Self-Aggrandizement: Screen Player

Given my job, it's a bit embarrassing to admit that I rarely watch movies. And I don't mean rarely watch them in theaters - a common condition; I mean rarely watch them at all.

There was a time, early in the life of Cyan, that I was cranking my way through a good five or six a week - my own little Good Will Hunting hundred bucks of Netflix membership rather than hundred thousand of NYU tuition film school. By now, if I see one movie a week, I'm doing well.

Terrible, I know. And much as I wish I could blame this on Jess, she watches many more movies (and reads more books and magazines, is generally just far better informed on both popular and high culture) than I.

I have no good excuse. Sure, long work hours, helping run a gym, work and play social obligations, etc., all make it tough to block out two solid hours of time at a stretch. But lots of movie buffs have waaaaay crazier lives, yet seem to make it work.

So I'm particularly glad that, in the last four days, I've seen two movies. Even better, I've seen two movies in theaters. Granted, one (The Golden Compass) was a disappointing atrocity, and the other (The Great Debaters) might have made even Lifetime viewers roll their eyes. But still, I watched them! The whole way through! Both of them! Mere days apart!

Even better, for the first time in months, there are scores more movies out I really do want to see: Juno, The Savages, No Country for Old Men, just to name a few. So I'm trying to build this new momentum, to get back in front of a big (or at least small) screen ASAP. If nothing else, as one of the few people who can write off movie tickets as a business expense, I figure I should do my best to abuse that privilege.

Screen Player Filed Tuesday, December 11 2007.

Screen Player
Filed Tuesday, December 11 2007.