On Being a Film Snob

I’m not one. Not yet, not really. I have seen a lot of movies, but not nearly enough, and certainly not the right ones, to warrant such a serious title. But I have, for all the years of my life, loved movies, and it recently occurred to me that film snobbery is really the next step. The right to be pretentious belongs only to those with niches, languages only other pretentious people of the same niche can truly understand, references only the few may catch and jokes only the few may get.

What is a film snob? Really, I don’t know if I can answer that question. Why become one? I don’t know if I even need to answer that question. What’s the point of this blog, then? Ah! Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. I intend, in this blog, to review the movies that I watch in an attempt to “trace,” as it were, my path to becoming a film snob. This is mostly for my own purposes, so I can remember the journey. I doubt any but a few will ever read these posts.

A few things I should state, before we get started.

1. I will have a rating system, just because. It will not be stars – that’s so passé. It will just be “out of five.” Five what? I don’t know, good question. Here’s another good question: Why don’t you mind your own business?

2. Sometimes I will probably do some speculating about Narrative/Story, language, film as an action/art, and stuff like that. You can just skip that stuff if you don’t like it. And if you like that stuff but not the reviews, then just skip the reviews. And if you don’t like any of it, then really, you don’t have to read it.

3. I’m a Christian. Something like a postmodern, post-liberal, progressive, leftist, pacifistic one. It really depends on how you define those terms, I guess. But frequently (and by frequently, I mean, always) I will interpret and review movies through that framework, and often critique them in reference to said framework. That ought to be fun. For me. And maybe you. But mostly me.[1]

Alright, that’s probably enough.

Oh, wait! The title. It’s Latin, but if you didn’t know that, then you should probably leave. Or stay. Really, I’m not bothered. I mean, Latin’s not for everyone, right? But it means, “I see and I turn around/change.” I chose it because each viewing of a movie will change me, and thus, I will change my own sphere of influence. And I also liked the similarity to the words “conversation” and “conversion,” both of which are derived from this Latin word. Make of it what you will.

Anyway, as we say in the “business,” on with the show.

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[1] I guess I’m assuming here that there is, in all actuality, a “you,” and that, by being “you,” you are interacting with the writings of this blog. But perhaps you don’t exist, and so there isn’t really a “you” at all. In that case, there is only me, and me alone. But in the act of writing, of creating and expressing, there is some kind of social activity taking place. And that being the case, does that not mean that there is some inherent community to behold, some “you” amidst even me? The answer is no.