30th Blog Post! Can you handle it?

Yes. You can.

So, what better way to celebrate a 30th blog post than to reflect upon the creation of said blog? I can't think of a better way.

I often feel really pretentious talking about movies with other people - sort of a reason why I started this blog. So I could yip yap all snobby, without sounding like a total prick in real life all the time.

Obviously, I really love movies. Otherwise I wouldn't have this blog. Really, though. Movies are just ... so oddly important in my life. I constantly compare things to movies I have seen, characters, quotes, etc.

I feel the way about movies I imagine some people feel about paintings, or sculpture, or music, or sports, or something that is dear to them.

Something about film - the way it sounds, looks, is set up and shot, the colors, the acting - it is an art. And I'm not talking about arty movies (I hate when movies try to be too artistic - I felt that way about You, Me, and Everyone I Know, I'm talking about otherwise "regular" movies that you see advertisements for, etc., etc.

I don't exactly remember when this love for movies began. I remember beginning to seriously watch film in high school, and enjoying it. I had a list of classics I wanted to tackle (and sadly never got around to many of them), and would always rent movies and go to the theater. I think, maybe, that Garden State inspired me to love film, and taught me to pay attention to visual styles and camera shots in particular.

I don't care what anyone says about Garden State, I absolutely love that movie. There are shots in that movie I will never forget, and that are deeply, truly beautiful: when Natalie Portman's character dances in the mansion in front of the fireplace (those colors are amazing); when Zach Braff is in the bathroom looking at himself in the mirror, and his shirt blends in with the walls so that you can really only see his face; the scene where Zach Braff and Natalie Portman are burying her hamster and her body is framed with a gate or a fence so that it makes it look as though she has something like wings.

I thought the characters were amazingly drawn, and I felt for each one. As someone who has struggled with serious depression for the majority of my adult life, and medicated for a better part of it, I could absolutely relate to Zach Braff's character, and felt like it was the first movie I had seen that really, truly spoke to me and mirrored my life in a profound way.

So, perhaps that is the movie that started all of this. I spent a lot of time in my early college years not really paying attention to movies, then had a resurgence in my love for film.

And now, obviously, here I am, chatting and writing about movies to anyone who will listen and engage in conversation. I watch a movie, and I am in love. There are some movies that are so close to perfect it makes me ache with appreciation.

And I am glad you are out there, reading about this nonsense.

So. There's that.