Where I'm coming from and why I love cinema

Hello there!

Let me introduce myself for a bit. I'll make it not that long hopefully. After all it isn't in my interest to bore you to death before the actual blog even started. So the first thing you might want to know about me is that I am 22 years old at the moment, just in case you already want to dismiss this blog because "how could such a young 'un possibly know anything at all" (Please read the last part picturing an old man saying it while rising his fist to the clouds).
And yeah, I am actually sometimes a bit unsure about the value my opinions on movies have just because I simply haven't had that much time to learn about everything there is to movies, let alone to watch every important classic. I've never seen a Kurosawa or Tarkovsky movie, I have only seen two Hitchcock movies (namely Vertigo and The Birds), none of the Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton movies, not even A Trip to the Moon, the most classic of all classics as it seems. I have seen Citizen Kane, but not The Third Man, The Godfather, but not The Godfather II and Scarface, but also here not the original.
"So what do I know about movies?", some people might think. To be honest, not very much, judging by my knowledge of the classics or me barely knowing the difference between two camera movements. But what I do know is what movies do in order for me and others to like them. And as I am slowly building up my knowledge on the technical side of filmmaking, I am also constantly seeing new things and techniques emerge or resurface that can help a film to accomplish the simple status of being a good movie, rather than a just okay one. These little nooks and crannies are what drive me to always search and long for new material to watch, to digest, to analyze and to get to love eventually.

Now, the second part that might be of interest if you're looking for a reviewer with similar taste in movies like yourself, is what genres I most frequently watch or which games I play. I'll get into that, so that you can pack your things and leave now already, if I happen to only watch Tibetan monk dramas of the 1960s. Let me assure you, that's not my preferred genre, although I wouldn't mind watching something like this if it exists.
In fact, my preferred gerne above all is Science Fiction, not necessarily the Star Wars flavoured part of it, but more that of the hard technological and societal exploration of our possible future as mankind. I am very fond of movies like Ex Machina, Moon, 2001: A Space Oddissey, Annihilation, Arrival and both Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, TV shows like Black Mirror and Altered Carbon and finally games like SOMA and Deus Ex (although I only played Human Revolution and Mankind Divided). These are in general really thought-provoking works of art and the creators clearly put much thought into the themes that are explored within them. And what they've all got in common is that you know from the get-go that these are deep and serious works, where you have to put in the thought work to enjoy the ride.
On the other hand there are movies like Star Wars which I already mentioned, where you can switch off your brain, just flow through the plot and enjoy it. But that's not the only level some of these other works offer. You can dig deep into these movies as well if you like, and that I very much do. I love it when there is another level of hidden meaning, some kind of autobiographic metaphora or the outlinings of a philosophical discussion lying underneath the surface of a by itself already well done and enjoyable work of art.
The Star Wars series is a prime example for that. Depending on how far you want to go in you can already see the influences of far-eastern religious themes and pantheism shimmering through the surface. And that's just one sample of many, the Mad Max series as another case seems like just a full-octane action series and it totally is just that on the first look, but under the surface lie subtle commentaries on the nature of mankind, the absolute depravity it is capable of and what the human mind can do to itself when exposed to tragic and insurmountable events. Other works I love for that matter among others not necessarily just in Sci-Fi are for example the Metro 2033 series, Bioshock, the Far Cry series, Game of Thrones and quite some more.

The second very important genre to me are war movies, very much because of similar reasons to those I already listed above. The genre of war movies is quite diverse, from hooray patriotic almost propaganda pieces to actual propaganda to the exact opposite, the anti-war movie. From this genre comes also my number one favourite movie of all time: Apocalypse Now, which I'll revisit in a post of its own in a more extensive analysis and comparison I am already planning for the future.
In fact my love for movies was born by this genre when I think it was a 14 year old me snuck into his parents room, nicked the movie Platoon from the shelf and watched it while everyone else was out shopping. I put the DVD in, pressed play and after about two hours was changed forever. That movie touched something deep within me, it was the first movie that really made me feel something meaningful, not just the usual excitement or suspense of other movies. I was horrified by what I had seen, I was devastated of the extent of human depravity that seemingly can influence even the most well meaning person to do despicable acts of violence when pushed to the brink and I was astounded to see that there can still be people who are able to stay the same upright humans no matter how deep everyone else is descending into uncivilized territory. From the moment on when the credits started to roll I was dead set on finding more movies of that kind, learning as much as I can about story writing, camera work and the whole realm of movie making in general. I'm glad that I saw this movie on this particular afternoon because it set me on the track to my biggest hobby and therefore right to this moment when I'm writing this far too long, unstructured and entirely unnecessary text (Sorry for that by the way).
For some years after Platoon I watched war movies most of the time. Starting with Apocalypse Now that triggered a whole different kind of epiphany in me, then Full Metal Jacket, Jarhead, The Deer Hunter, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Der Untergang (or as it is called internationally Downfall), Das Boot and the most recent one Dunkirk. These were the ones I categorized for myself as most influential to me. And then there are movies about the consequences of war at home, my favourite two of those being First Blood and also Taxi Driver. In recent times I also found the portrayal of Frank Castle first in Daredevil and then in The Punisher to be very well-made.

So these two genres are the ones I am most actively involved in. Of course these aren't the only ones. Generally I have an open mind for everything. My not yet finished hall of fame is also home of gangster dramas like Heat or unsurprisingly The Godfather, endtime dramas like Children of Men or The Road, horror movies and mystery thrillers  (Hereditary, Donnie Darko), more or less regular Thrillers (Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, Sicario, Wind River, Hell or High Water) and lots and lots of other cult classics from recent times like of course most of Tarantino's stuff, basically everything Coen Brothers, Natural Born Killers, Pan's Labyrinth, Drive, the original Oldboy and also very much of Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli movies. Because who doesn't like all these examples, right? That's basically the ground template for every cinephile, but I am really keen on seeing other points of view about some favourite movies of mine that might be a bit more controversial. But there will be another time for that.

I think I will leave it at that for now. I got carried away far too much anyway, so my short introduction got waaaay too long. I just love to ramble on and on far too much. Hopefully it still managed to give you a bit of an overview what I'm all about and how I view movies. I'm still young and relatively inexperienced, but I see myself as someone who first and foremost looks at the good qualities of a work of art and doesn't put something off from the get-go. So maybe I could summarize my intentions as kind of like a CinemaWins in writing only, I just want to bring the joy and all the good things in movies, show and games to more people.

I'm not sure yet what piece of fine media I will do first, but it'll come out some time in the near future whatever you want to make of that.

This is TheCinemaniac, signing off.