NicheCaesar

Howdy y'all! Back with a poll for you to answer and ✨an audience participation opportunity for the next Glaring Admissions episode✨. Poll question at the bottom of this post!

The last poll I ran on this channel helped Raekwon and I lock in 1977's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as our next episode, and with it, we thought it would be fun to hear about your first time watching it (or if you haven't seen it before, why you think that is). So if you'd like to participate and maybe have your answer read on the show, feel free to drop it in the comments here by Saturday May 23rd! And if you don't get to it in time, no worries! We invite you to leave your answer on the upload itself once its out, or to join in our continuing discussion of the movie in the comments of that video when it's out!

As for this week's poll, here it is!

Which of the following Spielberg movies would you run (not walk) to your closest IMAX theater to see? It doesn't have to be your favorite (or the "best" one), just the movie that would make you stop what you're doing and buy a ticket for you and your friends as soon as possible. Feel free to expand on your answer int he comments if you'd like!

6 days ago | [YT] | 3

NicheCaesar

Howdy everyone, and a huge thanks to everyone that checked out the return of my podcast, Glaring Admissions! I'm back at it with another poll for y'all, and this one is designed to help us keep the good times going on this channel in between video essays!

The question this week is: which of the following movies would you like to see Raekwon and I cover on June's podcast? We're hoping to get around to doing all of them, but need your help picking the next one!

Additionally, feel free to leave your thoughts on the movie you voted for in the comments! Who knows, we might reference it on the episode next month!

Last, if you wanna go the extra mile in supporting the podcast, please considering hyping the video! Hype is a new feature for new videos on YouTube that allows subscribers of smaller channels to boost uploads from their favorite creators. So if you enjoyed the pod and wanna help? Make a quick visit to the upload from the YouTube app on your phone (check the comments) and click the hype button on it!

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

NicheCaesar

Howdy everyone, and thanks to everyone that participated in this weeks poll! So many of you took a gander at it that I just had to throw another one your way! This one ties into a video from two years ago and is relevant due to the film in question coming back to theaters in the US next week!

Next week marks the 40th anniversary of 1986's Top Gun! Ya know, the Tom Cruise movie starring... what's his name... uh... Val Kilmer! Him! May he rest in peace.

Anyway, to celebrate that, I thought I'd ask the fun question of whether or not any of you will be rewatching the first movie or its sequel Top Gun: Maverick! Feel free to explain which one you prefer in the comments, as well as who your favorite character is. Alternatively, feel free to tell me on my 2024 double-feature podcast about both films! You can watch that via the link below, or by checking out Glaring Admissions on your favorite podcast player. It actually shares a feed with my other podcast, Media Obscura, which has almost 100 episodes for you to enjoy too!

Top Gun/Top Gun: Maverick review: https://youtu.be/vpdDIO26Tbg

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 3

NicheCaesar

Howdy everyone!

Just ✨popping in✨ for your weekly poll and update! This week question is, "how often do you watch classic movies?"

As an added bonus, what do you consider to be "a classic?" Is it a good movie that is at least 10 years old? Older? Does age have to factor into it for you? Let me know in the comments!

With that out of the way, a few updates!

I'll be back this weekend with a brand new episode of my podcast Glaring Admissions! This is something that's been in the works for a minute and Raekwon and I are both SO EXCITED to be back at it! This episode is about 1982's First Blood, which Raekwon saw for the first time for this episode, and that'll be out this Sunday!

On top of that, don't forget to check out my latest video essay if you haven't already. It's all about 2013's Her and uses it as a jumping off point to discuss the dangers and shortcomings of contemporary artificial intelligence. It is, as biased as I am, probably my best video to date! You can watch that right here: https://youtu.be/IrRM-uIIK04

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 5

NicheCaesar

Howdy everyone! Have any of you caught Michael in theaters?

I just saw it yesterday, and put out a short where I try to pre-review the movie (in a pseudo continuation of my biopic video from last year) and thought Id see what everyone thought of it with a poll! Feel free to share your extended thoughts on the picture in the comments, and to skim the re-post of my Letterboxd review from after I saw it below. Oh, and to check out my short if you haven't already (and my latest feature video essay, which was about Her)

Michael (2026) - 1.5/5 stars.

Not as bad as I expected to be, but also simultaneously everything wrong with musical biopics at once.

