'Tis the Season to Cram


There is only a few weeks left before 2023 arrives. This means a few things. The obvious one is there will be a new year very soon. For listeners of The Movie Breakdown, it means our annual 'best of the year' episode where both Scott and I present our top ten movies of the year is almost here. For the readers of the site (which I heavily suspect may be you. . . yes, you), it means I'll have to make good on my promise of 2023 being a fresh start where the site unleashes a plethora of high quality movie reviews and writing. 

It also means time is shortening on my other promise where I metaphorically got on my knees begging that you trust that I'll end the year grooving that movie review writing beat that has been denied for most of the year.

My very ambitious self is often the greatest source of my undoing and disappointment. I do plan on writing my very best possible pieces this month on the site and get down with that funky style that gets my fingers and creativity dancing into 2023 where I finally deliver on the series, reviews and pieces that I have been promoting will arrive on this site since the dawn of humankind.

But that little vow that I'd end the year with reviews of every 2022 that I see for the remainder of the year may be destined for a nasty head-on collision with my desperate scramble to have a respectable list for the upcoming Top Ten Movies of 2022 list.

Because my dear readers, as is almost always the case at this point, I've hit the cramming season where I scrambled to try to track down as many of the acclaimed 2022 movies as possible, so that I can claim to have seen as many of the best movies as possible to add some credibility to my list. 

There are many reasons why I'm left imitating a university student with exams burning my neck. Part is most definitely to be blamed on me, as I just left too many movies again until the end of the year. For various reasons, I didn't watch as many movies as I have in the past.

The issues are not entirely things that should bring me shame. I am not part of an official critics' association or a major publication/website, which means I don't get any screeners sent to me, so I need to track down the movies myself and pay for the access out of my own pocket. That is very time consuming and also expensive, considering I also spring to see a theatrical movie almost every weekend. 

This leads to the biggest challenge. Most of the sites that I was paid to review movies have gone under, or we have parted ways to due cutbacks thanks to that nagging pandemic. It also means I lost a lot of work over the past two years due to many clients either going out of business or having to make major cuts. I have just made a lot less money the past two years, and most of my work has shifted away from pop culture and movies.

This means most of my movie writing has been outside my actual job and so, it just means I've had a lot less time and recent financial setbacks has meant much harder to justify watching as many movies as possible.

This is not an attempt to win a golden trophy of sympathy from my amazing readers that have stuck with this site even though it has not been consistent or had too many new release movie reviews on here in the past few years. But it is an excuse for why we are once again in spot where I'm scrambling to catch-up on movies, and why I already know I'll likely miss out on quite a few of the big acclaimed pictures.

Much like coming with a bottle of oil to pour into a tub of water, I'm not sure how well reviewing everything this December will mix with watch as many 2022 movies as possible for my top ten list.

Things are financially tight on my end after a rough two years, I need to take as much work as I can, and desperately want to conjure a majestic holiday career miracle where I can finally buy my son a Switch. This hustling to get and land as much work over the next two weeks means my time for the site will be sparse. I will probably use a lot of that extra time to catch up on movies and compile my top ten list.

So, will I review any movies this month? I hope to still tackle quite a few. Though, I may have to go against my typical instinct and lean towards very short reviews rather than pieces with much depth. It will at least mean there is something to read, and it will be great challenge to see if I can write something substantial and valuable with a minimal amount of words.

I apologize if this December doesn't quite rock the eyeballs with greatness. I will still be aiming to do my best, and I will strive to track down as many movies as I can to have a rocking top ten movie list.

Now, time to channel my early twenties and get to some cramming.  

Comments