I’ve been beating myself up for not putting out more content in the past week, but I really have done all I could do. I helped film a pageant in Vicksburg over the weekend and witnessed some entertaining Toddlers-and-Tiaras-style madness. I had a big test in Intro to Electronic Circuits yesterday and this is the last week of class, so its crunch time. Also, Salt was the only movie to come out over the weekend worth reviewing, and from what I read, it didn’t require much analysis. This week, Dinner for Shmucks and Charlie St. Cloud hit theaters, and I will probably be reviewing those two.

I watched one film worth mentioning on Netflix Instant over the week, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints starring Shia LaBeouf and Robert Downey Jr. It was a very personal film, written and directed by Dito Montiel and based on Montiel’s own book of memoirs about growing up in a violent neighborhood in New York City. LaBeouf plays young Dito and Downey plays grown-up Dito  in parallel storylines that converge on the wrecked relationship between Dito and his father. The performances were real and immediate, but that the actors needed to be reined in at times. Some of the improvised dialogue consisted of characters blurting “f***” like a Tourette’s sufferer on speed.

In other news, my reviews of Inception and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice were published in The Winston County Journal yesterday, hopefully signalling the start of an era of newspaper syndication for me. I’m excited about that possibility.

I’ve been researching for my post on Film Criticism, but what I’ve discovered is that there is no clear-cut recorded history of film critics. One just doesn’t exist. So, this project has turned into more work than I expected. But, I continue to work on it and will post it as soon as possible.

Hope you’re enjoying Film is Young. If you want to stay more connected to the blog, sign up for the Newsletter e-mail on the sidebar.

Take care,

Johnson