How This Will Work

The film log’s basic purpose is to help me remember what I’ve seen, under what conditions I saw it, and what I thought of it. It’s also, of course, for public consumption, to the degree that anyone besides me can possibly find it interesting. And it’s a lot of fun.

I use a 1-to-9 rating system that I developed a few years ago, after several years of trying to squeeze my opinions into the awkward four-stars-including-half-stars paradigm that many professional movie critics adhere to. I don’t use this system to be contrarian, or because I consider myself above convention, but simply because it works for me — and since I have no boss or editor, I’m free to do as I please.

Please note: it is not 1 to 9 because 10 implies perfection and no movie is perfect. It is 1 to 9 because, in my sincere and long-reflected-on opinion, there are exactly nine distinct grades of movie quality — no more, no less. You’re free to disagree, of course, but if you do, you’re wrong.

The scale runs thusly:

1 — execrable

2 — lousy

3 — bad

4 — weak

5 — decent

6 — solid

7 — excellent

8 — superb

9 — sublime

If I’m using the scale correctly, there should be very few 1’s, very few 9’s, and quite a lot of each other grade (with the caveat that I don’t generally see films I expect to dislike). The scale does get extra-subjective at either end, but I can live with that.

Here’s the format that each film’s entry will have:

Movie Title (Director, Year of Release)

movie companions, venue, date

Grade (1 to 9)

Description/reflections/review.

for example:

Keeper (Keith Boynton, 2010)

with Tom Hanks, Keira Knightley, and Martin Scorcese, Kodak Theatre, 2/27/2011

9

Not bad, if I do say so myself. And the Academy seemed to agree.

Some of you may wonder, “Who the hell are you, to make such a fuss over your opinion?” The only honest answer is: no one at all. But why should that stop me? This is the Internet, my friend!

That’s about it. If I’ve left anything unclear, feel free to post a comment, and I’ll be happy to elucidate. Now, without further ado, let the capsulizing begin!

Welcome to The Film Journal That Will Not Stay Dead!

Keith’s Film Log is an endless, vaguely narcissistic project that I’ve started and abandoned many times over the last six or ten years. And I’m starting again! Now, for the first time, the newest incarnation of the Film Log is available to a general audience on the World Wide Web. (And when I say “a general audience,” I mean, “my most devoted friends and a few lost souls who wandered here from Google.”)

This feels like a good time to restart the ol’ Film Log, for three reasons: 1) this past summer’s 12 Films 12 Weeks project was the occasion for my first sustained experience as a blogger (and introduced me to the joys of WordPress); 2) it’s a new goddamn decade; and 3) the 2010 Sundance Film Festival begins tonight, and I’m out in Park City eager to experience the madness once again.

Actually, now that I think of it, this year marks the 10-year anniversary of my very first trip to Sundance, back when I was a fresh young lad of 18. (I was allowed to take time off from high school to come out here. It was awesome.) My mother — God bless her — had purchased me the invaluable (and expensive) Eccles Theatre Pass, and I attended every single screening it entitled me to — thirty-nine movies in all. My favorite that year was Everything Put Together — the breakthrough film for Marc Forster, who went on to make Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, the underrated Stay, the wonderful Stranger Than Fiction, and the disappointing Quantum of Solace. It’s been an eventful decade for Mr. Forster, for the world at large, and, when I think about it, for me. But then again, aren’t they all?

I’m not going to see thirty-nine movies at Sundance this year — probably more like fifteen or twenty. But I’ll be sure to post a little capsule description/review of each one right here in this space, for your enjoyment, edification, and (if I’m lucky) envy.

In my next post, I’ll explain a bit about how those capsules are put together. First, I have to figure out how to format them on WordPress …

Onward, into the second decade of 21st-century filmgoing!