“You need to start a blog,” my mother says after we watch a movie together and spend a few moments speaking on themes, what we enjoyed, and what we could have done without. I’ve been recording some reactions on my Letterboxd for under a year but I never took blogging seriously until a few days ago I said, “You know what, why not?” So, here is my first post!

I try to squeeze as many viewings as I can into a month. I don’t make it to the movie theater as often as I would like to. It’s a goal of mine to attend some of my local theaters at least a handful of times a month. Not only to expand my experience but to help keep the big screen above water. I don’t want to live in a world where taking some time out of my day to immerse myself in a dark theater isn’t an option, knowing the director and everyone on board wanted me to see their collaboration in this setting.

Maybe about a third of the films I watch every month are alongside my mother. She grew up on movies herself and appreciates the smaller screen at home with a proper setup as much as I do. When she was a little girl she would watch films from the 30s, 40s, and 50s with her grandmother upstairs in her apartment. That’s not to say that she didn’t catch plenty of creature features, keel-over comedies, and heartfelt romances in her day at the local drive-in theaters and other nickelodeons where she grew up.

My mother and father would tell you they “made me” watch a lot of classic films like Rocky, 12 Angry Men, Jaws, and Annie Hall, but I appreciated every minute of it. I still remember a box set of both Star Wars trilogies my dad brought home from work. One of his coworkers knew it was essential viewing for a little boy obsessed with adventures and stories. I watched each of them dozens of times on our portable DVD player strapped to the seat in front of me in my mother’s car. To this day I have an appreciation for the first three episodes!

One night, when I was in fourth grade, neither my father nor I fell asleep. I walked out to the room where he was bundled up in a blanket flipping through channels looking for a movie. He eventually stumbled upon First Blood starring Sylvester Stallone. Yes, we’ve always been fans and love Tulsa King! I don’t know if I was ready for Rambo’s tale of looking for a place to lay his head and deal with his demons only for authorities to besmirch him and many more veterans like his character in reality.

Another evening a few years later, my mom was working late at her second teaching job. My father brought home Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant (1992). He only picked it up because of its NC-17 rating on this particular release’s package. “Don’t tell your mother about this,” he said a few minutes after the credits rolled. “She doesn’t want to hear about this from you.”

I’m not sure if he knows this. To this day, Bad Lieutenant is easily a top ten favorite of mine to share with friends and family. Thank you for that Dad! If you know anything about the film, I’m probably one of the few people saying thank you anytime soon!

I suppose I’ll leave this post here. This has only been a brief bit of my story, I have a lot more I’m excited to share and think on with my loved ones and my community. Thank you for taking the time to check out my first blog post. Please share it with your movie-loving and film-going friends and family!