User reviews

This isn't a "celebration" of movies - no fluff, no catering to those who watch a film to entertainingly kill a couple of hours. This series is for those who like to look deeply into the crystal ball that is modern cinema. Best of the six episodes in my opinion is "But I Don't Like Him," hosted by Drew McWeeny, a look at the film antihero, in which are combined hero and villain using elements from the protagonist's own psyche. The other episodes are good too, and well worth seeing as they investigate aspects of film that are often overlooked. Each episode is basically a short, lasting from seventeen to twenty-three minutes each, so they're easy to fit into your viewlist.

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.

First episode didn't catch, me. The second did. When the third came, I was in movie heaven.

There are some fantsastic clips in this series. It's just wonderful. But i guess you have to have seen a lot of movies to really enjoy. Many films are not identified.

I simpley loved it, beut the episodes are uneaven, naturally, since they are essays from very different people.

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.

This has 5 entirely different episodes done by 5 different people on 5 different film topics. A montage. Oh - they are shorts in the literal term. Around 17 minutes each, so easy to watch.

Some are thoughtful and thorough. Others seem to thing you need to be bombarded with titles and clips. And their opinions. Well, they all give you their opinions, but some do it more forcefully than others.

Some I likes a lot, some better than others and one - not at all because I needed Dramamine to watch it. BUT - that's me.

You need to watch and listen and decide for yourself. No matter what you decided, I bet you will learn something from this quick study.

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.

Some subjects are very good and have an informative point of view and some valuable info but some of them are pretty generic and good but prety classic and we already knew this. It will depend on your knowledge. For me, the tv show have some interesting parts. And some others not really. I alreasy knew some stuff. Very good and instructive.

There was a time when to discover any thoughts on film you had to go to a book store and find a book by a director or actor or writer. Maybe you'd go to the nearest shop that sold movie mags and bought every single one, every month, religiously. Maybe you spent every single piece of currency you earned, or were given, on VHS rentals and later on DVD sales. Sometimes your choices of what to watch came from total chance, fate and luck. Maybe it was late night tv. You'd stumble upon something you loved, it spoke to you in a way that you felt nobody else understood and you realised you couldn't articulate those feelings. Now you could point at that film and say "That, that's how I feel". I realise that I am showing my age, for me this series was incredibly nostalgic. I understand that there is a lot of information that flys by. Use the pause button. Write down every single film and watch them all. Use the privilege of the internet and digital media. Before you criticize a few people's opinions on movies form your own opinions on them and learn to accept the differences there in. I'd imagine that's what the intention of the film makers was. Inspire the love they have for films in others. For me they succeeded.

The episode narrated by Tony Zhou is best one out of all the episodes. Episode 3 and 6 are good too. Pretty much just skip episode 1 entirely and go straight to episode two. Have yet to watch episodes 4 and 5.

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.

Overall this is a good series about different aspects in movies and character development.

Minor spoiler: The last episode totally missed the mark, there is probably alot of racist stuff out there certainly in the 80's and before, but i don't think 48 hours is the great example of this.

Sure those issues are put to the test in that movie, but it ends far better than the narrator tells us. (a very onesided view imo) If you want racistmaterial go and look at richard prior's standup shows. (its front to back about race, not much comedy)

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.

If you're going to have a good story do not let that person tell the story. NPR is a dream compared to this woman narrating this. Could not have been worse.

Episode1 is about Jaws and a couple of teenage girls who watched it multiple times upon release and discovered the power of summer blockbusters in the Seventies. Some clips from Jaws are edited with sequences filmed with actors playing the two girls and random cinema staff. Weird presentation. Besides, I think Jaws promoted the senseless, brutal killing of sharks to the verge of extinction and I do not share the narrator's enthusiasm for Jaws.

Episode 2, about Revenge, makes more sense to me. No acted parts and we get to see clips from several movies about revenge. That's more my idea of what a documentary should be.

Episode 3, about unlikeable main characters, goes wild with film clips, showing about a billion per minute so that it's hard to follow and appreciate each sample.

Episode 4, about animated characters, ignores the biological fact that human beings are made to like round faces with big eyes (think about babies) and wants to instill some politically correct truth into creating angular cartoon characters. I fear a harbinger of more correctness to come... as it usually does in Netflix productions.

Episode 5 explains what is the difference between (good) TV series and movies. The key is investing in characters, diluted in years (think Breaking Bad) or concentrated in a couple of hours.

Episode 6 is the inevitable disquisition on racism, covering the film 48 Hours, which, just like Jaws means absolutely nothing to me. However, the narrator explains what a great character and superstar Eddie Murphy is, or rather was.

Yet another "documentary" series totally uneven and politically charged.

I would be prepared to say that most of these essays were written 20 years ago as they all _feel_ like ones I read as film studies student.

That is part of the problem with them, they all also Feel old, for all that some pull clips from more recent material. They aren't bad as per say, but it really felt like listening to a older person wax poetically about their childhood memories.

Or animation design theory in one case. But that one covers in 20 minutes what takes up chapters in design theory books. It's not a bad brief look but...

I guess that's why I am going to rate this a five. It's not bad but if you are passionate about any of the subjects nothing new will be found here. And if you are curious these are very light easy to fall asleep to.

Whoever is this narrator? Why should we care about her childhood idyll? A lie from start to finish. Poorly written, poorly edited - TERRIBLY narrated.

If you've ever watched a mediocre video essay by an amateur on Youtube, you will have unrealistically high expectations for this studio-produced series of video essays written and performed by actual industry professionals. The writing would be pretty poor if it were coming from a college freshman. For example, the episode on unlikeable characters essentially argues "Sometimes characters are unlikeable" and then proceeds to give dozens of examples of unlikeable protagonists without ever making anything approaching a salient point on likeability. But in truth, the poor writing and unimaginative direction and editing are not even close to the worst parts about this series. That would be the narration. In episode 1, Sasha Stone makes a convincing argument that being a film critic does not necessarily translate to being a remotely competent performer. By episode 3, Drew McWeeny is ready to put the nail in that particular coffin. Series directors Tony Zhao and Taylor Ramos also narrate here and there. Tony Zhao is almost listenable (but not), whereas Taylor Ramos delivers perhaps the most wooden, inhumanly robotic performance that has ever been committed to audio. Think of anyone you know - friend, coworker, mail delivery person - they would have done a better job than every single narrator in this series. How the heck does that HAPPNEN?

If you think this is going to be an insightful documentary series by industry professionals on the history of film... don't hold your breath.

Self indulgent, poorly written, badly narrated, and barely a couple of minutes per episode on the actual subject - films - it's basically a bunch of college level film studies essays that largely miss the point of the subject, but instead talk about themselves.