popverse

[popverse]

Thank you and goodnight

Thank you and goodnight

It’s been a full-on five years of running Pop Verse. For a project that started as a way to impose deadlines on my writing, it became something so much more. I’ve seen contributors come and go, the rise and fall of film franchises, and the resurgence of genre fiction in the mainstream. In early 2015, I was joined by Fenton. A similarly struggling writer who wanted to find some structure to keep…

[popverse]

The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams

The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams

I’ve long been a fan of Jen Williams’ fantasy writing. She creates interesting worlds with characters who positively ooze character. That said, her second and current series, The Winnowing Flame, hasn’t captured my imagination as much as The Copper Cat, but that’s not to say Williams isn’t continuing to deliver new and interesting takes on well-trodden fantasy tropes. Where The Copper Cat took…

[popverse]

I, Tonya

I’m a figure skater. I love figure skating. When the skating comes on tv, you will find me hugging myself tight, yelling at the screen, with tears streaming down my face. This is a love that consumes. Being so deeply embedded in the world of figure skating could have been an issue going into I, Tonya. I attended the screening with…

[popverse]

Lady Bird

Of all the major awards contenders I have seen so far, this is easily one of the most assured and memorable. Lady Bird is being hailed as Greta Gerwig’s debut as director (she wrote the film too), but that feels belittling given her extensive work behind the camera to date. Having written, produced and co-directed previously, this is hardly the work of a talent still honing her skills. Lady Bird…

[popverse]

Don't Believe the Hype

Don’t Believe the Hype

At the end of last week, I reviewed Marvel’s latest movie Black Panther. The film has, quite rightly, received a lot of attention for its focus on black African characters. Speaking as a white guy, it is all too easy for me to dismiss the importance of traditionally sidelined people and cultures to appear in our media. Not least in big budget avenues that typically exclude them or treat them as…

[popverse]

Nostalgic Impulse: 12 Angry Men

Nostalgic Impulse: 12 Angry Men

Prejudice always obscures the truth. The original teleplay for 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose (from which the stage production and the 1957 film, which is the subject of this piece, was made) was written over 60 years ago. And in that time, it hasn’t lost any of its punch. While the film lacks gender, racial, and sexual diversity, it…

[popverse]

The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water

Just occasionally, a director is able to grow their reputation enough to pitch a weird film for a major release. Master of pulpy macabre Guillermo del Toro has done this superbly with The Shape of Water, a delightful romance between a mute woman and a fish-man trapped in a lab. Del Toro has a very interesting career in film. He has straddled two courses behind the camera, directing both…

[popverse]

Black Panther

Black Panther is the newest big release from Marvel. Since debuting in Captain America: Civil War, Marvel have been steadily positioning Black Panther as an integral part of the superhero landscape in the run up to their extravagant spectacle Avengers: Infinity War. This is a significant move because it gives focus to not only a black protagonist but an expansive cast of African characters. Some…

[popverse]

Fifty Shades Freed

Back when I first joined Pop-Verse, reviewing the first Fifty Shades film was an early assignment of mine. In fact, it was criteria for me to join the site. Megan, the editor-in-chief, sat atop her throne composed of the skulls of former contributors and demanded I face this gruesome trial as a rite of passage. Three miserable films later and I have come to the end of this harrowing ordeal. It is…

[popverse]

Netflix: Just another network

Netflix: Just another network

It was an exciting time when Netflix began commissioning original television and films. They didn’t need to please advertisers, just their subscribers. They could take more risks (we assumed), show us something the networks would never dare to. And at first, they embraced their image as innovators. Netflix saved and revived our favourite shows that should never have been cancelled to begin with,…

[popverse]

Blood of Assassins by RJ Barker

Blood of Assassins by RJ Barker

Age of Assassins was one of my favourite books of last year. It had everything you could want: great characters, tense mystery storyline, political machinations of the most Machiavellian kind… The question is whether debut author RJ Barker could sustain the quality in the second installment, Blood of Assassins. He has proven himself more than capable. ‘We are cursed to be the sum of our deeds,…

[popverse]

Phantom Thread

Our next big awards contender is Phantom Thread. The big clues to the awards aspirations here are Paul Thomas Anderson writing and directing, and Daniel Day Lewis starring in the main role. Both their names carry a lot of critical weight. Anderson is a difficult director: his films are dense and sometimes defiantly resist easy viewing. I found his latest film about a fastidious couturier and his…

[popverse]

Altered Carbon

From shining beginnings, Netflix has fallen from grace. They have been canceling the interesting and critically acclaimed shows in favour of popularist trash. Sound familiar? Wasn’t Netflix meant to be the beacon of artistic integrity, offering something outside the offal the networks serve up? With their track record at an all-time low, how does Netflix’s latest original series, Altered…

[popverse]

The evolution of point of view cinematography

I’ve recently been re-watching M*A*S*H, as I have a tendency to do every few years. I was struck by how innovative it can be, particularly when watching the episode ‘Point of View’ – which is shot entirely from the point of view of a soldier under the care of the 4077th. Thinking back on the release of Peep Show, I remember a lot of talk about how new and original it was. But shooting from the…

[popverse]

Planetfall by Emma Newman

I found Planetfall to be a confounding read. At first, I struggled to get into it and had some issues with the prose. Then I found I loved it, but still questioned the pacing. Leading up to the ending, I could not put it down. But then, everything went wrong with that ending. Through the reading experience, I managed to have almost every possible critical opinion of the book at one point or…

[popverse]

Downsizing

I am an established fan of Alexander Payne. His films usually deal with strong concepts. You engage with them through strong and funny character-driven stories. He also has an interest in middle America and people stuck in their tracks. There’s a rich theme of people trapped in cycles of underachievement and disappointment which Payne can really mine. Downsizing is his first outing with an…

[popverse]

The fictional science of science fiction

Last year, I was honoured to interview the Queen of Cyberpunk herself, Pat Cadigan, at FantasyCon. During the course of the interview, she recounted an anecdote about a reader who told her she wanted to read Synners. While the book was one of the seminal founding-blocks of the cyberpunk genre, Cadigan warned this young reader that there wasn’t actually all that much fiction in the book’s science…