Why Eat The Rich Cinema Fails Hollywood has fallen in love with stories that seem to be critiquing capitalism and the rich. And while this might be exhilarating for progressive audiences, are these films actually threatening the system? Or are they making it more powerful? We'll explore in this video on Eat The Rich cinema.
Our world was built for Cars (2006), not humans You may remember Cars (2006) as the charming Pixar film about spunky humanoid automobiles. But what does the total absence of humans from this sunny diesel-powered world really mean? And can better understanding what this reality represents actually shed some light on some less savory things about our own world?
All Style, No Substance: And it's a good thing. One common criticism lobbed at the blockbuster body horror film The Substance was that it was incredibly visceral to look at, but not really saying much of depth. But what if the apparent surface level nature of the film is actually a big part of its message? And what if it's way more interesting than it seems at first glance?
Can SNL Ever Be Funny Again? Currently celebrating its 50th season, Saturday Night Live is the most dominant sketchy comedy show in the history of American television. And while it’s given us lots of stars and spin-offs over the years, the show has grown increasingly stagnant. In particular, the show’s political sketches feel more and more toothless. But does this have to be the case? We answer this question by looking at the more radical early years of the show, and considering the function of comedic irony.
Severance and the Horrors of Corporate Culture Severance captivated audiences with its eerie metaphor about splitting your brain between a “work” self and a “life” self. But what if this sci-fi dystopia isn’t so different from our own world? And what if taking a closer look at the corporate world of Lumon can actually tell us a lot about what it means to be a worker today? Let’s explore in this deep dive into season one of Severance.
Can A Movie About Catholicism Have Radical Politics? Conclave is a movie about priests fighting to see who gets to be the next pope that directly parallels the debates and battles in contemporary politics. In setting up a contest between potential popes, the movie explores the tensions between tradition and progress, exclusivity and inclusivity. But at its heart, it offers a theory of truth that fundamentally challenges the logic of modern religious and political institutions. So can a movie about one of the most patriarchal and hierarchical institutions in the world teach us something about radical politics? We’ll find out in this video on Conclave and the Truth of Religion.
Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Myth of Incel Gamers It’s common to associate video games with violence and antisociality. But what if we’ve got that exactly backwards, and what if the most popular game of 2023, Baldur’s Gate 3 can reveal the power of video games not to merely entertain us, but to actively make us better people? We’ll explain in this video on how video games make us more moral human beings.
The White Lotus spotlights privileged tourists, and the working class people who serve their every whim. But what if the real star of the show isn’t any one person, but the eponymous resort itself? This video will show how the way the characters navigate the spaces they inhabit at the resort offers insight into the socioeconomic implications of tourism, and the power struggles inherent to it.