Being a Young Movie Lover...

When I was eight years old, I was wildly obsessed with horses. Every picture I drew, it was of a horse. Every story I wrote, a horse was probably the main character. Every thing I talked about, I was probably talking about horses. This problem got so bad that my teacher basically told me off for doing anything to do with horses, and that I had to focus my interests elsewhere. So I did. I did random projects on current events. Every now and again I would try and tell the teacher that I wanted to do a project on a specific type of horse, which I claimed to "not know a lot about". That, of course, was met by a swift no.

Around came 2006. I was over my horse obsession, yet I continued to write many Pulitzer Prize winning short stories on talking horses. When I was 10, Dad decided that he'd buy the local Blockbuster. I was just like "Meh, okay", and went on with my life. I'd only been in there a couple of times before, and I got some videos out about...guess what...horses. So yeah, unless I was going to get a free pony out of it sometime (I actually did get a pony that year, I must admit), I wasn't too bothered.

That was until I discovered that I got free movies. Free movies. Oooooh, how exciting. And all of the suppliers would give you preview discs with all the movies that were coming in store soon. So I could brag about how I saw some really popular movie before everyone else (this was before piracy took over Dannevirke). Late 2006, I'd seen a lot of movies. I'd begun voting on IMDb. I looked at film magazines. Movies became my horses.

Now, a lot of people have those stories about how their whole family sat down to watch some really awesome film and they just sat there marvelling at it thinking "I LOVE MOVIES!!!" No, that's not me. I didn't marvel at any movies. My Mum showed me Psycho (my first R16 film) when I was 11 years old and I loved it, but that doesn't count as the moment when I decided I loved movies. Because, to be honest, I don't actually know when I had the moment. I think it was around the time when I had my mad crush on Jake Gyllenhaal. He was in movies. I loved him. If you combine the two, you get a similar result, right?

October 2009. I started writing short movie reviews in this little book which I was reading over the other day, which gave me the idea for this post. I think at this time I thought I was useless at watching movies, because I decided to do 'A Movie a Day'. And then I thought, people put this kind of shit on a blog, right? So I did. First film: Let the Right One In.

When I started this blog, I was practically just writing for myself, trying to keep myself busy (which was hard, because up until August last year, I only had internet at my Dad's, so I didn't do a fantastic job of keeping the blog going). I had no aim. I still don't. But I was here for one reason: I love movies.

Movies are something which I'm known for everywhere. If people are telling me 'what they like about me' on Facebook, they're all like "I like how you're really into movies". If people wanna have a conversation with me, they're like "Seen a good movie lately?" (I personally hate this question, I don't really like discussing movies with people I barely even know). Even teachers are like "This stuff would be so much easier for you if it was a movie, wouldn't it?" And I don't mind all these people thinking that my world begins and ends with movies. Because, even though it actually doesn't, it makes me different...or something.

However, being a 15 year old girl from a small town in New Zealand who loves movies isn't all peaches and gravy. First of all, when I try and tell work what they should and shouldn't get on the shelves, no one listens to me, because I'm young. And time and time again, many orders have been stuffed up because they've done the opposite to what I advised them to do. Like getting 18 copies of Fair Game. I don't care if that is a good movie, but I can guarantee you that the people of Dannevirke won't be rushing in at once to see a political thriller. 5 would have done just fine.

Because I'm quite young, I haven't seen all of the films I probably should have. I've never seen a Stanley Kubrick film. In fact, I'm not sure I really want to. Sure, I watch some really crap films that didn't deserve my attention in the first place, but they're all part of the way I love films. I'll watch anything (apart from The Human Centipede) and I'll be able to point out at least five things that went right for the film. I just love films so much that I haven't ever 'hated' one. Sure, there are some really horrible ones, but I'd never bestow a word as annoying as 'hate' on one.

And, well, when I first really got into the blogosphere, I felt so small compared to everyone else. Perhaps I still do, but the fact that people think I'm cool because I'm young and I've watched so many movies really brightens my day. I mean, I thought there'd be heaps of people blogging about films that were my age. Nay. And I thought that there'd be heaps of NZ based film bloggers. I actually only know of three other NZ film blogs. So, I'm practically as rare as our native bird.

Anyway, the point of this post (if there is one) is to thank everyone who has ever come on this site (apart from you spammers, I don't care if you liked the van dropping into the river in a layer of dream in Legion), and just, well, tell you how I came to love movies so much at such a young age. And, in the hope that one of my parents will be reading this (haha, whatevs)...that they shall understand that when I'm typing away at the computer every night I'm not always on Facebook. Anyone who voted for me at the LAMMYs...anyone I have told has absolutely gone nuts about the news that I got nominated (Dannevirke...we'll get excited by anything). Because, being a little girl who's not even legal yet from Dannevirke, I don't even know how you even make time to visit the site. But you're amazing!

SORRY I'M FEELING VERY SENTIMENTAL AT THE MOMENT! ("I just have a lot of feelings...")