Feels Good Man

Other than broadly showing the artist, Matt Furie, whose illustration became a meme, doesn't understand the internet and modern culture, and in fact doesn't understand what Richard Dawkins meant in coining the term "meme," I am not sure what the point of this film was. And if people from across the political spectrum, including despicable extreme right and despicable extreme left adopt visual art that has morphed into public domain through meme, what is the point of saying some can use it and others cannot? Modern "memehacking" is so widespread. In fact memehacking is the heir to visual satire that has been around since shortly after cave painting. The very first image of Jesus ever, he is depicted as part animal on a cross with a donkey's head (google: Alexamenos Graffito). The Uncle Sam "I want You" was altered as antiwar satire when that was the opposite of its creation purpose. The irony is that Chinese censors used the copyright issue to shut down memes during the Hong Kong protests.

I went into this film hoping for the vibe of the title, but it just felt really uncomfortable and honestly cringey, like the filmmakers and possibly Matt Furie himself felt they had to try to appease the Anti-Defamation League, who are a bunch of genuinely evil kunts, as the one scene with the ADL guy further shows.

There was a line by one of Matt's friends in the film that he suggested they sue the ADL for putting Pepe on the hate list, which is exactly what they should have done. Pepe is an awesome character and internet icon that has entered the public domain, and any attempt to wrangle control back of how the meme is used is an exercise in hubris and futility. Matt and his friends should have just legally destroyed the ADL for even daring to label Pepe a hate symbol.

It's sad how the ADL has zero sense of humour, even self-appointing themselves to go after cartoon characters and their creators for simply having fun. What right do they have to hold someone's creation hostage like that? They are a private organisation with no legal authority whatsoever. If I were Matt Furie, I would go ahead and sue the ADL right now. You can still do it!

As someone who experienced almost all the events presented, this was just a huge trip down memory lane. so i was just constanly pointing and saying "aah i remember that". so i enjoyed a lot of those moments. though im kinda let down on the fact that the story focuses on one side of the story. the whole alt right thing isnt the place where pepe currently resides. so in summary, i really liked it because it is a story close to home, but there were some things that i dissagreed on from a narrative standpoint.

8/10: really enjoyed it, but has some flaws

Feels Good Man, the directorial debut of Arthur Jones, centers around the cultural transformation and appropriation of an innocent cartoon character: Pepe the Frog. The film follows Pepe's creator, Matt Furie, as he tries to comes to terms with all that is happening to his creation and eventually fights back to regain control of what was once his; meanwhile, we are also treated to a full unravelling of how Pepe was meme'd into internet infamy among fringe, alt-right groups, discovering just how powerful a tool the Internet can be and how hard it can be to turn back what's been done. The film's pacing is very good, the story is captivating, and the people brought in to break it all down are very interesting; however, while being well worth the watch, I think it falls short in its overall takeaway and message.

The film does a great job of bringing in a diversity of interviewees to help detail both the personal story of Matt & Pepe, as well as the digital journey that transformed Pepe into a profound hate symbol. Insight into Matt's life is drawn primarily from discussion with his wife and housemates, as well as from getting to see him interact with his daughter. It all draws a very quaint portrait of a guy who seems nice and, to be honest, pretty average, which makes Pepe's journey all the more startling while also helping to explain Matt's initial reluctance to act and rather just lay back. For deconstructing the underbelly of the web, we're introduced to a 4chan lifer (or a NEET - this guy's reality may in fact have been the scariest part of the film), my first-ever sighting of a memetist, an occultist scholar / magic librarian (can we talk about how this guy used the force to pull a book off of a shelf???), and the director of the Network Contagion Research Institute at Princeton - all these just to name a few. While the story itself is captivating at parts, what really pushes the movie towards success is the people you meet; the most interesting part of the film may in fact be when Matt meets up with a 20ish person group in San Fran composed of people who have devoted themselves to deconstructing and understanding these sort of internet phenomena; the sheer fact that these groups exist was quite eye-opening, and the juxtaposition of their deep concern and worry for what has happened to Pepe versus Matt's laidback nature was both hilarious and a little tragic. All these people understand something that Matt is seemingly still fully unaware of: he has completely lost control of his beloved character, and frankly, there is almost no turning back. This is not to say that every interviewee lends value - the two female cartoonists / writers seemed to contribute very little and felt more like a "We've already recorded the interviews so let's just use them" situation.

The film should also be given enormous credit for its efforts in trying to trace the origins and gradual transformation of Pepe. I think we all know how difficult it can be to find any "starting points" or sources of actual truth online, but the crew seem to have done very well in their research; likely helped, and perhaps influenced, by their interviews with members of these Internet hordes. Another short note is that the animation throughout is very solid and felt like a strong tool to complement the film's narrative. It wasn't overdone and tied nicely to the scenes where it was used.

With regards to the film's overall goals and purpose, Matt Furie's story is interesting and he is a generally likeable guy, but the real meat of this film is its examination of internet culture and how it can basically turn anything on its head and morph it for its own use or gain, without almost any repercussion. The way in which we see an innocent frog cartoon slowly become a symbol of hate and bigotry is enthralling, but also terrifying as we realize that it all happened through the efforts of people sitting right at home and operating under the anonymity given to them by the Internet and its platforms (e.g. 4chan). Once they took hold, there was really no going back. Sure, Matt's been able to win lawsuits with public figures that have appropriated the character, such as Alex Jones, but almost nothing can be done to the thousands (or millions) of people still using it for their hateful purposes online. While the film tries to end on a positive note by displaying how Pepe went from an alt-right symbol in the US to a symbol of freedom in the Hong Kong protests, it feels like a lackluster solution and rose-colored view, frustratingly trying to give the viewer a hopeful message while denying the harsher truth and reality that it itself has painted. While it's great to see that Pepe can still be a symbol of hope and positivity, the true conclusion is much more ambiguous, demonstrating how we can project almost any emotion onto a character or piece of media, meme-ing it into "this" or "that". Everything comes with a dark side or at least the potential of evil - while we can hope that good is the stronger force, it doesn't really make it any easier to put a stop to the bad.

The first 45 minutes is actually quite informative in following the 4chan adoption and evolution of the meme - the mindset of those who first adopted Pepe and the emotional bond that was made. The next 45 however is essentially the reason Trump won: the lesson the left never learned; a minimization of the bigger conversation to a hyper-focus on the alt-right. In other words, the film does a good job of documenting the battle that took place with the alt-rights use of Pepe. However it's to the exclusion of the bigger campaign of those who do not agree with the alt-right but used Pepe to express hope and belief in a Trump victory over the rise of authoritarian and global Leftism. <-- the conversation that never takes place.

Much like reading a politifact "fact" check, the documentary quickly moves from history of the origins of Pepe into a breakdown and explanation of liberal narrative. As such, it leaves the 2016 experience of an entire swath of conservative and moderate voices misrepresented and lumped into a single basket of hate and aggression.

Let be me clear... This seems to be the way that the creator experienced everything and thus as a "Furie" documentary it tells his story quite well and accurately. However, as a "Pepe" documentary it fails to tell the whole story in anything other than a two dimensional, singularly aspected fashion - white supremacists used Pepe to promote their politics. This is of course true but only a small piece of a much bigger phenomena. Netflix will eat this up however and I imagine it will be viewed by millions and seen as the whole story before it's run is over.

In summary, this was a good documentary experience and I feel better informed after watching it. I would recommend it to just about anyone with the qualifier of its political leaning. But honestly, If you're politically liberal then you already believe the narrative portrayed in the second half of the documentary. If you're politically conservative (or have been since 2016) you are already aware of the narrative bias.