♫ fun music playing ♫
So in case I don't mention it enough,
I went to film school.
Oh yeah, baby!
Technically, I graduated a couple months ago,
but I did the official ceremony and the pomp
and circumstance a couple days ago.
And I paid like thirty dollars for this hat
and now I have no reason to wear it ever again.
And the funny thing is, while I was in film school, I really didn't like watching movies that much,
I was mostly just into YouTube.
And now that I finally graduated
and I am no longer obligated to watch like ten hours of movies per week,
I've like rediscovered my love for movies and now I'm doing it in my free time.
I feel like a lot of people go through that once they graduate from school.
They realize that they like, actually enjoyed learning
but like, being in school ruins learning somehow,
because it just makes it horrible and stressful.
I feel like that's the unique power of the American educational system, is to just
crush any existing passion you had for a topic.
So, today I have compiled a list of my favorite films of all time,
and I'm just gonna geek out about them, to be honest.
If you haven't watched these movies,
I'm gonna tell you all the reasons that you should watch them.
And if you have watched these movies,
I'm also gonna talk about, like, my favorite themes and shots and acting from all these movies.
So it'll be like a little Ashley's movie Oscars.
Let's get on started.
Let's go ahead and... get... get lit.
(awkward laugh )
You guys know what I mean.
So my first film is "Avengers: Endgame."
No, I'm kidding.
I'm a fucking film student.
I'm way too pretentious for that mainstream shit.
My first film is "Sorry to Bother You."
"Sorry to Bother You'' takes place in this alternate satirical universe,
in a world stricken by low raises, high unemployment and
rampid capitalism.
Sound familiar, folks?
The film follows Cassius Green, who's struggling to pay rent.
He's a telemarketer,
and he discovers that the secret to his professional success is to turn on his "white voice."
-You want to make some money here, use your "white voice."
- My "white voice" ?
- I'm not talking about Will Smith's white.
- Like this, young man.
- (talks in white) Hey, Mr. Kramer, this is Langston from Regal View.
That earns him a promotion and propels him into this world of money and greed
and he has to battle with his morals.
Okay. So, reasons I love this movie:
First of all, the costume design and production design make this movie worth watching alone.
They did such an amazing job of creating this 70s-meets-modern-day aesthetic.
It's so colorful,
it's so well put together.
The whole world of this movie
looks like a Janelle Monae music video in the best way possible.
Second of all, this movie gives you so much to think about after you're done watching
and that is my favorite type of movie.
Like after you're done,
all you want to do for the next three hours
is look up video essays and like Reddit forums,
analyzing it and breaking it down.
But at the same time it's also just a really entertaining and funny film.
I like to think of this film as like a modern-day "Animal Farm."
It's like a satirical commentary on modern-day capitalism,
but I mean that in the least like heady and pretentious way possible.
You know, it's not like the bourgeoisie and the proletariat kids.
It talks about American culture and the pressures
that a lot of us feel
to earn a bunch of money and to climb this corporate ladder,
no matter what our morals are
in a very personal and empathetic way.
And I think that's something that a lot of us can relate to.
Especially like,
at this point in my life, I'm 21
and I feel like when I was in high school,
everybody I knew was kind of borderline communist.
Everybody was like "the rich should be taxed like crazy,"
"Yes, of course I'm gonna work for a charity and I'm not gonna sell out".
And now all those same people are, like, trying to pay rent and
pay off student debt, so they're working on Wall Street for some Fortune 500 corporation.
I mean same for me, I basically work for YouTube, and Google owns YouTube.
I'm just making money for a mega-corporation like everybody else.
(pause)
Which is something I don't want to think about too much.
The point is, this movie talks about how our culture is
so focused on making money and having a prestigious job
and especially for men feeling this source of masculinity
and sexual attractiveness based on how much you earn.
"Sorry to Bother You" also has a really interesting critique of the different ways that
especially African Americans, but generally people of different races
are expected to act in different social situations.
So our main character literally has to put on his "white voice"
in order to advance through the professional ranks.
