what did you do to me your body won't
last long you'll be stuck in there for
the rest of your life you get me out of
here you son of AB calm down mr. brand
you're a cat I hate cats crappy movies
suck
obviously I hate to waste my money or my
time on something that is truly bad like
Suicide Squad bad where every decision
seems to be made for maximum [ __ ] he
tells me a whole lot Claire about to die
it's a shame but in the end I think
crappy movies are an inevitable part of
the cinematic ecosystem you're not ever
gonna get away from them and whether or
not they make money some of which
unfortunately do no one is setting out
to make a movie that is a piece of crap
I'm talking about a completely
superfluous bottle of cough syrup that's
like 6 bucks are you joking what's more
insidious in my opinion are movies that
are just passable films just good enough
not to be terrible i mean passable films
they aren't bad they might even be
better than okay but they're a far cry
from great or noteworthy or something
that you would like to see more than
once they're the cinematic equivalent of
this image they don't fall apart but
their balance is always precarious in
the last handful of years my annoyance
with passable movies has steadily
increased in proportion with their
steadily increasing number passable
films like to multiply they do just
enough for the audience and just enough
for the studio and just enough for the
stars they have no problem being funded
stop stop I need to know what is
happening right now for a long time I've
attributed the major problem with
passable movies to a lack of tonal
control the emotional logic of the
narrative in films like these often
often feels a bit out of whack
either the film tries to be too many
things at once leading to unintended
emotional confusion John Francis Walker
by authority of Governor Nix this unit
has been extinguished
[Music]
or the filmmakers give characters traits
that don't belong to them in order to
serve some plot function what has it
been this they're so far about any
manner towards without that many million
new people with no work and this is the
first two weeks of genuine or emotional
arcs initiated early in the story are
abandoned without common often proving
in the end to be entirely pointless
in good movies everything points to
everything else the emotional arcs of
the characters the scenes the imagery
the music and the plot are tightly and
twine and this doesn't just go for
highbrow movies by the way whenever you
hear someone say of a lower brow film
that it knows what it is what they're
really saying is that the film was
totally focused but recently I've begun
to notice another unifying feature of
possible movies indeed of all passable
storytelling and to understand what I
mean take a look at this scene I gotta
say it feels really good to have
somebody looking out for me I got you
back now I like that and I got your back
too
hey Doug I like you man thank you a
great guy and it's what you remember
that this is a business relationship
doesn't mean that we're gonna be best
friends it's not how to story ends
I'm just an employee with a job to do I
get it you know my best friend you're
just my best man it doesn't mean we're
not gonna have a good time I said I got
it you're anybody's best friend for a
price but nobody's when it counts
all the beats in this short scene should
be familiar to us we've seen them all
before but there's something odd going
on here these stories are almost always
about people or aliens or gods or
animals or robots that act like people
and great stories are always the ones
that observe people truthfully the ones
that capture human experience with
nuance and insight and the best stories
make such acute observations about
humanity that they can show us things
about ourselves that we didn't know or
teach us how to articulate those things
against a vast unintelligible anxiety
and this I think is the big difference
between great movies and possible ones
when passable movies observe human
experience they observe it not through
the lens of real life but through the
lens of other movies love is my life
no love is your job you know I think
you're threatened by what Zoe and I have
because you're afraid I won't be able to
hang out every night you are my drug
dealer there's one reason we know each
other
I like the drugs you sell that's it
there is this huge library this huge
vocabulary of actions built up over the
years that people you know don't really
do but which happened so often in TV and
movies that they're familiar enough to
an audience that they become well
passable for human motivations I'm not
saying it's bad for filmmakers to cite
or pay homage to the movies that they
love in their own work I'm saying that
too many films released today are being
cobbled together from a weird alternate
reality that is only a dim echo of our
own who do not believe in fairy tales
about chakras or energy or the power of
belief there is no such thing as spirit
this is the long-term danger of cliche
the more we allow it to happen the
harder it is to escape the more
difficult it is for audiences and
writers to tell the difference the last
thing we want is to see our own lives
through the lens of art that's only
passable
new perspectives are what we need
originality is what we should encourage
at every chance otherwise I'm afraid our
movies and ourselves will change into
something quite different
what's it called the imitation game
there is a new nerdfighter episode every
Wednesday guys hope you clicked that box
that I've set up for you right over
there you'll get a you'll get the videos
you'll get them you'll get all the
videos you get that a little bell on
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I will see you the rest of you next
Wednesday that was a weird and scream
that's not gonna use it