Welcome my friends!

Welcome everyone to the first posting of the Film School Fanboy movie review website/blog/thing that people look at while scratching themselves online while they wait for Myspace to load. I decided to start a movie review blog because of the many, many requests (actually probably more like two, but hey who's counting? Wait I just did...), that I have gotten lately to do a site like this. So I gave in and said what they hey. So here we are.

Although I didn't want to just do a plain old normal review engine. I wanted to attempt to do something a bit different with the way I review films. I didn't seriously review movies until I was about 18 years old and out of high school. I always wanted to be a part of the entertainment industry in some way, but I always figured I would be a performer, an actor, a stand up comedian, the homeless guy begging for change doing a jig, whatever you would call entertainment, I figured that one day I would be a part of it. It wasn't until I had graduated high school that I began to learn about the "art" of film making and what makes a grand wonderful film, as opposed to just watching a movie for sheer entertainment. I learned about Orsen Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurasowa, Martin Scorcese, the Coen Brothers, and other various filmmakers and screenwriters that made the classics in our industry today. I learned what makes a film be deemed an undisputed masterpiece, film making techniques, editing techniques, what makes a solid screenplay, sound design, and just a plethora of ways on what makes a film be hailed as not just an amazing piece of escapist entertainment, but a great experience all around. I went to film school to attempt to learn this craft to the best of my ability, and although I wasn't the greatest student the school had ever seen, I had learned many wonderful things throughout the years I had spent in school, from filmmakers and editors and gaffers so much so that something terrible happened to me.

I had become a film snob.

A film snob? Surely you jest? Indeed ladies and gentlemen, I was a film snob. I wont say I was the worst snob, but you really couldn't argue about movies with me, because more than likely, you were wrong. Because I went to film school dammit! I knew it all!

Around junior year I began to realize I didn't know shit. And it took the attention of a good friend of mine from high school to realize I didn't know anything. This one line will stay with me forever and I thank him very much for it.

"Before you went to film school, you actually liked movies."

I was floored. He was right. Utterly and completely right in every way. I forgot how to enjoy a movie by myself. I pointed out nuances and mistakes that the filmmaker made. I laughed at the terrible dialogue without realizing the one thing that most critics fail to realize when they review films. That they were once fans of movies. Forget the lighting and cinematography for a second. Did you enjoy the movie? I forgot how to enjoy films. I had to remember that 98% of the country doesn't give a shit what a critic thinks. Let alone me, some asshole who completed film school and barely has any hair on his balls. People go to the movies to be entertained, not to be lectured at, and unfortunately film school taught me to be an elitist, not a filmmaker.

The point to this seemingly random diatribe, is that I wanted to have this review site be something different. So I decided to do what most film critics don't do within their own little world.

And that is to be a fanboy.

Whenever I review a film on this site, it will come from two perspectives. The film critic, and the fanboy. There are films out there that are completely critic proof and frankly there is nothing wrong with that. People need to shut their brain down for a few hours. It happens. And then there are art films that people love to sink into its subconscious and delve into what exactly occurred, and there's nothing wrong with that as well. From the two perspectives I will create a review, that hopefully people could pay attention to. You don't have to listen to me. Most people wont obviously. But I hope that some of you may enlighten your perspective whether your an average Joe, or a snobby film student that has seen Battleship Potemkin curled up in the fetal position for hours on end (I'm sorry Mike I had to steal it).

Either way I hope you enjoy, and remember, Perspective is a funny thing. Much like a kid with down syndrome.

Matt