![[Weekly Update] Dec 19, 2022](https://img5.samsuka.com/storage/10/jc/vf/c6f9d9-019e86f1-d766-79b3-af79-dceb25a08a3b.jpg)
[Weekly Update] Dec 19, 2022
Added 2022-12-19 18:20:43 +0000 UTCHappy holidays!
Real quick, we are now on Mastodon. If you want to follow us on social media, follow us here:
https://masto.ai/@accentedcinema
Twitter and Facebook will stay up and gets the same update, but I won't be as active as before. If you wanna banter with me in the comments, Mastodon is the way to go.
CHANNEL UPDATE
2022 comes to an end, and it was another eventful year for ou channel. This is our most productive year, yet, producing the most amount of videos, and even went out to film an April Fool's joke. We also hit 400k subscribers and made our 100 episode. Hope you hade fun this year as well!
Our next video will be on Lupin III. Not a holiday special, not a Christmas movie, but still a movie I'd recommend watching for this season. Editing is underway, and should go live in a few days.
We originally planned to talk about a Taiwanese Christmas movie "Starry Starry Night". The script is partially written. But that movie is a tad too sad, so maybe we finish that up at a later date.
Just a heads up, I'll be taking a 2 week break in January, so only one video for a month. Updates and bonus videos will continue as normal. This productive year proves a bit too much for my body and mental health, so I'll be taking more breaks. Hopefully, with a bit more free time, I can improve our video qualities a little!
MEDIA TALK
If I can summarize 2022 cinema in one word... It's would be "forgettable".
Oof, right?
While there certainly are some movies that I love: Everything Everywhere continues to impress; Nope is divisive but I enjoy it a great deal; Everyone loves Top Gun Maverick; I love Spirited enough to make a bonus video on it. But ultimately, even the best films this year didn't stay with me for long.
When you remember "Lightyear" is a 2022 movie, you'll know exactly what I mean.
I think one reason is that I've been so desensitized by real world events, movie magic is not enough to budge me anymore. I see many people approach films with a lot of cynicism. Every time Creed III gets a bit of publicity, all I see is people being negative about its posters, or making fun of potential premises. It is as if people are lowing their expectations, so they wouldn't be disappointed.
Another reason may be that we are finally getting tired of sequels and serialized movies. Multiverse of Madness, Black Adam, and Jurassic World falls into this category. These movies don't feel like entertainments. They feel like homework. I watch them because I already sunk a lot of times into their continuity, and I don't have much else to watch.
Think of it this way: There doesn't seem to be a new movie fandom this year. Not a lot of movie memes created, no new communities that go mainstream. There is no movie that captured our collective fascination... Except Morbius!
I'm talking about Deadpool, or Ready Player One, or The Martians, or Venom, or Get Out, or The Last Jedi. Good or bad, these movies were talked about, were meme'd. Fandoms and anti-fandoms were created around them. This year, I haven't seen a movie captures the social media in the same way.
This, to me, is the reason why so many critics flock to RRR, even though to an Indian viewer, this movie is just another epic, but done is a scale unseen before. The Western audience is sick of the same movie formula, and craves something we haven't seen before.
Maybe I'm just getting old and lost touch with youth culture. Or maybe as a society, we are getting too tired to be entertained. 2022 ends up being a year I have little to no memory of, at least in terms of cinema.
And the one that bumps me out is... I feel the same about Shin Ultraman.
Why did they use CGI for Ultraman? WHY!!
Anyway, that's my downder recap of the year. Hopefully next year, we'll have something better! Still excited for Creed III though!
Happy Holidays!
Comments
Looking forward to your Lupin the 3rd: the First retrospective, that movie was the first CG animated film in a while that captured my imagination. I agreed wholeheartedly with your comparison of Goro Miyazaki's first attempt at CG vs. the First. As for Shin Ultraman being CG, I kind of expected it, Tsuburaya has been experimenting with CG action in its live action TV Ultraman shows for a while now, especially if they need to do action sequences involving dogfighting flight action. While it's a little sad that they're straying from the practical tokusatsu effects, I think that's just how the medium is going to go and sometimes it still produces a good spectacle.
MCBiohazard
2022-12-19 19:01:22 +0000 UTCyay! I am closing down my twitter account at the end of the month (left up so stragglers see my message and can follow me to the new places) so glad to see you on the fediverse! Totally agree on 2022. It was not a great year for american mainstream cinema. Hope they make some course corrections and start seeing some change soon. Having said that, last week had a blast with "Violent Night". Won't win any awards, but was an unexpected laugh (but I agree with you that probably next year I won't be remembering it). Same with "Unbearable weight of a massive talent". And of course there is "everything everywhere": I did not like it as much; but I think that's because some of the themes -depression, suicide- touched too close to home for me to be able to fully enjoy the movie. And RRR was everything I'd love mainstream cinema to be again: grander than life and bombastic. But I feel disconnected with the new marvel movies, which is weird, as I loved the first ones and more or less kept updated until the big thanos battle (though I admit I was a bit tired by then). I feel like a chore to keep up with the content and the payoff is diminished. Dr Strange was okayish, I guess... but I am having the same feeling that I have with pixar movies since they were adquired by Disney: that they are rehashing the same formula, and is a very good formula, but since is not for me, I liked more when they were experimenting and fooling around more (because there were more chances for me to find enjoyment outside that formula), I end up a bit disappointed. With Marvel I feel THEY are experimenting, but the places they are taking the movies are even safer and blander like they knew they struck gold with Guardians of the Galaxy, but my favourite movie is Winter soldier, and I know we are not going to get another movie like that one, because all movies are going to be rehashes of Guardians formula. (oops hit send by accident) So to summarize: I think we are going to find much more value outside the american mainstream on the following years. Pig was a surprise to me, not my usual fare and I'm not sure I would be able to stomach a second viewing (and I don't know why, because is not violent, nor specially visceral, but...); and the availability of streaming services will make much easier for these movies to reach us than before, so... hoping for better years!
Abraham Limpo
2022-12-19 18:49:57 +0000 UTC
