best video essay youtube channels

Top Video Essay Channels on YouTube in 2024

Video essays have gained immense popularity in recent years by discussing a variety of topics, including in film, literature, and culture. These creators take their time to research and present well-thought-out analyses.

Filters  

• Art & Design
• Books & Literature
• Business & Economics
• Car & Mechanics
• Cinema & TV
• Computer & Tech
• Design & Craft
• Fashion & Lifestyle
• Food & Cooking
• Health & Wellbeing
• History & Geography
• Humor & Comedy
• Multi-topic
• Politics & Law

Select a main topic...

• 61 and more min
• Entertaining
• Instructional
• Kid-friendly
• Trustworthy
• Advertisement
• Compilation & Highlights
• Documentary & Essay
• Entertainment
• Interview & Debate
• Review & Commentary
• Tutorial & Experiment
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Dominican Republic (the)
• French Guiana
• Great Britain
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Philippines (the)
• Russian Federation (the)
• Saudi Arabia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Switzerland
• Trinidad and Tobago

• Educational
• Linguistics

• Environment

• Michael Stevens
• Mathematics
• Exploration

Summoning Salt

• World record
• Speedrunning
• Competition

Defunctland

• Retrospective

• Top 10 Facts

Sam O Nella Academy

• Disappearance

• Engineering
• Electricity

• Pop Culture

OverSimplified

RealLifeLore

• Geopolitics
• Infographics

• Video games
• Retro gaming
• Documentary

Philosophy Tube

Jay Foreman

Every Frame a Painting

• Taylor Ramos

Gaming Historian

• Norman Caruso

Super Eyepatch Wolf

Folding Ideas

• Deconstructing

Fall of Civilizations

• Civilizations

Not Just Bikes

• Urban planning

Historia Civilis

Best reviewed video essay channels according to viewers ✍️.

Known for their thoughtful commentary and polished production, these video essayists have gained a loyal following. Covering everything from pop culture to history, their work blends research with personal insight. If you appreciate a well-constructed argument and nuanced discussion, these channels are a must-see.

Can't find your favorite channel?

The Best Video Essay Channels, Ranked

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

‘Hot Frosty’ Ending, Explained: How Come Jack Doesn’t Melt?

This mysterious concept in 'silo' is nowhere to be found in the books, ‘dawson’s creek’ had a perfect spin-off, but no one watched it.

If you’re a die-hard movie fan, you don’t have to be a hardcore collector to know that you can find a lot of your special features free on YouTube – from movie trailers and top-ten lists to reaction videos and cast-and-crew interviews. But the crème de la crème for any budding cinephile is YouTube ’s subculture of video essayists.

The best of these content creators, particularly those focused on dissecting and analyzing film and television, give viewers a lot of food for thought, making them consider things they hadn’t before, even when it comes to movies they have watched 100 times. There is an embarrassment of content out there, but this article seeks to separate the wheat from the chaff – we are recommending only the channels with the best, most refreshing, and most original analysis. If you're a film lover or budding buff, you owe it to yourself to check out these great video essay channels.

What’s So Great About That?

UK creator and pop-culture academic Grace Lee makes video essays examining themes and form in both horror and animated media; she has an affinity for the deeper, more unexpected thoughts evoked by her favorite genres. Whereas many content creators are quippy or sarcastic, Lee’s voiceover narrative approach is one of measured thoughtfulness.

Related: Explained: How Twin Peaks Changed Television

While her output as What's So Great About That? is not as large as some other creators on this list, that is far from a bad thing as Lee seems to focus more on quality than quantity. Each video discusses fairly narrow topics within a given property – examples include the “treachery of language” in the work of David Lynch or the concept of the “unnatural” in the original Evil Dead film.

You might mistake Canadian vlogger Sarah Z (pronounced “Zed”) for your best friend. She sits on the couch with a cup of coffee and speaks directly to you, a monologuist spending hours on end about all of her opinions, from toxic fandoms to true-crime documentaries.

But these monologues are not the boring, meaningless yarns that you might expect. Rather, Sarah’s channel is an ever-deepening trove of incisive and engaging media analysis encased in a shell of light and fluffy entertainment. The whole thing is driven by Sarah’s palpable excitement and enthusiasm for the topics she is covering, and a penchant for long, detailed videos that are extensively researched. Some videos will even stretch far beyond the one-hour mark, including a 90-minute video on geek culture and a full two hours on Dear Evan Hansen .

