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2020 US documentary film

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Feels Good Man is a 2020 American documentary film about the Internet meme Pepe the Frog. Marking the directorial debut of Arthur Jones, the film stars artist Matt Furie, the creator of Pepe. The film follows Furie as he struggles to reclaim control of Pepe from members of the alt-right who have co-opted the image for their own purposes. The film premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and won a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker. It was also nominated in the U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance.[1]

Pepe the Frog, a character created by Matt Furie and first featured in a comic on MySpace called Boy's Club, is one of four twentysomething postcollegiate slacker friends who live together.[2][3] In one installment, Pepe is caught by one of his housemates with his pants around his ankles, urinating.[2] Asked why, he replies, "Feels good man".[2] The image becomes a viral Internet meme and is co-opted by the alt-right.[2][4]

Too late, Furie attempts to take Pepe back from the alt-right who have turned him from a cartoon character into a symbol for hate.[2] The film deals with the question of whether Pepe can be redeemed.[5][6][7] The coda of the film alludes to Pepe's appropriation by pro-democracy demonstrators during the 20192020 Hong Kong protests.[8]

Feels Good Man is the directorial debut of Arthur Jones.[4][8] Jones described the film as:[4]

The movie is really about him negotiating that uncomfortable reality for himself, [...] Matts personal journey really makes the movie really unique that I hope a lot of people find satisfying for a lot of reasons.

Jones, who was also film editor, finished the edit two days prior to the premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.[4] He described the editing process as a "slow-rolling panic attack", but said he was looking forward to showing the film at the festival.[4]

As of early February 2020 the film was seeking distribution.[9] It also appeared as part of PBS's Independent Lens.[10] In October 2020, it was broadcast by the BBC as part of its Storyville series.[11]

The film has earned critical acclaim.[6][7][3]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95%, based on 81 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus reads, "A cautionary tale on internet culture, Feels Good Man is a compelling look at an artist's journey to salvage his creation."[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13]

Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com wrote: "Jones' movie is a beacon of internet literacy about a whole new languagethat memes are flexible, omnipotent, and pieces of a phenomenon more powerful than their creators".[5]

Vox Media's Polygon called it "the most important political film of 2020".[9]

Feels Good Man won a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker at the Sundance Film Festival.[14][15] It was also nominated in the festival's U.S. Documentary Competition.[16][17]

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Feels Good Man - Wikipedia