Finally we came to the conclusion that, yes, it was indeed a bad movie. Not only that. It was so bad that the world needed to hear about it. From us. Because we were geniuses. We had opinions. We saw what nobody else could see. So, that evening we decided, after a few more beers, that we were going to start a movie review blog. A big, famous one with hundreds of thousands of readers, and many smart and witty things in it. And we would educate the masses. We were incredibly excited. The rest or the evening was spent coming up with possible names for our amazing new project…
And that is as far as we got. Because we could never agree on a name.
That, and because we were a pair of 17 year old twats.
I rewatched that movie a few years ago. It was decent.

Now what is the point of this meandering? That teenagers know nothing? Probably, but not without exception (just look at Stephen King writing The Gunslinger at 19).
Much more likely it means that opinions change. People and circumstances change (just look at Stephen King critisising The Gunslinger as a grown man).
So while we can analyse and determine several textbook facts about any given work of art, our experience is fluid. Not only do opinions change, they don’t even make sense.
There are amazing works of art out there, that I severely dislike. And there are some that I love, even though they are truly awful.
Which is why none of my reviews have any aspirations of being true.
If it speaks to you, great. If not, also great. Or even better, it speaks to you but is saying all the wrong things, now it’s exciting.

The other thing is that, while I have watched my share of movies that I didn’t enjoy, books usually take a lot longer to finish – and that means that I hardly ever finish a book I don’t like (I always give it 100 pages though). And because I also hardly ever review books I didn’t finish (that seems a bit unfair), most of my reviews are of books I enjoyed, or at least mostly enjoyed.
Really the subtitle should be “I liked it, even though …“
Is that okay? I don’t know. Probably. One look at my TBR pile and my schedule will tell you, I simply do not have the time to read books I do not want to read. Also I do not want to read them.
That would be like deliberately decorating your flat with disagreeable artwork, and that sort of thing is indecent in any room except the toilet or maybe a passive agressive guestroom.

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR

I have always enjoyed misunderstanding the term “Bookish” as a description of origin. As in “My friend is British” meaning “My friend is from Britain”, and not “My friend enjoys and collects people from the UK”.
I do like the idea of simply being Bookish. Being from books, raised in books, shaped by books, feeling at home in books.

I am, in reality, Viennese. But I left for a bit before I came back home.
I have been in and out of universities but film school is the only one I graduated from.
I’ve lived in Berlin, then in London but was eventually chased out by Brexit.
I used to work LQA for Square Enix, I also used to work as an undertaker, life is odd that way.
I’ve got a partner and a baby, two step-cats and a therapist.
I consider myself chaotic good.


– M