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A Scar No One Else Can See - Max Landis on Carly Rae Jepsen

Eh max land is is alright and I read a bit of this and damn he has some free time lol.

I also just saw American ultra and that was pretty good, I don't think it deserved to bomb like it did.

It's one of those things where it's hard to tell if he has a lot of free time, or just never sleeps lol. Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
 

Choomp

Banned
Hah you made a Max Landis thread on GAF, boy are you in for some fun

I really like the guy and has been looking forward to whatever this thing...is? I'll check it out when I get the chance.
 

kris.

Banned
I dunno about queens of pop or whatever but what I do know is that Run Away With Me is the jam of forever and the album rules.
 

lush

Member
Guy needs to linger on "and all the other boys try and chase me" for a while.

*This is not on the basis of quality, only popularity (in terms of hits)

Are album sales/downloads and billboard charts relevant metrics in the year of our lord two thousand and seventeen? Katy Perry?
 
max.gif
 
Max is a fascinating dude. I ain't about to read a 150 pages on an artist I don't care about but I am somehow appreciative that it's out there, it just goes to show weird he is.

I don't always like his hot takes, but he's genuine and he doesn't put on any airs of how important his opinion is. He seems like a genuinely nice guy that doesn't take himself too seriously but is so confident that he'll still speak his mind even if it means he gets ridiculed for it.

It strikes me as so bizarre that he gets called a sexist when he's so evidently progressive in everything he does. There's been no evidence of it. Just wildly irresponsible accusations that are considered okay because he's weird and polarising and loudly opionated.
 

DeathoftheEndless

Crashing this plane... with no survivors!
I just want CRJ to admit that she took the beat on "I Didn't Just Come Here to Dance" from the SNES Spider-Man beat 'em up Separation Anxiety.
 
https://www.google.com/amp/jezebel....ght-be-hollywoods-biggest-fuck-1440597536/amp

Again, I think these are the sexist comments people are referencing.

It's usually this plus his being the poster boy for the MARY SUE bullshit (which is, itself, inherently sexist) that people are referencing when they mention Landis' jackassery with regards to women.

Carly Rae Jepsen makes really good pop music, btw. I haven't listened to it enough to write 150 pages on it, but still, I feel pretty safe in saying it's good shit.

(her music, not Landis' writing)
 
I love Max Landis. I've seen all of his movies, and they are all shit, but he's like a million monkeys on one typewriter, and I'm patiently awaiting the one random masterpiece he will eventually drop on us.
 
I love Max Landis. I've seen all of his movies, and they are all shit, but he's like a million monkeys on one typewriter, and I'm patiently awaiting the one random masterpiece he will eventually drop on us.

I think you already got it.

It's usually referred to as the American AKIRA
 

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
Are people really still butt hurt over the Star Wars Mary Sue thing? Lol jeez.

He wasn't really wrong, and he immediately responded with another video when he saw that crazy alt-right sexists were 'rallying' behind his initial comments. If you have any knowledge of Max, you will know he's very progressive, but has literally zero filter, and constantly runs his mouth like a hyperactive kid.

Max is such a wild card, has has the alt-right, as well as left-leaning peeps hating him. Mostly because he runs at 384474 words a second and inevitably will say stupid shit.

I have no idea how I feel about him, except he's cocaine personified: Entertaining, probably illegal and really. Bad in high doses.
Lol this.
 
I really don't think I can bring myself to read anything this sexist creep writes, even if it's unrelated to his anti-women comments.
I'm hardly a fan of his work but using the term "Mary Sue" isn't sexist whatsoever, sorry pal. Plus, I've met Max a handful of times and had second long conversations, he always struck me as a really genuine, fun guy.
 
