Like Stories of Old

Why Movies Just Don't Feel "Real" Anymore

Why don't movies feel "real" anymore? A deep dive into the first principles of movie immersion: on perceptual realism, indexicality, haptic visuality, and cinematic qualia.

Watch this video on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-why-movies-just-dont-feel-real-anymore

Next up;

Hey everyone! Up next is a video I've been thinking about for quite some time, and it's about why movies look kind of fake/bland now. I know this might not sound like the most original subject, but most of the discussions I've seen so far tend to focus on technical reasons only to explain this problem (bad CGI, digital cameras, bad color grading...etc.). But what I want to do is dig a little deeper into the philosophical/film theory concepts that lie at their root, that explain more thoroughl...

This Travel Show Accidentally Filmed the Last Real Adventure

It's 2004, and two men set out on a trip not knowing they were about to create one of the last portraits of a world that was right on the precipice of changing forever.

Watch on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-this-travel-show-accidentally-filmed-the-last-real-adventure

I Read the Book, Here's What the Movie Didn't Tell You...

Comparing Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men to the Coen Brothers adaptation, which revealed some surprising differences.

Watch on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-i-read-the-book-and-now-the-movie-is-even-better

Movie Monologues that Radicalized my Moral Philosophy

To act in this world is to put yourself in moral peril, to shake the foundations of your own philosophy, sometimes overwhelmingly so. In such times, when you're no longer sure which way is right, where do you go? Who do you become?

Watch on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-movie-monologues-that-radicalized-my-moral-philosophy

When Two Filmmakers Make the Same Movie

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-when-2-filmmakers-make-the-same-movie

Next up;

Okay, one more detour before I do the monologues video I announced last time; I was taking some notes on David Fincher's Zodiac in contrast to the 2023 movie Boston Strangler, which sort of accidentally turned into a psychoanalytical treatise of Fincher's entire filmography, and I'm pretty excited about it. I've been wanting to do a video on Fincher for a long time as I felt that most critics mainly focus on his perfectionism and technical skills, and not so much on what all that is in servic...

The Most Underrated Type of Villain

Nebula link: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-the-most-underrated-type-of-villain

Next up;

Hey everyone! I have a more philosophical video in the works that's a sort of sequel to the "Movie Monologues That Changed My Entire Worldview" video that I made last year, but this time focussing on movie monologues that specifically informed my understanding of moral philosophy. However, after the last video which was pretty taxing to make, I wanted to decompress just a little bit with a slightly shorter/eas...

The Death of Hollywood's Liberal Fantasy

Hollywood liberalism is ready to save the world, or at least; in their own self-constructed fantasies. In reality though, the tropes that have emerged in these movies are actually precisely those that we need to get rid off.

Watch on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-hollywoods-liberal-fantasy-is-falling-apart

The Best Movies of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival

I went to the Cannes Film Festival to see a whole bunch of new movies before anyone else, these were my favorites!

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-the-best-movies-of-the-2025-cannes-film-festival

They Remade the Battle of Helm's Deep in a Hospital Show, and It's Insane

The new hospital show The Pitt is unlike anything I've ever seen, and I realized it's because its story is not structured like a typical hospital show. No, in a wildly inspired move, they structured this one like the Battle of Helm's Deep from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and the result is absolutely insane!

Watch this video on Nebula: https:...

Next up:

Up next is a video on HBO's The Pitt, it will be (mostly) spoiler-free so no worries if you haven't seen the show yet, but I'd highly recommend you to watch it anyways because it might just be my favorite TV show of the year (so far) - and also, and this is what the video will be about; while presenting itself as an ER hospital show, its narrative structure is basically modelled after the Battle of Helm's Deep... Sounds strange, but I promise, it's going to be a fascinating one!

Why the Long Take?

A video about Netflix’ Adolescence, and about 50 other examples of long takes in movies and TV shows; why do there seem to be so many “oners” now? Are they an achievement of prestigious filmmaking, or just a distracting gimmick?

