"Right now, I really like that you're nice."

Hello strangers,

I am not a superhero. I am an oh so mild-mannered struggling writer, a perversely dedicated part-time video store manager and ex-boyfriend. I've been writing about movies professionally for over ten years now, and I am still trying to understand what it takes to be a successful film critic who contributes to our culture. Reading this (http://slate.msn.com/id/2111473/entry/2111743/) doesn't really help. I have always liked Edelstein, but I really don't know what is going on here with Stephanie Zacharek, Charles Taylor, or Armond White. None of the films they slag so viciously (along with, by extension, the critics and viewers who enjoy them) is worthy of their contempt. Certainly not Million Dollar Baby and Sideways, with their sharp scripts and pitch perfect performances, and not even Dogville. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a bit of a mess in many ways (both The Corporation and Hijacking Catastrophe were better political documentaries), but it gathers together enough pertinent information and displays enough righteous anger to move me. But maybe I am too soft-hearted to make it in this business. A filmmaker really has to go out of his way (Hello, Andrew Repasky McElhinney! What up, Mel Gibson! Hiya, Tony Scott!) to offend me. I mean, even Beyond the Sea didn't offend me, but then I'm not much of a Bobby Darin fan. I just can't summon righteous indignation at imperfect filmmaking. Obviously, it's hard to conceive a cinematic masterpiece. Charlie Kaufman is a damn genius, and it took him several tries.

This is my blarg. I plan to write here about the films of the cinema, and other things that I know little to nothing about. I hope you enjoy reading it far more than I enjoy writing it. At least so far...

What makes my blarg different from all the other film blogs out there. I'm not sure. We both know that I am emphatically and empirically not you. But what I know, and you may not know, is that I am also not that other guy.

Soon, I will post my list of the best films I saw in 2004. This is an Arizona Jim! exclusive, and so it's very exciting and eventful for me and for all of my readers, even the ones that only read me because they love to hate me. You know who you are (Me!).