Dor's Summer of Catch-Up

It's a widely known fact for which I am constantly derided: I have seen very few films that were released before the late 90's.  The late '90's is when I realized my spare time (other than the weeks I devoted to following a certain late '90's singer song/writer) was best spent in my local multiplex, seeing films. Or better yet, at my local Blockbuster, renting recent indies. 

Prior to that, my life consisted of dodging high-school homework by chatting up cute boys in AOL chat rooms.   Finally I chatted up the right person in an AOL chat room who said "you know what, Dor, let's meet in real life. And once we get along? Let's watch a shit ton of movies."

The late '90s is when I figured out that just anyone, and I mean anyone, could buy a $200 flight to Sundance and find themselves in the middle of a smorgasboard of indie goodness.  Which I did - remind me to post one day about my first Sundance back in the dark ages of January, 2000. (OVER TWELVE YEARS AGO 'CAUSE I AM REAL OLD NOW.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is -  No, I haven't seen Back to the Future.

I haven't seen that, and I haven't seen Jaws, and I haven't seen [fill in the blank with some horrendous blindspot].  Yes, everyone has them.  I'd like to think my number of blindspots is disproportionally high considering the fact that I've seen over 200 movies in a theater in the last six months.

My point, then, and thanks for allowing the meander, is that this is the Summer of Catch Up.  Can I save enough face? No, probably not, I'll always be gasping for air in this great dog paddle of cinephilia.  (Which may not be a word.)

And don't give me any more credit than I deserve. Really all I'm doing is trying to keep seeing movies in a time where the multiplex is largely dominated by things I don't want to see and the arthouse is taken over by movies I've seen once (or four times) already, thanks to Sundance, SXSW, SIFF, what have you.

• Enter the Museum of the Moving Image and their $150 dual membership with free tickets (shit, I am a sucker for free tickets)
• Enter the Film Forum's Universal 100 series and their $7 double features (not to mention tasty popcorn)
• Enter the IFC Hitchcock weekend programming (which is free for members), which is how I went from having seen one Hitchcock film to having seen eight.  Humblebrag. Yeah I know there are a million more.

If you're bored enough to peruse my stupid list of every movie I've seen in 2012 you'll see I've proudly taken in my first viewing of such classics as Old Boy, Nashville, Annie Hall and even Psycho. Which actually I didn't add to that list for some reason but I loved fervently.

And it's only mid-July!   I have even more catching up to do.

After perusing the schedules of MoMI, Film Forum, IFC, etc, if any one of my NYC pals wants to join, do holler.