Ah … the internet: where millions gather to anonymously joke about raiding Area 51 and young people nationwide get their kicks slamming back Tide Pods on camera. Long lauded as the great democratizer, the internet provides a space in which even the Jar Jar Binkses of the world have an opportunity to be heard by making a splash outside the confines of traditional media. Yet alongside the bizarre conspiracy plots, detergent guzzling and radical resistance, the internet also provides a space where alternative voices in media can gain a following.
Enter Shea Serrano: staff writer at The Ringer and the first three-time New York Times bestselling Mexican-American author in history. Like a small rodent carrying a large slice of pizza, Serrano has built his success as a writer and social media personality on the virtual backs of his loyal Twitter followers—who refer to themselves as the FOH Army. A former middle school science teacher, Serrano has a following of more than 300,000 fans thanks to his off-kilter humor, nuanced cultural criticism and a feel-good, chip-on-your-shoulder mentality. When not self-promoting, joking about the San Antonio Spurs or sparking all variety of online charitable donations, the writer uses his platform to aid and inspire hopeful writers and the like in an attempt to give back to a community that, as Serrano puts it, “remains undefeated” and supports him without fail. Shea Serrano, WTF?
Movies (And Other Things), released on Oct. 8 and illustrated by long-time collaborator Arturo Torres, is Serrano’s third New York Times bestseller and second consecutive No. 1 release. The new book is the latest example of both the incredible freshness that Serrano brings to cultural criticism and the tireless support of the FOH Army. In an interview with NPR, Serrano perfectly summarizes both his writing career and the book’s guiding theme: “This will be preposterous, but please treat it seriously.”
His book is not your typical movie book, so if you’re expecting tired cinephile takes about Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon you had better look elsewhere. MAOT is centered solely around the movies Serrano himself values, so lots of action movies, rom-coms and nothing that premiered earlier than 1980; you know, high art. In all seriousness, the book proves valuable because of the way it spotlights and puts significant thought towards movies that wouldn’t typically get the kind of critical attention Serrano’s book allows for. In his NPR interview, the author mentions how he “[has] the opportunity to celebrate some stuff, which is largely what the book is about … And [he’s] just going to lean all the way in, and [he’s] going to try to be as respectful and courteous as possible because [he thinks], you know, this is art.”
Have you ever wondered whether the Jurassic Park raptors were just misunderstood? Which race was white-saviored the best by Kevin Costner? What about which characters would make up the perfect heist movie crew? Serrano’s book answers all these and more across MAOT’s 30 chapters, each tackling its own kind of atypical movie query. The result is an incredibly insightful and surprisingly personal examination of some of the past decades’ most impactful movies.
As much of an accomplishment as Serrano’s best-selling books are, perhaps his greatest achievement is the dedicated FOH Army following him on Twitter. Yes, his followers are a group of readers that support the writer and use Twitter to talk sports and pop-culture, however, the FOH Army is also an unmatched charitable force that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for people in need. Serrano will regularly tweet out links to various GoFundMe pages and his army funds those campaigns without fail, sometimes in as little as 30 minutes.
After beginning his career as a teacher, Serrano takes nothing for granted and utilizes his background to support his readers. He explained to NBC News how teaching middle school science for nine years “was the best job [he] ever had and it is certainly the most meaningful job [he has] ever had.” Like all good teachers, Serrano points out career opportunities for his followers, critiques their pieces of writing and gives regular words of encouragement.
He has one piece of advice for anyone looking to follow in his footsteps: bet on yourself. The logic is simple, “someone’s going to get to do the thing you want to do so fuck it, it might as well be you.”