Find out how Pop of the Morning takes a look at the impact of pop culture on American society and values.

In this, our season one finale, we look at perennial holiday classics A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! These commercially-produced television specials date from the height the mid-century American boom, but they have a lot to say about the materialism and excess that had only begun to grip the Christmas season at that point…

If only Schulz and Seuss could have lived to see Black Friday…!

We’ll be back with a brand new season in due time - keep your eyes on this feed!

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It’s Christmas in December - and what better way to celebrate than by dissecting Scrooged, one of the most biting takes ever on the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. Full of stunning visual effects and strong performance from Bill Murray, Scrooged updates this story of a self-centered miser for the age of mass media.

Scrooged is a 1988 American Christmas fantasy comedy directed by Richard Donner and written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue. The film follows Bill Murray as Frank Cross, a cynical and selfish television executive, who is visited by a succession of ghosts on Christmas Eve intent on helping him regain his Christmas spirit. The film also stars Karen Allen, John Forsythe, Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane, Robert Mitchum, Michael J. Pollard, and Alfre Woodard. (via Wikipedia.)

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Slack-vember concludes with a look at Reality Bites, a cult-classic film about the perils artistic integrity in a world that wants you to sell out.

Reality Bites is a 1994 American romantic comedy-drama film written by Helen Childress and directed by Ben Stiller. It stars Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Stiller, with supporting roles by Janeane Garofalo and Steve Zahn. The plot follows Lelaina (Ryder), an aspiring videographer working on a documentary called Reality Bites about the disenchanted lives of her friends and roommates. Their challenges exemplify some of the career and lifestyle choices faced by Generation X. (via Wikipedia.)

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What is the rational response to a system that seems to make a virtue out of its expense and futility?

Richard Linklater’s masterpiece Slacker begs the question - in the face of the unbending, unelectable absurdity of the world, who’s crazier? Those who participate or those who withdraw in disgust from the status quo?

Slacker (1990) follows a single day in the life of an ensemble of mostly under-30 bohemians and misfits in Austin, Texas. The film follows various eccentric and misfit characters and scenes, never staying with one character or conversation for more than a few minutes before picking up someone else in the scene and following them. (via Wikipedia.)

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Cameron Crowe’s Singles (1992) is a smart twist on the rom-com formula set in grunge-era Seattle. It’s ground zero for so much of what followed in the 90s, setting the stage for everything from grunge to Friends.

While the idea of the “slacker” has its roots in Generation X, very few of these 20 somethings - pursuing their dreams, working to make their community a better place - fit the mold.

Singles is a 1992 American romantic comedy film written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe, and starring Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, and Matt Dillon. It features appearances from Eddie Vedder, Chris Cornell, Mark Arm, and many more musicians prominent in the early 1990s grunge movement in Seattle.… (via Wikipedia.)

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Can a man with a gun be authentic and vulnerable? What if the gun is fake?

Airheads (1994) is about the high cost of fame - the price of making it in a world increasingly obsessed with spectacle over substance.

Airheads is a 1994 American comedy film written by Rich Wilkes and directed by Michael Lehmann. It stars Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler as a band of loser musicians who stage a hijacking of a radio station in order to get airplay for their demo recording. Joe Mantegna, Michael McKean, Ernie Hudson, Judd Nelson, David Arquette and Michael Richards play supporting roles. (via Wikipedia.)

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It’s rare that we get the chance to discuss a movie that changed everything - but this is one of those times.

For better or worse, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was ground zero for a whole new sub genre of films - the slasher horror flick, which continues to dominate the horror market today.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) follows a group of friends who fall victim to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old homestead. The film was marketed as being based on true events to attract a wider audience and to act as a subtle commentary on the era's political climate; although the character of Leatherface and minor story details were inspired by the crimes of murderer Ed Gein, its plot is largely fictional. (via Wikipedia.)

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One of the coolest things about the Halloween season is that it’s one of the best chances of the year for a B-movie to breakout into the mainstream, as otherwise less adventurous movie watchers take a chance on something a little weirder.

The cult classic Night of the Comet is exactly the kind of the movie that deserves that kind of attention - produced on a low budget at the margins of the Hollywood system, its strong protagonists defy well-worn gender and racial tropes, giving us a different kind of spooky, goofy action movie.

Night of the Comet is a 1984 American science fiction comedy horror film written and directed by Thom Eberhardt. It stars Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Beltran, and Kelli Maroney as survivors of a comet that has turned most people into either dust or zombies. (via Wikipedia.)

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Rosemary’s Baby (1968) is a movie with baggage - a Rorschach test of a film that is really hard to reckon with even fifty years after its release. 

In one light, it’s a genius body horror film that uses Satanism as a powerful metaphor to depict the nightmare that is women’s sexuality and reproductive health in the United States. On the other hand, it is the work of none other than Roman Polanski, a man who remains a fugitive from justice, fleeing charges of sexual assault against a minor.

How do we reconcile the undeniably influential legacy of this film with the reprehensible actions of its creator?

Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, and starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Angela Dorian, Clay Tanner, and, in his feature film debut, Charles Grodin. The film follows a young, pregnant wife in Manhattan who comes to suspect that her elderly neighbors are members of a Satanic cult, and are grooming her in order to use her baby for their rituals. (via Wikipedia.)

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