April 18, 2013: 1,000 Reviews Later

 Terrence Malick's To the Wonder commemorated my 1,000 film review.

Congratulatory blogs are not my thing, and for that reason, I hope to make this post concise. When I began writing reviews on October 13, 2009, I had no idea where they'd lead me. By the end of eight grade, I reckon I had maybe thirty reviews under my belt. The fondest memories I have of eight grade were patching the friendships I had screwed up back in seventh grade, and writing reviews in class and not paying attention to my studies. However, my review writing/publishing was infrequent and, overall, messy. Upon entering high school, I started unintentionally developing notoriety for my writing. I found people asking me what movies were out this week, what looked good and what didn't, who directed/starred in what, and the two obligatory questions I get almost on a daily basis; "what's your favorite movie?" and "seen any good movies?"

By sophomore year, word had spread about my aspirations and my writing and, before I knew it, I was getting more requests to write for the school newspaper, getting recognized from people I had never seen before (which may be the first hint that you're becoming famous), recognition from teachers, and began voluntarily reading my reviews of films we watched in class aloud. That way, not only could I show the class I was more than meets the eye, but I could also get considerable buzz about my writing talents. Junior year, I have read more than five reviews aloud in several of my classes.

And now it's junior year, and I've hit a new landmark in my brief career as a film critic; I have published 1,000 full-length reviews on my website. This is a considerable feat, and I originally wanted to have it completed by the time I graduate high school (May 2014). My 1,000 review came during the middle of April 2013, one of the busiest months I've had in memory with two ACT tests to take, my Advocacy project (which is now released on this blog site for everyone to read), two forthcoming presentations I need to give, graduation from the Student Leadership Academy, and further planning to assure my senior year is equal parts enjoyable and rigorous. I published my 1,000 review, Terrence Malick's To the Wonder, which, coincidentally, was the final review film critic Roger Ebert ever wrote, on April 18, 2013, which was the day that disaster hit the town of West Texas with a fertilizer plant explosion and the day the Midwest region was ravished by almost ten inches of rainfall in forty-eight hours. I was home from school due an immense staff shortage on the count of increment weather. It was a lax, slow-moving day, and I decided to publish my legendary 1,000 review. It stunned me then and it still does, two weeks later.

So, what's next you might ask? I say 1,100 reviews, then 1,500, then 2,000, and so on. The landmarks will, hopefully, keep coming, as there are thousands of other films out there I'm dying to see. Some remarked that they had no idea there were even that many films out there to review and I thought they were kidding. Has American cinema closeted you to the present and the very recent past? But I digress, I thank you for sticking with me through 1,000 reviews. It has been my pleasure to provide my readers with sophisticated, knowledgeable content, and I take pride that I have been able to accomplish so much in just four years of writing reviews online. It's an indelible honor on my part.

Read my 1,000th review on my website, http://stevethemovieman.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=reviews&action=display&thread=3638