Both Tod Browning and Francis Ford Coppola’s interpretations of Dracula hone in on the heart of the vampiric myth – the commingled fear and allure of eroticism – while reflecting the norms of their time. Browning’s film is mostly remembered for Bela Lugosi’s undeniably iconic (yet profoundly overrated) performance, but there’s surprising little substance to…
“Why do people watch films about Nazis? To see power and sadism! We can do that! We can make something even more sadistic.” – Anwar Congo The Act of Killing, one of the best films of 2013 – and certainly its most confronting – has been the target of significant criticism recently (A.J. Schnack’s article…
The Graduate and Harold and Maude have a lot in common. Each tell stories about a May-December romance, with the male the younger partner (still a rarity in mainstream films), but are more interested in interrogating bourgeois malaise. They’re both satires laced with black comedy, but each has a real sadness at the core. Folk…
You don’t have to look at a calendar to recognise that it’s Halloween: I don’t know about you, but the trickle of horror reviews and features on my WordPress Reader has become a flood over the last week or so. Any regular readers of ccpopculture know that horror is a regular feature here, but I…
At the age of sixteen, I came into the possession of a Blockbuster card with the video rental store only a short bike ride from home. I used school holidays to forage for the grittiest-looking R-rated video tapes around. My choices were, admittedly, often motivated by a desire for sex and nudity, but the rewards…
The Place Beyond the Pines is a difficult film to rate; it’s undeniably exciting and innovative, but its reach often exceeds its grasp. The film is a significant departure from Derek Cianfrance’s last film, Blue Valentine, which was an intensely intimate experience filmed in a grubby, shaky vérité style. His new film is more expansive,…
(Double Feature is a series of “double length” (400-word) posts where I’ll discuss two related pop culture artifacts) Inception was a critical and commercial success, a cerebral blockbuster nonetheless filled with action. It’s unique in that it’s successful, high budget film from the last decade that’s based on an original idea. The film has even…
(Double Feature is a series of “double length” (400-word) posts where I’ll discuss two related pop culture artifacts) William Friedkin’s The Exorcist and Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now have a great deal in common: both are supernatural horror films released in 1973, both now regarded as genuine classics. They’re each impeccably directed and feature rightfully…
(Double Feature is a series of “double length” (400-word) posts where I’ll compare two related pop culture artifacts) The best scary movies impress themselves upon you. They resurface as you walk down a darkened corridor to your bedroom in the deep of the night, or as your house creaks and shudders in a strong breeze.…
When I started ccpopculture roughly six months ago, I set myself the goal of ensuring every post was exactly 200 words. This was for a few reasons: It would hopefully avoid my tendency to be overly verbose; too often I’ve had a good idea for an article and abandoned many thousand words in, it would…
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