Another Canadian creator steps up to the plate in the form of Sage Hyden , a fantasy novelist whose essay channel Just Write seems particularly preoccupied with film’s place in the cultural conversation. In particular, Hyden is fascinated with the messages that movies send us, what they are trying to communicate (consciously or subconsciously), and how they shape our perceptions and prejudices.

For topics that can sometimes land on the serious side, Hyden’s tone and writing style are conversational and often funny, and his insights are fairly eye-opening. Topics include Willy Wonka and its relationship to misconceptions about poverty, the importance of the original Mulan film, and the cinematic lineage of the modern murder mystery Knives Out .

If you consider yourself an outsider or find yourself disagreeing with most of your friends on their favorite movies, you might find a mutual kinship with creator Yhara Zayd , whose videos examine film and television through lenses both personal and political. Zayd’s is not the kind of detached analysis you can expect from many YouTubers; rather, though she is very well-researched, she is also full of unapologetic hot takes, and her videos are brimming with the caustic personality of a modern-day Pauline Kael.

Related: These Are the Best Marilyn Monroe Movies

In some ways, Zayd has crafted the perfect synergy between the highly-opinionated critic and the relentless deconstructionist, enthusiastically dissecting and questioning the images and media we regularly consume. She also has a distinct knack for self-awareness, gazing inward as she gazes outward, a quality which separates her content from that of many of her peers. Zayd covers such divergent subjects as the commodification of the great Marilyn Monroe, reflections of housing discrimination in 1980s horror films , and the under-appreciated legacy of Not Another Teen Movie .

For something a little less personal but no less fascinating, it is worth checking out the prolific Susannah McCullough and her channel The Take . McCullough and her extraordinary team make what are probably the best “Explained” videos you’ll be able to find, along with character breakdowns, deconstructions of tropes, and the lessons movies can teach us. They’ve got videos that deconstruct and explain Donnie Darko , The Sopranos , Get Out , and many, many more. They’ve also nerded out with full series on different franchises, including detailed character analyses in shows such as Friends and Breaking Bad .

The writing is smart but accessible, and the arguments are utterly convincing. The videos themselves are breezily edited and full of poppy visuals. The channel also covers many, many genres and types of movies, so you are sure to find something on a movie or TV show you love. The Take offers incisive film analysis in a context that is fun and completely unpretentious.

Maggie Mae Fish

Decadent, performance-driven vlogs like ContraPoints and Philosophy Tube are all the rage these days, and film buffs finally have their own version in the form of Maggie Mae Fish . Ms. Fish is a singular, idiosyncratic voice who pivots wildly from dedicated film scholar to sketch-comedy caricature and back again. She typically sits center-frame in a variety of ornately designed sets, dressed in colorful outfits, while she patiently spoons out detailed, thoughtful analysis over the course of long videos.

For any video-essay enthusiast, Fish is the real deal – wickedly entertaining, subversive, accessible, and always thought-provoking. Her recent two-video series on Twin Peaks is catnip for any fans seeking a new perspective on the show – and an excellent dressing-down of Twin Perfect’s infamous 4.5-hour breakdown. She also deconstructs auteur theory through the works of David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick, and spends two hours discussing Loki ’s debt to Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker .

Lindsay Ellis

When it comes to distinct personalities, no vlogger quite matches the likes of the controversial but brilliant Lindsay Ellis . She is a brand unto herself, with an over-the-top, self-deprecating style that can only be described as a hopped-up, sleep-deprived, but no less informed, Adam Curtis. She is often seen drinking wine in her videos, breaking down popular media like Disney movies, musical adaptations, and The Lord of the Rings franchise.

Ellis is one of the originals of the medium, and her work is so singular that her influence has likely extended to all the other creators who occupy this list. Some of her most brilliant work includes “The Whole Plate,” a nine-video series that completely deconstructs the first Transformers film through the lenses of gender, sexuality, and film studies. Her most iconic work includes 40-minute videos ranting about the film adaptations of Rent and The Phantom of the Opera . Due to recent Internet events, she has stopped making videos on YouTube, but her existing videos are still there for all to see and are absolutely worth checking out.

Every Frame A Painting

Sometimes the most obvious answer is still the best one. Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou’s gorgeous video series Every Frame A Painting is still the benchmark against which all other video essayists are judged. You’ve probably seen their video on Edgar Wright and visual comedy, or the one on silence in the films of Martin Scorsese. The channel has been defunct for several years now, but the content still feels as fresh and original as it did when it was first published.

The topics covered are narrow and unexpected, but they all work extraordinarily well. The writing is tight and evocative, and Zhou’s voice is unforgettably soothing and inviting. The editing is also crisp and beautiful. Ramos and Zhou have become so renowned for their work that they were even invited to contribute to David Fincher’s Voir , a video essay project for Netflix.

