Kyle
Kallgren began his online career carrying the moniker Oancitizen, and started
his career at TGWTG/Channel Awesome in March of 2011. Since then, his primary show (aside from the
occasional crossover work or casual vlog) has been the Brows Held High series,
and while the format and quality of the videos and sound have changed a bit
over the years, like Todd in the Shadows, another from the Chez Apocalypse
crowd he continues to work closely with, there is a remarkable consistency to
his work over the decade.
He
officially left the Channel Awesome site in 2015, citing “creative
differences.” At the time he insisted in
a Tumblr post that there were no hard feelings directly involved in his
decision to leave, but when #ChangeTheChannel started to bring out more and
more stories of the channel’s mismanagement before and during the time he
decided to leave, I think it’s clear that that either played a direct role in
his decision, or merely made him far happier in retrospect that he got out when
he did.
His
brand, of sorts, is to take a “highbrow” approach to film criticism, picking
rather unique topics about a film or series of films and diving in deep. His style is simple, straightforward. He looks at the camera and talks, interspersed
with clips and stills from the film (or films) in question. He does not deliberately go for humor, but
when he does, it’s usually a dry or sarcastic form of wit (so, perfect for
me). The closest thing to a long-running
series of his is his series of Shakespeare Month videos, but for the most part
his videos have always been stand-alone works, which for me means that there is
a particularly wide variety of stuff to pick out for viewing. Since the 2016 election, he’s also had a
long-running thread on his Twitter feed where he continuously finds new ways of
wishing death on Fascism and all its associated elements. It is a joy to track and I highly recommend
it to everyone.
Here,
then, is an unranked list of my personal favorites out of his videos.
Anonymous
An
early entry in his Shakespeare series, this video trains Kyle’s ire on Roland Emmerich’s
terrible, terrible film attempting to build up the Anti-Stratfordian conspiracy
theory that Shakespeare…..didn’t actually write Shakespeare. It’s precisely this sort of faux-intellectual
nonsense that is right up Kyle’s aesthetic wheelhouse, and watching him pick
through the massive holes in this strange literary thought-fart is wonderful
catharsis. One of my favorite jokes of
his of all time remains the part where, in utter exasperation, he cries out, “BUT
HOW CAN FALCON IF NOT POSH????”
Cloud Atlas
Now,
I find some of Kyle’s critiques of Cloud Atlas to be a bit harsh- the film is an absolute masterpiece and I
will brook no argument on this front- but still, not enough people talk about this
movie in any fashion. This special
two-parter where Kyle sifts through the differences between the book and the
movie, and on the wider influences within literature, philosophy, and cinema
that informed the story and characters is the sort of take I dearly miss from
most of my personal favorite films. More
people need to see this movie. More
people need to read the book, itself a masterpiece. More people need to watch these videos. Also, remember how I said Kyle usually doesn’t
go for broad comedy? Well, when he does,
he goes big. The
sketches-within-sketches finale of Part 2 is one of the funniest things ever
produced on the internet.
Washington, D.C. Always
Plays Itself
Here
is a prime example of how Kyle is always able to find an idea or angle on
cinema or culture that I never thought of before, forcing me to reconsider much
of how I consume media. Here, he
specifically looks at how the capital of the United States itself functions as
a character all on its own whenever it is part of a film’s setting. This is applicable to all sorts of films; from
straight-up propaganda to subversive critiques of American politics and
society, if D.C. is in your movie, there is latent symbolism and meaning in
every single shot you use of the iconic buildings of the city, whether the
filmmaker truly realizes it or not. Films
are not made in a bubble. They shape and
are shaped by every facet of the culture that surrounds us, and it can only
help to be more actively aware of how we can shape this environment we live in
for the better.
Who Gets To Be A
Civilization?
The
Civilization games have remained a staple of my life for over a decade now, and
I was so pleased when this video was released to find out that Kyle was a
kindred spirit. That said, while we are
both devotees of the game in its myriad versions, his pointed examinations of
how each iteration of the game clearly shows the limits, biases, and flaws in
how we in the 21st-century West tend to think of “civilization,”
specifically how we inevitably define it in opposition to something barbaric,
something “other.” In the Civ games,
this is taken to its ultimate, most ruthlessly logical conclusion; only a
select set of pre-ordained nations, peoples, or cultures can “win.” The barbarians- however they are defined in a
given version- can never win.
That
said, the games have improved remarkably in terms of variety, geographic and historical
spread, and inclusiveness, with each version sporting more and more
non-European and native civs with their own unique colors and special
benefits. This, too, reflects how we can
actively change the culture of assumptions we live within. If we are able to better ourselves, we are in
a position to demand better from our Civ games, indeed all our games, as
well.
Tommy Wiseau: The Last
Auteur
There
are, perhaps, few other things as over-used in the realm of film criticism than
the idea of the “auteur” as the highest, greatest form of film as art. It is a concept with deep veins of sexism and
racism running through it, as Kyle brilliantly demonstrates in the subtlest of
ways, and I found it hilarious- and fitting- that it be given what might be its
purest expression yet in the form of the strange, possibly-criminal creator of
one of the “Worst Movies Ever Made.”
Sherman’s March in 2017
Made
in the wake of the white supremacist marches of 2017, this is one of Kyle’s
most viscerally powerful videos. He
combines his own experiences and frustrations as a white man searching for
answers with those of a filmmaker who, decades before, had intended to make a
film about Sherman’s March, but instead made a film about….well, that, and a
bit of everything else. This video, like
the film, is a stunning reflection on how we interpret and shape our historical
narratives to suit our needs, how we like to draw clear lines between life and
art, reality, and fantasy, while in actuality it all blends together inside of
us, all the time. We all should be so
reflective in our daily lives.
Why Buckaroo Bonzai is
Today’s Most Important Superhero
I
adore the fact that this video exists. I
was but a boy when I decided to pop in my Dad’s VHS copy of the one and only
Buckaroo Bonzai film to ever be made, the film’s teaser of a sequel
notwithstanding. Since then, I was
always tickled by how I knew about this oddball cult classic that very few
people, outside of really devoted, “nerd” circles, had ever even heard of. So to see it brought out into the sun for a
little 21st-century treatment, looking at how surprisingly well so
much of its holds up today, was the sort of treat I never knew I’d been
yearning before until it was offered up to me on my Youtube
Recommendations.
Bisexual Lighting: the
Rise of Pink, Purple, and Blue
The
way color and light is used in visual art is something most people don’t think
about, but once you start to dig down even a little bit, you realize there is
an immense wealth of things to ponder over and appreciate in how the best
artists are able to utilize these tools to shape how we interpret and
experience art. This is especially
fascinating in how sexuality, particularly non-hetero identities, can be
suggested or enhanced by the use of color schemes, specifically the uses of
pink, purple, and blue to suggest bi-sexuality.
Kyle concludes it all with what is possibly the most personal reveal he’s
ever made in a video. And it is worth
waiting right up until the end for.
Thank you, Kyle, for all you share with use.
-Noah Franc
Previously
on Producers in Focus:
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