Reel Simple

Happy New Year!!

Not to be all Bridget Jones about life, but there really isn't a better time than January 1st (or 10th, in this case--got hit with a serious case of the lazies for the first week of the year, which probably doesn't bode well for my resolution to start this thing) to begin a blog, no? After spending the latter half of 2008 fumbling my way around New York in a haze of post-undergrad confusion, finding--then quitting--an internship, then landing myself an even less satisfying one that kept me inadequately occupied for a mere two days a week, I was turning into the sort of person I always prided myself on NOT being; waking up at 11am, going to bed past 2, and whiling away the hours in between watching Giada whip up yet another mascarpone-laden dessert or checking my facebook wall about 38,769,508,621 times a minute in the hopes that SOMEONE would deem me worthy enough to write to. After noticing a sizeable imprint on my secondhand couch and developing serious concerns about discovering mold on my fingertips, I decided that the pathetic madness had to stop. So. I got myself back on mandy.com/entertainmentcareers.net/all those other web-based beacons of hope for us poor and unemployed film majors, bagged a second internship at a casting company, made a 10-day escape to India, escaped BACK to NYC when I realized that accompanying my mother to every sari shop in Mumbai wasn't my idea of a vacation, experienced my first new year's eve in the Big Apple, and am generally feeling rather pumped up for 2009.

This year I'm determined not to set myself up for failure with a series of unrealistic expectations that leave me a) broke*, b) stuck in an apartment filled with half-finished household projects**, or c) put off by anything male that moves***. Which brings me to the motivation behind this blog. Along with a slew of other resolutions (going to bed before midnight and FINALLY getting my driver's license at the embarassingly old age of 22, to name a few), this time I want to put my four years of studying "Screen Arts and Cultures" at the University of Michigan to use while awaiting the results of my grad school applications. While I would love to be known as the next Roger Ebert ten years down the line, I admit that right now I'm a bit of a chicken when it comes to putting my views out there in writing for the world to see. Not to mention that neither of my unpaid internships really cover weekly visits to the Angelika. And so, in a humble effort to revive the art of film criticism that Ebert himself claims has given way to "lascivious gossips, covering invented beats", I'm recording my own appraisals of pretty much any film or television piece that inspires me to write: Bollywood, Hollywood, artsy flick, commercial blockbuster--anything is fair game here. Although I in no way claim to possess the literary aptitude of my sister--whose prose is reaching a level that, in my opinon, is beginning to make Sukhetu Mehta look like Dr. Seuss--I'm going to give this a shot. Therefore, this entry serves primarily as an introduction to what will, with any luck, become a veritable treasure trove of meaningful, profound cinematic reflection. Or, at least, just a reservoir of my random musings over the films I've seen, both past and present. Stay tuned.



* SO CLOSE to setting up that cardboard box in Central Park.
**For instance, I've yet to purchase window drapes for the one-bedroom I signed a lease for last June.
***I'm not elaborating on this one.