28 of the Best YouTube Channels for Storytellers

Published by justin on october 22, 2017 october 22, 2017.

UPDATE: This was originally a 23 channel list, but since then I’ve added 5 more. You may want to bookmark this page, since I’ll probably keep adding more channels over time.

I have a new binge-watching habit. But it’s not on Netflix.

No, it’s weirder than that: it’s YouTube video essays.

If you haven’t spent much time in this sector of YouTube, here’s how a video essay usually works: an expert (or a superfan) uses a mix of video, animation, infographics, academia, and humor to explain a complicated subject in simple terms. Think of them as mini-lectures, delivered in a bite-sized format you’ll actually want to finish.

While there’s usually just one voice or presenter onscreen, these channels are often made possible by a small team of collaborative researchers, editors, designers, and animators. (And, if they get popular enough, sponsors.) So, in essence, each video essay is a (usually) brief episode in a loosely-related series on a topic, made either by one artist or by a branded team with a shared vision.

I’ll show you some of what I think are the best YouTube channels for storytellers in a moment. But first, let’s tackle one basic question:

What Does It Take to Make a Great Video Essay?

YouTube is full of video essays on every subject imaginable, from history and science to music, writing, video games, film, and more. From the channels I’ve explored over the past year, I’ve identified five traits that help the best video essays reliably rise above the rest:

• A clear and well-supported premise in each essay
• A consistent voice and tone across all videos
• Simple yet effective visuals
• EITHER a compelling narrative OR a satisfying setup and payoff
• I can easily explain what I just learned to someone else

Each of the following channels excels in at least one of these areas, and often in all five. They’re also fantastic examples of how to structure a headline hook that attracts attention and then holds it throughout the length of the video.

The result?

Not only will these channels teach you something you didn’t know, but they’ll do it in a way you’re more likely to connect with, enjoy, remember, and want to share with others.

With that, let’s take a(n alphabetical) look at…

Austin McConnell

Channel Focus: Half weird pop culture, half media analysis.

Why Do I Dig It? Laid-back delivery, low-key comedy timing, and detailed dives into media I wouldn’t have explored otherwise — like the underground world of China’s bootleg Star Wars comics.

Beyond the Frame

Channel Focus: Explaining the pros and cons of TV and film language.

Why Do I Dig It? Every video feels like a short film school lesson.

Channel Focus: Politics, history, and weird quirks of math and science.

Why Do I Dig It? He’s a poster boy for how to make data interesting.

Coffee Break

Channel Focus: Deconstructing modern life and digital trends.

Why Do I Dig It? Great quick examples of how to frame and support an argument.

Every Frame a Painting

Channel Focus: Deep dives into the styles and trends that shaped the history of film.

Why Do I Dig It? Every video is like a slightly longer film school lesson.

Extra Credits

Channel Focus: It varies. I found them through their fantastic series of historical explainer videos, but they also explore video games, psychology, and more.

Why Do I Dig It? Two reasons. First, they make history lively by structuring their videos as narratives about their subjects’ needs and desires. Second, their innovative use of universally cute icons to represent various historical figures has an unusual effect: it humanizes everyone equally, which allows the audience to invest themselves emotionally in all sides.

Films & Stuff

Channel Focus: Examines what makes a scene, moment, or entire film work… or why it goes wrong.

Why Do I Dig It? Uses popular films to examine the power of specific storytelling tropes.

Half as Interesting

Channel Focus: Weird and obscure trivia about history and geography.

Why Do I Dig It? Quirky content, briefly well-explained.

Hello Future Me

Channel Focus: Analyzes writing and storytelling from a structural perspective: what’s the best way to convey information, and how do cultural tropes affect the way we process stories?

Why Do I Dig It? VERY instructive without being dismissive; uses a wide array of examples from popular culture to show recurring examples of writing techniques and variations. Less of a “one size fits all” guide, and more of a “menu of solutions” approach. (Plus, a solid sense of humor.)

Ideas at Play

Channel Focus: Close looks at the intangible aspects of storytelling, like editing, soundtracks, laugh tracks, and other aesthetic choices that change how we process the onscreen information.

Why Do I Dig It? Clear explanations plus high-quality production values.

In Deep Geek

Channel Focus: Deep deconstructions of Game of Thrones , Westworld , and more.

