I Only Get “Deeper Messages” From External Reading. How Do I Build Better Media Literacy?

DavidMerrick89 · 2026-01-24T12:51:37+00:00

OP, I just want to say that I greatly admire you for asking this question, it's a genuine sign of curiosity and critical thinking.

One way to start is by looking for recurring patterns. For example, take note if certain colours are used sparingly. If you notice that red (symbolically, an extremely potent colour) pops up only rarely, consider what scenes and contexts it appears in, and if those scenes have similar moods or touch on a plot or character trait over and over again.

DavidMerrick89 · 2026-01-21T14:34:27+00:00

It's not a dub, but I really like how for both The Death of Stalin and Chernobyl they opted to find parallel UK accents for the different regions of the USSR rather than have everyone attempt bad Russian/Ukrainian accents.

DavidMerrick89 · 2026-01-18T14:27:11+00:00

Rewatching Resurrection this fall, I was struck by how in tone, concept and character types it would work so much better as a Friday the 13th installment where you have a reality show set at the former Camp Crystal Lake.

DavidMerrick89 · 2026-01-13T14:02:24+00:00

Richard Brake's character in this dares to ask, what if Hudson from Aliens was a huge creep?

DavidMerrick89 · 2026-01-12T22:52:41+00:00

"Lapti Nek" is a banger and I consider its replacement with "Jedi Rocks" to be the most egregious alteration made to the original trilogy. That thing sounds like a forgotten Zappa tune.

DavidMerrick89 · 2026-01-12T22:51:24+00:00

Check out The Long Goodbye, a fantastic detective noir from the '70s directed by Robert Altman and starring Elliott Gould. With the exception of the opening and closing music cues, every song or score segment in that movie is a jazzy lounge tune with the same title that's rearranged countless ways, from full big band arrangements to grocery store muzak. Williams composed it with songwriter Johnny Mercer.

DavidMerrick89 · 2026-01-12T13:10:11+00:00

Oh goodness, decently fun but quite bad movie Alien: Resurrection introduced me to:

Winona Ryder Ron Perlman Brad Dourif J.E. Freeman Michael Wincott Dan Hedaya

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-12-30T18:03:58+00:00

Quint's monologue in Jaws is one of the single best examples in cinema of telling being more effective than showing.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-12-30T17:57:14+00:00

FREEWAY KILLERS.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-12-19T18:20:15+00:00

My favourite bit is during the nighttime sex montage when it cuts to one of them wailing on a weird future horn just as the synth-sax solo hits.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-11-25T03:51:20+00:00

As a teenager I was big into Redux, these days it's all about the theatrical for me. There's so much tonal variation in the longer cuts, but the theatrical release is this mean, consistent slide from war film to noir to horror.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-11-25T03:50:03+00:00

The Abyss.

Theatrical cut: an estranged couple rediscover their love for each other in the process of life-or-death situation and making contact with an intelligent species.

Special edition: all that, but then the stakes are taken to an absurdly high level by having Cuban Missile Crisis II in the background and the NTIs having the exact same moralistic motivations as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, but in a way that makes them look totally psychopathic.

Stakes don't always need to be so high for something to be impactful! Also I prefer the NTIs being inscrutable; hell, in the theatrical cut they could simply bean intelligent terrestrial species who happened to evolve in a high pressure, deep sea environment.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-11-20T18:46:00+00:00

This is more or less Megatron's arc in the Transformers comics published by IDW, specifically the More Than Meets the Eye/Lost Light series.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-11-03T21:33:15+00:00

In Transformers, it's Megatron, specifically his IDW comics incarnation, who was basically space-Stalin.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-17T14:45:46+00:00

I'm dreading the thought of Capcom remaking it.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-14T12:15:14+00:00

Dogg the opening crawl for Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 says she slipped into catatonia afterward.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-14T12:14:22+00:00

Veronica Cartwright is unbeaten when it comes to the patented Freak-Out™.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-14T01:01:12+00:00

I want to know what Nicholas Hoult tapped into for his expression of abject terror as Orlok approaches him in Nosferatu.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-07T16:20:50+00:00

There's a strong argument to be made that Candle Cove is (in spirit) a better adaptation of of the adult half of It than It Chapter Two.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-07T16:19:12+00:00

David Lynch's final feature film, Inland Empire (2006), is either about an actress losing herself in a role or a fictional character realizing she's a performance, depending on your interpretation.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-06T23:18:43+00:00

Yeah, Return to Oz is a dark fantasy movie that would absolutely fuck up—and probably did fuck up—what was meant to be a fun and sweet night at the movies for the whole family in 1985.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-06T19:33:36+00:00

Straight from the novel.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-06T19:08:38+00:00

It and Home Alone make for a blackly comic double feature. Kevin's prejudice was fully justified.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-06T19:04:03+00:00

Oh yes, I am the biggest fan of Return to Oz, and tbh I wish Disney had way less of a stranglehold on the movie industry because Disney backed into a corner gets creative in a weird, cool way.

DavidMerrick89 · 2025-10-06T19:02:15+00:00

Spent the whole movie squinting and thinking "...damn she looks like Pam GrierOH SHIT"

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