check-up time

here's the thing: i began this blog as a way (in part) to find out what reviewers are thinking, how reviewers do what they do.  i think i've learned a lot from it (not just about reviewers, but about aesthetics and the process of judgment), and i'm not going to stop doing it, but i have to step back and ask myself,

"is this honestly okay?"

now, i'm up-front about the fact that i'm not a trained moviemaker (am i up-front about it?  i think i am--must go check--yes, i appear to be up-front about it [check the sidebar if you don't believe me]).  a performer myself, i tend to be generous with actors and downright rude to producers.  i profess to hate the hollywood machine (see entries about government-generated algorithms being used for writing evil scripts), and i draw a distinction between reviewing a multi-billion dollar industry and the kind of reviews that make me pretty mad--that is, the completely unsympathetic slams that get delivered to certain local performance companies who are trying to get by with about five dollars and a dream.

but how real is this distinction?  should i be more sympathetic to...

wait a second.  no.  i am sympathetic.  to a certain extent.  i appreciate the struggles that people who are trying to express something go through--often...  i don't appreciate it when there are no struggles and nothing gets expressed (except sometimes, in the case of dance movies, i really really do appreciate it).

or maybe i'm not sympathetic.  i slaughtered the imaginarium of dr. parnassus--in my defense, i thought the movie sucked, but it still wasn't nice of me. i mean, is the epistolarium of clive and his cellist really a legitimate example of the hollywood machine being hollywoody and machinistic?  i can profess to say, but i don't really know.  i just didn't like it, and thought it looked high-budget.

the end diagnosis is that i have no idea if what i'm doing on this blog is right, or morally reprehensible.  considering that i've probably gotten about six views TOTAL, this probably shouldn't matter too much to me.  on the other hand, considering the fact that i occasionally scour google for my name, and end up hurt when reviews are anything but absolutely stellar...maybe i should be worried about the people i'm slamming.

okay, people i'm slamming (michael bay springs to mind, as does james cameron): if by some chance in hell i've hurt your feelings, i am truly sorry.  i will probably not stop hurting your feelings, but as much as i like to pretend otherwise, i can't truly see into anyone's aesthetic soul, and therefore all that my whining about your movies really boils down to is "i don't like (many of) them."  and what do i know?  nothing.  nothing period.  and we all know what comes from nothing (hint: it's nothing.  "nothing from nothing" is one of the best philoso-math-related relationship songs ever, in my opinion).

what have we all learned?  sra admits to, a., being kind of a jerk, and b., thinking that she knows stuff but not actually knowing stuff.  oh, and that billy preston plus parmenides equals awesome math funk.