@“Mnemogenic”#p113537 Don‘t feel bad, there is nothing wrong with enjoying it! I know where he’s coming from having been in the LA scene and meeting plenty of – what could only be described as – wankers. I‘m sure we all see them at repertory screenings and on letterboxd or twitter and everyone sees right through them. I was once stuck in a a car on the drive to vegas for 5 hours with someone who talked my ear off about Bergman and Cassavettes in the most braindead ways and thinking "You didn’t earn this. You‘re not an intellectual!" I think these types of people can’t be trusted with the Criterion Channel and thats where Brandon's criticism comes from.
However, the Criterion Channel **is** a force for good in the world, both preserving, curating, and providing context to films. And there is some really good bad stuff on it! Much of the catalog is weird stuff. My only criticism of the Criterion Channel is they should bring back FilmStruck
I also greatly enjoyed when Narrator Tim complaining about Frank beating the "I hate Woody" bit into the ground only to hear him do it himself 10 seconds later.
The video game version of the Criterion Channel would have to have burned-in english subtitles for all games not originally made in English. You couldn‘t turn them off even if you could speak the original language of the game!! So essentially the service would have to be directed at the monolingual anglosphere. That’s MY dunk on the Criterion Channel
@exodus I knew what stock child laughing sound effect you were talking about even before your serviceably accurate mimicking of it, and, I must say, hearing it always gives me a momentary jolt of white hot rage
I especially enjoyed Brandon saying "people" were upset that the panel didn't know everything about Quiet in the last Violence Island instead of saying "one person clearly on the verge of another break down"
i get where brandon is coming from with regards to the criterion channel though it‘s mostly a criticism of people being incurious and relying on other’s curation (which i still think is much better than the algorithmization of everything) but also consider this: https://criterion-production.s3.amazonaws.com/VwOp8YHcVXo4fIOlUBR9pAk99c0Vjl.jpg
Criterion’s positioning of itself as “authoritative” when it’s simply not, is a bit of a dilemma because it appears to set limits on what’s good. It’s tricky bc criterion obviously does curate and preserve lots of great stuff so can be somewhat convincing, but it’s absolutely not the end all be all.
@“golok”#p113563 This was recently a Spat of the Day on Film Twitter when a podcast guy basically made this critique in a slightly more offputting way. I understand the core arguments about people being overly reliant on curation and/or a tiny handful of companies gatekeeping Americans’ (legal) access to “non-mainstream” cinema, but apart from the obvious points about more accessibility for art being generally a good thing and curation helping to foster shared experiences and dialogue, I’d also point out that there’s plenty of stuff on Criterion Channel beyond what you see at the top of the front page, and not everything’s your standard arthouse drama fare either. My favorite thing to do is often to just go exploring through the hundreds of catalogued films, find something - anything - that looks interesting, and just watch it on impulse. Sometimes I discover something I’d never heard of and really like! On other days I can do the same thing on HBO. Streaming services have so much material on them, it’s honestly not that hard to cultivate at least some degree of individualized taste even within their boundaries. Ideally I’d love to just see every movie on the big screen, but when you don’t live in a major city your options in that regard are often limited! So, y’know, good for streaming services with a better quality standard than Netflix, and good for curation by humans rather than algorithms giving people a jumping off point into the staggeringly huge history of audiovisual media.
@“yeso”#p113571 Does Criterion explicitly do this, or is that just the reputation it’s acquired? I thought at this point it most people understood that it’s really only a distributor, giving restorations and deluxe releases to (primarily) films that might otherwise fall into obscurity by virtue of their age, nationality and/or niche appeal. And unsurprisingly they prioritize acquisition of films that are well regarded by critics, curators, etc.
@"Mnemogenic"#p113569 idk about “knowing better” but usually when I watch a new film, it helps to know that _someone_ out there likes it enough to recommend it! In this respect Letterboxd can be just as good or better than professional curation, because you can find any number of individual weirdos whose tastes align broadly with yours (or infuriate you in an intellectually satisfying way) and then check out what they like that you haven’t seen and go from there.
Maaaaan, the title + replies in thread got me expecting Tim literally dubbing all of Frank’s “dialogue” in-character. Compared to that, the “urban legend” narration is a tiny letdown.
Also Tubi does have a genuinely fantastic selection but having to watch ads in the middle of a film is unforgivable. Consider this though, @exodus: I watched Brian Yuzna’s B-movie legend _Society_, one of the best films I’ve seen in the last couple months, not on Tubi but on Criterion.
@“Gaagaagiins”#p113554 I don‘t know if this is the sound, but it’s in Little Big Planet, and my old roommate would burst out laughing every time he heard it because he thought it was so strange they had a kid laughing as one of the character voices. His laughter gave me a lot of joy.
https://youtu.be/SWYayRjDxwI?t=248
Speaking of said roommate, he is also one of my best friends and a friend I've known since I was maybe 5 or so. I spent a good deal of our friendship trying to make him laugh and he delivered. We went to school together then moved around a bunch doing our own thing before living together again in an apartment for awhile. And I noticed the laughs decreasing. It was a lot harder for me to make him laugh. But at night, I would hear him in his bedroom, cackling hysterically. I walked towards his room and peered through the open door to see "Rooster Teeth's Achievement Hunters playing Grand Theft Auto 5" on his computer monitor.
I gave up trying to make him laugh. We are still friends, but I guess I am nothing in the face of Achievement Hunter.
That is to say, perhaps tim should be a little nicer to brandon. Friendship is precious, and you never know when the Achievement Hunters might come together again to play Grand Theft Auto 6, and perhaps steal one of you away from the other.
Aside from that, Stellar episode. Hilarious. Almost exactly what I dreamed of when I heard about the delay. Nice work!!!
last thought: I don't like the creaky iron door noise that's in everything ever.
