he's not particularly insightful or knowledgable, his critiques that veer into ideological territory are tedious and offputting, and he has this general aura of the kind of man who never actively self-critiques or seriously considers the viewpoints of others
I guess, to clarify more: folding ideas guy has a basic grasp of filmmaking technique and critical theory. this leads to him producing content that is, at its core Decent. it's Just Ok.
which I would be OK with.
except he combines that with...
this is a really hard thing for me to articulate effectively.
like, you know that kind of person who knows a modicum of basic music theory and uses that knowledge to agressively back up their mediocre taste in music? the knowledge had only serves to reinforce the mediocrity that was already there, not to expand horizons, but to ossify them.
he's like that, but with movies.
like, he has no pizzaz or subversiveness, it's just Good Taste and Good Politic, I'm Right and The Facts Agree With Me.
I just can't deal with people who think that they are right all the time, or whom are unwilling to slip into strange mindsets in order to get different angles on things
I half agree and half disagree, if that makes any sense, but I am too tired and physically uncomfortable to form an interesting explanation of my feelings.
I guess, to clarify more: folding ideas guy has a basic grasp of filmmaking technique and critical theory. this leads to him producing content that is, at its core Decent. it's Just Ok.
which I would be OK with.
except he combines that with...
this is a really hard thing for me to articulate effectively.
like, you know that kind of person who knows a modicum of basic music theory and uses that knowledge to agressively back up their mediocre taste in music? the knowledge had only serves to reinforce the mediocrity that was already there, not to expand horizons, but to ossify them.
he's like that, but with movies.
like, he has no pizzaz or subversiveness, it's just Good Taste and Good Politic, I'm Right and The Facts Agree With Me.
I guess, to clarify more: folding ideas guy has a basic grasp of filmmaking technique and critical theory. this leads to him producing content that is, at its core Decent. it's Just Ok.
which I would be OK with.
except he combines that with...
this is a really hard thing for me to articulate effectively.
like, you know that kind of person who knows a modicum of basic music theory and uses that knowledge to agressively back up their mediocre taste in music? the knowledge had only serves to reinforce the mediocrity that was already there, not to expand horizons, but to ossify them.
he's like that, but with movies.
like, he has no pizzaz or subversiveness, it's just Good Taste and Good Politic, I'm Right and The Facts Agree With Me.
I guess, to clarify more: folding ideas guy has a basic grasp of filmmaking technique and critical theory. this leads to him producing content that is, at its core Decent. it's Just Ok.
which I would be OK with.
except he combines that with...
this is a really hard thing for me to articulate effectively.
like, you know that kind of person who knows a modicum of basic music theory and uses that knowledge to agressively back up their mediocre taste in music? the knowledge had only serves to reinforce the mediocrity that was already there, not to expand horizons, but to ossify them.
he's like that, but with movies.
like, he has no pizzaz or subversiveness, it's just Good Taste and Good Politic, I'm Right and The Facts Agree With Me.
I guess, to clarify more: folding ideas guy has a basic grasp of filmmaking technique and critical theory. this leads to him producing content that is, at its core Decent. it's Just Ok.
which I would be OK with.
except he combines that with...
this is a really hard thing for me to articulate effectively.
like, you know that kind of person who knows a modicum of basic music theory and uses that knowledge to agressively back up their mediocre taste in music? the knowledge had only serves to reinforce the mediocrity that was already there, not to expand horizons, but to ossify them.
he's like that, but with movies.
like, he has no pizzaz or subversiveness, it's just Good Taste and Good Politic, I'm Right and The Facts Agree With Me.
you see where I'm coming from with this?
This is how I feel about the Nostalgia Chick
This is why I stopped following JesuOtaku.
Her too honestly.
Her earlier stuff, yeah, but reading her recent work and listening to her talk about stuff on the ANN podcast now and then, she seems a lot more self-aware with respect to the weaknesses in the things she likes and her own biases now, which I think is a good thing. And I liked her stuff before, so, hey, wunderbar.
This is another reason why I like Todd more than most other critics.
Say what you will about his antics on social media, but he is capable of exercising enough self-control to keep it out of his videos, unlike most who do such things.