Just finished it. Read through most of it. Skimmed through a lot of the individual song analysis and read the conclusions. It just seems to end with just another track analysis (could've used a concrete conclusion as a summation of the points) but he shows the same things coming up in every Carly Rae song. Even some of the random Christmas ones and the covers she has chosen to do. He does ponder if even Carly knows that a select few specific themes permeate every facet of her work which would be interesting if she's like "holy shit this thing happened when I was 15 and I didn't even know it scarred me so much". Maybe it will be helpful. Hopefully it's not like "holy shit this dude is fuckin weird get him away from me" which is more likely lol. Part of releasing a work to the public is that there will be people who analyze the living shit out of your stuff. Guess it comes with the territory. He does say this about if Carly would comment:

To that, I had a more complicated response: if Jepsen herself commented, ultimately, it
could only affect part of what this is, and only barely.
If Carly Rae Jepsen handed me a sheet of paper with the word “DOG” written on it, and
then in an interview said she’d given me a piece of paper that said “CAT,” the page in my hand
wouldn’t suddenly say “CAT.” It would still just say D O G.
The Pattern is not deniable. It’s just there.

I'd still be interested if she gave a response though. On the subject of the actual music, it's pretty great stuff. I'm not a pop music guy at all but I found several of the songs on Emotion pretty good. I'll fight for it.
 

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
Are people really still butt hurt over the Star Wars Mary Sue thing? Lol jeez.

He wasn't really wrong, and he immediately responded with another video when he saw that crazy alt-right sexists were 'rallying' behind his initial comments. If you have any knowledge of Max, you will know he's very progressive, but has literally zero filter, and constantly runs his mouth like a hyperactive kid.


Lol this.

I'm hardly a fan of his work but using the term "Mary Sue" isn't sexist whatsoever, sorry pal. Plus, I've meet Max a handful of times and had second long conversations, he always struck me as a really genuine, fun guy.

Check out the Jezebel link earlier in the thread.
 

PK Gaming

Member
Max is such a wild card, has has the alt-right, as well as left-leaning peeps hating him. Mostly because he runs at 384474 words a second and inevitably will say stupid shit.

I have no idea how I feel about him, except he's cocaine personified: Entertaining, probably illegal and really. Bad in high doses.

I can't even put into words how on-point this post is.

Goddamn.
 
Max Landis always gave me the vibes of a woke fuckboi. Or faux feminist like Joss Whedon, Devin Faraci, and Nick Robinson.

Like he just can't be a player while avoiding insulting the women who want to bang him? 😕
 
but using the term "Mary Sue" isn't sexist whatsoever, sorry pal

This is incorrect.

The term is inherently sexist, and has always been used as such.

Maybe Landis himself didn't know that when he pushed all in on it, but I'm pretty sure he got a crash course education in the meantime and it didn't really cause him to reflect at all.

Your having met him at a party doesn't override that.

Anyway, yeah, the fact one of his hot-take crusades that got doubled & tripled down on was using (and perpetuating) an inherently sexist criticism, combined with that Jezebel bag of receipts is usually why people think of him poorly when it comes to women.

So even if you still disagree with people's holding that opinion, you at least have the broad strokes on how they arrived there, so that it's no longer a befuddling, out-of-nowhere type deal.
 

Khoryos

Member
This is incorrect.

The term is inherently sexist, and has always been used as such.

...Um, no it isn't and no it hasn't? Gendered isn't the same as sexist, especially since the male equivalent is also frequently used in informal critical discourse (see: any discussion of the Kingkiller books)
 

WaffleTaco

Wants to outlaw technological innovation.
Ooh, pop listening elitism. Is this some sort of a residual popgaf infection?
Not really? Imagine someone says Fallout 4 is the GOAT RPG and that Bethesda makes great RPG games better than everyone else. Imagine they usually stick to other genres like competitive shooters or sports games, and this is one of the few RPGs they play. Fans of the genre are more likely to have a variety understand of what an RPG is, why it is good or it is not (although it is still subjective to taste), but know that this particular RPG (Fallout 4 cannot be considered the GOAT).
Guy needs to linger on "and all the other boys try and chase me" for a while.



Are album sales/downloads and billboard charts relevant metrics in the year of our lord two thousand and seventeen? Katy Perry?

Yes, they are? Out of curiosity do you think that are not, and if so why? And I mentioned Katy Perry because although her last album did not do so well (besides Chained to the Rhythm), because during this decade, she has had: 8 #1's, and 3 other top ten hits.
 
These kinds of deep reads where people try to uncover the subconscious meaning in an author's work are condescending, self-centered, egotistical crap, written by people who have more intelligence than empathy.
 
