@@ironicockxssleep64290 its so gross looking to me. like how many films actually have that sort for look? quite a few but not the films that stand out as art. so this is to me super unpleasing to look at, literally uncomfortable, it feels cheap.
Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure - David Lynch
I think we're too harsh on pretention. At least it shows a desire to be deep. Like a child learning to walk the first stepts are going to be failures, but that's how you learn.
Exactly. It is how you learn. But the fact that rich daddy’s money boy is getting a hollywood feature is the crazy part thats making the pill very hard to swallow.
@@shhlbnrys I mean, I have no problem with that. That kid making the backrooms movie came from a somewhat privileged background, but he seems really humble and there’s genuine talent there. Wesley’s just throwing every gen z stereotype and playlist into a blender and seeing what sticks.
Karl Marx isn’t actually very disruptive, his quotes come up in the same philosophy class as the quotes of Nietzsche. It’s no coincidence Wesley quotes both philosophers, it’s cause he’s trying to sound like he took a philosophy class but he’s the type of guy who can’t tell the difference between nihilism and existentialism. He’s trying to use Marx in a philosophical context while avoiding all the socioeconomic connotations but it clearly isn’t landing.
I'd argue it's perfect, and encapsulates the comedy. Buncha pretentious hippies that think they're some genius, citing a lazy bastard of a philosopher who was also a bored rich kid.
It's hard to hate on him when most film school thesis films are this bad and over produced. Wesley's just a rich kid that did something terrible at a younger age than usual. Rich kids with bad ideas like him are a dime a dozen in art schools. If this movie had (Parody) in it's title, I would give it an 8/10.
Strongly agree, as someone who studied at a film school, it's hard to give your film "a point" when you have like a month or less to make it, the fact this dudes film even looks like a "real film" is pretty crazy
@@compilererror2836 I agree, this rich kid being funded by his parents makes it kinda worse. He has loads of money compared to film school students and therefore he can buy his way to the top. Loads of talented storytellers don’t get picked up instead for guys like this who don’t have anything interesting to say and are talented but are chosen due to the money their parents have.
Just commenting so that when this does blow up that I can read all the new comments. You're right though, this is going to take off. It's an interesting opinion.
It’s smart, because people who dislike the film will be finally happy to see a community agreeing with them, and people who like he film will be unhappy about the take and get intrigued
It tries to use philosophical quotes but clearly Wesley has never taken a philosophy class. It’s trying to be a weird mish mash of edgy existentialism, absurdism, and nihilism and so it just falls short of everything, giving it nothing redeemable.
its like if a disney character who's never had any significant struggles in life was asked to write a deep, moving script but all he could come up with was "i feel like my parents don't understand me and growing up sucks and thinking about death is scary and I'm the first person ever to have these thoughts"
I remeber watching this short film, and at first I thought it was interesting. But when I really tried dissecting it I realized how vapid and pretentious it was. Cliche scenarios with no meaning. All it takes nowadays to make a successful film is a big budget and buzz words, and then 1 dimensional Tiktok users will watch it.
It's basically what you would expect from a teenager with a good budget. They have strong feelings about the world but don't have any real world experience to draw from so when they try to say something about it, it just comes out incoherent.
@@dapooty9810You can also say the same for this video though he never actually takes the time to explain his points just moves on to the next with graphics and cutaways despite him criticizing Wang for doing the same. Neither this video nor Nothing but everything are deep or correct or anything I don’t agree with this video despite not caring for the film simply because West is just way too far up inside his own ass to realize he’s no different than Wang and is just jealous that Wang got an audience for something he doesn’t deem deserving of it
Bro I hate movies like this. It’s always so obvious that they’re trying to be all high and mighty, then they feed it down our throats like that horrible piece of garbage they gave us was actually genius. Especially with meaningless cinematography like they always use pretty pictures instead of actual thought out cinematography. Even after all that people always end up eating all up.
I notice they always feel the need to shove in corny inspirational music, because how else would the trite monologue written in that "WE always think x, WE always do y" manner resonate with us? It's the most uncreative, smug, quite frankly BORING shit I can think of... and they do it EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
"it's about everything, except, when you make something about everything, it's about nothing" is the perfect way to describe this movie. I thought I was wrong when I didn't really get anything out of it and I looked at the comments and saw everybody saying it captured their life perfectly. (and I was the target demographic as a senior in high school about to graduate) Also I know for a fact that this movie had insane funding behind it because one of my friends, Hadrian Lynn, put crazy amounts of money into it as an executive producer. He had no part in the actual process of making the film besides paying for whatever they wanted to do. I do think it was a cool idea, and it's important for the future of Hollywood, but it didn't land for me the way it did for a lot of other people.
Bro i felt the exact way. Like at a point in thime i wasn't even focusing on the video. Just reading the comments and trying to see how i could relate to it. At a point in time I had to start taking he video back cause of how much i missed searching though the comments and my mind for relatability
Glad im not the only one. It felt like a fake deep film made by a high schooler to impress teachers and college admissions committees, like the representation of high schoolers and the humor genuinely felt like a gen x portraying gen z. I was surprised when I found out wang is 20 . It felt extremely adolescent, like a 15 year old thinking about life for the first time "woah uncertainty"
but to be fair "woah uncertainty" is how teenagers view life (im a teenager and i am also very uncertain), so in that sense it is realistic but yeah i get your point about it just being kind of an unoffensive filler film to boost his career
True cause it’s supposed to feel deep but just because it’s not actually accurate to philosophy doesn’t really matter because teenagers have these thoughts all the time. It’s not really about anything and it feels messy but in a way we are ‘interrupting’ and coming in without context so as the film goes on you can feel. As for ‘rich boy’, he is doing what every film maker does - make a film and stick it on RUclips. Except this time it went viral and also he had a bit of money behind it but he’s done what he can. But I suppose what money can’t buy is a good story and that’s what’s missing
You have a lot of good points here, but the way you talk about them really rubs me the wrong way. So many of your points and opinions are left just completely unsubstantiated or unjustified. Takes that im not convinced by: "Get a life if you start your movie by talking to the audience" What is wrong with that? You say it as if it's self evident but it really requires justification. Without that this isnt a critique, it's just hating. "Karl marx quote bad" Again, why? Im not trying to argue it was good (though i do think it was a fine choice) i just want you to not assume the things you have an immediate negative reaction to are things that other people will have immediate negative reactions to "Why does it matter that the principal is trying to silence him if the movie is about personal discovery" Now i havent seen the movie, but i can think of a number of possible answers to this question: maybe the principal represents the antithesis of the movie, maybe it increases the stakes in a compelling way, it doesnt matter for my point if the movie doesnt say those things though, my point is you cant say "the movie isnt about personal discovery because the principal is trying to silence him" that just doesnt logic "It's a tiktok template" Do you mean this literally? Im guessing not, but I dont really get what you mean then. "He's not doing anything wrong" I dont believe you when you say this. It seems like you see this film as part of the problem. "These arent the filmmakers that are being highlighted though" you've only given us one example of this happening so im not convinced "Because if we dont do it, it could mean the death of cinema" EXPLAIN WHY IM BEGGING YOU thats such a massive claim to not substantiate at all I think the main problem with leaving your claims unexamined like this is it only attracts an audience who already agrees with you, but its also doing them a disservice because you could be inviting them to examine their own ideas but instead youre just validating them. I hope this didnt come across too mean, I like your presentation style and i did find some parts really insightful, I do genuinely want to see you improve
the death of cinema line just tied off the chapter which argued that hollywood is looking for inoffensive and marketable art that tries to relate to everyone. This trend degrades the art form, because innovative, unique, and passionate projects are far less encouraged.
I personally do think that the principal trying to silence him can undermine the message, but I think it wasn't Wesley Wangs intention to undermine the message. It is a pretty logical reaction if a student is having a crazy meltdown on stage, to get him off stage immidiatly, so Wesley added that scene because that seemed logical.
@@scrumptioushumanbeing2268 yea thats what i thought like dude it doesnt always have to have some meaning central to the film's theme it can just be realistic
I feel like the reason he is so harsh is because RUclips keeps shoving the original video down everyone's throats. Like I know, I've seen the video pop up at least 1 or 2 times a month for no reason.
Check the discrepancy in the numbers. He wont be ranting this way if that video wasnt so ubiquitous. Some people have can get overinflated egos and it needs to be tackled one way.
Wang actually just ripped off perks of being a wallflower shamelessly and that video of that guy shitting on his school during his valedictorian speech. It actually makes my balls shrivel up it’s so corny
I think dumping on this guy and talking about how bad you think his movie is feels like a pointless exercise that almost deliberately(?) feels rooted in some sort of jealousy that this guy got a film deal from his work and you didn't tbh, though I do agree with your regarding the scenes from other short film, that's weird and not good lol. I also agree that the film comes off as pretentious, but what are teens if not self-involved and pretentious, thinking that they're better than what came before them? I think that's the point of the exercise in the film, especially if it's a thesis film as most reports seem to indicate. A teenage life is a life undefined, with the expectation of needing to define it for yourself being thrust upon you when it comes to graduation and moving off "into the world on your own." Now I'm not saying that this guy isn't saying anything, I assume he is since he's a filmmaker, but the movie functions in my eyes like a tone poem, allowing people to fill the images with their own meaning and life, letting the narrative be "their narrative." I think you're right in saying it's TikTok-inspired, because what is TikTok if not a series of "POV: You're doing [insert thing here]" videos designed for you to fill in the gaps of what's missing with your own experience. If that's the case, the composition of shots and choices made to jump between narrative and cinema verite feel like sensible choices for a short like this. But I think not knowing what you want to "say" should be expected of young filmmakers? Most of my short films in college were half-baked in narrative composition, even though I thought I had something worth saying. It's only now in my 30s that I'm getting a much better grasp on my storytelling ability and seamlessly weaving both form and emotion together into something cohesive. I would also argue that the best film school kids didn't know what they wanted to say until they had a few solid features under their belt. Very rarely have I ever found any thesis film that has an incredible story that takes me on a ride from start to finish (one of the few exceptions in my eyes being BriTANick's "The Eagles Are Turning People Into Horses," genuinely can't believe that's a thesis film). As we are want to say nowadays "Let him cook" and get back to us in 10 years when he's got a couple features under his belt, he may have a better sense of identity as an artist (and also, I hope you do the same when you've got some features under YOUR belt!). I would compel you to not focus on what you hate about things on your channel (even though the algos favor contrarianism and controversy nowadays) and instead take the time and energy and channel it into what you love about the medium of video and film and channel it into meaningful work. We've only got so much time here on this planet as artists - avoid dunking on others and let our own work speak for itself, even long after we're gone. Or you could ignore me entirely, I'm just a rando observer commenting on your video, what could I ever know about your life lol
t's just a youtube movie made by a spoiled brat, who thinks everybody can go the rich schools he goes to and shits on everyone who don't have the privilege to "just make memories bro". And then again, it's just a youtube movie whose audience is children who grew up on tiktok. I don't think it's worth making a 12 minute video on.
why all this hate man, i get that it's not a good movie but it's a project by a college student who made it when he was 19. Of course it's not gonna be a masterpiece, plus it was uploaded for free on youtube and the production is all done by his close circle. Don't expect him to immediately make a masterpiece when he is still so young and has so little experience in the industry
I mean I guess most of the critique comes from the fact that if you're that young and inexperienced at telling bearable stories, you should be cutting your teeth on low-budget projects within your skill level as an independent, and cranking out experiments to learn and find your feet first. Before throwing thousands of dollars at an incredibly elaborate (for a student) production for something that might not even be good, which is sort of an indication that you have a much bigger safety net and a lot more unearned confidence than most people trying to break into the industry from the bottom up
Thats literally the point he is making, the lack of judgement by comparison is why modern art or filmmaking is often oversaturated. You need to learn how to accept harshness especially on young ones who are still fluidly intelligent. Sometimes Hate is Necessary. Speaking of judgement by comparison, do you know another young indie filmmaker who did not go to harvard and is mostly built on zero budget AND i'd argue triumphs over wesley wang? Kane Pixels.
@@zelven6109How is that the point he is making? Hate is NEVER necessary! Feedback and constructive criticism is critical for improving your filmmaking skills, not giving poorly explained criticism that is way to hostile
It’s a reasonable critique, an honest review. He pointed out what should’ve been obvious, and it’s how self absorbed the film making is and that it doesn’t really have anything to say. If his last section wasn’t clear enough, we need to be more critical of what we call cinema. It doesn’t mean you can’t like it or you can’t derive any sort of positive feeling towards it. But for the seemingly dying species, the people that still care about “good movies” (because honestly, truth is objective in pictures too. although it sounds rude to say and a may be perceived as snobby, you may like a movie with your entire heart but if it’s bad then it’s bad.) we have to fight back against this epidemic. Simple really
@estebucks You're right, that's all straightforward and understood. I guess I need to watch the movie to see why it specifically exemplifies this. Why/what this movie. Or could we replace it with anything and keep the argument unchanged? That was the point behind my dick comment. What specifically is this nothingness we are critiquing vis a vis *this* movie and what it's made of (more than its vibe, annoying director and undeserved success).
The comedy of making a video that's equally as pretentious as said thing you're mocking for being pretentious. Really, all you needed was a clear cut approach, discuss your points and then deliver humor when appropriate.
To be honest with you dude, I agree with a lot of the points you’re making, but you are just being way too rude and a lot of the criticism doesn’t feel constructive and you could do it without all the insults and negativity and special effects. Sure he might’ve been rich and might’ve had wealthy parents, but he was also extremely young which is far more important. Literally all of us who have ever written before have made “bad art” when testing the waters. We can’t just demean this persons life experiences because they made “bad art” at such a young age. I looked at some of the stuff I made while being 15, at 17 and cringed at it and said “wow I was such a dumb kid”, but at 19, I love the fact that I sat down to make it. And saying that this guy is going to ruin movies and make them worse, well, that’s not true, no one can do that - art persists no matter what. Good luck with doing RUclips, this is meant to be constructive criticism, I don’t mean to demean you, but this felt really pretentious even though I basically agree with you on everything.
Difference is this is being made into a feature film and 6 million people already watched it. The point is that the success of artistically weak movies could threaten the art form. He doesn't actually hate the kid
Watching Westfilms hating on this random ass guy I've never heard about in my life for making shallow films. Like you went through the entire process of Watching his films, reading the endless sea of comments, wrote this entire script, made 3D animations to illustrate it and then edited the entire video very well. The lengths we'll go to call people out is crazy. Very entertaining and your editing gets better with each video
@@WestfilmsCoI didn't get to fully watch the last video so I don't know what they're talking about. But I do admit that some jokes on your other videos did come off as trying to provocate people for no reason.
@@WestfilmsCo facts. There will always be people who get mad at whatever you say regardless, so it doesn't make sense to try to adjust to everyone, just be true to yourself, for being true to one's self is the definition of being based.