But, like, when he's at a party with a bunch of white people,
then they want him to be this stereotypical rapper black dude.
And he's not that either.
So he's like forcing himself into these two different identities.
I was really related that in a different way.
Obviously I have not, uhm,
experienced the particular struggles and the particular discrimination of being an African-American, right?
But I am half white and half Asian.
When I was younger,
there was like an Asian friend group and a white friend group at my school.
And when I was with the white friend group,
I, like, never wanted to bring noodles to school
because I was so embarrassed that it wasn't like a sandwich or something
like normal white kids' snack.
And I was so embarrassed to ask my friends to take off their shoes in my house.
And then when I was with the Asian friend group
I felt like kind of a phony because I felt like I still wasn't Asian enough for them.
Yeah, just please watch this movie.
It has so many interesting themes.
As you guys might be able to tell by my bangs ,
I am that bitch who's been obsessed with "500 days of Summer"
since I was like 13 years old, okay ?
I love that movie with my heart and soul.
"500 days of summer" is the only movie that I have bought on iTunes.
And I have rewatched it so many times.
Every time I go through a heartbreak,
every time I'm not sure what to do in a romantic situation,
every time I'm on my period.
Which is a lot.
I'm watching that movie.
"500 days of summer" is a bit of an unconventional
rom-com that follows Tom, a hopeless romantic
who's been looking for the girl of his dreams his entire life,
and Summer who believes that love is like Santa Claus and it doesn't really exist
and the movie follows
500 days of their relationship.
It gets messy. They like, break up. There's ups and downs.
There's fights.
The reason this movie is one of my favorite rom-coms
other than the fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt
is in it, is that this movie has grown with meaning as I've gotten older.
When I first watched it,
I was in middle school and I really took it at face value
that "Oh, Summer's an asshole for breaking Tom's heart and poor Tom
he has to go chase after her",
and I was rooting for the hopeless romantic Tom
because he was the guy who,
who wanted to get the girl
and that was the happy ending that I had been taught in my entire life.
I think when we were younger and in our first relationship
we're all kind of like Tom.
We all project this ultra romantic ideal of somebody perfect onto somebody
who's frankly not perfect. I feel like as I've grown up and
after you experience heartbreak and shit
I feel like we all become more and more like Summer
and I come to realize that Tom isn't like this perfect romantic hero.
He's kind of a guy clinging on to a relationship that didn't work.
So I think it's a really interesting film to watch
and especially a different point at your life and you can really understand like more
and more about the characters.
Also just stylistically, I think this movie does some really really cool
kind of meta editing effects.
You'll have to watch the movie to see exactly what I mean,
but I like that it really plays with some like experimental techniques.
It's also just like my favorite movie to reference EVER
so, watch that movie and then you'll get all my "500 days of summer"
references in my videos.
Next up, we have "The double",
which is a movie that pretty much nobody I know has ever watched.
It is so underrated,
but it is, if I had to pick one,
I think my favorite movie of all time.
"The double" tells the story of this shy nervous office worker
whose life is turned upside down when
a doppelganger arrives at his office.
- I'd introduce everyone to our newest coworker.
- Please welcome...
- James Simon.
His doppelganger looks exactly like him but his personality is the exact opposite.
He's everything that Simon wishes that he could be.
He's charismatic. He is outgoing.
He gets recognized at his job.
He's also very good with the ladies and manages to seduce Simon's love interest.
His doppelganger starts off being his friend
but then slowly begins to take over Simon's life and he has to find a way to get rid of him.
This film is another one of those movies that leaves you like completely mind-fucked at the end.
It is so trippy and leaves you with so much to think about.
It talks about
social anxiety and identity,
and I feel like the main take away at this film is feeling like you're this small invisible person and
wishing that you could be charismatic and outgoing,
but you don't know how to be that person.
Never know that I relate to the main character a lot,
even though I'm like,
seem, I guess charismatic online and I like,
talk to a lot of people.
Like in real life, I'm pretty awkward.
So I find the main character very endearing.
- It really is. She's just looking at me.
- Yeah, all right.
- Now lick your lips.
