[Weekly Updates] December 27th, 2020

This is the last update of 2020. We made it through another year!

ABOUT THE CHANNEL:

• Thank you for all the generous support! Our Patreon has reached its first community goal of 1000 dollar pledge amount. That means it's time for me to look into how to live stream! Once a few weeks, we can hangout and chat, or play chess together, or we can watch some unknown Chinese films together!
• Anyway, hope you all enjoy our last video on Saint Young Men. Turns out, the manga was pretty popular here in the west a couple of years ago. But the anime certainly went under most people's radar. Introducing unknown films to you is still a big part of this channel. Seeing how many people discover the film for the first time puts a smile on my face.
• But we still have one last video for 2020, a bonus video for our patrons. This time, it'll be on the British Christmas modern classic: Love Actually. And... I have a lot of mix feelings about it. If you watched it, you probably feel the same. The video is currently being edited, and should go live in a couple of days.

ABOUT MEDIA:

• Since it's the last update, I figure we should do a review on this year's films. Keep in mind this is 2020, and I haven't seen a lot of films, like Souls, Mank, #Alive, etc. So I'll just talk about the few that I can still remember.
• THE NEW MUTANTS: If 2020 taught me anything about film, is that expectations matter. What kind of films you expect to see, affects your perception of the film by a lot. I went into TNM expecting a teen horror flick, and I enjoy the first half because of that. It has that sense of slow dread and mystery I love.
• I also like the characters, or more accurately, the way the extremely talented young actors depict these (otherwise shallow) characters. They have very good chemistry together, and nothing feels forced. Even when it's unnatural, I can excuse it for being a horror flick.
• Many reviewers, however, hated the first half and think it's boring, because it doesn't have a lot of meaningful conflict, which is true. To them, they think the second half with clear goal and obstacles is much more engaging. But to me, they are just expecting an X-Men movie, which is fair. Because TNM's biggest failure, is that it doesn't know what it wants to be, so it becomes 2 separate movie glued together in the waist. And it pleases no one.
• TENET: If there ever is a film suffered from over-development, this is it. Like many other films that have a long development time, they tended to forget what its hook really is. 
• Remember how everything in Inception serves its dream premise, or the story in Interstellar is all about Time. Tenet's hook of reverse-entropy just ended up being an excuse for some flashy effects. They are really good flashy effects, but don't serve the hook, they just hop off it. As a result, TENET is a film that feels like a mix between Nolan and Syfy Channel.
• MY SPY: The reason I remember this movie is because its trailer is freaking in front of every movies in 2019. And... wow, it's a lot worse than I expected. Whoever let Dave Bautista play the straight man in a comedy should be fired.
• ONWARD: Yep, Onward came out this year. What a long year it was. Onward feels like a very tired and formulaic Pixar film, where everything you think will happen, happens. For a movie about magic, it lacks the Pixar magic we often associated with the studio. While it's suburban setting is intentionally mundane, its magic world is somehow just as boring. 
• At last, it still managed to tell an emotional tale, with a theme that isn't explored often. The film would've been good, if it wasn't coming from Pixar, a studio that has made a handful of similar and better films before.
• WONDER WOMAN 1984: If 2020 taught me anything about film, is that expectations matter. Oh wait...
• As soon as the mall sequence started, I immediately understood what this film is trying to be: It was trying to be Richard Donner's style cheese fest. It was aiming for that era of non-sense action. It's emulating the aesthetic and feel of Robocop, and Predator 2, and They Live, and Commando. And just like Predator 2, a lot of people (justifiably) don't like it. But I just love it.
• It's awkward pacing, lack of action, complete non-sense super abilities and such all feel excusable under that expectation. In fact, It just make it better. But that unfortunately means I have to watch it with, what essentially is rockbottom expectations.
• The film could've feel like an 80s classic, like Back to the Future. Instead, it's Predator 2.
• And my favourite movie of the year is: Bill & Ted Face the Music.
• Oh no, I bet someone is gonna unsubscribe now. But dude, I just love the vibe this movie gives. I'm so tired of films that take itself way too seriously. And I'm also tired of films try too hard to be tongue in cheek with jokes.
• I want a movie that is sincere with what its trying to tell. I want a movie that truly believes its message. I want a movie that aren't afraid of being cheesy, and childish,  and wonderful. B&T 3 is one of the only movies that managed to do that this year.
• It also happened to came out at the best time possible, right when so many people are losing hope, crushed under the pressure of social isolation. A film that's about bringing people together on a spiritual level? We all needed it. I think everyone should give this film a chance.
• This is why it is my favourite film of the year: Not because it's particularly great (even though it's better than it has any rights to be), but because it's a movie we all needed.

And that's it for 2020. Thank you for another amazing year on YouTube. Our channel had some amazing growth in the last couple of months! Let's continue make this channel better!

Any other films you'd like to talk about? Comment down below and let me know!