5 Film and Pop Culture YouTubers to Watch Right Now

A Visual Medium for Pop Culture Analysis

Everyone knows about mega-popular YouTube channels such as ScreenJunkies, CinemaSins, and ScreenRant - together, these channels and many like them publish breezy video entertainment like 20 Avengers: Endgame Theories That Could Be True, Everything Wrong With Crazy Rich Asians, and 7 Most Underrated Cult Movies. However, YouTube is also fantastic avenue to deliver pop culture analysis and video commentary beyond the fluff of clever snark and video listicles, so today we’re going to take a look at five of my favorite film and pop culture YouTubers that perhaps offer a more insightful look at movies and the cinematic world. From horror nuts to nerdy writers, here are 5 Film and Pop Culture YouTubers to Watch Right Now.

Dead Meat

He’s James A. Janisse and she’s Chelsea Rebecca, they’re boyfriend and girlfriend and they like to get scared together. Horror channel Dead Meat has only been around a few years, but the channel has racked up over 2 million subscribers since 2017. Primarily known for James’ thoroughly entertaining Kill Count videos in which he recaps all the deaths from various horror films, Dead Meat is a highly binge-able channel that’ll satisfy any horror fan’s bloodlust. The hidden gem of the channel, however, lies in its podcast, The Dead Meat Podcast. Diligently researched by Chelsea, the podcast is hilarious as it is informative, covering a wide array of subjects. Whether they’re ragging on House of Wax or diving deep into the history of the “Indian burial ground” trope, James and Chelsea’s enthusiasm for the horror genre is infectious and a joy to listen to.

Every Frame a Painting

One of the more well-known film YouTubers on this list, Every Frame a Painting was a series of videos essays by Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos. Even though the channel is now defunct, the duo having stopped making new content due to new jobs, Every Frame a Painting remains one of the best YouTube channels out there about filmmaking. Whether it’s delving into movie soundtracks or camera movement in David Fincher films, Zhou and Ramos always had thorough and enlightening insights into the world of cinema. A final farewell and postmortem was written by Zhou and posted on Medium, in which he gives a detailed account of what went into the videos that he and Ramos created and the surprisingly boots-on-the-ground approach they took to craft some of the most revered film analysis on the internet.

Lessons from the Screenplay

Michael Tucker is a filmmaker and the creator of the YouTube channel Lessons from the Screenplay. Videos dedicated to the craft of screenwriting, LFTS is an engrossing look at the foundations of filmmaking and storytelling. Whether it’s shining a light on a major blockbuster such as Black Panther or a quieter gem like Nightcrawler, Tucker takes the same care and analytical approach to each video, really digging deep into how effective, or in some cases ineffective, the writing is for each of the films he covers. As a critic/writer myself, Lessons from the Screenplay has been an incredibly fun and educational tool. Also, be sure to check out his new podcast, in which he discusses storytelling in a more casual setting.

The Nerdwriter

Evan Puschak is a versatile writer/YouTuber that goes by the handle The Nerdwriter. A channel about anything and everything, The Nerdwriter covers a deep trove of topics that range from film and pop culture all the way to politics and fine art. Puschak’s Channel isn’t just fluff entertainment, but rather explorations of themes and history with a surprising amount of depth and research applied to each video. Who else would take John G. Cawelti’s treatise on the generic transformation of genre and apply it to a film like Logan? The Nerdwriter is living proof that a jack of all trades doesn’t have to a master of none.

Sleepy Skunk

Like Gen Ip and Kees van Dijkhuizen before him, Louis Plamondon, aka Sleepy Skunk, is the reigning champ of mashup trailers. Only publishing a single video each year, his mashup edits are viral sensations that recap each year’s achievements in cinema. In fact, Sleepy Skunk is the inspiration behind my own video series, A Year in Film. Often including over 200 films in his mashups, his editing skills are unrivaled and always create a rollercoaster of emotions, with each video acting as a kaleidoscope of moods and tones. To get a better understanding of his thought process and workflow, read his blog post dissecting his 2017 mashup.