The Cult Popcast

Episode 239 ”Cocaine Bear”

| Review | Apex predator, high on cocaine… yeah, this is cinema. Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear is a campy B-movie premise wrapped in Hollywood quality production - it’s a fun, bloody, hilarious, terrifying, and heart-warming romp with a great cast. In the words of that one kid, “It seems like the kinda thing that stays with a man forever.”

Episode 238 ”Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”

| Review | Ladies and gentlemen, the next era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has officially kicked off with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. While deeply flawed in many ways, the latest Peyton Reed flick does give us more of the fantastic actor Jonathan Majors. There’s also some fun quantum realm aliens and Paul Rudd. Everybody likes Paul Rudd!

Episode 237 ”Skinamarink”

| Review | The boys have a super-mega-cast cooked up for today, as Gabe runs Steven through some recent horror/thriller movies he’s seen on his own. First is Knock at the Cabin, the hot new Shyamalan joint about a family contending with what may or may not be the end of the world. Next comes Missing, a stylistically inventive mystery about a girl trying to locate her mom after she’s disappeared in another country. Then we’ve got Infinity Pool, Brandon Cronenberg’s original story of a vacationing couple who discover a dark and twisted secret in their host country. And last but certainly not least, we have Skinamarink, a heavily atmospheric and very experimental micro-budget horror film that’s making waves for the sheer audacity of its execution.

Episode 236 ”Pokémon” Scarlet and Violet

| Review | Is it future or is it past? The long standing and successful intellectual property Pokémon takes the stage with the current generation named Scarlet and Violet. Steven finally gets to gush about something he sort of likes… or likes a lot? who’s to say really? Get ready to hear a whole lot of Pokémansplaining.

Episode 235 ”2023 Oscars Recap”

| Review | Another year, another smugly tone-deaf circlejerk of the cultural elite… but we just can’t look away. And many questions linger: will there be another era defining slap? Will there be upsets and bad jokes and wildly ostentatious outfits that make it impossible to see the stage if you’re sitting right behind the person in question? Let’s find out together. Get in loser, it’s the 95th Academy Awards.

Episode 234 ”Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”

| Review | Pray for mercy from... Puss in Boots! The swashbuckling feline is back and better than ever for his second “solo” film following up the original Shrek spin-off back in 2011. We catch up with Puss in his later years, as years of adventuring and roguish heroism have left him on the last of his nine lives. Deftly layering heavy themes with wholesome, hilarious fun and spectacular animation to boot, this is a flick everyone can enjoy.

Episode 233 ”Bardo”

| Review | It’s been almost a decade since Alejandro Iñárritu’s legendary one-two punch of Birdman and The Revenant. His new Netflix production, Bardo, is a meandering and meditative existential wide lens nonlinear dream walk through the director’s own inner self. His fears and insecurities, his loves and passions, his view on family and history and politics and culture - it’s all here, laid bare and put to screen like a surrealist stage play. It’s messy, but life is messy.

Episode 232 ”Aftersun”

| Review | I think it’s nice that we share the same sky. Aftersun is a dreamy and wistful slice of life that tells the story of a father and daughter on holiday at a fading little resort in Turkey. Loosely inspired by writer/director Charlotte Wells’ own childhood experiences with her father, this haunting piece of fiction is a charming coming of age story set against a pervasive and foreboding sense of sadness. But first, a quick review of the new James Gray picture Armageddon Time - another film inspired by a writer/director’s childhood.

Episode 231 ”Women Talking”

| Review | Do nothing. Stay and fight. Or leave. Sarah Polley’s big screen adaptation of the Miriam Toews novel Women Talking is the final Best Picture nomination we’ve yet to cover for this year’s Academy Awards. Described as “an imagined response to real events,” it’s a powerful story with a lot to say about religion, gender roles, power dynamics, institutionalized violence and oppression… you get the idea.

Episode 230 ”Atlanta” Season Four

| Review | In November 2020, Donald Glover tweeted that Atlanta seasons 3 and 4 would be some of the best television ever made, on the same level as The Sopranos. Well, the show is over now, and the TCP is here to evaluate. However you feel about it, one thing is for sure: there is really nothing else like it on TV.