Why Movies Engage Me

A topic that always engages me without fail is movies. I love talking about movies; what works in movies, what doesn’t work, my favorites, my least favorites, or just my experience watching them. To me, movies aren’t just a form of entertainment, they’re also a form of art, a form of storytelling, a form of communication. Their messages can ripple across an entire population and change the way that we think about the world around us. They can bring us into an incredibly beautiful world that can take our minds off of how terrifying real life can sometimes be or they can bring new awareness to an aspect of reality that their audiences never even thought about before. Movies are a form of expression, and the best ones can be impactful to everyone on many different levels.

Movies are without a doubt one of my favorite things to talk about with other people. I love sharing my perspectives on new or classic films and sharing how much I love and care about the craft of filmmaking. I also love hearing what other people have to say about the movies they’ve seen recently. Did they love them? Did they hate them? Did they think they were just okay? Do I agree with their opinion on a certain film or not? If I don’t, do I at least understand where they’re coming from? Do I feel they have as much of a passion for films as I do? It’s interesting to see the wide variety of attitudes people have towards movies. Maybe they can’t stand horror films because they hate the sight of blood or being scared. Maybe they don’t like films that depress them because they want to go to the movies to be entertained and feel good walking out of it. I know that before I started analyzing films on my own, I agreed with all of those statements to some level or another. Now, I prioritize how well the story was executed based on what the filmmakers were trying to express, regardless of the genre of film I’m watching. However, I still like listening to all of these points of view because of how varying a population’s excitement towards films can be.

I’ve been working on developing my experience as a film critic for over three years now, and what I love the most about being able to critique films is that I never thought in a million years I could be a film critic. I watched YouTubers like Chris Stuckmann and Jeremy Jahns and I thought, “Wow, I never thought about looking into a film that closely before. I wish I had the skills to do that.” I started assimilating the aspects of filmmaking that movie critics on YouTube would focus on: the direction, writing, acting, pacing, cinematography, editing, and everything else that is required to make a film as great as possible. After re-watching Mary Poppins one night and The Croods soon after, I started applying what I had learned from those critics into my own analysis. I realized that if I simply continued watching movies and finding the aspects I thought worked and didn’t work about each film I watched, I could be just as good at analyzing films as they were. For the longest time, I thought I was the only one I knew who adored films so much, but then I connected with people at my school who loved them just as much as I did. I started making short films with them, talking with them about their favorite films, what they loved about the craft, and I realized I wanted to be surrounded by people like that in my life. For me, great movies can give a better understanding of human nature, and that’s what I love about them the most.