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10 of the Most Niche YouTube Video Essays You Absolutely Need to Watch

The genre of YouTube video essays is more interesting than it sounds. Sure, any piece of video content that advances a central thesis could be considered a “video essay.” But there are key components of video essays that elevate the genre into so much more than simply a YouTube version of a written article. Over the past few years, the term “YouTube video essay” has grown to evoke connotations of niche fascination and discovery. For creators, the field is highly competitive with strong personalities trying to get eyes on extremely in-depth analysis of a wide range of topics. The “niche” factor is especially important here. Ultimately, the hallmark of a good video essay is its ability to captivate you into watching hours of content about a subject matter you would have never expected to care about in the first place. Scary? Maybe. Fun? Definitely.

Whether you’re sceptical about the power of video essays, or you’re an existing fan looking for your next niche obsession, I’ve rounded up some of my personal favourite YouTube video essays for you to lean in and watch. This is not a comprehensive list by any means, and it largely reflects what the algorithm thinks (knows) I personally want to watch.

Other factors that influenced my selection process: The video essays needed to have a strong, surprising thesis — something other than a creator saying “ this thing good ” or “ this thing bad. ” These videos also stood out to me due to their sheer amount of thorough, hard-hitting evidence, as well as the dedication on the behalf of the YouTubers who chose to share with us hours upon hours of research into these topics.

And yes, I have watched all the hours of content featured here. I’m a professional.

Disney’s FastPass: A Complicated History

Let’s start strong with a documentary so premium, I can’t believe it’s free. Multiple articles and reviews have been dedicated to Defunctland’s video series about, well, waiting in line. I know what you’re thinking — the only thing that sounds more boring than waiting in line is watching a video about waiting in line. But Defunctland’s investigation into the history of Disneyland’s FastPass system has so much more to offer.

Class warfare. Human behaviour. The perils of capitalism. One commenter under the video captures it well by writing “oddly informative and vaguely terrifying.” Since its launch in 2017, Kevin Perjurer’s entire Defunctland YouTube channel has become a leading voice in extremely thorough video essays. The FastPass analysis is one of the most rewarding of all of Defunctland’s in-depth amusement park coverage.

I won’t spoil it here, but the best part of the video is hands-down when Perjurer reveals an animated simulation of the theme park experience to test out how various line-reservation systems work. Again, no spoilers, but get ready for a wildly satisfying “gotcha” moment.

Personally, I’ve never had any interest one way or another about Disney-affiliated theme parks. I’ve never been, and I never planned on going. That’s the main reason I’m selling you on this video essay right off the bat. Defunctland is a perfect example of how the genre of video essays has such a high bar for investigative reporting, shocking analysis, and an ability to suck you in to a topic you never thought you’d care about.

Watch time : 1:42:59 (like a proper feature documentary)

THE Vampire Diaries Video

No list of video essays can get very far without including Jenny Nicholson , a true titan of the genre. Or, as one commenter puts it, “The power of Jenny Nicholson: getting me to watch an almost three hour long video about something I don’t care about.” I struggled to pick which of her videos to feature here, but at over seven million views, “THE Vampire Diaries Video” might just be Nicholson’s magnum opus. Once you break out the red string on a cork board, it’s safe to say that you’re in magnum opus territory.

I haven’t ever seen an episode of CW’s The Vampire Diaries , but since this video essay captivated me, I can safely say that I’m an expert on the show. Nicholson’s reputation as a knowledgeable, passionate, funny YouTuber is well-earned. She’s a proper geek, and watching her cultural analyses feel like I’m nerding out with one of my smartest friends. If you really don’t think The Vampire Diaries investigation is for you (and I argue that it’s for everyone), I recommend “ A needlessly thorough roast of Dear Evan Hansen ” instead.

Watch time : 2:33:19

In Search Of A Flat Earth

Did you think you could get through a YouTube video round-up without single mention of Flat Earthers? Wishful thinking.

“In Search of Flat Earth” is a beautiful, thoughtful video essay slash feature-length documentary. Don’t go into this video if you’re looking to bash and ridicule flat earth conspiracy theorists. Instead, Olson’s core argument takes a somewhat sympathetic gaze to the fact that Flat Earthers cannot be “reasoned” out of their beliefs with “science” or “evidence.” Plus, this video has a satisfying second-act plot twist. As Olson points out, “In Search of Flat Earth” could have an alternative clickbait title of “The Twist at 37 Minutes Will Make You Believe We Live In Hell.” Over the years,  Dan Olson of Folding Ideas has helped to popularise the entire video essay genre, and this one just might be his masterpiece.

Watch time : 1:16:16

The Rise and Fall of Teen Dystopias

Sarah Z is your go-to Gen Z cultural critic and explainer. The YouTuber brings her knack for loving-yet-shrewd analysis to dig into fandom culture, the YA book industry, and why the teen dystopia got beaten into the ground.

I’ve found that one of the most reliable video essay formulas is some version of “what went wrong with [incredibly popular cultural moment].” In the case of teen dystopias, it’s a fascinating take on how a generation of teen girls were drawn to bad arse, anti-establishment heroines, only to watch those types of characters get mass produced and diluted into mockery. But maybe I’m biased here; as the exact demographic targeted by the peak of The Hunger Games, Twilight, and Divergent, this cultural debrief speaks to my soul.

Watch time : 1:22:41

A Buffet of Black Food History

Food is an effective way to combine economic, cultural, and social histories–and Black American food history is an especially rich one. Food resonates with people, allowing us to connect with the past in a much more real way than if we were memorising dates and locations from a textbook. Historian Elexius Jionde of Intelexual Media is a pro at taking what could be a standard history lesson and turning it into an interesting journey full of crazy characters and tidbits.

Most of the comments beneath the video are complaints that the video deserves to be so much longer. It’s jam-packed with surprising facts, fun asides, and, of course, tantalising descriptions of the food at hand. Jionde even warns you right at the top: “Turn this video off right now if you’re hungry.”

Watch time : 22:39

The reign of the Slim-Thick Influencer

At this point, I’m assuming you know what a BBL is. Even if you aren’t familiar with the term (Brazilian butt lifts, FYI), then you’ve still probably observed the trend. Before big butts, it was thigh gaps. The pendulum swing of trending body types is nothing new. Curves are in, curves are out, thick thighs save lives, “skinny fat” is bad, and now, “slim thick” looms large. How do different body types fall in and out of fashion, and what effect does this have on the people living in those bodies?

Creator Khadija Mbowe identifies and analyses a lot of the issues with how women’s bodies (especially Black women’s) are commodified, without ever blaming the bodies that are under fire. Mbowe handles the topic with grace and humour, even when discussing how deeply personal it is to them. If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a photo of an Instagram influencer, please do yourself a favour and watch this video essay.

Watch time : 54:18

Flight of the Navigator

Once again: I have been sucked into a video about a film that I have never seen and probably never will. Captain Disillusion, whose real name is Alan Melikdjanian, is another giant of the video essay genre, posting videos to a not-too-shabby audience of 2.29 million subscribers. Most of Captain Dissilision’s videos that I’d seen before this were of the creator debunking viral videos, exposing how certain visual effects were “obviously” faked. In this video, he turns his eye for debunking special effects not to viral videos, but to the 1986 Disney sci-fi adventure Flight of the Navigator.

This behind-the-scenes analysis of the Disney film is incredibly informative, tackling every instance when someone might ask, “ Hey, how did they manage to film that? ” It also touches upon the history of the special effects industry, something that deserves a little extra appreciation as CGI takes over every corner of movie-making.

Watch time : 41:28

The Failure of Victorious

YouTuber Quinton Reviews is dedicated to his craft, and I thank him for it. As you’ve certainly caught on to by now, you truly do not need to know anything about the show Victorious to enjoy an hours-long video essay that digs into it. What makes this video stand out is the sheer amount of content that this YouTuber both consumed and then created for us. Part of the video length — a whopping five hours — is due to the fact that every single episode of the Nickelodeon show is dissected. Another reason for the length is all the care that Quinton Reviews puts into providing context. And the context is what made me stick around: the failures of TV networks, the psychological dangers of working as child stars, and the questionable adult jokes that were broadcast to young audiences…if you’re at all interested in tainting your memory of hit Nickelodeon shows, this video is for you.

Watch time : 5:34:58 ( And that’s just part one. Strap in! )

Why Anime is for Black People

In this video Travis goes through the history of the “hip hop x anime” phenomenon, in which East Asian media permeates Black culture (and vice versa, as he hints at near the end). Although I am (1) not Black and (2) not an avid anime fan, I first clicked on this video because I’m a fan of comedian and writer Yedoye Travis. And yet — big shocker — I was immediately engrossed with the subject matter, despite having no context heading into it. Once you finish watching this video, be sure to check out Megan Thee Stallion’s interview about her connection to anime .

I haven’t run this part by my editor yet, but now would be a prime time to plug Lifehacker Editor-in-Chief Jordan Calhoun’s book, Piccolo Is Black: A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Pop Culture . Just saying.

Watch time : 18:34 (basically nothing in the world of video essays, especially compared to the five hours of Victorious content I binged earlier)

Efficiency in Comedy: The Office vs. Friends

I’m rounding out this list on a note of personal sentimentality. This is one of the first video essays that got me hooked on the format, mostly because I had followed creator Drew Gooden to YouTube after his stardom on Vine (RIP). This video is one of his most popular, combining comedy and maths to pit two of the most popular sitcoms of all time in a joke-for-joke battle.

Gooden in particular stands out as someone who excels as both an earnest comic and a thoughtful critic of comedy. I appreciate his perspective as someone who knows what it’s like to work for a laugh and wants to get to the bottom of why something is or isn’t funny. This isn’t even one of Gooden’s best videos (I actually think his take on the parallels between Community and Arrested Development has a much stronger argument), but it’s a great example of the sort of perspective best situated to make video essays in the first place. Because what makes all these video essays so compelling is often the personality behind the argument. These aren’t investigative journalists or professional critics. They’re YouTubers. Really smart YouTubers, but still: These videos are born out of everyday people who simply have something to say.

I believe the modern YouTube video essay is uniquely situated to put cultural critique back into the hands of the average consumer — but only if that consumer is willing to put in the work to become a creator themselves.

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The best video essays of 2021

An escape from the most popular to the most captivating

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As coronavirus cloistered the world, the genre of video essays continued to augment in popularity on Youtube. Despite the homogeny of the creator space being apparent from a cursory glance, 2021 saw POC video essayists gaining momentum on the platform. From behemoths like D’Angelo Wallace to humble creators like myself, there is a gradient of experiences that are finally being represented thanks to YouTube’s algorithm “apparently” being an equalizer. That being said, this article hopes to shed light on some of gems you may have missed.

Beyond the players, the format of video essays has also evolved. Gone are the days when a midwestern man could aggregate thousands of views on a video about why water is wet. (OK, jk, that still happens.) But most of today’s video essays now amalgamate several genres of YouTube videos. Whether it’s the commentary crossovers à la Tara Mooknee , or the stand-up comedy stylings of Chill Goblin , there is a variety of variations to find. Here are a few that surprised us in the last year. —Ransford James, aka Foreign

[ Ed. note: This list is ordered chronologically rather than ranked by preference, meaning everything is worth checking out. And if you need more to watch, check out last year’s list .]

“Your Island is a Commune pt. 1,” Nowhere Grotesk

I first discovered this touching series on Animal Crossing: New Horizons via the social posts on F. D. Signifier’s YouTube channel — more on him later, but credit where credit’s due. Nowhere Grotesk’s bio on social media reads, “We’re two visual artists that create and examine art through a utopian leftist lens,” and that feeling permeates this series.

Discussing Animal Crossing: New Horizons through the lens of communal living and pastoral nostalgia, Nowhere Grotesk pushes back on the easy joke that Tom Nook is a greedy capitalist. Instead, this series shows how Animal Crossing: New Horizons conveys the concept of community as directly in conflict with urbanization and capitalism, thriving only when everyone’s needs are met without the turmoil of work. Even the addition of the Happy Home Paradise DLC , which gives players the option to work for additional outcomes, doesn’t nullify the anticapitalist argument here; working is a choice you can but don’t have to make. The island even meets more of the players’ needs by providing free healthcare. Animal Crossing isn’t the apolitical fluff many seem to think; instead, it’s a lovely, immersive argument for anarcho-communism, mutual aid, and rooting our politics in community. —Wil Williams

“The Market of Humiliating Black Women,” Tee Noir

This offering is far from obscure, but by the off chance that Tee Noir has evaded your eyes and eluded your ears, consider my favorite video from her so far: “ The Market of Humiliating Black Women .” Without spoiling this masterpiece, Tee breaks down what is such an innocuous experience that not many people even notice: How quotidian Black women’s pain is in popular media. From high-budget Tyler Perry movies to grainy WorldstarHipHop videos, the parodying of pain that Black women face on the daily is rewarded with thousands of millions of views and thousands of shares.

This is an experience that is far from second-hand with regard to Tee Noir, as she faces scrutiny that men don’t, simply by virtue of being a Black woman on this platform — let alone her queerness. —RJ

“The Day Rue ‘Became’ Black,” Yhara Zayd

After hitting shelves in 2008, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games was praised for the way it conveyed real-life modern class struggles in a strange, borderline fantastical world. The Hunger Games was clear about what it was saying and referencing, but apparently, some readers didn’t get the memo — or perhaps they refused to.

In this video, Zayd pulls on the Hunger Games fandom’s history to dissect what made some readers so shocked when Amandla Stenberg, a young Black actress, was cast as Rue, a young girl who is ... canonically Black. This isn’t just about people reading a book wrong, though; it’s about why audiences felt less protective of Rue the moment she “became” Black “in casting.” It’s also about why most of those comments have since been scrubbed from the internet.