Why Do I Dig It? Anyone who tells a story will benefit from considering its construction with the same degree of detail that Robert, the host of this channel, applies to the minutiae of what makes stories like Game of Thrones tick. His narrative analysis works more like a scientific inquiry: he’ll ask a question or pose a theory, and then evaluate it from all sides before coming to a conclusion. (Bonus: Robert’s conversational tone and pace are incredibly soothing to listen to.)

Jenna Moreci

Channel Focus: “Tough love” writing advice from a self-published author.

Why Do I Dig It? Jenna’s blunt, sarcastic style is filled with useful advice that aspiring writers need to hear. (Bonus: Check out my quick Q&A with Jenna here .)

Jenny Nicholson

Channel Focus: Deconstructing the downside of your favorite pop culture tropes.

Why Do I Dig It? Jenny’s no-budget aesthetic and disarming delivery is deceptively sharp and consistently dry, and her analysis of why most films are broken is deadly accurate.

Channel Focus: Weird facts and sports trivia, brought to life by (purposely) bad infographics.

Why Do I Dig It? Every video Jon creates is a work of 8-bit art with a nugget about the truth of the human condition buried inside.

Channel Focus: Analyzing films and TV to find out why some stories work and some don’t.

Why Do I Dig It? Channel creator Sage Hyden digs deep into story structure to explain how the format of our media affects the kinds of stories we tell. For example, this video will change the way you think about animated movies.

kaptainkristian

Channel Focus: High-level overviews of huge pop culture topics.

Why Do I Dig It? These are perfect “introduction to ___” videos for anyone who’s always wondered “what’s the deal with ___?”

Karsten Runquist

Channel Focus: Analyzing story structure in film and TV.

Why Do I Dig It? Runquist exposes narrative tricks hiding in plain sight — like during the first few minutes of Stranger Things — in such a way that you suddenly feel like you knew them all along.

Channel Focus: Explaining how life works, both literally and figuratively.

Why Do I Dig It? Possibly the best union of animation and narration on YouTube. Plus, they make super-complex subjects infinitely easier to understand.

Lessons from the Screenplay

Channel Focus: Comparing finished films to their screenplays to find the building blocks that help good scripts become great movies.

Why Do I Dig It? Each video explains a core storytelling technique through visual examples that make what could be dry theories into easily-remembered demonstrations.

Lindsay Ellis

Channel Focus: Cynically exploding the problematic tropes of pop culture.

Why Do I Dig It?   Every video is like a dyspeptic film school lesson.

Channel Focus: Explaining how video games work via examples of good and bad game design.

Why Do I Dig It? When you’re playing a video game, you rarely have time to stop and appreciate how it was built. Every video Mark adds to his Game Maker’s Toolkit series helps you appreciate the multiple systems and creators at work behind the interactive experiences we often take for granted.

Movies with Mikey (on Chainsawsuit)

Channel Focus: Irony-drenched movie analysis that’s almost as long as the movies themselves.

Why Do I Dig It? Deep, smart, wry deconstructions that pull no punches.

Patrick (H) Willems

Channel Focus: Functional film analysis, sometimes on a shot-by-shot basis.

Why Do I Dig It? Willems is an aspiring director who treats every essay like it’s his own short film.

The School of Life

Channel Focus: Love, relationships, and identity.

Why Do I Dig It? Blunt advice, delivered by often beautiful and always emotionally evocative animation.

Terrible Writing Advice

Channel Focus: Storytelling flaws, cheap stereotypes, overused ideas, and bad writing habits.

Why Do I Dig It? The writing “advice” is good, but the details embedded in the animations are even better.

Channel Focus: The oddities of science, math, and statistics.

Why Do I Dig It? Simple explanations of scientific laws and theories, often with easy-to-remember examples.

Channel Focus: Vox Media’s subset of videos that focus on the art, science, and business of pop music.

Why Do I Dig It? Part history lesson and part musicology course, host Estelle Caswell explains how musical trends work using anecdotes and visual aids.

Channel Focus: Pop culture meets philosophy.

Why Do I Dig It? In addition to being one of the highest-quality video essay channels on YouTube, every Wisecrack video analyzes a piece of pop culture from multiple angles — artistically, sociologically, philosophically, and more.

Two Quick Caveats About This List

I study a lot of film and media, so my list of the best YouTube channels is obviously biased in that direction. Also, I’m frustrated to note that my list is mostly made up of white guys, which highlights of the apparent lack of diversity in the video essay field. I’d like to expand this list in both directions, and you can help me out.

So, if you (or someone you dig) are doing great video essays on other topics or from other perspectives, I’d love to see what you’re working on. Tweet me or leave a comment below so others can see what you’re up to!

