Minding "Mr. Mercedes"

"Mr. Mercedes," a mystery thriller show originally created for Direct TV's Audience Network, is based on a series of Stephen King novels.  I know that the subsequent seasons get into more typical Stephen King territory, but the first season is a pretty grounded crime story, about a detective and a killer.  This is one of the few cases where I actually read the book, Mr. Mercedes, before watching the adaptation, so I had a lot of fun seeing how various elements were translated to the screen.  Brendan Gleeson plays Bill Hodges, a retired detective haunted by an unsolved mass killing, where a masked man drove a stolen Mercedes into a crowd of people.  Harry Treadaway plays the killer, dubbed "Mr. Mercedes."  He's really a young man named Brady Hartsfield, who works in retail hell at a local electronics store, and drives the local ice cream truck in Hodges' neighborhood, with no one the wiser.  The story of the renewed investigation into the Mr. Mercedes case is told from both of their POVs.

This is one of the better adaptations of Stephen King that I've seen, in part because the material is well suited to the series treatment, and in part because the writing is very strong.  David E. Kelley developed the series, and he and crime writer Dennis Lehane scripted most of the episodes.  They do an excellent job of fleshing out the smaller characters and more incidental relationships around our main characters.  Brady in particular feels more like a product of his unhappy circumstances, living an isolated life with an alcoholic mother, Deborah (Kelly Lynch), and constantly being, picked at by a micromanaging boss, Frobisher (Robert Stanton).  Brady's co-worker Lou (Breeda Wool), an endearingly sarcastic lesbian, is a scene-stealer.  Meanwhile, Hodges gets a very forward next door neighbor, Ida (Holland Taylor) to interact with before he collects the usual band of helpful oddball allies, including the teenager he hires to do yard work, Jerome Robinson (Jharrel Jerome), and a neurodivergent relative of one of the victims, Holly Gibney (Justine Lupe), who are both very good with electronics.  Bill's former partner Dixon (Scott Lawrence) and Holly's cousin Janey (Mary Louise Parker) also get involved.

The cast is excellent.  Brendan Gleeson makes no attempt to adjust his Irish accent, despite playing a detective who has been based in Ohio for decades, but he's marvellous at conveying Bill's middle-aged weariness and stubborn determination to see the case through to the end.  The opening sequence is a wonderful mood-setter, showing Bill going about his mundane morning routine, while T Bone Burnett croons reassuringly that "It's not too late."  I don't remember seeing much previously from Harry Treadaway, another UK actor, but he balances just the right amounts of unsettling creepiness and muted charisma.  It helps that Brady is not as repugnant as he was in the King novel, prone to occasionally picturing the horrible murder of his annoying boss, but eschewing the casual racism and sexism that made his sections of the narrative a very unpleasant read.  Finally, I want to give some recognition to Justine Lupe, who is playing Holly Gibney, a role that is such a polar opposite to her character on "Nobody Wants This," that I never would have recognized her.   

I plan to watch the other two seasons of "Mr. Mercedes" without waiting to get ahold of the corresponding books.  I expect that it'll probably be all downhill from here, but I like this cast of characters very much and I like that the universe that has been constructed for them is a bit more interesting than what the source material offered.  Stephen King fans will certainly enjoy the show - "Mr. Mercedes" goes to some very dark and twisted places for detective fiction - but it's more accessible for non-horror fans, and forgoes a lot of the usual associated genre trappings.  Well, at least in the first season.  I expect that we'll have to dig into that further in the next "Mr. Mercedes"  post.  

  

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"Stop! That! Train!" and "Leviticus"

 Here are two very different LGBT films from earlier in the year that you might have missed.

First, I want to highlight the very low budget comedy, "Stop! That! Train!"  It's essentially "Airplane" on a train, starring alumni of "RuPaul's Drag Race," with RuPaul Charles in the prominent role of President Judy Gagwell.  Our heroes are Tess (Ginger Minj) and  DeeDee (Jujubee), best friends and stewardesses employed by the lowly Stank Rail, who manage to sneak their way on to the fabulous Glamazonian Express.  Alas, they have to contend with the bitchy Glamazonian stewardesses, Amber (Brooke Lynn Hytes), Alli (Marcia Marcia Marcia), Ayshleiygh (Symone), train cars full of dramatic celebrities, and the impending doom of a massive "Stormaganza" headed their way.

