Introduction

When I was growing up, we didn’t watch a lot of television. We didn’t have any streaming services, and my television was kept in a cabinet with two heavy oak doors, closed for most of the day. It was perhaps for this reason that even after my dad got Netflix and a DVD player, I continued to gravitate towards books. I missed out on movies so classic, so pinnacle to the human experience that–to this day–I find it easiest to nod my head and smile faintly when someone asks if I’ve seen the Breakfast Club.

I’m determined to change this. Over the course of this blog, I’ll be watching one movie a week and providing my unfiltered thoughts on what I see. I’m trying to span genres, time periods, and quality, so any and all suggestions are welcome.

My favorite extracurricular is mock trial, which simulates a courtroom environment as students portray witnesses and attorneys. As a longtime witness, I frequently find myself turning to movies as source material, whether it be to study actresses’ portrayals of grief, or to understand how to make a funny character. However, this study has been limited to YouTube clips and links from my friends. My goal is study the whole works, considering not only the impact of acting performances, but lighting, directional decisions, and costuming.

Review System

To keep things as uniform as possible, I’ve identified several categories that I’ll be evaluating each movie in, all on a scale of 1 to 10.

• Acting: Breaking down the strongest (and weakest?) performers, including creative decisions that I admire.
• Plot Intrigue: A battle that all movies have to fight are keeping their audiences entertained. I have a short attention span, so I dedicated an entire category to evaluating how much of my focus was held by the film.
• Ending: The most important parts of any story are the beginning and the end.
• Director Decisions: This topic is the one I’m most ignorant about. I’m curious to see what I pick up on with my entirely untrained amateur eye.
• Characters: As a book lover, interesting characters are everything to me! This category will measure characters’ complexity, consistency, and charm.

Up Next…

Next week, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on Prisoners, a 2013 thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman. The movie follows a troubled father (Jackman) as his daughter goes missing, and the detective (Gyllenhaal) whose working the case. The movie sits at a strong 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, and has gotten recent attention due to its addition to Netflix. Paired with a supporting performance from legendary Viola Davis, the star studded cast creates a high bar for its plot and delivery to reach towards.