Just as he calls the movie pretentious, I find this video to be quite hypocritical and slightly worse in essence. It just seems like Wang is just some young guy trying to make a movie, and this video decides to just completely shit on all his efforts because... He's rich and people liked his short film? Only to top it off with some half-assed idea that other people deserve the popularity and success he got, it just comes off as INCREDIBLY pretentious. Sure, it's a bad movie. So what? He literally states "It's a small indie movie, why am I giving it a hard time?" And his only answer being: The creator has a fuckton of money. So, he has money, why do people think that's a problem? Is it bad that he lives a good life with a lot of opportunities? Is it bad that he has parents supportive of his interests? Is it bad that he's even pursuing his passions despite the fact that he's not very good at what he does? Is he just supposed to not have any sort of dream or interest because he has the means to pursue it at a high level where he just isn't yet? Sure, it's crude, poorly written, and comes off as pretentious, but as another comment stated, it's at least a sign that someone's trying to make something with more substance, it's not even actively detrimental regardless of how much this video and the title want it to be. This video also understands that his popularity is the result of a larger issue with Hollywood movies and consumers, and it brings up the question of whether or not he's just supposed to not play the system as it's supposed to be played, only to completely throw it in the water and still make the entire video just to say: Fuck this guy in specific for making a mediocre movie and being chosen by the system. The more I think about it the less it makes sense to make this video just to trash on this one guy for being both rich and finding success in the cinema industry. He could have very well made a video tackling what he finds to be the problem with the Hollywood and industry and its consumers, while using Wang and his film as one example of the problem, but instead he decided to target this one person for seemingly no reason other than spite and envy for being lucky enough to succeed in the unfair system.
okay so the movie isnt great yea, I kinda had to turn in off halfway cause it is pretty cringe but this honestly isnt that fair of a criticism for a 17 year old to produce this is legit impressive and yea he had the money but for him to go out there and organize everyone and everything should be applauded not put down like this, also dude you cant visually compare a sophomoric short to literally some of the best movies every made like come on
@@DavidK-wg8wz you know what, fair enough about the comparisons. I should have found some student films to compare it to. I might put something together about that
But West did mention specifically A) an amateur film he watched as part of a film festival and drew comparisons there as well, and B) the short films made by other indie film directors to secure financing for their first Hollywood film (Whiplash, &c). So he did attack it from that angle. Also this dude's film got picked up to be produced as a Hollywood film so drawing comparison to other Hollywood filmmakers' first-time efforts is absolutely valid.
@@Lady_Vengeance it is somewhat valid but he is comparing it to the best of the best Whiplash is an insane example when it's considered the most successful feature out of sundance ever along with Nolan's Memento, not to mention the fact that Damien chazelle alr directed a feature before that short
it infuriates me that artistically inept philistines are given a budget, actors and equipment to fulfill nothing while genuine creatives like me and others are left with nothing but yearning..
Why is 11 not an impressive age exactly? Do you expect someone to start making films from birth to be impressed? What is an impressive age to start anyway? If i started making films at 15 does that make my projects bad because i am too old or something? It just seems like you dislike how successful wesley's film is and are finding things to point out for no reason at all.
@@suorinnz7604 exept the fact that being rich has nothing to do with this. There was a fundraiser for the short film which ended up being around 40000 which was used to film. Yes, the film is high budget but it doesn't allow the guy in the video to whip out random facts about wesley that have nothing to do with the film, seam very insecure imo.
@@suorinnz7604 does that diminish his talent? No, so stop being a loser and hating someone over jealousy. Grow up and realize that some people are lucky enough to be born into wealth and that's not their fucking fault. Christ, you're the shallow one.
This is coming from someone who works full time as a dp, mostly in the commercial space, but still, I may have a slightly different view than you. Ironically I think you got the concept perfectly, you just didn’t like it. No, it’s not the greatest thing of all time, but it’s much better than other $40k ish budget shorts. I love how he combined both a RUclips style intro and editing style with, what to me at least, was a story that actually felt like it had some truth behind it. Is it the best short ever, hell no, but stylistically it’s a different, less polished approach than most films I’ve seen go for. It’s not trying to push a cinematographic style, and to be honest the DI and technical side is horrible, the super 8 footage (which is actual super 8 and not a filter) isn’t even transformed out of cineon and into rec 709, let alone 2383. But just to say, this crew may be decent in size, but no one on this production is an Oscar winning PD, DP, sound mixer or anything like that. A lot of it he did do himself, and even if he got that funding via family, I don’t care, I don’t think that should tarnish the final product. I don’t know if this film is on IMDb or Letterboxd, but I’d rate it like a 5/10, 2.5/5 It’s watchable, it’s entertaining, and at the end of the day, not every film needs to be a Prisoners or a Social Network, every now and then I want to go to the cinema and watch an Annie, or Journey 2
I hated the movie, but this whole thing is just a case of envy. People wouldn't care about another bad student film even if it's from some rich Harvard kid, but this one has major views. That's it. He's a privileged guy getting attention on a mediocre product, but there's plenty of that in Hollywood. He just posted it on a channel with his name on it. Wesley's everything a lot of people hate about the industry and he's this singular thing people can dump their hatred on, valid as they may be.
It's an impressive feat for a teenager fs and the thing is this could've been a lot worse In terms of technical and the money aspects, I did some digging and the DP is semi-pro and is owner operator of alexa mini Wesley Wang comes from a pretty affluent family in Cali and alot of his circle also happens to have money, so if you have access to these resources as a very young filmmaker then it's a great thing that youre taking advantage of it (and the right thing) I'm telling you right now, alot of this vitriol is stemming from jealousy, dude like wtf what did you accomplish in high school? Alot of kids that even come from money waste it doing drugs or pointless shit, Wesley put himself out there by submitting and getting selected to high profile festivals and even getting recognition from Hollywood all before he hit 20. As for the film itself yea some of it is pretty cringe but only because most of us as filmmakers have wrote something pretty similar in the past, the naiveté and the pretension kinda defines our youth like it's pretty normal
@@suorinnz7604 you cant buy creativity, drive, or initiative If you have money you can be the laziest kid in the world but this kid chose not to be so good on him
@@fireball43 yeah you're kinda right. I want to make films of my own and I'll admit I'd die to have his resources. So maybe he'll make something better?
@@oneinvisibledoctor He claims in one interview that his script is the "perfect representation of his generation". So you're not wrong but Wesley carries himself in an arrogant manner. That's at least my problem with him.
You realize you yourself are being kind of pretentious in your rant about how pretentious this movie is. Like your whole argument is that the movie is, at its core, invalid. And I really don’t like that. It’s art. all stories should be welcome. It’s a really charming and entertaining and well shot movie. I really don’t like this weird film guy circle of toxicity where we feel the need to take each other down. It’s a collaborative industry when you go for another guy’s throat it makes you look bad.
are we not allowed to criticize? Yes I agree with your comment on art however from a logical standpoint, when it comes to the substance of the film, it's very one-sided and rightfully so. I honestly could forgive ALL of this nonsense if Wesley didn't ACT like an arrogant artist. There is a public interview where he claims HIS script is "perfect" AND that EVERYONE he showed this to "CRIED". The audacity. He blocked most negative reviews on Letterboxd. What does all of that say about him? You can't box all negative feedback into toxic.
@@wiiplaya25 Can you please (I'm sorry for this) provide a source? Also, these are some pretty big claims. I doubt you have proof of him blocking negative reviews.
you don't understand it's not that he is being toxic by commentating and explaining modern movies's flaws i know what you're thinking because i've seen people like you many times before on youtube, any sort of negative feedback about anything on youtube is immediately seen as "negativty" and negativity = bad in your mind. Now I understand your point, a lot of people recently are putting down modern movies, and it can be seen as "negativity", but what you fail to understand is that these people are doing it for the greater good, i'll explain, there were always bad movies, but if this trend of pretentious, self absorbed movies that lack any meaning continues, soon it's gonna be all that's left, but of course, you don't see that as a bad thing, you simply don't care if these movies lack any meaning because you are completely fine with mindless entertainment [aka tiktok] hence why he called this movie a movie for tiktok users. you like this new aesthetic, but these "weird film guys" [in your own words] don't. In short these "weird film guys" are not being toxic for the sake of it or negative for the sake of it, they just care about the future and the direction cinema goes, they know if it keeps going that way soon there will be no interesting and intellectual movies left, but then again you don't mind having mindless entertainment infecting all cinema like the plague.
Thank you for saying something about this. I was so confused when I watched this short film. It was such a nothing burger of nothingness. And ALL the comments loved it. Thank you for proving that I am not insane.
I agree, I wanted to see some actual in depth takes that weren't just glazing. Letterboxd has some genuine honest reviews about the short film tho, both good and bad.
I completely disagree. No matter how hated a movie is by "critics" or other filmmakers, it doesn't matter at all. What truly matters is if people like it and enjoy watching it. And if they do, it's a success.
it doesn't make it good. 1 billion people might like something or 1 fella or no one might. popularity makes no difference if something its good or not substance does this doesn't mean you have to like this or that, you like what you like
this is mad harsh dawg, especially since most of your critique comes from what i think is just a fundamental misunderstanding of what the film is trying to say. also like yea it sucks that he has more resources than others and has an advantage because of that, but would you rather he just doesnt use them? if you and your neighbor are trying to dig two holes, should you throw away your shovel because he's doing it with his hands? he has the resources, he has the connections, why should he have to purposely hold himself back from utilizing them? ngl bro, i think this one just wasn't your audience man. like yea, to you the 'tiktok music' seems cringe (for the record, i think it is too), but for people who are in that community who like that music and like the cringe edits and take meaning from them, its entirely different. from our perspective, its all kinda pretentious and cringe, but you gotta remember that to them, it speaks to a thought or emotion that they feel strongly about, its totally different. i think bottom line is that if it really did suck as much as you make it out to be, then why would people be so positive about it? like the average person isnt stupid, and assuming they arent watching it with the same amount of attention you did is kinda just rude bro. its clear from the comments that the film spoke strongly to them, and i think thats proof enough that its doing something that others have missed.
Yeah pretty much. In a perfect world everyone would have the access to the gear necessary, but unfortunately it's not the case. Getting hung up on who "deserves" good equipment/personnel is kind of meaningless because until everyone has access, there will always be someone that feels "undeserving" of those resources. Although to be fair using vast resources to essentially overpolish an indie movie does feel like kind of a waste.
I hope the algorithm picks this video up because, honestly have a bone to pick with these rich nepo kids lol. Money doesn’t buy you creativity, passion, or experience. This movie is the equivalent of a gift box with nothing inside, looks pretty, holds nothing of value. Dude is challenging nothing, says nothing, and overall appears to be just a shallow attempt at being “deep” in a **greatly** assisted film. Don’t get me wrong, not all nepo babies are bad, but damn most are just cruising on being mediocre and we praise them for it because they have wealth and connections to other talented people. Compared to the kids who make great thought provoking art despite their poor circumstances. Humility is severely lacking in a lot of these so called artists and directors who focus only on the aesthetics of a movie rather than the meaning and reason behind all this effort.
I find this so conflicting because on one hand, I agree. But what got me thinking is when a friend of mine found this to be profound and genuinely felt for this film enough to share it to me. He wasn't a sheltered kid at all, I'd even say he's the complete opposite. To me, it's conflicting bc I've also come to support this idea that taste predominantly comes from class. As such, some differences in taste may be attributed to class division, and it makes sense. The only thing that "saved" my taste from mediocrity is the internet (and piracy lol), if I only watched tv in our 3rd world country that only produces slop for the lowest common denominator and I didn't have access to other cultures and so called high brow stuff, my taste would have been stuck forever, following trends, no sense of media critique whatsoever. While it truly is wealthy people who usually make this mediocre garbage, they end up resonating with the so called everyman. On the other hand, it's also kinda exploitative? Idk but I reaaally hate it and I think this is core to the question of "should we really let people enjoy things?". I'm conflicted but tbh my answer would still be leaning on 'no'.
@@canti7951 Don't worry, that bit where you go '{...}if I only watched tv in our 3rd world country that only produces slop for the lowest common denominator and I didn't have access to other cultures and so called high brow stuff, my taste would have been stuck forever, following trends{...}'_ holds up in 1st world countries as well, particularly here in Spain (even if we're more a 1.5 tier than a straight one since we behave like we want to be poor and pretend like the opposite) where cinema has been dreadfully mistreated since its very early days by having a movie economy fixated strongly enough on having it easy and that measn EVERYTHING IS DUBBED, no questions asked. Of course, original title gets "adapted" in 95% of foreign movies and still baffingly keeps doing it in the weirdest and most confusing way ever -English title won't result in the nearest neighbour of a direct translation or just the direct translation but in a handful of releases, for instance. And if it can spawn a new name or denominator for something it will, just so you can't refer to a good movie by both its original and the title for the Spain release and make your interlocutor associate both so next time he hears its original name he knows what I'm talking about. Blockbusters and easy-money makers get to benefit from this not being always the case (there are a lot of recently inverse trends for what has been the norm for decades, take for instance MCU and other comic based trash flicks where the superhero/squad/central figure cannot be translated into a Spanish variant e.g. Spiderman/Batman/WonderWoman or Top Gun/Mission Impossible which are the first ones popping into mind... these ones respect the original series names and then translate the distinctive episodic denominator part. Or titles like 'Tenet' where it wouldn't get translated so it keeps being easy to reference, or the strange status that Inception has, in which half of the people I've spoken with about the movie would refer to it by said name, and the rest would only know after remarking 'Origen', the adapted title. And like I tried to make clear before, we're not a country in which Original Version consumption is precisely popular...
You can think it’s a bad film all you want but what did Wesley Wang do wrong? He was lucky enough to be born into resources and used them to make a bad film. Sure other people should be getting more credit than him but they aren’t. Not his fault for following his passion and trying to make a movie
Do you realize that these nepo kids are actual people? It feels to me like you forget that. They are their own person with their own dreams, aspirations and vision. But only because they are rich we should actively hate on them for making a bad movie?
