Tuesday, November 26, 2013

2013 in Shit

Last year, I did a thing I called 2012 in Film; 16 reviews of the 16 films I had seen in theaters over the course 2012. It was exhausting and often stupid, so this year I decided to go way, way harder.

The reason the name is updated to 2013 in Shit is because, in addition to the 18 movies I’ve seen in theaters in 2013, I also, for the first time in my life, read a pretty good amount of books in the same year that they were published. 15 of them, really, and I had hoped for a couple more. I’ve already had reviews of three of them published in other venues, but I’ll still add some extra original thoughts for those days.

What this means is that, starting tomorrow, I’m going to be posting something once every day for the next 35 days. That’s until the end of December. I’m giving myself an extra two days because I anticipate seeing Oldboy and Hunger Games: Catching Fire, so that will have to be written about as well.

Last year I wrote just under 13,000 words total, with one review a total of 2 and others nearing 2,000. Having given myself a slightly larger lead time than last year (I’ve been at this a little longer than a week and a half so far, but I’ve also been trying, very lazily, to place a couple of these, which have been done for about a month) I expect this round to be slightly more consistent in terms of length. It’s going to be a lot.

So here it is, your table of contents, in no order whatsoever:

  1. The Color Master
  2. Riddick
  3. The Hanging on Union Square
  4. Love is the Law
  5. Oblivion
  6. The Wolverine
  7. Ender’s Game
  8. After Earth
  9. Fruitvale Station
  10. My Education
  11. You’re Next
  12. Taipei
  13. The Purge
  14. Stoker
  15. Elysium
  16. The Childhood of Jesus
  17. Menial: Skilled Labor in Science Fiction
  18. Joyland
  19. The Last Stand
  20. Hitchcock
  21. A Tale For the Time Being
  22. Hunger Games: Catching Fire
  23. The Conservation of Shadows
  24. The Croods
  25. Pink Globalization
  26. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
  27. From Up on Poppy Hill
  28. William Gibson
  29. Ghosts in the Machine
  30. Pain & Gain
  31. Carrie
  32. Escape Plan
  33. Oldboy
  34. Apology
  35. Nevada
As per last year, these are going to be roughly in the shape of reviews, and (also like last year) roughly is going to be the key word here. It will be fairly obvious what I wrote with particular venues in mind, I suspect, given the loose barrage of words and ideas that surround those moments of near-clarity.

So, here goes nothing.