If you’re in a Toronto movie theatre, and you see a ballcap-wearin’, headphone-sportin’ guy drinking a cup of tea…it’s probably me.
Welcome!
I’m Ryan McNeil and I’ve been writing this space and its predecessor since summer of 2007.
In that time, I’ve done a lot of thinking. Thinking about what I want to say, and how I want to say it. I’ve thought about what I want this site to be, about what it is, and what it isn’t. I’ve never pretended to be Roger Ebert or Michael Phillips. I’m not a go-to when it comes to industry trends, and I’m yet to win any sort of Oscar pool.
All the same, there are two things in life I love; I love to write, and I love the movies. So by starting this mad little experiment, I hoped that I could express my love for the movies through my writing. Sometimes my writing is nothing but slight filler, but other times I’m actually been quite proud of what I’ve written. So before I go on, let this serve as my mission statement…a declaration of principles in the spirit of Charles Foster Kane.
There will be days where I’ll write just a few sentences. There will be other days when I write one thousand words. In both instances, I write to express myself honestly, my passion for film, and to entertain whatever tiny audience has gathered in front of my soapbox.
More than anything else, the most rewarding thing about writing this space has been the people it has allowed me to interact with and meet face to face. So if this is your first time visiting, or your one-thousand-and-first, thanks for stopping by and fuelling this continuing cinematic conversation.