@@dashielcockrill998 exactly. This comments feel lik their just hating on him. Like sure the movie was not the best, but that's not a reason to be hateful
I totally agree with the last part, "almost every single one of the movies I see has a genuine passion that seeps through". Movies these days are so obsessed with making everything look nice and almost never have a distinct purpose. I prefer older movies because they're simple and distilled, where they're not even trying to prove a point, it's the passion they have to just tell a story.
genuinely shocked at this view count, I could have sworn this was in the 100ks! As one of those 6.8 million who initially watched it and also found it extremely shallow, this critique was a breath of fresh air, keep it up mate great stuff x
I was one of the "Tiktok kids" who found this movie and fell in love with it. I have a glowing comment on that video myself. I'm pretty ashamed of it after watching this and reading the Letterboxd reviews. I'm sixteeen. I'm a child. It shouldn't be a surprise that I'm going to have shallow opinions, but it is. The more you know. Everything you said rung true, and it genuinely made me feel a little sad since I want to go into film eventually - and if I can't see a bad film for what it is, how will I ever know if my own films are any good? Thank you for opening my eyes... and maybe I'll learn to think critically for once. If anyone has recs for short films that are ACTUALLY good, please let me know. Awesome video, you have gained a subscriber :)
@@CoolScratcher you shouldn’t feel bad about enjoying it, the movie is trying to get you to do that. I bet you could make something much better than Nothing Except Everything (even though that’s a pretty low bar lol)
"Island In Between" by S. Leo Chiang here on youtube is a really incredible 18-minute short film that's basically the opposite of Nothing Except Everything: really grounded, down to earth, unpretentious and honest. It helps that it's a documentary, but it's told unconventionally - it's practically hypnotic, and a lot of the skills you need to make a documentary, like, actually engaging to watch carry over to making fiction. About wanting to go into film - a lot of us here in the comments are in the same boat as you. I was in the same place you are 3 years ago, and for what it's worth, I'd say you don't have to worry too much about not being able to evaluate your own films' quality. Taste is a skill, and you develop it with time and practice. You're pretty much always gonna be leapfrogging over where your taste was a few months ago - it shouldn't discourage you, it's a sign you're getting better! Artists call it the taste/skill gap. Just stay thinking. Consume more than film - read books, poetry, music, painting, dance, whatever, it can all contribute to your artistic understanding of the world and your taste. Stay curious and tinker in your spare time - do small experiments within your budget level as an independent, and take what you learn from them to the next experiment, and don't hold them to such a high standard, treat them like learning exercises. You'll do alright 👍
Please remember that something being "good" is subjective. Successful directors create shite movies too, so don't feel too bad on yourself. Just try the best you can and if it's good, good if it's bad then make it better.
I’m 17 and I think you should learn to form your own opinions. This youtuber seems like a pretentious dick. When making this vid he wanted everyone to feel bad for ever liking the short and personally insulted the dude that made it. Nothing woulda stopped him from insulting anything you and I woulda directed and posted either. He said it himself, “11 isn’t an impressive age.” He’s doubling down cause he realized he made you feel bad, and he’s gonna double down when the original director sees this vid and realizes his words mean can really affect people. Make what you want. Don’t listen to this guy. Don’t let guys like this make you feel bad about yourself.
My friends and I have an in-joke where we use the word ‘euphoric’ to describe things like Wang’s films. It’s feeling itself to the point of masturbation. I totally agree with your critiques, great video. Btw, I’m working on a script for a Hotline Miami inspired short film. It differs greatly from the story and lore of the games, but holds the basic premise and aesthetic - and not to mention the killer soundtrack. I’ve kind of hit creative bedrock with it and it’s been collecting dust for a few months. If the concept sounds interesting to you maybe I could shoot you a draft?
Ngl although I dislike the original short film, all your points are presented poorly and don’t actually make any sense, it feels like you’re trying to make this video longer than it has to be, and at the end of the day, it seems like you’re honestly just jealous of his success.
@@Someone-bm1ov There’s a lot of other comments which help explain why it’s so pretentious but as I’ve read so many of these comments my personal opinion is that yeah the short film was shallow and even if it doesn’t mean much it has a meaning it’s not well developed but as the video itself says cinema isn’t trying to be deep this at least did. Secondly the creator is just a kid and Westfilm’s here just seems spiteful and clouded in his own judgment he’s only been replying to people agreeing with him and he also never even fully explains his own points every single one of his critiques lack substance and depth and are by definition shallow. I didn’t care all that much for the film I loved the visuals but that was about where my care stopped but not liking a film doesn’t give validation to posting a 12 minute video to shit on a film made by a kid who’s too young to have ever had any real cinema experience. Not only does West come off as just a hater trying to sound smart and use critique as a shield to be a hater he doesn’t even do that good of a job at it he hides the lack of substance with fancy editing and graphics the same thing he criticizes Nothing but everything for. I came here to understand why people would care enough to dislike the film instead of just ignoring it and my personal opinion on that so far is people are just in echo chambers of themselves trying to be the smartest and put those younger and less experienced down.
Bro what the hell. Wang is my friend's friend/classmate, so he sent me this film last year. I had made the exact same critiques as you did lmao (though a bit less harsh). The film sorely lacks a sense of identity, the script made me cringe hard, and the themes were either barebones or inexplicable. All in all, it was incredibly boring, hard to watch sometimes, and didn't give me anything to think about. However, I gave it some leniency due to being a student film. I really thought I was the only one who didn't like this movie. I found it absolutely baffling the praise it was getting.
damn I thought this was a feature film, and I kind of understood why you were being harsh on it (kind of), despite it being made by a 20 year old, but then I found out it's just a random short film on youtube wtf. I agree with pretty much every point you were making about the thematic shallowness of the film or the lack of any clear direction for the cinematography of the film (it does just look like a video on youtube or disney movie), but being this harsh on a short film project made by a 20 year old and comparing it to classics such as 2001 is just as awkward as the short film itself. it doesn't matter how much money you have to finance a project, if you don't have a seasoned and incredibly talented cinematographer to heighten the material, or a concept that lends itself well to a cheaper look, it will always look like an average indie film, especially when it's just a short film with a basic premise, it would be virtually impossible to get someone important from the industry to film it. it's important to judge things in context, and people too often forget that money isn't everything. I'm just waiting for the age of youtube armchair critics to be over at this point. It's cringe, yes, but it's also just a short film made by a random guy barely out of his teenage years.
Ny friends said this movie changed his life so watched it and it was so shallow and cringe i couldn't believe it Thanks for talking about this its really important for people to understand films on a deeper level
what could someone possibly take from this movie that would be life changing like holy fuck do people not think about anything before its showed to them in a capcut edit format
I remember watching a yt video called something like "Your Life is A Lie" and 13 year old me thought it was the most profound shit ever. Yeah it was cringe, even teetering on being right wing propaganda but it legit pushed me to become more inquisitive and think more deeply about the world. Ironically, that vid have pushed me into philosophy and more leftist ideas. Point is, everyone has that ""profound""" media that may act as a gateway for actual profound stuff, cause yknow, people don't start out as already media literate. Ig it's just kinda cringe to see college students still be in this phase.
@@canti7951 I had a similar experience to you with media when I was younger, but mine was probably worse which is maybe why im so cynical about this. Looking up "how to make friends in high school" on reddit when I was 14 sent me down the red pill/ alt right pipeline and I didn't fully leave it till I was 17. The red pill stuff also weirdly got me into philosophy/spirituality so I was this insufferable misogynistic asshole kid while also meditating daily and consuming media about "inner peace" at the same time. But similar to you I quickly became leftist after leaving that The fact that wang is 20 and is only one year younger than me is what really gets me lol + the comments that are like "im 45 and this brought me to tears and changed my life" which I PRAY aren't actually 45 year olds
I agree. When I initially watched it, I felt like something was missing, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Some of it felt like a really amateur short film which is often hard to avoid so I didn't think much about that, but something was definitely off. You explain it perfectly, this short film is void of substance. It was 12 minutes of conversations that didn't add anything and interesting montages. Honestly, I really liked the montages. If this film was purely those montages I would see the potential for a feature film but the narrative and characters are so hindered by such a lack of depth. I truly came away from that short with the thought "ok? and?" It's an unfortunate blunder of potential that confused me for a while. This video is so simple and straight to the point about all of it. You've explained it extremely well. Thank you.
I personally really enjoyed this short film, and I think you missed the entire point of it. It's kind of ironic that the first chapter of your video essay is titled "pretentious" as if that isn't the point of the entire film, "...and definitely there's no meaning to my pretentious, nihilistic and edgy attempt at self-awareness..." (7:14 from nothing, except everything.) I do agree that there are definitely some corny shots in the film; especially in the super 8 film montage, but most of the shots are made in good taste. I definitely see the inspiration behind some of the shots and scenery: the EEAAO inspired shot, the tunnel scene resembling perks of being a wallflower, and probably some others I missed. Ultimately, I really enjoyed this short film, the story, and the shots it took to create it. Remember that everything can't accommodate everyone and that you shouldn't hate on someone else's work that has no malice intentions. Hope you the best in your own personal projects.👋
I don't know, I think this is a bit overly harsh. Remember when Pulp Fiction came out and every student film for the next three years had gangsters doing quippy dialogue? This was a film student seeing "Everything Everywhere all at once", being inspired, and trying to make something like that. Student films have always been inspired by whatever was big at the time, and have always been a bit shit in some aspects. But to connect this to some broader downfall of cinema seems a bit overdramatic
There’s a difference. The film school kids didn’t have money so their ideas never took off. This guy made a shit film and he’s rewarded with a feature length film. Why? Because of his parent’s money. Sadly, the film industry will be filled with guys like this who aren’t talented but have loads of money so therefore they can reach the top.
@@Lechef53 The film industry has always been easier for those with money and connections. Most of your favourite films were probably made by people born into wealthy families who went to Ivy League universities. Let's not pretend this is anything new
@@yetanotherrandomyoutubecha4382 sure there are Ivy League filmmakers, such as Darren Aronofsky and Lee Isaac Chung, but the difference is that they are talented filmmakers unlike this guy who isn’t. Being an Ivy League film director isn’t the issue. Talentless film makers given the opportunity to make films over younger more passionate film makers is the issue. Same goes with actors given the chance to make movies even though they aren’t any good at directing.
honestly money doesn’t really hinder your ability to express art literally just pay 50 extras buy out a block pay a crew and production staff and distribution
Everything you're saying is true but I think you're overreacting, people still like good films, if it turns out his feature is a mindless slop he wont succeed no matter how rich he is. This victim mentality of he's rich so he'll obviously succeed is a losing one. Sure his short wasn't oscar worthy but he catered to an audience and it worked, sometimes you have to do what works to do what you want.
While I loved Everything Everywhere All At Once, it definitely inspired a wave of copycats who’ll try to replicate the same unique modern energy it had despite not having anything to say, such as this. They forget that the point of a film is to say something, this short said nothing.
As someone who loved this movie, I feel like the lack of a consistent cinematic lens, the pointlessness, etc. was what made it so special. It's about how the transition from adolescence to adulthood includes reconciling and integrating all the pointless, confusing, random parts of life (the number 7, romance, Uncle Fred storyline, etc.) and understanding how they affect you and that even if they don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things because they don't impact the world or "do" anything, they mean something to you, and that's enough. It isn't about a specific person or storyline or idea because it represents how confusing life is, how strange it is to enter a world as a grown-up and have to piece together every part of your life, to understand your path and your storyline when no one fits perfectly into a storyline. It doesn't have to be about "something" to be meaningful; that's the point. It's nothing, (it has no real effect on the world/other's lives), except everything (it is everything the main character is and has experienced). Growing up is situating yourself in the world around you and finding your way. I especially loved the ending montage which showed all the random scenes from childhood/the world/the present, because so much is happening all the time and it's crazy to think that none of it really means anything. It doesn't really matter that he's valedictorian, standing on top of that stage. It doesn't really matter that his uncle killed himself. Nothing really matters, the world keeps turning at the end of the day. Also as for the "sitcom writing" and the "TikTok music", in my opinion, nothing is more pretentious than putting down a piece of art just because it isn't perceived as the pinnacle of cinema. This film was made for teenagers who relate and connect to those songs more than "real" pieces of music, whatever that means, and "sitcom" writing works because people can understand it! I don't really understand the issue with using popular songs from TikTok, or popular media in general. The songs are good, the writing makes sense, and as a teenager myself, I really related to it. It wasn't made to be "good" or have a consistent plot, it was made to connect to actual teens. And that's everything.
Besides the (quite deserved) callout, the best thing to come out of this video is hopefully going to be that "Better than Wesley Wang" playlist. If you play your cards right it could bring attention to a lot of genuinely talented small-channel filmmakers who are overlooked on this hellsite, like uh...you actually.
Ok I’m glad someone else agrees with me, cause the comment section on the short “film” made me feel crazy. I’m not a fan of majorly criticizing young filmmakers making stuff for dirt cheap, cause I’m in the same boat. But Wesley isn’t in the same boat, he has MONEY! He ALSO won a high school film festival in New York that one of my shorts made it into, and out of ALL the other entries somehow his happened to beat everyone else? Sure, I don’t think mine would’ve won but I feel like there was something sketchy going on behind the scenes. It makes me mad cause that festival was catered towards people like me who just make stuff as a passion and don’t have a ton of money to throw at it, half the prizes were camera gear, you know, stuff someone making 40k dollar films DOESN’T NEED!
t's just a youtube movie made by a spoiled brat, who thinks everybody can go the rich schools he goes to and shits on everyone who don't have the privilege to "just make memories bro". And then again, it's just a youtube movie whose audience is children who grew up on tiktok. I don't think it's worth making a 12 minute video on.
Can u tell me where to find that stop motion movie made by that elementary school kid u said u loved? I genuinely want to actually watch it now after this vid
The tone of your "critique" reads as a mixture of jealousy, envy and annoyance. 1. Yes, the movie is pretentious. The writer/director was in his final year of high school. It presents as deep because adolescence is a long process of grasping for depth (see: The Fault in Our Stars, 13 Reasons Why etc.) Not a new concept. 2. The point of the movie is that teenagers don't have anything figured out and there's a sense of dread that comes with that. The movie is aware of this, and comments on it while showing the optimism of high schoolers despite the state of the world (the montage at the end where all the kids talk about their thoughts on the future) 3. A rich person using a Karl Marx quote may be ironic, but Marxism is not exclusive to the poor. If anything, upper class people using resources to highlight the plight of the working class is a net good to society. 4. The "TikTok songs" you're referencing are largely popular alt songs from that 2013 - 2018 era of "alt/indie" music. It tracks with the demographic making it, and the intended audience. 5. This video isn't a critique of the film. It''s 12 minutes of you complaining. You seem older than your teen years, so it's worrying that your best performing video in this site on one where you bitch about the (heavily funded, yes) hard work of someone far younger than you. The issue isn't you not liking the film, but the fact that your takes on it are poisoned by this apparent and innate annoyance you have for someone you don't know because he's rich and made a very okay film. You seem to long for the financial freedom to make high-budget mistakes with little risk (as do we all), and this longing has turned to annoyance at someone for making work that you deem sub-par with the opportunity you wish you had. The creator might be deleting bad reviews, well he's a teenager. Let him reckon with his ego in time. To close, a quote from John Adams (one of the leaders of the American Revolution): "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." My advice, spend less time talking about what you hate and more time talking about what you want to see more of in this world. Also if you delete this comment you're a bitch. Thanks
i don’t like this film in particular bc it was submitted into a high school film festival which i was also in and he took the biggest award for the night and didn’t even show up! also everyone else at the festival did not have big budgets like that so it all felt extremely unfair!
hey, I just wanted to say thank you for this explanation. I sort of had this idea, where there are "filmmakers" who are really just people who can afford the equipment to make movies, not truly filmmakers, but you explained it in a way that makes sense.
