The Cult Popcast

Episode 182 ”Fire of Love”

| Review | Documentaries are a special kind of film. Often designed to inform and educate, they are more concerned with reality as it is, and less about fiction or myth. But they can be just as compelling. One recent film doc that caught our attention is ‘Fire of Love.’ It’s the story of Katia and Maurice Krafft - two intrepid scientists who fell in love over their shared passion for volcanoes and dedicated their lives to studying them, together.

Episode 181 ”Nope”

| Analysis | What’s a bad miracle? That’s the question at the heart of ‘Nope,’ Jordan Peele’s new movie that works both as big summer blockbuster and creatively layered commentary on the nature of our relationship with modern entertainment. Masterfully blending genre and paying homage to vintage cinema, ‘Nope’ is proof that Peele is just beginning to hit his stride. Catch this one in IMAX if you can.

Episode 180 ”Ms. Marvel”

| Review | The MCU has been pretty hit-or-miss since Avengers: Endgame. With a handful of new original series on Disney+ filling out Phase 4, the question remains: how can Marvel keep people interested after a decade of superhero mania? ‘Ms. Marvel’ represents an inspiring answer to that problem.

Episode 179 ”The Boys” Season Three

| Review | No one does it like ‘The Boys.’ Amazon’s smash hit and irreverent cultural satire has returned for a third season with all of your favorite heroes, antiheroes, and villains. Strap in - the action, gore, and political subtext are all turned up to 11. We also discuss things we have watched or know about that we may or may not do an episode on; The Inside Outtakes, Prehistoric Planet, Barry, Better Call Saul, Vortex, Memoria, The Umbrella Academy Season Three, The Offer, Spiderhead, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Where The Crawdads Sing, Watcher, Victoria’s Secret Angels and Demons, Jerry and Marge Go Large, The Gray Man, Outer Range, The Old Man, The Bear, Black Bird, Reservation Dogs, Tokyo Vice, The Sea Beast, Westworld, Prey, and Cheers?

Episode 178 ”Under the Banner of Heaven”

| Review | On July 24, 1984, a young Mormon woman and her infant child were brutally murdered in their home. FX’s ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’ is the dramatized story of that case, the family it consumed, and the detectives who would unravel the dark history of the LDS church. Wish us luck as we try to discuss it.

Episode 177 ”Stranger Things” Season Four

| Analysis | [sinister industrial synth music intensifies, tentacles undulating moistly] After three long years of waiting, 'Stranger Things' is back with the penultimate chapter of the retro Netflix saga. Steven, Gabe, and a very special guest are here to walk you through exactly what the heck is going down in Hawkins, Indiana this time.

Episode 176 ”Thor: Love and Thunder”

| Review | Thor Four with Gorr, Thor and Thor… and three sentient weapons, two screaming goats, and a partridge in a Valkyrie. Does it work? Either way, Taika Waititi got a nice paycheck for this, so there’s that.

Episode 175 ”Elvis”

| Review | Australian film director, Baz Luhrmann composes the new biopic, ‘Elvis,’ like a tribute symphony to a fallen god-like artist. We also learn how to pronounce Gabe’s name.

Episode 174 ”Batman Unburied”

| Review | A podcast reviewing another podcast!? Where does it stop? It stops right here as an audio drama. Centering on an outstanding portrayal of a beloved character voiced by Winston Duke, ‘Batman Unburied’ is helmed by comic book and screenwriter David S. Goyer and is only found on Spotify.

Episode 173 ”Pachinko” Season One

| Review | Generational heritage! ‘Pachinko’ is out now on Apple TV, lead by two amazing directors, Justin Chon and Kogonada. This is the greatest native-language-epic-spanning-eighty-years-about-Japan-occupied-Korea we've ever seen. No, really. It's a doozy. And it turns out this is only the beginning.