Popular reviews

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  Review by kársten ★★★★½ 12

  I think after watching this and Crumb, I’ve decided documentaries about comic artists are just gonna be my thing.

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  Review by ivy 6

  every time I see the video of richard spencer getting punched it feels like the first time

  
  (september 2020 edit: someone made a comment a while ago saying like, “oh so violence is ok if its people you don’t like?” and I deleted it bc i didn’t want to deal with that, but I would like to clarify: yes violence against nazis is fine)
  
  
  (Another edit, November 2020: the comments section of this review turned into a nightmare, which I should have expected, and it was definitely a mistake for me to not nip it in the bud. I want to bring the focus back to the movie: this is a very important doc for our time, and I think interactions like that thread are a good example of why.)

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  Review by James (Schaffrillas) ★★★★★ 7

  The most uncomfortable and uplifting viewing experience of 2020. An absolutely gut-wrenching account of the ongoing battle against hatred and the horror of seeing your creation spiral out of control and become unrecognizable. Gonna be thinking about this one for a long time.

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  Review by Kael ★★★★½ 4

  They should add the clip of Richard Spencer getting punched in the face to the criterion collection.

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★½ 8

  Nobody owns anything on the internet — not really. Just because you create something doesn’t mean that it belongs to you. And while that sort of digital socialism might read like a sad reflection on the impropriety of the information age, the truth is that ideas have been open-source since the dawn of time. Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in 1976 as a way to distinguish the growth of thought from the evolution of genes, and defined it as nothing more than a unit of cultural information spread by imitation. Architecture is a meme. Fashion is a meme. A chair is a meme. The only difference these days is the near-instantaneous speed at which that happens.

  Dawkins himself has…

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  Review by jourdain searles 2

  this poor sad hot man!!!

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  Review by Jamelle Bouie ★★★★ 2

  Maybe it’s just that I watched this on Election Day, and I’m filled with the anxiety and apprehension of everyone who has lived these last four years as a waking nightmare, but I think this might be the best film about the Trump years that we’ve gotten so far.

  The film, obviously, is not about Trump himself. It is about Pepe the Frog, a creation of the artist and cartoonist Matt Furie that took on a life and meaning of its own in the early years of social media. That meaning turned sinister when, on 4Chan and other similar forums, Pepe was ironically paired with the most evil and transgressive ideas that exist in our society: racism, anti-Semitism, Nazism, etc.…

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  Review by oleff 3

  the story of matt furie is really interesting, this is actually a really good watch, and a kind of sad story.

  i don't really know how to rate documentaries so im not gonna

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  Review by Tyson ★★★★ 3

  need a full movie about the guy who is an expert on "meme magic"

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  Review by Houston Coley ★★★★½ 4

  Unironically the best movie of the year so far...and one of the most aesthetically energetic and creative documentaries I’ve ever seen, period. It’s always so difficult to meaningfully document internet culture in a different medium, because a) it’s hard to visualize digital trends and cultures that are largely abstract/conceptual, and b) the forms of those trends are continually changing with every whim. This doc, though, manages to tackle a startling evolution of one meme overtime in a way that is incredibly easy to follow and visually encapsulating through and through. It feels like the filmmakers were genuinely interested in understanding the bizarre, ironic and sometimes sinister idiosyncrasies of the internet without writing it all off as silly and meaningless. This…

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  Review by TheCultureShocker ★★★★★ 6

  Please, please, PLEASE give me more internet history documentaries.

  One of the best films I've seen all year. Brilliantly presented, culturally relevant and surprisingly really bittersweet.

  Easy to recommend to anyone who uses the internet. Even my mom knows who Pepe is.

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  Review by Brett Schutt ★★★★ 2

  It's 2020 and I got emotional during a documentary about Pepe the Frog.