Directed by Adam Shankman, this movie is a very shoestring affair, reportedly shot in only nineteen days with minimal sets.  Some of the exterior shots of the train and the storm were AI generated, which is unfortunate, but also weirdly fitting for a film where the schlockiness of the visuals is a vital component of the campy, low budget aesthetics.  This feels like a cross between the old "Naked Gun" parody movies, a Youtube fan film, and a "Drag Race" compilation special, and I mean that in a good way.  I admire the ambition on display here, where choreographed musical (Rusical?) numbers, ridiculous sight gags, and cameos galore are all crammed together for 90 minutes of silliness.   

Whether you enjoy the film or not will depend on your enjoyment of drag and spoof humor, and it turns out that "Stop! That! Train!" hits pretty dead on for me.  I'm missing a lot of the more recent references, and don't recognize most of the famous faces, but this is the kind of film where Rachel Bloom and Charo show up, just because, and someone shouts "Give it to me gay!" and then has to specify "Boy gay!"  Because of the gender politics involved, the humor is also extremely mild, even tamer than the content of "The Birdcage," which is thirty years old at this point.  This means it comes off as a toothless throwback at times, but also means it's very accessible to newcomers.  I appreciate this, as I have not been keeping up with "Drag Race."  But maybe I should.

On to "Leviticus," an Australian horror film written and directed by Adrian Chiarella.  This is an allegorical horror film about sexual identity and social ostracism with a lot of interesting little nuances.  A teenage boy named Naim (Joe Bird) and his overprotective mother Arlene (Mia Wasikowska) move to a remote town where some kids are being stalked and attacked by a supernatural force.  One of the victims is a boy named Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt), whose parents put him through some kind of ritual because of his attraction to another boy, Ryan (Stacy Clausen).  As Naim and Ryan grow closer, they become the newest targets of the entity, which seems to become more violent and malevolent as their feelings grow.

 

I've seen a lot of comparisons between "Leviticus" and "It Follows," because of the mechanics of how the supernatural attacks happen.  However, the supernatural threats are a manifestation of the more concrete dangers that come with being LGBT in a hostile environment.  Naim and Ryan being together sparks opposition from those closest to them, even those who you'd expect to be sympathetic to their plight.  There's no reasoning with these well-meaning adversaries and no way to undo the persecution, leaving the boys with few options if they want to survive.  I appreciate that we never get much information as to the specifics of how the supernatural elements work, and the audience has to infer a lot about the adults' motives.  

I also like the portrayal of Naim, Ryan, and Hunter's relationships being very un-Hollywood in the way they develop.  It's clear that none of them really know what they're doing, and their attempts at affection usually involve a great deal of chaotic roughhousing before anything amorous happens.  The depiction of the religious community around them is also fairly restrained.  There are cult-like practices, but nothing so extreme as to be unbelievable.  The harms unleashed on the boys come with a considerable degree of deniability, which make them all the more insidious.  

Like "Stop! That! Train!" "Leviticus" is a small movie, one that doesn't offer anything exceptional in the way of horrific thrills or standout performances, but for its target audience it'll surely resonate.    

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The First Five of "President Curtis"

The "Rick and Morty" spinoff impressed me enough that I want to give it a quick review here.  President Andre Curtis (Keith David) previously appeared in several "Rick and Morty" episodes as a badass, but emotionally immature Commander in Chief, who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty repelling supernatural and alien invaders.  Frankly, I never took much notice of the character and it wasn't immediately apparent to me why Adult Swim and Dan Harmon would want a new show built around this guy.  However, I can see the logic.  The "Rick and Morty" team had a successful show based on the family sitcom formula.  A workplace comedy was a natural follow-up, and what could be a better workplace in a crazy science-fiction universe for sitcom hijinks than the White House?

