History Webvideo / BrowsHeldHigh

-->'''Kyle:''' Ah, yes, Botticelli's ''The Birth of [[Creator/RobertCrumb R. Crumb]]''.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: He mentions that the fox from ''Film/{{Antichrist}}'' was nominated for the Palm Dog, given out at Cannes to the best canine in a film, but lost to the dog from ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}''. The Palm Dog isn't simply a pun on Palme d'Or, but is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Dog_Award an actual award]], albeit one given out by an independent entity, and that ''was'' the 2009 line-up.
** He gets to be on the receiving end of this when he suggests "A Midsummer Night's Cream" as a made-up porn version of ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'', only to be told that there's already a real one.

* NamesTheSame: [[invoked]]
** Kyle starts talking about ''Literature/CloudAtlas''' TheFilmOfTheBook and that the original book is written by author, Creator/{{David Mitchell|Author}}. Then a picture of the British actor and comedian, Creator/{{David Mitchell|Actor}}, shows up.
** ''Shame'' opens with Kyle imitating Creator/{{Steve McQueen|Actor}} in ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' and using that film's theme when discussing the works of the Creator/{{Steve McQueen|Director}} who actually directed ''Shame''.

** In his ''Film/{{Anonymous}}'' review, he calls out Anti-Stratfordianism by trying to make something similar regarding that film's director Creator/RolandEmmerich - if one watches only ''Film/IndependenceDay'', Emmerich could be a homophobic American Republican (instead of the gay German progressive he actually is).

* UpperClassTwit: Comes to this conclusion about Roland Emmerich in his review of ''Anonymous'' and why he portrays the "true" Shakespeare as a privileged mass entertainer. Emmerich's father struck a fortune by founding a gardening tool company, thus by the time Emmerich busted into Hollywood he knew precisely nothing about hardship, thus making it difficult for him to communicate to the masses through anything other than broad, ugly stereotype.
** Kyle stresses that he doesn't believe that Emmerich believes in the uglier, classist implications of Anti-Stratfordian theory, he just says them.

Now has a [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/BestEpisode/BrowsHeldHigh "Best Episode" Crowner]].

* WereStillRelevantDammit: [[invoked]] Joked about with on ''Sleeping Beauty''. His opening book for this was ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey''.
-->"This is still an automatic punchline, right?"

* AccentuateTheNegative: Pleasantly averted. He almost always has ''something'' nice to say about the films he watches, even if it does sometimes amount to little more than "[[DamnedByFaintPraise It had nice cinematography]]."

** Referring to his viewership as "''{{ahem}}''... [[{{Nerd}} enthusiasts of pop culture esoterica]]."

* SuddenlyShouting: When he compares Cocteau's work with the surrealists in the second part of the ''Film/{{Beauty and the Beast|1946}}'' video:

** He also doesn't like being called a Creator/BradJones rip-off.

-->"'''[[ItWasHisSled SEAN CONNERY IS DOROTHY!]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext SEAN CONNERY IS DOROTHY!]]'''"

*** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] after 2016, where he began to post video essays that deal with current issues such as Fascism (Siegfried Kracauer's ''From Caligari to Hitler''), body politics (''Taxidermia''), toxic masculinity (''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence''), racism (the question whether to erase D.W. Griffith's ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915'' from film history and replace with movies that used innovative techniques featured in the film), and representation of minority in media (''The Watermelon Woman'').

* CriticalResearchFailure: An InUniverse example: In ''Shame'', Kyle based his entire script around the assumption that ''Shame'' was directed by Creator/SteveMcQueenActor. As Ven points out, that Steve [=McQueen=] died in 1980, but ''Shame'' was released in 2011. Kyle isn't pleased.

* NamesTheSame: [[invoked]] Kyle starts talking about ''Literature/CloudAtlas''' TheFilmOfTheBook and that the original book is written by author, Creator/{{David Mitchell|Author}}. Then a picture of the British actor and comedian, Creator/{{David Mitchell|Actor}}, shows up.
** As noted on CriticalResearchFailure, ''Shame'' opens with Kyle imitating Creator/{{Steve McQueen|Actor}} in ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' and using that film's theme when discussing the works of the Creator/{{Steve McQueen|Director}} who actually directed ''Shame''.
* {{Narm}}: [[InUniverse Kyle]] bursts out laughing while watching the performance of the main character in ''Twilight of the Ice Nymphs'' when he monologues about trees, comparing the voice to a deaf cracked-out Creator/BillMurray.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: [[InUniverse He laughs]] uproariously at the fake severed head in ''Film/FleshForFrankenstein''. "God, it looks like one of the [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} Thunderbird pilots]]."
* SpiritualAntithesis: He implicitly paints Creator/JeanCocteau's ''Film/BeautyAndTheBeast1946'' as this to Roberto Benigni's ''Film/Pinocchio2002''. Both are live-action arthouse renditions of famous European fairytales that were the basis for films in the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, and both were made by highly regarded filmmakers hailing from the countries where the original stories originated. Kyle views ''Beauty and the Beast'' as a masterpiece, and his review largely focuses on how Cocteau's unique interpretation of the tale helped influence [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Disney's more well-known version]]. By contrast, he views ''Pinocchio'' as a complete failure, and his review largely focuses on how Benigni '''tried''' to create a new version of the tale that could stand apart from [[WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}} Disney's version]], but just ended up with an inept mess.

