In Love with the Silver Screen
A brief introduction on what's to come
On a Wednesday night last year in NYC Times Square at 10pm, I became an independent moviegoer. I strolled into a movie theater as a newly anointed AMC A-List member, mobile ticket in hand, ready to catch Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Excluding the guy catching Z’s five minutes into the movie, I was the only person in there for two hours of pure bliss.
Like many people coming out of a relationship and out of a job, I realized that I needed to find something to do. I wanted new hobbies solely my own, something that would occupy the time and mental space I originally reserved for my ex-partner; as well as craving a distraction for the new part of my brain I now spent thinking about said ex-partner.
So why movies?
Low barrier of entry: It’s quite easy to find movies you want to watch with a click of a button. Pull from a watchlist and you quickly learn there were too many you haven’t seen, yet heard of before, all mostly available on numerous streaming services. There’s a joy to collecting accounts like Infinity Stones, trading passwords with friends to find a specific movie. And even if you can’t find a film through streaming, there are … other ways. Like going to the theater :).
Limited brain power required: Despite movies being one of the more difficult ways technically and creatively to tell a story, it’s arguably the easiest as a viewer to turn your brain off to. You don’t have to imagine what characters look like or add sounds to the story. You just have to follow along to where the screen takes you, taking out most of the surface-level guesswork. Two hours easily fly by in the blink of an eye.
Easy to do alone: The thrill of heading into an AC’d movie theater on a hot summer day with no other plans but to catch the latest flick, is unmatched. The freedom to go on your own schedule feels like the first time you took the car out to drive. Who says you can’t take yourself on a movie date? Sidenote: Aren’t movie dates one of the worst types of dates? Either that or “activity” dates where you don’t get to actually talk to the person like bowling.
Emotionally satisfying: After each film you watch, it feels like you’ve accomplished something worthwhile with your day. You go through a rollercoaster of emotions, reach some type of satisfying conclusion, and can move on with your life. You get transported into another world entirely and didn’t have to spend a dime to travel there. “One thing off the to-do list.”
But what truly makes cinema captivating is the chance to closely connect with companions, to create those cherished connections chronicled over life’s chapters, culminating into satisfying conclusions.
My parents have been watching movies for as long as I can remember and often make references to actors or stories during our day-to-day conversations. Kid-me never gave it a second thought, believing this was “an adult-hobby, that I would never relate to my parents in that way, and these are all old things anyway, why would I ever want to watch movies that weren’t cartoons?” I didn’t watch many movies growing up, other than the occasional superhero flick, Miyazaki film, or whatever was playing on the Disney channel.
And now, I’m an adult (scary), and crave for things to talk about with them, making movies an easy well to draw from. Just last week I finally saw the Before series and had a lengthy discussion with my mom about the themes and actors. As I get older, it’s easier to empathize with more characters, and in turn, my parents. Hearing my mom and dad talk about their lives through the vehicle that is film makes me love them even more.
Meeting new friends as an adult (just as scary) means trying to find something you both can talk about. Thrilling topics include the weather, Isn’t New York so incredibly humid right now?, or something in the news, Do you think that entire incident at the rally was staged?. But finding a hobby overlap, especially one as easy as movie-watching, makes the conversation smooth like butter. The reward of finding the other person at the party that’s as enthusiastic about AMC A-List as you are, leading you both to add each other on Entourage and schedule an upcoming movie hang the following week, is unparalleled.
I want to buy into the pop culture surrounding cinema, having only caught glimpses from the outside either on Twitter or from friends making off-hand references. Iconic quotes or memes build out of movies for the better part of a century now, and the list isn’t getting any shorter with over 500+ films being made a year.
The best part now, is that I slowly am able to make my own movie references without wondering where it came from or not understanding the context. Before, when I may have tried to pretend that I caught the callback in a conversation, I’m now the one that can drop a random quote, a joy that hits almost as hard as an inside joke. That in it of itself should be a post — how many references can you slip within a conversation?
Something else that greatly interested me was learning how to better criticize film, and in turn generally be better at articulating my own thoughts. I find it easy enough to tell if I liked or disliked something, but real skill comes with being able to identify why. Articulating the why says so much about the person — who they are, what they know, and their general taste. And this applies to anything in everyday life, as I strive to be someone that is open to anything, but with opinions about everything.
My 9th/12th grade English teacher left a considerable mark on me regarding how to critically analyze stories. While many stories have new coats of contemporary technologies or modern takes toward fictional or historical time periods, you can still often boil down these tales to its core themes: themes that have been repurposed time and time again like fate vs. destiny, coming-of-age, freedom against oppression, adventure into the unknown, or redemption and sacrifice. Movies do their best to immerse you in an environment you could see yourself in, with characters that either rise to the challenge, learn to survive, or fall victim to the world’s vices.
On the more technical side, I’ve been shooting photos and filming videos since middle school, training my brain to identify what has aesthetic value and how to edit light, composition, color, and sound; all so it can lend itself to telling a better story.
So I would like to begin sharing why I feel if a movie either accomplished its goal or fell flat for me. I want to spawn a debate between friends that either challenges or reinforces how I approach life. We all have that never-ending human desire to be seen and understood, and I find other people’s stories to be an easy bridge to have those conversations.
That’s what I'm hoping this newsletter can be. I’ll be reviewing movies the same way with how I remember movies: by focusing on how it makes me feel, its iconic quotes, and specific scenes.
To give myself something to work towards last year, I caught as many of the 2023 Oscar Nominees as possible, and saw all of the Best Picture nominees (American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest).
I’m doing the same this year (now having some experience with online gossip to have a good guess at what is potentially in the running) as well as begin working my way through the classics. This is my first time really sorting through and writing my own opinions, so don’t expect it to be the best yet!
If you are up for following along to get some recommendations, please feel free to give me a follow, leave comments, and provide suggestions on what to watch. I’m working on adding every movie I’ve ever seen onto Letterboxd in case you want to see if I’ve seen something before.
Thanks for the time ;).
— Gibson
P.S. In case you are wondering, the name does come from the iconic Nicole Kidman AMC commercial.