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:
