This isn’t a review, but it is the announcement of new reviews that are coming. Hello, there, I guess I should reintroduce myself to everyone after a long(ish) absence due to increased levels of work type commitments. My name is Michael and around these parts I’m known as ProjectionistGeek, It’s nice to know you!
I am a manager at one of the largest theatres in Charlotte (Regal Stonecrest 22 and Imax) and a movie buff. My love of films goes back to childhood and falling in love with Han Solo and Indiana Jones. The thing is, even as a child I knew that they were both played by the same actor. I loved the characters and their respective films, but even then I understood that they were just that: Characters. I fell in love with the concept of film and storytelling and over the years that love has grown until it has come to define me as a person in many ways.
I am a drummer and a singer and I love music and have it in my bones as well. I love books and reading and as the years have progressed, I have come to enjoy writing as well (hopefully, I’m passable at it) but all the things that make me a self professed geek can be traced back to my love of film.
I love it as an art form and as a cultural signpost of where we are as a people, but I love it most as what I was first: a fan.
I watch films and I judge them based on a lot of things. I watch the screenplay and how well the film tells it’s story. I watch the actors and how they bring the characters to believable life or in some cases, fail to. I watch the construction of shots and how the picture is built, frame by frame and how well or poorly the director achieves this. I watch the cinematography and how the film is lit and how well the story is told without words. I watch and listen to the music and feel what the music is telling me to feel or don’t, depending on how well the composer has done their job. I watch the effects, if it’s that kind of film, and judge if it’s effective in what it is attempting to do. In short, I watch the film the way a good critic is supposed to.
However…
I also do something that I’ve found depressingly few critics do anymore. I watch films and I WANT to like them. So many reviews I read are done by people who seem to relish hating something. It’s as if they went into the theatre expecting to have a bad time and they are almost giddy with excitement that the film was indeed bad. I don’t know how to do that. I always go in hoping for the best. I try and find something good in everything I see. That’s not to say that I love every film, because I don’t, but only that I always go in hoping to be amazed. And if there is a film that looks bad, feels like it’s going to be bad and if I’ve heard from other sources that it is bad, then I probably won’t see it and will not write a review of it.
This is all just my way of saying that, when you read my reviews, know that I love film. I love almost every kind of genre and most offshoots of genres. I can get gushy at times and I can, at times, get hyperbolic about things, but it all comes from the place of a fan. I’m a fan of film and I’m a proud geek. If you are at the theatre and see me, say hello and tell me what you think of something, if you agree or not, that I’ve reviewed and If you have a film that I may have missed, let me know and I’ll try to check it out. If we’re at a geek meetup, then talk to me and maybe we’ll have one of those great movie conversations that only film geeks can have. If you have something to say and can’t wait, email me here or leave a comment. This is a community and we’re all geeks, so let’s geek out together.
Thank you all for reading and thank you all for being geeks. It’s a wonderful thing to be and I wouldn’t be anything else!
Until next time, keep the projector threaded…..