Act II

Celebrating an anniversary and looking ahead

September 11 was the one-year anniversary of the launch of this newsletter, but it didn’t really feel appropriate to devote that week’s column to a self-serving retrospective instead of looking back on that day. Last week, I wanted to get some thoughts out about the Marvel Cinematic Universe while we were still in the opening weeks of Shang-Chi. So, this week I thought I’d take some time to look back on the last year, talk a bit about where my head’s at right now and start looking forward to the next year. 

I didn’t quite know what this newsletter was going to be when I launched it in September 2020. At the time, I was reviewing movies for a website, had two podcasts, and a fledgling blog my wife and I had started. My original intent was for this to be a catch-all; I’d provide a few thoughts about whatever was on my mind in a given week, but really, the newsletter would be an advertisement for whatever writing, podcasting or other projects I had going across the internet. 

To an extent, there’s an element of that. I still have other creative endeavors I’m involved with, including the Jesus Junkyard blog and the We’re Watching Here podcast, and I include links to those when something new hits. But I’ve been surprised how this newsletter has become a home base for me, the place for me to get my thoughts out, especially about film. 

At the beginning of the year, I stopped writing weekly reviews of new releases. It was an issue of freedom. I was never constrained about what I wrote about at Michigan Sports and Entertainment/Big Heads Media. But when you’re writing for a larger site that depends on clicks, you have to make some choices. You have to talk about the most popular movies, even if you have nothing to say about them. And it wasn’t a good place for me to talk about how my faith, politics or life experiences intersected with the art. 

The truth is, my relationship to film criticism has been changing over the last two years, and I’ve found myself with less of a desire to engage in the traditional work of week-to-week reviews of every new release. I don’t want to have to write about something as insipid as the debate over a new Super Mario Brothers movie or review the latest Netflix romantic comedy simply because there’s nothing else to write about and I need the clicks. I don’t want to worry about spoilers if I think the most interesting thing to do is discuss a film’s ending or details. I don’t want to be a studio’s marketing tool, getting my review out at just the right time to make sure they get great box office. 

Most film critics you read or listen to today are paid paltry amounts (if they’re paid anything at all) and the rigmarole of getting clicks and views, going viral, and being acknowledged by Twitter followers and Rotten Tomatoes means they have to write fast, dole out hot takes, abide by asinine rules from the studios and more. It creates formulaic reviews, and the rush to get the first take out there means many reviewers don’t take the time to chew on a film and engage with it. This isn’t meant to be a blanket statement; there are many very skilled critics out there, many of whom I know. Some people have cracked this. For 15 years, I like to think I was pretty good at it. And if someone was paying me for my time and words, I’d probably be more likely to play the game. But if I’m going to work for free or close to it, then I want the freedom to do this in a way that makes it challenging and fun. That’s what this newsletter provides. 

I don’t want to imply that I’ve lost my joy for writing about films or for the art form itself, because that couldn’t be farther from the truth. But there’s definitely been a change. For one, while podcasting was always just a bit of a lark through the years, I’ve found that few things bring me more joy than the opportunity to discuss a movie with someone else. It provides the best opportunity to really engage with a film. You’re required to defend your position, and it opens you up to new perspectives; it allows criticism to be a conversation explores tangents and nuances in a way that a formal written review can’t. Few things are more fun than sitting down with Perry a few times a month to record We’re Watching Here. I want this to be more a part of my projects as I go on, both for this podcast and to have the chance to be on others. It’s a great medium, and while I’m still very much an amateur at it, I want to take some time to explore it in the year to come. 

One of the things that was always a mainstay of We’re Watching Here but that Perry and I have leaned into more during the pandemic is a focus on older films. We’ll occasionally delve into new releases or discuss topics of interest — we recently did a fun episode on Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood novel — but episodes and series based around old films have really been our most successful and enjoyable. In the coming weeks, we’ll wrap up a summer-long series on movies of the 1970s (we’ve discussed The Godfather trilogy, Chinatown, Network, Dog Day Afternoon, Badlands and we’ll soon be talking The Deer Hunter) and we’re planning a lengthy series on the films of Robert Altman, who has for too long been a blind spot for me. It’s led to some impassioned conversations, and it’s given me a more satisfying cinematic diet than heading out to see whatever the new shocker from Blumhouse is. 

And that enjoyment of older films has swept into my writing. I’ve enjoyed looking at the films of Steven Spielberg, and I promise that that’s going to ramp up again soon. It was a blast looking back on some of the films from 1996 over the summer. These films are so much fun to delve into after time has passed. Sometimes, that’s because they have an entire cultural following that can be dissected. Other times, it’s because time has allowed them to age properly. When films are released, there’s so much baggage that accompanies them: a marketing campaign setting certain expectations, tales of box office success or woe, our relationship to the actor or director’s previous works, how they fit into a current franchise or how current events can affect our views of them. Movies are too often events; time allows them to become films again and provides an opportunity to engage with them as such. Plus, after enough time has passed, you don’t have to worry about spoilers. 

This newsletter is like having a blog back in the 2000s (I was partial to Xanga). It’s my place to experiment, write something on my terms, and make something that is 100% in my voice. If I want to write about the latest superhero movie but really dig into spoilers, I can do that. If I want to instead revisit an older movie or television show, I can do that. If I want to spend a week crafting a list, mulling over an intriguing news topic or cinematic trend, or just veer from entertainment and share my thoughts on something totally unrelated, I have that freedom. This can be whatever I’d like it to be, and I want to take full advantage of that freedom. 