Want More Posts About Storytelling?

Subscribe to my newsletter and catch every new post! (I send an email weekly-ish.)

You may also enjoy…

What Makes Game of Thrones So Addictive?

How Jordan Peele Changed Get Out from Script to Screen

NunyaBiznuss · February 17, 2022 at 3:48 pm

The list is incomplete without Mrballen

malarkodi · June 14, 2019 at 12:20 pm

Hi, I am eager to become a storyteller in both in Tamil and English languages. Kindly guide me to start working on my passion.

Thank you, Best Regards,

Aishwarya Tiwari · November 27, 2018 at 5:14 am

I think that was a pretty researched and exhaustive list. Just a minor suggestion, you should have mentioned the facf that the list will comprise video essayists that discuss films and related spheres extensively, it’d have been better :) Regardless, thanks for creating this list. Means a lot. Can’t wait to devour the various channels that are now new additions to my subscriptions. Love from India!

15 Best Ideas To Create Viral Videos On YouTube · May 7, 2019 at 8:04 am

[…] And in this way, you can attract the attention of so many people. In a word, become the most interesting storyteller on YouTube. […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Related Posts

Storytelling, 7 tips tv writers can learn from “house of the dragon” episode 1.

The pilot episode of House of the Dragon is a great example of how to make a complex story with many characters easy to understand.

Three-Act Structure in Movies, Explained

Most Hollywood films follow the same three-act structure. Here's how it works, and why almost every screenplay uses it.

Worldbuilding and Exposition: 7 Writing Tips from Dune

The most impressive thing about Denis Villeneuve's Dune might be the way it makes a complex story understandable without dumbing it down.

Screen Rant

10 best youtube channels for film video essays, according to reddit.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

I'm So Glad Disney's Star Wars Dropped One Of Legends' Worst Leia Decisions

All 15 sith lords & dark jedi luke skywalker has defeated (in canon & legends), five nights at freddy's true story: the tragedy that inspired a movie.

With Wakanda Forever closing off Phase Four on November 11, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is preparing for an introduction to its fifth phase, and many fans are excited to see what the franchise has to offer. Yet, many are also questioning how all these new Phase 4 characters connect to each other, with the multiverse looming as the main arc. After all, most Marvel movies are now somewhat disconnected.

Thankfully, there is a vast host of YouTube reviewers and analysts who are dedicated to explaining the intricacies of movies and anything fans might have missed. Most of these YouTube video essays are made by some key YouTubers who do an excellent job getting fans caught up in the worlds of Hollywood.

YourMovieSucksDOTorg

Some reviewers do a great job of taking apart popular movies to show why they're excellent. The film YouTuber YourMovieSucksDOTorg is best at showcasing just why fans may dislike certain movies. While that might be inherently more negative, it can still be enjoyable.

"His Toy Story 3 review blew my mind. I knew I hated it but he kind of showed me why," says a now-deleted Reddit user. While he addresses both beloved and critically panned movies, the panned movies tend to be the videos that draw the most love from audiences. Sometimes fans just need to know why a plot feels weak or repetitive.

Possum Reviews

Another YouTuber who tends to focus on movies that received overwhelmingly poor receptions, Possum Reviews has grown a large fanbase by putting his attention on reviewing "garbage" movies, as his possum icon indicates. "I really love watching Possum Reviews even though his reviews of blatantly bad movies are really cynical," says Redditor Owijs .

Most of his reviews tend to be funny, which helps to keep the content engaging even when the actual film he reviews is appallingly bad. While he sometimes addresses beloved movies, it's the mediocre ones that draw the most eyes.

While most moviegoers don't think about soundtracks, the YouTuber Sideways goes into detail on just how the best soundtracks in movies interact with each film and create an environment. Tackling both musical and nonmusical movies, the channel does an extraordinary job of teaching fans about sound in films.

"Genuinely such interesting analysis of music in shows/movies from a very funny, intelligent guy who always sounds like he’s having the best time talking about whatever he’s talking about," states Reddit user ameboleyn . His excitement, even when addressing movies like Cats , is palpable and keeps viewers as engaged as he is.

Red Letter Media

A YouTube channel focused on friends reviewing movies that are both good and bad, RedLetterMedia has picked up many fans through the years, and for good reason. With the channel often known for its dry humor, Redditor TylerKnowy described it as "a mix of comedy and insight."

The channel has different shows with each addressing several topics. From Re:View 's more positive view of film to the often maligning Half in the Bag , the channel has something for everyone — as long as everyone likes their sense of humor. Of course, given that they often tackle movies that divide critics and audiences , they can be contentious.

