Since I was very young, I’ve had a love for writing and movies. I started writing short stories about different movies when I was in second grade and I haven’t stopped writing since. I have a stack of journals labeled with dates that I have every intention of keeping for a long time. One of the most important things I’ve learned about being a writer is that you have to write a lot and accept that your writing will often suck. This lesson was banging around in my head last October, so I decided to start a blog about movies. I usually end up writing in my journals once a month, so I figured a movie blog would be more consistent, since movies are an easy topic for me to discuss.

“A New Dish” Is Created
In his prose book, “The Dyer’s Hand,” W. H. Auden calls the content offered by mass media “entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food” as opposed to “popular art.” He says this content is made to be “forgotten and replaced by a new dish.” Even though Auden never lived to see the invention of the Internet, his theory might still hold true today. If it does, I want my writing to be the new dish of which Auden speaks. For this reason, my blog was named “A New Dish.”

Composing these blog posts got me thinking about both my writing and my love of movies. I am writing more consistently and developing my voice as a writer. On this blog, I’ve found myself writing movie reviews for every new film I see. This has also helped me develop a better taste for movies. It’s one thing to say you liked or disliked a movie, but it’s a completely different thing when you’re forced to think about why.

What movies had me shouting, “Oscar! Oscar!” this year?
Writing about movies has become even more fun as awards season gets into full swing. We’re only a few weeks away from the 87^th Academy Awards—commonly referred to as the Oscars. And it looks like a show to watch, since 2014 was a spectacular year for movies. There are a variety of movies nominated in different categories, but the biggest competition is for Best Picture.

Best Picture nominees, with links to reviews already hosted on my blog:

• American Sniper
• Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Selma
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

Unfortunately, I have yet to complete my viewing list and only seen a few of them. The ones I have seen, however, are fantastic. My pick for Best Picture goes to Whiplash. Everything about that movie was suspenseful. However, I predict the award will go to either Birdman or Boyhood, due to the innovative way both those movies were filmed.