It’s almost hard to criticize this movie because it is so aggressively bland and high on its own corporate approved supply. To the point where it literally has the gal to feature a scene where someone suggests naming Thriller “Michael Jackson,” to which the eponymous pop star says no because it’s too self involved. Uh, hello??? What do you call this movie then?

The music sequences are the only thing worth watching and punctuate some truly made-for-daytime TV storytelling. But even that rings hollow since, as you’d think with a figure like Jackson, you could literally see the same exact steps done better by the man himself.

And really, that’s my takeaway from this. It shouldn’t have been a movie. It should have been an extended tone poem like Moonage Daydream was for Bowie. Why even bother telling a story when you won’t actually tell a story? Just compile the videos and b-roll, then throw in some news reports and interview audio.

1 month ago | [YT] | 3

NicheCaesar

"Wait, AI Girlfriends are a scam?"

"Always have been."

Check out my exhaustive comparison of 2013's Her, a film about AI companionship and love in the age of artificial intelligence, against our current, soft-dystopian, AI-driven reality on my channel! And feel free to drop some AI-themed movie recommendations in the comments to while you're at it ✌️

https://youtu.be/IrRM-uIIK04

1 month ago | [YT] | 5

NicheCaesar

Hey everyone! I'm back with a brand new video and a write-in question of the day! It's all about 2013's Her, and the ways that it explores the very topical and not at all (not even remotely) oversatured subject of AI companions/girlfriends! You can check that out on my channel if you're so inclined. I worked really hard on it and I hope you all enjoy it!

And now onto the question of the day! This one comes in preparation of a podcast I'll be recording later this week for release in a few weeks (hopefully), and revolves around Sylvester Stallone's iconic Rambo series.

The question is: Have you seen any of the Rambo movies before and, if not, what do you think the general tone/vibe of the movies are?

I can't wait to check out your answers and to maybe read a few of them on the podcast later this week!

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

NicheCaesar

Hey everyone! Announcement time!

I'll be back with a brand new video this Sunday! It's all about Her and the AI utopia it promised us, along with a comparison to the current state of the world regarding artificial intelligence.

It's a long one, and I'm really proud of how it came out. So be sure to check it out and show it some love! It's just going through the usual copyright hoops that my uploads tend to go through, but it should be out this weekend!

1 month ago | [YT] | 10

NicheCaesar

Howdy everyone! Who here has seen Project Hail Mary and, if so, what did you think of it?

I liked it a lot! Yeah, it had it's issues (that last act was just a bit too rushed for me personally, and I was not a fan of that five minute strobe light sequence that led right into it), but overall? I dug it! In fact, I just got a copy of the book to read because of how much I liked it!


Here's a mirror of my Letterboxd review of it/some of the thoughts I had after exiting the theater:

Project Hail Mary: 4/5.

Banger. Banger that loses half a star for a strobe sequence.

A lot of folks are gonna compare this to Interstellar and, frankly, I get it. But one thing that this movie does differently from that, Contact, and 2001: A Space Odyssey is bring a sense of humor and humility to things that works in favor of the theme.

I wanna keep it vague to avoid spoilers, but it was giving Socrates’ allegory of the cave. We’re these weird gangly human things that think we understand the laws of nature, the universe, and even our own limits as individuals. But when forced to step out of the cave, we’re quick to learn just how out of depth we are in some ways, and how much more capable we are than we may have imagined.

I thought the use of humor really nailed this idea by showing humanity’s only hope, presumably the only person on the planet that is even remotely close to capable of doing this, repeatedly eating shit and falling on his face. And it makes his growth as a person (which I do wish the film gave us more time for fwiw) hit so hard when it finally happens.

Anyway, do you think Lord and Miller had an awkward chat with Amy Pascal about that Han Solo movie they got booted from? You think they talked about it over a beer?

1 month ago | [YT] | 2

NicheCaesar

Happy Opening Day to all the MLB fans out there! I'm still hard at work on my next video (look out for it in the next month or so!) but, in the meantime, why not kick back and check out a favorite that you may have missed?


If you need a recommendation, I've got just the video for you. It's my video essay on Field of Dreams and why baseball is the secret to a better America (yes, really). I put it out last July and personally consider it to be one of my best videos to date! Certainly in my top five for favorites!

2 months ago | [YT] | 3