The 10 things I loved writing in 2021
Highlighting some of the best articles I wrote in this newsletter and elsewhere.
As I post this, I have just come back from a fantastic trip to Luna Park, the most recognizable theme park in Sydney. There was joy to be had riding the Wild Mouse roller coaster, going into the Sledgehammer 2.0 and being swung around while spinning in the air and playing the old arcade games in the Coney Island funhouse. The adrenaline jolt coming off from it was much needed when times are tough, depressing, and worst of all, disappointing. The latter of which, I have come to describe 2021, which ended on a whimper, with little job security and further isolation. And this post is going to feel like rushing to the last minutes of the year.
This newsletter is fifteen months old and keeping it alive has been a blessing. In fact, it accommodates much of what I want to write, even as opportunities for other outlets have passed by. Showcased are the articles I have written (in chronological order), equipped with reflective blurbs, all of which I have gritted my teeth in a market in which courage is replaced with a false sense of virtue, while cowardice is presented in the walls of the internet, continuing to haunt our daily lives.
If you have read this for the first time, I would like to thank you for engaging. If you have read up to this point, the journey continues. If you enjoyed anything outside of this list that I write, please comment. If you have financially supported this effort with subscriptions, I owe you a drink.
Reflections of A Rebeller (February 18th, 2021)
There were two faces Rebeller had as a film publication, both of which Bunch was a natural at. The first was a space for elite-quality writing that could change the way one can approach the movies. The other was an entity interested in pushing back against their opponents. Whether it’s the big studios and their tentpole franchises, or the critics encouraging them because they had a woke message. It proved to be a two-way street and it seemed difficult to reconcile these ideas. Because of that, their enemies being more vocal, no matter how many subscribers they have in their arsenal and how non-toxic and apolitical most of their content was. For them, much of their readers came from the conservative side as Bunch and Ben Shapiro, equipped with film tastes that didn’t go beyond Quentin Tarantino. However, this tends to polarize, rather than allowing us to unite in the joy of watching movies. Readers were interested in Rebeller because they feel that critics don’t speak for them, and are instead, focused on pushing an agenda they didn’t need to read. Do they need someone from The New York Times to claim that it wasn’t OK for men to not be interested in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women? Or that First Man was somehow a work of right-wing propaganda? They prefer people who take the lifestyle of watching movies seriously, without insisting that knee-jerk activism interferes with how they’re supposed to view it.
This was a very personal essay and I am grateful for Splice Today for running it because the topic is so niche, no one else would do that without asking “What’s a Rebeller?” I don’t feel sad now that its parent company Cinestate had ended in another life as Bonfire Legends and that its main project (which I also reviewed) had found a new home with The Daily Wire, because who else can they bring it to. The movies that they brought in the past, had a remarkable impact on me. It went from being part of my personal canon of great recent films you have to check out, to being connected with its website. The ambitions that came along shouldn’t be underestimated. And while it was a blip in film culture, the spirit of that website won’t be forgotten.
How Ms.45 and Zoe Lund Paved Abel Ferrara’s Way (March 31st, 2021)
Lund made her acting debut at the age of 17 in Ms .45, the film Abel Ferrara made after the video nasty The Driller Killer. Written by Nicholas St. John, Ms .45 features Lund as a mute seamstress named Thana (from Thanatos). While going home from work, two men separately sexually assault her. This ordeal transforms her into a spree killer, targeting and shooting men, regardless of whether they intend her any harm. Rarely does one see such a face, both imprisoned by trauma and able to deal out forceful consequences.
This was originally pitched to Rebeller Media during its brief life. But it found a new home at Merion West and I’m glad it happened. I was fascinated by Zoe Lund, the counter-cultural collaborator of Abel Ferrara as an actress and writer, working in two of his most significant movies. Ferrara has made a movie just released this year called Zeroes and Ones, which has Ethan Hawke stuck in COVID-struck Rome. It is a curiosity with lots of rewards, but I think it’s best if you watch Bad Lieutenant first, because it gave him a heart. And we all owe Zoe Lund for it.
Goodbye Dragon Inn, Hello Snyder Cut (March 26th, 2021)
Snyder does not just prove that they are our saviors coming out of the sky, but that they are beyond human. One of Wonder Woman’s better functions is to explain the mythos surrounding the mother boxes that Steppenwolf - a middle manager to Darkseid - try to take, so that his universe can take over Earth, and in consequence, 50,000 more planets. It’s demonstrated by this romantic scene of Amazonians, Green Lanterns, and Atlantians defending their land as if it’s on the verge of resembling paintings like Dante and Virgil in Hell. Flash, who has another function beyond being the comic relief, transcends time by running through the slowest of slow motions. That’s one side of the dichotomy and this works, with the Academy ratio enhancing such intrigue. The other half of it is in the heroes, whose personal motivations are challenged that they have the altruistic status to take it seriously. Cyborg thankfully has much more depth, sometimes focused on his relationship with his scientist father. We see flashbacks of how his body is overwhelmingly robotic, with only a face to suffice. His near-perfect physicality and intellect make him capable of absorbing all possible information and seeing the end of history several times over. Bruce Wayne is on an introspection trip to revive Superman, after their fight in Batman V Superman, that’s basically a schoolyard fight. The Flash’s looking to save his father from prison, in spite of his protestations, but his running is more powerful than he’s less of a quip-man and more of a person who sees the world, much like Cyborg, with many possibilities that he can take advantage of the best moment.
