Movies. Am I right?
They’re one of the things in my life that consistently surprise me. Going into a new film, I never know how I’m going to come out the other side in two hours’ time, and that’s honestly one of my biggest loves in life.
I’ll admit that sometimes it doesn’t always work in my favour; I’ve seen more than my fair share of bad, mediocre, and downright awful movies, but that’s something that comes with the territory of trying to make it as a film critic.
And in any case, that’s not what this website is about. What Feels For Reels is about is focusing on movies that do just that: they move us. I expect I’m not in the minority when I say that I’ve been emotionally changed by many, many movies over my 22 years, and for many different reasons.
The rarest occasions are when a film speaks to me directly: when a film moves me in my soul, my very essence as a human being. This happens with movies from all sorts of genres, and often when I least expect it – but that’s what I love the most.
The rarest occasions are when a film speaks to me directly: when a film moves me in my soul, my very essence as a human being
I’ve had a fairly tumultuous life – not many things, personally speaking, have gone the way I expected or hoped they would. I’ve buried more family members than I ever wanted to, I’ve seen friendships fall by the wayside, relationships come and go like there’s no tomorrow, and for what? What’s the point of it all?
That’s a question that I’ve been trying to find an answer to over the last year or so. It’s a search that has been helped along by the fact that I’m currently in the longest period of singledom I’ve seen my entire life (since I was old enough to start dating, that is). At first I thought that independence was something of a curse – I’m a hapless romantic and always have been – but eventually I realised that I needed to start figuring out who I am, and what sort of a man I want to be.
I found that this year I’ve been able to come to terms with a lot of things I thought I’d already dealt with, and from that I was able to grow as a person – both mentally and emotionally. Movies genuinely helped me with that, and that’s one of the things that inspired me to make this website (as well as the fact that it’s a necessary part of my MA course). It won’t be particularly focused on this year’s world events (for the most part, anyway), but it will get heavy – I can’t lie to you, so I won’t.
It’ll be a site that’s open, honest, and ... relatable, because I’m an open and honest person
What Feels For Reels will be is a platform for myself and friends (I’m sure some of you will be thrilled to hear that I’m making a podcast in tandem with the site) talking about the movies that have moved us to our core, sharing anecdotes and thoughts with each other, and ultimately revealing the power that movies hold to show us things about ourselves, other people, and the world in which we live.
It’ll be a site that’s open, honest, and (hopefully) relatable, because I’m an open and honest person. Some of it certainly won’t be the easiest stuff to read (any particularly sensitive topics will, of course, be flagged with content warnings), but hopefully you might learn something about yourselves, others, or the world – as I have.
I’m really looking forward to getting this thing going properly, and I hope people reading this are too. It’s something entirely new for me, and it’ll be nice to have people to share things with along the way. There are good vibes only from here on in, and don’t forget to hit that subscribe button at the bottom of the page!
Here’s looking at you, kid. I’ll see you soon.