They are doing that more and more. There have been a number of BOTW where they have voted for those where it's only enjoyable if you understand the filmmaking process. They have also been reviewing more of those 'autist' films, and less popular films. I don't know if it's them getting tired of popular films, or just their interests changing over time.
One of the things I liked the most about the plinkett reviews was that it broke down why a scene works (i.e. the opening scene from Star Wars). I wish they did more of that with the films they reviewed, and even in BOTW.
Eh, they were never that keyed onto the popular movies in the first place. They always have been B movie aficionados. Now, while I still argue that 50s-70s B movies are generally superior to 80s B movies, they've always been interested in these kinds of movies over Hollywood productions.
Why do I argue early B movies were superior on average? Because they try to look like movies even with weird premises and were the basis for most science fiction of that time. Yeah, sure you can point to
Santa Claus v. Martians or
Plan 9 from Outer Space, but it's also the era where you get
Them! and
The Day the Earth Stood Still. I'd also argue most of the Godzilla movies fit into the B movie genre too, but that affects the average too much. Even mid-tier stuff would be
Night of the Lepus or
The Blob* still look like movies, so I can always say these filmmakers tried their best with the often stupid premises that come with it. 80s B movies have that VHS low quality look to them which made its cheapness unacceptably bad. No budget means the cinematography also had a general lack of planning, so it's shot for efficiency reasons and it compounds the visual problems even more. Yeah, sure RLM point and laugh at this sort of thing, but it's still junk to watch IRL.
*The Blob is the only horror movie I know of where characters actually use the Scientific method. They try throwing acid at it, shooting it, zapping it, and Steve McQueen figured out it doesn't like being frozen after it tried to avoid the restaurant's freezer. Most horror protagonists scream and run away.
