The Morning Watch: What Hollywood Gets Wrong About Smart People, ‘American Beauty 2’ & More
(The Morning Watchis a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.)
In this edition, a video essay explores what Hollywood gets wrong about their portrayal of smart people, and it’s not as pretentious as it sounds. Plus, watch a short film sequel to American Beautythat is not what you would expect at all, and see how much coolerGame of Thronescan be edited in the style of the trailers forBaby Driver.
First up, in this video essay fromCracked, the masterminds at Reckless Disagreement run through five ways that Hollywood inaccurately portrays smart people. Of course, these aren’t necessarily inaccurate because Hollywood doesn’t know any better, but because these are easy shortcuts that allow the film to show the audience very quickly that a character is extremely smart. It’s just one of those Hollywood things that we accept as the reality in movies.
Next up, filmmakerZak Stoltzhas created theAmerican Beautysequel (viaFilm School Rejects) that you never knew you wanted, but will now wonder how you lived so long without out. This is a hilarious short that doesn’t just lazily make a parody of the floating grocery bag from the original American Beauty, but does something completely unique with it. Watch and enjoy.
Finally, the seventh season ofGame of Throneswasn’t quite as good as some hoped, but it was still fantastic television. But now YouTube userMr. Krepshushas taken this season and made it truly cool by editing a trailer in the style of Baby Driver, complete with all the right soundtrack cues and everything. It makes me wish that we could see full-length cuts of shows like this with modern music, just for fun.
