Friday, July 12, 2019

Producers in Focus: Leon Thomas (Renegade Cut)




               In terms of his style and delivery, I find a lot of similarities between Leon Thomas and Mike Duncan, he of the invaluable History of Rome and Revolutions podcasts. Both are more soft-spoken and quieter in their deliveries, but are cuttingly smart and deeply informative, yet carry a subdued wit about them that brings more humor to their topics than one might expect.

               Renegade Cut, Leon's primary series, has been running pretty much continuously since summer 2012. It is an overwhelmingly film-focused series, though video games and TV shows make plenty of appearances, but one that differentiates itself from your typical video-review format by often focusing on a particular topic or theme in a given film or films to expound upon. Leon Thomas has, much like Lindsay Ellis, been a primary inspiration for me to think about movies beyond mere straightforward, good/bad critiques; his perspectives are always unlike anything else I've read or seen on a given topic and are always worth the time to delve into. He's done so much, including nearly all my all-time favorite films, so picking and choosing is hard, so here are just a handful of my personal favorites;

Inception (4 Parts)

               Sadly, as of right now these videos appear to be lost to the sands of time; this four-part deep dive into the details of, arguably, Christopher Nolan's greatest film came out shortly after Renegade Cut joined Channel Awesome and back when everything was still hosted on Blip. After that site got shut down, a lot of stuff from many of the creators was lost, and it seems that these were some of the casualties. Which, for me, is a travesty, because it was precisely these videos that first got me hooked on Renegade Cut. At the time, though Nolan was already one of my favorite directors, I was yet to see someone tackle one of his films in this much detail, and it was a real eye-opener for me as to just how rich proper film criticism can be. Maybe, one day, they will be made available again.


DCEU Film and Culture Analysis (4 Parts)


               Like with MovieBob's Really That Bad on Batman v Superman, Leon Thomas undertook the immense, painful task of examining just why and how the DCEU has (so far) so thoroughly failed to take off and create a successful cinematic universe. He has born these sins on his shoulders so that we don't have to; now that this 3+ hour series of his is finished, there is no longer any need to watch any of the first wave of DC movies (except Wonder Woman, which is still great) because the important stuff is all right here, laid out for easy understanding.


Christian Martyr Complex- God's Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness


               As someone raised both liberal and Catholic, the specific ways American Christianity has been twisted to serve asinine, conservative socio-political ends is something that never fails to anger and offend me on a deeply personal level. The utter tripe that is the God's Not Dead....*sigh*....”trilogy” is one of the most cynical examples of this. As such, it was especially satisfying to me to see Leon Thomas take the time to deconstruct the utter emptiness of these films.


Amadeus- Does God Control Our Lives


               Amadeus remains my absolute favorite movie of all time, an artistic work of immense power and depth, so you bet I was pumped to see Thomas' take on its themes of God, theology, and whether or not we really can argue that we have free will.


Kingdom of Heaven


               Another personal favorite of mine, a movie that, much like Amadeus, carries a lot of spiritual resonance for me personally. Like Amadeus, the movie is filled with historical errors, but that is ultimately of lesser importance, because that isn't what the film is about; it is, rather, a critical examination of the ways religion and faith are used to serve material ends, whether or not those ends actually match the spiritual ideals being professed.


Fargo


               There are so many layers to the absurdity of one of the Coen Brothers' greatest creations, especially in how it works in critical examinations of materialism and masculinity through the actions of its characters. This is one of those films that I can never get bored watching, and neither will I ever get bored of seeing others take the film apart as well.


The 20 Best Films of the Decade (So Far)


               There's nothing like a good list, and out of all the ones he's done, Thomas' look at the (in his opinion) best films of the decade is a personal favorite of mine. This is particularly because of how, while there are certainly American films here, he really does go global, spreading the word about a whole host of films from other countries most Western moviegoers have never even heard of, let alone seen. This- the elevation of that which would otherwise go unnoticed or forgotten- is the quintessential purpose of good art criticism.



Previously on Producers in Focus:








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