poptransmission

Category: Movies

  • The Velvet Underground Doc is a Testament to Their Everlasting Influence

    Just four albums. Active only from 1965-1970. No hits. Yet, Velvet Underground is one of the most influential bands ever. Their mix of avant-garde and rock opened the minds of David Bowie, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Brian Eno, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Joy Division, and many, many more. Todd Haynes is an…

  • No Time to Die: A Rousing and Emotional End to a James Bond Era

    No Time to Die finds 007 retired from MI6 and living in Jamaica. He is recruited by the CIA to find a kidnapped scientist which leads to a showdown with a powerful adversary. The plot revolves around Project Heracles; a bioweapon that is coded to an individual’s DNA and infects like a virus upon touch.…

  • The Many Saints of Newark: A Taste of Pre-Sopranos

    Saint: A person acknowledged as holy or virtuous (formal); kind and patient (informal).* There’s certainly not many saints by this definition in Newark, NJ. Rather, the main characters of The Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of New Jersey are brutal, impulsive, and all in need of sensitivity training. One minute, Dickie Moltisanti, is charming and…

  • The Platform: Those with Weak Stomachs Should Not Partake

    Prisoners living in vertical cell blocks where the inmates above are fed while those below starve. How do they survive on the lower floors? The Platform is a 2019 Spanish Netflix film production taking place in the stark confines of the so-called “Vertical Self-Management Center.” Once a day, a smorgasbord of food descends through the…

  • Audrey and Natalie: Recent Docs on Two Hollywood Stars Who Left Us Too Soon

    Audrey Hepburn: Style Icon. Natalie Wood: Mysterious Death. Two recent documentaries remind us that these two women should not be primarily known for a little black dress and drowning off Catalina Island. Family members greatly informed both docs and archival footage and interviews bring them to life. Both films are part standard bio-doc fare, part…

  • Post-Olympics Letdown? Try Rowing and Climbing

    This happens every time. A bittersweet feeling. The Olympics are over. Sixteen days of inspiring, heartwarming, and heartbreaking moments. Once again, no matter the obstacles, the human drama of athletic competition transcended everything else. So, now what? How to keep the inspiration flowing? I have just the thing: rowing and climbing. What, doesn’t sound so…

  • Rolling Stone’s 25 Best Action Movies of All Time

    It’s time for another best-of list, courtesy again of the current Rolling Stone mag (see my earlier post on the RS 50 Best Sitcoms). I’m not a huge action movie fan. My favorite movies tend to be dramas and suspenseful thrillers. I can only handle so many explosions. But action movies are a huge part…

  • Stowaway: Netflix’s Pensive and Unbelievable Mars Movie

    Space movies are entertaining, thought-provoking, and popular. They’re both fantastical science fiction, yet also an enticing look at our future. The next frontier is getting closer all the time as two private enterprises launched missions to space in the last couple of weeks. Since we’ve long accomplished landing on the moon, Mars has become the…

  • Without Remorse: The Latest Tom Clancy Adaptation is Not the Best

    I have never read a Tom Clancy book, but I’ve seen most of the movies based on his novels. From what I can remember, my favorites are the Cold War submarine thriller The Hunt for Red October with Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin and the IRA- terrorism intrigue of Patriot Games with Harrison Ford. I…

  • The Top 20 Songs in Movies That Moved, Shocked, and Surprised Us

    As I’ve acknowledged before, us pop culture geeks love our best-of lists. That’s one of the main joys I got from the High Fidelity book and movie (I haven’t watched the Hulu series), for I too can give you my top 5, say Pearl Jam songs, on a moment’s notice. We love it when a…

  • Awake on Netflix: Apocalyptic Films Will Never go to Sleep

    In Bird Box, people wear blindfolds to avoid seeing a mysterious force that makes you kill yourself. In Only, ash from a comet containing a virus kills all the women in the world…well, almost all. In A Quiet Place 2, a flaming object hits earth and brings blind crab-like monsters that kill you if you…

  • Film Noir: Kiss of Death and TCM

    Film noir. French for a black (literal) or dark (common meaning) film. It’s difficult to define in a nutshell, but I think I know it when I see it. Black and white, dark, shadows, urban setting, and an element of crime. Private eyes, femme fatales, and morally-flawed characters are other staples of film noir. But…