There are gems of optimism to be had at the movies this year. Recently, Spider-Man: No Way Home has broken box office records and earning more than a billion dollars worldwide. Love it or hate it, this feels like a lifeboat for an industry still struggling in the pandemic. But Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which was only released on streaming, felt like a miracle. An auteur rewriting the effort that was a bomb and only represented him in name only. The faith put to this by Snyder, his fans, and even his detractors is more than encouraging. Aligning it with Goodbye Dragon Inn is odd because they have little in common. But the similarity within both films share is significant: an important, but aging institution gives way to a man reclaiming his authorial intent. However you might feel about the Snyder Cut, it’s grateful for this opportunity.
Write Like A Normie (April 5th, 2021)
This is why, if I’m asked about how to make it as a writer, my advice for any aspiring pen-pickers is to be normal. Follow the advice that other writers make to their younger peers - study beyond whatever you’re good at, be aware of the game you’re playing are the most common ones. But most importantly, conduct yourself on social media in a manner that gets people who aren’t strong enough to have an opinion of one another, following you. It’s also an antidote to the validation victories people are really addicted to.
Jotting that paragraph down, it reads less like a nugget of wisdom, and more as it came from someone with a case of Dunning-Kruger. I’m not a big author and I have sometimes acted like a massive jerk on social media. To give you an example, when Seth Rogen defended looting in San Francisco, a big Film Twitter personality with tens of thousands of followers (he doesn’t deserve to be named here) says he’s not wrong about making such a sentiment. Having encountered his person and his wretched politics, I told him that I will come by his house and steal software that he made that garbage animated short which he pinned on Twitter. So to put it mildly, it was an asshole response to another asshole. This got a few RTs and likes. The rest resulted in vile replies and being screenshotted by that person.
To that, I apologize for nothing, and everything I wrote from that piece, still applies.
The Soul of Wesley Yang (April 19th, 2021)
Yang’s essays demonstrate that Asian heterodoxy can lead them to not follow such a stigma of perfection. “Paper Tigers” aimed to debunk the myth of the model minority that yearns for higher grades through machine-like repetition and hyper-perfection. He begins by declaring his defiance towards a culture among Asians that believes in grade-grubbing into the top Ivy League universities. Where and what’s the source that enables this persisting stereotype? Putting himself in the piece, interviewing young men who’ve achieved a lot and are skilled in non-traditional areas away from STEM, business, and law, yet are unable to get into an elite university of their choice.
I wrote this review of Wesley Yang’s essay collection The Soul of Yellow Folk, back when it came out in 2018. His writing then was what made me interested in him. Nowadays, he has a fantastic Substack and is known for coining the phrase ‘successor ideology’. It is a deeper deconstruction of wokeness that only Yang can write. But I argue that The Soul of Yellow Folk, is the material you have to start with him. It confronts masculinity and Asian-American life in a manner that doesn’t fit in certain absolutes. I’m grateful that Splice Today has ran this piece. It shows that a review can still hold its relevance.
Why Do We Hate Film Bros Again? (August 15th, 2021)
Ultimately, the reason why we weaponize taste is that the arts are monolithic that it doesn’t want to involve genuine outsiders. So it feeds whatever politics these individuals have. Given that film critics and awards shows whipping themselves for not being diverse enough, it’s no surprise that established institutions like to call themselves underdogs. That’s why pieces in a well-designed print magazine exist and go viral for the wrong reason. I really hate to say this, but let people enjoy what they like. Because you’re inventing a guy and making yourself mad about him for 1500 words.
Film bros are a talisman that bothers everyone, including myself, whenever they comment about movies. A bad piece provoked me into writing about whether or not this is a strawman that the author invented. Spoiler: it’s not. But I doubt they make the majority of film fans I have interacted with. I’ve heard somewhere that masculinity is an issue that speaks more about the speaker than the issue. That’s certainly true. I have no clue what true masculinity is supposed to be, and I don’t think I’m interested in playing that game. So why’s the intense deconstruction over at Cinephilia Inc? Thankfully, when I sent my response to the author of the bad piece about Film Bros, she was very complimentary and found it interesting. So I must have done at least one thing right.