As you might expect, the Curtis administration is always in the middle of some kind of crisis.  The President is assisted by a cyborg Chief of Staff, Rho Banks (Stephanie Beatriz), and his regular Secret Service guy, Special Agent O'Doyle (Jim Rash) who is half leprechaun.  Some episodes follow President Curtis on typical presidential outings, like to Camp David, or attending the inauguration of his ex-wife Beverly (Kelsey Scott), who is the Governor of Illinois.  Some episodes involve trips to the secret maximum security prison for supernatural prisoners located in the Bermuda Triangle, or fighting vampires over the receipt for the Louisiana Purchase.  I appreciate that the main characters are pretty recognizable types, but not the ones you'd expect at first glance.  

Curtis began as an Obama stand-in, but one with considerably less ability to keep his temper.  In his own series, he's incredibly competent, but also has a bit of a Gen-X dad-trying-to-be-cool vibe, and is often blinded by his own massive hubris.  His Chief of Staff is a super-smart techie, who is new to the job and eager to prove herself.  Agent O'Doyle has a massive chip on his shoulder about his background, but fortunately has the chance to vent his rage regularly through extreme violence.  The three of them have decent banter together, but it's the early days yet, so there hasn't been much of an opportunity to explore any of them in depth.  I look forward to meeting O'Doyle's notorious mother one of these days.  The humor is very Dan Harmon, replete with grandiose premises, absurd logic, and pop culture references - a sort-of reformed Candyman shows up in the inauguration episode, for what I hope won't just be for a one-off appearance.          

What's nice about the show is that it hits the ground running from the pilot.  There's a confidence to the writing, animation, and performances that is very evident, and it feels like I've been watching "President Curtis" for years.  So far, the individual episode plots have all been solid genre stories, slowly expanding the universe and the regular cast of characters.  However, what I've really enjoyed are all the little things that the showrunners have done to make the series distinctive from "Rick and Morty."  The theme music is a chintzy '80s throwback instrumental similar to the "Cheers" and "Taxi" themes.  Each episode closes with Curtis in the shower, singing a recap of the episode's events, and giving Keith David an excuse to exercise his pipes.  There's also usually a quick after-credits gag to wrap up any lingering loose ends. 

    

So far, the best episode is the Bermuda Triangle one, which is a classic prison escape story that could have easily worked as a "Rick and Morty" episode.  There's a lot of meta-humor about how monsters are dealt with in this universe, and the whole plot hinges on an extended  "Monsters Inc." reference. However, it also gives each of the main characters a chance to show off their skills in the course of all the carnage, and have some good interactions.  "President Curtis" doesn't hit the same chords as its predecessor, having none of the emotional or nihilistic underpinnings of that series to work with, but I don't think it needs to.  It's a different kind of show, and I'm interested in seeing what it's going to evolve into, if it gets the chance.  

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About the Animatics

A new type of fanwork has emerged over the past decade.  My haphazard research is far from comprehensive, but around 2017 we started seeing a lot of fan-made animatics being shared online through video platforms like Youtube, usually for popular musicals like "Hamilton" and "Six," but also for comedy sketches, podcasts, audiobooks, and other audio-centric media.  Animatics are essentially storyboards synced up to match the audio, so they play like extremely rough fan-made animated shorts.  In filmmaking they're used to test out timing and editing choices, before committing to a final version of a sequence.  However, in certain fan communities they've become beloved pieces of media in and of themselves.  

I've regularly stumbled across animatics online before, usually BTS material or examples created for artist portfolios.  And then last year I found some reaction videos for animatics for "Epic: The Musical," Jorge Rivera-Herrans' lengthy, independently produced, sung-through adaptation of Homer's "The Odyssey."  The full project was released over several years, and consists of forty songs, running two and a half hours altogether, and became popular through TikTok starting in 2021.  Starting in early 2023 fan artists started posting animatics for it, and those racked up millions and millions of views on Youtube and other platforms over the next few years.  The creators for the most popular ones have garnered their own fans as a result.  There are now animatics for the entirety of "Epic" musical and additional songs that didn't make the cut.  If you watch them together it plays more or less like a single movie.  And it's one of the better fan-film projects I've ever seen.  A few months ago, it was announced that an animated film version of "Epic: the Musical" was in the works, and Rivera-Herrans is busy on another musical adapting "The Iliad."