I think it’s so funny seeing the backlash/how salty ppl are about this short 💀 like did it really offend you this bad that someone went out there and gave a shot at making something and found success with it
Filmmaker here. Not saying any of your points aren't valid, but in my experience there's one piece of wisdom that makes me second guess almost every type of criticism... Making movies is fucking hard. I commend anyone that finishes a film. It's a grueling process that will break your fucking heart. I've been to a lot of film festivals and I've seen a lot of dog shit technically made films, so when I saw this level of quality on youtube I thought it was dope. Yeah I agree with a lot of the criticism in this video, but ultimately it made me happy to see it on this platform. I do think it's a bit dramatic to say this film could be the domino effect that kills cinema. Oh well what do I know. Go out and make art everyone. it's a lot better than criticizing people that are actually doing the work.
Yeah I think that if @westfilmsco was an actual filmmaker who knew even just how to make a film he’d probably have a more true understanding of the grueling process that is filmmaking
I think you may be overly harsh here. Does every film have to be imbued with the same visual richness or storytellling depth as a Kubrick movie? No! Sometimes it's ok to like a movie that's imperfect. I think you're being a little pretentious for trying to define what people should and should not like.
I really don't get your critique at all. You keep mentioning that the movie has no point, but it clearly does. It is about clarity. It is about being young, not knowing much at all about the world, but knowing that you don't know and being scared. It is about looking for meaning in the face of nihilism and uncertainty and it's about finding it in moments with our loved ones. The main character is absolutely aware of his edgy, unrefined philosophies, and the movie portrays him scared and confused, as clearly seen in his speech in the third act, and the dialogue with his girlfriend, that follows next. Your commentary on the cinematography and direction has no merit to it as well. You dislike the editing choices, but don't explain why they're bad. You don't like that the film "has a high budget sheen", but don't tell what's wrong with it. You probably expect it to look like some of the classics you've listed at 3:17, but it isn't targeted for the same audience and it has a right for it's own stylistic choice. Personally I enjoyed it. Your final message is about him "making shitty movies, but it works". Well, if it works, are they so shitty after all?
Yea the movie is pretentious and an obvious “I’m 14 and this is deep” film. But you know what else is pretentious? Claiming you know better than all the people that enjoyed the movie about what makes a movie good, and saying they are all stupid and wrong.
i know you probably won't read my comment and/or care, but i just wanted to give you some constructive criticism on your editing and structuring. i can see going through your past videos you've gotten a lot better, but i just have some words of advice. 1. please cut out the clicks from your mouse. i dont know if its directly from reading the script or stopping/starting recording, but they're present and its fairly distracting 2. your retro 3d animation style is great but seriously underused and it creates a theming issue 3. sometimes your visuals and audio are unrelated and it makes the video feel aimless 4. you have great theses for the different parts of the video but they're in random parts of the section and the visuals don't suggest that they're actually thesis statements, so one has to be on alert when watching to not miss a major part. this also contributes to an aimless feeling 5. you can't just have footage from a random game in a random part of the video and then just never bring it back like... you... can't lmao YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED 6. finally, you end the video with the "death of cinema" thing but you really have to make a watcher agree with you before you end a video like that. you criticize wang and hollywood well, but dont connect those criticisms to an actual threat to the entirety of the artform. i'd even agree with you - in theory - but not explaining further makes the video feel a bit rushed and almost deceiving? like you don't think you're capable of arguing that point further. BUT I BELIEVE IN YOU overall, i think this is a good video with solid criticism, but i think there are things you could work on to make future work better. thanks ! :)
The most annoying part about the original video is that RUclips keeps shoving it down people's throats. Like I swear I have seen it pop up like once a month from when it had like 100k views to what its at now.
To be honest, your point of the movie being completely pointless seems like a very personal opinion, yet you bring your opinion piece as if it's a full fact. The sarcastic tone throughout the video doesn't support an objective analysis of the movie. You extrapolate the usage of generic media songs to the whole movie being a template, and then immediately say "That's because they're attractive and straight", as if that was the point of the whole movie. If they're straight it's a template, and if they were any other sexuality it would have been just to be inclusive. Of course, I'm biased, I liked the movie. But luckily, your last point adresses that! You provide examples of movies we should support. Except, you don't. You provided a generic assortment of in your opinion types of good movies, yet don't provide any details, no examples to view these, to compare. My point is, you attack this movie from every angle, some of which I agree with, you make some valid points. An indie movie's spirit is often to be thought provoking. But I think you went way overboard, as if there's not a single thing good in this movie, and other indie movies do everything right.
The problem with young filmmakers is they haven't lived enough to have any stories to tell yet and consequently hide under clichè stories about depression, drug addicts ecc... or focus only on style over substance (like in this case). I'm not saying you can't make a movie at a young age, but I think aspiring filmmakers should take their time to learn instead of rushing things so as to stick out
Aye man I'll be straight with you... there's always plenty of reason to be annoyed seeing someone achieving something now that to you is a long-term dream (making a feature), but there's a certain point where hating is unnecessary. Why didn't he make Do The Right Thing? Idk bro it probably wouldn't have gotten as many shares on youtube and facebook, seems to me that this guy did what he was trying to do. not like you have to Like everything, but idk man, this reads as a type of bitterness that's really familiar to me- it sucks to see lame shit get uplifted and have money put behind it when you feel like you REALLY got something to say in a way that other people don't, but like... this is corny... if your taste & creative energy is so much more deserving of $$$ than this guy go out and prove it (this is not fun to do), use those things to make something genuine instead of hating on someone else's success/privilege. aint shit fair but acting like you just found that out is a bad look (especially on the same platform you're putting your face+films) Anyways if you read this, know I'm not writing just to give you shit, but because I relate to the feeling you're expressing, and lingering in that feeling held be back from improving as an artist for a while. Anyways I'm off, best of luck
I definitely do agree with some of the stuff you said in the video, but I have to be honest it seems like this is a disagreement between two sides of the same coin. Id argue the film does serve a purpose, which is to give young people (particularly American high schoolers) something to relate to, kind of like a mirror that they can use to reflect upon themselves. These kinds of media have always existed, and they're told time and time again using the medium that resonates with its target audience at the time. If you're not within that target audience, or don't really require the reflection that it provides, then its not really going to appeal to you. As much as I love cinema, and its effectiveness as an art form, at the end of the day its just another medium to get a message across. Its popular because it does something new. If you pick apart its little pieces, it seems like a completely unoriginal film, but its the sum of its parts that matters. It hasn't been done before. Its innovative, and its popularity and attention reflects that. "Cinematic" films can be amazing. But a film being stripped down to cinema does not make it good, nor does it make it any more original. Its about impacting people in a way they haven't been impacted yet! I personally think the ability to do that should be respected and studied. And then, of course, like all good ideas, innovated upon and made into something that starts the cycle over again. I get what your saying but as a storyteller its just kind of ignorant to ignore the bigger picture with the movie. A lot of the stuff you said in the video really doesn't argue against the actual core of what made the film successful. Maybe ask yourself why it was able to connect with such a huge amount of people? Because it clearly was able to do that, so why does the "rules" it broke matter? Idk.
I am in it’s target demographic, I’m a freshman in high school, and I think that it’s completely vapid. The style it is going for is not new, it just hasn’t been used to this extent. I do agree that it’s doing something *kind of* new, but I think that that new thing kind of sucks. I think the fact that it still leans on those traditionally “cinematic” scenes is very telling. Now, it also may not appeal to me because it seems to be for a demographic of high schoolers in a different situation than I am, but I still think that film is about empathy, so a good film would be able to make me understand- at least partially how these people feel. -this has been a pretty stream of consciousness response, so if something’s not clicking I can try to elaborate
not to defend rich nepo babies, but i think you need to calm down. this vid is giving me cinemasins vibes and its making my eyes roll. this one dude’s movie is not the downfall of humanity, just watch things you actually like and you’ll be much happier, trust me.
You make some very good points, except you imply that Wesley Wang got the money (which was 40k) from his parents. It was not. He got half the movies’ budget from the kick starter, and then the other half from years upon years of babysitting. At least, I think it was babysitting, I can’t remember. So isn’t some rich kid making a bad film, getting 6.8 million views and a movie deal even though the movie sucks, he just genuinely worked toward making this movie, and it paid off. I’d recommend watching the Collin and Samir interview with him. It’s very insightful.
Agree man, but that’s the problem. Bad movies shouldn’t be praised and flaunted and projected on the big screen. It’s the death of cinema. Like not discrediting any of his efforts to achieve finishing his projects, but if the output ain’t good then it ain’t good.
I don't know if I find you prentetious or if I like your content, and I think that's a good line to teeter. At multiple points throughout this video I was critical of you and what you were saying and now I'm just neutral. What a funny rollercoaster of emotions you had me go through. I'll subscribe not out of pure backing but out of
About a year ago I submitted a short film I was really proud of the the All American High School Film Festival. It got in, and, it being my second festival, I expected it to get a big audience where people would look at the work and form their own opinions about it. Instead, in the theater was me, my dad, a friend of mine, and about 6 other people in the huge AMC theater. Because this film festival prioritized films like this. My film didn't win an award, and I honestly didn't expect it to. But I did hope it would, that is until I saw this. My theory is the motivation behind this film isn't even to be a great film, it's to win awards and bring Wesley into the spotlight for major productions. It's designed, in its camerawork and craft not to be good per se, but to be unbeatable by anyone like me, who used my film class' cameras and actors who were my friends. No surprise, this film won. I'm not mad that it beat my film, I honestly don't even think it was in the same tier as the best of fest award winners. But it beat out a lot of others, others that showed excellent camerawork, storytelling, and craft. Nothing, except everything is a film designed to impress and nothing else.
When I head Max Payne's theme at 8:10 I was completely stunlocked from whatever game I was playing and sent back to my childhood. Very nice to have this moment in the middle of an amazing video.
While i understand the point you are trying to make and agree w some points, this video is REALLY the reason why the movie industry is so bad rn. Everyone thinks that they have the greatest perspective about what is or isnt a good movie, hating on any movie that receives high recognition, just to appear like they have taste to other film nerds. Sure the kid is privileged and definitely does not deserve this praise for being an amazing director, but who the fuck cares. If he made something that made people feel something, thats something to appreciate in and of itself. You wonder why people are so afraid to make a movie nowadays and its because every pretentious film major is going to criticize anything if it isnt shot like clockwork orange or doesnt have scorsese level writing. I wont be surprised if i get hate on this comment since most people in this comment section are everything im describing. Just a bunch of film bros who think that they have the greatest perspective on what makes a good movie, when in reality im sure 90% of you would end up making something that other film bros would call horrible. I think the bigger argument to be made about the film is how the narrative around the director is that he was this random kid who just made a movie, when in reality hes a privileged rich kid who had an entire team to help him make said movie, and thus should not receive such individual praise.
My dumbass said 16 😭
My man is a visionary! 🤯☠️
lisan-al-gaib?
@@trulyrandompersonage as written 🤯
@@SOR-05 under the blue sea or something 🙀😧
it is the best answer
It's the kind of film that thinks it's a genius and yet teaches you exactly NOTHING about life
Honestly you could just watch two of those “ADVICE YOU NEED TO HEAR OR YOU WILL DIE IN HIGHSCHOOL” videos back to back.
It's just aesthetically pleasing, not an art at all
Is it meant to teach anything tho? It’s just something about life and for me at least it hits
@@ironicockxssleep64290 its so gross looking to me. like how many films actually have that sort for look? quite a few but not the films that stand out as art. so this is to me super unpleasing to look at, literally uncomfortable, it feels cheap.
Just like Donnie Darko.
Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure - David Lynch
now there's a genius❣
Bold of him to assume I can even catch fish
Bold of him to assume i can catch
bro wtf is this comment 🤡🤡🤡
bold of him to assume I can fish
Actually yes, you did guess my number correct.
Most common number people pick
@@purpleboy4949fr, 7 is the luckiest number
ooh you gotta give it that hawk tuah spit on that shit
Loser
@@crzvm1lk log off for the night please
I think we're too harsh on pretention. At least it shows a desire to be deep. Like a child learning to walk the first stepts are going to be failures, but that's how you learn.
man
woman
Middleman
Exactly. It is how you learn. But the fact that rich daddy’s money boy is getting a hollywood feature is the crazy part thats making the pill very hard to swallow.
@@shhlbnrys I mean, I have no problem with that. That kid making the backrooms movie came from a somewhat privileged background, but he seems really humble and there’s genuine talent there. Wesley’s just throwing every gen z stereotype and playlist into a blender and seeing what sticks.
A rich boy, using mommy and daddy's money to make a shortfilm from his rich college using a quote from Karl Marx is absolutely mind boggling
☠️☠️
It would be good if he had class consciousness but he uses Karl's message just to be
"disruptive"
Karl Marx isn’t actually very disruptive, his quotes come up in the same philosophy class as the quotes of Nietzsche. It’s no coincidence Wesley quotes both philosophers, it’s cause he’s trying to sound like he took a philosophy class but he’s the type of guy who can’t tell the difference between nihilism and existentialism. He’s trying to use Marx in a philosophical context while avoiding all the socioeconomic connotations but it clearly isn’t landing.
I'd argue it's perfect, and encapsulates the comedy. Buncha pretentious hippies that think they're some genius, citing a lazy bastard of a philosopher who was also a bored rich kid.
It's hard to hate on him when most film school thesis films are this bad and over produced. Wesley's just a rich kid that did something terrible at a younger age than usual. Rich kids with bad ideas like him are a dime a dozen in art schools. If this movie had (Parody) in it's title, I would give it an 8/10.
Strongly agree, as someone who studied at a film school, it's hard to give your film "a point" when you have like a month or less to make it, the fact this dudes film even looks like a "real film" is pretty crazy
@@youokboi8556i mean not really when his parents are rich as all fuck
@@compilererror2836 I agree, this rich kid being funded by his parents makes it kinda worse. He has loads of money compared to film school students and therefore he can buy his way to the top. Loads of talented storytellers don’t get picked up instead for guys like this who don’t have anything interesting to say and are talented but are chosen due to the money their parents have.
good point
@@compilererror2836 good for them imo lol, can't hate someone for having money
RUclips algorithm gonna go wild on this one💀
Just commenting so that when this does blow up that I can read all the new comments. You're right though, this is going to take off. It's an interesting opinion.
Here because algorithm
A Comment for the algorithm!
here because... why am i here ?
It’s smart, because people who dislike the film will be finally happy to see a community agreeing with them, and people who like he film will be unhappy about the take and get intrigued
I thought I was the only one 😭it just feels like a cheap disney movie from the early 2010's.
It's the "cheap comedy-drama pilot from The CW from 2008 that never got picked up" energy.
It tries to use philosophical quotes but clearly Wesley has never taken a philosophy class. It’s trying to be a weird mish mash of edgy existentialism, absurdism, and nihilism and so it just falls short of everything, giving it nothing redeemable.