-Yeah, what?
- Show the tongue, but be careful not to look like a lizard, go.
Also gotta give it to Jesse Eisenberg,
he's like my favorite actor, ever.
And in this movie, he plays the main character AND the antagonist.
So there's just double Jesse Eisenberg, which is really all I could ask for.
My next film or should I say, set of films is
"Before sunrise", "Before sunset" and "Before midnight".
These films follow the story of a boy and a girl
who meet on the train in Europe and
they just strike up a conversation and
spontaneously decide to get off the train and spend one night together in the city.
The first film, "Before sunrise", is when they first meet.
Then the next film is 10 years later,
and the next film is 10 years later after that.
So, seen together, they're a really interesting snap shot of a relationship.
It really tripped me out the first time
I watched all three of them, because I felt like I had seen my life flashed before my eyes.
You know, in the first film they're like 20, they're really young.
They're just having fun in a city together.
Later, we see them in their 30s in their 40s, and I'm like, holy shit
Like I'm gonna be.. I'm gonna be that old one day.
I'm really excited to watch these films again when I'm 30 and when I'm 40,
because I feel like I'll relate to the characters
in new ways.
Anyways, I love that these films feel very,
uhm...
authentic. It's a cheesy word.
But the writing and the acting is so nuanced
and there's like these little things that make it feel like real life.
There's a scene where they're on the train and like the guy is like nervous
and he's like trying to
reach for the girl's hair to like make a move on her
but like she puts her hair back before he can get to it.
And it's just like the little things like that that make this movie so good
and such, in my opinion, a really accurate reflection of
that feeling of, like a summer night, meeting somebody new.
My favorite feeling in the world
is that feeling of like a summer night when you're in high school
or traveling to a new city.
And you're just with somebody that you're just so present in the moment
and you never want the night to end.
I've never seen a movie capture that feeling as well as "Before sunrise".
My next film recommendation is a little bit less romantic.
It is "Gone Girl",
which is a murder mystery following- what are the characters names? - Nick and Amy
Just the most boring ass white names you can think of.
On Nick and Amy's fifth wedding anniversary
Amy goes missing and the movie tells the story from
Amy's perspective and Nick's perspective
as Nick tries to find out where his wife went
but also avoid allegations that he is the murderer.
It not only tells the story of this murder mystery,
but also the story of a relationship
that seemed so perfect and idyllic from the outside and slowly disintegrated.
I wanted to read you guys my favorite quote from this movie.
I didn't want to spoil, like, the plot twist in the middle.
So I'm just gonna read it out loud.
"Men always say that as a defining compliment, don't they?"
"She's a cool girl."
"Being the cool girl means I'm hot,"
"brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes and burping and plays video games,"
"drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth"
"like she's hosting the world's biggest culinary gangbang while somehow maintaining a size two."
"Because cool girls are, above all, hot."
"Hot and understanding."
"Cool girls never get angry."
"They only smile in a chagrined loving manner and then let men do whatever they want."
"Go ahead, shit on me."
"I don't mind."
"I'm the cool girl."
And trust me, Rosamund Pike does a much better job of saying that in the movie.
For so long,
I've tried to be the cool girl
and that movie was the first time I had ever heard that really put into words.
I felt like I could never stand up for myself
because I was trying to be cool and God forbid,
I'd be labeled like an annoying crazy girl.
It's exhausting and infuriating sometimes
to try to be cool and hot and chill and caring
but not nagging and available but not too available and like,
Sometimes it's just exhausting.
For that passage alone,
this movie is worth watching.
Also, a fascinating murder mystery, lots of twists and turns.
Give "Gone girl" a watch for a murder mystery
with a side of
feminist contemplation.
My favorite combination.
Our next film is" Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind".
This movie has a very pretentious title,
but I promise it's actually a really good film.
And I like to call it the "Inception" of rom-coms.
It's very trippy
but it also has a lot of
authentic stuff to say about love,
I think.
So this film follows a couple Joel and Clementine, and after they break up,
Clementine decides to erase Joel from her memory using this memory erasure service.
