Voir

Billed rather grandly as a series of video essays some offer genuine insite into movies and some are just an axe grinding excercise or a requiem for disfunctional childhoods. Skip the first episode. My favourites were episode 2 which examines revenge movies, episode 3 which looks at unlikeable protagonists and episode 5, a discussion of the difference between movies and TV. Episode 4 is about animation, so kid's stuff.

If you're a fan of video essays than this is an obvious choice. I'm pretty used to settling down to a nice hour plus long video essay with dinner but was pleasantly surprised with these 20 minute bite sized episodes. The editing and visuals really carried it for me and kept me watching. It really felt like the narrators and visuals told a story together instead of, as so often happens, the visuals being secondary to the discussion.

A large part of the appeal of online visual essays is the personal touch of the writer and narrator. Something which could be lost when switching to a platform like Netflix. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of these stories hold on to that important personal element. When someone really loves a topic it shows and grabs your attention.

If your thinking of checking it out, pick an episode that sounds appealing and try it out. If you can't choose I recommend episode 3 "But I don't like him" narrated by Drew McWeeny. Villains are a favorite topic of mine so this was an easy one to start out with.

While decent in concept, I would rather hear from directors rather than critics because it all just kind of sounds like semi pretentious ramblings from a critic, heck I can get more nuanced thoughts from YouTuber film fans.

Didn't know much about this when looking through new Netflix content. Watching episode one, I enjoyed a Cinephile's musings, coupled with familiarity and shared experiences, such as the thrill of watching Jaws as a young girl. My interest picked up and I became tachycardia when in episode two I suddenly recognized a familiar voice... Could it be? Yes it could... TONY ZHAO!! From the still terrific "Every Frame a Painting" webseries along with his equally talented partner and co-creator of EFAP Taylor Ramos (who is a also a skilled animator), they now helm a new series continuing dialogue on cinema while also narrating two episodes, spanning 6 separate segments. An enjoyable and informative series of video essays on wide ranging topics. The topics are not always ones familiar to me, and the opinions differ from mine, which is why I enjoyed this so much--opens up my internal dialogue a bit and provides me with wider perspective.

I wanted to love this. I easily could have if it wasn't edited so choppily. The clips are rammed together so quickly I can barely follow. It's highly irritating and is a disservice to the content. Moving at a breakneck speed has its place, but a documentary about film isn't the place for it. For crying out loud let us savor what we're watching.