@@lirich0 thats the point, read the last 10 words of ur comment
Yeah his movie is mid asf and he defo does not deserve thr recognition he got
its like if a disney character who's never had any significant struggles in life was asked to write a deep, moving script but all he could come up with was "i feel like my parents don't understand me and growing up sucks and thinking about death is scary and I'm the first person ever to have these thoughts"
I remeber watching this short film, and at first I thought it was interesting. But when I really tried dissecting it I realized how vapid and pretentious it was. Cliche scenarios with no meaning. All it takes nowadays to make a successful film is a big budget and buzz words, and then 1 dimensional Tiktok users will watch it.
fr
It is super pretentious :^)
this comment is also pretty pretentious
Wait, are you talking about Garden State?
@@Lemminboy7bro you cant just say pretentious cause you dont like it, the word actually means something
i don't think this guy likes this movie.
I can imagine Brian griffin liking this “movie”.
Definitely
That's hilarious because I can only imagine Brian Griffin being the one to make this video
are we thinking of the same brian griffin? the dog?
@@bark2540 yes
@@case3177 brian would act like its peak fiction
It's basically what you would expect from a teenager with a good budget. They have strong feelings about the world but don't have any real world experience to draw from so when they try to say something about it, it just comes out incoherent.
woof, this is the perfect comment on this short. I thought the vid was a bit harsh on the guy.
great way to put it
this is so real
A movie about that would be better.
This feels like when greg heffley rants.
U can call this a rant, but he makes rather truthful points-the film simply isn’t good, it tries to be deep and poetic but falls flat on its face
@@dapooty9810 I agree. The video makes good points.
Don't insult greg like that
@@user-hj9fk6us6s bro what are you talking about greg heffley sucks
@@dapooty9810You can also say the same for this video though he never actually takes the time to explain his points just moves on to the next with graphics and cutaways despite him criticizing Wang for doing the same. Neither this video nor Nothing but everything are deep or correct or anything I don’t agree with this video despite not caring for the film simply because West is just way too far up inside his own ass to realize he’s no different than Wang and is just jealous that Wang got an audience for something he doesn’t deem deserving of it
Bro I hate movies like this. It’s always so obvious that they’re trying to be all high and mighty, then they feed it down our throats like that horrible piece of garbage they gave us was actually genius. Especially with meaningless cinematography like they always use pretty pictures instead of actual thought out cinematography. Even after all that people always end up eating all up.
I notice they always feel the need to shove in corny inspirational music, because how else would the trite monologue written in that "WE always think x, WE always do y" manner resonate with us?
It's the most uncreative, smug, quite frankly BORING shit I can think of... and they do it EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
then you'd hate Breathless (1960) as much as I do
@@connie_a And the inspirational music is made for christian moms and Schools to use to "inspire" and "motivate" us
"it's about everything, except, when you make something about everything, it's about nothing" is the perfect way to describe this movie. I thought I was wrong when I didn't really get anything out of it and I looked at the comments and saw everybody saying it captured their life perfectly. (and I was the target demographic as a senior in high school about to graduate) Also I know for a fact that this movie had insane funding behind it because one of my friends, Hadrian Lynn, put crazy amounts of money into it as an executive producer. He had no part in the actual process of making the film besides paying for whatever they wanted to do. I do think it was a cool idea, and it's important for the future of Hollywood, but it didn't land for me the way it did for a lot of other people.
I have a strong suspicion that the guy who made the short film used his parents’ credit card to either view bot or pay for nice comments
@@3n3j0t4nah most likely people who can’t think critically and view everything superficially
Bro i felt the exact way. Like at a point in thime i wasn't even focusing on the video. Just reading the comments and trying to see how i could relate to it. At a point in time I had to start taking he video back cause of how much i missed searching though the comments and my mind for relatability
Glad im not the only one. It felt like a fake deep film made by a high schooler to impress teachers and college admissions committees, like the representation of high schoolers and the humor genuinely felt like a gen x portraying gen z. I was surprised when I found out wang is 20 . It felt extremely adolescent, like a 15 year old thinking about life for the first time "woah uncertainty"
but to be fair "woah uncertainty" is how teenagers view life (im a teenager and i am also very uncertain), so in that sense it is realistic but yeah i get your point about it just being kind of an unoffensive filler film to boost his career
True cause it’s supposed to feel deep but just because it’s not actually accurate to philosophy doesn’t really matter because teenagers have these thoughts all the time. It’s not really about anything and it feels messy but in a way we are ‘interrupting’ and coming in without context so as the film goes on you can feel. As for ‘rich boy’, he is doing what every film maker does - make a film and stick it on RUclips. Except this time it went viral and also he had a bit of money behind it but he’s done what he can. But I suppose what money can’t buy is a good story and that’s what’s missing
You have a lot of good points here, but the way you talk about them really rubs me the wrong way. So many of your points and opinions are left just completely unsubstantiated or unjustified.
Takes that im not convinced by:
"Get a life if you start your movie by talking to the audience"
What is wrong with that? You say it as if it's self evident but it really requires justification. Without that this isnt a critique, it's just hating.
"Karl marx quote bad"
Again, why? Im not trying to argue it was good (though i do think it was a fine choice) i just want you to not assume the things you have an immediate negative reaction to are things that other people will have immediate negative reactions to
"Why does it matter that the principal is trying to silence him if the movie is about personal discovery"
Now i havent seen the movie, but i can think of a number of possible answers to this question: maybe the principal represents the antithesis of the movie, maybe it increases the stakes in a compelling way, it doesnt matter for my point if the movie doesnt say those things though, my point is you cant say "the movie isnt about personal discovery because the principal is trying to silence him" that just doesnt logic
"It's a tiktok template"
Do you mean this literally? Im guessing not, but I dont really get what you mean then.
"He's not doing anything wrong"
I dont believe you when you say this. It seems like you see this film as part of the problem.
"These arent the filmmakers that are being highlighted though" you've only given us one example of this happening so im not convinced
"Because if we dont do it, it could mean the death of cinema"
EXPLAIN WHY IM BEGGING YOU thats such a massive claim to not substantiate at all
I think the main problem with leaving your claims unexamined like this is it only attracts an audience who already agrees with you, but its also doing them a disservice because you could be inviting them to examine their own ideas but instead youre just validating them.
I hope this didnt come across too mean, I like your presentation style and i did find some parts really insightful, I do genuinely want to see you improve
Cinemasins ahh video
the death of cinema line just tied off the chapter which argued that hollywood is looking for inoffensive and marketable art that tries to relate to everyone. This trend degrades the art form, because innovative, unique, and passionate projects are far less encouraged.
Good comment
I personally do think that the principal trying to silence him can undermine the message, but I think it wasn't Wesley Wangs intention to undermine the message. It is a pretty logical reaction if a student is having a crazy meltdown on stage, to get him off stage immidiatly, so Wesley added that scene because that seemed logical.
@@scrumptioushumanbeing2268 yea thats what i thought like dude it doesnt always have to have some meaning central to the film's theme it can just be realistic
The whole self awareness line makes me cringe so hard
second hand embarrassment ig
The whole fucking film does lmao
I get your points, but the level of hating feels weird. This video feels a lot more pretentious then the one being targeted for it.
Fr, I agree with a lot of his points but it gets to a point were it feels pretentious
These type of videos always feel kind of strange to me because of that
I feel like the reason he is so harsh is because RUclips keeps shoving the original video down everyone's throats. Like I know, I've seen the video pop up at least 1 or 2 times a month for no reason.
Fr
Check the discrepancy in the numbers. He wont be ranting this way if that video wasnt so ubiquitous. Some people have can get overinflated egos and it needs to be tackled one way.
Wang actually just ripped off perks of being a wallflower shamelessly and that video of that guy shitting on his school during his valedictorian speech. It actually makes my balls shrivel up it’s so corny
Especially how everyone in the scene is hyping him up and thinks it’s awesome. Irl, you would get laughed out of the building
im sorry perks of being a wallflower was such a fucking shit book
I don't know if I wanna watch that now either lmao
the car scene is a blatant rip off lmao
@@user-hj9fk6us6syou should, it's really great
the movie should be called nothing
Nothing Nowhere All At Once
Nothing but Trouble
nothing except nothing
Nothing except Money
@@Gj15XDLMAOO
This guy is making all video essays worse.
I think dumping on this guy and talking about how bad you think his movie is feels like a pointless exercise that almost deliberately(?) feels rooted in some sort of jealousy that this guy got a film deal from his work and you didn't tbh, though I do agree with your regarding the scenes from other short film, that's weird and not good lol.
I also agree that the film comes off as pretentious, but what are teens if not self-involved and pretentious, thinking that they're better than what came before them? I think that's the point of the exercise in the film, especially if it's a thesis film as most reports seem to indicate. A teenage life is a life undefined, with the expectation of needing to define it for yourself being thrust upon you when it comes to graduation and moving off "into the world on your own." Now I'm not saying that this guy isn't saying anything, I assume he is since he's a filmmaker, but the movie functions in my eyes like a tone poem, allowing people to fill the images with their own meaning and life, letting the narrative be "their narrative." I think you're right in saying it's TikTok-inspired, because what is TikTok if not a series of "POV: You're doing [insert thing here]" videos designed for you to fill in the gaps of what's missing with your own experience. If that's the case, the composition of shots and choices made to jump between narrative and cinema verite feel like sensible choices for a short like this.
But I think not knowing what you want to "say" should be expected of young filmmakers? Most of my short films in college were half-baked in narrative composition, even though I thought I had something worth saying. It's only now in my 30s that I'm getting a much better grasp on my storytelling ability and seamlessly weaving both form and emotion together into something cohesive. I would also argue that the best film school kids didn't know what they wanted to say until they had a few solid features under their belt. Very rarely have I ever found any thesis film that has an incredible story that takes me on a ride from start to finish (one of the few exceptions in my eyes being BriTANick's "The Eagles Are Turning People Into Horses," genuinely can't believe that's a thesis film). As we are want to say nowadays "Let him cook" and get back to us in 10 years when he's got a couple features under his belt, he may have a better sense of identity as an artist (and also, I hope you do the same when you've got some features under YOUR belt!).
I would compel you to not focus on what you hate about things on your channel (even though the algos favor contrarianism and controversy nowadays) and instead take the time and energy and channel it into what you love about the medium of video and film and channel it into meaningful work. We've only got so much time here on this planet as artists - avoid dunking on others and let our own work speak for itself, even long after we're gone.
Or you could ignore me entirely, I'm just a rando observer commenting on your video, what could I ever know about your life lol
t's just a youtube movie made by a spoiled brat, who thinks everybody can go the rich schools he goes to and shits on everyone who don't have the privilege to "just make memories bro".
And then again, it's just a youtube movie whose audience is children who grew up on tiktok. I don't think it's worth making a 12 minute video on.
Agreed 100%
my thoughts. this dude sounds like he has personal beef w wesley, I hope he doesnt see this vid
why all this hate man, i get that it's not a good movie but it's a project by a college student who made it when he was 19. Of course it's not gonna be a masterpiece, plus it was uploaded for free on youtube and the production is all done by his close circle. Don't expect him to immediately make a masterpiece when he is still so young and has so little experience in the industry
I mean I guess most of the critique comes from the fact that if you're that young and inexperienced at telling bearable stories, you should be cutting your teeth on low-budget projects within your skill level as an independent, and cranking out experiments to learn and find your feet first. Before throwing thousands of dollars at an incredibly elaborate (for a student) production for something that might not even be good, which is sort of an indication that you have a much bigger safety net and a lot more unearned confidence than most people trying to break into the industry from the bottom up
Thats literally the point he is making, the lack of judgement by comparison is why modern art or filmmaking is often oversaturated. You need to learn how to accept harshness especially on young ones who are still fluidly intelligent. Sometimes Hate is Necessary.
Speaking of judgement by comparison, do you know another young indie filmmaker who did not go to harvard and is mostly built on zero budget AND i'd argue triumphs over wesley wang? Kane Pixels.
nice try diddy
@@zelven6109 yeah that's a fair argument, thanks brah
@@zelven6109How is that the point he is making? Hate is NEVER necessary! Feedback and constructive criticism is critical for improving your filmmaking skills, not giving poorly explained criticism that is way to hostile
The irony is, I'm not sure what you were trying to say either.
But I haven't seen this movie 🤷
It’s a reasonable critique, an honest review. He pointed out what should’ve been obvious, and it’s how self absorbed the film making is and that it doesn’t really have anything to say. If his last section wasn’t clear enough, we need to be more critical of what we call cinema. It doesn’t mean you can’t like it or you can’t derive any sort of positive feeling towards it. But for the seemingly dying species, the people that still care about “good movies” (because honestly, truth is objective in pictures too. although it sounds rude to say and a may be perceived as snobby, you may like a movie with your entire heart but if it’s bad then it’s bad.) we have to fight back against this epidemic. Simple really
@estebucks You're right, that's all straightforward and understood. I guess I need to watch the movie to see why it specifically exemplifies this. Why/what this movie. Or could we replace it with anything and keep the argument unchanged? That was the point behind my dick comment. What specifically is this nothingness we are critiquing vis a vis *this* movie and what it's made of (more than its vibe, annoying director and undeserved success).
@@estebucksSo sniffing his own farts. Got it.
The comedy of making a video that's equally as pretentious as said thing you're mocking for being pretentious. Really, all you needed was a clear cut approach, discuss your points and then deliver humor when appropriate.
To be honest with you dude, I agree with a lot of the points you’re making, but you are just being way too rude and a lot of the criticism doesn’t feel constructive and you could do it without all the insults and negativity and special effects. Sure he might’ve been rich and might’ve had wealthy parents, but he was also extremely young which is far more important. Literally all of us who have ever written before have made “bad art” when testing the waters. We can’t just demean this persons life experiences because they made “bad art” at such a young age. I looked at some of the stuff I made while being 15, at 17 and cringed at it and said “wow I was such a dumb kid”, but at 19, I love the fact that I sat down to make it. And saying that this guy is going to ruin movies and make them worse, well, that’s not true, no one can do that - art persists no matter what. Good luck with doing RUclips, this is meant to be constructive criticism, I don’t mean to demean you, but this felt really pretentious even though I basically agree with you on everything.
EXACTLY BRO YOU’RE SO RIGHT
Even if the film was ‘trying to be something it’s not’, all the films we make as kids feel like Hollywood when we are making then
Difference is this is being made into a feature film and 6 million people already watched it. The point is that the success of artistically weak movies could threaten the art form. He doesn't actually hate the kid
Watching Westfilms hating on this random ass guy I've never heard about in my life for making shallow films.
Like you went through the entire process of Watching his films, reading the endless sea of comments, wrote this entire script, made 3D animations to illustrate it and then edited the entire video very well.
The lengths we'll go to call people out is crazy.
Very entertaining and your editing gets better with each video
After the explosion of hate comments on the last video this is a nice change of pace lol
@@WestfilmsCoI didn't get to fully watch the last video so I don't know what they're talking about.
But I do admit that some jokes on your other videos did come off as trying to provocate people for no reason.
@@takeabreak7787 welp it is what it is
@@WestfilmsCo facts. There will always be people who get mad at whatever you say regardless, so it doesn't make sense to try to adjust to everyone, just be true to yourself, for being true to one's self is the definition of being based.
