Popcorn Culture

Puteri Gunung Ledang, Malaysia’s first-ever big budget film production was epic in every way: from its period fantasy setting to the star-studded cast. The 2004 film, directed by Saw Teong Hin and starring Tiara Jacquelina, M. Nasir and Adlin Aman Ramlie, was adapted from the Malay legend of the mysterious princess who lived on Mount Ledang, and a Malacca sultan’s efforts to woo her. W...

Stay home and stay safe has been a motto and a rallying cry for many in 2020 - but that also means that the new experiences and sights that travel affords us have been off limits. Which is why this episode focuses on the escape that cinema and entertainment can give! We run through some of our favourite watches for when we want to leave the walls of our home and explore the world (and maybe even b...

Fitting for a show that focuses on possibly the most privileged family in the world, The Crown is also one of the most expensive shows ever made. And this budget emerges in its lavish sets and outfits, and careful attention to period detail, as it chronicles the royal family through various decades. But within the aesthetics, lies the story of a family with drama, class and power struggles - and t...

Telling the story of a wartime king, and a different path towards leadership and courage, The King's Speech turns 10 this year. We revisit this story of a famous stammer, and Colin Firth's Oscar-winning turn and also explore the power of the grey pound/dollar/ringgit when it comes to movies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's all the rage - all the Cage on today's Supercut as we celebrate the career of the man, the myth, the legend... Nicolas Cage! Whether he's screaming about bees in the critically panned remake of the Wicker Man or winning Academy Awards for his captivating work, there's no one who can match the manic, eclectic energy that's so signature to Nic Cage. We talk about Cage's biggest hits and misses,...

Based on the book by Roald Dahl, The Witches is about an orphaned boy who flees a rural town with his grandmother in order to escape a group of diabolical witches. Trouble is, the duo are then faced with the worst witch of them all - The Grand High Witch, played by Anne Hathaway. In this episode, we review HBO's latest feature-length offering, The Witches, and discuss if this whimsical live-action...

Leaving Las Vegas has been called many things - powerful, dark, and poignant. It's also the movie that rewarded Nicolas Cage with an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his visceral performance as Ben Sanderson. In this episode, we're taking it back to 1995 and revisiting Sanderson's fateful one-way trip to Vegas, where he meets Sera, a prostitute, and moves in with her. We also dis...

What do Harrison Ford, Bill Pullman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Jamie Foxx have in common? They’ve all stepped into the (fictional) shoes of the United States’ commander-in-chief. With all the recent suspense of the US elections, and Joe Biden now declared the next president, we look at the various avatars American presidents have taken on screen - and why some of these roles have become...

After his movie debut 14 years ago, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat is back - and this time, it’s in a world that almost seems too bizarre even by his standards. This time around, the fictional Kazakh journalist and television personality travels through America with his daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova) during the COVID-19 pandemic and run-up to the 2020 presidential election. We review the f...

If there was one Tamil movie that sent scores of young hearts afluttering in the early 2000s, it was Alaipayuthey. Directed by Mani Ratnam, one of India’s most celebrated contemporary filmmakers, the movie tells the story of a pair of young lovers (played by Madhavan and Shalini) who elope, only to realise marriage might not be a bed of roses. Critically acclaimed for capturing a realistic l...

Telling the true story of the Chicago Seven, a group of anti–Vietnam War protesters charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines in 1969, The Trial of the Chicago 7 sees its writer and director Aaron Sorkin returning to the courtroom for a dramatic setting. It also boasts an all-star ensemble cast, including Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. We discuss whether...

The first man to utter the famous line, order a martini shaken not stirred, and given that license to kill, Sean Connery was, for many, the ultimate James Bond. But more than that, he was also a true Hollywood icon, and someone who gave varied, interesting and dynamic performances in a bid to grow further away from the role he was best known for and create new opportunities for himself. In this ep...

