Directions

I've been puzzling over what to do with this online space and the nuggets of available time I have to use it. I'm interested in my ongoing developing, almost professional relationship with movies and entertainment - and the few of the good ones that might have an insight or make an impression that develops into a fascination. I'm also interested in exploring my own rapidly yellowing opinion of Hollywood, and posting items that you might not see elsewhere that , to me, go some way towards exposing the absurdity of modern cinema. But maybe any artform/business model is ridiculous when you take the stupid stuff (Cruise vs Holmes, Pitt vs Joilie) and extract it to make a cumulative conclusion. Especially during the summer season. You tend to forget that not every line of dialogue is roared across a cavernous set. At a robot. But that's an argument for another day.

So, a rambling Proustian diary or a cynical sub-Defamer pisstake? Great choice. It'll probably end up being a mix of both of these things with whatever half baked theory or trashy rumour I find online thrown in for good measure. You expected?

Consider this. A film producer knows that people love going to the movies. In this country we go all the time, with almost 5 million admissions in 2004 at about €7 a pop. A film producer takes this love, this desire to be entertained - to escape the drudgery of everyday life for a couple of hours - and uses it as a stick to beat loose change from the pockets of unsuspecting audiences. Even if they pay no attention to us, much less thank us, critics stand between those people and that beating.