Seven niche video essays to watch in your spare time
By Mikaela Gabrielle de Castro
Being chronically online moves past a black-and-white problem. We’re practically stuck in the media’s twines forever — good, bad, and everything in between. Instead of impossibly ramming our way out, what can we learn or love from their content and stories?
For film and literature buffs, or just genuine lovers of media criticism, dive into the bizarre rabbit hole of YouTube video essays: from Shrek, McDonald’s, concepts of love, The Sims, K-pop, Philippine cinema, and many more.
1. ‘our conception of love is messed up’ by Olivia Sun (oliSUNvia)
When we’re bombarded with “green flags,” “sana all” experiences, “he is the standard” forms of love in media, we unavoidably shoehorn these snippets and tropes into our expectations of experiencing the perfect love. The pressure is real. But how realistic and enduring are these filtered appearances of love?
“The imaginary dictates reality,” Olivia Sun notes in our conception of love is messed up, alluding that love portrayed in media subconsciously cements misleading ideas of what love must be and looks like to validate it.
The video essay’s thumbnail and title seem self-explanatory, but the content has significant layers on types of love that you shouldn’t miss out on.
2. ‘The Real Reason McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines Are Always Broken’ by Johnny Harris
Perhaps there’s more to this broken ice cream machine phenomenon and we’re just on the tip of its iceberg.
The Real Reason McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines Are Always Broken unpacks a can of worms about the tech service industry and how their “malfunctions” not only affect their customers but their workers. This investigative journalism video asks: instead of these machines being repaired, why are they purposely retained?
Pique your curiosity with a hyper-specific title and end the video with a broadened mindset.
3. ‘The Carefully Crafted Narrative of Taylor Swift’ by Quality Culture
If you want an extension of the productivity queen’s 2019 Billboard speech, lo and behold, this brilliant video essay exists. The Carefully Crafted Narrative of Taylor Swift is a well-written exploration of the popstar’s musical timeline; in her own cinematic and literary universe.
From a wholesome country girl, to a relatable girl next door; to a bitter ex-girlfriend, to a serial boyfriend collector, to her disappearance from the public that evinced her as a resentful “snake” queen, to blossoming as a lover — Swift slowly goes back to her humble roots by reconciling different versions of her with her guitar, like a mirrorball.
The video does not only debunk how the media unfairly etched her and other female artists with massive notoriety and misogyny in the entertainment industry, but also fairly dwells on her white feminism and lucid personas over the years.
4. ‘Sofia Coppola: The Politics of Pretty’ by Broey Deschanel
Renowned director Sofia Coppola has often been criticized by male audiences for the substance, rather the lack of it, in her films. Why are her films usually just composed of boring gazes, utterances among women, their mundane hobbies, or strained relationships?
These undertones of grief and the unspoken intricacies of girlhood are commiserated most eloquently in Sofia Coppola: The Politics of Pretty. If boys have Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, or Martin Scorsese, girls have Coppola.
Broey Deschanel says, “You’re entranced with the beauty of these films as you watch them, and struck with melancholy for days after.” Watch this poetic piece if you need to laze in the quietude and universal struggles of womanhood.
5. ‘My Love Letter to Spirited Away’ by Karsten Runquist
What draws us close to the evocative illustrations of the carefree and wholesome adventures of Studio Ghibli? Just like Coppola’s films, Studio Ghibli’s films are slow, allowing you to take in those moments at your own pace, without too much action. May it be the fluffy clouds and hills, the hushes of the waves, the swaying of the leaves or the fizzling sound of cooking an egg, watching Ghibli is always an escape.
When we want to take a break from the bustling world, we turn on our favorite magical realism flicks from this revered studio, and one of the most iconic and nostalgic ones is Spirited Away. My Love Letter to Spirited Away expresses their soft spot and enumerates all reasons for our endearing rapport with this Japanese animated film, reverberating the same temporal calmness turned into an atmospheric experience.
Feel all spirited away as you relate to this melodic essay about love for art and nostalgia.
6. ‘The Sims (2000) as Anti-Capitalist Critique’ by Bram de Groot
Our favorite home decorating or rather love-making game may actually have a message.
The Sims (2000) as Anti-Capitalist Critique peers into the first Sims made, and its accidental commentary on consumerism and capitalism, for a game that may be the monopoly power fantasy for others.
Degroot details the pretenses of the self-help industry and the American dream that may have been conveyed in the video game. Players balance their wants and needs as they would do in real life, or just go with the flow and spend impulsively. In a world where everyone starts on an equal playing field, we could only hope our own version of reality could come close to this pipe dream where people sing gibberish and inflation wasn’t wildfire.
Travel down memory lane with a different lens on money, happiness, and desire.
7. ‘The Current State of Philippine Cinema’ by Matt Ignite
Mainstream Filipino films are repetitively criticized and mocked. With long-compactified stereotypes of mistresses, long-lost twins, the rich boy and poor girl trope or vice versa, the immortal main character, and terrible computer-generated imagery, a lot of Filipinos still eat them up every time.
But before being indoctrinated that Filipino films are all clichés not worth giving a shot, watch The Current State of Philippine Cinema, which will hopefully change your mind. The video brings light to plots, talented directors, and actors that have compellingly tackled current events and issues in their films: gender inequality, fanaticism, problems faced by the LGBTQ+ community (without being the token comic relief characters), sex education, poverty, war on drugs, and more. And this essay gladly names a lot you have to see.
These are only a few of my treasured recommendations of video essays that resonated with me and others too. But, to each their own.
Diving into the sea of media content can sometimes be intoxicating, especially when the thread between reality and screen can be so perplexing. But if you feel alone with your insights — whether it’d be about a character, a fad, or a show — know that a particular video essay and its diverse comment section will always be a search away.
