Brows Held High

And here we have another video, this time on a film entitled The Love Witch. Kyle seems to really love the director of the movie. Like, really. I've never seen him get this excited before, it's honestly kind of adorable.

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After watching the review...I feel a bit bad for pointing this out, but I thought it was about some long forgotten Hammer Studios film.

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Here's a thought...

Biller's intention was to recontextualize the history of film in a feminine perspective. However most mainstream reviewers constantly point to Hammer and Sexploitation films as the inspiration for this film.

Did Biller actually fail? Or was that the point of the film's aesthetic?

GIVE ME YOUR FACE

So, Kyle put up another video about Auteurs and Tommy Wiseau. Personally, I thought this video was okay. Not one of Kyle's best.

For reference.

I liked it. Auteur theory is just an excuse for assholes to get away with being jerks by claiming they're doing it for "art". Stanley Kubrick is hailed as a master auteur but he outright abused people on set for getting takes wrong.

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Those two things are not mutually exclusive. Kubrick was a genius filmmaker and a huge asshole.

edited 23rd Dec '17 12:49:14 AM by Nithael

Yea I got confused by Kyle's thesis. Like on the surface level it seems as if he is suggesting that there are no auteurs in a position of power. I mean does Spike Lee or Sophia Coppola not be an auteur in society's eyes? What about the massive number of people in independent film making that takes almost the entire work load themselves but isn't in the eyes of academic cinema.

I remember Kyle refering the man who made "We are the Strange", Mdot Strange, as one of the most unique auteurs in the internet age, and I doubt anyone would think of him as a person of power. I don't know, I feel like he swept people who legitimately are great film makers as just "white guys" kinda miffed me.

I also don't think people laughed at "The Room" because we saw it as a criticism of auteurism. Yes, the Tommy had a lot of control over the film, and I guess by that way he carries the tradition, but I think people watch and laugh because it doesn't reflect modern auteurism.

The example he picked, the freak out scene where Johnny at near the end of the film, isn't unintentional comedy just because it reflects the absurdity of the auteur's ego. It's because Tommy looks like a goofy dude who is entirely inept at being a film maker.

This is a pretty weak video compared to the last one. Mainly because his thesis seems to be reliant on the definition of auteur he picked for this video.

edited 22nd Dec '17 9:58:38 PM by ringkunmori

Committees/producers/financiers can be just as abusive if not more than delusional directors. If Julie Taymor was allowed more auteurship for Frida, there would probably be a little less nudity by Salma Hayek, which was mandated by Harvey Weinstein.

I almost feel like Heaven's Gate would have been a better example for the video than The Room. The Room is just some independent movie, which got famous because of its low quality and bizarre elements, whereas -without seeing it- I feel like United Artists trusted Cimino with way bigger budget than it was realistic to get back. For instance, Raider's of the Lost Ark cost only 18 million dollars compared to Heaven's Gate's 44 million.

edited 23rd Dec '17 4:32:22 AM by harkko

I feel Kyle's work has gotten much less enjoyable in general for the last year or so. Part of it has to do with him intentionally steering his show away from humour and more toward being solely informal, but it also has to do with his delivery and performance, which I feel has gotten a lot more bitter and neurotic.

.... damn guys. I've loved his recent stuff? This video especially, in academic circles autuer theory gets so much play and attention, pointing out the folly of it is worth a video in it's own right.

Despite my screen-name, ranting to you about One Piece is not my top priority.

I honestly find his recent stuff way more entertaining than his more traditional reviews... at least when I end up watching them. I'm not really that up-to-date with Brows Held High these days, unfortunately.

but HOW?

It's outright painful for me to sit through his old reviews. It's obvious he's trying too hard to be funny like the other CA reviewers but at the expense of actual analysis.

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I don't know. I feel like his older reviews were pretty good. IMO, they balanced being funny with being informative pretty well. His newer videos, while not bad at all, just aren't as good.

What Kylie seems to be saying is more that the idea of auteur itself as a cinematic equivalent of the "Strong Man" is inherently toxic. You attribute this person the attributes of a Benevolent Despot who is free to be a dick as long as he's a genius, so of course you're going to get abuses of power.

I study cinema and screenwrite for a living, and one of the most recurring discussions I have is whether auteur theory is good or bad or even true. Filmmaking is a inherently collective activity, and many theorists think it's a load of shit to attribute a single person all that praise and power when he relied on a number of people to get the movie off the ground. Auteur theory ends up erasing those people at the expense of a single benevolent despot-ish figure diretor.

It's like the great man theory of historicity vs the people's history of historicity.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

His new videos actually feel like he's having fun making them. His older reviews were him chafing under CA's policies and forcing bad humor where it didn't belong.

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I'm not saying his new videos are bad. I'm just saying I like his older videos a little more. Also, I personally like the humor in those videos.

When I say I feel his work has gone downhill I'm referring to his work in the past year or so, not saying his earlier work with CA was better... I think some of it may be due to Kyle's state of mind due to the political climate of the past year resulting in his work having a far more "bitter and neurotic" tone and delivery to them.

Bitter, definitely. His actual videos on the other hand have stayed at the same level of quality so I don't see how he's necessarily gotten worse in any regard. I still think his video from around the end of 2016 after Trump's election is one of the best videos he ever made.

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For the record, I much prefer his newer and more analytical videos. It made him strike a better niche for himself rather than rely on the usual internet critic joking.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

Anything mentioning Tommy Wiseau = viewer engagement = $$$

So there may be a reason this isn’t his best.

Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!

Okay, I'm a little lost - why don't you guys like this one? I mean, it's hardly my favorite, but I think it was a perfectly fine video, with little - if anything - to complain about.

Oh God! Natural light!

Auteur Theory is serious business.

I personally isn't sure what his ultimate point was. I don't condone abusive or endangering behaviour but if for instance Akira Kurosawa had just let his crew and cast do whatever they want without having any kind of supervision, I don't think his movies would be the kind of classics they are. Usually reviews of his movies mention Setsuko Hara's, Takashi Shimura's, Toshiro Minufe's or Tatsuya Nakadai's performance as well so I don't think him being an auteur means that no one else gets any kind of recognition.

this is the biggest excluded middle i've ever seen

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.