You may call her "le plouc" and think she's "ringarde", but the titular Emily in Netflix's 'Emily In Paris' (played by Lily Collins) has reached peak popularity in today's world - she's a meme. With hundreds of think pieces written in its name and no shortage of controversy, Emily In Paris has truly become a watercooler topic in an age of virtual watercoolers. On this episode, for better or worse,...

"Chic" may be the best way to describe The Devil Wears Prada, much to Miranda Priestly's disdain. The film added another iconic character to Meryl Streep's illustrious catalogue while solidifying Anne Hathaway's place in Hollywood. It also created conversations about ambition, respect, and power dynamics in a largely closed-door industry. In this episode, we throwback to 2006's The Devil Wears Pra...

From Rock Hudson to Cary Grant, to modern day stars such as Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, masculinity on screen has both stayed the same, and shifted in major ways. On the one hand, handsome macho heartthrobs will always have their place, but modern day iterations of male stars include actors who are starting to expand and play with the idea of what it means to be a bankable male star (think Robert Pa...

From Rock Hudson to Cary Grant, to modern day stars such as Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, masculinity on screen has both stayed the same, and shifted in major ways. On the one hand, handsome macho heartthrobs will always have their place, but modern day iterations of male stars include actors who are starting to expand and play with the idea of what it means to be a bankable male star (think Robert Pa...

I am Spartacus! The movie that spawned that iconic line (and meme), is one of the exemplars of the swords and sandals genre, and starred Kirk Douglas in one of his most memorable roles. It also has parallels to the civil rights movement in 1950s American History. In this episode, the gang discuss Spartacus and how it holds up over the decades. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There is a lot more to documentary filmmaking than the National Geographic nature films many of grew up with - and the rise of the Internet and streaming services have made documentaries much more accessible to a wider audience. This week, we dedicate our Supercut to documentary films, everything from the unobtrusive, fly-on-the-wall kind to activism cinema. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...

In a year that has seen most of us turn to social media for connection and entertainment, The Social Dilemma made quite a (chilling) splash. The docudrama, directed by Jeff Orlowski, looks at the rise of social media and exposes the damage it has caused to society - including the exploitation of users for financial gain, enabling increased surveillance, its impact on mental health, its use in poli...

Yep, not only has Facebook been around a long time, it’s been around long enough that a biopic of its founder is celebrating its 10th year anniversary. So join us in feeling bewilderingly aged as we revisit the David Fincher-helmed, Aaron Sorkin-penned film from 2010 that examines Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s (Jesse Eisenberg) rise to success - and the relationships he severed al...

The idea of a female James Bond has sparked intense (for lack of a better word) online debate on multiple occasions, with many firmly believing that the gender of a character should never be swapped. But fan backlash and gatekeeping aside, what are the ups and downs of changing the genders of well-known characters? On this Supercut, we discuss gender swapping of our favorite on-screen characters,...

The idea of a female James Bond has sparked intense (for lack of a better word) online debate on multiple occasions, with many firmly believing that the gender of a character should never be swapped. But fan backlash and gatekeeping aside, what are the ups and downs of changing the genders of well-known characters? On this Supercut, we discuss gender swapping of our favorite on-screen characters,...

You know of Sherlock Holmes and the many mysteries he solved, but have you heard of his sister, Enola? Starring Millie Bobby Brown as Enola and Henry Cavill as Sherlock, Netflix's latest big budget offering sends Enola on her own adventure to save a runaway lord, while trying to outsmart her famously intelligent big brother in the process. In this episode, we review the clever story of Sherlock's...

From the subversive BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch to the questionable comedy with Will Ferrell, there's no shortage of adaptations when it comes to the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Whether he's solving grisly crimes in a deerstalker or wrestling in underground fight clubs, we're throwing back to the many faces of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic investigator. See omnystudi...

Whether it's the T-Rex in Jurassic Park, the Xenomorph of Alien, or Godzilla in, well, Godzilla - creatures have long held a larger-than-life place in moviegoers' imagination. In this Supercut, we discuss our favourites, as well as how to create memorable creatures, and why some movies have flourished and others have flopped. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.