I’m trying a thing

You may or may not know that I love movies. I started following the Oscars when I was still in grade school—staying up late with my mom because they were on a school night in the dead of winter, and there wasn’t much else to do.

Back then, I would usually only see one or two of the best picture nominees and get my hopes up that Inception or Toy Story 3 would take home the prize. This wasn’t much fun; I felt like the odds were against me and my favorite movies. So back in 2016, I decided to start watching all of the best picture nominees before awards season. I was studying abroad in Ireland at the time, and I had all the spare time in the world. I started a radio show at the university, Original Score, that was dedicated to playing movie soundtrack music, and me and my cohost John would pass the time each week talking about the Oscars and our favorite movies.

Trying to keep up with the nominees in Ireland was a test of patience, as movies that were released in the US months before were only made available later in Europe. But I made due, and my reward was being able to sit down to watch the Oscars at 1:30am with all the hopes and dreams in the world for Lady Bird, Get Out, Willem Dafoe, and Jonny Greenwood’s Phantom Thread score. I placed some modest bets at PaddyPower’s and stayed up until 4:30 watching and waiting to see if my due dilligence would pay off. (*Ron Howard's voice*: It didn't)

In 2018, I invested in a MoviePass, and probably ran them out of business paying $7.99 a month and going to see 5-6 movies every month in San Francisco, where movies usually cost $16.99. And after MoviePass shut down (may it rest in peace), I moved on to AMC’s A List subscription where I watched over 30 movies in 2019.

Since graduating, I’ve been longing for a creative outlet, and I figured writing movie reviews could suit me pretty well. So here’s to trying a new thing in 2020. May the upcoming year follow in 2019’s footsteps.