A few thoughts and Snatch - Guy Ritchie, 2000.

So December 1st marks the anniversary of my drastic experiment, my attempt at watching at least one film every day for a year. I think it ties in nicely with my OCD and constant desire to have something to do, having abandoned video games almost entirely and finding children's trading card games to be wholly unsatisfactory. What has a year of this bollocks taught me? Well, for starters, a ton about film. Sure, I don't know much about the technical side of the equation, namely what kind of cameras are used and what sort of lighting and editing techniques are going on behind the scenes, but I'll have to take a course or watch a documentary on filmmaking to gain any knowledge of that stuff.

No, what this experiment has accomplished is getting me back into film, one of my biggest interests, aside from designer denim, medicine, and historical trivia. I know directors and their techniques and trademarks. I know which actors are capable of what. I know who's on the scene and what's coming up in the next few months. I know who's best in the indie circuit, and what the summer movies are going to look like. I've even gone back decades to learn about the old masters, and what their influence on the art form was, even if some of their films were drier than a desert on fire. I am an infinitely more educated person now, in regards to film, than I was a year ago. And the path to acquiring that knowledge, watching movies, analyzing themes, reading follow-up material, that has been an incredible amount of fun.

Now, perhaps doing another year of this would be excessive, but I don't think so. Rather, I think it would give me further opportunities to learn. More chances to experiment with genres I wouldn't normally give the time of day to (giallo, blaxploitation, Japanese film in general). Everything is a process and a path, and just chilling out, watching movies is not only good for my mental health, but also for making myself smarter. Or something.

Also, I don't think I update this blog enough, so from here on out, I'm going to use this space as a sounding board for whatever film I watch that day. Today, I watched Snatch, arguably Guy Ritchie's best film, if not his most kinetic. Fast-paced, furious, and full of that smug British dialogue, this is quite a good film. The humor can be a bit wearing at times, with many characters using the same sarcastic rhetoric question as a joke, but the characters are well-rounded and imaginative enough to not feel like caricatures. Ritchie's direction is blisteringly quick, which means the film wastes no time with explication, something also very refreshing. The griminess of London is also well-represented with Richie's picture quality, which, in any other case, would be a point against him, but in this case, works quite well, like Boyle's 28 Days Later, a personal favorite of mine. All in all, a very enjoyable, if repetitive film.

PS. Guy Ritchie went insane after this film, having married Madonna and contracted the crazies, which compelled him to make Swept Away. Ugh.