Then there are the "Project Hail Mary" animatics.  I've found several set to clips of the audiobook, but many popular ones don't bother with narration or even music.  These illustrate additional scenes the fans wanted to see, like Ryland Grace meeting Rocky's unseen mate Adrian, or music video style tributes, or one-off gags.  Some seem to be extensions of fan comics and fanfiction.  Others exist solely as animatics.  Most are only a few seconds long, but there are dozens of these online, and the bulk of them were created within the few months since the "Project Hail Mary" film was released.  Some are extremely impressive visually, made by artists studying filmmaking and animation, while others amount to collections of notebook doodles.  However, they all  represent significant amounts of time and creativity being wielded by very enthusiastic people who want to share their love of "Project Hail Mary."

So, why is this happening now?  Why this sudden wellspring of amateur storyboarders and editors carving out a place in fandom for animatics?  I can think of a couple of contributing factors.  This is all conjecture of course.  First, it's easier to learn how to create comics and amateur animation than ever before, with free software and tutorials available everywhere.  Indie animation is experiencing a boom again, largely driven by web-based projects.  Second, animatics creation has become a more well-known activity as artists regularly share their portfolios and reels on social media for self-promotion.  They're far less labor intensive than full animation, but still provide chances to show character design, editing, and storytelling skills.  Also, you don't really need much artistic talent to do the most basic forms of it.  Witness Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol's hilarious pre-production animatics for their feature film, "Blackberry," based on McCarrol's Post-it note sketches.   

We also have to consider how these videos are being shared.  Remember that I first stumbled across this phenomenon through reaction videos for "Epic: the Musical" animatics - a genre of online content notorious for being susceptible to copyright takedowns.  The creators of "Epic" are very friendly toward fanwork and have benefitted from their popularity, but other creators are much more protective of their IP.  Fanmade videos using official footage or artworks are more likely to run into trouble, so using original artwork reduces the risk of being targeted.  It doesn't mean that animatics don't still get challenged and taken down all the time, however, especially when using licensed music.  What happens to all of the animatics when the official "Epic: the Musical" movie is released, is anyone's guess, but Kane Parsons recently went to bat for the "Backrooms" fan community, so there's no reason to feel pessimistic. 

In any case, I expect that fan animatics are here to stay.  I recently discovered that the "Epic: the Musical" is popular with the elementary school set, because the animatics are so accessible on Youtube and other platforms.  I suspect that they might have also quietly contributed to the hype for this year's "The Odyssey" movie - the live action one - because more viewers are now familiar with the story through the musical.  There are several other fandoms where animatics have become more and more prevalent, especially in the gaming and musical spaces.  This trend feels like it's only getting started, and who knows what project is going to blow up next?

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"Supergirl" and "Masters of the Universe"

These two movies represent a lot of missed opportunities.

"Supergirl," the second major film from the James Gunn-led reboot of the DC cinematic universe, magnifies a lot of the concerns I've had about his approach to superhero material, not the least of which is that he doesn't seem to have  a good grasp on who he's making the movies for.  "Supergirl" was always going to be a difficult sell because it has a female lead who isn't as popular as the other DC heroes - though CW did manage to keep a "Supergirl" series on the air for six seasons pretty recently.  Director Craig Gillespie and writer Ana Noguiera's approach is to give us a tough, troubled, rough-edged Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl (Milly Alcock), making her way through an unfriendly universe.

Based heavily on the Tom King comics miniseries "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow," we find Kara taking a break from life on Earth with her dog Krypto, on a planet with a red sun.  This means no superpowers and she has the metabolism to be able to get drunk.  Kara is then drawn into the revenge quest of a little girl named Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is hunting the brigand Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), who killed her family.  Krem steals Kara's ship and shoots Krypto with a slow-acting poison that only he has the antidote for.  So, of course, Kara is obliged to go John Wick him into coughing it up.  Along the way she and Ruthye travel to several different planets, meet a bounty hunter named Lobo (Jason Momoa), and we learn all about Kara's tragic past as a survivor of the planet Krypton.  

