One Year Later

Not to be confused with 28 Days Later or, more horrifyingly, Year One.

It seems like just yesterday I decided to create a movie blog so I could get online and gush via text rather than risk driving my friends mad with all the latest movie trivia I've accrued and reviews of obscure foreign films I've recently seen that they couldn't possibly care less about.  But it wasn't yesterday.  It was yesteryear, and it's strange that a year has gone by so quickly.

A year ago today, I was gearing up for my first (and last) year as an RA at Ohio State.  I was in the midst of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, devouring each episode with what one might call bloodlust.  I was still going gaga over the best movies of the summer, namely Toy Story 3 and Inception.

Things haven't changed all too much.

I'm preparing for my first year of living off-campus at Ohio State.  My major/minor situation has changed a bit since then, with English being bumped down to minor status alongside Theatre, and Film Studies thus occupying my sole major slot.  Vampire television is still looming large in my life as I hungrily anticipate the release of the second season of The Vampire Diaries next week (seriously, this show is what the Twilight movies should've been).  And not a day goes by that I don't think about the sheer wonder of The Tree of Life and the literary charms of Midnight in Paris.  Yeah, my summer highlights this year were less blockbuster-y.

I guess that's the beauty of really loving something, or, to borrow from my florid, pretentious first post (I mean, the thing was titled "Such Love"), being passionate about something.  There aren't many things that are constant in life.  People change, move, and die; businesses do the same (RIP Borders); things you thought you could count on suddenly crumble or disappear without a moment's notice.  It can be a scary world to live in, but it's nice to know that there are certain things you can count on, even unimportant things.  I'm still just as excited about movies as I was a year ago, and though the crop this year is different than last year's, I know that I can count on good movies coming out in the coming months, years, and decades.  As long as there are creative, talented story-tellers out there, I know that a trip to the theater can be an escape, a joyride, or a cathartic experience.

In the past, I've sometimes shared a sort of personal motto as pertains to film: "People always let you down, but a great movie never changes."  It's a depressing-but-true thought about mankind, but the latter part, I now realize, isn't true.  While the actual shots and sounds of a film never change, as you grow and change and learn and love and everything else, a film can take on new life and become an entirely different animal than the first time you watched it.  Maybe a better turn of phrase would be something like "People have a capacity for giving, but a great movie gives infinitely."  This is turning corny again.  I apologize.

These ramblings make me sound like some sort of cynical misanthrope, which isn't what I set out to do, but so it goes.  To those of you who have read my blog over the past year, I thank you for your time, support, and kind words.  It's fun to share with you and hear back from you, and I hope you'll join me for the coming year(s), as well.