2023! Resolutions and Expectations
For subscribers, my 23 most anticipated films of cinema's Jordan Year.
Happy 2023, everyone! We made it. Since you just heard from me about my top 10 movies of 2022, I’ll keep this bonus post brief with an added treat at the end.
Since accountability is everything, here’s what I strived for last year and how I think I did:
Consistency — Sending out this newsletter on a regular basis in 2021 was not a strong suit of mine. I resolve to keep some semblance of stability in 2022 to earn your support, especially from paying subscribers. I’m already getting started on this by banking some posts that I can use if I don’t have the time to write what I have planned on my editorial calendar. Here’s to fewer hiatuses and interruptions this year! RESULT: Still some work to do around preparing for busy times, but I think I hit a consistent stride around Thanksgiving and have some good momentum headed into 2023.
Attentiveness — I spend far too much time split-screening. I don’t multitask for anything that I’m formally reviewing or writing about, and I wish I could say I extend the same courtesy to everything else … but I don’t. Stopping cold turkey will be tough, but I have to start putting my phone farther away from me while I watch movies. It’s doing the artists a disservice — and myself as well given how much I’ll miss when giving something a fraction of my attention. RESULT: I fell off on this mid-year but still apply it a lot when I know I need to really watch something for a piece. It served me very well.
Sustainability — The previous quarter was an experience of burnout and exhaustion like few I’ve ever experienced (and this newsletter, as you probably know, was usually the first responsibility I shirked off). I felt constantly behind the eight-ball, always scraping by with just enough to get by and maintain performance levels. But I want to thrive rather than just survive, which probably means rationing my attention, my assignments, and my viewing to more sustainable levels. RESULT: Well, the fall got the best of me again, resulting in a moment where I had to excuse myself from an NYFF screening to splash water on my face so I didn’t pass out. It was a low point that scared me straight, and I think this time will be better.
Look back — Actually watch more classics, both in terms of obvious blind spots and just to fill out my knowledge of cinema history. There are plenty of great things to watch with no obvious bearing on any writing I’m doing that are still worth seeing! RESULT: Taking on a lot more work in covering streaming made this one more difficult, and I’m never sure it’s actually achievable to watch as much of the classics as I’d like. But I have to keep striving!
Look ahead — Actually go beyond the obvious topsoil of indie and global cinema, elevating voices before they have the platform of a well-known distributor or a festival prize. RESULT: I’m disappointed that I didn’t get the chance to discover and fight for smaller titles as a result of ruthlessly following the logic of assignments.
Go longer — 2021 was a year where most of my writing was focused on shorter and more succinct pieces. In 2022, I’d like to reconnect more with long-form pieces both here and in freelance venues. RESULT: I succeeded in doing this on the newsletter, giving myself the time and space to write longer form pieces on movies and stars I found fascinating. I did not write as much of these in a freelance capacity as I had hoped.
So with those successes and shortcomings in mind, here’s what I am resolving for 2023…
Commitment. Continue to look for ways to improve offerings through this newsletter, including by offering more features around community and curation. While quantity and hitting my 2x/week goal will be a large part of this, I also want to measure this in quality. This means not just getting #content out the door but thinking about how to make posts meaningful.
Efficiency. The classic “work smarter, not harder” for me in writing means not procrastinating on assignments and deadlines, working ahead in quiet periods, and tackling things I dread (namely, interview transcription) within 48 hours to avoid the mental anguish of knowing I have to rush.
Targeted blindspot treatment. Rather than make a blanket vow to be better at catching up on classics, I’m going to pick a filmmaker, genre, and country to better verse myself in for 2023. I resolve to get to know Eric Rohmer (shamefully have never seen a single one of the French director’s films yet have faked my way through multiple interviews as if I had), the classical rom-com/screwball comedy, and Japanese cinema.
Write outside the box. I will push myself to write things that do not just fall into familiar categories and templates I can churn out like clockwork (those being the review, the Q&A interview, and the streaming blurbs).
Read more. I felt my attention span shrink to tweet-length when it came to consuming criticism this year. If I want anyone to read all that I write, I need to extend the same courtesy to others and get a better sense of the great stuff floating around out there. (And then I’ll share more of it here!)
I am also going to start giving more things to subscribers only in 2023, even if they are more general interest content. Case in point, my most anticipated movies of 2023 as listed below…
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