WENDY LEE SZANY
When Wendy Lee Szany began “The Movie Couple” YouTube channel with her husband, Dustin, almost five years ago, she added her voice as an Asian American to a still-nascent space of online film criticism, which was dominated by white men.
“I found Chris Stuckmann and Jeremy Jahns and ‘AMC Movie Talk,’ ” she said about those early years. “I didn’t find another Asian girl, my age, at all. So why not create something so that I could be a part of the voice? Somebody out there is gonna appreciate my review.”
Almost five years later, the channel has more than 18,000 subscribers and almost 4.5 million views and has seen its videos and commentary used by film studios in trailers. But Szany still finds herself struggling to be seen as a serious critic.
“When people think journalism and film critics, they think it’s on paper or online — that it’s written,” she said. “When they look at a YouTube film critic, they think, ‘Oh, well, it’s just another video’ and we’re not serious or professional enough to be able to go to TIFF or Cannes or Sundance, or South by Southwest even.”
Invitations to media screenings are few and far between.
“I can’t just pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, Marvel. I really wanna see “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” I do reviews on YouTube, and I have 18,000 followers,’ ” she said.
Her day job as an assistant at Collider hasn’t resulted in useful connections either, as “you have to be really careful to not overstep what is personal and what is work.” When a movie premieres that she and her husband are interested in reviewing, they buy tickets to the Thursday night shows or early preview screenings like regular moviegoers.
Szany said she can’t help but feel that digital content creators are the “redheaded stepchild, like ‘YouTube creator’ is a dirty word.” That’s why she joined the Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society, founded in 2016 by Scott Menzel, Scott Mantz and Ashley Menzel with an effort to “embrace members that are finding new ways to criticize film whether that be through video, podcasts or on social media,” according to their website.
“Because it’s always the same press [getting access],” she said. “Why shouldn’t we get the same opportunity as other online film critics? We need to start opening up opportunities.”