But yeah, I'm conflicted about this. I agree that Olson can be didactic and self-righteous, but I feel like, at his best, he is doing something that I don't really see a whole lot of other people doing in terms of fusing a user-friendly introduction to the tools of communications theory with the video review format. It's really, really meta, in that it's about showing people the very ways that they can challenge what they're seeing presented and how it's being presented, providing the tools for its own deconstruction.
Which makes sense given that his parents were apparently both in theatre.
But yeah, I'm conflicted about this. I agree that Olson can be didactic and self-righteous, but I feel like, at his best, he is doing something that I don't really see a whole lot of other people doing in terms of fusing a user-friendly introduction to the tools of communications theory with the video review format. It's really, really meta, in that it's about showing people the very ways that they can challenge what they're seeing presented and how it's being presented, providing the tools for its own deconstruction.
Which makes sense given that his parents were apparently both in theatre.
this is totally reasonable, I just have a really low tolerance for both didacticness and self-righteousness
I don't think he goes headlong into that territory that often, though, and there are some areas in which he does it and I don't really have a problem with it. But I think the risk of sounding preachy is kind of big when you're doing a show about critical theory and communications as a base rather than about, say, a particular medium like film or music or prose fiction.
On the one hand, he's unfair to the conceptual art movement and doesn't entirely address the fact that CREMASTER was essentially meant as visual mood music for Barney's sculptural work in gallery settings; on the other hand... if taken as a film series on its own, while the aesthetics are interesting... ehhhhhhh.
Also, he admits in the quasi-blog episode after the first superhero episode that mainly he was just pissed about Gangster Squad and generally creeped out by the amount of authoritarian subtext in a lot of recent action films.
I should go watch the Cremaster review before I say anything about that, but I didn't mind the Superman review, honestly, even if there were more interesting angles he could've gone in with it.
I guess, to clarify more: folding ideas guy has a basic grasp of filmmaking technique and critical theory. this leads to him producing content that is, at its core Decent. it's Just Ok.
which I would be OK with.
except he combines that with...
this is a really hard thing for me to articulate effectively.
like, you know that kind of person who knows a modicum of basic music theory and uses that knowledge to agressively back up their mediocre taste in music? the knowledge had only serves to reinforce the mediocrity that was already there, not to expand horizons, but to ossify them.
he's like that, but with movies.
like, he has no pizzaz or subversiveness, it's just Good Taste and Good Politic, I'm Right and The Facts Agree With Me.
you see where I'm coming from with this?
This has gotten really bad for a lot of critics, I've noticed
I remember when I realized it with Lindsay was her Aphrodite video where here knowledge of Ancient Greek philosophy was muddled in very very obvious ways, and it made me realize she didn't know as much as she pretended to.
And the last time she had a surprising opinion was when she defended the 90s Hercules animated series.
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not sleeping
which I would be OK with.
except he combines that with...
this is a really hard thing for me to articulate effectively.
like, you know that kind of person who knows a modicum of basic music theory and uses that knowledge to agressively back up their mediocre taste in music? the knowledge had only serves to reinforce the mediocrity that was already there, not to expand horizons, but to ossify them.
he's like that, but with movies.
like, he has no pizzaz or subversiveness, it's just Good Taste and Good Politic, I'm Right and The Facts Agree With Me.
you see where I'm coming from with this?
the more I think about it, the worse Voyager's handling of Chakotay is
they kinda botched it
Her earlier stuff, yeah, but reading her recent work and listening to her talk about stuff on the ANN podcast now and then, she seems a lot more self-aware with respect to the weaknesses in the things she likes and her own biases now, which I think is a good thing. And I liked her stuff before, so, hey, wunderbar.
Say what you will about his antics on social media, but he is capable of exercising enough self-control to keep it out of his videos, unlike most who do such things.
Which makes sense given that his parents were apparently both in theatre.
Also, he admits in the quasi-blog episode after the first superhero episode that mainly he was just pissed about Gangster Squad and generally creeped out by the amount of authoritarian subtext in a lot of recent action films.
i saw another thread involving that name and i was gonna make a pun assuming that meant "master of cremation"
Keeps it fresh.
i'll know if/when he stops seeming insightful to me
that was kinda rude, sorry. thank you for the compliment, but like when someone is a more informed/experienced critic than me i can usually tell
I was mad at him for other reasons and kinda tarred him with the same brush as other people