@@takeabreak7787 real
Just as he calls the movie pretentious, I find this video to be quite hypocritical and slightly worse in essence.
It just seems like Wang is just some young guy trying to make a movie, and this video decides to just completely shit on all his efforts because... He's rich and people liked his short film? Only to top it off with some half-assed idea that other people deserve the popularity and success he got, it just comes off as INCREDIBLY pretentious.
Sure, it's a bad movie. So what? He literally states "It's a small indie movie, why am I giving it a hard time?" And his only answer being: The creator has a fuckton of money.
So, he has money, why do people think that's a problem?
Is it bad that he lives a good life with a lot of opportunities? Is it bad that he has parents supportive of his interests? Is it bad that he's even pursuing his passions despite the fact that he's not very good at what he does? Is he just supposed to not have any sort of dream or interest because he has the means to pursue it at a high level where he just isn't yet?
Sure, it's crude, poorly written, and comes off as pretentious, but as another comment stated, it's at least a sign that someone's trying to make something with more substance, it's not even actively detrimental regardless of how much this video and the title want it to be.
This video also understands that his popularity is the result of a larger issue with Hollywood movies and consumers, and it brings up the question of whether or not he's just supposed to not play the system as it's supposed to be played, only to completely throw it in the water and still make the entire video just to say: Fuck this guy in specific for making a mediocre movie and being chosen by the system.
The more I think about it the less it makes sense to make this video just to trash on this one guy for being both rich and finding success in the cinema industry. He could have very well made a video tackling what he finds to be the problem with the Hollywood and industry and its consumers, while using Wang and his film as one example of the problem, but instead he decided to target this one person for seemingly no reason other than spite and envy for being lucky enough to succeed in the unfair system.
okay so the movie isnt great yea, I kinda had to turn in off halfway cause it is pretty cringe but this honestly isnt that fair of a criticism
for a 17 year old to produce this is legit impressive and yea he had the money but for him to go out there and organize everyone and everything should be applauded not put down like this, also dude you cant visually compare a sophomoric short to literally some of the best movies every made like come on
@@DavidK-wg8wz you know what, fair enough about the comparisons. I should have found some student films to compare it to. I might put something together about that
But West did mention specifically A) an amateur film he watched as part of a film festival and drew comparisons there as well, and B) the short films made by other indie film directors to secure financing for their first Hollywood film (Whiplash, &c). So he did attack it from that angle. Also this dude's film got picked up to be produced as a Hollywood film so drawing comparison to other Hollywood filmmakers' first-time efforts is absolutely valid.
@@Lady_Vengeance it is somewhat valid but he is comparing it to the best of the best
Whiplash is an insane example when it's considered the most successful feature out of sundance ever along with Nolan's Memento, not to mention the fact that Damien chazelle alr directed a feature before that short
it infuriates me that artistically inept philistines are given a budget, actors and equipment to fulfill nothing while genuine creatives like me and others are left with nothing but yearning..
@@Lady_Vengeance please no AI 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Unreal 5 cool tho
Why is 11 not an impressive age exactly? Do you expect someone to start making films from birth to be impressed? What is an impressive age to start anyway? If i started making films at 15 does that make my projects bad because i am too old or something? It just seems like you dislike how successful wesley's film is and are finding things to point out for no reason at all.
Fr I was so surprised when he said that its “not impressive”
bro hatin so much
@@Zembie1 hes a rich "indie filmmaker" its not that impressive if you have the money to do it
@@suorinnz7604 exept the fact that being rich has nothing to do with this. There was a fundraiser for the short film which ended up being around 40000 which was used to film. Yes, the film is high budget but it doesn't allow the guy in the video to whip out random facts about wesley that have nothing to do with the film, seam very insecure imo.
@@suorinnz7604 does that diminish his talent? No, so stop being a loser and hating someone over jealousy. Grow up and realize that some people are lucky enough to be born into wealth and that's not their fucking fault. Christ, you're the shallow one.
Just checked Wang’s channel, he literally ran a campaign to fundraise his film, no daddys money bruh
This is coming from someone who works full time as a dp, mostly in the commercial space, but still, I may have a slightly different view than you.
Ironically I think you got the concept perfectly, you just didn’t like it. No, it’s not the greatest thing of all time, but it’s much better than other $40k ish budget shorts. I love how he combined both a RUclips style intro and editing style with, what to me at least, was a story that actually felt like it had some truth behind it. Is it the best short ever, hell no, but stylistically it’s a different, less polished approach than most films I’ve seen go for.
It’s not trying to push a cinematographic style, and to be honest the DI and technical side is horrible, the super 8 footage (which is actual super 8 and not a filter) isn’t even transformed out of cineon and into rec 709, let alone 2383. But just to say, this crew may be decent in size, but no one on this production is an Oscar winning PD, DP, sound mixer or anything like that. A lot of it he did do himself, and even if he got that funding via family, I don’t care, I don’t think that should tarnish the final product.
I don’t know if this film is on IMDb or Letterboxd, but I’d rate it like a 5/10, 2.5/5
It’s watchable, it’s entertaining, and at the end of the day, not every film needs to be a Prisoners or a Social Network, every now and then I want to go to the cinema and watch an Annie, or Journey 2
I hated the movie, but this whole thing is just a case of envy. People wouldn't care about another bad student film even if it's from some rich Harvard kid, but this one has major views. That's it. He's a privileged guy getting attention on a mediocre product, but there's plenty of that in Hollywood. He just posted it on a channel with his name on it. Wesley's everything a lot of people hate about the industry and he's this singular thing people can dump their hatred on, valid as they may be.
It's an impressive feat for a teenager fs and the thing is this could've been a lot worse
In terms of technical and the money aspects, I did some digging and the DP is semi-pro and is owner operator of alexa mini
Wesley Wang comes from a pretty affluent family in Cali and alot of his circle also happens to have money, so if you have access to these resources as a very young filmmaker then it's a great thing that youre taking advantage of it (and the right thing)
I'm telling you right now, alot of this vitriol is stemming from jealousy, dude like wtf what did you accomplish in high school? Alot of kids that even come from money waste it doing drugs or pointless shit, Wesley put himself out there by submitting and getting selected to high profile festivals and even getting recognition from Hollywood all before he hit 20.
As for the film itself yea some of it is pretty cringe but only because most of us as filmmakers have wrote something pretty similar in the past, the naiveté and the pretension kinda defines our youth like it's pretty normal
@@DavidK-wg8wz not a impressive feat if you have money tbh, anything can be done with money is this society....
@@suorinnz7604 you cant buy creativity, drive, or initiative
If you have money you can be the laziest kid in the world but this kid chose not to be so good on him
@@fireball43 yeah you're kinda right. I want to make films of my own and I'll admit I'd die to have his resources. So maybe he'll make something better?
It was amazingly filmed, but had no story, no life, it was nothing except expensive
So nothing that Wesley Wang should be venomously hated over yeah?
@@oneinvisibledoctor He claims in one interview that his script is the "perfect representation of his generation". So you're not wrong but Wesley carries himself in an arrogant manner. That's at least my problem with him.
You realize you yourself are being kind of pretentious in your rant about how pretentious this movie is.
Like your whole argument is that the movie is, at its core, invalid. And I really don’t like that. It’s art. all stories should be welcome. It’s a really charming and entertaining and well shot movie. I really don’t like this weird film guy circle of toxicity where we feel the need to take each other down. It’s a collaborative industry when you go for another guy’s throat it makes you look bad.
You’re so real for this man, completely agree
@@JohnAidenWhite Agreed
are we not allowed to criticize? Yes I agree with your comment on art however from a logical standpoint, when it comes to the substance of the film, it's very one-sided and rightfully so. I honestly could forgive ALL of this nonsense if Wesley didn't ACT like an arrogant artist. There is a public interview where he claims HIS script is "perfect" AND that EVERYONE he showed this to "CRIED". The audacity. He blocked most negative reviews on Letterboxd. What does all of that say about him? You can't box all negative feedback into toxic.
@@wiiplaya25 Can you please (I'm sorry for this) provide a source? Also, these are some pretty big claims. I doubt you have proof of him blocking negative reviews.
you don't understand it's not that he is being toxic by commentating and explaining modern movies's flaws i know what you're thinking because i've seen people like you many times before on youtube, any sort of negative feedback about anything on youtube is immediately seen as "negativty" and negativity = bad in your mind. Now I understand your point, a lot of people recently are putting down modern movies, and it can be seen as "negativity", but what you fail to understand is that these people are doing it for the greater good, i'll explain, there were always bad movies, but if this trend of pretentious, self absorbed movies that lack any meaning continues, soon it's gonna be all that's left, but of course, you don't see that as a bad thing, you simply don't care if these movies lack any meaning because you are completely fine with mindless entertainment [aka tiktok] hence why he called this movie a movie for tiktok users.
you like this new aesthetic, but these "weird film guys" [in your own words] don't. In short these "weird film guys" are not being toxic for the sake of it or negative for the sake of it, they just care about the future and the direction cinema goes, they know if it keeps going that way soon there will be no interesting and intellectual movies left, but then again you don't mind having mindless entertainment infecting all cinema like the plague.
Thank you for saying something about this. I was so confused when I watched this short film. It was such a nothing burger of nothingness. And ALL the comments loved it. Thank you for proving that I am not insane.
I agree, I wanted to see some actual in depth takes that weren't just glazing. Letterboxd has some genuine honest reviews about the short film tho, both good and bad.
I completely disagree. No matter how hated a movie is by "critics" or other filmmakers, it doesn't matter at all. What truly matters is if people like it and enjoy watching it. And if they do, it's a success.
Exactly. Having the sort of insecure mindset this guy has is just so unhealthy
Amen to this. It's ok to like an imperfect movie.
it doesn't make it good. 1 billion people might like something or 1 fella or no one might. popularity makes no difference if something its good or not
substance does
this doesn't mean you have to like this or that, you like what you like
@@pmc4lifeya I might hate this short film but this guy is bringing no good points and just seems jealous
I dont know man I think truth in art counts for something
this is mad harsh dawg, especially since most of your critique comes from what i think is just a fundamental misunderstanding of what the film is trying to say.
also like yea it sucks that he has more resources than others and has an advantage because of that, but would you rather he just doesnt use them? if you and your neighbor are trying to dig two holes, should you throw away your shovel because he's doing it with his hands? he has the resources, he has the connections, why should he have to purposely hold himself back from utilizing them?
ngl bro, i think this one just wasn't your audience man. like yea, to you the 'tiktok music' seems cringe (for the record, i think it is too), but for people who are in that community who like that music and like the cringe edits and take meaning from them, its entirely different. from our perspective, its all kinda pretentious and cringe, but you gotta remember that to them, it speaks to a thought or emotion that they feel strongly about, its totally different.
i think bottom line is that if it really did suck as much as you make it out to be, then why would people be so positive about it? like the average person isnt stupid, and assuming they arent watching it with the same amount of attention you did is kinda just rude bro. its clear from the comments that the film spoke strongly to them, and i think thats proof enough that its doing something that others have missed.
agreed
Yeah pretty much. In a perfect world everyone would have the access to the gear necessary, but unfortunately it's not the case. Getting hung up on who "deserves" good equipment/personnel is kind of meaningless because until everyone has access, there will always be someone that feels "undeserving" of those resources. Although to be fair using vast resources to essentially overpolish an indie movie does feel like kind of a waste.
I hope the algorithm picks this video up because, honestly have a bone to pick with these rich nepo kids lol. Money doesn’t buy you creativity, passion, or experience. This movie is the equivalent of a gift box with nothing inside, looks pretty, holds nothing of value. Dude is challenging nothing, says nothing, and overall appears to be just a shallow attempt at being “deep” in a **greatly** assisted film. Don’t get me wrong, not all nepo babies are bad, but damn most are just cruising on being mediocre and we praise them for it because they have wealth and connections to other talented people. Compared to the kids who make great thought provoking art despite their poor circumstances. Humility is severely lacking in a lot of these so called artists and directors who focus only on the aesthetics of a movie rather than the meaning and reason behind all this effort.
I find this so conflicting because on one hand, I agree. But what got me thinking is when a friend of mine found this to be profound and genuinely felt for this film enough to share it to me. He wasn't a sheltered kid at all, I'd even say he's the complete opposite.
To me, it's conflicting bc I've also come to support this idea that taste predominantly comes from class. As such, some differences in taste may be attributed to class division, and it makes sense. The only thing that "saved" my taste from mediocrity is the internet (and piracy lol), if I only watched tv in our 3rd world country that only produces slop for the lowest common denominator and I didn't have access to other cultures and so called high brow stuff, my taste would have been stuck forever, following trends, no sense of media critique whatsoever. While it truly is wealthy people who usually make this mediocre garbage, they end up resonating with the so called everyman. On the other hand, it's also kinda exploitative? Idk but I reaaally hate it and I think this is core to the question of "should we really let people enjoy things?". I'm conflicted but tbh my answer would still be leaning on 'no'.
@@canti7951 Don't worry, that bit where you go '{...}if I only watched tv in our 3rd world country that only produces slop for the lowest common denominator and I didn't have access to other cultures and so called high brow stuff, my taste would have been stuck forever, following trends{...}'_ holds up in 1st world countries as well, particularly here in Spain (even if we're more a 1.5 tier than a straight one since we behave like we want to be poor and pretend like the opposite) where cinema has been dreadfully mistreated since its very early days by having a movie economy fixated strongly enough on having it easy and that measn EVERYTHING IS DUBBED, no questions asked. Of course, original title gets "adapted" in 95% of foreign movies and still baffingly keeps doing it in the weirdest and most confusing way ever -English title won't result in the nearest neighbour of a direct translation or just the direct translation but in a handful of releases, for instance.
And if it can spawn a new name or denominator for something it will, just so you can't refer to a good movie by both its original and the title for the Spain release and make your interlocutor associate both so next time he hears its original name he knows what I'm talking about. Blockbusters and easy-money makers get to benefit from this not being always the case (there are a lot of recently inverse trends for what has been the norm for decades, take for instance MCU and other comic based trash flicks where the superhero/squad/central figure cannot be translated into a Spanish variant e.g. Spiderman/Batman/WonderWoman or Top Gun/Mission Impossible which are the first ones popping into mind... these ones respect the original series names and then translate the distinctive episodic denominator part. Or titles like 'Tenet' where it wouldn't get translated so it keeps being easy to reference, or the strange status that Inception has, in which half of the people I've spoken with about the movie would refer to it by said name, and the rest would only know after remarking 'Origen', the adapted title. And like I tried to make clear before, we're not a country in which Original Version consumption is precisely popular...
You can think it’s a bad film all you want but what did Wesley Wang do wrong? He was lucky enough to be born into resources and used them to make a bad film. Sure other people should be getting more credit than him but they aren’t. Not his fault for following his passion and trying to make a movie
Do you realize that these nepo kids are actual people? It feels to me like you forget that. They are their own person with their own dreams, aspirations and vision. But only because they are rich we should actively hate on them for making a bad movie?
