ABOUT
Welcome to the Steve’s Brief Movie Recommendations website. The name is mostly self-explanatory, but browsing the site you may wonder why it includes reviews that don’t seem like recommendations. You may also wonder why I, aka Steve, thought it might be a good idea to create a whole website dedicated to my opinions about movies. Fair questions both, and here are the answers.
Some years back I found that when friends asked me for movie recommendations, I couldn’t immediately remember the names of all the ones I had seen in previous months. This was owing to my limited memory capacity combined with the large number of films I see (in theatres on the big screen, where I think they most deserve to be viewed). So in 2011 I started jotting down not only the names of movies but my brief reflections on them as well. I then began distributing these reflections — which because of their origin I called recommendations even when they weren’t — via e-mail once every two months or so to all who had asked for movie suggestions. The response was encouraging, and before long bi-monthly distribution became monthly. Given the growth of both my e-mail distribution list and the number of films I’ve commented on, it seemed a sensible next step to create a website that could serve as a repository for all my recommendations to date and a home for future ones. And here we are, with a huge debt of gratitude to the immensely talented and creative Gabi D., who turned the idea of a website into a reality. Thanks, Gabi!
And thanks to you for being here. I appreciate your interest, not just in my thoughts about movies but in movies themselves. As you likely know, overall movie theatre attendance has been on the decline in recent years. One reason is that many people are choosing to watch these works of art and entertainment in other, more convenient ways. Films meant to be experienced on big screens are being seen on the smaller ones found on TVs, tablets, and smartphones. But I suppose that’s better than people not seeing films at all — which, alas, is another trend these days. Younger people in particular are opting for more interactive forms of screen entertainment such as video games. So if this website can encourage even a few of you to see a few good movies you wouldn’t have seen otherwise, and perhaps to even see them in a theatre, then my work here will not have been in vain.
“Noble sentiment, Steve,” I hear you say, “but aren’t you contradicting yourself? As you mentioned, a number of your reflection/reviews are more critical than enthusiastic. So don’t you also dissuade people from going to movies they might otherwise have seen and enjoyed?”
Another fair question. There may be a contradiction, but I believe it’s not as glaring as it might appear. Regular readers will know that I often qualify my less-than-positive reviews in various ways. When confused by some aspect of a movie, I’ve asked readers going to see it to enlighten me. I’ve also said that others may enjoy a movie more than I did. I use phrases that make clear these are only my opinions and yours may differ. All of this suggests that I fully expect my readers still might want to see a movie I didn’t like. And why shouldn’t they?
In fact, let me go further and add that I think it’s a good thing for people to sometimes see movies they don’t like or understand. I’ve discovered it has sometimes been a positive experience for me to see a movie that left me puzzled and/or disappointed. As New York Times film critic A. O. Scott put it (in a Dec. 2019 interview with Harvard Magazine):
“If we didn’t sometimes see movies we hated—or were bored by, or didn’t understand, or found offensive—we would know a lot less about movies, our tastes, and the world. There are a lot of movies I’ve found unpleasant or that I’ve had various aesthetic or other problems with […] that I’ve found it interesting and challenging to think about. My hope is that my readers are open to that kind of experience as well, and that I can sometimes nudge them toward it. Taste isn’t a settled fact; everyone should see their taste as a work in progress.”
So maybe including movies I didn’t like in my lists of recommendations makes sense after all.
I said the name of my website is mostly self-explanatory, and that’s also true of the website itself. But let me close by highlighting a few things about it that might be most useful to you.
First, if you’d like to be notified whenever I update my recommendations, just sign-up — using the “Subscribe” feature at the bottom of the homepage — with your e-mail address. Second, you can search the site by title, actor, or any keyword, or by films I’ve labelled Highly Recommended, or Recommended, or Best Of. Hundreds of recommendations are here for your reference and, hopefully, reading pleasure. (Hundreds? Did I really see all those flicks? Now you understand why I sometimes have trouble recalling movie titles.)
Those who give recommendations should be open to receiving them, and I certainly am. If “taste is a work in progress,” so is this website, and I welcome your suggestions as to how I can enhance it to make your visit here even better. I also welcome your opinions about movies I’ve seen, and about what I’ve said about movies I’ve seen. That’s true even when we disagree. You liked a movie I didn’t? You didn’t like one I did? Good: drop me a line and tell me why I’m wrong.
Whatever purpose brings you to the Steve’s Brief Movie Recommendations website, I hope you find the site helpful, interesting, and fun. Enjoy my reflections on movies, and more importantly, enjoy movies!
–Steve