Anna Daniels
The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.
In this edition, an explosives engineer and special effects supervisor fact-check movie explosions from Mission: Impossible, The Hurt Locker, and more. Plus, if you’ve heard of the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” trope in movies, but you don’t quite understand it, a video essay explains it thoroughly. And finally, watch a Saturday Night Live At Home sketch that didn’t make the show last weekend.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAFVRrGpm4U?feature=oembed&w=740&h=416]
First up, Vanity Fair had explosives engineer/professor Paul Worsey and special effects supervisor Tassilo Baur fact check explosions in the original Mission Impossible, Drive Angry with Nicolas Cage, The Hurt Locker, and No Country for Old Men. Listen as they analyze each film from both an engineering and a filmmaking perspective, discussing how realistic the explosion is and how it’s achieved on camera safely.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_gxo8l9j8s?feature=oembed&w=740&h=416]
Next up, The Take examines the trope of the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl,” that quirky, special woman who helps men come out of their shell by living life to the fullest, being a little weird, and extremely desirable. You can see evidence of this character trope in the likes of Garden State, Elizabethtown, and many more, but are there instances where the trope doesn’t entirely hold true? Find out by watching the video above.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0GrePKk4UM?feature=oembed&w=740&h=416]
Finally, Beck Bennett gives a tour of his home for Architectural Digest in a sketch that was made for last weekend’s Saturday Night Live At Home, but didn’t end up airing during the show. See the glamorous home full of dirty clothes, exposed charging cables, piles of papers, and much more.
Cool Posts From Around the Web: Written by: Slash