With videos ranging from 10 minutes to over an hour long, the YouTube channel FilmJoy has things for everyone to enjoy. Of course, while the channel offers several shows, most of the channel's supporters tend to find themselves more engaged by the Movies with Mikey show.

"Intelligent, funny and extremely heartfelt. His whole approach is to discuss beloved films and why they're so special," says Reddit user johnspost . Instead of focusing on cynicism and encouraging fans to dislike certain movies, it brings about positivity, which is somewhat rare among YouTubers.

This Guy Edits

While many film critics focus on acting, character development, plot, or setting, the YouTuber This Guy Edits focuses on the editing in film and how it affects each movie. Instead of critiquing individual movies, the channel educates the public to help them consider editing in their own review of films.

"I find myself analyzing cuts and sound design way more after watching This Guy Edits," shared Reddit user InuitOverit . Considering how many movies are edited after their initial release , it's got a wide array of content to sift through, which means fans have a lot to learn from a true professional.

Lindsay Ellis

A film critic who used her YouTube channel to launch a book of her own, Lindsay Ellis recently left the YouTube scene, but her remaining backlog of content is still fascinating to look through. "Her videos are really funny while also being very interesting," commented Redditor bman9919 .

Often, Ellis considered topics that most fans failed to consider and showcased just why she took that perspective. She focused on a wide array of issues, including animation, the influence of the filmmakers on each film, and even why the greatest movie musicals are no longer particularly popular.

Like Stories Of Old

The YouTuber Like Stories of Old is a critic who likes to go into depth with each video, which is why it's so rare to see content for his channel under 20 minutes long. It's also why he only tends to release videos irregularly, often with a month or more between releases.

"His voice and delivery is so unique and soothing... it's pretty remarkable how well constructed each piece is," says Redditor stumpcity . The channel addresses wide-ranging issues in Hollywood, like the Hero's Journey, entire genres in film, and archetypes within the industry. He offers a fascinating in-depth look at whatever topics he chooses, and it's why he's a beloved critic.

Every Frame A Painting

While there are many visually stunning movies that can awe viewers, the YouTuber Every Frame A Painting takes apart movies to show fans exactly why they come to love the looks and aesthetic of movies. It also takes a look at how to improve those very aesthetic through editing.

"They were mainly about filmmaking techniques, editing, shot composition, blocking, etc., instead of plot/story/theme like the majority seem to be," says Reddit user scoutcjustice . While unfortunately Every Frame A Painting has stopped producing videos, fans still have a lot to learn from the content the channel already produced, as the majority continues to be relevant today.

Thomas Flight

Often addressing topics like director preferences and the impact of particular films, the YouTuber Thomas Flight could give a masterclass in film criticism, as most fans would agree. "Thomas Flight does a really good job at highlighting technical details and is also great at explaining the historical reference points for many directors," posits Reddit user redditaccount001 .

With essays about editing, genres, and sound quality in movies, fans may come for the analysis of their favorite film and leave with a new appreciation for dynamic styles in film. The channel's in-depth analysis explains why each upload comes somewhat inconsistently, but the content is quality enough that fans hardly mind.

Next: 10 Best "Let's Play" YouTubers For Fans To Watch

• Login / Sign Up
• Polygon Picks
• What to Watch

The best video essays of 2023

Get smarter with your entertainment

by Daniel Schindel

If you buy something from a Polygon link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Looking at the year’s notable video essays, many grapple with issues at the heart of contemporary media itself. There are dissections of video-playing tools, exposés of how corporations restrict access, contrasts between tropes and reality, and thorough investigations of trends in plagiarism and/or fabrication. As the essay landscape refines, it seems to peer inward as much as out.

On the making of this list: I’ve been trying to stay up to date on video essays for a while, and have been contributing to lists and/or voting in polls about the best videos made each year since 2018. Over this time, doing these kinds of roundups has gotten exponentially more difficult. As YouTube has grown to become a mega-business hosting powerful creators (part of the general trend of social media video sites becoming the new primary forum for cultural influence), I’ve seen essayists I once thought of as niche accrue follower counts in the millions. It’s been surreal. For this year’s list, I tried to shake things up by keeping the essayists who have appeared in previous editions to a minimum, along with the usual considerations about incorporating a diversity of creator backgrounds and video style. Once again, the videos are presented simply in order of publishing date.