Yhara Zayd’s work has been featured on all of my video essay lists , and for good reason. Her sharp, concise, passionate analysis is scored by a low-key (but not necessarily relaxed) aesthetic and narration style. Her occasional breaks to make a joke or loosen up her script emphasize what’s so important about the topic at hand: the humanity. —WW

“Infantilization and the Body Hair Debate,” Shanspeare

Unironic ASMR, charismatic candor, and witty humor are but a few of Shanspeare’s calling cards. Despite the myriad of channels dedicated to analyzing pop culture, none do it quite like Shanspeare. “ Infantilization and the Body Hair Debate ” is one of the most eye-opening videos that I have encountered, and it has provoked me — a cishet Afro-Caribbean man — into thoroughly addressing my own contributions to the subject matter. This deep dive into how the world incentivizes childlike behavior from women is as unnerving as it is necessary to watch. From the way I speak to women, to my subconscious preference of nicely shaven legs, Shanspeare details how all of that is essentially the product of a purposeful inculcation that was underway far before I was even a thought. I cannot emphasize to you enough that you should watch this masterpiece and all of her other ones as well. —RJ

“Bo Burnham vs. Jeff Bezos,” CJ the X

Thanks to my specific symptoms of ADHD, it can be really hard for me to devote time to watch video essays that are over an hour long, and even harder for me to really fall in love with them. I hope this will help convey the gravity with which I am saying that I watched this two-and-a-half-hour video more times than any other video on YouTube this year. What starts as an analysis of Bo Burnham’s Inside slowly morphs into something else, then something else, then something else . This video transitions so gracefully between discussions of posthumanism, the internet, online fame, and what makes something funny, all while being punctuated with CJ the X’s hallmark near-absurdist blink-and-you’ll-miss-it humor. What makes this video an instant classic of the medium, though, is how it lands: a deep, sincere, vulnerable love letter to empathy and human connection, wound up in a personal anecdote that makes the thesis feel even more real.

I struggled to have basic hope or faith in humanity this year. I struggled to tell myself that everything is worth it. No piece of media helped me more with those struggles than this video. I wrote a piece on my read of Inside before seeing this video, and after watching it, my read on Inside has changed. And I’m so grateful. — WW

“The Reign of the Slim Thick Influencer,” Khadija Mbowe

I hope that this creator needs no introduction, because I feel woefully unequipped to introduce them myself. Khadija Mbowe walks the walk, and the walk is an onerous one. Being a feminine-presenting nonbinary creator of an obsidian hue, they brazenly break down some of the most nuanced topics with empathy and levity. Moreover, they pay it forward by promoting creators that the algorithm may have missed — much like myself, and in the same way Tee Noir promoted them a year ago.

“ The Reign of the Slim-Thick Influencer ” is arguably my favorite Khadija Mbowe video this year. It’s a discussion of the trend of Brazilian butt lifts , how influencers like Kim Kardashian perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards, and the awful origins of commodifying the Black woman’s body. This is a must-see for everybody who consumes social media, which is … everybody. — RJ

“make more characters bi, you cowards: why (not) romance?,” voice memos for the void

An installment of Voice Memos for the Void’s Romance in Media series, “make more characters bi, you cowards: why (not) romance?” does what it says on the tin. This video analyzes the strange state of bisexual characters in media, pointing out how rarely bisexual characters get to fall in love. Not have sex, but fall in love. Voice Memos for the Void effortlessly combats rebuttals to this idea that we hear every time we ask for more representation and romance: “Why do they need to be queer?” “Why do they need to be in love?” It also dives into different depictions of masculinity, a history of Byronic heroes, and the troubling tropes that follow bisexual characters around in media, like that of the Magical and/or Hedonistic Bisexual . Forgive the glitchy camera in this video; equipment is expensive, and the commentary more than makes up for the video fidelity. We can thank F. D. Signifier’s feed for putting this video on my radar, too. — WW

“The Black Right Wing,” Anansi’s Library

While Tee Noir enjoys (?) a visibility that many POC creators don’t, Anansi boasts a dedicated 15,000 subscriber count but is deserving of far more. They stay closer to the format that many video essays have in the past of concealing their face in their videos, relying more on the merit of their musings than the luster of their looks. Many of us simply create and comment on the actions of others, but Anansi, for lack of a better term, is really in the field. They are deeply entrenched in American activism, which makes their videos simply an accompaniment to a much larger concerted effort.

This video on The Black Right Wing is redolent of the very fight that they have fought on many occasions. It details this unique subset of Black Americans that embraces the Trumpian conservatism that still plagues the United States to this very day. If you are fascinated by the neurosis necessary to align oneself with a party that is antipodal to your existence, then this is the video for you! — RJ

“On Leftist Disunity,” St. Andrewism

By now you must see the peaks and valleys that this list is riding, from creators who have passed the 100,000 mark to those who are still in the 10,000s. The themes that combine in all of them are apparent: their marginalized status, the video essay format, and most of all, the quality. Over the last year, the Trinibagan St. Andrewism has amassed over 50,000 subscribers, and his video On Leftist Disunity is a highlight. This video is the quintessential love letter to the leftist community that encourages the embrace of the many differences it has within it. Instead of approaching this with the pessimism that many people do, St. Andrew seems gleefully optimistic that this diversity of thought will end up saving not only the United States but the world. —RJ

“Break Bread,” F. D. Signifier

OK, now we can talk about F. D. Signifier in earnest. In my video essay list for our Masterpieces of Streaming series, I gave a brief history of video essays through the lens of educational videos. In “Breaking Bread,” F. D. Signifier offers an uncomfortably accurate parallel history: the rise of video essays from rant reviewers like The Nostalgia Critic. The trend of debate bros and, in F. D. Signifier’s words, every LeftTuber making a video about Ben Shapiro, isn’t just rooted in the medium’s history, though; it’s also rooted in whiteness. That lens and style of video stays prominent thanks to the YouTube algorithm, and while the homogeneity of video essays has been critiqued many times, “Break Bread” breaks down the issue with an astounding level of complexity, research, and guests from all over the video essay ecosystem. How much of a video essayist’s success comes down to talent? How much comes down to luck? And how much comes down to the algorithm knowing that what keeps people watching is simply who looks familiar? — WW

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Sight & Sound Best Video Essays of 2022

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The video essay boom

Hour-long YouTube videos are thriving in the TikTok era. Their popularity reflects our desire for more nuanced content online.

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The video essay’s reintroduction into my adult life was, like many things, a side effect of the pandemic. On days when I couldn’t bring myself to read recreationally, I tried to unwind after work by watching hours and hours of YouTube.

My pseudo-intellectual superego, however, soon became dissatisfied with the brain-numbing monotony of “day in the life” vlogs, old Bon Appétit test kitchen videos, and makeup tutorials. I wanted content that was entertaining, but simultaneously informational, thoughtful, and analytical. In short, I wanted something that gave the impression that I, the passive viewer, was smart. Enter: the video essay.

Video essays have been around for about a decade, if not more, on YouTube. There is some debate over how the form preceded the platform; some film scholars believe the video essay was born out of and remains heavily influenced by essay films , a type of nonfiction filmmaking. Regardless, YouTube has become the undisputed home of the contemporary video essay. Since 2012, when the platform began to prioritize watch-time over views , the genre flourished. These videos became a significant part of the 2010s YouTube landscape, and were popularized by creators across film, politics, and academic subcultures.

Today, there are video essays devoted to virtually any topic you can think of, ranging anywhere from about 10 minutes to upward of an hour. The video essay has been a means to entertain fan theories , explore the lore of a video game or a historical deep dive , explain or critique a social media trend , or like most written essays, expound upon an argument, hypothesis , or curiosity proposed by the creator.

Some of the best-known video essay creators — Lindsay Ellis, Natalie Wynn of ContraPoints, and Abigail Thorn of PhilosophyTube — are often associated with BreadTube , an umbrella term for a group of left-leaning, long-form YouTubers who provide intellectualized commentary on political and cultural topics.

It’s not an exaggeration to claim that I — and many of my fellow Gen Zers — were raised on video essays, academically and intellectually. They were helpful resources for late-night cramming sessions (thanks Crash Course), and responsible for introducing a generation to first-person commentary on all sorts of cultural and political phenomena. Now, the kids who grew up on this content are producing their own.

“Video essays are a form that has lent itself particularly well to pop culture because of its analytical nature,” Madeline Buxton, the culture and trends manager at YouTube, told me. “We are starting to see more creators using video essays to comment on growing trends across social media. They’re serving as sort of real-time internet historians by helping viewers understand not just what is a trend, but the larger cultural context of something.”

any video that starts with "the rise and fall of" I'm clicking on it no matter the topic — zae | industry plant (@ItsZaeOk) February 23, 2022

A lot has been said about the video essay and its ever-shifting parameters . What does seem newly relevant is how the video essay is becoming repackaged, as long-form video creators find a home on platforms besides YouTube. This has played out concurrently with the pandemic-era shift toward short-form video, with Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube respectively launching Reels, Spotlight, and Shorts to compete against TikTok.

TikTok’s sudden, unwavering rise has proven the viability of bite-size content, and the app’s addictive nature has spawned fears about young people’s dwindling attention spans. Yet, the prevailing popularity of video essays, from new and old creators alike, suggests otherwise. Audiences have not been deterred from watching lengthy videos, nor has the short-form pivot significantly affected creators and their output. Emerging video essayists aren’t shying away from length or nuance, even while using TikTok or Reels as a supplement to grow their online following.

One can even argue that we are witnessing the video essay’s golden era . Run times are longer than ever, while more and more creators are producing long-form videos. The growth of “creator economy” crowdfunding tools, especially during the pandemic, has allowed video essayists to take longer breaks between uploads while retaining their production quality.

“I do feel some pressure to make my videos longer because my audience continues to ask for it,” said Tiffany Ferguson, a YouTube creator specializing in media criticism and pop culture commentary. “I’ve seen comments, both on my own videos and those I watch, where fans are like, ‘Yes, you’re feeding us,’ when it comes to longer videos, especially the hour to two-hour ones. In a way, the mentality seems to be: The longer the better.”

In a Medium post last April, the blogger A. Khaled remarked that viewers were “willing to indulge user-generated content that is as long as a multi-million dollar cinematic production by a major Hollywood studio” — a notion that seemed improbable just a few years ago, even to the most popular video essayists. To creators, this hunger for well-edited, long-form video is unprecedented and uniquely suitable for pandemic times.

The internet might’ve changed what we pay attention to, but it hasn’t entirely shortened our attention span, argued Jessica Maddox, an assistant professor of digital media technology at the University of Alabama. “It has made us more selective about the things we want to devote our attention to,” she told me. “People are willing to devote time to content they find interesting.”

Every viewer is different, of course. I find that my attention starts to wane around the 20-minute mark if I’m actively watching and doing nothing else — although I will admit to once spending a non-consecutive four hours on an epic Twin Peaks explainer . Last month, the channel Folding Ideas published a two-hour video essay on “the problem with NFTs,” which has garnered more than 6 million views so far.

Hour-plus-long videos can be hits, depending on the creator, the subject matter, the production quality, and the audience base that the content attracts. There will always be an early drop-off point with some viewers, according to Ferguson, who make it about two to five minutes into a video essay. Those numbers don’t often concern her; she trusts that her devoted subscribers will be interested enough to stick around.

“About half of my viewers watch up to the halfway point, and a smaller group finishes the entire video,” Ferguson said. “It’s just how YouTube is. If your video is longer than two minutes, I think you’re going to see that drop-off regardless if it’s for a video that’s 15 or 60 minutes long.”

Some video essayists have experimented with shorter content as a topic testing ground for longer videos or as a discovery tool to reach new audiences, whether it be on the same platform (like Shorts) or an entirely different one (like TikTok).

“Short-form video can expose people to topics or types of content they’re not super familiar with yet,” Maddox said. “Shorts are almost like a sampling of what you can get with long-form content.” The growth of Shorts, according to Buxton of YouTube, has given rise to this class of “hybrid creators,” who alternate between short- and long-form content. They can also be a starting point for new creators, who are not yet comfortable with scripting a 30-minute video.

Queline Meadows, a student in Ithaca College’s screen cultures program, became interested in how young people were using TikTok to casually talk about film, using editing techniques that borrowed heavily from video essays. She created her own YouTube video essay titled “The Rise of Film TikTok” to analyze the phenomenon, and produces both TikTok micro-essays and lengthy videos.

“I think people have a desire to understand things more deeply,” Meadows told me. “Even with TikTok, I find it hard to unfold an argument or explore multiple angles of a subject. Once people get tired of the hot takes, they want to sit with something that’s more nuanced and in-depth.”

@que1ine link in bio #fyp #filmtok #filmtiktok #videoessay ♬ Swing Lynn - Harmless

It’s common for TikTokers to tease a multi-part video to gain followers. Many have attempted to direct viewers to their YouTube channel and other platforms for longer content. On the contrary, it’s in TikTok’s best interests to retain creators — and therefore viewers — on the app. In late February, TikTok announced plans to extend its maximum video length from three minutes to 10 minutes , more than tripling a video’s run-time possibility. This decision arrived months after TikTok’s move last July to start offering three-minute videos .

As TikTok inches into YouTube-length territory, Spotify, too, has introduced video on its platform, while YouTube has similarly signaled an interest in podcasting . In October, Spotify began introducing “video podcasts,” which allows listeners (or rather, viewers) to watch episodes. Users have the option to toggle between actively watching a podcast or traditionally listening to one.

