Ryan McNeil
We’ve taken down all the decorations and thrown out all the leftovers. Tomorrow we’ll all be going back to work and back to school. The holidays are now entirely over and it is time for us to push forward.
As we do though, we find ourselves in this moment of reflection…wanting to do things a little differently. For many, such things are resolutions, but I don’t really subscribe to such things. To me, a resolution seems doomed to fail 99 times out of 100 since it is either unrealistic, or is less a goal and more a burden. Usually when I take on such changes, I do so very quietly, and approach them with great humility. It’s nice to have people on your side, but it’s easier to do something when you don’t have so many people asking you “how it’s going”
Still, it’s the time of year to make personal changes, and I’m all for that – small as my changes may be. So if I have my way in 2015, there are a few things I’d like to do.
Read More Reviews…
Something I started doing to get better might have started making me worse. When I started keeping this site, I started a practice of not reading what someone else wrote about a new release before I’d had a chance to write my own thoughts. My fear was that I’d find myself parroting someone else’s opinion – perhaps using similar phrasing. Likewise, I feared that I wouldn’t write a reaction to the film so much as I’d find myself reacting to someone else’s reaction.
However, somewhere along the way I began to omit other reviews entirely – before and after I wrote. This, I feel, does me a great disservice.
Besides getting a deeper understanding of a piece of art through other lines of critique, writing less than I read is also going to stunt me as a writer. So I want to make a point every week to read the published pieces of critics who inspire me. It might be a piece on a film that has been out for weeks, but I need to get reading back into my routine. I need to make up for that film education I never got, and I’ve been spending too many classes ignoring the lectures while I doodle in my notebook.
Lubitsch & Wilder…
You know that closet you’ve been meaning to organize? Or that trail you’ve always been in the neighbourhood of but never actually hiked? That’s me where Lubitsch and Wilder are concerned. Over the last few years, I’ve been trying to dig deeper into the work of Lubitsch and full-on complete the directed works of Wilder. Wilder’s canon is one that I’m freakishly close to being done (only six of his films are yet unseen). IF I decided to go on a bender, I could totally get that done by the end of the month. I think the biggest thing holding me back is the fact that I know that most of what I have left is “lesser Wilder”. Still, time to finish those final six chapters. Lubitsch is harder just because he has so damned many films. However, so far I’ve enjoyed every one of them a great deal, so I should really keep at it.
The subtitle for this resolution could be “finish what ya started”…something I do believe in at the right pace. There’s a certain satisfaction that comes with completing a particular set, and being able to look at it as a whole. Or in the case of Lubitsch, there’s something to be said for seeing where a certain outlet takes you, and where you choose to visit in a foreign city after you’ve hit the tourist traps.
Admittedly this resolution is less a change in direction than a continuation down a recent path…but it’s still a path I want to get to the end of soon.
No Binging…
Last week, I tackled the THREE COLOURS Trilogy for the first time. While I handily could have taken one day out of my Christmas break and watched all three films in one four-and-a-half-hour blitz, I instead split the consumption into a daily dose every morning for three mornings in a row. I recently went through something similar where the Serial podcast was concerned. Even though I came to it tremendously late (read; episode ten was posting when I jumped on-board), I restricted myself to two episodes per day. That even meant waiting one week to listen to episode eleven to listen to it in-tandem with episode twelve.
In both cases, the result was clear: staggering the material lead to a more enjoyable act of consumption. It gave ideas time to settle, made it feel more like interaction and less like gluttony, and turned what would be an afternoon of gorging into a week of reflection.
I want this to continue in earnest in 2015. Whether it’s a series of books, comics, television shows, podcasts, or films – I do not want to go on any sort of sustained bender. I know that we can – and in the case of shows created by Netflix, we’re even encouraged – but I feel like this is unhealthy and leads to lesser enjoyment. Therefore no binging. I need to put the ice cream carton away well before my spoon scrapes bottom.
I want to make my Netflix Instant queue a bigger priority. I have so many films in there, some have been in there for years and I haven’t watched them yet. I need to get on that.
