Awesome Film Essays

Aside from doves and dual-wielded pistols, John Woo’s most lasting contribution to the world of cinema is Gun Fu. He first used the mix in his 1986 film A Better Tomorrow, combining martial arts with firearms to create exciting close combat gunfights.

Filmscalpel’s video essay reminds us that sometimes the greatest moments of impact in filmmaking require no dialogue at all, with this compilation of scenes in which characters’ silent expressions and lost words spoke volumes about their states of mind.

Detail-oriented YouTube channel Ahoy explores the mythos of zombies. There have been countless movies, games, and TV series about the undead, and we owe a great deal about their traits to George Romero, and to video games for the gore and survival horror.

Now You See It made an abridged history of the movie-making capital. Hollywood started as a rebellious albeit greedy movement, then devolved into a monopoly of studios. The rise of the internet and affordable equipment could finally put an end to the blockbuster factory.

Channel Criswell takes on the filmmaking approach of Lars Von Trier. Von Trier’s films are made not for moviegoers but for his fellow filmmakers and artists – brazen reminders to keep art fresh and self-defining.

The Film Theorists compare Japanese horror films’ use of sound effects and timing with their American counterparts. Also, American films love to telegraph scary parts through the music and the environment, whereas Japanese horror can ruin even freakin’ broad daylight.

“Yeah maybe they don’t take me seriously, umm you know, why would you take somebody seriously that doesn’t know what day it is?” Meet Jeff Dowd, the Coen Brothers’ main inspiration for Jeff Bridges’ character in The Big Lebowski. Props to Redditor th3rp for the title.

Lessons from the Screenplay breaks down the two main purposes of a screenplay to examine how, despite being “unremarkable”, the original Ghostbusters script gave the cast and crew a solid foundation for a good movie.

From his earliest feature films like Duel, to classics like Jaws, Raiders, and E.T., to dramas like Schindler’s List to his diverse later works like War of the Worlds and Tintin, Burger Fiction reminds us just how amazing, prolific, and versatile Steven Spielberg is behind the lens.

(PG-13: Language) “Sounds shape what you see and what you think you see.” In film, sound has a unique variant: the ones made by unseen objects or beings. RocketJump Film School points out the various ways that off-screen sound can be used to paint a picture.

Independence Day is a mediocre film at best. But Lessons from the Screenplay points out that its script did get a number of things right. It kept the bad guys mysterious for a long time, and made an effort to endear the heroes to the audience before harming them. Sound familiar?

(PG-13 Language) Editor Ali Shirazi explores director Martin Scorsese’s effective use of mirrors in his films to provide an intimate look at the inner thoughts, demons, and motivations of his characters. The music is Howard Shore’s The Chase from the Hugo soundtrack.

(PG-13: Language) “Show us character, and you’ve got good dialogue.” Channel Criswell masterfully explains the ideal purpose of dialogue in movies. A great dialogue doesn’t tell you what the story is, but who the characters are.

(SPOILERS) YouTuber Lessons from the Screenplay points out how novelist Gillian Flynn expertly applied three fundamental screenwriting lessons in translating her novel Gone Girl to the big screen.

Slow motion video gives us more time to see what’s on screen, but it’s not only for eye candy. YouTuber The Discarded Image points out how filmmakers use the technique in different contexts to achieve a variety of results.

Candice Drouet breaks down the quintessential Coen brothers film. Fargo builds on a simple trick to mess with our expectations and drive its point home: that we get by partly by blocking out the horrible things that happen around us.

Now You See It lists some of the common criteria that we use to deem a movie “great”: introducing or perfecting a cinematic technique, influencing or defining pop culture, etc. But for many of us, the great movies are the ones that we saw at the right moment in our lives.

Kirby Ferguson looks at J.J. Abrams’ approach to filmmaking and the parallels between The Force Awakens and A New Hope. While referencing the past can be an homage, some might see it as a lack of creativity. In this case, combining the familiar and the new worked brilliantly.

(Gore) Taxi Driver is mostly told from the perspective of protagonist Travis Bickle. Fandor’s Jacob T. Swinney points out some of the ways that director Martin Scorsese showed the world through Travis’ eyes, whether literally or figuratively.

Kaptainkristian articulates Pixar’s recipe for success. The movie studio consistently makes wonderful animation and art, and their best movies are the ones that depict core values and relatable experiences, as opposed to parent company Disney’s more thinly veiled approach.

Channel Criswell breaks downs the style of filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. Tarkovsky’s approach is pure in that he created stories that could only be told through cinema, visualizing what the characters are feeling rather than what’s happening to them.

CineFix ranks its top 10 picks for the best movie casts. There are those whose actors have become synonymous with their roles, co-stars with wonderful chemistry and the unicorns on opposite ends: movies filled with amateurs and movies with ensemble casts.

Unlike many recent superhero movies, Fox’s X-Men films have shied away from colorful and distinctive costumes. Kaptain Kristian points out how ironic this is, given that this team symbolizes oppressed minorities accepting who they are and standing up for their identities.