What’s interesting about the video podcast is how Spotify is positioning it as an interchangeable, if not more intimate, alternative to a pure audio podcast. The video essay, then, appears to occupy a middle ground between podcast and traditional video by making use of these key elements. For creators, the boundaries are no longer so easy to define.

“Some video essay subcultures are more visual than others, while others are less so,” said Ferguson, who was approached by Spotify to upload her YouTube video essays onto the platform last year. “I was already in the process of trying to upload just the audio of my old videos since that’s more convenient for people to listen to and save on their podcast app. My reasoning has always been to make my content more accessible.”

To Ferguson, podcasts are a natural byproduct of the video essay. Many viewers are already consuming lengthy videos as ambient entertainment, as content to passively listen to while doing other tasks. The video essay is not a static format, and its development is heavily shaped by platforms, which play a crucial role in algorithmically determining how such content is received and promoted. Some of these changes are reflective of cultural shifts, too.

Maddox, who researches digital culture and media, has a theory that social media discourse is becoming less reactionary. She described it as a “simmering down” of the hot take, which is often associated with cancel culture . These days, more creators are approaching controversy from a removed, secondhand standpoint; they seem less interested in engendering drama for clicks. “People are still providing their opinions, but in conjunction with deep analysis,” Maddox said. “I think it says a lot about the state of the world and what holds people’s attention.”

no u know what i HATE video essay slander......... they r forever gonna be my fav background noise YES i enjoy the lofi nintendo music and YES i want a 3 hour video explaining the importance of the hair color of someone from a show i've never watched — ☻smiley☻ (@smiley_jpeg) January 19, 2022

That’s the power of the video essay. Its basic premise — whether the video is a mini-explainer or explores a 40-minute hypothesis — requires the creator to, at the very least, do their research. This often leads to personal disclaimers and summaries of alternative opinions or perspectives, which is very different from the more self-centered “reaction videos” and “story time” clickbait side of YouTube.

“The things I’m talking about are bigger than me. I recognize the limitations of my own experience,” Ferguson said. “Once I started talking about intersections of race, gender, sexuality — so many experiences that were different from my own — I couldn’t just share my own narrow, straight, white woman perspective. I have to provide context.”

This doesn’t change the solipsistic nature of the internet, but it is a positive gear shift, at least in the realm of social media discourse, that makes being chronically online a little less soul-crushing. The video essay, in a way, encourages us to engage in good faith with ideas that we might not typically entertain or think of ourselves. Video essays can’t solve the many problems of the internet (or the world, for that matter), but they can certainly make learning about them a little more bearable.

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The 15 Best Video Essays of 2021

This article is part of our 2021 Rewind .  Follow along as we explore the best and most interesting movies, shows, performances, and more from this very strange year.   In this entry, we explore the best video essays of 2021.

Another bizarre, pandemic-riddled year is in the can. Once again, video essays have provided a welcome distraction with sharp perspectives on all things film, from technical curios to tried-and-true aspects of visual storytelling. Some of 2021’s best video essays shed light on new, under-discussed sides of beloved classics. Others invited us to finally hit play on titles that have been languishing deep in a long-forgotten watchlist. And some attempted to make sense of the stickier corners of filmmaking, untangling knotty subjects with precision and putting intuitions into words.

I have had another wildly fun year of hosting The Queue , a thrice-weekly column dedicated to highlighting short-form video content about films, television, and the craft of storytelling. The following 15 essays are some of my favorites. Choosing just 15 was a difficult task, and I want to sincerely thank all of the video essayists I’ve covered this year for their hard work. Thank you for keeping us edutained for another year. I look forward, as ever, to seeing y’all pop up in my feed in 2022.

But, for now, let’s take a look back on the best video essays of 2021:

Why 4:3 Looks So Good

For a significant period of both film and television history, the boxy 4:3 aspect ratio wasn’t an artistic choice; it was the only way to present footage. While 4:3 fell out of favor with the advent of new technologies, this aspect ratio is making a comeback. And while it’s easy to dismiss the recent revival as a pretentious visual trend, this video essay does a fantastic job of unpacking the ways in which directors deploy it intentionally.

This video on the visual appeal of the 4:3 aspect ratio is by  Karsten Runquist , a Chicago-based video essayist. You can check out Runquist’s back catalog and subscribe to his channel on YouTube  here . You can follow Runquist on Twitter  here .

How Jackie Chan Takes a Hit

A part of what makes Jackie Chan such a compelling action star is his willingness to get hurt. Rather than protecting his ego and presenting himself as a human-sized action figure, he is willing to serve the character, the story, and the stakes of a fight by putting himself on the receiving end of a hard-hitting wallop. Not only that, but as this super entertaining and informative video essay underlines, the actor/director/stuntman repeatedly demonstrates that taking hits is just as much of an art as dolling them out.

This 2021 video essay was created by Accented Cinema , a Canadian-based YouTube series with a focus on foreign cinema. You can subscribe to Accented Cinema for bi-weekly uploads here . You can follow them on Twitter  here .

Return to Oz is an Absolute Nightmare

Not only is  Return to Oz   one of the darkest Disney movies ever made, but it’s also one of the most faithful adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s work. Surprise, surprise, those two facts aren’t totally unrelated. If you’ve only ever heard whispers of this infamous “kids” movie or if you’re looking to confront long-repressed childhood trauma, this video essay is a great way to get familiar with the project’s troubled production and its success as an adaptation.

This video essay is by In Praise of Shadows , a channel run by Zane Whitener  and based in Asheville, North Carolina. They focus on horror, history, and retrospectives. You can subscribe to their YouTube channel here  And you can follow them on Twitter  here .

Paul Thomas Anderson and The Long Goodbye

With Licorice Pizza hitting theaters at the end of 2021, now is as good a time as any to recommend this fantastic video essay on the influence of director Robert Altman on the work of Paul Thomas Anderson . For Anderson fans unfamiliar with Altman’s work, the video is an enticing carrot to dig deeper into one of the biggest names of the 1970s.

This 2021 video essay is by Philip Brubaker , a nonfiction filmmaker based in Gainesville, Florida. He has made a heck of a lot of video essays for Fandor, Vague Visages, and MUBI, in addition to short documentaries. You can browse Brubaker’s video content on his Vimeo page and follow him on Twitter .

Disney’s Robin Hood and the Death of Color

I’m a huge sucker for big-scoped retrospectives, so when this video essay on the cinematic trajectory of Robin Hood hit my subscription queue, I couldn’t hit play fast enough. The essay devotes a good deal of time to Disney’s  Robin Hood and why it’s great, focussing in the back half with the ways that gritty reboots neutralize the power of the mirth-filled myth.

This video on Disney’s Robin Hood is by Jace, a.k.a   BREADSWORD,  an LA-based video essayist who specializes in long-form nostalgia-heavy love letters. Impeccably edited and smoother than butter, BREADSWORD essays boast an unparalleled relaxed fit and an expressive narrative tone. Long essays like this take a lot of time to put together, and somehow BREADSWORD makes it all look effortless. You can subscribe to them on YouTube  here . And you can follow them on Twitter  here .

Related Topics: 2021 Rewind , The Queue

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The Best Video Essay Channels, Ranked

Cinephiles and film buffs owe it to themselves to check out these YouTube channels which brilliantly analyze and explain movies using video essays.

If you’re a die-hard movie fan, you don’t have to be a hardcore collector to know that you can find a lot of your special features free on YouTube – from movie trailers and top-ten lists to reaction videos and cast-and-crew interviews. But the crème de la crème for any budding cinephile is YouTube ’s subculture of video essayists.

The best of these content creators, particularly those focused on dissecting and analyzing film and television, give viewers a lot of food for thought, making them consider things they hadn’t before, even when it comes to movies they have watched 100 times. There is an embarrassment of content out there, but this article seeks to separate the wheat from the chaff – we are recommending only the channels with the best, most refreshing, and most original analysis. If you're a film lover or budding buff, you owe it to yourself to check out these great video essay channels.

What’s So Great About That?

UK creator and pop-culture academic Grace Lee makes video essays examining themes and form in both horror and animated media; she has an affinity for the deeper, more unexpected thoughts evoked by her favorite genres. Whereas many content creators are quippy or sarcastic, Lee’s voiceover narrative approach is one of measured thoughtfulness.

Related: Explained: How Twin Peaks Changed Television

While her output as What's So Great About That? is not as large as some other creators on this list, that is far from a bad thing as Lee seems to focus more on quality than quantity. Each video discusses fairly narrow topics within a given property – examples include the “treachery of language” in the work of David Lynch or the concept of the “unnatural” in the original Evil Dead film.

You might mistake Canadian vlogger Sarah Z (pronounced “Zed”) for your best friend. She sits on the couch with a cup of coffee and speaks directly to you, a monologuist spending hours on end about all of her opinions, from toxic fandoms to true-crime documentaries.

But these monologues are not the boring, meaningless yarns that you might expect. Rather, Sarah’s channel is an ever-deepening trove of incisive and engaging media analysis encased in a shell of light and fluffy entertainment. The whole thing is driven by Sarah’s palpable excitement and enthusiasm for the topics she is covering, and a penchant for long, detailed videos that are extensively researched. Some videos will even stretch far beyond the one-hour mark, including a 90-minute video on geek culture and a full two hours on Dear Evan Hansen .

Another Canadian creator steps up to the plate in the form of Sage Hyden , a fantasy novelist whose essay channel Just Write seems particularly preoccupied with film’s place in the cultural conversation. In particular, Hyden is fascinated with the messages that movies send us, what they are trying to communicate (consciously or subconsciously), and how they shape our perceptions and prejudices.

For topics that can sometimes land on the serious side, Hyden’s tone and writing style are conversational and often funny, and his insights are fairly eye-opening. Topics include Willy Wonka and its relationship to misconceptions about poverty, the importance of the original Mulan film, and the cinematic lineage of the modern murder mystery Knives Out .

If you consider yourself an outsider or find yourself disagreeing with most of your friends on their favorite movies, you might find a mutual kinship with creator Yhara Zayd , whose videos examine film and television through lenses both personal and political. Zayd’s is not the kind of detached analysis you can expect from many YouTubers; rather, though she is very well-researched, she is also full of unapologetic hot takes, and her videos are brimming with the caustic personality of a modern-day Pauline Kael.

Related: These Are the Best Marilyn Monroe Movies

In some ways, Zayd has crafted the perfect synergy between the highly-opinionated critic and the relentless deconstructionist, enthusiastically dissecting and questioning the images and media we regularly consume. She also has a distinct knack for self-awareness, gazing inward as she gazes outward, a quality which separates her content from that of many of her peers. Zayd covers such divergent subjects as the commodification of the great Marilyn Monroe, reflections of housing discrimination in 1980s horror films , and the under-appreciated legacy of Not Another Teen Movie .

For something a little less personal but no less fascinating, it is worth checking out the prolific Susannah McCullough and her channel The Take . McCullough and her extraordinary team make what are probably the best “Explained” videos you’ll be able to find, along with character breakdowns, deconstructions of tropes, and the lessons movies can teach us. They’ve got videos that deconstruct and explain Donnie Darko , The Sopranos , Get Out , and many, many more. They’ve also nerded out with full series on different franchises, including detailed character analyses in shows such as Friends and Breaking Bad .

The writing is smart but accessible, and the arguments are utterly convincing. The videos themselves are breezily edited and full of poppy visuals. The channel also covers many, many genres and types of movies, so you are sure to find something on a movie or TV show you love. The Take offers incisive film analysis in a context that is fun and completely unpretentious.

Maggie Mae Fish

Decadent, performance-driven vlogs like ContraPoints and Philosophy Tube are all the rage these days, and film buffs finally have their own version in the form of Maggie Mae Fish . Ms. Fish is a singular, idiosyncratic voice who pivots wildly from dedicated film scholar to sketch-comedy caricature and back again. She typically sits center-frame in a variety of ornately designed sets, dressed in colorful outfits, while she patiently spoons out detailed, thoughtful analysis over the course of long videos.

For any video-essay enthusiast, Fish is the real deal – wickedly entertaining, subversive, accessible, and always thought-provoking. Her recent two-video series on Twin Peaks is catnip for any fans seeking a new perspective on the show – and an excellent dressing-down of Twin Perfect’s infamous 4.5-hour breakdown. She also deconstructs auteur theory through the works of David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick, and spends two hours discussing Loki ’s debt to Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker .

Lindsay Ellis

When it comes to distinct personalities, no vlogger quite matches the likes of the controversial but brilliant Lindsay Ellis . She is a brand unto herself, with an over-the-top, self-deprecating style that can only be described as a hopped-up, sleep-deprived, but no less informed, Adam Curtis. She is often seen drinking wine in her videos, breaking down popular media like Disney movies, musical adaptations, and The Lord of the Rings franchise.

Ellis is one of the originals of the medium, and her work is so singular that her influence has likely extended to all the other creators who occupy this list. Some of her most brilliant work includes “The Whole Plate,” a nine-video series that completely deconstructs the first Transformers film through the lenses of gender, sexuality, and film studies. Her most iconic work includes 40-minute videos ranting about the film adaptations of Rent and The Phantom of the Opera . Due to recent Internet events, she has stopped making videos on YouTube, but her existing videos are still there for all to see and are absolutely worth checking out.

Every Frame A Painting

Sometimes the most obvious answer is still the best one. Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou’s gorgeous video series Every Frame A Painting is still the benchmark against which all other video essayists are judged. You’ve probably seen their video on Edgar Wright and visual comedy, or the one on silence in the films of Martin Scorsese. The channel has been defunct for several years now, but the content still feels as fresh and original as it did when it was first published.

