I type this article with the ring and middle fingers of my left hand plastered together (due to a boxing-related mishap which saw me accidentally hitting two metal screws when the foam covering slid down). The last time I posted something for this blog was on the 31st of August, 2017, nearly a year-and-a-half ago. Two unfinished drafts for articles which may or may not ever see the light of day sit in the box of sixty-six prospects, things scattered about and left to the side. The timing of that last blog post, my 10th, and perhaps final, annual review for the best films of the year, is fitting. A lot has happened since then.
As you can surely ascertain for the title, I am addressing my extended silence, absence of activity in this regard. Even sitting myself down to do it is something that I've been meaning to do for a while, but, for numerous reasons, haven't got round to it.
On August 4th of 2017, I was sitting in a cabin on a twelve-hour night shift, probably not doing a whole lot of anything and bored out of my tree, in a three or four-week long pattern for the build-up, event and breakdown of that year's Vital at Boucher Playing Fields. When I started working out with proper fervour on November 15, 2016, my creative drive came back with a vengeance, and I haven't really stopped since. I've been bitten by the bug, and the itch it's left behind hasn't went away. Anyway, at some point that night, Cat's Miaow came back to me.
I first got the idea for Cat's Miaow in 2009, making several failed and abortive attempts to bring it to life over the years. Despite falling to the wayside, I never really escaped it's clutches, and that night it came back to me. I started writing again, not with any particular end goal in sight, just something to do, keep the juice's flowing. But it kept going, and going, and going, on and on. For six months straight, the longest investment I'd ever had in a single creative project, I did nothing else, until, on February 4, 2018, I ended up with this chaotic, rambling mess of a manuscript I referred to as The Monster Draft. Over seven-hundred pages A4, two-hundred-and-twenty thousand words, out of sequence, out of step, and most certainly out of mind. I didn't quite know what I had on my hands, nor how I was going to tackle and tame the beast, but I knew I had something.
So, between now and then I endeavoured to go upon a journey, trawling through the realms of fiction and fact, consciousness, dreams and reality, into a deep and dark place, the recesses of the abyss, my own personal hell, if you will, and in there, somewhere, from soil and the dirt in which I dug ("still I dig..."), I pulled up a story. The side-effects of dealing with such material most certainly had a negative impact in the short-term. My mental health was challenged more than a few times. I'm sure that there are some residual things I'll be dealing with for a while (I for one know I cannot do anything like this again for at least another year or two.). At some point down the line it would be good to write more thoroughly on the matter, to share some insights and perspectives on what it feels like to come face to face with yourself and discover who and what it is you are meant to be. Right now though, it's nice to have some closure on it. Ten days ago, February 10, 2019, I finished Cat's Miaow, and I'm quite happy that I've laid the thing to rest. New ideas are flowing constantly, and I'm looking forward to sharing them with you all and bringing them to similar fruition. I'm feeling very positive about the future, and things are only looking up from here.
Speaking of closure, that brings me to the blog. Unfortunately, over the course of writing Cat's Miaow and re-discovering my drive and passion to create, my film criticism was one of the many victims who suffered from the artistry. Film criticism has been kind to me. For ten years, through all the highs and lows, this was a ways and means for me to express myself in whatever way, shape or form I saw fit. But while I was focusing on my own work, throwing myself head-on into this thing, I stopped paying attention to investing myself into what other people were doing. All of my energies were devoted upon that one project.
As such, while I thought I was done with film criticism for good, and by am I no means going to be returning to activity (my primary focus remains my own creative output, which is now extending across many different mediums. More soon!), it's a case of never say never. I would like to be able to put something out there every now and then when I get the notion. I never really switch off, in more ways than one, and I still find that one of my favourite past-times is to sit back in a dark room and watch a good movie. Cinema is a special, unique and wonderful medium that takes us to places within and outside ourselves.
In that regard, for putting up with this wishy-washy diatribe, I've decided to treat you all to a list of my ten favourite films I saw in my free time in 2018.
Peace
Callum
My Ten Favourite Films Seen in 2018 (in ascending order from 10 to 1)
10. Spike Jonze's Her - a moving story of love, loneliness and alienation in the information age.
9. Pedro Almodovar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - Almodovar at his ribaldrous, raucous and outrageous best.
8. Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water - a very classy, elegant fairy tale which also serves as a commentary on contemporary prejudice.
7. Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc - Dreyer's naturalistic, close-up depiction of the last days of Joan of Arc is a strikingly powerful cinematic sensation.
6. Victor Sjostrom's The Phantom Carriage - this meditative ghost story of life and death on the eve of a New Year is haunting and lingers long after the last reel.
5. Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage - Bergman does what only Bergman can do, and that is get deep into the heart of relationships and human behaviour.
4. Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita - Fellini's masterpiece kept me guessing until the last scene, and then it all came together.
3. David Cronenberg's Crash - this unflinching adaptation of J.G. Ballard's novel, decades later, remains to be incredibly provocative.
2. Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev - a majestic, sprawling biopic of the 15th-century Russian icon painter, this is epic cinema at it's finest.
1. Mike Leigh's Naked - raw, visceral, funny, frightening, harrowing, everything, Mike Leigh's Naked is a walking talking whirlwind of social commentary and existentialism in the guise of artistry.
