Introducing The World’s Most Superfluous Streaming Service
or: do you guys remember Mailkimp?
Hi all,
Lately the film and TV industry has been abuzz about FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) services like Tubi, Pluto TV, and FreeVee. Amid the growing uncertainty around the long term viability of subscription model services like Netflix and Max, the FAST streamers offer a “back to basics” approach similar to Network TV.
While FAST streamers have motivated some introspection across the industry, a new outsider, some may even say maverick, disruptor has emerged with a business model that totally upends the status quo. Essentially, this new platform asks the question, “What if instead of being merely ad-supported, the entire service was just one really big ad?”
The answer looks like Mailchimp Presents, a bizarre offshoot of email newsletter and marketing automation company Mailchimp. And this isn’t just Mailchimp devoting some of its resources to promoting the work of artists, say in the way WeTransfer.com does. No, Mailchimp are truly curating and commissioning a range of content for the service. Across podcasts, film and series, Mailchimp Presents features work that they claim was “created with entrepreneurs in mind”.
It's a baffling expression of MBA mindset synergistic thought. Mailchimp email newsletter clients are often entrepreneurs, therefore Mailchimp should dedicate time and money to running a streaming entertainment service dedicated to entrepreneurial spirit?
But no matter how silly an idea Mailchimp Presents is (a very silly one, make no mistake), I feel compelled in my role as occasional film essayist and critic to deliver to you, my fine readers, a thorough review of the service’s selection. To help steer you away from the duds and towards the goods of Hollywood’s most unasked for streaming service.
Features
Hands on a Hardbody
My first movie on Mailchimp Presents was a doozy. Hands On A Hardbody is a genuine cult hit, it’s garnered praise from Quentin Tarantino, been featured on This American Life and at one point Robert Altman was even attached to direct a fictional feature film adaptation.
HOHB documents an annual competition hosted by a Texas automobile dealership wherein 24 competitors must remain standing and keep one hand resting on a pickup truck for as long as they can, the last one standing with a hand on the truck gets to drive it home and keep it.
It’s a wonderful film, a small scale triumph that manages to capture this strange, torturous event with remarkable restraint. In direct to camera interviews, the competitors each offer their reasoning for entering the competition. Some rely on their youth, others on their religious belief. One contestant, Benny Perkins, is a returning champ and he approaches the challenge with the spirit of an athlete. Not only does he endeavour to win again, he plans to break the all-time record.
Should a film like this be made today you might expect it to be full of reality TV style tropes and contrivances, presumably one subject would be edited so as to come across as a villain, a shocking, morally conflicted backstabbing would occur, tempers would boil over and sparks would fly. But this doc, shot well before the reality TV age, is much more earnest and forthright, the competition is allowed to unfold undisturbed and friendships blossom between the contestants.
HOHB has a beautiful, homemade, kind-hearted core too it. It’s an astonishing work of cinema when you consider the resources available to director S.R. Bindler who shot on 8mm film and was only fresh out of film school. It’s evidence that compelling cinema is achievable on the smallest of scales and tightest of budgets. An unqualified gem in Mailchimp’s collection.
Rating: 5 emails outta 5!
Sirens
Sirens follows Slave to Sirens, the Middle East’s first all-women metal band. An early scene sees the band receive an invite to perform at the famous Glastonbury music festival, which may lead the viewer to believe the film will plot the band’s meteoric rise to fame, glory, and global domination. In reality, the Glastonbury plot is resolved very swiftly, they practice, fly out, perform to a couple dozen festival goers in an afternoon slot and return to Lebanon to unpack the film’s real story.
As much as the band is beset by external factors, Lebanon’s restrictive laws against women, conservative religious values, homophobia, and adherence to traditional gender roles being just a few, the documentary’s true source of drama is internal. The band’s founding members, Shery and Lilas, both in their twenties, are former lovers and they must learn to reconcile their complicated feelings for each other, they are also desperate for approval from their parents, must navigate work and
A standout sequence is structured around the infamous 2020 Beirut Explosion. The colossal blast killed over 200 people, injured more than 7,000, sparked nationwide protests and eventually brought about the resignation of the Lebanese government. Here, the explosion unearths generational trauma as well as tensions within the band and serves as a metaphorical flash point in the story.
Rating: 5 emails outta 5!
