So in case I don't mention it enough,

I went to film school.

Oh yeah, baby!

Technically, I graduated a couple months ago,

but I did the official ceremony and the pomp

and circumstance a couple days ago.

And I paid like thirty dollars for this hat

and now I have no reason to wear it ever again.

And the funny thing is, while I was in film school, I really didn't like watching movies that much,

I was mostly just into YouTube.

And now that I finally graduated

and I am no longer obligated to watch like ten hours of movies per week,

I've like rediscovered my love for movies and now I'm doing it in my free time.

I feel like a lot of people go through that once they graduate from school.

They realize that they like, actually enjoyed learning

but like, being in school ruins learning somehow,

because it just makes it horrible and stressful.

I feel like that's the unique power of the American educational system, is to just

crush any existing passion you had for a topic.

So, today I have compiled a list of my favorite films of all time,

and I'm just gonna geek out about them, to be honest.

If you haven't watched these movies,

I'm gonna tell you all the reasons that you should watch them.

And if you have watched these movies,

I'm also gonna talk about, like, my favorite themes and shots and acting from all these movies.

So it'll be like a little Ashley's movie Oscars.

Let's get on started.

Let's go ahead and... get... get lit.

(awkward laugh )

You guys know what I mean.

So my first film is "Avengers: Endgame."

No, I'm kidding.

I'm a fucking film student.

I'm way too pretentious for that mainstream shit.

My first film is "Sorry to Bother You."

"Sorry to Bother You'' takes place in this alternate satirical universe,

in a world stricken by low raises, high unemployment and

rampid capitalism.

Sound familiar, folks?

The film follows Cassius Green, who's struggling to pay rent.

He's a telemarketer,

and he discovers that the secret to his professional success is to turn on his "white voice."

-You want to make some money here, use your "white voice."

- My "white voice" ?

- I'm not talking about Will Smith's white.

- Like this, young man.

- (talks in white) Hey, Mr. Kramer, this is Langston from Regal View.

That earns him a promotion and propels him into this world of money and greed

and he has to battle with his morals.

Okay. So, reasons I love this movie:

First of all, the costume design and production design make this movie worth watching alone.

They did such an amazing job of creating this 70s-meets-modern-day aesthetic.

It's so colorful,

it's so well put together.

The whole world of this movie

looks like a Janelle Monae music video in the best way possible.

Second of all, this movie gives you so much to think about after you're done watching

and that is my favorite type of movie.

Like after you're done,

all you want to do for the next three hours

is look up video essays and like Reddit forums,

analyzing it and breaking it down.

But at the same time it's also just a really entertaining and funny film.

I like to think of this film as like a modern-day "Animal Farm."

It's like a satirical commentary on modern-day capitalism,

but I mean that in the least like heady and pretentious way possible.

You know, it's not like the bourgeoisie and the proletariat kids.

It talks about American culture and the pressures

that a lot of us feel

to earn a bunch of money and to climb this corporate ladder,

no matter what our morals are

in a very personal and empathetic way.

And I think that's something that a lot of us can relate to.

Especially like,

at this point in my life, I'm 21

and I feel like when I was in high school,

everybody I knew was kind of borderline communist.

Everybody was like "the rich should be taxed like crazy,"

"Yes, of course I'm gonna work for a charity and I'm not gonna sell out".

And now all those same people are, like, trying to pay rent and

pay off student debt, so they're working on Wall Street for some Fortune 500 corporation.

I mean same for me, I basically work for YouTube, and Google owns YouTube.

I'm just making money for a mega-corporation like everybody else.

(pause)

Which is something I don't want to think about too much.

The point is, this movie talks about how our culture is

so focused on making money and having a prestigious job

and especially for men feeling this source of masculinity

and sexual attractiveness based on how much you earn.

"Sorry to Bother You" also has a really interesting critique of the different ways that

especially African Americans, but generally people of different races

are expected to act in different social situations.

So our main character literally has to put on his "white voice"

in order to advance through the professional ranks.

But, like, when he's at a party with a bunch of white people,

then they want him to be this stereotypical rapper black dude.

And he's not that either.

So he's like forcing himself into these two different identities.

I was really related that in a different way.

Obviously I have not, uhm,

experienced the particular struggles and the particular discrimination of being an African-American, right?

But I am half white and half Asian.

When I was younger,

there was like an Asian friend group and a white friend group at my school.

And when I was with the white friend group,

I, like, never wanted to bring noodles to school

because I was so embarrassed that it wasn't like a sandwich or something

like normal white kids' snack.

And I was so embarrassed to ask my friends to take off their shoes in my house.

And then when I was with the Asian friend group

I felt like kind of a phony because I felt like I still wasn't Asian enough for them.

