TikTok is a social media platform which has become surprisingly massive in the past few years, despite being owned by a Chinese conglomerate with ties to China's government. Its algorithm allows many people to see and follow others they would never interact with. Once the TikTok algorithm receives a sense of what you enjoy, you will be shown videos from that 'side' of TikTok. For example, for those who watch films, it would be called "filmtok" or "movietok." Your FYP (or 'For Your Page') will show you only movie and film-related content if those are the only video you like or watch.
There are a few different types of creators in the movietok and filmtok side of TikTok. The most significant number of creators on this side of TikTok is "list" creators. They do videos such as "top five saddest movies of all time" or "top 10 Christmas movies," all of which are opinionated and not for everyone. You can find any of these channels easily by searching for the title of those lists, but if you're more of a filmtok person, they will most likely find you without searching for them.
If you are looking for new shows or films, follow all the basic streaming services or any major channels you like. Most have a TikTok and are promoting their works constantly. This is an excellent way to track which shows and films are coming up for their premier. Aside from that, there are a variety of great TikTok channels out there for every kind of cinephile.
Reviews and Critiques
For a less biased recommendation on what to watch next, check out Maddi Koch (@maddikoch). She is a creator with three million followers who recommends movies to her viewers. She gives a short synopsis and generally a reason, in her own opinion, why she thinks you should watch the film. While this is her opinion, her followers all tend to agree with her recommendations, giving her more credibility for her taste in cinema. For mainstream movie recommendations, she is the channel to follow.
For a little more depth into the movie's themes, plot, and characters, check out Cameron Kozak (@kozak_cameron). He is a TikTok creator who reviews films. He generally begins with a short synopsis and then critiques the movie. He has 1.4 million followers and often has positive and agreeable comments with his critiques in the comments on the videos. He also reviews film industry aspects, such as "worst movie poster of 2022," and provides interesting thoughts on the film marketing industry. This is the account to follow for movie reviews, critiques, and more about the industry.
Another great reviewer is Megan @JStoobs. She gives fun but in-depth movie and comic reviews to her viewers. She has about 500 thousand followers and lots of positive feedback in her comments. She does reviews and content such as the top 15 most important animated films, which discusses what each film did for the world of animation.
Comedic TikTok Creators
Tiktok also has some very comedic videos for people who love film. Many channels take a cinematic concept and redo it perfectly in a comic light.
Nicholas Flannery (@NicholasFlannery) is one of those channels. He has three million followers on TikTok and creates accurate parodies of pieces of films in different genres. He makes videos such as "the dead wife at the beginning of the movies," which is a montage of him dressed in a wig and women's clothing, doing activities such as sipping coffee on the front porch, swinging in a park, going on a stroll, etc. It accurately portrays all the stereotypes that montage films tend to do when the character has a dead wife.
Flannery has many others, including "every cafeteria scene in a teen movie," or "every movie when the husband is hiding something." All are extraordinarily accurate and make you think about how many similar movies set up their plots and scenes with overused clichés.
Caroline Klidonas (@Carolineklidonas) is a somewhat lesser-known creator with 354 thousand followers. She does videos similar to Nicholas, mostly parodying the stereotypes of genre movies. She tends to make videos in a series, outlining entire plots of essential films such as her "heist movie series," which involves three videos. These include the classic heist movie stereotypes of the meeting scene, the heist, and the plan going wrong. She puts all her series in organized categories to find at the top of her feed.
Overall, TikTok can provide you with whatever film content creation you want; you simply need to stay on the filmtok side of the algorithm, so it pops up frequently on your FYP. If you have trouble getting to filmtok, merely search #filmtok in the search bar and scroll through the hashtag for a while, liking videos. This should steer your FYP algorithm more toward the content you want to see.