...Um, no it isn't and no it hasn't?

Why do you do that "um" thing before you get to your point?

UMMM yes it is. How much do you know about the term and how it's been introduced to the pop-culture lexicon and the overwhelming use of it since that introduction?

Did you not really know what it was until Landis refreshed everyone's as to its existence and then, based on whether or not you already liked Landis, you decided to seek out proof that it wasn't as bad as everyone said and upon finding it arguments to that end, considered yourself satisfied?

A lot of people have taken that route when it comes to that term, so I'm not sure if that's what I'm arguing against here UMMMMM but maybe it's in good faith who knows we'll see I guess lol

But yes, it's basically sexist as fuck and almost always has been, down to the part where it was built out of mocking a woman for her bad fan-fiction that did what almost all published male fiction has done since it started hitting shelves: Presenting idealized versions of the author in their own fictional constructions.

That the term "Gary Stu" showed up to describe that predilection towards self-insertion afterwards isn't a sign of gender equality. It's more a reflection of people's need to name things that already have names for the purposes of easier branding and disingenuous arguing (It's like suggesting the existence of the word "dickhead" minimizes and/or erases the sexism behind calling a woman a "bitch") . It's still built on the basic sexism at the root of "Mary Sue," UMMMMM which fundamentally suggests a woman hero needs to go above and beyond to justify her heroism in genre fiction otherwise it will be written off as "unrealistic" or "unfair"
 

Veelk

Banned
...Um, no it isn't and no it hasn't? Gendered isn't the same as sexist, especially since the male equivalent is also frequently used in informal critical discourse (see: any discussion of the Kingkiller books)

https://youtu.be/H2-GIY9RTqU?t=363

This explains it a better than I could. It's sexist because there is a far lower threshold to what constitutes a mary sue for women than it does for men. The Rey-Luke comparison being pretty apt with how Luke is allowed to gain competence in the force within a short amount of time while Rey apparently has to have a Rocky style montage before she can do anything with it.
 
This is incorrect.

The term is inherently sexist, and has always been used as such.

Maybe Landis himself didn't know that when he pushed all in on it, but I'm pretty sure he got a crash course education in the meantime and it didn't really cause him to reflect at all.

Your having met him at a party doesn't override that.

Anyway, yeah, the fact one of his hot-take crusades that got doubled & tripled down on was using (and perpetuating) an inherently sexist criticism, combined with that Jezebel bag of receipts is usually why people think of him poorly when it comes to women.

So even if you still disagree with people's holding that opinion, you at least have the broad strokes on how they arrived there, so that it's no longer a befuddling, out-of-nowhere type deal.
I suppose I should be more clear here. I agree with you that the phrase definitely has some sexist roots when you really delve into it though I never found Max to be using it in any way other than to express a character flaw with Rey. I think an (admittedly weak) defense is the fact that "Marty Stu" has also been tossed about before, but you're right, the phrase was poor wording on his part and I think he should have handled that situation with far more tact.

In regards to the Jezebel link, yeah, I've never seen that before. Certainly paints a certain picture of him. That article, along with the inherently obsessive/creepy vibe of this entire project certainly colors my impression of him in a darker tone. I appreciate you all bringing that to my attention, I feel like I gave him too much credit. And you're right, my momentary encounters with him should in no way shape my perspective on him when all of this evidence proves that he some serious issues to work through.
 
These kinds of deep reads where people try to uncover the subconscious meaning in an author's work are condescending, self-centered, egotistical crap, written by people who have more intelligence than empathy.
Why is it condescending? Who would he be speaking down to?

Why is it self centered? Isn't it wholly about the author's work? (Especially when the analysis is done by someone who's a fan of said work?)

Why is it necessarily egotistical? It could be an ego trip to indulge this way, but it could also be an enjoyable mental exercise.

Why is it about intelligence at the expense of empathy? Where does the lack of empathy part come into play?

I have a like / dislike relationship with max landis but I don't understand your criticism of attempts to analyze art in general.
 