It's no secret that "Supergirl" has way too much in common with James Gunn's "Guardian of the Galaxy" movies, with violence, language, and content that is more suited to adult audiences than family ones.  Milly Alcock is charismatic and talented, but this take on Supergirl as a roguish Han Solo-type, who prefers to find solace at the bottom of a bottle, feels wrong-headed.  I think the intention was to keep her appealing to the young male demographic, by making her messy and relatable.  However, in the process the filmmakers have ditched almost everything that would make her attractive to young girls, which should be Supergirl's primary demographic, right?  Also, nothing else about the film works.  The visuals look tired and derivative of all the MCU space operas.  The soundtrack contains some downright confounding needle drops.  Krem is boring, Lobo is really more of a cameo, and the dog is cute - but not that cute.  The story has potential, and the flashback sequences are a highlight, but everything about the execution is so underwhelming and derivative.  I really wanted better for Supergirl, and this isn't the total disaster I feared it would be from early reactions, but I have no idea who would enjoy this movie.

Meanwhile, over at Amazon/MGM, the new "Masters of the Universe" movie helmed by Travis Knight gives He-Man and friends another shot at big screen glory.  At least this one looks pretty good, full of bright colors and silly costumes.  I like that the filmmakers have embraced the ridiculous nature of the property, putting all the action figure heroes onscreen with a surprisingly amount of fidelity.  Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) of the fantasy kingdom Eternia, is sent as a child to Earth, after his kingdom is conquered by the forces of the evil Skeletor (Jared Leto).  He's obsessed with finding the Sword of Power that could allow him to unlock great cosmic powers and save his homeland.  In the meantime, he works in human resources and has a chill roommate named Hussein (Christian Vunipola).

So far, so good, but when Adam's childhood friend Teela (Camila Mendes) shows up to bring him home, and we start meeting all the other good guys like the general, Man at Arms (Idris Elba), and warriors Fisto (Johannes Hauhur Johannesson), Ram-Man (Jon Xue Zhang), and Trap Jaw (Sam C. Wilson), things start getting dicey.  The script by Chris Butler, David Callaham, and the Nee brothers, constantly feels like it's at war with itself.  While it commits to full bodied adventuring and derring-do, it's also full of little asides and meta moments that poke fun at how cheesy and over-the-top the "Masters of the Universe" franchise is.  There are a ton of little Easter Eggs for fans and when He-Man yells "I have the power!" it's all suitably epic and cool.  And sometimes the writing gets way too self-aware and self-conscious, to the point where it stops being fun, and starts feeling awkward.  Nicholas Galitzine is very well cast as Adam/He-Man, with just the right amount of earnest enthusiasm and lack of self-awareness to feel like a twelve year-old in an adult body.  Unfortunately, he always feels more like the kid playing with the action figures than the action figure hero the movie is supposed to be about.  Say what you want about the Dolph Lundgren version, but that movie never had this problem.

I want to caution here that I'm not the target audience for "Masters of the Universe."  I never had any nostalgia for this franchise, and I don't tend to enjoy media on a similar wavelength, like the "Transformers" or "Mortal Kombat" movies.  However, I am a fan of several of the actors involved, like Alison Brie and Morena Baccarin, who play rival sorceresses on either side of the conflict.  They don't get to do much except look cool in their fancy costumes, which is a shame.  And while there's a lot here for younger viewers to enjoy, I don't feel that the movie makes the best case for He-Man as a hero.  "Masters of the Universe" is so frantic with jokes and references and spectacle and meta to keep the adults engaged, it too often loses sight of the point - good guy fights bad guy, overcomes evil, and saves the day.  

You know, for kids.

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My Top 25 of the Last 25: Documentaries

If there is any category of media that has exploded in the last quarter century, it's the humble documentary feature.  I had so many titles for consideration, I quickly filled all twenty-five slots and had to make some truly painful cuts to the list.  If you see a particularly egregious omission, please be aware that I had to be ruthless, and these are personal favorites rather than the movies I'd hand out awards to.  As with all lists in this series, there are unranked 25 entries, ordered by release date, but only the top ten get writeups.

Grizzly Man (2005) - A Werner Herzog film has to be on this list, and I landed on this one to represent all of his documentary work.  Herzog's soft-spoken narration, his willingness to put himself on camera to become part of the narrative, and the nihilist bent gof his commentary are all very familiar now, but "Grizzly Man" was where much of the general public really got to know Herzog.  Twenty years later, the cautionary messages are still all too timely and relevant.   

