A Small Summation of My Taste and Other Things
Well, I’ve been noticing my stats and saw that I had my first repeat viewer so as long as people keep coming back, I will try to keep up and generate more content. I got international notice almost right away which is awesome. It’s nice to know that I’m already reaching more people than the ones I know.
Today, I’ll give you an idea of what my taste is like. I would describe it all over the place really. I love a wide variety of genres but if there’s one that I frequently go to I guess it would be horror. I’ve loved horror films since I was a kid and first discovered the Universal Monsters Classics. “Dracula” (1931) was the first one that I watched and I was absolutely fascinated with it. Bela Lugosi’s performance as the Count, which he originally played on stage is the first among many iconic performances in this collection of horror films from the early sound era. Sure, a few aspects of his performance haven’t aged the best, mainly because of some stilted dialogue. But there’s no denying that he set the template for all future Dracula’s some of whom imitated or parodied some of his acting and enunciation. My favorite of these films was “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935). I know! I know! I know! I picked the sequel. But the fact of the matter is, it is a better film than it’s predecessor for many reasons, mainly it enriches each of its main characters, and even some minor ones, with more depth than the original. I particularly love the sequence where the Monster encounters the Blind Hermit which does more to create a relationship that develops, arcs, and that you genuinely care about in five minutes than a lot of other films do in two hours.
My love of horror extended to a lot of different aspects of the genre from Studios like Universal and Hammer; to subgenres like Haunted Houses, Serial Killers, Body Horror, and Slashers; to auteurs like James Whale, Tod Browning, Terence Fisher, George A. Romero, John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, Wes Craven, and Robert Eggers. Even other countries like England, Italy, Japan, and Australia. There’s plenty to explore in the genre that provides a number of different ways to experience fear and terror.
To that end, my repertoire extends far and wide to include most genres, many auteur filmmakers, some international cultures, and just about every major era of filmmaking from the Silents to the Present. I will admit that I less knowledgeable but always looking to grow my knowledge of Silent Cinema. I’m always enthralled by how they used the camera and how expressively lit everything was back in the 1920s. In some ways there’s more freshness and freedom in the filmmaking of the past than what you see in many films today. The acting in silent films is especially interesting because they had convey emotions and character traits in a far more physical way. The expressions through body language and facial movements are more challenging when you remove the voice. That’s probably why a lot of people feel that they can’t connect to such films. If they can’t hear the person then what is there to connect with? The answer is a lot more than you think.
I like classics from just about every decade, although, I have discovered that if there some films that haven’t aged well they usually come from the early 30s thanks to stilted dialogue and stiff acting mostly. Sometimes you have to give those films a break because that when sound was in its infancy and they were still trying to figure out the technical challenges related to it. Even really good films like “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” have moments that feel stiff.
My favorite film is “The Godfather”. I think the breadth and depth of the storytelling in that film are unmatched. The richness of the sets and costumes; the atmospheric cinematography; the indelible and quotable dialogue; and, of course, those amazing performances combine to create a singular masterwork. A perfect movie? Pretty damn close. Although, there’s one thing that I do question; how did they get the horse’s head in Woltz’s bed? He didn’t notice the blood on the sheets before he went to sleep? He didn’t smell it? Effective and memorable scene, if a little ridiculous. I also think Francis Ford Coppola is a little overrated as a filmmaker. Sure, he made four of the greatest films of all time in the 1970s and has some scattered greatness throughout the 80s and 90s. But “One From the Heart”? “The Cotton Club”? “Tucker: The Man and His Dream”? “Jack”? “The Rainmaker”? Those awful indie films he made in this century? His career is one of the most erratic of any of the filmmakers from the New Hollywood of the 1970s.
My favorite filmmaker is Stanley Kubrick an auteur who is incomparable for directors just as “The Godfather” is incomparable for movies. I have the highest admiration is his drive for creating the perfect image. His talent with a camera, in particular, is awesome and truly something that can leave you entranced with how fully composed each individual shot is. His filmography is mostly perfect just like his visual style. There is fault to be found in “Fear and Desire”, “Killer’s Kiss”, and “Full Metal Jacket”, but for the most part in a career spanning four decades it’s pretty much one masterpiece after another.
What I hope to do with this site is not only project my taste but also hopefully make it accessible to all readers. I don’t wish to get on a soapbox about it or use it as an excuse to say that mine is better than anyone else’s. Like I said in my first post, I am a little rusty at essay writing, so it’ll probably take me a little bit to really get comfortable with it again. I’ve already posted my first two reviews and re-read them and thought this can be improved but it's a start. I intend to not only do new movies but also do some classic reviews as well. As I’m not a professional critic, that means that I don’t have to see all the movies coming out which is fine with me. I think a lot of the newer films are generic, or at least they appear that way, and find that there’s a lot more freshness in the films of the past than what we have in the present. In fact, it’s quite possible that we are currently living through one of the worst eras for cinema in history. I remember when I was a kid that there was way more original filmmaking than what we have now. There are too many sequels and remakes, and on top of that, the movies are all too long, like everything needs to be an epic even though they shouldn’t be. A lot of the films are the kind that you forget about within a few months because they don’t make a substantial impact or stay with you.
I have jumped off the Marvel bus. I think those films are a major part of the central problem with today’s movies. After “Avengers: Endgame” it was like they couldn’t figure out how to keep themselves going so the movies/TV shows became too interconnected, as though that would somehow involve the viewer more. I think that approach has only alienated the audience even more because who wants to be fresh on over 30 pieces of intellectual property over the span of about 17 years to understand what’s currently happening onscreen. Nobody wants to watch 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” again just because “Captain America: Brave New World” has a connection to a subplot in it. I definitely don’t. I haven’t seen “The Incredible Hulk” since it came out and I don’t remember one single bit of it. I’m sure creative decisions like that are one of the main reasons where the ticket sales are in decline. You’ll find me seeing originals and maybe a few sequels but I’m done with superheroes for the most part. I’ll probably see the new “Superman” movie when it comes out but that might be it.
Besides I have a lot of films that I’ve collected over the past couple of years that haven’t been watched yet. I think I’ll be reviewing a lot of those to mix in with the new films I see. First I gotta finish up “Twin Peaks” which I’ve been slowly working my way through for the past couple of months. I’ve got a lot of ideas for lists and not the dumb kind that regularly pop up on internet feeds as though they were generated by AI. For the record I have not nor will I ever use AI to generate my content.
Talk to you soon!
Kevin A. Wilson