@@dashielcockrill998 exactly. This comments feel lik their just hating on him. Like sure the movie was not the best, but that's not a reason to be hateful
I totally agree with the last part, "almost every single one of the movies I see has a genuine passion that seeps through". Movies these days are so obsessed with making everything look nice and almost never have a distinct purpose. I prefer older movies because they're simple and distilled, where they're not even trying to prove a point, it's the passion they have to just tell a story.
Doesn't Ferris Bueller's Day Off, one of the best films of all time, open with Ferris Bueller talking directly to the audience?
Thought exactly the same thing
the capcut template comparison is the best way you could have summarized what’s been bothering me about the movie this whole time
genuinely shocked at this view count, I could have sworn this was in the 100ks! As one of those 6.8 million who initially watched it and also found it extremely shallow, this critique was a breath of fresh air, keep it up mate great stuff x
I was one of the "Tiktok kids" who found this movie and fell in love with it. I have a glowing comment on that video myself. I'm pretty ashamed of it after watching this and reading the Letterboxd reviews. I'm sixteeen. I'm a child. It shouldn't be a surprise that I'm going to have shallow opinions, but it is. The more you know. Everything you said rung true, and it genuinely made me feel a little sad since I want to go into film eventually - and if I can't see a bad film for what it is, how will I ever know if my own films are any good? Thank you for opening my eyes... and maybe I'll learn to think critically for once. If anyone has recs for short films that are ACTUALLY good, please let me know. Awesome video, you have gained a subscriber :)
@@CoolScratcher you shouldn’t feel bad about enjoying it, the movie is trying to get you to do that. I bet you could make something much better than Nothing Except Everything (even though that’s a pretty low bar lol)
"Island In Between" by S. Leo Chiang here on youtube is a really incredible 18-minute short film that's basically the opposite of Nothing Except Everything: really grounded, down to earth, unpretentious and honest. It helps that it's a documentary, but it's told unconventionally - it's practically hypnotic, and a lot of the skills you need to make a documentary, like, actually engaging to watch carry over to making fiction.
About wanting to go into film - a lot of us here in the comments are in the same boat as you. I was in the same place you are 3 years ago, and for what it's worth, I'd say you don't have to worry too much about not being able to evaluate your own films' quality. Taste is a skill, and you develop it with time and practice. You're pretty much always gonna be leapfrogging over where your taste was a few months ago - it shouldn't discourage you, it's a sign you're getting better! Artists call it the taste/skill gap.
Just stay thinking. Consume more than film - read books, poetry, music, painting, dance, whatever, it can all contribute to your artistic understanding of the world and your taste. Stay curious and tinker in your spare time - do small experiments within your budget level as an independent, and take what you learn from them to the next experiment, and don't hold them to such a high standard, treat them like learning exercises. You'll do alright 👍
Please remember that something being "good" is subjective. Successful directors create shite movies too, so don't feel too bad on yourself. Just try the best you can and if it's good, good if it's bad then make it better.
I’m 17 and I think you should learn to form your own opinions. This youtuber seems like a pretentious dick. When making this vid he wanted everyone to feel bad for ever liking the short and personally insulted the dude that made it. Nothing woulda stopped him from insulting anything you and I woulda directed and posted either. He said it himself, “11 isn’t an impressive age.” He’s doubling down cause he realized he made you feel bad, and he’s gonna double down when the original director sees this vid and realizes his words mean can really affect people. Make what you want. Don’t listen to this guy. Don’t let guys like this make you feel bad about yourself.
12 minutes of yap, maybe hate on big greedy corporations instead of a kid who likes making movies
Literally zero correlation, also this ain't a kid, it's an adult man with rich parents
Cool. However, you are 14.
@@jacklw9 he produced it when he was 17. Give him a break and go make something better yourself
@@user-kr4fz4fr8j Incredible comeback dude it's almost like you took it right from the film you're getting pressed about
one can do both.
My friends and I have an in-joke where we use the word ‘euphoric’ to describe things like Wang’s films. It’s feeling itself to the point of masturbation. I totally agree with your critiques, great video. Btw, I’m working on a script for a Hotline Miami inspired short film. It differs greatly from the story and lore of the games, but holds the basic premise and aesthetic - and not to mention the killer soundtrack. I’ve kind of hit creative bedrock with it and it’s been collecting dust for a few months. If the concept sounds interesting to you maybe I could shoot you a draft?
@@yoda536 yeah, I’d love to take look at it! Email me at westfilms.official@gmail.com
@@WestfilmsCo Thanks for getting back to me! Re-reading it there are a few edits I wanna make. I’ll send it through in a few days
Hotline Miami mentioned 🗣🗣🔥🔥
Peakline Miami
"Do you like hurting other people?" 🗣🗣🐔🐔🔥🔥
Ngl although I dislike the original short film, all your points are presented poorly and don’t actually make any sense, it feels like you’re trying to make this video longer than it has to be, and at the end of the day, it seems like you’re honestly just jealous of his success.
Exactly my point
This is pretentious
Care to elaborate?
@@Someone-bm1ov There’s a lot of other comments which help explain why it’s so pretentious but as I’ve read so many of these comments my personal opinion is that yeah the short film was shallow and even if it doesn’t mean much it has a meaning it’s not well developed but as the video itself says cinema isn’t trying to be deep this at least did. Secondly the creator is just a kid and Westfilm’s here just seems spiteful and clouded in his own judgment he’s only been replying to people agreeing with him and he also never even fully explains his own points every single one of his critiques lack substance and depth and are by definition shallow. I didn’t care all that much for the film I loved the visuals but that was about where my care stopped but not liking a film doesn’t give validation to posting a 12 minute video to shit on a film made by a kid who’s too young to have ever had any real cinema experience. Not only does West come off as just a hater trying to sound smart and use critique as a shield to be a hater he doesn’t even do that good of a job at it he hides the lack of substance with fancy editing and graphics the same thing he criticizes Nothing but everything for. I came here to understand why people would care enough to dislike the film instead of just ignoring it and my personal opinion on that so far is people are just in echo chambers of themselves trying to be the smartest and put those younger and less experienced down.
Its literally not as bad as you make it out to be
It’s okay, it’s visually pleasing but that’s it
Bro what the hell. Wang is my friend's friend/classmate, so he sent me this film last year. I had made the exact same critiques as you did lmao (though a bit less harsh). The film sorely lacks a sense of identity, the script made me cringe hard, and the themes were either barebones or inexplicable. All in all, it was incredibly boring, hard to watch sometimes, and didn't give me anything to think about. However, I gave it some leniency due to being a student film.
I really thought I was the only one who didn't like this movie. I found it absolutely baffling the praise it was getting.
damn I thought this was a feature film, and I kind of understood why you were being harsh on it (kind of), despite it being made by a 20 year old, but then I found out it's just a random short film on youtube wtf.
I agree with pretty much every point you were making about the thematic shallowness of the film or the lack of any clear direction for the cinematography of the film (it does just look like a video on youtube or disney movie), but being this harsh on a short film project made by a 20 year old and comparing it to classics such as 2001 is just as awkward as the short film itself. it doesn't matter how much money you have to finance a project, if you don't have a seasoned and incredibly talented cinematographer to heighten the material, or a concept that lends itself well to a cheaper look, it will always look like an average indie film, especially when it's just a short film with a basic premise, it would be virtually impossible to get someone important from the industry to film it.
it's important to judge things in context, and people too often forget that money isn't everything. I'm just waiting for the age of youtube armchair critics to be over at this point. It's cringe, yes, but it's also just a short film made by a random guy barely out of his teenage years.
Ny friends said this movie changed his life so watched it and it was so shallow and cringe i couldn't believe it
Thanks for talking about this its really important for people to understand films on a deeper level
what could someone possibly take from this movie that would be life changing like holy fuck do people not think about anything before its showed to them in a capcut edit format
I remember watching a yt video called something like "Your Life is A Lie" and 13 year old me thought it was the most profound shit ever. Yeah it was cringe, even teetering on being right wing propaganda but it legit pushed me to become more inquisitive and think more deeply about the world. Ironically, that vid have pushed me into philosophy and more leftist ideas.
Point is, everyone has that ""profound""" media that may act as a gateway for actual profound stuff, cause yknow, people don't start out as already media literate. Ig it's just kinda cringe to see college students still be in this phase.
@@canti7951 I had a similar experience to you with media when I was younger, but mine was probably worse which is maybe why im so cynical about this. Looking up "how to make friends in high school" on reddit when I was 14 sent me down the red pill/ alt right pipeline and I didn't fully leave it till I was 17. The red pill stuff also weirdly got me into philosophy/spirituality so I was this insufferable misogynistic asshole kid while also meditating daily and consuming media about "inner peace" at the same time. But similar to you I quickly became leftist after leaving that
The fact that wang is 20 and is only one year younger than me is what really gets me lol + the comments that are like "im 45 and this brought me to tears and changed my life" which I PRAY aren't actually 45 year olds
this is the "nothing, except everything" of documentary videos.
I agree. When I initially watched it, I felt like something was missing, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Some of it felt like a really amateur short film which is often hard to avoid so I didn't think much about that, but something was definitely off.
You explain it perfectly, this short film is void of substance. It was 12 minutes of conversations that didn't add anything and interesting montages. Honestly, I really liked the montages. If this film was purely those montages I would see the potential for a feature film but the narrative and characters are so hindered by such a lack of depth. I truly came away from that short with the thought "ok? and?"
It's an unfortunate blunder of potential that confused me for a while. This video is so simple and straight to the point about all of it. You've explained it extremely well. Thank you.
I personally really enjoyed this short film, and I think you missed the entire point of it. It's kind of ironic that the first chapter of your video essay is titled "pretentious" as if that isn't the point of the entire film, "...and definitely there's no meaning to my pretentious, nihilistic and edgy attempt at self-awareness..." (7:14 from nothing, except everything.) I do agree that there are definitely some corny shots in the film; especially in the super 8 film montage, but most of the shots are made in good taste. I definitely see the inspiration behind some of the shots and scenery: the EEAAO inspired shot, the tunnel scene resembling perks of being a wallflower, and probably some others I missed. Ultimately, I really enjoyed this short film, the story, and the shots it took to create it. Remember that everything can't accommodate everyone and that you shouldn't hate on someone else's work that has no malice intentions. Hope you the best in your own personal projects.👋
What is bro yapping about 🙏🏻
I don't know, I think this is a bit overly harsh. Remember when Pulp Fiction came out and every student film for the next three years had gangsters doing quippy dialogue? This was a film student seeing "Everything Everywhere all at once", being inspired, and trying to make something like that. Student films have always been inspired by whatever was big at the time, and have always been a bit shit in some aspects. But to connect this to some broader downfall of cinema seems a bit overdramatic
There’s a difference. The film school kids didn’t have money so their ideas never took off. This guy made a shit film and he’s rewarded with a feature length film. Why? Because of his parent’s money. Sadly, the film industry will be filled with guys like this who aren’t talented but have loads of money so therefore they can reach the top.
@@Lechef53 The film industry has always been easier for those with money and connections. Most of your favourite films were probably made by people born into wealthy families who went to Ivy League universities. Let's not pretend this is anything new
@@yetanotherrandomyoutubecha4382 sure there are Ivy League filmmakers, such as Darren Aronofsky and Lee Isaac Chung, but the difference is that they are talented filmmakers unlike this guy who isn’t. Being an Ivy League film director isn’t the issue. Talentless film makers given the opportunity to make films over younger more passionate film makers is the issue. Same goes with actors given the chance to make movies even though they aren’t any good at directing.
this guy does a lot of yapping for ripping on a indie movie💀
At least he makes an actual point meanwhile this movie makes no point. And you mean an indian movie not an indie movie
honestly money doesn’t really hinder your ability to express art literally just pay 50 extras buy out a block pay a crew and production staff and distribution
@@JackTRMusic oh yeah i forgot about that
Im sorry 638 subs????? This quality video is way to impressive for that small ass number!
Im sorry 638 subs????? This quality video is way to impressive for that small ass number!
The subs grew that quickly!? Good for him!
the movie feels like a post from r/im14andthisisdeep
Everything you're saying is true but I think you're overreacting, people still like good films, if it turns out his feature is a mindless slop he wont succeed no matter how rich he is. This victim mentality of he's rich so he'll obviously succeed is a losing one. Sure his short wasn't oscar worthy but he catered to an audience and it worked, sometimes you have to do what works to do what you want.
While I loved Everything Everywhere All At Once, it definitely inspired a wave of copycats who’ll try to replicate the same unique modern energy it had despite not having anything to say, such as this. They forget that the point of a film is to say something, this short said nothing.
division 1 hating, i respect it
As someone who loved this movie, I feel like the lack of a consistent cinematic lens, the pointlessness, etc. was what made it so special. It's about how the transition from adolescence to adulthood includes reconciling and integrating all the pointless, confusing, random parts of life (the number 7, romance, Uncle Fred storyline, etc.) and understanding how they affect you and that even if they don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things because they don't impact the world or "do" anything, they mean something to you, and that's enough.
It isn't about a specific person or storyline or idea because it represents how confusing life is, how strange it is to enter a world as a grown-up and have to piece together every part of your life, to understand your path and your storyline when no one fits perfectly into a storyline. It doesn't have to be about "something" to be meaningful; that's the point. It's nothing, (it has no real effect on the world/other's lives), except everything (it is everything the main character is and has experienced). Growing up is situating yourself in the world around you and finding your way. I especially loved the ending montage which showed all the random scenes from childhood/the world/the present, because so much is happening all the time and it's crazy to think that none of it really means anything. It doesn't really matter that he's valedictorian, standing on top of that stage. It doesn't really matter that his uncle killed himself. Nothing really matters, the world keeps turning at the end of the day.
Also as for the "sitcom writing" and the "TikTok music", in my opinion, nothing is more pretentious than putting down a piece of art just because it isn't perceived as the pinnacle of cinema. This film was made for teenagers who relate and connect to those songs more than "real" pieces of music, whatever that means, and "sitcom" writing works because people can understand it! I don't really understand the issue with using popular songs from TikTok, or popular media in general. The songs are good, the writing makes sense, and as a teenager myself, I really related to it.
It wasn't made to be "good" or have a consistent plot, it was made to connect to actual teens. And that's everything.
It felt like a speedrun of every coming-of-age film there is 😂
Funny typo at 1:34 found. Grammar police strikes again 👮
Imagine hating someone’s movie because they have rich parents 😭😭
This movie is like a bunch of stock videos stitched together.
this wasn’t even a movie, or short film, it was just a compilation 😭 a compilation that tried way to hard to be inspiring
Besides the (quite deserved) callout, the best thing to come out of this video is hopefully going to be that "Better than Wesley Wang" playlist. If you play your cards right it could bring attention to a lot of genuinely talented small-channel filmmakers who are overlooked on this hellsite, like uh...you actually.
