I have been listening to Melvin’s Cinematic Doctrine podcast for many years now and I am sad to say the “mature, millennial-infused” discussions are far from the “Acts 17 and Romans 2:4” inspired ideas that he may have started with.
First, Melvin’s lack of sincerity is apparent - he makes numerous mistakes that lend to his lack of credibility as a film critic. He’s made claims that “horror is uniquely an American film genre - we export horror like we do capitalism.” This take was made simply to make a jab at the free market, while also dramatically discounting the fact that horror is indeed, NOT a solely American film genre. The works of German Expressionism in the 20’s, the UK Hammer gothic horror films of the 60’s and 70’s, as well as the Italian proto-slashers from Mario Bava and Dario Argento - are they unfamiliar to Melvin? This would be strange considering the sheer number of horror films Mevlin decides to review. This podcast tends to not review very many current/trending films, but instead, Melvin will cover obscure horror “made-for-TV” horror films of the 90’s and early 00’s. That or documentaries that detail abuse in the church or “conservative” communities. Fair enough Melvin - we ought to discuss such issues. But where’s the talk about the real, rich, meaningful Christian films? I am not talking about Fireproof - where’s Babette’s Feast? Ordet? Passion of Joan of Arc? The answer is that most of the films discussed are simply used as springboards for Melvin to jump into some tangential rant that has irked him lately. There’s no authentic love for film that was once here.
Now - all of the above could be forgiven. Inauthenticity or lack of knowledge is not a problem in its own right. However - this brings me to my second point. This inauthenticity is couched with a glaring cynicism that makes listening nearly impossible. I mentioned before Melvin’s jab at capitalism - nearly every point he makes is like this. Slathered with a sarcastic quip at those he deems problematic. A great example of this is his take on Star Wars. To speak nothing of the contempt he has of Star Wars fans themselves (idol worshipers - yes. That’s what he calls us), he’s glaringly inconsistent with his criticisms. When reviewing the first season of The Mandalorian, he quipped that Disney was foolish for not having Baby Yoda toys ready for sale at the time of release. Later however, Melvin will disparagingly remark that “Star Wars only exists to sell toys.” Which is it Melvin? Was Disney foolish for not selling toys or do they exist only to sell toys? The answer does not really matter - Melvin brings these points up to fill his recordings with bitterness. The cynicism does not end there. The Patreon for this show voted on reviewing a wildly inappropriate anime called No Game No Life that I will spare you the details of. Granted, Melvin was uncomfortable with reviewing this anime (which honestly, concerns me as to what kind of community he has over there on Patreon), however, rather than make this a Patreon member exclusive review or reviewing something else entirely, (which would have been more than appropriate), he chose to air this episode and platform this obscure, offensive anime only to express negativity about it, anime in general, and his listeners. Why do this? Why give any time or credence to something that was not worth anyone’s time? Instead we now have an episode devoted to some garbage that should have never been reviewed at all. All of this to say - the podcast, sadly, seems to exist for Melvin to vent his frustrations, rather than to discuss film.
Sadly, it does not end there. I will start this final point by saying that Melvin has clearly descended into a mode of deconstructivism/exvangelicalism while also not being adamant about it. He frequently uses they/them pronouns for individuals who are clearly male/female (like Josh Brolin’s character in Weapons) and will frustratingly switch to he/she pronouns mid discussion. This makes the discussions unbearably challenging to listen to when the subject/verbs Melvin is talking about flip around inconsistently. The obvious reason for this is for Melvin to signal that he is affirming of a particular sort of audience without outright saying it - unfortunately, the discussions are that much more difficult to listen to. That by itself would not be too bad - unfortunately, Melvin has become noticeably, viciously anti-Evangelical and anti-Conservative, reeking of a progressive legalism, that is rank with judgement. One needed to only look at his social media accounts after the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk to see how gleefully he gloated over the murder of a fellow Christian. Even recently, Kirk seems to be living rent free in Melvin’s head as ludicrously claimed that “dying doesn’t absolve you of sin - it happens because of it.” Astounding - Kirk was murdered because of his sin? As a Conservative myself, if the shoe were on the other foot, and a prominent pro-abortion/anti-Christian leftist was murdered (God forbid) such a statement would be unthinkable. Has Melvin read Job? He sounds far worse than one of Job’s useless friends. I doubt Melvin has the modicum of self reflection to acknowledge this sadly. Melvin’s bitterness still does not end there - in the review for Sinners, Melvin disparagingly mocked that violence against those who utter microaggressions was justified (1:03 time stamp - listen for yourself). Really? A microaggression according to critical theorists is often an unintentional, offensive verbal remark. This action should warrant violence according to Melvin. Even non-Conservatives, those of any decency should find this abhorrent. All of this would be justified by Melvin however - the judgement he passes is lacking of grace. Cinematic Doctrine has suffered because of this.
Concluding - inauthenticity, cynicism, and judgement are all you will find at Cinematic Doctrine these days.
