Jonny Numb

Is March a good time to announce something that’s been going on since the New Year? No? Well, it’s not my fault my sense of prioritization is such a mess! Jeez!

In any event, based on the encouragement of several people, I am in the (very…very…very) early stages of a book that will compile the movie reviews I’ve written over the past decade (for places like Crash Palace Productions, 1428 Elm, Movies Films & Flix, Machine Mean, The Magnificent World of Dave K, Loud Green Bird, and The Screening Space). While some of these sites are either inactive or gone completely, I still have the Word documents containing the reviews in their finalized form.

It’s possible the reviews will go back even further in time. There was a period where I had 2 separate LiveJournal accounts, with one dedicated to writing a little something about every movie I watched. (As you might imagine, I eventually got pretty burned out doing this.) If I do pull from this collection, it will be a carefully curated selection, since I remember some of those reviews being pretty cringeworthy.

Ditto the years I spent writing over at IMDb. Good Lord.

So right about now, you might be asking, “that’s all fine and dandy, Jonny Boy, but why the hell would I want to spend my hard-earned ducats on something I can get on teh InTeRnEtZ for free? Huh? Huh?”

Therein lies the point of this post.

Over the past I-don’t-know-how-many years, I’ve relegated most of my opinions on film – those that don’t “fit” within the parameters of the aforementioned sites, or simply those I don’t feel inspired to write about at length – to my Letterboxd account.

To amplify the spirit of having a physical compilation of my reviews (yes, I am as narcissistic as any other self-proclaimed “artist”!), I am also looking to include a collection of takes that I’ve been typing up and keeping to myself since early January.

Since it’s impossible not to sound crass about it, this is “added value” that will only be available in the book. For the most part, these reviews will be more succinct than the longform essays I’m known for.

While I started this project with the notion of committing to it for a full year (I can’t imagine how many “new” reviews that will amount to), I may abandon it if it becomes too taxing, or if I reach a point where the amount I have feels satisfactory.

Since it’s my default comfort zone, these reviews will be horror or otherwise genre-related. My takes on more mainstream fare will still pop up on Letterboxd, but I wanted to make this post in the hope that those who follow me over there won’t think I’ve died or otherwise quit the opinion-having game.

Rest assured, my longform reviews will continue to appear over at Crash Palace and Movies Films & Flix when the spirit moves me.

Maybe now I can finally start writing about Infinity Pool…