In regards to the Jezebel link, yeah, I've never seen that before. Certainly paints a certain picture of him. That article, along with the inherently obsessive/creepy vibe of this entire project certainly colors my impression of him in a darker tone. I appreciate you all bringing that to my attention, I feel like I gave him too much credit. And you're right, my momentary encounters with him should in no way shape my perspective on him when all of this evidence proves that he some serious issues to work through.

Well shit! Glad we could help (kinda), although it's not all that great considering that help led to you going "aw shit, Max maybe ain't that cool," and those sorts of realizations are never all that fun.

But everyone's got their shit.

Good news: So far as anyone knows, Carly Rae Jepsen is an all around awesome person, and hasn't ever really done anything to tarnish that perception.

Plus her albums are good
 
I uhhh... read some of this and my take away is that I hate Futura font family, especially how it renders question marks.

wuRDcR9.png


Seriously why
 
Okay hey wait a min now we're really getting into some controversial shit:

what's wrong with FUTURA.

It's a great font.

(those question marks are fun! They remind me of Monopoly!)
 
What are the themes, for those of us who don't want to read the entirety of the paper?
Basically unrequited love. Not that notable of a theme except for the fact that Landis argues it is persistent in literally every piece of creative work she’s made, and themes that run counter to it are almost entirely absent.

I don’t really buy it personally, but he’s put in more than enough work to actually make his point.
 

Bronx-Man

Banned
https://youtu.be/H2-GIY9RTqU?t=363

This explains it a better than I could. It's sexist because there is a far lower threshold to what constitutes a mary sue for women than it does for men. The Rey-Luke comparison being pretty apt with how Luke is allowed to gain competence in the force within a short amount of time while Rey apparently has to have a Rocky style montage before she can do anything with it.
Luke makes one lucky shot at the end of the movie that was established earlier with the line about how he's good at aiming at small womp-rats, and the only reason he's able to freely make it is because Han saves his ass at the last moment from Vader.

Max's Mary Sue stuff is bullcrap but people shouldn't exaggerate stuff from ANH to knock it down.
 
Okay hey wait a min now we're really getting into some controversial shit:

what's wrong with FUTURA.

It's a great font.

(those question marks are fun! They remind me of Monopoly!)

It's kinda shit. A lot of symbols in it are shit. Parenthesees are shit. Looks weird in all caps, like a mistake. IMO, doesn't fit common website grids well for content-heavy sections, always feels like there's an imbalance between typical grid margins (~15px) and how Futura's narrow letter forms begin and end, too narrow, too much space with typical kerning used on the web...... With the exception of M of course. The fuck is with Futura's M. It's not like any other characters. Capital E looks like it's falling over backwards if you stare at it long enough, literally gives me anxiety. The G? Well, that's up to you to decide, but I hate it. Ever watch Dunkirk? You know how it's like drowning porn for 3 hours? That's how the futura G makes me feel. Actually, take that back, the G makes me feel like that scene with the old lady who used to be an expert swimmer in The Poseidon Adventure. That's the Futura G.

I don't have a problem with it when content is set to fit the width of a column, I think it looks mostly fine. I think it's too odd otherwise.

Can look fine for short headlines.

Feels like shit to read.

Caps don't work.

All sorts of wobblies wobblies.

FUCK futura.





my company uses a futura web variant for its headlines. I've come to loath it. I stare at it all day. I get bug reports because it looks like shit and does unexpected shit. The futura question mark is the noose I'm going to use to hang myself if it comes to that.
 
It's kinda shit. A lot of symbols in it are shit. Parenthesees are shit. Looks weird in all caps, like a mistake. IMO, doesn't fit common website grids well for content-heavy sections, always feels like there's an imbalance between typical grid margins (~15px) and how Futura's narrow letter forms begin and end, too narrow, too much space with typical kerning used on the web...... With the exception of M of course. The fuck is with Futura's M. It's not like any other characters. Capital E looks like it's falling over backwards if you stare at it long enough, literally gives me anxiety.

I don't have a problem with it when content is set to fit the width of a column, I think it looks mostly fine. I think it's too odd otherwise.

Can look fine for short headlines.

Feels like shit to read.

Caps don't work.

All sorts of wobblies wobblies.

FUCK futura.

Well damn.

I mean, I still like Futura but I hadn't looked at it that way.

Thank you.
 
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