* {{Corpsing}}: He tries valiantly, but WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob ''cannot'' keep a straight face when Kyle refers to ''Theatre/{{Coriolanus}}'' as "[[ParallelPornTitles Gloryhole Anus]]".

** ''Immortal, ad Vitam'' lists [[Film/{{Twilight}} Renesmee Cullen]] as the prime example of the UncannyValley. [[invoked]]

* NiceHat: Kyle's friend Ven is constantly seen wearing flouncy Renaissance-era feathered ''chapeaus'', and attempts to force a cowboy hat on him in his review of ''Dead Man''.

** Played Straight while discussing Creator/DWGriffith's ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915''. He watched its 3+ hour entirety as a research for ''Film/TheWatermelonWoman'' episode ([[UpToEleven "It is so much worse]] [[ThisIsGonnaSuck than I thought."]]) and called it "Cinematic Hate-Crime".

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: The "Dreams of the Witch House" episode.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: His reaction to ''Film/{{Shortbus}}''' "Shabbos goy" asking if a woman is on the rag.

* BaitAndSwitch: For the final "Summer of Shakespeare" episode, Kyle looks at the story parallels between Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' and Shakespeare's ''[[spoiler:''[[Theatre/HenryIV Henry the Fourth]]'']]. WebVideo/SomeJerkWithACamera, who sunk a ton of research into ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' in hopes of crossing-over, is not pleased to hear that.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: While already excited in his review of ''Film/TheFall'' he perks up even more when explaining that UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin (ItMakesSenseInContext) has a pet monkey.

* OlderThanTheyThink: [[invoked]] A favorite topic on the show. Kyle is fond of taking supposedly "groundbreaking" recent films and pointing out lesser-known arthouse films that did exactly what they did decades earlier. Case in point: pointing out that the film adaptation of ''Film/CloudAtlas'' is surprisingly similar to Creator/DWGriffith's ''Film/{{Intolerance}}'', that ''Film/{{Inception}}'' borrows a few visual ideas from Creator/JeanCocteau's ''Film/TheBloodOfAPoet'', and that ''Film/{{Boyhood}}'' uses many of the same techniques that François Truffaut's ''Antoine Doinel'' films did. During his episode on Film/TheBirthOfANation, he mentioned that all of that film's innovations were done by films such as Victor Sjostrom's Ingeborg Holm, and D.W. Griffith's own A Corner in Wheat and Musketeers of Pig Alley among others.

* VomitDiscretionShot: Does this after making a ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' joke, which obviously is anathema to his high brow nature.

* WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties: Upon viewing stock footage of the Katyn massacre that was spliced into ''Sweet Movie'', kyle's screaming face is replaced by a test pattern.

* GodwinsLaw: Couldn't get past the ending of ''Film/Jubilee1978'' without constantly going back to the fact that there was a short scene featuring what he described as "Old Man [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]]".

* HollywoodNerd: [[http://twitter.com/#!/KyleKallgren/status/86564777190629376 When not wearing his trademark suit,]] he makes one hell of a type 2.

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: Goes on a lengthy rant about how ''Film/{{Melancholia}}'' breaks every law of physics and astronomy possible.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography/[[ArtisticLicenseHistory History]]: Points out how difficult it would be for Dracula to travel from Romania to Italy at the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI certain point in time]] that ''Film/BloodForDracula'' is set.

* NotSoDifferent: In the review of ''Film/TheGirlfriendExperience'', he 'inadvertently' draws similarities between escort and porn websites, and being an internet reviewer. At the end of the review, he goes to work on his other job, as a host on webcam site [=LiveJasmin=]
** Possibly one of the reasons some see him as a WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob ripoff is that the difference between a lot of his "arthouse" films and the Snob's exploitation movies seems to be purely InNameOnly, as they both tend to contain similarly dark and disturbing content. (The other reason is that Kyle is a straight version of what the Snob is a parody of--a sophisticated cinemaphile.) This is lampshaded in the ''Film/TromeoAndJuliet'' review.
*** The TGWTG menu screen even described his crossover with WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob as "A sheltered, hairy, condescending man who talks about porn for a living meets a sheltered, hairy, condescending man who talks about "erotica" for a living!"

** Played Straight while discussing Creator/DWGriffith's ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915''. He watched its 3+ hour entirety as a research for ''The Watermelon Woman'' episode ([[UpToEleven "It is so much worse]] [[ThisIsGonnaSuck than I thought."]]) and called it "Cinematic Hate-Crime".

** Kyle maintains this on his show... [[AcceptablePoliticalTargets for the]][[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush most part]].