And Joel is so heartbroken
that he decides to do the same and
erase their entire relationship from his memory.
As the memory erasure process is going on
he realizes that maybe he wants to remember the relationship after all
and so he has to fight through his
subconscious to try to save it.
I first watched this film after a breakup
and I feel like a lot of our first instincts after a breakup
is to be like,
"Oh fuck that person",
like "I never loved them. Let me delete all our memories together.
Let me delete all our photos.
I'm gonna block their number."
And watching this film really helped me come to terms with the fact that
you can love somebody and it can not work out,
but you can still really cherish those memories.
I don't know, it taught me to appreciate my relationships for what they are,
even if they don't last forever.
So, we have "Snowpiercer".
This film follows a post-apocalyptic society
that is encapsulated on this train
that circles the globe on a never ending track.
You guys might sense a theme in my recommendation so far,
but this is another allegory for capitalism .
Lower-class people are kept in the back of the train.
They're fed cockroaches.
They're basically herded around like cattle.
And as you move forward through the train,
people become higher and higher class,
and they get more of the resources.
And then at the very front, there is the conductor
who is the original inventor of the train.
So this film follows this rebellion
of the lower-class people
as they travel up through all of the train carts
and try to take over the captain's cabin.
This is one of those adventure films that I could not look away from.
I was glued to my seat the entire time.
There are lots of twists and turns, some of them very disturbing.
My favorite thing about this film is the pacing
and how each little cart in the train is like
this new world that they unlock.
It's like playing a Mario video game or something.
Like each cart is a new level with a new theme to it,
and it really keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time.
So, that's all I'm gonna say about that
because if I say more, I will give it away.
But definitely give it a watch if you're looking for an adventure film.
Next up,
I gotta hand it to "Inception".
You guys have probably all watched it at this point,
so I'm not gonna talk about it too much.
But when "Inception" came out,
I watched that movie at my birthday party.
I would show it to anybody who came over to my house.
I probably watched it 10 times in the first year that it came out,
and that is really the movie that got me into film enough
to go to film school.
So I owe it all to Christopher Nolan.
Next up,
We have "Thelma and Louise".
"Thelma and Louise" follows two small-town friends named - could you guess it?
Thelma and Louise.
Their trip starts off fun and light-hearted
until at a bar, a man tries to rape Thelma .
And Louise shoots and killed him.
From there,
It becomes a chase movie as Thelma and Louise try to evade the police.
It is embarrassingly rare to find a film about female friendship
and with well-written,
dimensional female characters.
But this movie is it.
Both characters have really interesting character archs.
Thelma goes from the housewife
to really coming into her own as this
free and independent and badass woman.
She gets to fuck Brad Pitt.
It's really like kind of a coming-of-age film for a woman,
but it's like instead of being a teenager,
they're like adult woman coming into their own.
So I love this film.
I got so attached to the characters,
I cried at the end, which really does not happen often in films for me.
I would really recommend giving it a watch.
Like I was with all of these films, that's the theme here.
Speaking of film starring woman.
Next up, we have Brooklyn.
This is a film that takes place in the 1950s
and follows an Irish immigrant
played by Soo-see Ronan ... (The actress's name is Saoirse Ronan)
Se-si Ronan ? (It's pronounced Sur-sha Ronan, y'all)
Still don't know how to pronounce her name,
but she is a great actress.
It follows a young Irish girl who moves to Brooklyn in the 1950s
as she deals with
homesickness,
a new job,
finding herself.
I normally hate historical fiction SO much.
I find it SO boring.
Like come on,
my attention span has been shortened to five seconds, thanks to Instagram.
Gimme some action!
But to my surprise, I really related to this damn
1950s Irish girl
because when I first watched this film
I was in my dorm at UCLA
and I had recently moved all the way from my small town in Maryland out to LA.
I was feeling lonely and lost and confused
and it made me feel like I had somebody to relate to
when I was just a youngen
in college trying to figure out what the hell LA was.
Next we have "Love, Rosie".