[Also, I’m going to preface this with a mega mea culpa: It was absolute malpractice of me to not include Platformer Toolkit by Game Maker’s Toolkit in the best video essays of 2022 list . I don’t have a good excuse, either; I just straight up missed the essay at the time it came out, and then overlooked it during my catch-up phase at the end of the year. But an essay about game design that instructs you on its ideas by letting you actively engage with them through interactivity feels like a breakthrough in the form.]

Practices of Viewing by Johannes Binotto

Johannes Binotto is a Swiss researcher and lecturer who has been adding to his “Practices of Viewing” series for several years now, and every installment preceding 2023’s videos, “Ending” and “Description,” is well worth checking out. With each essay, Binotto examines a specific element of the media viewing interface, and how they affect an audience’s engagement with it. Some subjects, like fast-forwarding, pausing, or muting, may seem like obvious touchstones, while others, like sleep, are more out-there approaches to the conversation.

A History of the World According to Getty Images by Richard Misek

This technically debuted last year, making the rounds at film festivals, but it was made available online this past spring, so I’m including it here. A History of the World According to Getty Images is a great example of a work embedding its own ethos into its construction. Misek, another academic, is scrutinizing how for-profit companies (specifically Getty Images) mediate information that’s supposed to be available for all. In practice, a great deal of visual material that’s technically in the public domain can only be accessed in decent quality by paying an archive like Getty. Misek circumvents this by paying the fee to use select footage in this essay and then making this essay itself available for anyone to cite and clip from, putting that footage out into the world for real.

The Faces of Black Conservatism by F.D Signifier

I feel that video essays that consist mainly of the creator talking directly into a camera stretch the definition of the term – to me, the best cinematic and argumentative potential of the form lies in the power of editing. F.D Signifier’s contrast between fictional depictions of Black conservatives and the reality of how they appear across media exemplifies is what sets him apart in this genre: not just the depth of his thought (though it is considerable), but also the playful ways in which he presents the objects of his discussion. The running gag here in which he films himself holding hairstyling tools over the heads of various people on his screen had me laughing harder with each appearance.

Games That Don’t Fake the Space by Jacob Geller/Why We Can’t Stop Mapping Elden Ring by Ren or Raven

I don’t actually think this is the best essay Jacob Geller released this year (that would be either “Games that Aren’t Games” or “How Can We Bear to Throw Anything Away?” ), but it pairs so incredibly well with Renata Price’s essay (an impressive video debut building on her experience as a games critic) that it felt more appropriate to present them as a double feature. Both videos are sharp examinations of the ways that video games conjure physical space. Geller illuminates the shortcuts and tricks games often employ through examples of ones that, as the title suggests, don’t use such devices, while Price analyzes the impulses beneath what one could call the “cartographic instinct” in open-world games.

Why Do Brands Keep Doing These Crazy Influencer Trips?? by Mina Le

It’s been encouraging in recent years to see Le grow more confident in her mixing of media in her videos on fashion and film/television. You might remember the controversy around Shein granting influencers a limited hangout in a clothing factory this past summer. Le contextualizes this story by delving into the wider, supremely odd world of sponsored tours. If you watch this on your phone, the transitions between Le speaking to the camera and the clips of TikToks and other videos and photos flow together in a manner not unlike how one would scroll a social media feed, creating queasy resonance between message and medium.

Feeling Cynical About Barbie by Broey Deschanel / The Plastic Feminism of Barbie by Verilybitchie

I present these two videos not as a contrarian attack on Barbie (a film I enjoyed), but to highlight the important role of considered critical voices that dissent against prevailing opinions. Both Maia Wyman and Verity Ritchie unpack the issues with a heavily corporate product attempting to capitalize on feminist sentiment. Ritchie emphasizes the history of Barbie the brand and how the movie fits into it, while Wyman reads more into the specifics of the film’s plot. Together these videos do a good job of elaborating on legendary critic Amy Taubin’s Barbie reaction : “It’s about a fucking doll !’”

TikTok Gave Me Autism: The Politics of Self Diagnosis by Alexander Avila

There’s a lot of social media discourse over who can and can’t — and should or shouldn’t — claim the label of “autistic.” As someone who’s struggled with both the logistics and appropriateness of sussing out whether I’m on the spectrum, this video hit me hard. There are parts that feel like they veer so far into philosophical query that they threaten to obfuscate rather than elucidate the subject, but the essay as a whole is undeniably compelling. Avila’s own confessed stake in the question of self-diagnosis is itself affecting. This is the most searingly personal video on this list, uniting self-inquiry with rigorous research.

