I thought I would open a new thread so I don’t throw it just into Things of the day whenever Lindsay Ellis, Campster, Dan Olsen, Mikey Neumann, Bob Chipman etc. post a new video with their thoughts on a specific movie, game or other.
Lindsay Ellis on how the Disney corporation “disneyfies” itself by examining Saving Mr. Banks as corporate propaganda, the nuggets of truth buried within it, and how both Marry Poppins and Saving Mr. Banks have value in the whole of our media landscape.
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Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory.
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Leon Thomas analyzes Escape From New York. He talks about future predictions that the film got right and wrong and how it parallels the treatment of crime in the real world.
Marc Hendry (whom you may recall Rym recommended as a TotD in a recent episode) released a new video today showing how stop-motion works in Corpse Bride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk9xGiamNZU
Admittedly, yes, his delivery is indeed rather dry, but if you can get past that, you can learn a lot about the stop-motion process. It’s a fascinating watch.
Tyler Wolff analyzes what makes portrayals of autism in media seem realistic, using the Netflix series Atypical as a case study. (He also uses examples from other series.)
If you watch Diamanda Hagan, you might be aware of her wife and collaborator, Omega Geek. She started a new show recently called PsychMedia. In the latest episode, she talks about the philosophy of consciousness and how Elsa’s powers in Frozen help define it.
One of my favorite recent youtube personalities is Shaun whom I stumbled across for his series on the failings of CinemaSins for which he posted a follow up video today. These videos are kind of rambly, quite intentionally, but they are pretty decent in their content. Besides these kind of videos Shaun also makes videos highlighting the fractal wrongness of alt-right, anti-left, anti-feminist YouTubers providing very well researched counter-arguments.
But for the purpose of this thread, I must say that I seriously do not understand the popularity of CinemaSins. They are a lazy clickbait channel who’s only approach to film criticism is abject pedantry. I watched a couple of videos of theirs in the past and did not find them really all that funny, more like pointless tedium dressed in a baseless, “got 'em”-style feeling of superiority. Yet they have tons of fans who will flock to their defense when anybody points that out. Is it just people relishing in that same type of unearned feeling of superiority? I also have the feeling that a lot of these fans are just the typical numbskulled right-wing, gomergate-type of douchebags who feel deeply offended when someone else takes issue with sexist, racist jokes that CinemaSins also often dabbles in and is rightfully criticized for.
Oh, what have we here?
By the by, if you guys would like me to explain a media topic on Behind the Screen Basics, do let me know.
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I guess because of Shaun’s video I talked about above, I got this video in my YouTube recommendations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Z95LdlKGM
I’m just featuring here because it is the fourth layer in a really weird cake:
- The stereotypical american teen-horror/slasher scenario, including its tropes which is being “made” during Cabin in the Woods.
- Cabin in the Woods as a film itself, which is deliberately emulating and satirizing the tropes and clichés used in these types of movies.
- CinemaSins being largely incapable of understanding that Cabin in the Woods is satirizing these tropes and clichés and is declaring Cabin in the Woods’ usage of them “sins”.
- This video pointing out CinemaSins complete lack of understanding of what Cabin in the Woods is and what CinemaSins is attempting to do.
The guy who made the video above also has other videos nitpicking on CinemaSins nitpicking of which I’ve seen a couple, but considering that Cabin in the Woods itself is a critique of american horror cinema, a point that CinemaSins seems to be completely oblivious to, makes this just a bit more odd than the other offerings.
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Bonus layer: Jeremy from CinemaSins also posted an incredibly passive aggressive message about the “Cottage industry” for “People who can’t deal with Cinemasins.”
So we have a alleged critic famous for pointing out movie “sins”, whose famous tagline is “Nothing is without sin”, whining because other critics are critical of his work, and wishes people would stop pointing out his sins.
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I imagine most people who lurk this forum have watched Paranoia Agent…but holy crap do I have the urge to watch it again.
CellSpex compares Disney’s classic animated canon to their more modern, progressive outings and wonders whether their older films hold up today.
AlternatingLine analyzes Shin Godzilla, showing how it’s a critique of the Japanese government, the film’s references to anime of the past, and why it’s vastly superior to the previous Godzilla movies.
If someone can watch Shin Godzilla and NOT realise it is a critique of the Japanese government, I’d be very very surprised.
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Absolutely tooting my own horn here, but I’ve just launched a series I think a lot of people in this forum would be into. It’s going to be a show-by-show look at the Japanese magical girl genre, with a hefty mix of history, analysis, and review for each show. Intro to the series below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUt6PperTKI&t=1s
I’ve been researching, planning, watching, and scripting for the first few episodes of the series for the better part of six months now, so even if you’re not into the genre, you should still get some interesting media history and crit out of it! The first proper episode after this one will be looking at early ancestors of the genre, including Princess Knight and Hakujaden.
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I promise this is the last time I mention CinemaSins ever again, but the guy who made the “Everything Wrong with Everything Wrong with Cabin in the Woods” video I posted above made a thorough and to my knowledge complete analysis of CinemaSins failings as critics and showcasing that their only goal is being clickbait and taking advantage of YouTube’s bad algorithm that rewards wasting people’s time. Give it a look if you want to.
Shaun of Shaun&Jen also has a short series of similar videos. Not all of them are in this playlist though, I think he’s got maybe two more, but they’re pretty close to the top of his all videos list.
Also feel free to keep mentioning Cinemasins because I’m 100% fine with making fun of rubbish people doing rubbish things.