Now, I’ll admit that the last year has also been rocky. 

In hindsight, the middle of a global pandemic was not a great time to start a new writing project. I understand why I thought it might be: I wasn’t really leaving my home, so I had more time on my hands on evenings and weekends. What I didn’t expect, however, was the way that the stressors of the pandemic, my own fraying mental health, a hugely busy workload, and other problems would sap my strength and desire to write. There have been many, many times in which I’ve just hit a wall and eking out a simple word, let alone a sentence, has been major work. 

Over the last month or so, particularly in the last two weeks, I’ve noticed that things seem to be returning to some sort of normalcy. The kids are back in school and I’m back at the office a few days a week, and I think that return to routine has stabilized things. I’m sleeping better and feeling more at peace, and I’ve felt the creative muscles start waking back up. And I think I have a better grasp of what I want this newsletter to be going forward, and some things I want to start implementing. 

The first concerns release schedule. I was talking with a coworker this week about how our journalism backgrounds cause us to jump into writing projects with a little too much ambition. When I was a reporter, I had to get 10 stories out the door each week; as a typical, twentysomething reporter, that means I waited until there were three days left before I got going. And I’ve brought that speed-writing mentality with me the entire way, promising insanely quick turnarounds on writing projects because that urgency of the paper and my need for deadlines has never quite left me. There are many times I wreck myself trying to turn a large writing project around in one or two days that easily could have been spread across four or five days, which means I get myself exhausted and frustrated through my own overambition. 

I’ve noticed a similar mentality to this newsletter. I have a newspaper-minded brain, and my thought is “let’s get this out by such-and-such date every single week.” And then life intrudes and it’s Friday evening, and I haven’t started paragraph one.

But this isn’t a newspaper. I’m not on deadline. I owe it to my readers to produce something regularly, but I doubt anyone’s sitting there on Friday night/Saturday morning wondering where the new Chrisicisms is. If you’re like me and the way I use newsletters, I tend to forget about it until it shows up in my inbox. Then, it’s like a little treat. And I’d rather have something of quality than something that goes out because it’s time. 

So, as we go forward, I’m going to try to treat this with more of a blog mentality. If I have time to write, I’m going to do it. And it will go out when it’s good. My aim is still once a week, but my hope is as I relax a bit more and get into the swing of things, there will be some weeks I hit more. I’m not going to worry so much about whether the Spielberg series is separate from the weekly blog or whether it hits in line with West Side Story. I’m going to keep at it, and we’ll keep discussing his work because it’s always a good time to talk Spielberg. And when we’re done, we’ll find another filmography to delve into. 

Next week will be the first week of October, and I think that’s a good time to start a new series but also launch this new iteration of the site. And I think there’s going to be some good stuff coming. Here’s a bit of what you can expect in the coming weeks: 

KingoWeen: Each October, I like to delve into some certain realm of horror films. This year, inspired by my fondness for The Kingcast and the interest it’s rekindled in me for Stephen King’s work, I’m going to watch some movies based on his novels. The rule is that it has to be something I haven’t seen. I love Carrie, Misery, It and The Shining, but you don’t need another writer giving a deep dive on those. Instead, I want to visit some of my King movie blind spots. I don’t quite know what the lineup is yet (and I’m open to suggestions) but some potentials include Pet Sematary, Creepshow, Cujo, Firestarter, Salem’s Lot, Doctor Sleep, The Dark Half, Needful Things, Silver Bullet and Maximum Overdrive. 

The Spielberg Series: I promise we’re going to get back into this, and soon. I’ve had a ton of fun revisiting Spielberg’s films, and the series is at a transition point. The last film I discussed was The Color Purple and I’m working on a piece about Empire of the Sun right now. My original hope was that this series would end with the release of West Side Story; it’s possible I may be able to finagle it that way by combining a few films, but I’m not going to sweat it. These won’t be released on Sunday and maybe not regularly; I want to give these the time and attention they deserve. 

Chrisicisms: This is the catch-all for anything that isn’t related to those series. These will be the typical newsletters I’ve been doing, and will be my place to discuss new releases, thoughts on film news and trends, or just some personal items. 

My aim, as I said, is to get one email out each week, likely on the weekend. My goal, though, is to get these to you fairly regularly. As I get into more of a rhythm, I hope my prolific-ness picks back up. 

One thing that all newsletter writers wrestle with is whether to charge for the newsletter. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t eventually want to be able to make some sort of money with this. But when I started, I made a commitment to keep an element of it free to the public. Eventually, I’d like to have a paid component, but this newsletter needs to get into better shape and I need a little bit bigger community before I can make that plunge. So, for the foreseeable future, everything remains free. 

One of the things that I feel most proud of is that this newsletter has maintained a steady readership despite my procrastination and bouts of writer’s block. Thank you to each and every one of you who subscribe and read. It means more than you could know. If you could spread the kindness and share this when there’s a particular edition you like, that would help a great deal. I’d love this community to grow and become more robust. I look forward to seeing where Chrisicisms goes in the next year.