You’re reminding me that I need to make the glut of films recorded on my PVR a bigger priority!
Mine are pretty simple: Watch more movies, write more, and in a non-movie resolution, play a lot more tennis. I try to keep the resolutions general and not so confining so they don’t become a source of stress. I have some more specific goals for the site, but I’m starting with simple ones that will drive everything else (including my health). Cheers!
Tennis! I love tennis, not that I’m very good at it. Haven’t played for a while yet. Trying to figure out when I can feasibly get a racket for Karina, though. Does your older daughter play yet?
We got her a racquet a few years ago, but we haven’t done that much so far. Time flies by, you know? I’m fairly decent and play in some leagues around town, but it’s sometimes hard to find the time. I just played a two-hour match yesterday, so I’m off to a good start!
Yeah, we’ve actually got a couple of really nice courts in our complex, and I’m not sure we will have easy access to courts wherever we move next, so I’m kind of eager to get started. But 2 might be a little young. She’d probably hit everything except the ball. :p
My movie/blog goal is really simple…be more active on my blog, and others. I need to reach out and comment more and explore fellow bloggers sites and really make myself an active part of the community…so that’s my goal.
I feel like I’ve lagged in that respect myself, so I hope I can pick that up this year too…be less of a writer who just says “Imma leave this hear for ya…”
As a blogger, I just want to continue to grow as a part of the community…and keep crossing off more of those movies I just never got to. That means continuing to read and comment on other blogs as well as trying to improve my own. Off the blogosphere, I’m trying to get back into more non-movie related writing.
Getting back into non-movie reading is also one of mine. Happily, I was given a very large stack of books over Christmas to encourage that. Have fun engaging with the community this year!
Food for thought: Twitter has become a really good way to engage and interact with other film bloggers
I don’t really have any specific goals aside from a couple vague resolutions to reach out to more filmmakers for interviews and visit and comment on other sites more.
Well look at you already getting to one of the two!
Well, I recently divulged my plans for 2015 as I want to do more old films and all sorts of things. Even in the Auteurs series as I’m going to venture into the films of Xavier Dolan as I had never seen any of his work.
I’ve only seen the most recent two Dolan films – TOM AT THE FARM and MOMMY. Both are stunning films and make me quite anxious to get to the others.
At the moment, I’m trying to catch up on the movies on my DVR. So far, it’s going well. But outside of movie watching (and blogging), I want to read more.
D’you have a profile on Goodreads? My goal for the year in their “Challenge” section is 30 books for 2015
I don’t. At the moment, I’m just writing down the books I’ve read. (I prefer a physical copy more than digital.)
eReading isn’t really what Goodreads is about (to date, I have only ever read one book that wasn’t a hard copy)
Goodreads is pretty much Letterboxd for books. Check it out…
My major filmwatching goal is also completing filmmakers filmographies, including Wilder (I haven’t decided how keen I am on finishing Lubitsch’s silents, but I definitely want to see more of his stuff). Not sure which Wilders you have left, but I’ve been REALLY enjoying his “lesser” ones, so I think you’ll be surprised by how enjoyable many of them are. I’m down to four left, including his last two, which I’ve had enormous difficulty finding (without buying/importing). Let me know if you find good sources for them!
My other goal is to comment more on people’s blogs, which I am doing right now, so yay for me! 🙂
I also need to “resolve” to engage with commenters more, considering social media has taken a sledge hammer to my comment traffic.
Here’s the Wilder I have left:
Avanti!
Buddy Buddy
Fedora
The Front Page (hence the photo)
Irma la Douce
Mauvaise Graine (aka The Bad Seed)
Being more consistent in posting and writing, as well as commenting on fellow bloggers’s sites. I have a hard time keeping up at times.
Also, to see more classics. That’s always been my blindspot, and I feel like I’ll never catch up sometimes, ha.
I like your no-binge rule. I’ve found that I usually enjoy books more when I don’t read them in a day or two (but over the course of a couple weeks). I also enjoy TV shows more when I watch an episode a day vs. 3-4 episodes/day.