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He Lost It at the Movies

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Re: He Lost It at the Movies

#21

Post by AlexandrB »

AlexandrB wrote: post #12
Slow_Hand wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good movie criticism is alive and well. You simply need to expand your vision beyond anyone who relies on Rotten Tomatoes or (probably) Letterbox. That's probably not it. Youtube is a great place to start looking. It has a lot of trash, but there are some extraordinary essayists and writers giving robust and insightful looks into films new and old. Off the top of my head: 1. House of Tabula - Essays on art and cultur…

I think a bit problem with any kind of art criticism in 2026, especially on YouTube, is audience capture. It's rare to find analysis that examines a piece as it is without dipping into some kind of political angle. A few channels try, but you get more clicks by choosing a side in the culture war and catering to those that agree with you. Once you go down this road, woe be to you if you stray from the path - your audi…

> 1. House of Tabula - Essays on art and culture, with a heavy emphasis on film, old and new. https://www.youtube.com/@TheHouseofTabula/videos

Wow, great channel. Addresses[1] some of what I said with much more insight than I could.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_-t3i6ipz4

Re: He Lost It at the Movies

#22

Post by projektfu »

analogpixel wrote: post #8

[flagged]

I'll be honest, I tired of the article after a while, but I found your AI summary to be unrewarding. In the few paragraphs I read I got a feeling for some of Hamrah's personality. I don't think I would have expected that given the summary.

Re: He Lost It at the Movies

#23

Post by analogpixel »

convolvatron wrote: post #16
analogpixel wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you are not alone in wanting to fill you mind with random bits of nothing; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48269580 <-- here is an article voted up that is just a list of random host names with no context to anything else.

I have seen an a stunningly large amount of anti-intellectualism on HN recently, but suggesting that writing as whole has no more value than a random list of words has to be really quite up there

The post with the random hostnames was ranked higher than this post of "intelligently meaningful words", so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

also taking: "suggesting that writing as whole has no more value than a random list of words" from me just saying it'd be nice to know what I was reading before I spent the time reading it seems kind of melodramatic.

Re: He Lost It at the Movies

#24

Post by analogpixel »

projektfu wrote: post #22
analogpixel wrote: post #8

[flagged]

I'll be honest, I tired of the article after a while, but I found your AI summary to be unrewarding. In the few paragraphs I read I got a feeling for some of Hamrah's personality. I don't think I would have expected that given the summary.

The thing about summaries is they should give you enough information to tell you what you are about to read, and if that would be something you are interested in pursing. It gives your brain some context of something to latch onto when you start reading.

"He Lost It at the Movies" means nothing to me, and even after I knew what the article was about still means nothing to be, it's no more than click bait. The summary on the other hand, gives you enough context to know what the writer was even trying to write about.

Re: He Lost It at the Movies

#25

Post by nradov »

Papazsazsa wrote: post #2

Interesting to see this on HN, I'd be curious to know OP's rationale, but I'm glad they posted it. Film criticism itself has suffered greatly in recent memory; at the end of the day, whatever trouble a critic might have gone to to watch, process, and articulate their thoughts on a given film is now reduced almost entirely to a number on Rotten Tomatoes.

Does film criticism even matter anymore? There used to more cost and friction associated with watching a movie and so good critics provided a useful gatekeeping service. But now with most people using streaming services (or pirating) if you don't like something it's easy to turn it off and watch something else.

Re: He Lost It at the Movies

#27

Post by hank808 »

hank808 wrote: post #26

"...came to widespread attention in the late 2000s..." Weird. I thought we were all living in the year 2026, which seems like the early 2000s to me. Huh...

I watched this until I saw the first down vote, 5 minutes later. Would anyone refer to the year 1909 as "the late 1900s?" Nope.

Re: He Lost It at the Movies

#28

Post by Shuang1 »

hank808 wrote: post #26

"...came to widespread attention in the late 2000s..." Weird. I thought we were all living in the year 2026, which seems like the early 2000s to me. Huh...

I think it's pretty obvious that we refer to more recent times like this, e.g. 2000s, 2010s, 2020s.

Re: He Lost It at the Movies

#29

Post by hank808 »

Shuang1 wrote: post #28
hank808 wrote: post #26

"...came to widespread attention in the late 2000s..." Weird. I thought we were all living in the year 2026, which seems like the early 2000s to me. Huh...

I think it's pretty obvious that we refer to more recent times like this, e.g. 2000s, 2010s, 2020s.

Nope. 2000s would refer to the century. We're still in the 2000s and still early. The Wright brothers flew the first plane in the early 1900s. Accurate. Ford introduced the Model T in the late 1900s, inaccurate. 1908 was not the late 1900s.

Re: He Lost It at the Movies

#30

Post by Slow_Hand »

AlexandrB wrote: post #21
AlexandrB wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a bit problem with any kind of art criticism in 2026, especially on YouTube, is audience capture. It's rare to find analysis that examines a piece as it is without dipping into some kind of political angle. A few channels try, but you get more clicks by choosing a side in the culture war and catering to those that agree with you. Once you go down this road, woe be to you if you stray from the path - your audi…

> 1. House of Tabula - Essays on art and culture, with a heavy emphasis on film, old and new. https://www.youtube.com/@TheHouseofTabula/videos Wow, great channel. Addresses[1] some of what I said with much more insight than I could. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_-t3i6ipz4

Gosh. Great choice. That video (Nothing Is Punk Anymore) really gets to the heart of Lewis and Luiza’s writing. Their ethos.

I come back to this video once a year to renew my spirit and orient myself.

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