A Short Introduction

Raison d’etre

 “Oh great- another film blog.”

    Maybe you thought something like the above when you first found this blog. Maybe you didn’t. Regardless, I feel like I ought to list my justification for creating it in the first place. It’s very simply, really: I happen to enjoy writing out my thoughts on entertainment. And since I enjoy movies, why not write about them?

     I know, I know- it’s not very original, unique, etc. But it is what it is. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to decide if my thoughts at all interest or intrigue you.

My Standards

     “What makes a movie ‘good’?” is a question that now doubt occupies the minds of anyone who bothers to think at length about the world of cinema. No doubt, people will continue to debate the answers to that question for as long as film exists. For my money, though, there’s no greater answer than the following statement by the late Roger Ebert: “It’s not what a movie’s about, but how it’s about it.”

     One of the most dangerous temptations in any sort of criticism is the conflation of one’s level of personal enjoyment with actual objective quality. It’s my number one pet peeve when it comes to reviews, and it’s something you’ll see me bring up here more than once at relevant points. While I’d be lying if I said I’ve never fallen for the temptation myself, it is something I actively strive to avoid. For the truth is that I’ve enjoyed both good movies and bad ones, and disliked both good movies and bad movies. And I expect I’m by no means unique in this regard. Just because something grabs a viewer doesn’t mean it’s actually all that great, and vice-versa.

     Most any review tends to assign just one rating to a movie or show [yes, I will sometimes touch on TV shows here]. I intend to evaluate everything I review on two scales. The first, I’m going to call “Actual Quality”. This scale will range from one to twelve points [with half-points being permissible]. It will tell you how well I believe the film or show in question executed its concepts, characters, themes, overall plot, soundtrack, effects, etc. In short, an overall quality rating. The second scale, which will also range from one to twelve points [again, with half-points as well], I will call “Personal Enjoyment”. It will tell you how much I myself enjoyed the film or show in question. Bear in mind that this rating may or may not correlate with its “Actual Quality” rating.