These are all videos I watched for the first time within the last calendar year. I'm fairly sure none are older than that, but there are a lot of entries on the list this time, so I apologize if I've lost track. Here goes:
Every Frame a Painting: The Sustained Two Shot - They're back! Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos returned to Youtube after eight years with a series of new film essays, as part of their promotion of their new short film, "The Second." Each essay topic is framed by the duo working through filmmaking choices during the production. So what is a two shot, what is it good for, why is it rarer than it used to be, and why choose it now for this particular circumstance?
Moviewise: I Dont' Care! This is the Best Scene of the Century - While we're talking about filmmaking, I love comprehensive breakdowns and analyses of filmmaking, and especially appreciate when it's talking about fairly basic scenes that most viewers won't think twice about. Here, Moviewise breaks down a two very simple shots depicting a man buying a car, revealing how much thought and care was put into a sequence that I scarcely registered while watching the film.
Yhara Zayd: American Honey & The Detriment of Ambiguity - And speaking of things that completely went over my head the first time I saw them, here's Yhara Zayd examining the way race is used in Andrea Arnold's 2016 film "American Honey." I clocked that Sasha Lane's character Star was practically the only non-Caucasian character in the film when I watched it, but missed so many of the little hints about her background, and how so many questions about her status and identity went unanswered. Zayd argues that the choice to keep things ambiguous may have been well intentioned, but fails to serve the main character of color because of the context in which she exists.
F.D. Signifier: The Green Lantern Colorism Controversy - And for another discussion of race and media, I found F.D. Signifier's reaction to the casting of Justin Pierre as the newest superhero in James Gunn's DC universe to be a lot of fun. After "Rebel Ridge," I don't think anyone was surprised that Pierre was tapped to play the John Stewart Green Lantern. However, this video didn't go how I expected it to, because while there's plenty of acknowledgement that colorism is a problem, this particular colorism controversy has some interesting nuances related to gender and masculinity.
Pop Culture Detective: The Myth of the Alpha Male and Human Nature, Hope, and Ice Cream - Pop Culture Detective offers two nice, accessible refutations of some common fallacies that have been passed around in the popular culture lately, namely that the idea of the "Alpha male" somehow comes from observable science related to wolf pack dynamics, and that we should be cynical about human nature because people tend to do the selfish thing. The media, of course, is not helping matters by perpetuating these ideas in movies and TV shows. However, as PCD explains with the help of some nicely edited clips, there's no male hierarchy observable in wolves, and Noam Chomsky's "ice cream" thought experiment reveals that humans aren't really so bad.
Mina Le: Why Does Hollywood Love an Age Gap Romance? - I've been watching Mina's essays for a while for her takes on fashion in media and various pop culture trends. Here, she takes a look at age gaps in screen romances, particularly Gen Z's interesting resistance to them. This includes a rundown of famous Hollywood age gap romances (Bogey and Bacall, Leo DiCaprio and nobody over age 25) and discussion of some recent films, including "The Idea of You," and "Call Me By Your Name." I appreciate that there's a significant amount of attention paid to the rise of the "MILF," and examining some of these issues from a female POV.
Strange Aeons: A Famous Fanfiction With Some Weird Cult Ties - For a video that's just plain entertaining, here's a little slice of "Harry Potter" fandom history. While I was never really in the fandom myself, I was active in fanfiction circles when "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" was at its most popular, and was definitely aware of it. And of course the author turned out to be a "rationalist" weirdo trying to run his own cult. Strange Aeons' channel is full of these strange tales of internet fandom, and I recommend checking out some of their other videos if you're in the mood to rubberneck more insanity.
Thomas Flight: The Brilliance of Severance's Disturbing Precision - There have been several strong pieces about "Severance" this year after the release of the show's second season. Thomas Flight offers a look into some of the influences behind the show's eye-catching cinematography and production design, especially the eerie liminality of the Lumen office environments. For those of you who have not seen "Severance," this one has almost no spoilers to worry about.
Patrick Willems: The Daniel Craig James Bond Era is the Weirdest Franchise Ever - Patrick Willems posits that the Daniel Craig starring James Bond movies reflect the evolution of modern blockbuster filmmaking trends better than any other franchise, and as a result are an incoherent mess in their totality. I enjoyed several of the movies discussed, but I can't disagree with any of Willem's points here.
Verilybitchie: The Fashion of Sci-Fi Futures - So, why are the decadent ruling class fashions of the future seen in so many science-fiction films usually feminine or gay coded? Especially when we know that in real life, fascists usually show up in uniforms and suits? To find the answer, consider a history lesson on the Great Masculine Renunciation - when fashion stopped reflecting class differences and started reflecting gender, a tour of common science fiction tropes that heavily espouse conservative gender ideology, and lots of clips of science fiction's most degenerate hunks looking absolutely fabulous.
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