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-why-the-long-take

Nosferatu | Tom's Film Club #1

The first edition of my monthly film club is here, and because it was my birthday a few days ago, it's freely available for everyone!

If you enjoyed this and want to participate in the monthly film club, be sure to join (or check if you're already in) the special film club tier (formerly listed as the "participate" tier).

For the next edition, we're watching Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners. If you have any thoughts/questions/ideas about this movie that you'd like me to address in the...

Why The Brutalist Ended Like That

The Brutalist’s ending doesn’t just tie a neat bow around the structure that emerged over the course of the movie, instead it suddenly excavates the ground beneath it, shakes the foundation, and makes us go back to reconsider the entire construction.

Watch this video on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-why-the-brutalist-ended-like-that-ft-jacob-geller

Introducing Tom’s Film Club

Hey everyone, this month I’m launching an exciting new series exclusively for patrons: Tom’s Film Club. In short, it’s a monthly movie discussion in which all of you get to participate!

How does it work?

At the start of each month, I’ll announce a movie that I will be (re-)watching and give you a brief introduction and maybe some initial questions and thoughts. If you’d like to participate in the discussion, you can then go and (re-)watc...

Next up;

Hey everyone! I originally announced 3 videos, 2 of which have now been released. The third one, is going to be on hold for a bit; there’s a movie I saw recently that I would like to include in it but I have to wait for it to release on digital/Blu-ray so I can get the footage. And so instead, next month I’m making a video about The Brutalist, which just blew me away when I saw it earlier this month, and which gave me lots and lots to think about. And perhaps the most exciting part, for t...

How Gladiator 2 Contradicts Itself

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-how-gladiator-2-contradicts-itself

Why Star Wars is Stuck

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-why-star-wars-is-stuck-the-jedi-problem

Update + Next Up

Hey everyone!

I know this comes belated, but I want to wish you all the best for 2025! I spent New Year’s with my wife’s mother and grandparents who live in the south of France, which is actually a really nice place to be in the winter. It gets quite cold at night but during the day the sun shines bright and warm and you can almost smell the coming spring. We hiked around in nature and visited some old villages that we hadn’t seen before and that stood quiet and mostly empty so fa...

The 10 Best Movies of 2024

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-the-10-best-movies-of-2024

The 50 Most Life-Changing Movies Ever Made

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-the-50-most-lifechanging-movies-ever-made

I Made This Because I'm Afraid of Death

Last year, my partner almost lost her life, which sent me into this weirdly lucid haze that I've been trying to make sense of ever since. I thought about movies, about the meaning of life and the fear of death. And today, it's time to share that story.

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-i-made-this-because-im-afraid-of-death

The Apocalyptic Nightmares That Changed Human History

Nebula link: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-the-apocalyptic-images-that-changed-humanity-forever

There are some images that are so awe-inspiring that they took on a life of their own, that became entangled so deep within our minds that they fundamentally transformed who we are, and altered the course of our history.

Next up;

Up next is one of my most heavily researched projects of the year; an exploration of the impact of apocalytpic imagery on the public imagination - contrasting art after the bubonic plague, with cinema after the creation of the nuclear bomb; how do real events shape our nightmares, and how do these nightmares in turn, birth even more dire visions in the imagination?

Oppenheimer: One Year Later – Nolan's Most Misunderstood Movie?

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-oppenheimer-one-year-later

Next up;

It's July, which means that Oppenheimer has been out for a full year, and I figured this would be as good a time as any for my definitive review of the movie; in part because I want to close off my Christopher Nolan series (which I'll probably remaster as one giant video at some point), and in part because I feel that, despite Oppenheimer being out for a while now, it is still being somewhat misunderstood. So yeah, if you had planned on rewatching the movie, now might be a good time!

The Death of Cinematic Curiosity

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/lsoo-the-death-of-cinematic-curiosity

Cinelogs #9 The Tragedy of the Treasure Hunt Movie

On the dynamics of the treasure hunt movie; a genre that took off for a while but hasn't yet quite found its holy grail