Yeah, just please watch this movie.

It has so many interesting themes.

As you guys might be able to tell by my bangs ,

I am that bitch who's been obsessed with "500 days of Summer"

since I was like 13 years old, okay ?

I love that movie with my heart and soul.

"500 days of summer" is the only movie that I have bought on iTunes.

And I have rewatched it so many times.

Every time I go through a heartbreak,

every time I'm not sure what to do in a romantic situation,

every time I'm on my period.

Which is a lot.

I'm watching that movie.

"500 days of summer" is a bit of an unconventional

rom-com that follows Tom, a hopeless romantic

who's been looking for the girl of his dreams his entire life,

and Summer who believes that love is like Santa Claus and it doesn't really exist

and the movie follows

500 days of their relationship.

It gets messy. They like, break up. There's ups and downs.

There's fights.

The reason this movie is one of my favorite rom-coms

other than the fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt

is in it, is that this movie has grown with meaning as I've gotten older.

When I first watched it,

I was in middle school and I really took it at face value

that "Oh, Summer's an asshole for breaking Tom's heart and poor Tom

he has to go chase after her",

and I was rooting for the hopeless romantic Tom

because he was the guy who,

who wanted to get the girl

and that was the happy ending that I had been taught in my entire life.

I think when we were younger and in our first relationship

we're all kind of like Tom.

We all project this ultra romantic ideal of somebody perfect onto somebody

who's frankly not perfect. I feel like as I've grown up and

after you experience heartbreak and shit

I feel like we all become more and more like Summer

and I come to realize that Tom isn't like this perfect romantic hero.

He's kind of a guy clinging on to a relationship that didn't work.

So I think it's a really interesting film to watch

and especially a different point at your life and you can really understand like more

and more about the characters.

Also just stylistically, I think this movie does some really really cool

kind of meta editing effects.

You'll have to watch the movie to see exactly what I mean,

but I like that it really plays with some like experimental techniques.

It's also just like my favorite movie to reference EVER

so, watch that movie and then you'll get all my "500 days of summer"

references in my videos.

Next up, we have "The double",

which is a movie that pretty much nobody I know has ever watched.

It is so underrated,

but it is, if I had to pick one,

I think my favorite movie of all time.

"The double" tells the story of this shy nervous office worker

whose life is turned upside down when

a doppelganger arrives at his office.

- I'd introduce everyone to our newest coworker.

- Please welcome...

- James Simon.

His doppelganger looks exactly like him but his personality is the exact opposite.

He's everything that Simon wishes that he could be.

He's charismatic. He is outgoing.

He gets recognized at his job.

He's also very good with the ladies and manages to seduce Simon's love interest.

His doppelganger starts off being his friend

but then slowly begins to take over Simon's life and he has to find a way to get rid of him.

This film is another one of those movies that leaves you like completely mind-fucked at the end.

It is so trippy and leaves you with so much to think about.

It talks about

social anxiety and identity,

and I feel like the main take away at this film is feeling like you're this small invisible person and

wishing that you could be charismatic and outgoing,

but you don't know how to be that person.

Never know that I relate to the main character a lot,

even though I'm like,

seem, I guess charismatic online and I like,

talk to a lot of people.

Like in real life, I'm pretty awkward.

So I find the main character very endearing.

- It really is. She's just looking at me.

- Yeah, all right.

- Now lick your lips.

-Yeah, what?

- Show the tongue, but be careful not to look like a lizard, go.

Also gotta give it to Jesse Eisenberg,

he's like my favorite actor, ever.

And in this movie, he plays the main character AND the antagonist.

So there's just double Jesse Eisenberg, which is really all I could ask for.

My next film or should I say, set of films is

"Before sunrise", "Before sunset" and "Before midnight".

These films follow the story of a boy and a girl

who meet on the train in Europe and

they just strike up a conversation and

spontaneously decide to get off the train and spend one night together in the city.

The first film, "Before sunrise", is when they first meet.

Then the next film is 10 years later,

and the next film is 10 years later after that.

So, seen together, they're a really interesting snap shot of a relationship.

It really tripped me out the first time

I watched all three of them, because I felt like I had seen my life flashed before my eyes.

You know, in the first film they're like 20, they're really young.

They're just having fun in a city together.

Later, we see them in their 30s in their 40s, and I'm like, holy shit

Like I'm gonna be.. I'm gonna be that old one day.

I'm really excited to watch these films again when I'm 30 and when I'm 40,

because I feel like I'll relate to the characters

in new ways.

Anyways, I love that these films feel very,

uhm...

authentic. It's a cheesy word.

But the writing and the acting is so nuanced

and there's like these little things that make it feel like real life.

There's a scene where they're on the train and like the guy is like nervous