This is an embarrassing one to put on my list
because it is so cheesy
and I think it's the only film on this list that is
negatively rated on Rotten Tomatoes.
"Love, Rosie" follows Alex and Rosie
who have been best friends ever since they were kids.
But they keep missing their chance to be together
even though they like each other.
it follows them from like age 18 to when they're adults
as they keep missing those opportunities in classic rom-com style
This movie,
like there's no real redeeming qualities
other than Sam Claflin and Lilly Collins being hot as fuck.
It's just a cheesy ass rom-com, but I love it,
especially because I first watched it when I was in high school
and I always had a crush on my best friend in high school
so I would watch this film and like project on my friend romance fantasy
onto the characters and
it made me feel good about myself.
I do have one animated film on my list and that is "Fantastic Mr. Fox".
This is an animated film directed by Wes Anderson
and it is personally my favorite Wes Anderson film.
It's based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name
and it follows a middle-aged. Mr Fox
who is a retired chicken hunter
and he wants to go on one last adventure,
stealing from all of the three big farmers in his neighborhood.
Okay. Apparently I cried to a lot of movies.
Actually, I cried to this movie too.
Yes!
I cried about animated foxes, okay?
But the animated fox was voiced by George Clooney.
What was I supposed to do?
I really relate both to Mr. Fox
who is this middle-aged burnout whos's trying to pursue his passion
and also his son who is this kind of a
misfit weirdo little fox.
Any movie that has like a misfit character
like gets me in tears because of my sad lonely child complex.
Also the animation in this film is an absolute marvel.
It's all claymation.
So they literally sculpted clay into every single frame of the film.
This stuff takes years to make with a ton of animators.
There are 24 frames in a second
and they had to manipulate clay
for every single frame.
CRAZY!
wes Anderson is also known for having this very
dollhouse, quirky style
and I think it translates really well into animation
since he can create these sets that are very symmetrical
and he can do some interesting shots that he can't do in real life
when he has animation on his side.
So, definitely worth a watch for cinematography and also just for feelings.
My next film is "The social network".
"The social network" retells the story of Mark Zuckerberg when he dropped out of Harvard
to create Facebook and how it grew
from this little idea that he had when he was like 20
into a billion-dollar company
and the lawsuit that ensued with his co-founder .
Now, normally,
I avoid films that are based too closely on a real-life human being
because I feel like they try so hard to be historically accurate
but then it creates a really boring movie
because, you know, real life doesn't have perfectly timed plot twists and
subplots that close up.
But Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the screenplay for this film, did a really great job of
kind of twisting the facts
so that it would create a cohesive and
interesting and exciting film
even though it's not the most historically accurate.
I really appreciate that because it tells a story
which is what a movie is supposed to do.
I love Aaron Sorkin's writing as well
because it's very like fast-paced and witty.
You guys know me for being a fast fucking talker
Jesse Eisenberg in "The social network"
nearly as fast.
Probably, my favorite scene in all of cinematic history is the opening scene of "The social network".
- I don't have to study. You don't have to study. Let's just talk.
- I can't. - Why?
- Because it is exhausting. Dating you, it was like dating a Stairmaster.
- All I meant is that you're not likely to.
- Currently I wasn't making a comment on your parents. I was just saying that they were obese. I was stating a fact.
- That's all. If it seems rude then of course I ...
- I have to go study.
- You don't have to study.
- Why do you keep saying I don't ?
- It's because you're going to be you.
I have watched it so many times on YouTube
like over and over and over again.
And the dialogue is just incredibly written.
After I finished recording this, I'm gonna go and watch "The social network" again
because just talking about it
mmm, got me going.
I need some good Aaron Sorkin dialogue in my life.
A really wholesome
coming-of-age film
is "About time",
which follows a law student
who discovers from his father that he has the magical skill
to go back in time.
Instead of using it for some crazy back-to-the-future type of shit,
he uses it to help out his friends
and to aid his romantic life.
- I love your eyes
- Do you ?
- I love the rest of your face too. Haven't even looked further down. I'm sure it's all fantastic.
