[Weekly Update] July 24, 2022 (Patreon)

This is the last update from vacation. Next time you hear from me, I'll be in the office again, preparing more videos!

CHANNEL UPDATE

Hope you enjoy our last video on Ringu. If you haven't, give it a watch! While a relatively simple and short video, we went pretty far in-depth with the first act of the film. Due to video length limitations and YouTube content ID, we don't often get to talk about films in great details like this. But since this is one of my favourite movies of all time, I have to do it justice.

Meanwhile, our video on Gallants became an unexpected success, getting more views than our video on Everything Everywhere All at Once. I have no idea what prompted people to watch a video about "old dudes doing kung fu", but I'm glad, nevertheless. If anything, it proves what I said in the video correct: The interest for the genre is still here.

Finally, for our next video, we'll be talking about a Wong Jing movie that was made specifically to diss Jackie Chan. After that, we'll talk about the Mothra Trilogy. It's also been a while since we talk about Korean cinema, so I'll see what comes up.

MEDIA TALK

So, I watched The Grey Man. It's not very good. Its most fatal flaw is the lack of clear character motivation. In an attempt to add mystery to its main character, it hides his backstory for most of the movie, and thus making the film hard to relate to. While the actions are decent, it's not very engaging for this flaw.

Most of the movie, though... I just get reminded why most of my actor friends and I don't like Ryan Gosling.

Oh boy, here we go.

To be fair, almost no one in this film gives a good performance. They are all serviceable, but not great. Ana de Armas looks like she's reading lines most of the time. And Chris Evans gives a hammy performance that doesn't fit too well with the film's tone.

But Ryan Gosling's problem is... just his usual problem: Simply put, he always looks like he is acting.

Actors comes in a few different varieties. We talked about Tony Leung on our channel, and how, from his second phase onward, his performance is always naturalistic. Him, along with the likes of Fassbender, Cumberbatch, Christoph Waltz, Anthony Hopkins, and Mads Mikkelsen, all of this type of acting: They look like themselves in various movies. But they never look like they are acting. All of their actions, their emotions, their expressions feel natural. It's as if what happened in the film happened to these actors personally.

There are also the chameleon actors. Johnny Depp, Seth Rogan, Christian Bale, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Gary Oldman. Instead of natural emotions, these actors transform their posture, gestures, speech patterns, and appearance, to make themselves into a character. 

And then, there are the self-aware stars: The Rock, Jack Black, Melissa McCarthy, Kumail Nanjiani, and Ryan Reynolds. These actors always wink at the character. They aren't necessary bad actors (in fact, all of the ones I listed are fully capable of doing good and dramatic acting). But for whatever reason, their emotions are never convincing on screen.

Note that the last category is also made up entirely of comedians. And, in my opinion, this is where we find Ryan Gosling. He always looks like himself. His emotion, from rage to sadness, all feel like a form of indicative action rather than genuine feelings. And because of that, Ryan Gosling is, to many (myself included), a surprisingly good comedic actor.

But Gosling isn't really known as a comedian, isn't he? He's the poster child for neo-noir films. He is routinely put into roles that demands nuanced and heartfelt performance... And he always looks like he's acting rather than being the character to me.

But, hey, that's just my opinion. I still think he'll better off as a comedian. In fact, he might end up best known as Ken from the Barbie movie starting next year. Time will tell.

In any case, what's your opinion on Ryan Gosling? Do you agree with my hot takes? Let me know.

I'll see you in a few days with a bonus video!