Required Watching

Shoplifters won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018. The reviews were glowing. The words "found family" and "poverty" appeared in almost all of them. And most of them described a film that is significantly less interesting than the one Kore-eda actually made. This episode makes the case that Western criticism landed on the warmth and missed the argument — and that the argument, which is cold and specific and directed at the Japanese state, is the reason the film is essential.

Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.

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The British film industry produces diversity reports. It has standards, targets, tick-box initiatives, and annual announcements about progress. And the structural situation for Black filmmakers — in development, in commissioning, in creative control — has barely moved. This episode isn't another recitation of the numbers. It's about what the numbers can't capture: the specific texture of how exclusion works in a system that has learned to perform inclusion without delivering it. And what it looks like to decide not to wait.

Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.

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Somewhere in the British TV development process, the logline became the product. Not the story. Not the characters. The pitch. The elevator concept that sounds clean in a commissioning meeting and then struggles to hold together past episode two. This episode makes the case that British TV has built a development culture that selects for ideas that are easy to explain — and what that's costing us in the actual television being made.

Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.

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Summary

In this episode,we discuss the profound impact of Disney's 1992 film Aladdin on the animation industry and its cultural significance. He highlights how Aladdin redefined Disney's approach to animated musicals through innovative storytelling, memorable music, and the introduction of a relatable protagonist. The film's humor, particularly through Robin Williams' iconic performance as the Genie, attracted a broader audience and set a precedent for celebrity voice casting in animation. Epps also emphasizes the film's legacy in shaping future Disney films and its role in cementing Disney's place in pop culture during the 1990s.

Chapters

00:00 The Impact of Aladdin on Disney's Animation

05:38 Cultural Significance and Legacy of Aladdin

Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.

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Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.

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 You're tired of actors you actually like. That's not an accident — it's a business model. Hollywood is treating talent as intellectual property and audiences as brand targets, casting for TikTok engagement rather than craft. This episode breaks down the human IP factory, why it's going to collapse, and what Song Kang-ho and Paul Mescal's careers tell us about what's actually worth watching.

Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.

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A personal re-watch of The Lion King — this time with a kid and a writer's eye — surfaces something hiding in plain sight. "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" is Simba telling the audience exactly what he wants and the film giving it to him in the cruelest possible way. A breakdown of protagonist desire, emotional craft, and why this film hits differently as a parent.

Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.

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 A 67-minute German silent film from 1920 is the foundation of modern horror, film noir, and psychological cinema. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari invented the unreliable narrator, the expressionist frame as psychological state, and the authoritarian villain. Here's why it still matters.

Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.

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Hollywood abandoned the mid-budget everything-film. Chennai Express — Shah Rukh Khan, Rohit Shetty, every genre at once — proves Bollywood never did. A breakdown of why this specific kind of film is so hard to make well, and what it teaches about craft.

Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.

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Twisters has some of the best storm sequences in recent cinema. It also abandons Daisy Edgar-Jones, pivots to a rom-com, and loses the thread entirely in the second half. Quick reaction on what went wrong, and why a film this well-made managed to underdeliver.

Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.

▶️ Subscribe for new video essays every week: 

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