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) - I love movies that give me a look into little subcultures that I know nothing about.  And competitive video game playing is definitely a universe unto itself, with some very memorable characters.  Finding out what happened to Billy Mitchell and Twin Galaxies since this documentary was released only makes the events in the film more fascinating.  "King of Kong" remains a snapshot of an era of gaming that will never be the same.  

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) - I wrote this up for my Best Documentary Academy Award winners list not too long ago, but I couldn't leave this off.  There are so many celebrated examinations of the terrible wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the POV of the decisionmakers and the perpetrators.  "Taxi to the Dark Side" remains one of the few, unblinking narratives that tells us this story from the point of view of one of the victims, humanizing him every step of the way.  

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) - It's the Banksy documentary.  In addition to playing with different levels of meta, so we're left wondering how much of what we're seeing is real, staged, or somewhere in between, the movie offers a scathing critique of the artistic establishment.  The movie documents all the different ways that art and artists can be commodified and compromised, and how dreams of success can quickly lead to some very dark and disastrous places.  

Stories We Tell (2013) - This is Sarah Polley's deeply personal, intimate interrogation of her own closest relationships as she searches for answers about her identity.  Polley slowly unravels family secrets and sets the record straight as she revisits her own tangled history, but never in a way that feels indulgent or self-obsessed.  The film popularized a documentary as memoir format that several others have attempted since, but never with such poignancy and insight.  

Leviathan (2013) - Put a camera in a place where you wouldn't think to put one, and suddenly whole new worlds open up.  The cameras here are on the surface of the ocean, on the deck of a fishing boat, looking up into skies full of birds, or down into the abyss.  There's no narrative offered here, and no commentary.  Instead, there is a total immersion into the sights and sounds of a fishing boat and the oceans that it traverses, teeming with life and sensory wonders.

The Act of Killing (2013) - An anti-communist purge was carried out in the 1960s under the regime of Indonesia's president, Suharto.  The death squads were on the side of those who stayed in power, and so were never held accountable.  Director Joshua Oppenheimer gives us a chilling look at what history written by the winners looks like, inviting his subjects to dramatize their memories of the killings, with all the powers of cinema fantasy that he can make available to them.  

One Child Nation (2019) - It's one thing to hear about China's One Child policy, and another thing entirely to see how it worked in practice, to hear the bitter stories of how it was enforced, and to see those who are still haunted by the effects to this day.  Director Nanfu Wang's interviews start with her own extended family, but also include health workers, administrators, and others who were directly involved in one of the most notorious social experiments in human history.

The Painter and the Thief (2020) - A modest Norwegian documentary about two strangers who become friends under extremely unusual circumstances.  On the one hand you have the talented painter Barbora Kysilkova, and on the other hand you have Karl-Bertil Nordland, one of the men convicted of stealing two of Kysilkova's paintings from an Oslo gallery.  The film's achronological storytelling doesn't do much for me, but the central relationship is absolutely engrossing to see unfold.

The Alabama Solution (2025) - Finally, there have been a lot of exposes about the dysfunctional state of the criminal justice system, but when the prisoners themselves are the cinematographers, providing the footage of the appalling conditions that they're forced to endure, the effect is profound.  The documentary provides plenty of history and context for why this nightmare situation exists, but it's the prisoners themselves who offer the most compelling evidence.

The next fifteen:

Bowling For Columbine (2002)

The Fog of War (2003)

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Searching for Sugar Man (2011)

Project Nim (2011)

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

The Unknown Known (2013)

At Berkeley (2013)

Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)

The Salt of the Earth (2014)

O.J.: Made in America (2016)

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Faces Places (2017)

Shirkers (2018)

Navalny (2022)

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The 2026 Video Essay Recs

It's time again to share recommendations for some of my favorite video essays from the last year or so.  To be specific, these are all videos that I watched for the first time within the last calendar year.  Some may be slightly older than that, but everything should still be very relevant.  

