State of the Blog – February 2016

Maybe I should rename these State of the Blog posts, “Broken Promises – [Month] Edition”. It feels like every time I say I am going to publish certain posts, and then invariably I can’t get to everything I say I am going to do. While January did see me post a few of the things I said that I would, I failed to re-boot the Classic Reviews Friday and also didn’t finish up the larger essays that I wanted to. The last couple of weeks were a little more busy in the lab, but my morale has not evaporated completely. So, once again, I am going to touch base with you fine folk who actually read this blog and tell you what I have in store for February.

As expected, January was quite miserable for movies in theatres. I saw The Revenant, which I enjoyed quite a bit, and also watched a few neat ones at home, like Bone Tomahawk, but mostly January was the standard dumping ground of garbage. Usually, February continues the trend, but I have the feeling that this year will be different. The first two weeks offer Hail, Caesar and also Deadpool, and then we get some interesting Indie things like The VVitch near the end of the month. I am also going to be watching all eight films nominated for Best Picture at my local movie theatre over the course of two Saturdays, so I am excited for that (Room remains the only film I have not seen, but I am stoked to get to see other films for a second time). There promises to be a number of cool films in February, which is a bit of a change, so definitely look forward to my reviews on these. The first one I post will probably be Anomalisa, which I absolutely loved, so keep your eyes open for that.

For larger essays, I’ve got some nice ones brewing. As promised, I actually did finish up the Don Bluth series in January, and I also posted my top 10 lists and an Oscar prediction piece, so maybe I was a bit too hard on myself for January. Anyway, this time I have a bit of a Sundance recap (I did not go, but I have my ears to the ground and opinions on things) and plan to finally finish the United 93 piece. Perhaps The VVitch will inspire me to finally polish off the Horror film piece I have, too. I also have drafts of various classic movies that I am going to publish, too. Ferris Bueller is almost done, Under the Skin is on the way, and I think I finally have the confidence to try Children of Men. And maybe, just maybe, I can get to work on another aesthetics-based piece, as I have only ever done two or three of those.

There’s so many awesome movies to talk about, it really is just about scheduling my writing time and delivering. This is my major goal for February, so stay tuned here on Plot and Theme and see how well I keep to everything.  I passed 40,000 unique page views during the latter half of January, and it is my goal to reach 50,000 before Plot and Theme is 1 year old (so, by April).  At current averages, I will be short, so I’ve got to scare up some more traffic.  Make sure to give me a follow on Twitter, too (@PlotAndTheme), where I think I will be live-tweeting the Oscars. And, as always, please yell at me if you have ideas about cool flicks you want to see me write about, or if you think I am an idiot for one reason or another.