Pop Culture Cold Brew #4
Pop Culture Round-Up with UNTITLED DR. JOHN Doc, The Garcias, & The Demi Lovato Show. The Trailer Round-Up: "Woodstock 99," "Mr. Corman," "World Debut," "Landfall," "Whirlybird," & "UNAPOLOGETIC"
Monday’s are a daze, so Monday’s Pop Culture Cold Brew is our weekly wrap-up of current pop culture happenings— like film teasers/trailers and more.
Here are the latest teasers and trailers for your unadulterated pleasure.
🎥 HBO/HBO Max’s Woodstock ‘99: Peace, Love, and Rage
Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage will premiere on the 22nd anniversary of the festival on July 23rd via HBO/HBO Max. Kicking off MUSIC BOX, a collection of documentary films created by Bill Simmons (HBO’s Andre The Giant, Showbiz Kids), is the story of Woodstock 1999.
A three-day music festival promoted echo unity and counterculture idealism of the original 1969 concert but instead devolved into riots, looting, and sexual assaults. Directed by Garret Price (Love, Antosha), the documentary refocuses the spotlight on American’s exploitation of youth culture in the shadow of Columbine tragedy (that politicians never learned from) with the looming hysteria, Y2K. Watch the trailer below; review coming soon.
🎥 Apple Tv+’s Mr. Corman
Mr. Corman follows the days and nights of Josh Corman (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an artist at heart but not by trade, as he struggles through loneliness, anxiety, and a sinking suspicion that he sucks as a person. The dramedy is a relatable and darkly funny series that navigates through adulthood, rich with good intentions and prospects but collectively drowning in student loans as we try to become actual adults.
Mr. Corman stars Arturo Castro, Debra Winger, Bobby Hall aka Logic, Alexander Jo, Juno Temple, Jamie Chung, Shannon Woodward, and Hector Hernandez. The first two episodes of the ten-episode first season will debut globally on Friday, August 6th on Apple TV+, followed by one new episode weekly, every Friday. Review coming soon.
🎥 YouTube Originals’ World Debut
I love a good documentary and can resist legend, Tony Hawk who serves as executive producer for World Debut: From Outsiders to the Olympics— centering on how skateboarding, surfing, and rock climbing grew from fringe activities to the Olympic stage.
These three sports have mostly ever been thought of as action sports and not ones that come to mind when thinking about the Olympics. Although now with this summer events in Tokyo— skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing will be official events in the Olympic Games. The documentary highlights how they made it while examining how the world’s largest sporting bureaucracy embraced sports known for their anti-establishment subcultures. Make sure to watch this captivating documentary via the Olympics YouTube Channel here.
🎥 PBS/POV’s Landfall
An official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival, Landfall will make its national broadcast premiere of Landfall on POV’s 34th season. Director Cecilia Aldarondo’s latest feature documentary, produced by Ines Hofmann Kanna, will premiere today on PBS at 10 p.m. ET; the film is available to stream for free at pov.org until August 11th.
“As a Puerto Rican from the diaspora, I watched Hurricane María unfold from afar while cut off from loved ones, including my grandmother who would die six months after the storm. Reeling from the debt crisis, which unleashed a wave of austerity, poverty, and migration that María only intensified, Puerto Rico depicted in Landfall as a laboratory for greed, privatization, gentrification, the dismantling of social services, and the devastating effects of climate change," said director Cecilia Aldarondo. She continued, "We may have a new President and Puerto Rico a new governor, but little has changed since María hit, as evidenced by the recent privatization of Puerto Rico's electric grid. The Puerto Rican people are still fighting to end the profit-driven policies that have proved disastrous ever since President Obama signed them into existence. In Landfall, I wanted to balance a cautionary tale for our times, while also prioritizing a dignified image of Puerto Ricans who have banded together to fight for their sovereignty.” Watch the powerful trailer below.
🎥 Greenwich Entertainment’s Whirlybird
Soaring above the chaotic spectacle of the ‘80s and ‘90s Los Angeles, a young couple revolutionized breaking news with their brazen helicopter reporting. Culled from this news duo’s sprawling video archive is a poignant L.A. story of a family in turbulence hovering over a city unhinged.
🎥 Kartemquin Film’s UNAPOLOGETIC
A crucial and blistering film directed by Ashley O’Shay with Kartemquin Films, UNAPOLOGETIC, is told through the lens of Janaé and Bella. Two Black Millennial organizers and fierce abolitionist leaders.
