As tagged by Fox of Tractor Facts, continuing the meme created at DVD Panache, here are nine movie-related resolutions for 2009:
(In no specific order.)
1. Quit teasing people and write at least one post about or related to Steve McQueen, for crying out loud.
2. Be more dedicated about watching items in my Netflix queue. (Finally seeing Raising Arizona in 2008 was fine and good, but I’m not sure it was worth the $30 or so that I paid to have that little red envelope sit untouched for months.)
3. Be more dedicated about watching DVDs from my own collection, which would happen more often if I could learn to stop worrying and not be so anal about needing to watch movies uninterrupted from start to finish. (Like most people, there are dozens of movies that I’ve seen dozens of times that I let play in the background as I’m doing things around the apartment. But if I purchase a movie after seeing it only once in the theater, I have a nasty habit of wanting that precious second-ever viewing to be entirely disruption-free. Which would explain, for example, why I still haven’t watched There Will Be Blood, despite excitedly buying the DVD within a week of its release.)
4. Find another movie poster that through a combination of its graphic artistry and subject matter is worthy of being professionally matted and framed for display alongside my current collection, which includes The Thin Red Line, The New World, Bullitt, The Great Escape, Amelie … Wait a minute. Maybe my resolution should be to find more wall space.
5. At least investigate the technology purchases that would be required in order for me to be able to create some video-based analyses and celebrations here at The Cooler from time to time. I’ve been writing about movies for more than a decade now. I need to write. Always will. But I’m interested in exploring new forms of criticism, too.
6. Let this be the year that I come to the terms with the fact that this actor ...
and this actor ...
are actually the same person.
7. Find one new-to-me engaging voice on film from around the blogosphere each month, and continue use the “Sharin’ the Love” feature to highlight interesting reads, so that there’s always something new to read at The Cooler (even when I don’t have a new post), and so that others can discover new, engaging voices, too. (On that note, I’d like to give a plug to FilmDr, who this week has provided some very entertaining dispatches from the frontlines of his two-week video production class for high schoolers. Check it out.)
8. Somehow come to terms with the fact that there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to do as much reading (not skimming, reading) and commenting at other blogs as I’d like. Alas, I’m going to miss some great commentary. I need to be OK with that.
9. Seize the opportunity created by a thriving newspaper industry and a booming economy to quit my day job and begin a long, lucrative career writing about film. (OK, so it’s eight resolutions and one Dumbo-esque hallucination.)
Happy 2009, everybody! What are your movie-related resolutions?
3 comments:
I know what you mean about the growing stack of unwatched DVDs. I have gotten over the uninterrupted-viewing compulsion by realizing that it may be weeks before I come into a long enough viewing slot.
Now if I watch a movie for an hour, I'm happy - and I love how even if I take the DVD out of the player, it remembers where I left off when I put it back in. How do they do that?
Another thing I do is - if my wife is at a meeting or on a trip - put my dinner on a tray and eat in front of the movie - one of my favorite things to do.
I don't have any grand movie related resolutions other than -
- Avoid the next Nicolas Cage movie.
- Add another viewing or two of film classics that I have never seen. This past year it was "The Piano" (liked it well enough but I'm not wild about it; "Rashomon" (sorry - I love a lot of Japanese films - especially Kurosawa Samurai films - but this film leaves me cold; a lot of it was boring); "Jules and Jim" (I really liked this a lot more than I thought I would and I enjoyed writing a review of it.)
- Get and read more screenplays. I really enjoyed reading the screenplay for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
Thanks for the shout-out. I fully understand your concern about Al Pacino. In Ocean's Thirteen he became a cartoon version of his former self. How about Dustin Hoffman appearing in both The Graduate and Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium? In Gran Torino, at least, Clint retains some of his former glory.
It occurs to me that if you pursue Resolution No. 9 -- no, not Dumbo-esque, but smart and absolutely achievable -- you'll have time to knock off all the other items on this list. Except possibly No. 6.
Post a Comment