About Film Blather

Yes, it’s another bloggy movie review site.

This one, though, is in it for the long haul. Film Blather’s been online in one form or another since 1998, when I was a clueless teenager writing truly embarrassing stuff that’s still online here somewhere, if you poke around. (It seems distastefully revisionist to take it down now.) It has undergone at least three major design overhauls during that time; this latest was unveiled on June 9, 2011.

Along the way I’ve also written for eFilmCritic, AMCtv’s Sci-Fi Scanner blog (R.I.P.), and Cinematical (ditto) — large, ad-supported sites with a much larger readership than I enjoy here. Film Blather, by contrast, has been and remains a personal project with no commercial ambitions. (The ads are here in the hopes of defraying hosting and maintenance costs.) That allows me to ignore casting news, poster premieres, the latest rumors about what outrageous changes they’re making to the Marvel canon, etc., and mostly just talk about the movies. Which has always seemed to me to be the fun part.

A note about the reviews. I’m a tough grader; more so recently. Anything C+ and above is what you’d call a “recommendation”; a B is an enthusiastic one. The B+ is reserved for films I consider special — ones I’d advise most people to run out and see as soon as possible — while A-‘s and A‘s denote varying levels of greatness. The very rare Masterpiece rating is meant for the movies I’d place among my all-time favorites. From 2005 to 2010, I’ve given the Masterpiece rating to four films: Brick, There Will Be Blood, Up, and Never Let Me Go. (I also originally awarded it to King Kong, but later downgraded it to a mere A.)

Oh, and I’ve always thought this stuff worked best as a conversation. I’ve enabled comments just about everywhere, and I’m easy to get in touch with on Twitter (where I also post grades and 140-character blurbs for just about everything I see, if you’re into that sort of thing). So, you know. Talk at me.