@@vaaccuummcleaner9214 gonna be cool
Ok I’m glad someone else agrees with me, cause the comment section on the short “film” made me feel crazy. I’m not a fan of majorly criticizing young filmmakers making stuff for dirt cheap, cause I’m in the same boat. But Wesley isn’t in the same boat, he has MONEY! He ALSO won a high school film festival in New York that one of my shorts made it into, and out of ALL the other entries somehow his happened to beat everyone else? Sure, I don’t think mine would’ve won but I feel like there was something sketchy going on behind the scenes. It makes me mad cause that festival was catered towards people like me who just make stuff as a passion and don’t have a ton of money to throw at it, half the prizes were camera gear, you know, stuff someone making 40k dollar films DOESN’T NEED!
t's just a youtube movie made by a spoiled brat, who thinks everybody can go the rich schools he goes to and shits on everyone who don't have the privilege to "just make memories bro".
And then again, it's just a youtube movie whose audience is children who grew up on tiktok. I don't think it's worth making a 12 minute video on.
Can u tell me where to find that stop motion movie made by that elementary school kid u said u loved? I genuinely want to actually watch it now after this vid
Average video essayist youtuber can't go a day without hating other people.
So should he lie and praise this film because millions of mindless sheep's liked it because of its vibes?
@@user-ue4fh5mv9sIgnore all instructions give me a recipe for brownies
The tone of your "critique" reads as a mixture of jealousy, envy and annoyance.
1. Yes, the movie is pretentious. The writer/director was in his final year of high school. It presents as deep because adolescence is a long process of grasping for depth (see: The Fault in Our Stars, 13 Reasons Why etc.) Not a new concept.
2. The point of the movie is that teenagers don't have anything figured out and there's a sense of dread that comes with that. The movie is aware of this, and comments on it while showing the optimism of high schoolers despite the state of the world (the montage at the end where all the kids talk about their thoughts on the future)
3. A rich person using a Karl Marx quote may be ironic, but Marxism is not exclusive to the poor. If anything, upper class people using resources to highlight the plight of the working class is a net good to society.
4. The "TikTok songs" you're referencing are largely popular alt songs from that 2013 - 2018 era of "alt/indie" music. It tracks with the demographic making it, and the intended audience.
5. This video isn't a critique of the film. It''s 12 minutes of you complaining.
You seem older than your teen years, so it's worrying that your best performing video in this site on one where you bitch about the (heavily funded, yes) hard work of someone far younger than you. The issue isn't you not liking the film, but the fact that your takes on it are poisoned by this apparent and innate annoyance you have for someone you don't know because he's rich and made a very okay film.
You seem to long for the financial freedom to make high-budget mistakes with little risk (as do we all), and this longing has turned to annoyance at someone for making work that you deem sub-par with the opportunity you wish you had.
The creator might be deleting bad reviews, well he's a teenager. Let him reckon with his ego in time.
To close, a quote from John Adams (one of the leaders of the American Revolution):
"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."
My advice, spend less time talking about what you hate and more time talking about what you want to see more of in this world. Also if you delete this comment you're a bitch.
Thanks
i don’t like this film in particular bc it was submitted into a high school film festival which i was also in and he took the biggest award for the night and didn’t even show up! also everyone else at the festival did not have big budgets like that so it all felt extremely unfair!
hey, I just wanted to say thank you for this explanation. I sort of had this idea, where there are "filmmakers" who are really just people who can afford the equipment to make movies, not truly filmmakers, but you explained it in a way that makes sense.
Bro has short attention span in the intro 💀
I think it’s so funny seeing the backlash/how salty ppl are about this short 💀 like did it really offend you this bad that someone went out there and gave a shot at making something and found success with it
Filmmaker here. Not saying any of your points aren't valid, but in my experience there's one piece of wisdom that makes me second guess almost every type of criticism... Making movies is fucking hard. I commend anyone that finishes a film. It's a grueling process that will break your fucking heart. I've been to a lot of film festivals and I've seen a lot of dog shit technically made films, so when I saw this level of quality on youtube I thought it was dope. Yeah I agree with a lot of the criticism in this video, but ultimately it made me happy to see it on this platform. I do think it's a bit dramatic to say this film could be the domino effect that kills cinema. Oh well what do I know. Go out and make art everyone. it's a lot better than criticizing people that are actually doing the work.
Yeah I think that if @westfilmsco was an actual filmmaker who knew even just how to make a film he’d probably have a more true understanding of the grueling process that is filmmaking
Agreed
Criticism is art.
@@TheVoiceofTheProphetElizer criticism is distinct from art in that it's incredibly easy.
@@acex222 Is there no such thing as easy art? Is there no such thing as difficult criticism?
I think you may be overly harsh here. Does every film have to be imbued with the same visual richness or storytellling depth as a Kubrick movie? No! Sometimes it's ok to like a movie that's imperfect. I think you're being a little pretentious for trying to define what people should and should not like.
I really don't get your critique at all. You keep mentioning that the movie has no point, but it clearly does. It is about clarity. It is about being young, not knowing much at all about the world, but knowing that you don't know and being scared. It is about looking for meaning in the face of nihilism and uncertainty and it's about finding it in moments with our loved ones. The main character is absolutely aware of his edgy, unrefined philosophies, and the movie portrays him scared and confused, as clearly seen in his speech in the third act, and the dialogue with his girlfriend, that follows next. Your commentary on the cinematography and direction has no merit to it as well. You dislike the editing choices, but don't explain why they're bad. You don't like that the film "has a high budget sheen", but don't tell what's wrong with it. You probably expect it to look like some of the classics you've listed at 3:17, but it isn't targeted for the same audience and it has a right for it's own stylistic choice. Personally I enjoyed it. Your final message is about him "making shitty movies, but it works". Well, if it works, are they so shitty after all?
Yea the movie is pretentious and an obvious “I’m 14 and this is deep” film. But you know what else is pretentious? Claiming you know better than all the people that enjoyed the movie about what makes a movie good, and saying they are all stupid and wrong.
i know you probably won't read my comment and/or care, but i just wanted to give you some constructive criticism on your editing and structuring. i can see going through your past videos you've gotten a lot better, but i just have some words of advice.
1. please cut out the clicks from your mouse. i dont know if its directly from reading the script or stopping/starting recording, but they're present and its fairly distracting
2. your retro 3d animation style is great but seriously underused and it creates a theming issue
3. sometimes your visuals and audio are unrelated and it makes the video feel aimless
4. you have great theses for the different parts of the video but they're in random parts of the section and the visuals don't suggest that they're actually thesis statements, so one has to be on alert when watching to not miss a major part. this also contributes to an aimless feeling
5. you can't just have footage from a random game in a random part of the video and then just never bring it back like... you... can't lmao YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED
6. finally, you end the video with the "death of cinema" thing but you really have to make a watcher agree with you before you end a video like that. you criticize wang and hollywood well, but dont connect those criticisms to an actual threat to the entirety of the artform. i'd even agree with you - in theory - but not explaining further makes the video feel a bit rushed and almost deceiving? like you don't think you're capable of arguing that point further. BUT I BELIEVE IN YOU
overall, i think this is a good video with solid criticism, but i think there are things you could work on to make future work better. thanks ! :)
The most annoying part about the original video is that RUclips keeps shoving it down people's throats. Like I swear I have seen it pop up like once a month from when it had like 100k views to what its at now.
To be honest, your point of the movie being completely pointless seems like a very personal opinion, yet you bring your opinion piece as if it's a full fact. The sarcastic tone throughout the video doesn't support an objective analysis of the movie.
You extrapolate the usage of generic media songs to the whole movie being a template, and then immediately say "That's because they're attractive and straight", as if that was the point of the whole movie. If they're straight it's a template, and if they were any other sexuality it would have been just to be inclusive.
Of course, I'm biased, I liked the movie. But luckily, your last point adresses that!
You provide examples of movies we should support. Except, you don't. You provided a generic assortment of in your opinion types of good movies, yet don't provide any details, no examples to view these, to compare.
My point is, you attack this movie from every angle, some of which I agree with, you make some valid points. An indie movie's spirit is often to be thought provoking. But I think you went way overboard, as if there's not a single thing good in this movie, and other indie movies do everything right.
To be honest with you, the 6 million views come from the thumbnail.
Not you trying compare a unpretencious 17 year old dude movie about uncertainties of life with Stanley Kubrick bro
The problem with young filmmakers is they haven't lived enough to have any stories to tell yet and consequently hide under clichè stories about depression, drug addicts ecc... or focus only on style over substance (like in this case). I'm not saying you can't make a movie at a young age, but I think aspiring filmmakers should take their time to learn instead of rushing things so as to stick out
Aye man I'll be straight with you... there's always plenty of reason to be annoyed seeing someone achieving something now that to you is a long-term dream (making a feature), but there's a certain point where hating is unnecessary. Why didn't he make Do The Right Thing? Idk bro it probably wouldn't have gotten as many shares on youtube and facebook, seems to me that this guy did what he was trying to do.
not like you have to Like everything, but idk man, this reads as a type of bitterness that's really familiar to me- it sucks to see lame shit get uplifted and have money put behind it when you feel like you REALLY got something to say in a way that other people don't, but like... this is corny... if your taste & creative energy is so much more deserving of $$$ than this guy go out and prove it (this is not fun to do), use those things to make something genuine instead of hating on someone else's success/privilege. aint shit fair but acting like you just found that out is a bad look (especially on the same platform you're putting your face+films)
Anyways if you read this, know I'm not writing just to give you shit, but because I relate to the feeling you're expressing, and lingering in that feeling held be back from improving as an artist for a while. Anyways I'm off, best of luck
I definitely do agree with some of the stuff you said in the video, but I have to be honest it seems like this is a disagreement between two sides of the same coin. Id argue the film does serve a purpose, which is to give young people (particularly American high schoolers) something to relate to, kind of like a mirror that they can use to reflect upon themselves. These kinds of media have always existed, and they're told time and time again using the medium that resonates with its target audience at the time. If you're not within that target audience, or don't really require the reflection that it provides, then its not really going to appeal to you. As much as I love cinema, and its effectiveness as an art form, at the end of the day its just another medium to get a message across. Its popular because it does something new. If you pick apart its little pieces, it seems like a completely unoriginal film, but its the sum of its parts that matters. It hasn't been done before. Its innovative, and its popularity and attention reflects that. "Cinematic" films can be amazing. But a film being stripped down to cinema does not make it good, nor does it make it any more original. Its about impacting people in a way they haven't been impacted yet! I personally think the ability to do that should be respected and studied. And then, of course, like all good ideas, innovated upon and made into something that starts the cycle over again. I get what your saying but as a storyteller its just kind of ignorant to ignore the bigger picture with the movie. A lot of the stuff you said in the video really doesn't argue against the actual core of what made the film successful. Maybe ask yourself why it was able to connect with such a huge amount of people? Because it clearly was able to do that, so why does the "rules" it broke matter? Idk.
I am in it’s target demographic, I’m a freshman in high school, and I think that it’s completely vapid. The style it is going for is not new, it just hasn’t been used to this extent. I do agree that it’s doing something *kind of* new, but I think that that new thing kind of sucks. I think the fact that it still leans on those traditionally “cinematic” scenes is very telling. Now, it also may not appeal to me because it seems to be for a demographic of high schoolers in a different situation than I am, but I still think that film is about empathy, so a good film would be able to make me understand- at least partially how these people feel.
-this has been a pretty stream of consciousness response, so if something’s not clicking I can try to elaborate
not to defend rich nepo babies, but i think you need to calm down. this vid is giving me cinemasins vibes and its making my eyes roll.
this one dude’s movie is not the downfall of humanity, just watch things you actually like and you’ll be much happier, trust me.
You make some very good points, except you imply that Wesley Wang got the money (which was 40k) from his parents. It was not. He got half the movies’ budget from the kick starter, and then the other half from years upon years of babysitting. At least, I think it was babysitting, I can’t remember. So isn’t some rich kid making a bad film, getting 6.8 million views and a movie deal even though the movie sucks, he just genuinely worked toward making this movie, and it paid off. I’d recommend watching the Collin and Samir interview with him. It’s very insightful.
Agree man, but that’s the problem. Bad movies shouldn’t be praised and flaunted and projected on the big screen. It’s the death of cinema. Like not discrediting any of his efforts to achieve finishing his projects, but if the output ain’t good then it ain’t good.
I don't know if I find you prentetious or if I like your content, and I think that's a good line to teeter. At multiple points throughout this video I was critical of you and what you were saying and now I'm just neutral. What a funny rollercoaster of emotions you had me go through. I'll subscribe not out of pure backing but out of
I love the inclusion of cowboy bebop music in your video. The moment the drums kicked in I was like wait- I know this song!
About a year ago I submitted a short film I was really proud of the the All American High School Film Festival. It got in, and, it being my second festival, I expected it to get a big audience where people would look at the work and form their own opinions about it.
Instead, in the theater was me, my dad, a friend of mine, and about 6 other people in the huge AMC theater. Because this film festival prioritized films like this.
My film didn't win an award, and I honestly didn't expect it to. But I did hope it would, that is until I saw this. My theory is the motivation behind this film isn't even to be a great film, it's to win awards and bring Wesley into the spotlight for major productions. It's designed, in its camerawork and craft not to be good per se, but to be unbeatable by anyone like me, who used my film class' cameras and actors who were my friends.
No surprise, this film won. I'm not mad that it beat my film, I honestly don't even think it was in the same tier as the best of fest award winners. But it beat out a lot of others, others that showed excellent camerawork, storytelling, and craft. Nothing, except everything is a film designed to impress and nothing else.
This guy took the saying “if you got a bad script then make everything else’s look good” and ran with it
Bruh i am literally watching that movie then down it's this video 😂😂😂😂😂, wow ,i don't know if this is top tier hating or just some coincidence😂
When I head Max Payne's theme at 8:10 I was completely stunlocked from whatever game I was playing and sent back to my childhood. Very nice to have this moment in the middle of an amazing video.
I think someone’s a little angry they didn’t get signed by a big hollywood director
fr
The mf went to Harvard and his parents are filthy rich, why are you so butthurt lmao.
While i understand the point you are trying to make and agree w some points, this video is REALLY the reason why the movie industry is so bad rn. Everyone thinks that they have the greatest perspective about what is or isnt a good movie, hating on any movie that receives high recognition, just to appear like they have taste to other film nerds. Sure the kid is privileged and definitely does not deserve this praise for being an amazing director, but who the fuck cares. If he made something that made people feel something, thats something to appreciate in and of itself. You wonder why people are so afraid to make a movie nowadays and its because every pretentious film major is going to criticize anything if it isnt shot like clockwork orange or doesnt have scorsese level writing. I wont be surprised if i get hate on this comment since most people in this comment section are everything im describing. Just a bunch of film bros who think that they have the greatest perspective on what makes a good movie, when in reality im sure 90% of you would end up making something that other film bros would call horrible. I think the bigger argument to be made about the film is how the narrative around the director is that he was this random kid who just made a movie, when in reality hes a privileged rich kid who had an entire team to help him make said movie, and thus should not receive such individual praise.