The topics covered are narrow and unexpected, but they all work extraordinarily well. The writing is tight and evocative, and Zhou’s voice is unforgettably soothing and inviting. The editing is also crisp and beautiful. Ramos and Zhou have become so renowned for their work that they were even invited to contribute to David Fincher’s Voir , a video essay project for Netflix.

Honoring The Past, Embracing The Future

Misc , Movies , Music , Opinion , Opinions , Other , Video Games , Videos

The 22 Best Video Essays of 2022

Welcome back to yet another look at my favorite video essays of the year, this time of 2022. I have been just as terminally online this year as I was last, so I have a lot of videos to shout out. And of course, I’m always looking for more, so if you know a video I missed, please share it with me on Twitter ! This list, much like last year’s list , will also not have any real ranking to it, except the final video is definitely my favorite of the bunch. But I clearly would recommend any and all of these videos, and if you’re hungry for more, stay tuned for the end of the article as I do have a lot more recommendations beyond this list. But that’s enough set up, let’s get this started!

Super Bunnyhop – The Abridged Videogaming History of Big-Money Buyouts & Mergers

If you are anything like me, you were also completely flabbergasted by the purchase of Activision-Blizzard-King by Microsoft. Similar to the time that Fox merged with Disney, I felt the dread of this next step in industry consolidation more intensely than I felt the excitement of new franchises (like Call of Duty and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater) coming to Game Pass and the potential revival of dormant franchises like Prototype and Singularity. I instantly knew the news was a massive story with loads of permanent repercussions throughout the industry, but I didn’t know it’d be a story we’d still be talking about almost a year later.

So, I’m immensely thankful for Super Bunnyhop’s video on the history of video game acquisitions and buyouts that lead us to this one. The size of the purchase is so massive that it could only seem like a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but this video showed me that mergers like this are actually pretty common, and we’re only becoming widely concerned about it now that the dollar amounts are ballooning. I even learned a bit about some aspects of the industry that I didn’t even know came about by way of a buyout, like EA’s exclusive deal with the NFL. It’s a great video, and in the case of this list, one of the shorter ones, so it’s worth a watch. And if you like that one, they also made a great video about the Bayonetta series as well.

Lady Emily – The Existential Horror of Making Content About Content

I’ll admit this addition is a very personal one. I’ve been watching Emily’s videos for a while, including the many videos she co-wrote with Sarah Z, and she always makes great content. But this video, even if it is just a quick prelude to a much more massive video , really stuck a chord with me. It’s a really specific story about content creation, but as someone who makes content, it speaks on some feelings universal to everyone like us. There is always that pressure to maintain momentum with a fickle algorithm and often an ethereal user base. And if you’re lucky enough to be able to make a living off of content creation, depending on the internet to put food on the table can be a massive stressor.

This video is less about me learning about something I didn’t know about, that video is already linked in the last paragraph. But I do still love it for how cathartic of a watch it is, and if you are either interested in the mental state of content creators or are one yourself, you will likely enjoy this one as well.

Shaun – Harry Potter

Considering how things have gone with the series’ author in the last few years, I luckily have never gotten into the Harry Potter series. I saw the first movie by way of its yearly holiday showings on ABC Family, but I’ve managed to miss out on that entire cultural movement otherwise. But I know people love Harry Potter, and, in a very different way, I feel a bit for those fans as I too know how it feels to have an artist you respect fall from grace spectacularly while you’re love for thier art has a hard time fading.

But what I never thought to consider is how the books and world of Harry Potter itself could hold hints and problematic aspects that could have warned us all of Rowling’s current comments. Shawn does a fantastic breakdown on how some elements of the franchise rely on some pretty troubling stereotypes about a number of minorities and, as someone who never engaged with the text, it was wild to see. Often, when an artist falls from grace, we collectively look back on their art and question if it was ever good in the first place. This video does not reduce the entire Wizarding World to “it bad” but it does manage to provide context to the worldview that Rowling has always had, but has only more recently laid bare. It’s a great watch and will hit especially hard if you’ve ever loved the franchise to the point of being blinded to these various issues.

Defunctland – Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery

We should all know what’s up with Defunctland by now. What started as a niche channel that I loved solely for its video breaking down the Nickelodeon Hotel is now one of those channels that can release a video and make nothing else in my life matter until I watch it. Last year’s video on Fastpass was excellent, but I think it’s fair to say that he has topped himself with this video about a topic that, on its face, seems to have so much less to say about it.

Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery is the perfect kind of video essay. Its topic is something almost universally recognizable, but no one ever thinks about it much at all. It has production value better than not only every other Defuctland video I’ve ever seen but several of the other videos in this list. And it manages to hit you with a delightful twist near the end of the journey. It really is a masterclass in this weird niche art of online video, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is willing to hear someone talk about a 4-second musical stinger used in commercials a decade ago.

hbomberguy – Deus Ex: Human Revolution is FINE, And Here’s Why

You might have been expecting a different hbomberguy video, huh? Well, no. That video is great and all, but I find myself having loads more to say about his extensive look at Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I’m not particularly a fan of the immersive sim genre, nor am I a fan of Deus Ex specifically, but I did play Human Revolution many years ago once it was given to me for free through PlayStation Plus on PS3. I enjoyed the game well enough. And from the title of the video, you can tell that he also thought the game was fine.

What makes this video so satisfying is not that he likes the game more or less than me. He likes this game exactly as much as I do, but he has a wider arsenal of examples, reasons, and comparisons to explain why. It’s like we both had a decent meal at Applebee’s and we both liked it, but he just happens to be a professional chef who has had every other item on the menu in the year before. So, he uses that expertise and research to more brilliantly and exhaustively describe every flaw and delight of the meal. So often we get videos like this that gush with praise or burn with criticism, but this video manages to do both at the same time with the same amount of detail. Can’t recommend this video enough, it’s absolutely worth the heafty runtime.

Foreign Man in a Foreign Land – Asiaphobia in the BIack Community

Foreign Man is a creator I’ve only recently been introduced to through his awesome video “ Gendering is a Luxury ”, but as far as his output this year, I also really liked his video on Asiaphobia in the Black Community. In this collaboration with another dope content creator, oliSUNvia , he tackles not only the similar harms that come to Asians and Blacks from the white majority but also the harms that happen between our communities alone. We collectively don’t often talk about how minority groups harm each other, and I love that this video highlights those issues. And it, of course, comes at a perfect time, as the racist framing of the Coronavirus by the prior administration really set the country into a massive spike in Asian hate over the last few years.

Plus, while this isn’t about this video specifically, I just really appreciate Foreign Man having these conversations. As a black man, I’ve seen so few of my kind willing to even think about the topics of his videos at any deeper level. And while I’m not Caribbean at all, I’ve been exposed a bit to Jamaican culture through close friends. With that general knowledge, and even with him talking about how his content has an effect on his relationships with people back home, I can only imagine how daunting it is to put yourself out there like this. There is power in someone who looks like him and talks like him saying and doing the things he does, and I am really glad he’s doing it. Not to mention, the production value on all of his videos is way off the charts. So, I recommend this video specifically, but his whole channel is worth subscribing to as well.

Errant Signal – TikTok: Life on the Algorithm

I’ve known about Tiktok for several years, but up until the last year or so, it’s been that dancing app for children that I knew to stay clear of as a whole-ass adult. But I now know it to be an incredibly powerful app and one that I’ve given way too many hours to this year. With exception to particularly wild days on Twitter, like the death of the Queen, Tiktok is most often the app I’m scrolling through when I look up and realize I’ve been in the parking lot after my shift for the last hour instead of driving home.

The fact that the app is this addictive is a bit troubling, though, so I’ve had a more complicated relationship with the app lately as I try to minimize my use of it. And Errant Signal’s video on the app sums up all of my complicated feelings about it. He usually makes excellent videos about video games, and his Children of Doom series has also been a highlight this year. But this video was a refreshing change of pace, and I’m still impressed with how he’s able to translate his very personal experience (as the app is nearly purely algorithmic) into an effective breakdown for everyone, even folks who don’t use the app. TikTok is definitely a double-edged sword, and I think this video paints the most effective picture of each edge. 

Broey Deschanel – Licorice Pizza: Does Depiction Equal Endorsement?

Funnily enough, I have never seen Licorice Pizza. Hell, I didn’t even have any interest in doing so and still don’t really. But there is one aspect of it that found out about due to the discourse around the film: the age gap between the two main characters. Having a love (?) story between an adult and a child seems like the kind of creative decision left firmly in the early 90s, and for good reason, as it created a cloud of controversy around the film for months.

Broey Deschanel’s video looks at Licorice Pizza and tries to see if the film itself endorses this relationship through the filmmaking techniques used within it. But that’s not even the main reason I dig this video. I love it because she goes beyond this movie and looks at other films with age-gap relationships and how they portray them. It was fascinating to have aspects of films I saw long ago, or only knew about vaguely, pointed out and see the effects those choices in shot composition and color grading made on my perception of the characters. She’s made a lot of great videos, this year especially, but I think this look at such a Taboo topic was a compelling enough watch for me to put above the rest.

Folding Ideas – Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs

What is there left to say about this video that dozens of other, likely smarter, people haven’t already said? This video, released at the start of the year, months before the NFT trend truly reached its peak and sharp decline, helped me fully understand what NFTs actually were in a tangible way. But not only was it an effective explainer, but it also showed just why NFTs are bad. The crypto community is a uniquely bizarre and terrifying beast, and Dan Olson is a great travel guide to journey through the madness with. By now, the NFT boom really has blown up, so if you wanna know why it was never destined to stick around, this is probably the perfect video to describe why.

F.D Signifier – Drake and the Death of Hip Hop

I have such a weird relationship with Drake. I could name a dozen or so of his earlier songs that I absolutely love, and I could probably recite a bunch of his earlier features and tracks from memory. Hell, the other night at karaoke with friends, I knew his verse on ASAP Rocky’s Fuckin Problems by heart. But in the last few years, really ever since he released Views , I’ve been more annoyed with him that not. He’s become the poster child for a certain kind of toxic male that makes me cringe, which is wild because one of Drake’s distinguishing traits initially was his sensitivity. Well, he has been trying to separate himself from that persona, or at least just trying complicate that image.

That’s why I love this video from FD Signifyer so much. He chronicles the rise and not-quite fall of the artist, shows why Drake might suffer from some of the insecurities that he seems to have, and shows how the landscape of hip hop itself shifted to even allow an artist like Drake to be so successful in this genre. Most of this story is history I was alive for, so I wouldn’t say this video revealed anything new to me, but it did lay out events and draw connections between them in a way that crystallized a lot of my feelings on Drake overall. Sure, FD has had loads of more important videos on his channel this year, including his excellent videos on the Manosphere , Barack Obama’s legacy , and the fetishization of black men . But I gotta shine light on the Drake video because it just hits differently for me.

Vivian Strange – In Defense of CinemaSins

I’ve been on the internet for a long ass time. So, without having ever seen a video from the channel, I am well aware of CinemaSins. Their “Everything Wrong” series is iconic to the point where I know the ionic dig and error counter exclusively through dozens of parodies of their style. Because of this, though, I only knew CinemaSins as a negative entity and assumed they were only popular due to their snarky tone and willingness to nitpick movies for no good reason. So, I never cared to change that perception for several years.

But then I came across this video by Vivian Strange and it really made me second-guess my view of CinemaSins. I’ll be honest, It’s not like I’m a diehard stan of their content now, but it did provide some missing context and introduce a new perspective to look at their content through. There are dozens of massively popular things on the internet that I write off just so I never have to think about it alongside all of the other content on here, but this video got me to ease up a bit on that mindset, because I may be missing out on something good. And speaking of something good, while Vivian Strange is a relatively new face in this space, she already has dozen or so videos that are at least at the same quality, so it might be a good idea to get in now so you can say you knew about her first when she blows up.

The Penultimate Conquest – How Solarpunk Fiction Envisions a Better Tomorrow

Speaking of smaller channels, here’s another one that I am admittedly biased for. This is from The Penultimate Conquest, and specifically from Cristian Macias, someone who has guested on VGU.TV content and has had me on their own content in the past. But even if I never knew the guy, I’d still add this video to my list. This is the kind of video essay that put words to concepts I’ve been thinking about for a long time now. For the first few months of the year, thanks to the climate nihilism of 2021’s Don’t Look Up and the beautiful nature of Horizon: Forbidden West, I had been thinking a lot about how humanity treats its permanent home of Earth. Last year’s film fed my negativity about our current ecological situation, but Horizon gave me a sense of hope, but I didn’t quite know why until watching this video.

I had never heard the phrase Solarpunk until watching this video, but I’ll be damned, that is exactly the best word for what that is. I love imagining a world where high technology and digital innovation don’t necessarily have to be the enemy of nature and our environment, but so little of the media out there is willing to show me an image of the future like this. But this video not only defines that future but shows a list of examples that I’m now eager to check out. I mean, I knew I was slacking by never having watched a Hayao Miyazaki movie and sleeping on Citizen Sleeper, but this video motivated me to check out both even sooner than I was planning to. Christan has been making video essays for a few months, and I’ve been noticing the progress here and there, but this shows just how good he’s gotten with it, so it definitely deserves a shout-out here.