What I like about this film is
even though there is a solid rom-com element,
it's not just about the romance.
it's also about
life in general and
the ending philosophy of the film
is you don't even have to be able to travel back in time
to try to make your life perfect
and to fix all your problems
as long as you live each day in the moment.
It's as if you were able to time-travel
because you'll know that you've lived each day for all it's worth.
Wholesome. I told you it was super wholesome.
I have yet another rom-com.
Clearly, I have a soft spot for them.
But I love "Lala land".
Emma Stone plays an aspiring actress.
- You either follow my rules or follow my rules, capiche?
-Thank you.
- I can do it a different way.
-No that's, that's fine. Thank you very much
And Ryan Gosling plays a very stubborn but passionate jazz player
who wants to open his own clubs
and the movie is about them pursuing each other
and also pursuing their passion
and how it's hard to balance the two,
especially when you're young and in a hopeful...
in Hollywood.
that was a really bad explanation of "Lala land",
I hope you guys have watched the trailer because I fucked that up.
I have to say, I understand why at the Oscars people were like
"This is the whitest movie that's ever existed"
like it is so non-consequential.
"Lala land" is like, definitely jerking off people who worked in Hollywood.
It is a script written for producers in Hollywood
who want to read jokes about Hollywood.
But being a film student and living in LA
I love seeing like the energy of all these young hopeful people trying to make it in Hollywood,
just like I was
and it made the drudgery of interning for free 30 hours a week a little bit less hopeless.
Speaking of interning.
Actually, I used to intern for the producer of "Lala land"
I only got one chance to meet him since he was a very busy man
So like I bump into my internship, my supervisor was like " It's time for you to meet Gary".
So I went over to his office
and I am like "Hi, I'm actually the intern".
And he's like," Oh, I'm I'm going to the bathroom".
Man's had to pee
so then he went to the bathroom and I just like waited
outside the bathroom for him to be done
and then when he came out
I introduced myself and we had like an incredibly awkward 30-second exchange
because I just felt
so bad
that like I heard him pee.
Really nice guy really smart guy, but
really bad timing on my part.
Anyways, even though La Land has absolutely no social commentary at all
I really like the film.
Emma Stone & Ryan Gosling are very charming and
I like the message that sometimes you have to give up
your relationship or your dream
and you can't have both of them
because that's like the modern reality ain't it?
Apparently I really just like rom-coms with sad endings, but
that's what happens when you've been broken up with,
a lot.
My last film is just a fun one
and it is "The room"
which is reportedly the worst film ever made.
I couldn't give you a synopsis of this movie
if I fucking tried
I don't know what it's about.
It's like sharknado but worse because there's no plotline whatsoever
- I did not hit her. It's not true. It's bullshit. I did not hit her. I did not.
- Oh, Hi Mark. - Oh, hey Johnny. What's up?
"The room" is one of those films that you really gotta see in theaters
because oh boy is an experience
similar to Rocky Horror Picture Show.
There are like things that the audience yells at the film basically to make fun of it
because it's so bad.
So every time the camera is out of focus, yell focus,
every time you see like a stock image of spoons,
you throw spoons at the screen.
There's a lot of other like, wee jokes that people in the audience yell at the screen.
They have a lot of screenings in LA.,
they do it in New York, too
and I think a couple other major US cities.
So if you are traveling to a major city this summer,
I'd recommend going to see it in the theater.
It's like a really fun time and a really unique experience.
Oh also, fun fact I met Tommy Wiseau
He's a weird dude.
All right. Those are all of my favorite films.
Yeah, I really hope you guys watch these movies
I feel like they really shaped who I am
even though that sounds very cheesy.
This set of movies is the reason I went to film school
and the thing that I hold on to, that I, like, love about
Hollywood
even I don't love that much about Hollywood. Hollywood kind of trash and full of nepotism and
cocaine but these films are all works of art and they keep my hopes alive
as a young recently graduated film student.
So yeah
let me know your recommendations down below because lord knows
I need to watch something instead of this 76 Marvel movies
that are coming out this summer.
I'm gonna stop rambling now.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you guys next week.
Bye ~