There were some big trends and major topics in the video essay community that got a lot of attention, like why Netflix is having trouble with second seasons of promising shows, but I'm trying to share more idiosyncratic picks.  One is also a podcast discussion with some visual aids, but fascinating enough that I made an exception.  Another is a rant about video essays.  More on that below. 

Eyebrow Cinema: Why Can't Netflix Discover New Directors - This is secretly a video essay about Roger Corman, and how his approach to filmmaking with almost no money contrasts with the approach of Netflix, which seems to have all the money in the world.  There's been a lot written about Netflix as a platform for television series this year, and we shouldn't forget that they're also an important platform for films.

Climate Town: How Oil Propaganda Sneaks Into TV Shows - Why is Billy Bob Thornton spouting misinformation about wind turbines in the Taylor Sheridan show, "Landman"?

Folding Ideas: This is How You Get Jarhead Sequels - A deep dive into a franchise I didn't know existed.  The Sam Mendes film "Jarhead" is deeply critical of the US army, and was made without the support of the Department of Defense.  Somehow, it spawned three direct-to-video sequels that gradually abandoned the cynical themes of the original film in favor of more typical rah-rah pro-armed forces jingoism.  Dan Olson investigates how this happened.   

Sarah Z: The Illegal Fanfiction Death Games of 2011 - A frequently hysterical look into a once popular subgenre of "Hunger Games" self-insert/roleplaying fanfiction, with Sarah Z gleefully channeling her inner thirteen year-old, who just wants her May Sue avatar to have a really cool death, and is willing to sockpuppet her way to fanfiction glory.  I adore weird little fandom subcultures like this, which feel oddly wholesome in retrospect, in spite of all the fictional kid murdering involved. 

Patrick H. Willems: The Music Video is Dead, Long Live the Music Video - The music video to feature film pipeline was a big thing in the 90s, but not so much now.  Patrick Willems gives us a historical overview of how this worked and why it's no longer a thing, while spotlighting a lot of talented directors along the way like Spike Jonze, David Fincher, Mark Romanek, and the DANIELS.  I came away with a massive list of videos and films to watch, and a greater appreciation for the music video form.  A very close runner up was Willems' Munich video.

Panic World: We Looked Into the Psychology Behind Mobile Game Ads - So, this is the podcast with visual aids, where the guys at Panic World, a podcast devoted to internet trends, have a nice, informative chat with Chelsey Weber-Smith about the psychological tactics behind those terrible ads that are the bane of every mobile gamer without an adblocker.  It's also the oldest video on this list by far.  However, this is the best breakdown of why something that we see every day is the way it is, and ties in so well to several other trends related to internet marketing and social engineering, I had to include it.   

Movie Bob: Video Essays Are Starting to Suck - Movie Bob doesn't really make video essays in the traditional sense, but I've always found his commentary very cogent and well-informed.  One of his recent videos is about the state of video essays, so it's very on topic here, even if the only clips he's using are a few "Simpsons" snippets for emphasis.  I also like his Reckless Positivity video, which posits that Youtube is getting more hostile towards traditional media and their marketing, because it's trying to undermine what it sees as competition.

Lindsay Ellis: Did Disney Really Steal Aladdin? - Lindsay digs into the pop culture myth about Disney stealing the ideas for their "Aladdin" feature from beloved British animator Richard Williams.  Along the way she touches on the development of "Aladdin," Williams' film "The Thief and the Cobbler," and the work of lyricist Howard Ashman.  We also get some updates on how Lindsay is doing and her relationship with Disney content, which I relate to very much.      

Adam Conover: Hollywood Killed the Sitcom and They Did It On Purpose - Adam Conover does a lot of investigative videos on various topics, and it was gratifying to see him tackle the death of the sitcom, using a lot of data to back up his analysis.  He doesn't talk much about individual titles, but is looking at trends in what kinds of projects are getting made and what the larger market forces are that are impacting Hollywood productions.  While I don't think this paints a complete picture of what's going on - there are still many sitcoms getting made - it offers some important insights.

Zero Woolfe: The Architectural History  of Iron Man's House - Finally, for those of you who love art and design, here's a very comprehensive history of the style of modernist architecture that inspired Tony Stark's house from the "Iron Man" movies.

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