The trailer below sees a tremorous look into the Black Lives Matter Movement, the police murder of Rekia Boyd, and the election of mayor Lori Lightfoot, all set in Chicago. Feeling excruciatingly timely and almost on the cusp of possible revolutionary change through these two dynamic leaders.
📺 HBO/HBO Max’s The Garcias
I’m still reeling from the news of an HBO Max reboot of Nickelodeon’s The Brothers Garcia, one of the very few Latinx-American shows that felt culturally representative growing up as a kid in the ‘90s.
Currently in production in the Riviera Maya, Mexico, in and around the town of Puerto Aventuras. The Garcias are gearing to be a slice of life of an American family that happens to be Latino by shooting the series in San Antonio and Mexico; the series juxtaposes an American Latino family in Mexico. The reboot sees The Garcias’ children as adults and getting together with their parents for a summer vacation in a fancy beach house.
“We are really excited with our large cast,” said NCP Partner and show creator Jeff Valdez in a statement. “They truly reflect America as it looks today. The stories and characters are not cookie-cutter stereotypes. Since the show is serialized, audiences will be able to follow and embrace the fun and complex characters in our slice of life show. We posted the new cast members’ final auditions on our Instagram page @thegarciatstv and it’s really moving to see the emotional moment we captured when an actor gets the role.”
⚡ Returning with a new look, Pop Culture Round-Up is here to stay. Instead of exploiting the frankly oversaturated celebrity culture and the American obsession with fame. Instead, Pop Culture Round-Up features news and current events on popular culture. We’ll contemplate why we can’t get enough and why we love not minding our own business.
In sports news that’s pop culture-related and sports news that’s not soccer, Jason Sudeikis threw the first pitch at the Cubs vs. Cardinals game ahead of season two of Ted Lasso, which premieres globally next week, July 23rd; exclusively on Apple TV+. Expect our review very soon because we’re still on that Lasso high.
Forever Diosa, Britney Spears, may have hired a new lawyer. After hearing her experiences from her own words in her June 23rd statement, Britney allegedly wants to hire a former federal prosecutor named Mathew Rosengart.
According to his online profile, Rosengart “has served as lead counsel in more than a dozen trials and conducted numerous complex federal grand jury investigations, including several of national and international significance.” Rosengart’s represented Sean Penn, Steven Spielberg, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Keanu Reeves, and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. If rumors are true, get our girl; FREE BRITNEY.Exciting music documentary news! RadicalMedia is partnering with Impact Artist Productions on the UNTITLED DR. JOHN documentary project with the directorial debut from The Black Keys frontman, Dan Auerbach.
UNTITLED DR. JOHN documentary project is about a man and his home of New Orleans: how a city raises him, shapes him, and how a city’s trajectory changed his life while his life also helped change the city. As the racial oppression in 1950s America was as ugly as ever, a musical revolution began in New Orleans. To get around the Jim Crow segregation laws of the time, we learn how Mac and his bandmates had to break the rules, trick the clubs, and protect each other, all for the love of music.
“I’m thrilled to be partnering with RadicalMedia and Impact Artist Productions to try my hand at directing a documentary feature for the first time and I’m honored to have the subject by my friend Dr. John. He was such a unique individual and a shining example of the great melting pot of American music.
From his mysterious voodoo stage persona Dr. John to his real, humble self Mac Rebannack- the street poet, the family man, the junkie, the Grammy award winner, and all that’s in between, this documentary will introduce the world to him in a way they haven't seen him before. I’m still learning bits about him that I never knew, and I hope the movie provides a lens into the story of the life of Dr. John.”
I’m still playing catch-up on pop culture events, and although I missed the premiere of Demi Lovato’s new podcast, we can catch up on their latest episodes of The Demi Lovato Show via The Roku Channel.
“We wanted to create a space that normalizes living your own truth— where people can speak, engage and more importantly, learn, together. There’s something therapeutic about having raw discussions that people can relate to and with ‘The Demi Lovato Show’ no topics are off-limits and opinions are welcome. I’m so excited for people to see how these conversations unfold on The Roku Channel.”
This week I hope to clear a few more screeners from my list, with plenty of reviews and double features coming soon. Like Ted Lasso, Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres and To Catch the Fair One, Woodstock 99, The Neutral Ground, Broken Diamonds, and Take Me Somewhere Nice, Mr. Corman, and more.
Also, there’ll be some changes happening with features and lineups. For instance, the Trailer Round-Up will be moved to Sundays, and Pop Culture Cold Brew with Pop Culture Round-Up will now be on Wednesdays; for the midday pick-me-up, we all need. Until then, catch us online.
✨ Naomi: Twitter/Instagram
✨ Sam: Twitter/Instagram