If anyone reading this follows me on Twitter (@ALateReviewer – give me a follow, if you don’t already), you’ll have seen a recent post or two concerning my ‘milestone’* birthday.
*Perhaps that should be ‘millstone’? I dunno. All I know is my back hurts more than it used to and hangovers last two days.
Anyway, as I’ve written before, this whole site started as a way for me to channel my anxieties into something creative in the early days of the pandemic. I’ll be honest, the results have been varied, but while I’ve really enjoyed watching these films and writing about them, in recent months I’ve struggled to carve out the time to actually sit down and watch, make notes and write about these films that, let’s be honest, have very limited appeal.
That being said, I’ve written almost 100 pieces for this site in a year, and I’ve covered 28 films in the Late Reviews section since day one (29 if you include Rhubarb Rhubarb and Mr H Is Late as two entries, but at 28 minutes each, I don’t).
So here’s my plan for my 40th year – I’m going to write 40 new Late Reviews by March 15, 2023.
I’m putting this here in black and white as inspiration and/or to force me to stick with the challenge out of shame/fear of failure. I might even knock together a little logo or subsection of the site while I’m at it, but that’s getting ahead of myself.
I’ll be honest, as a former reporter for a daily newspaper, I know this is a fairly achievable goal but the thousands of words I wrote for that paper were literally my day job, not something I did after my day job, after getting the kids to bed, and before falling asleep.
That means for 2022 me – as someone with a life away from the keyboard – this is a genuine challenge.
You can do what you like with this information. Forget it, bash me over the head with it if I don’t post for a while, or possibly send me a word of encouragement every now and then (I’m obviously hoping for the latter!).
All being well, there should be more Late Reviews coming than usual, and I’ll probably still pepper the odd Quick Read here and there too, when the mood takes me.
In the meantime, it would be really helpful to me if you’d share anything on here that you’ve enjoyed with anyone else you think might dig it. And of course, the Special Features section is still here for anyone who wants to shout about a favourite film, topic, performance, or anything cinema related.
Right then, now to decide what to watch first…
LateReviewer.com 