Daryl Talks Games – A Misguided Guide To Finishing Your Gaming Backlog

Something that I have been increasingly self-conscious of as the year ends is the fact that I just haven’t completed many games this year. Hell, I haven’t even played that many games this year, completion be damned. But despite this, I haven’t slowed down on buying games. Even with me maintaining my PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, my recent purchase of a Steam Deck has led to me buying so many more Steam games than I could ever complete. My backlog, including several releases from 2022 that I still have yet to beat, has been a slowly growing stressor in the back of my head, and it’s something that has actively soured my time playing the games I do get around to playing lately.

So this video from Daryl Talks Game was very cathartic for me, especially coming so late in the year, right as I was procrastinating on beating God of War Ragnarok. Daryl talks about his own journey in organizing and tackling his own backlog, and his experiment leads to some unexpected results. But also, this video really focuses on why folks even care enough to keep backlogs anyway, and why they can sometimes harm our relationships with games. The video feels like both a locker room pep talk to motivate me to check off some games I’ve put on the back burner while also being an informative look at why I’m doing all of this in the first place. So, if you have a bunch of games you’ve been meaning to get around to, definitely check this one out.

The Golden Bolt – PlayStation All-Stars Retrospective: The Failure That Changed Everything

I understand that this article may get a lot of views from folks who have no idea who I am. So, let me make one thing clear: I am exactly the kind of weirdo that likes PlayStation All-Stars way more than any game in the Super Smash Bros franchise. I’m not so far gone that I can’t admit that the game has several fundamental issues, but I still love it very dearly. But no one seems to take my love of the game, or really even the game itself, seriously, as it is often dismissed as nothing more than the failed Smash clone it honestly was.

But thank God for The Golden Bolt for this video. He’s made videos on the game in the past, and he makes great content in general, including his fantastic retrospective on the Ratchet and Clank series , but this video is my favorite of his yet. It manages to have a near documentarian level of research and detail into the development and public reception of the game but also has a very personal perspective on all of the events, as Bolt was one of the more notable fans of the game during its heyday. This video will probably always stand as the definitive video on the legacy of PlayStation All-Stars, and whether you’ve never heard of the game or prayed for a sequel daily like me, it is certainly worth a watch.

FUNKe – EVEN MORE Movement FPS

Here’s another thing you may not know about me if you are new here: My favorite game of all time is Titanfall 2. I love shooting things and I love going fast, so a game that lets me do both and rewards me for doing so handsomely was destined to be a beloved game of mine. But despite the critical acclaim and passionate fanbase, its fast-paced combat never really caught on. Or, actually, it never really caught on in a mainstream way.

In the indie and AA scenes, shooters have been getting so much faster. For every Metro Exodus, there’s an Ultrakill, and for every Call of Duty Modern Warfare, there’s a Dusk. Movement shooters have risen in popularity over the last few years, and FUNKe has been one of the biggest names on YouTube covering the trend. His production values are top-notch, and he understands this subgenre well enough to make great observations on these games, but I gotta be honest: I added this video mostly because it satisfies my niche interests too perfectly. I guarantee there’s no other YouTuber out there at this level willing to devote nearly half of a 40-minute video to the modern Shadow Warrior games. That is just absolutely my shit, and maybe if you check out the video, you might come back with a few cool shooters to check out yourself. The movement FPS is truly one of my favorite genres and I hope this video series introduces it to many more people.

Quality Culture – Kendrick Lamar: Deconstructing a Culture of Trauma

Kendrick Lamar dropped his latest album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, this year and we’ve been talking about it in the months since its release. It’s his first project in several years, plus its subject matter is so deep & deadly serious compared to many other rap albums this year. As a massive Kendrick fan myself, I wrote an exhaustive review of the album and reviewed all of his prior projects in the lead-up to this release. But the scope of all my work was too narrow to outline the story of Kendrick’s creative progression as this video from Quality Culture.

This is another video that doesn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, which would have been hard for any video to do considering my love for this artist. But much like FD Signifiers’ video on Drake, this video draws a line between Kendrick’s public perception and pressure early in his career to his current position in hip-hop culture and the themes on his latest album. It serves as a nostalgic look back on his discography while also giving a bit of insight of his current mindset. It’s a really solid video, and it was actually my introduction to the channel, which has several solid video essays about everything from a Brendan Frasier classic to my favorite movie of the 20 22 .

Karsten Runquist – What Happened to Studio Comedies?

This might be the most basic thing I ever admit, but I love to laugh. So, naturally, comedies are some of my favorite movies out there, but I gotta admit that comedy is more of a side dish than an entrée nowadays. My favorite comedy of all time is Booksmart, but the non-stop hilarity does take small breaks near the end to make room for drama. The Marvel movies are almost comedies as much as they are action movies, with the exception of some like Eternals and The Incredible Hulk. This isn’t a massive issue, but it does mean that pure comedy is not much of a thing anymore, and it’s a trend I never really thought about until I saw this video from Karsten Runquist.

He uses the recently released Barb & Star Go To Del Mar as a lens to look at why movies are so rarely made to only make you laugh nowadays. Even the Seth Rogan style of comedy, of which I adore Sausage Party and This is the End, now has obligatory injections of other emotions, like romance in The Long Shot being a current example. And once again, I enjoy these movies, but the utter insanity of Barb & Star is just something you don’t see anymore. This video tries to get to the bottom of why that is, and why comedy films have a lot of value. It’s a topic I would never put much thought into, but it’s interesting to hear discussed in this very chill video essay.

Noah Caldwell-Gervais – I Beat the Dark Souls Trilogy and All I Made Was This Lousy Video Essay

You already know I had to get another video on here from one of the GOATs of video essays. This year was the year Noah finally got into From Software’s output, and the fruits of that labor, though few and far between, were delicious indeed. But if you don’t know why Noah is such a favorite of video essay enjoyers, you might be wondering why hearing what he has to say on this series of long overanalyzed games is desired at all. Well, what Noah is so great at is portraying both his personal experience with a game and the cultural touchstones and anecdotes about development with equal, excruciating detail.

His videos are some of the only video essays that I feel are a sufficient replacement for playing through a game. He manages to discuss narrative themes in a way that makes you feel that you’ve made the same emotional connection as he did, without even playing the game. He describes gameplay in a manner so detailed that you can imagine yourself on the sticks. In fact, his breakdown of the original Souls trilogy was so effective that I purchased my first From Software game ever with the Dark Souls 1 Remaster. Elden Ring ended up being the first one I actually played (and while Noah did make a video about it as well, allow me to recommend this video from another video essay GOAT, Joseph Anderson), but this video on From’s most famous trilogy is what encouraged me that I can actually have fun with this studio’s output. And as I’ve discussed on other shows this year, I definitely have.

Knowing Better – The Part of History You’ve Always Skipped | Neoslavery

This video from Knowing Better is, admittedly, the only video here that feels more like homework than entertainment. But, as someone who grew up watching the Discovery Channel for fun, I found it as entertaining as I found it informative. Everyone knows that slavery was a thing, especially in the United States. And I think now more than ever, most of us are aware that the repercussions of slavery are still being felt today. I knew all of that too, but this video, once again, paints a narrative that assembles all of these facts into one massive timeline that shows nakedly just how long-lasting and obvious the injustices of today and the recent past are. It’s a video so densely packed with important information and context that I’m sure it’ll be shown in a few colleges or even high school classes. And while it may feel like eating your vegetables to watch, you should still eat your damn vegetables.

Jacob Geller – Fear of Cold

Jacob Geller is another name that was on the previous list, but this year I chose a video from him that has very little to do with video games. Every now and then, he’ll write about random fears one could have, and in this entry in that series, he talks about the most terrifying aspects of the concept of cold. He does manage to sneak some discussion of Frostpunk in there, but most of the video is about real-world stories, books, and movies about folks battling the most frigid and unforgiving element of nature. The video feels like sitting around a campfire hearing ghost stories, except the ghost here is something we all know very well, especially for those of us on the east coast who had to deal with that nasty cold front. Jacob is an excellent writer, plus his production values are getting more and more top-tier, so hearing him flex his abilities outside of video games was indeed a treat.

Sarah Z – The Horrifying Panopticon of West Elm Caleb

Oh look, Sarah Z is on the list once again! Well, while she had many videos I loved this year, like her videos on Sacrificial Trash , Geek Culture , and the movie Idiocracy , her video on West Elm Caleb is by far my favorite and one of the videos I’ve thought about longest when not watching it. It has the blend of what I expect from her content, a breakdown of a niche internet phenomenon, but accompanies that with a look at a pretty frightening new side effect of existing online. 

It has everything one could crave from a video essay, messy, though ultimately irrelevant, personal drama, a viral conspiracy or two, and a heaping helping of existential dread. The idea of having to be “perfect” on the internet is something I often think about, especially now that I’m apparently at least a V-list internet personality. I have certainly said some things I regret online, and some of those things aren’t even from that long ago. Even now I might do something awkward or outta pocket for the sake of a joke. To think that any of that could end up being what defines me to millions of people at any given time is certainly a bit terrifying, so hearing Sarah Z, and her co-writer Emily, break down these things was very cathartic for me.

Action Button – action button reviews boku no natsuyasumi

I haven’t been organizing all these videos into a properly ranked order because I honestly don’t love playing favorites, especially when video essays are largely personal works. But my one exception to that loose rule is this video right here: the Action Button review of Boku No Natsuyasumi. This is a game I only vaguely know about thanks to ThorHighHeels’ video on Mysterious PS3 Games last year, so I was excited to learn a lot more about this game. But this video ended up being so much more than just a simple review of a simple Japanese PS1 game.

I’ve watched some of Tim Rogers’ content in the past. I watched the Action Button review of The Last of Us and most of his review of Doom , and I even saw a few of his videos from back on Kotaku. But while I appreciated his style, I never really got excited about watching his stuff. But when I saw this game as a topic, I jumped in and, 6 hours later, I was sobbing. This video uses the tranquility of the Japanese countryside and the nostalgia of childhood memory that the game plays with as a jumping-off point to discuss the very concept of memory, nostalgia, and the act of living a life “correctly”. This video is so much deeper, so much more tender, so much more emotionally moving than it had any right to be or I ever even expected from Tim Rogers. It caught me totally off guard and was the only other video essay that made me cry this year (the other being CJ the X’s Bo Burnham vs. Jeff Bezos video , which absolutely should have been on my list last year).

I’ve thought about this video so much over the last few months, and it really does feel like one of those videos that might have changed, or at least deeply enriched, my life a bit. I’m grateful to have seen this video, and I hope whoever is reading this at least checks it out, even if you don’t watch anything else. And yes, I know 6 hours is a long time, but I swear it’s engaging enough for it to blow by pretty quickly. Plus, hey, you can just watch it in parts anyway!

And that’s all I have for you all this year. There were a lot of great video essays this year, and even though I probably spent more time watching YouTube and Nebula (😉) than consuming pretty much any other kind of media, I don’t feel like I wasted my time at all. I played only a handful of video games, barely watched any movies, and watched almost no new TV shows. But the entertainment I got from these independent creators and collectives has given me much to enjoy, think about, and act on going forward. Though, by next year, I hope to have even more new names on this list, as repeating the same few faces is not a habit I want to keep up too much.

Before I get outta here though, allow me to share two YouTube playlists. This first one is of every video I’ve mentioned in this article, including several that I cut but loved anyway. You should find even more new and familiar faces there compared to this list. And this last playlist is my personal list of my favorite video essays of all time, regardless of release year or topic of discussion. If all of these great video essays aren’t enough for you, then first off, seek help, but also enjoy this playlist of 100 video essays that I will forever vouch for. I do update it every now and then with new entries replacing old ones, so feel free to come back to it every few months or so.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my article! Hope you came away with a new favorite channel and I hope you all have a great 2023.

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The Best Video Essays of All Time (IMO)

The video essay is not a brand new art form and it wasn’t created from scratch by YouTube’s algorithmic interest in long-form video that increases “watch time.” People have been constructing commentaries on popular culture and on “important works of art” since there was culture popular enough to be commented upon by others. And yet, the video essay as it exists today has grown into a community of thinkers and writers who have transformed the consumption of media into an urgent and participatory act.

As one Wellesley College film studies course puts it , the Video Essay is the result of the following process:

• [Or book, piece of news media, poem, painting, etc.]
• [i.e., speaking her own opinions to others about the work]
• [It is the audio and visual elements that do a great deal of the persuasion and therefore, it isn’t just coming up with the argument, but rather coming up with the plan for how the argument will be laid out visually to achieve the greatest impact.]
• [These visual elements can be direct references of the work itself or entirely new visuals and audio elements that help to prove her point or further make meaning for her audience.]
• [Such a process is the modern act of responding to digital media, and is therefore the primary tool we have for understanding our world.]

I believe that this process of observing, reacting with others, building a cohesive thought, gathering media to prove that thought, and then creating a trans-media representation of that thought is the work not just of Video Essayists. Rather, it is the work of meme artists, of journalists, of TikTok personalities, and of every person on social media that is attempting to understand the barrage of information that is too voluminous to understand without some kind of means to process it.

Video essays are just the purest form of this way of understanding, and I love them for that. I love watching the finished product of this process. It is simultaneously poignant and persuasive. It causes me to see the original artwork or moment in time that is being commented upon as having context. It encourages me to see the world more complexly and be okay with the muddy nature of modern society. The Video Essay is, for lack of a better term, truly modern art. Sure, it might be post-post-modern too, but given that it is the process we are all doing as a natural part of our day as consumers of content and “havers of opinions,” I want to celebrate the Video Essay as the Art Form of Now.

