And to be fair, I don’t place the blame for this movie squarely on the director’s shoulders. Watching Four Christmases, something was happening in the background that most viewers likely didn’t notice. Even with my attention to detail, it took me a few days after watching the picture for all the pieces to come together. It was a Christmas movie starring Jon Favreau and Mary Steenburgen, and the cartoon level slapstick and the proliferation of cameo performances by well-known faces and…is that Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story) as a ticket agent? When I saw New Line Cinema distributed the picture, it all suddenly made sense. Four Christmases was an attempt (as ridiculous as this sounds) to squeeze more money from the audience that loved Elf.