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Topic : Re: How do I indicate a superfan review vs a social-criticism essay? I occasionally write short essays about classic films, and have been thinking about converting them into video essay for YouTube. - selfpublishingguru.com

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A simple suggestion: just adding the word "Critique" to the title may communicate a lot of what you want. Also, probably in the first minute, perhaps make it clear that:

you are A Fan (and you're not just ripping apart, say, Trek, because you hate all scifi),
but you think the show/episode/series/character is expressing more than just the surface level characteristics,
you want to expose and explore them (possibly through XYZ lens)
critique comes from respect -- of both the original material, and other ways of encountering the world.

(Lani Diane Rich ("How Story Works" podcast, and "Still Pretty" Buffy podcast) calls it the terroir -- just like weather affects the grapes which affects the wine, society affects the creators of an artwork which affects the final product. Joss Whedon may have thought he was being actively feminist, but a lot of his less "woke" thoughts come through Xander. And even Oz, who is normally our 100% ideal guy, doesn't call Xander out, because the 1990s didn't have that call-out/call-in culture to ask people to reconsider their assumptions. And just like some grapes are going to be more sweet or dry anyway, some creators are more or less racist/sexist/imperialist than their culture. Also, her cohost may mention a throughline signaled by a color choice in an outfit, a room, a prop, also -- classic film criticism focusing on the visual storytelling.))

So a quick way of doing it may be to say something like:

This is a critique of The Fifth Element: a fun movie, perhaps [director]'s best work overall, yet that perhaps respects Milla Jovovitch's character a lot less than it appears to at first glance.

That makes it clear that you like it, you know some of the director's other work, but I immediately know this will be a feminist critique. (For me, that's a plus. For others, they'd turn it off.)


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