And these are my favorite representations of Now:

Spaceship You – CGP Grey created this Video Essay in direct response to the initial lockdown orders and the feeling of anchorlessness that many felt in their wake. The media that Spaceship You was commenting on was ‘the whole of society’ needing to reorganize itself around a new problem, the ongoing and ever worsening pandemic. It was a critique of ”survival skills” that were for a different era. We didn’t need to know how to stock up on food or prepare for the oncoming apocalypse. Rather, we needed a way to deal with the onslaught of bad news of 2020 and the isolation that social distancing ensured. In that way, Spaceship You is a time capsule of a Video Essay. It was critiquing a moment in time, but the lessons of what we learned in the early pandemic I believe will far outlast our memory of staying home, ordering in, and generally trying to wait out the worst of the unknown.

If There Are No Pics, Did It Happen? – Until Idea Channel stopped posting new videos in 2017, it was reliably one of the best places to find new Video Essays which critiqued the exact kinds of things I was most interested in: the ways in which the internet has influenced our society. Whether that was critiquing post-modern masterpieces like Community or simply questioning one of the internet’s strongest beliefs (pics or it didn’t happen), Mike Rugnetta built a strong approach toward questioning the media landscape. In this particular piece, he helps us all to question our need to validate our own experiences with pictures and our further need to share them with others to prove that we are worthy of love and attention.

In Search of a Flat Earth – In my favorite example of a Video Essay that claims to be about one thing (flat earthers), while really being about something entirely different (Qanon ideology), Dan Olson expertly builds the case that the Qanon community is, in their own incomprehensible way, trying to make sense of the complexity of modern life. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but I can unequivocally state that the final line in the video is the most satisfying conclusion to any video essay. There isn’t any other work that earns “the prestige” more than this does. Please watch.

The Cruel Optimism of Steven Pinker – There is nothing quite like a Video Essay for helping to re-contextualize an author or a work in a brand new way. For me, there is no better representation of this than the way I have come to understand Steven Pinker after watching this work of scathing critique.

Auld Lang Syne: The Anthropocene Reviewed – Seeing as how this podcast-turned-book ( The Anthropocene Reviewed ) was literally written as a series of essays, it is hard to frame this as a true “Video Essay.” However, I believe that the way this essay comments on a piece of media, the classic song Auld Lang Syne, demonstrates just how adaptable this model of modern critique can be. We can comment on the despair of the world while still bringing hope to the table. Definitely worth a watch/listen.

Why is Gen Z Humor So Weird? – While I do not believe the humor is strictly generational, this video essay makes the case that the always-on nature of the ways Gen Z grew up have made for a distinct brand of humor that is both post-ironic and self-referential. By watching this, I became for more adept at understanding my children’s preferred method of simply repeating lines from the most ridiculous TikTok video they can find.

Sony MiniDisc: The (Not) Forgotten Audio Format That (Never) Failed – As you can tell by the title, this video essay is attempting to reframe a technology in our collective consciousness. Rather than commenting on a particular piece of media, this style of video is rather digging into the media format itself. I find these deep dives into our past (whether you personally experienced MiniDisc or not) and seeing what it might mean for modern life to be entirely satisfying. Your mileage may vary depending on your ability to get past some of the nerdier bits.

Wes Anderson: Breaking Formality | Deconstructing Funny – I feel like Wes Anderson is a filmmaker built for the Video Essay. His particular style of ”everything just right” is exactly what a video essayist is trying to construct in their argument. In this video, though, we go deeper and try to understand the ways in which Anderson uses juxtaposition of order and chaos to create humor. It is an attempt to appreciate the media through a different lens, and it is effective in its precision for doing so.

Human Test Regarding Your Creativity – No list of Video Essays would be complete without at least one entry for Ze Frank . As the ”grandfather of online video,” his work played a pivotal role in forging what Video Essays could become. In this instance, he critiques the very notion of creativity and what it means to be human. Ze Frank places seemingly nonsensical images next to incredibly earnest questions. It is partially existential yearning and partially a description of everyday life. Minus the small ad for coffee in the middle, it is a perfect Video Essay filled with nothing but questions that seemingly make more of a statement than stating the conclusion outright would.

What This Photo Doesn’t Show – While not technically another John Green video, it does feature his wonderful and resonant voice for social critique. This video takes a photographic work of art and explodes it so that we can see the true context in which it was created. This historical approach is not always present in Video Essays, but I appreciate the level of depth that it requires.

The Absolute Pleasure of the Rocky Horror Picture Show – Queer theory and critique is a rich vein of media criticism that is only aided by modern Video Essay conventions. Matt Baume’s understanding of Camp and his ability to create narrative significance around touchstone media for the queer community is on full display here. If you have never really understood “Rocky Horror” or its importance to ‘weirdos, goths, and other alternative types’ of kids, this is for you.

The Yellow Wallpaper: Crash Course Literature 407 – I could probably include all of the Crash Course as examples of ‘Peak Video Essay,’ but I am particularly drawn to Crash Course Literature because of my own affinity for literary criticism. The Yellow Wallpaper had a strong impact on me when I first read it, as I was looking for feminist works to help understand my world and the patriarchal structures that are ever-present. This Crash Course episode dives into some of the historical context for why this short story (of a bed-ridden woman who questions her sanity as she is forced to stay in a single room) was so important. Also, it is another way that I can sneak John Green into this list.

Tragedy In Comedy: Unraveling The Genius of Bo Burnham – Before Burnham’s pandemic masterpiece, Inside , was released in May of 2021, Bo Burnham’s genius was not yet well established. This Video Essay changed that for me. It let me understand where Burnham was headed, and just how impressive his type of introspection and “reflective practice” can be. Even though the video looks a little dated with inclusions of Louis CK as “establishing shots” for a type of comedian who pushes boundaries, the essay quickly moves on to what make Burnham such a unique voice. Ultimately it is a critique of modern culture, which any good Video Essay should be.

I Can’t Stop Watching Contagion – In the early parts of the pandemic, I felt absolutely trapped by the existential dread of knowing the world I knew was collapsing in on itself. I felt like all I could do was refresh twitter and watch movies. This is a very real representation of this time period, and is the best way I have found of understanding just what it was like in those initial moments. They feel so far away now in March of 2022, but in March of 2020, we knew nothing. We had no idea how bad things were going to get, and the only thing we could do is to watch Contagion and try to understand our mortality. Whenever I need a reminder of just how scared we all were, I watch this. And yes, I need to be reminded of it, because the “raw nerve” that the pandemic exposed is still very much there.

The Social Network: Sorkin, Structure, and Collaboration – This video essay is one of my favorite examples of the genre because of the direction of the first scene of the movie. It lays out the ways in which Sorkin’s writing, Eisenberg’s acting, and the college culture of the early 2000s became a perfect match for one another, making meaning out of an incredibly mundane conversation. In long works of video essay, you can forget single lines pretty easily. But, by studying the text in such great depth, as if it were poem, there is far more that can be understood about just why this white college-dropout would change the world.

Find the Hidden Opportunities – John Spencer is one of the only educators I know who understands video essays and their power. He has made visual storytelling into a teaching tool and one that resonates far beyond the confines of his own classrooms. His style of using hand drawn visuals mixed in with video excerpts shows that we are not limited to filming our critiques. We can comment on the world around us (or our given vocation) with whatever tools best suit us.

Casey Neistat: What You Don’t See – One of the best Video Essayists of all time is Casey Neistat. Although he would probably argue that his videos, when he was still making them regularly, were Vlogs. He even talks about them as Daily Vlogs much of the time. And yet, when you look at the vast majority of what he has made since March 2015, they are little movies. They are explainers of this life and of the world around him. They are critiques of his city and of the police. They are deep dives into the world of technology and the impact of wealth upon all parts of the art-making process. And the below video essay goes into all of that, but better, because it wasn’t made by Casey Neistat. Rather, it is done by one of my other favorite Video Essayists, The Nerdwriter . By having the distance that this Video Essay about a Video Essayist creates, you can actually appreciate the craft of both far more easily.

Additional Master Works of Video Essay:

• What Makes This Song Stink Ep 3 – Weezer Beverly Hills: A Retrospective
• Why I wish I didn’t get 9s in GCSE – A Spoken Word
• How did the Enigma Machine Work?
• Rendering game worlds in text
• The First Video Game
• I built myself a proud parent machine
• Why Do Crimes Expire?
• Why I’m Not a Boy
• How Southern Socialites Rewrote Civil War History
• What I’ve Learned about Community Design
• The Case for Ai Weiwei
• The Alt-Right Playbook: Always a Bigger Fish
• The Politics of the McElroy Brothers
• Why Do People Like Being Parents?
• The Iron Giant (1999) – Movies with Mikey
• It’s Not Easy Being Blue
• Draw My Life
• Hustle Culture is worse than you think…
• Adam McKay – What Is Smart Dumb Comedy
• Adaptation.
• Over the Hedge: Peak Trash
• The Failure of Victorious
• The Story of Tetris

Now that you have read a few hundred words on my favorite Video Essays and perhaps even watched a few of them, it is time to explore your own reactions to the media that saturates our world. Now, I’m not recommending that you hone your own video creation skills for years before releasing your own masterpiece of video essay. Rather, I am advocating that you make memes or share gifs or write blog posts or do something else that is, in fact, the same act of creation that video essayists do. I am saying that you are already a video essayist. You are already critiquing the movies you have seen or the books that you have read. You are a pioneer of the modern internet, and you are making meaning however you can.

But, I want you to keep going, and to feel like you are a part of this broader movement toward all of us making things as we consume . We are not merely consumers of media, we are makers of it, too. And the sooner we recognize that, the better stories we will be able to tell and the more sophisticated our understanding of the world will become.

So, as I said in 2014: We should tell the stories of us. In any way that we know how. And all of us, now, know video essays and we have the tools to create them, in our pockets.

[FYI, if you want to watch all 40 of these amazing video essays as a single playlist, here it is. ]

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Author: Ben Wilkoff

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Dr. Hageman's "Shiplap" Named as one of 2022's Best Video Essays by the British Film Institute

February 01, 2023 The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

The British Film Institute featured Dr. Eva Hageman's video essay "Shiplap" as one of 2022's best video essays.

Dr. Eva Hageman's video essay " Shiplap " was recently named as one of  2022's best video essays  by the British Film Institute (BFI). Beginning with clips from HGTV programming, Hageman analyses the history of ‘shiplap’ through the lens of Waco, Texas, unpacking its racist roots and revealing its hidden, violent history. Construction, reconstruction, deconstruction, all take on new meanings in this video, both as it relates to the process of videographic criticism and the content of the work itself. What sticks with me though is Hageman’s remarkable voiceover, guiding us through this “American nightmare.”

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Twenty of Our Most Loved Essays of 2022

From politics, labor, and race to philosophy, literature, and sex.

Boston Review

• December 30, 2022

As 2022 comes to a close, we are looking back on an eventful year and counting down twenty selections of our most-loved essays we published over the last twelve months.

2022 has seen several new global challenges. In the weeks following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, our contributors provided essential context—examining the  role of NATO  in the lead-up to the war as well as the  theocratic  and  homophobic  ideologies animating Putin’s regime. This year also saw the continued global rise of the far right, which made inroads in Italy and  Sweden . Meanwhile, the collapse of crypto currency platform FTX brought increased attention to effective altruism and  longtermism , ethical theories popular among today’s tech moguls that rest on shaky philosophical assumptions.

There were also some glimmers of hope. The COP 27 climate summit in Egypt resulted in a historic agreement to create a loss and damage fund to aid countries facing the brunt of climate change—a small step toward the type of  reparations necessary  to address historic global injustices.

In addition to these topics, our most-loved essays this year explore the  social roots of mental illness , the  case for a world without borders , how  microeconomics hijacked economic policymaking , and  Edith Wharton’s use of gothic tropes  to challenge oppressive gender relations.

Whatever 2023 brings,  Boston Review ’s authors will continue to provide carefully researched, in-depth analysis of vital public issues.

20: The Deep Structure of Democratic Crisis — Ruth Berins Collier, Jake Grumbach

19: up from federalism — lisa l. miller, 18: labor’s militant minority — mie inouye, 17: why policing and prisons can’t end gender violence — angela y. davis, gina dent, erica r. meiners, beth e. richie, nia t. evans, 16: you owe me an argument — rachel fraser, 15: a century of serious difficulty — johanna winant, 14: twenty years of freedom dreams — robin d. g. kelley, 13: nine ways that capitalism is ruining sex — breanne fahs, 12: just give me my equality — teresa m. bejan, 11: “representation doesn’t just mean heroes. we need the villains as well.” — marlon james interviewed by nate file, 10: the fight for reparations cannot ignore climate change — olúfẹ́mi o. táíwò, 9: edith wharton’s ghosts — jennifer r. bernstein, 8: nato and the road not taken — rajan menon, 7: race and sweden’s fascist turn — tobias hübinette, 6: the u.s. christians who pray for putin — bethany moreton, 5: the new moral mathematics — kieran setiya, 4: putin’s anti-gay war on ukraine — emil edenborg, 3: bad economics — simon torracinta, 2: there is no “migrant crisis” — harsha walia, 1: mental illness is not in your head — marco ramos, boston review is nonprofit and reader funded..

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The Best Reviewed Essay Collections of 2022

Featuring bob dylan, elena ferrante, zora neale hurston, jhumpa lahiri, melissa febos, and more.

We’ve come to the end of another bountiful literary year, and for all of us review rabbits here at Book Marks, that can mean only one thing: basic math, and lots of it.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction ; Nonfiction ; Memoir and Biography ; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror ; Short Story Collections ; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime ; Graphic Literature ; and Literature in Translation .