Shorts Films
99 Problems
When perusing Mailchimp’s library of films, I truly wasn’t expecting to come across something so local to me. 99 Problems is a
peak into the life of the owner and operator of an ice cream truck in north Dublin (my hometown!). While I recognised some of the estates “Pinky” (so named for his Pink Panther themed van) operates in, I don’t believe I’ve yet had the pleasure of purchasing a 99 or boat sundae from him. I’ll have to correct that soon because whilst 99 Problems does hint towards Pinky having a darker side (he demonstrates his boxing skills and nunchuck abilities, there’s an oblique reference to Ice Cream Man turf wars), it mostly paints the man as a genuinely compelling character and likable fella with genuine affection for his clients, the children of Dublin.
Rating: 3 emails outta 5!
Crown Candy
Very much a spiritual companion to 99 Problems, Crown Candy follows a purveyor of confectionaries on another continent, all the way over in St. Louis Missouri.
Crown Candy is an establishment that dates back over a hundred years. The short sees its current owner Andy reflect on the local areas changing demographics and evolving racial tensions. Touching on subjects like white flight and gentrification, the story is told from the perspective of a white business owner in a predominantly black neighbourhood. Andy shares valuable anecdotes of white people calling him before visiting his store to check that it’s “safe” and offers his reasons for staying committed to the neighbourhood after the 2014 murder of unarmed 18 year old Michael Brown by a St. Louis police officer and the resulting unrest centred around nearby Ferguson.
It's an interesting but all too short doc. A longer runtime would in my opinion be justified and would allow the filmmakers to paint a more holistic portrait of both the business and community.
Rating 2 and a half emails outta 5!
Series
Taking Stock
The first scripted project I encountered, Taking Stock is a short form workplace comedy set at a stock photo agency. The series was commissioned especially for Mailchimp Presents. Therefore it bears a certain amount of pressure. Will this be to Mailchimp what House Of Cards was to Netflix? Or will it turn out more like Lilyhammer?
Sadly, I think it’s the latter. There’s just an unmistakable commercial sheen to the whole series, a deep rooted inauthenticity from the lighting to the wardrobe to the performances. The bizarre liminal world of stock photography could well be an interesting setting for a story (I’d definitely watch a documentary about the people behind stock photos) but this wacky sitcom take on it rings immensely hollow.
You know how The Big Bang Theory wasn’t really made with a geek audience in mind but found success in repackaging geek iconography and stereotypes to larger audiences? I sense a similar gambit was tried for with Taking Stock, I don’t expect anyone with creative agency experience to find much truth in the comedy here but maybe if it was a CBS sitcom it could find an audience.
Rating: 1 email outta 5!
Trade Show Show
Another Mailchimp production, Trade Show Show might have been my biggest surprise of the bunch. Directed by Jason Woliner (whose credits include Paul T. Goodman, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, W/ Bob and David and Parks and Rec), the series manages to feel much larger in scope than Taking Stock even if the writing is similarly undercooked.
Trade Show Show is a mockumentary style short form series starring a handful of aspiring entrepreneurs as they all converge on one big convention centre to pitch their products and sell their wares. The characters feel a bit cookie cutter (an app bro who can’t really define what his app actually does, a narky old man resistant to modern business practices) but with only six episodes and a five-to-seven minute runtime, the show does an admirable job of digging slightly beneath the surface to deliver good humour.
For example, an entrepreneur pitching a hands free baguette eating device called “Baguette About It” on a tacky Shark Tank-esque reality show isn’t especially funny but the awkwardly long pause between his demonstrative bite of the baguette and the final lines of his pitch, filled with the sounds of his belaboured chewing is (to me at least).
Maybe it’s a metaphor for the entire Mailchimp Presents ecosystem, I didn’t especially need Trade Show Show in my life (who does, let’s be real?) and much of it didn’t really appeal to me but there were a few gems waiting to be unearthed once I gave it my attention. Similarly, a Mailchimp streaming site seems utterly unnecessary and even ill advised from a business perspective but nevertheless there was some very good stuff on there I otherwise wouldn’t have seen.
Rating: 2 emails outta 5!
Well, there you have it. I really did watch all that for you guys. I think that deserves a like or a share or something. Sincerely though, Mailchimp Presents is an entirely free service with a few real gems, if you’re interested in documentaries I’d for sure recommend checking it out for yourself.
Incredible work