Greg Fantomas F

Greg Fantomas F

@fantomascinema.bsky.social

Film historian, movie writer (various, including TCM, MSN Movies, Cinema Retro, Bulwark), director and actor (Sustained Reaction, Cetilusine), and host of YouTube Channel Unexplained Cinema Presents. https://www.youtube.com/@UnexplainedCinemaPresents/video

1.2K followers407 following1.2K posts

I have no desire to see every movie that comes out like I did when I was in my teens and twenties. I watch a select few new movies and still spend most of my time seeing movies from before 1960 that I haven't seen yet even though I have seen thousands before 1960. I'd rather catch up on those.

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There are many demonstrations on YT and TT of people feeding in famous literary works of the 20th century that come back with ratings of possibly or in part AI. The detection is shit because AI is based on what humans have written so it will detect what it learned on and classify it as AI.

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social

France’s most prestigious literary prize has pulled a book from the longlist they think may have been written by AI. This is the start of what is going to become an authenticity nightmare for all concerned: authors, publishers, awards, readers www.ft.com/content/b002...

I find the whole "Wow, Trump's approval numbers have fallen to 33%" infuriating and depressing. There are 238 million voting age Americans. 33% translates to 78 million people still approve of him. In any rational reasonable society, the number should be closer to 40 or 50 people, total.

Greg Fantomas F reposted

Replying to @nameshiv.bsky.social

Its cool that we're ostensibly more connected than ever before and yet All mail is junk All email is spam All phone calls are scams All text messages are superpacs All social media is bots

I hate scrolling through YouTube to see old out of print movies and instead of a screenshot or lobby card for the thumbnail it is an AI slop Frankenstein monster where everyone looks like a perfume ad model but it's black and white and they're all wearing fedoras.

Think I'm going to start updating my YouTube channel again. Got depressed when the algorithm changed so drastically away from long-form to shorts and my views dropped from 14k to 35k per video to a few hundred to maybe 5k. And then I stopped posting regularly and my subscribers stalled out at 30k.

The first year I posted (had the channel since 2007 but didn't start making commentary videos till a couple of years ago) I went from 200 something subscribers to 20k and then the second year added only another 10k and got that whole feeling of "why bother?"

We have a new baby, named Buddy. We lost lovely Middy in 2021, our beloved Sonny in 2024, and our sweet little Poppy just three weeks ago. Now we have Buddy, another stray we took in (all of cats have found us as strays).

He has been neutered and chipped and is now recovering at home with us. He appeared at our back door just as Poppy was getting old and sick. We fed him and several of us in the neighborhood got together (four couples, including us) to get him to the vet and we volunteered to be the new owners.

Since I didn't want to pay for AI to make my inspirational picture of myself with a giant cat, I did it myself. Guys, I feel my creative rut lifting.

Greg Fantomas F@fantomascinema.bsky.social

Wow, I think making a picture of myself with a giant animal will finally pull me out of my rut and get the creative juices flowing again. Thank you AI!!!

Just a quick note to @sonnybunch.bsky.social who said that the casting of Helen of Troy would not have been a black woman in, say, the 1950s by someone like Orson Welles. In 1950, in his Paris theatrical production of FAUST, Welles cast Eartha Kitt as Helen of Troy.

sonnybunch.bsky.social@sonnybunch.bsky.social

I could do a thousand videos and podcasts on chuds being sad about THE ODYSSEY and never get tired of them. I will do a thousand such podcasts. The gods said it can’t be done. But I know better. Better even than the gods.

Ofc, Sonny was just saying it as a matter of reference at how, legitimately, things have changed since the 50s but instead of saying William Wyler or DeMille, he said Orson Welles which is just odds-wise, amazing.

Greg Fantomas F reposted

I could do a thousand videos and podcasts on chuds being sad about THE ODYSSEY and never get tired of them. I will do a thousand such podcasts. The gods said it can’t be done. But I know better. Better even than the gods.

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com

“He didn't need to cast these people for diversity purposes. He cast them because they're the best actors... anybody who argues otherwise doesn't know a thing about film.” @sonnybunch.bsky.social dismantles Elon Musk’s attack on Christopher Nolan and points out that even Grok keeps correcting him.

I gave up writing essays because the TCM stuff has been reduced to newsletter posts and other offers are access media crap for little money. I'd take an offer from the Times but I don't use AI or steal so I guess I won't wait by the phone.

Jeff VanderMeer@jeffvandermeer.bsky.social

Jaysus Effin' Christ. I hope this leads to a better policy of scrutiny. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/b...

This had me curious since there is not a single unreleased album only song by the Beatles that has been forgotten, much less a number one hit, and sure enough, these are five classics that the writer desperately wants to convince himself are forgotten. They are not.

For the record, they are Love Me Do I Feel Fine Paperback Writer We Can Work It Out Hello Goodbye I can see Hello Goodbye being a slim possibility in contention for lesser played Beatles songs, maybe, but I Feel Fine?!?!! I FEEL FINE!?!?!?!!