Today’s installment: Essay Collections .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing  by Elena Ferrante (Europa)

12 Rave • 12 Positive • 4 Mixed

“The lucid, well-formed essays that make up In the Margins  are written in an equally captivating voice … Although a slim collection, there is more than enough meat here to nourish both the common reader and the Ferrante aficionado … Every essay here is a blend of deep thought, rigorous analysis and graceful prose. We occasionally get the odd glimpse of the author…but mainly the focus is on the nuts and bolts of writing and Ferrante’s practice of her craft. The essays are at their most rewarding when Ferrante discusses the origins of her books, in particular the celebrated Neapolitan Novels, and the multifaceted heroines that power them … These essays might not bring us any closer to finding out who Ferrante really is. Instead, though, they provide valuable insight into how she developed as a writer and how she works her magic.”

–Malcolm Forbes ( The Star Tribune )

2. Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri (Princeton University Press)

8 Rave • 14 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Lahiri mixes detailed explorations of craft with broader reflections on her own artistic life, as well as the ‘essential aesthetic and political mission’ of translation. She is excellent in all three modes—so excellent, in fact, that I, a translator myself, could barely read this book. I kept putting it aside, compelled by Lahiri’s writing to go sit at my desk and translate … One of Lahiri’s great gifts as an essayist is her ability to braid multiple ways of thinking together, often in startling ways … a reminder, no matter your relationship to translation, of how alive language itself can be. In her essays as in her fiction, Lahiri is a writer of great, quiet elegance; her sentences seem simple even when they’re complex. Their beauty and clarity alone would be enough to wake readers up. ‘Look,’ her essays seem to say: Look how much there is for us to wake up to.”

–Lily Meyer ( NPR )

3. The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan (Simon & Schuster)

10 Rave • 15 Positive • 7 Mixed • 4 Pan

“It is filled with songs and hyperbole and views on love and lust even darker than Blood on the Tracks … There are 66 songs discussed here … Only four are by women, which is ridiculous, but he never asked us … Nothing is proved, but everything is experienced—one really weird and brilliant person’s experience, someone who changed the world many times … Part of the pleasure of the book, even exceeding the delectable Chronicles: Volume One , is that you feel liberated from Being Bob Dylan. He’s not telling you what you got wrong about him. The prose is so vivid and fecund, it was useless to underline, because I just would have underlined the whole book. Dylan’s pulpy, noir imagination is not always for the squeamish. If your idea of art is affirmation of acceptable values, Bob Dylan doesn’t need you … The writing here is at turns vivid, hilarious, and will awaken you to songs you thought you knew … The prose brims everywhere you turn. It is almost disturbing. Bob Dylan got his Nobel and all the other accolades, and now he’s doing my job, and he’s so damn good at it.”

–David Yaffe ( AirMail )

4.  Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos (Catapult)

13 Rave • 2 Positive • 2 Mixed Read an excerpt from Body Work here

“In her new book, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative , memoirist Melissa Febos handily recuperates the art of writing the self from some of the most common biases against it: that the memoir is a lesser form than the novel. That trauma narratives should somehow be over—we’ve had our fill … Febos rejects these belittlements with eloquence … In its hybridity, this book formalizes one of Febos’s central tenets within it: that there is no disentangling craft from the personal, just as there is no disentangling the personal from the political. It’s a memoir of a life indelibly changed by literary practice and the rigorous integrity demanded of it …

Febos is an essayist of grace and terrific precision, her sentences meticulously sculpted, her paragraphs shapely and compressed … what’s fresh, of course, is Febos herself, remapping this terrain through her context, her life and writing, her unusual combinations of sources (William H. Gass meets Elissa Washuta, for example), her painstaking exactitude and unflappable sureness—and the new readers she will reach with all of this.”

–Megan Milks ( 4Columns )

5. You Don’t Know Us Negroes by Zora Neale Hurston (Amistad)

12 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed

“… a dazzling collection of her work … You Don’t Know Us Negroes reveals Hurston at the top of her game as an essayist, cultural critic, anthropologist and beat reporter … Hurston is, by turn, provocative, funny, bawdy, informative and outrageous … Hurston will make you laugh but also make you remember the bitter divide in Black America around performance, language, education and class … But the surprising page turner is at the back of the book, a compilation of Hurston’s coverage of the Ruby McCollom murder trial …

Some of Hurston’s writing is sensationalistic, to be sure, but it’s also a riveting take of gender and race relations at the time … Gates and West have put together a comprehensive collection that lets Hurston shine as a writer, a storyteller and an American iconoclast.”

–Lisa Page ( The Washington Post )

6. Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us by Rachel Aviv (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

11 Rave • 4 Positive • 2 Mixed Listen to an interview with Rachel Aviv here

“… written with an astonishing amount of attention and care … Aviv’s triumphs in relating these journeys are many: her unerring narrative instinct, the breadth of context brought to each story, her meticulous reporting. Chief among these is her empathy, which never gives way to pity or sentimentality. She respects her subjects, and so centers their dignity without indulging in the geeky, condescending tone of fascination that can characterize psychologists’ accounts of their patients’ troubles. Though deeply curious about each subject, Aviv doesn’t treat them as anomalous or strange … Aviv’s daunted respect for uncertainty is what makes Strangers to Ourselves distinctive. She is hyperaware of just how sensitive the scale of the self can be.”

–Charlotte Shane ( Bookforum )

7. A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast by Dorthe Nors (Graywolf)

11 Rave • 1 Positive Read an excerpt from A Line in the World here

“Nors, known primarily as a fiction writer, here embarks on a languorous and evocative tour of her native Denmark … The dramas of the past are evoked not so much through individual characters as through their traces—buildings, ruins, shipwrecks—and this westerly Denmark is less the land of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales and sleek Georg Jensen designs than a place of ancient landscapes steeped in myth … People aren’t wholly incidental to the narrative. Nors introduces us to a variety of colorful characters, and shares vivid memories of her family’s time in a cabin on the coast south of Thyborøn. But in a way that recalls the work of Barry Lopez, nature is at the heart of this beautiful book, framed in essay-like chapters, superbly translated by Caroline Waight.”

–Claire Messud ( Harper’s )

8. Raising Raffi: The First Five Years by Keith Gessen (Viking)

4 Rave • 10 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from Raising Raffi here

“A wise, mild and enviably lucid book about a chaotic scene … Is it OK to out your kid like this? … Still, this memoir will seem like a better idea if, a few decades from now, Raffi is happy and healthy and can read it aloud to his own kids while chuckling at what a little miscreant he was … Gessen is a wily parser of children’s literature … He is just as good on parenting manuals … Raising Raffi offers glimpses of what it’s like to eke out literary lives at the intersection of the Trump and Biden administrations … Needing money for one’s children, throughout history, has made parents do desperate things — even write revealing parenthood memoirs … Gessen’s short book is absorbing not because it delivers answers … It’s absorbing because Gessen is a calm and observant writer…who raises, and struggles with, the right questions about himself and the world.”

–Dwight Garner ( The New York Times )

9. The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser (Doubleday)

8 Rave • 4 Positive • 2 Mixed • 1 Pan Watch an interview with CJ Hauser here

“17 brilliant pieces … This tumbling, in and out of love, structures the collection … Calling Hauser ‘honest’ and ‘vulnerable’ feels inadequate. She embraces and even celebrates her flaws, and she revels in being a provocateur … It is an irony that Hauser, a strong, smart, capable woman, relates to the crane wife’s contortions. She felt helpless in her own romantic relationship. I don’t have one female friend who has not felt some version of this, but putting it into words is risky … this collection is not about neat, happy endings. It’s a constant search for self-discovery … Much has been written on the themes Hauser excavates here, yet her perspective is singular, startlingly so. Many narratives still position finding the perfect match as a measure of whether we’ve led successful lives. The Crane Wife dispenses with that. For that reason, Hauser’s worldview feels fresh and even radical.”

–Hope Reese ( Oprah Daily )

10. How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo (Viking)

8 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from How to Read Now here

“Elaine Castillo’s How to Read Now begins with a section called ‘Author’s Note, or a Virgo Clarifies Things.’ The title is a neat encapsulation of the book’s style: rigorous but still chatty, intellectual but not precious or academic about it … How to Read Now proceeds at a breakneck pace. Each of the book’s eight essays burns bright and hot from start to finish … How to Read Now is not for everybody, but if it is for you, it is clarifying and bracing. Castillo offers a full-throated critique of some of the literary world’s most insipid and self-serving ideas …

So how should we read now? Castillo offers suggestions but no resolution. She is less interested in capital-A Answers…and more excited by the opportunity to restore a multitude of voices and perspectives to the conversation … A book is nothing without a reader; this one is co-created by its recipients, re-created every time the page is turned anew. How to Read Now offers its audience the opportunity to look past the simplicity we’re all too often spoon-fed into order to restore ourselves to chaos and complexity—a way of seeing and reading that demands so much more of us but offers even more in return.”

–Zan Romanoff ( The Los Angeles Times )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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Prime Video Is Saving the Rom-Com

Amazon's original romantic comedies are ushering in a new renaissance for the genre.

The past decade has not been the best for the romantic comedy genre. We can't deny that must-watch rom-coms have been few and far between in recent years, as studios focus on blockbuster tentpoles over mid-budget darlings . With less frothy comedies hitting theaters, streamers have come in to pick up the slack, but it can be hard to tell which releases are worth a true rom-com fan's time. May we, the rom-com connoisseurs at Marie Claire , point you toward one streamer with a supreme collection: Prime Video.

The original films coming out of Amazon Studios have been having a moment. Several of their new releases have become word-of-mouth hits over the past two years, from original comedies like this year's Upgraded to novel adaptations like 2023's Red, White & Royal Blue . And that was before they released the most-anticipated rom-com of 2024, the Anne Hathaway-led film The Idea of You . It seems like Amazon has tapped into the secret sauce that makes for fun, fulfilling love stories.

“It is always our mission to create content that connects with our customers, and the rom-com genre has been wildly successful in accomplishing this goal,” Courtenay Valenti, head of film, streaming, and theatrical at Amazon MGM Studios tells Marie Claire in a statement. “Anchored by the universal theme of the enduring power of love, we hope to create stories that are imbued with humor and joy; equally important, these stories allow audiences to find connection and inspiration.”

Below, we dove into the depths of Prime Video's offerings to bring you a selection of films that rom-com fans should add to their watchlists, from heartwarming holiday romances to hilarious and flirtatious hijinks to pure escapist decadence.

'About Fate' (2022)

Emma Roberts and Thomas Mann in About Fate .

Starring Emma Roberts and Thomas Mann, this 2022 film pulls off one of the cardinal requirements of a good rom-com: The chemistry between the leads has to be charming enough for viewers to buy into the wild meet-cute. (Call it the Sleepless in Seattle rule.) In the first scenes of this remake of a 1978 Soviet film, both Margot (Roberts) and Griffin (Mann) are counting down the hours until they get engaged on a December 30th dinner date. Both of their hopes are eventually dashed, and Margot is also left dateless for her sister's New Years Eve wedding. Through unfortunate circumstances, the strangers meet and Griffin agrees to play Margot's faux-boyfriend for the wedding. Wild? Absolutely, but as they bumble to the wedding in a blizzard(!), it's clear that Margot and Griffin just might be meant to be.

'Anything's Possible' (2022)

Eva Reign and Abubakr Ali in Anything's Possible .

In this heartwarming teen romance, Kelsa (Eva Reign) and Khal (Abubakr Ali) are high school seniors who become each other's first loves. Kelsa is a confident trans woman who keeps her YouTube channel secret from her mother (Renée Elise Goldsberry), while Khal is a cis man who spends his free time giving romantic advice on Reddit. As their relationship blossoms, the pair deal with high-school politics, friendship drama, and social stigmas in this contemporary, groundbreaking rom-com.

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'The Big Sick' (2017)

Kumail Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan in The Big Sick .

I'm calling it: The Big Sick is the rom-com that started it all. Or at least, the forerunner that ensured Prime Video was a streamer to watch for original love stories. Based on the real-life romance between writers Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, this film follows a fictional version of the stand-up comic Kumail as he falls in love with a grad student (played by Zoe Kazan) who heckles him at a show one night. Their effortless relationship faces huge challenges, namely Kumail keeping Emily secret from his traditional parents and Emily's sudden illness from a mysterious infection (the titular Big Sick). Fair warning: This one gets a lot heavier than the typical rom-com, but Nanjiani and Gordon's deft handling of sensitive topics gives The Big Sick an elevated authenticity that helped it earn an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

'The Idea of You' (2024)

Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway in The Idea of You .

This adaptation of Robinne Lee 's 2017 novel is pure escapist fantasy with a boy band twist. While accompanying her teen daughter to Coachella, Soléne Marchand (Anne Hathaway), a recently divorced art gallery owner on the cusp of 40, has a meet-cute with Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the 24-year-old heartthrob in pop quintet August Moon. Despite their age gap, the pair have a whirlwind, globe-trotting romance until the pressures of fame bring their whirlwind affair back down to earth. Come for the loose Harry Styles/1D inspiration, and stay for Hathaway and Galitzine's electric chemistry.

'I Want You Back' (2022)

Charlie Day and Gina Rodriguez in I Want You Back .

In this joke-a-minute flick, Peter and Emma (played Charlie Day and Jenny Slate) have arguably the best reactions to their parallel, unexpected break-ups. The strangers meet by chance while crying in the same stairwell, quickly bond over their sorrow, and then team up to sabotage their respective exes' new relationships. Okay, the last part goes a bit overboard, but the pair's screwball schemes deliver the laughs, and Day and Slate are a casting match made in Heaven.

'Música' (2024)

Rudy Mancuso and Camila Mendes in Música.