Chaste/Unchaste by Maryam Tafakory

This years shortest entry is a deceptively simple interrogation of the concept of “chastity” as defined by Iranian censorship standards. Takafory is a veteran of the academic essay scene, and I’m delighted by the opportunity to present her work to a wider audience. The video’s text is minimal, and its visuals are simply a montage of clips from Iranian films, but the implicit question of propriety grips the viewer with each cut.

Journey to Epcot Center: A Symphonic History by Defunctland

This is the most boundary-pushing essay on this year’s list. Completely lacking commentary, it instead emphasizes visuals and reenactment in telling the story of how Disney’s Epcot park went from concept to realization over the decades. Kevin Perjurer also provides a detailed set of notes that are meant to be read along with watching the video, further demanding one’s full attention. This is a direct acknowledgement of how we use the internet, the windowed experience of browsing and watching videos. I don’t think everything works; many of the reenactments, while impressively professional, feel somewhat redundant. But I’d prefer a creator take big swings that result in a few flaws rather than play it safe, and I hope both Perjurer and others continue in such an experimental vein.

Plagiarism and You(Tube) by Hbomberguy

Harry Brewis is popular enough that he doesn’t need any boost, but even in the very brief period since this video’s release as of the time of writing, Plagiarism and You(Tube) has made seismic impact on the YouTuber scene . Does it need to be almost four hours long? Maybe not. Yet the sheer volume of evidence it pulls together to support various accusations of plagiarism does seem vital. The main focus of the piece, James Somerton, went into lockdown over the fairly comprehensive evidence presented against him (and has since attempted to apologize ). I’m seeing conversations flourish around the endemic problem of plagiarism on the internet and what is to be done about it, and a surge of creators recognizing and calling out others who have taken their work without credit. There’s a deeper issue at play here, which is that the growth of YouTube entertainment has come with a truly daunting mountain of crap content that nonetheless attracts views (and thus dollars).

On the subject of low quality standards on YouTube, beyond plagiarism, Todd in the Shadows’ recent exhaustive effort to fact-check various false claims Somerton has made in his work is a useful supplement to this video.

• Best of the Year
• Entertainment
• Polygon Lists
• Special Issues

More in Polygon’s Best of the Year 2023

Most Popular

• Tabletop creators leave X for Bluesky in droves
• Everything you should know before watching Wicked
• A horse game went viral, and a horse game expert feels vindicated
• The Game Awards announces Game of the Year 2024 nominees
• The best early gaming deals of Black Friday

Patch Notes

The best of Polygon in your inbox, every Friday.

This is the title for the native ad

More in What to Watch

The Latest ⚡️

• Best YouTubers of All Time
• Best Vloggers
• Gaming Channels
• Must-Hear Podcasts
• Free Movies On YouTube
• Celebrities on YouTube
• YouTuber Hall of Shame
• The Biggest YouTube Controversies, Ranked By Ho...
• The Best YouTube Documentaries You Don’t Need A...
• YouTubers Who Quit Posting

The Best Movie Analysis YouTubers

Film buffs, here are the best film analysis YouTube channels. From video essays to commentaries on filmmaking techniques, these popular YouTube movie channels discuss screenplays, fan theories, and everything in between. What are the best film analysis channels on YouTube? 

When ranking the best movie analysis YouTubers, Every Frame a Painting is definitely at the top. Whether he is analyzing how Jackie Chan does action comedy or how David Fincher frames his shots, Every Frame's Tony Zhou consistently posts quality content on cinema. Other good YouTube movie analysis channels include Now You See It, FoundFlix, New Rockstars, The Film Theorists, and ScreenPrism.  

Vote up the best movie commentary channels on YouTube, and add your favorite film analysis YouTube channels missing from this list. 

Every Frame a Painting

Lessons from the Screenplay

Collative Learning

StudioBinder

The Film Theorists

Redlettermedia.

The Cinema Cartography

Now You See It

MUST SEE FILMS

Like Stories of Old

New Rockstars

The Royal Ocean Film Society

Books2Movies

ScreenPrism

Ryan hollinger.

Storytellers

Jack's Movie Reviews

Disney Analysis

The Film Essay

Real Dimensional Pictures

Frank Film Freaks

TheFlickFloggers

Reflections on Film

Jarrett IB Film and Literature

Honest Analysis

Shot Analysis

Film Studies A2

Film Analysis

Raiders Analysis

Horror Analysis

Rae's Gaze

Wilson Kayden

• Entertainment
• Watchworthy

Day or night, rain or shine, YouTube is always there for you. "Like" and Subscribe to these top YouTubers and channels to let them know you appreciate their loyal company.