Well, hey there. I started this blog as a restless grad student looking to procrastinate on his thesis by watching a shitload of movies. My last post was only a month before I began my AFI 100 Project for DigBoston, initiating a series of events that led to my current role as Associate Film Editor. (And yes, I finally finished my thesis last May on the Russian Orthographic Reform of 1917. Thrilling stuff.) Much of what became my writing and reviewing style was honed during the two-year AFI series, and I was fortunate enough to have an audience to join me and interact with me along the way.
Since the project wrapped in January 2013, I've been looking for a follow-up series to match or outdo the scope of the AFI reviews. For the most part, everything was just another list; IMDB Top/Bottom 100, AFI sub-lists, Best Picture nominees. All sounded fun, but every time I started one, it just felt like more of the same.
Which is what led me to my current project. Inspired by conversations with my good friend Adam Daroff (with whom I also started the AFI series), I'll be watching and commenting on every film from Roger Ebert's three-volume set of The Great Movies, 300 in total. As I go, I'll be bouncing my reactions against Ebert's. This may make this series less contrarian than my previous one as Ebert was less susceptible to the crush of critical consensus as the AFI and other film historians, but I certainly won't hold back my thoughts if I disagree.
My process will be as follows:
-If I've seen a film before, I'll read Ebert's review first and then rewatch it through his lens. If I haven't, I'll watch it first, then read the review.
-If I've already reviewed a film, I'll revisit my own opinion, critiquing my own review as necessary.
-No film goes by without comment. Only if I've seen a film very recently will I skip the viewing, but I will always have something to say.
The reason this is on my blog instead of DigBoston.com is that this is a much more personal project. It's as much an exercise in autodidacticism and self-reflection as it is a collection of reviews. Not even my old opinions will be safe.
Consider this the thesis for the master's degree in film I should have been pursuing instead of the one in linguistics that I ended up with.