This inventive musical comedy mixes a coming-of-age story with romance—leading to a real-life coupling of its leads. Vine-turned-YouTube star Rudy Mancuso wrote, composed, and stars in this film as a version of himself: a student and part-time puppeteer living with synesthesia, a neurological condition that makes his brain hear musical rhythms from everyday sounds. After a fight with his long-time girlfriend Haley (Francesca Reale), he meets Isabella (Camila Mendes), a fellow Brazilian-American who immediately connects with Rudy's unique way of seeing the world. Chaos ensues as Rudy attempts to juggle his relationships with both women.

'Red, White & Royal Blue' (2023)

Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine in Red, White & Royal Blue .

Based on Casey McQuiston's 2019 novel of the same name, this adorable flick follows the unlikely animosity-turned-romance between the First Son of the United States and the handsome Prince of England. After Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez) and Prince Henry (Nicolas Galitzine) cause an international incident at a royal wedding, the hostile acquaintances are forced to pretend to be besties in a series of public appearances. Forced proximity leads to genuine friendship and even love, but will the world accept a romance between two scions of world leaders?

'Something from Tiffany's' (2022)

Zoey Deutch and Kendrick Sampson in Something From Tiffany's .

This is the stuff of classic rom-com magic: During the holiday season in New York City, an epic mix-up brings two kindred spirits together. Single dad Ethan (Kendrick Sampson) buys an engagement ring for his girlfriend Vanessa (Shay Mitchell) at Tiffany's, on the same night Gary (Ray Nicholson) buys chef Rachel (Zoey Deutch) a pair of earrings. When Gary is hit by a car immediately after and Ethan comes to his aid, their gifts get mixed up and the wrong woman gets a Christmas Day proposal. In the aftermath, Ethan and Rachel begin to see their relationships, and the budding friendship between them, in a new light.

'Upgraded' (2024)

Camila Mendes and Archie Renaux in Upgraded.

In this art-world spin on Cinderella, ambitious intern Ana's (Camila Mendes) career gets a boost when she's tapped for a work trip to London. The demanding gig takes a turn as she's upgraded to a first-class flight and meets William (Archie Renaux), the handsome son of a British celebrity. Unfortunately, William mistakes her for her demanding art director boss (Marisa Tomei). As Ana and William grow closer, her little white lie threatens to blow up their modern fairytale romance.

Quinci LeGardye is a Contributing Culture Editor who covers TV, movies, Korean entertainment, books, and pop culture. When she isn’t writing or checking Twitter, she’s probably watching the latest K-drama or giving a concert performance in her car.

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The 7 Best New Movies Coming to Hulu in May 2024

"It’s gonna be May!"

In addition to all the fun memes featuring Justin Timberlake rocking his “ramen noodle” hairstyle while announcing the month, May has plenty of other things to offer! Schools are preparing for prom and graduation, foliage is growing, and Hulu is adding a ton of new content to its platform. With so many options to choose from, this article will help you find your new favorite movie to check out after spending the day outside in the sunshine!

'The Contestant' (2023)

The Contestant is a 2023 documentary about a Japanese reality television show that follows contestant Tomoaki Hamatsu as he agrees to isolate himself in an apartment with no clothing, no food, and no connection to the outside world. The only thing he had for entertainment was a pile of magazines that he had to enter multiple mail-in sweepstakes, and he could only complete his challenge once he was successful in winning ¥1 million (or roughly USD 8,000, at the time). He used the awards from the sweepstakes to clothe and feed himself. The documentary is narrated by Fred Armisen , and interviews the showrunner for the reality show, Susunu! Denpa Shōnen about the ethics of making a real-life version of The Truman Show . Hamatsu spent over a year in isolation but was unaware of the fact that he was being broadcast live the entire time instead of simply being recorded and monitored for safety purposes.

'Prom Dates' (2023)

When high school best friends Jess ( Antonia Gentry ) and Hannah ( Julia Lester ) made a pact at the age of 13 to have the “Best Prom Ever,” they really meant it. The only issue is that they both unexpectedly broke up with their prom dates only 24 hours before their big day. Now, the two of them have to find new dates to take to prom . Filled with high school drama, awkward and embarrassing situations, and moments of unadulterated hilarity, Jess and Hannah will stop at nothing to ensure their pact from years ago is fulfilled. Will they be able to secure new dates or will only one of them be able to, potentially causing a rift in their relationship?

'Elvis' (2022)

This biographical drama depicts the childhood, life, and rise to fame of Elvis Presley in the 1950s, along with his tumultuous relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker ( Tom Hanks ). The film starts with Parker being rushed to a hospital in 1997, where he then recounts how he came to know “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Austin Butler , who plays the titular character, provides the vocal performances for the songs Elvis sang when he was younger, but the original recordings were used for songs performed by the rock star when he was much older and nearing the end of his life. If you’re a fan of Rocketman or Bohemian Rhapsody , this is a movie you don’t want to miss!

'The Flood' (2023)

During a deadly hurricane in Louisiana, a transport bus full of violent criminals is forced to stop and take shelter in jail at the local sheriff’s department until the storm dies down. They use this last-minute change of plans to attempt to break out, as the emergency services are all tied up helping other residents evacuate. When the flooding begins, it brings with it a group of large, hungry alligators who don’t care if you’re a “good guy” or a “bad guy,” all they see is food. Either way, the survivors of both sides will have to team up if they want to get out of the situation alive.

'Wanted Man' (2023)

Dolph Lundgren stars in this testosterone-fueled action thriller as police officer Travis Johansen, who is tasked with transporting an eyewitness to a massive drug cartel shooting that left several DEA officers dead. Things seem to start just fine until he receives intel that the killings were orchestrated by the United States government. Now, he finds himself a Wanted Man with very few people he can trust completely. When corruption runs that deep, he will have to clear his name and protect the witness on his own if he wants to get out of this alive.

'Last Sentinel' (2023)

Set in 2063, this sci-fi thriller features a small group of soldiers who are stranded on an abandoned military outpost in the middle of the ocean. They are tasked with protecting a weapon while they wait for reinforcements or an attack by the enemy. However, a giant storm approaches, and they have to decide to stay put or attempt to flee on an empty vessel that appears one day with no sign of life onboard. Little to no information is given about what caused this massive conflict, or which continents are involved, but unless there are aliens involved in this thriller… all wars are man-made.

'Sympathy for the Devil' (2023)

Sympathy for the Devil is a fast-paced thriller full of twists and turns as David ( Joel Kinnaman ) is driving to the hospital where his wife is giving birth to their first child. When he comes to a stop, a stranger, only known as “the Passenger” ( Nicolas Cage ), climbs into his car, puts a gun to his head, and instructs him to drive. Knowing very little about the Passenger, David has to find a way to escape, so he can get to his family. David also harbors a dark secret from his past that the Passenger, who, despite seemingly knowing everything about David’s life, doesn’t realize until it’s too late. This game of cat-and-mouse mirrors the 2004 action-thriller Collateral , starring Tom Cruise as the mysterious passenger and Jamie Foxx as his unwilling driver.

Stay tuned here to see what great new movies Hulu will be adding to its platform in June!

Media Center 5/1/2024 10:00:00 AM Corbin McGuire

How the NCAA is prioritizing mental health

New resources, initiatives and research driving actions focused on student-athletes.

The NCAA continued its commitment to advancing mental health for its more than 520,000 student-athletes in the 2023-24 academic year. Check out a few ways the NCAA has made progress in this area, including new resources, initiatives and research.  

Mental Health Best Practices

The second edition of  NCAA Mental Health Best Practices  was approved at the 2024 NCAA Convention in January and will go into effect Aug. 1. The document includes emerging information about the intersection of mental health and sports betting, social media, corruption in sport, suicide contagion, and name, image and likeness. The document also details specific considerations for student-athletes of color, LGBTQ student-athletes, international student-athletes and student-athletes with disabilities.

"The updated Mental Health Best Practices reflects the highest standards of excellence and evidence-based practice and of comprehensive and up-to-date guidance on supporting mental health in collegiate athletics," NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline, who announced his retirement in March, said after a  February meeting of the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports . "The NCAA recognizes the importance of promoting and protecting the mental wellness of student-athletes, who face unique challenges and pressures in their pursuit of excellence."

The document's four best practices  have been updated to recognize the importance of creating healthy environments as a first step in promoting mental health, as well as to provide membership increased flexibility in implementation. The best practices are: 

• The creation of healthy environments that support mental health and promote well-being. 
• Procedures, including mental health screening tools, for identifying student-athletes with mental health symptoms and disorders. 
• Action plans that outline referral pathways of student-athletes to qualified providers.
• Licensure of providers who oversee and manage student-athlete mental health care.

Additionally, as part of Division I's holistic student-athlete model, schools in the division will be required to attest to providing services and support consistent with the best practices, with the first attestation deadline in November 2025. Under the NCAA constitution adopted in January 2022, each member school — regardless of division — must facilitate an environment that reinforces physical and mental health within athletics by ensuring access to appropriate resources and open engagement with respect to physical and mental health.

To support NCAA members in implementing mental health best practices, the NCAA Sport Science Institute recently hosted a  series of webinars  featuring membership-based examples of ways to support and promote student-athlete mental health. 

Sports betting

Protecting student-athletes from the pitfalls of sports betting, ranging from addiction to harassment, quickly became a priority of NCAA President Charlie Baker after he started his role in March 2023. Since then, the NCAA's advocacy and efforts in this space have been impactful . 

The national office is continuing to aggressively pursue advocacy in states that have or are considering legalized sports betting to incorporate antiharassment measures. This includes calling for a ban on player-specific prop bets. As a result, several states have taken positive steps to protect student-athletes from sports betting harassment. Four states have implemented restrictions on prop betting, and another four states have introduced bills that protect student-athletes from harassment. 

The NCAA has expanded its educational efforts with EPIC Global Solutions, designing specific curriculum that discusses handling abusive content. Over 50,000 student-athletes have been educated through the program, the largest of its kind globally. The NCAA also has launched a sports betting e-learning module designed to educate current and prospective student-athletes on problem gambling harms and the risks sports betting poses to the integrity of sports.

The NCAA  is also working with Signify Group  to pilot an initiative targeting social media harassment for the 2023-24 championship season. The initiative focuses on select championships with a heightened risk for harassment and abuse directed at championship participants, particularly student-athletes. This initiative is intended to further promote the mental health and well-being of the college sports community through data collection and analytics.  

In March, the NCAA launched a campaign called " Draw the Line ," prioritizing student-athlete education on the effects of sports betting. Draw the Line is aimed at college students and will run across social media channels. It will include a membership toolkit for member schools and conferences to access resources that extend the campaign to their campuses.

"Sports betting is everywhere — especially on college campuses — so it's critical student-athletes get the real story about how it can impact them and their ability to play," Baker said. "We know some bettors are harassing student-athletes and officials, so that's why we are advocating for policy changes at the state level and launching monitoring tools around championships to refer serious threats to law enforcement. The NCAA is doing more than ever to protect the integrity of the game and arm student-athletes with the truth about sports betting." 

The NCAA has continued to get direct feedback from student-athletes on their experiences, especially on mental health concerns. 

In December, the NCAA  released results  from a nationally representative survey of more than 23,000 student-athletes. The findings, drawn from the  NCAA Student-Athlete Health and Wellness Study , indicated student-athletes are reporting fewer mental health concerns than they did during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, although the improvements are smaller in some demographics.

Similar to findings from  online studies conducted in 2020 and 2021 , self-reported mental health struggles were more common among student-athletes of color, those identifying on the queer spectrum and those identifying as transgender or nonbinary — population subgroups that commonly display higher rates of mental distress. 

"Getting an accurate understanding of what student-athletes are experiencing — directly from them — is vitally important to help member schools better serve the students on their campuses," said Tom Paskus, NCAA managing director of research. "The NCAA and our research partners, including NCAA faculty athletics representatives, devote substantial time and energy to conducting student-athlete well-being surveys because they allow us to examine important issues such as mental health trends over time. Having tens of thousands of respondents allows us to really dig deep into concerns we see in particular sports or within particular demographic groups."

In addition to sharing findings from the Health and Wellness Study, the NCAA Wagering and Social Environments Study is currently in the field, and the NCAA research team anticipates sharing preliminary results early this fall. The study represents the first comprehensive national examination of how NCAA student-athletes are being impacted by the proliferation of legal sports wagering options in the U.S. after the Supreme Court's 2018 overturning of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. Additionally, the survey examines how student-athletes interact with campus and community groups and deal with various issues that arise in their social environment. The study will expand the NCAA's understanding of the sports betting landscape and its direct impact on student-athletes, including whether rates of problem gambling behaviors in this population have changed as sports betting has become legal in many states, whether student-athletes are experiencing fan abuse related to sports betting, and how social media use is impacting student-athlete mental wellness. 

Post-eligibility insurance — mental health coverage 

In August 2023, the NCAA Board of Governors approved the creation of the  NCAA Post-Eligibility Insurance Program  for all student-athletes, which will begin Aug. 1. For up to two years (104 weeks) after student-athletes separate from school or voluntarily withdraw from athletics, the program will cover excess medical expenses for athletically related injuries sustained on or after Aug. 1 during participation in an NCAA qualifying intercollegiate sport. The coverage will provide benefits in excess of any other valid and collectible insurance. The policy will have a $90,000 excess limit per injury, with no deductible.

The program includes coverage for mental health services stemming from an eligible, documented athletic injury sustained during participation in an NCAA qualifying intercollegiate sport. Of the $90,000 available, a sublimit of up to $25,000 will be available for mental health services related to an eligible, documented athletic injury.

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