Remember Cuties? (August 28th, 2021)
Another factor is how this was tailor-made for a conflict-driven algorithm. Both sides brought in ideological signaling and were very angry at each other. Film critics claimed that it was ‘nuanced’, pointed out these were girls of color involved, whereas its loudest detractors accused anyone of being complicit in pedophilia, not hiding their disdain towards the hyper-sexualization of the West, particularly in young children. Overall, looking at Rotten Tomatoes, Cuties received the same phenomenon that The Last Jedi, Lady Ghostbusters, or any A24 movie have experienced. Intellectuals look at these as bots, trolls, conspiracy theorists, or rubes towards anyone who didn’t enjoy it. And they may be right, but that ignores the valuable critiques that attempt to avoid the icky aspects of the controversy.
The reactions towards Cuties fascinated me more than the movies. Why did such a movie inspire polarized responses among film critics and political pundits left and right? Why then did people instantly move on from the saga? Because it’s all part of a culture war only entertained by people too online. I want to revisit this, based on a conversation I had with a mutual. And so I did, having been aware of the controversy, but also the mechanics that ignited it. No one read it however, and I liked it that way.
Sopranotember: The Many Fans of The Sopranos (September 30th, 2021)
Some have been unfair to Chase’s intentions, as they are less interested in digging further into the theories and instead latch on to a moronic and exclusive power fantasy. But it’s a bit reductive to point out bad Sopranos fans because it still adds to the many interpretations that keep a broader fanbase going. More than 20 years since it was first aired, the immense popularity of the show remains the same, even after it finished. Its meme potential remains high, holds a fan convention that can only exist for sci-fi and horror lovers. Streaming the show has much to do with this, adding more fans along the way. But it’s interesting now that the show is being brought to life by those who would’ve been toddlers during its time on television.
I wanted to write this piece and I did. It was aligned with the release of The Many Saints of Newark and the continuing popularity of The Sopranos. Sopranotember was a theme I most enjoyed doing, and I wanted to highlight the misunderstood fans of the show. These tend to be very intellectual than the cable viewers who have seen it. But it has represented the average person watching the show.
Reaction Shots: Officetober Edition (October 31st 2021)
If you realize how antithetical Ryan was to Dunder Mifflin’s values, Ryan’s painful transformation into a weird hipster flirting with shallow innovation was pretty natural. Critics love to paint Ryan Howard as a millennial tragedy, a significant victim of his surroundings. But that’s a false myth these people love to prop up a narrative because Ryan’s fallibilities are quite innate. The show proved throughout that while Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch isn’t a perfect workplace - Dwight’s antics, Michael being a distraction have led to some employees leaving - it fostered a lot of friendship among colleagues and employees, that even Andy, after he became a punchline, still had goodwill with them. Ryan’s lack of business acumen earned him humiliation and enemies, particularly with Pam, who hated him for being Kelly’s terrible boyfriend, that she hooked her up with an Indian pediatrician that treats her decently.
That was surprisingly the most depressing paragraph I wrote all year. I was watching The Office while Australia was in the harshest lockdown it has ever been in, and I slowly came to realize that Ryan Howard, was a poignantly written character in a show where everyone else had a happy ending. That’s because he never had that happy ending. His career and personal life are saturated with many lows, only given a life raft by Michael Scott, a man who is one half Homer Simpson (he barely does work) and another half Mr Rogers (he’s very generous). Reading it, I sympathize with Ryan. In the workplace, he has no role models. In the workplace and his dating life, he has only one person he can rely on one person, who is emotionally destructive (OK I’ll admit. Watching the US version of The Office, it does technically count as a happy ending), I’m aware that I’m commenting on a show with fictional characters, but we rely on role models in our lives who should be understanding about their peers, particularly during their darkest moments. Ryan Howard is a reminder of that.
Lack of Taste Film Club: Beth McGrew / On The Waterfront (1956) (November 26th, 2021)
LoT: I was interested in On The Waterfront because I think what made it great was its background. It's known to be Elia Kazan's response to his critics when he identified the eight former communists at the HUAC hearings. His rivalry with Arthur Miller, who wrote The Crucible, transpired because of that and when he wanted to make the communists the villains. Would it be fair to say that Terry Malloy, having been betrayed by his unions, is Kazan's surrogate?
BM: Yes, I actually loved the film before learning about the personal history, and I don't think that's necessary to appreciate its greatness, but knowing that history certainly deepens it. And the communist party truly was the ultimate "brotherhood" in that sinister sense. For further reading there, I highly recommend whistle-blower Whittaker Chambers' memoir Witness. Chambers agonized over his choice, even attempting suicide, because he still couldn't shake the feeling that he was a betrayer. The party's gaslighting had left such a mark on him. Kazan seems to have been less agonized and more secure in his choice. The way the mob picks off men who won't be quiet is a chilling allegory for how the communists dealt with those who threatened the party. A line in Chambers' memoir comes to mind, coming from someone who's giving a matter-of-fact explanation of what made another man break and leave: "One night, he heard screams.
Rebooting Film Club, a popular feature in this newsletter, was a lot of fun. I like to thank Bethel McGrew for agreeing in doing this. She’s an incredibly intelligent person and her words on On The Waterfront are something I value.