It’s Okay With Me, in its original form, lasted about a year. From February 2009 to February 2010, I wrote monthly reviews of films from the 1970′s, as an American born in 1984, without much education in film criticism or modern American history. I hope these thirteen blog posts carry some kind of charm for their somewhat unique point of view, as hindsight-driven, faux-nostalgic, film-geek musings of a science- and crime-fiction nerd. That said, I value IOWM mostly for how much I grew as a writer (and a film fan) from its inception, and I hope to continue to nurture my self-education in film theory. I still plan to rewrite my The Long Goodbye review and possibly more essays on other film-based loves like Out of the Past, David Goodis adaptations and Possession.

Other Favorites:

References

Of a Fire on the Moon, by Norman Mailer. Link to Amazon. Little Brown & Co, 1969.

Decadence: Radical Nostalgia, Narcissism, and Decline in the Seventies, by Jim Hougan. Link to Amazon. Morrow, 1975.

The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe. Link to Amazon. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1979.

In Our Time, by Tom Wolfe. Link to Amazon. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1980.

Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA, by Jim Hougan. Link to Amazon. Random House, 1984.

Time of Transition: The 70s (Our American Century), by Time-Life Books. Link to Amazon. Time Life Medical, 1998.

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex n’ Drugs n’ Rock n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, by Peter Biskind. Link to Amazon. Bloomsbury Paperbacks, 1999.

The American Century, by Harold Evans. Link to Amazon. Knopf, 2000.

A Decade Under the Influence, directed by Richard LaGravenese and Ted Demme (DVD). Link to Amazon. New Video Group, 2003.

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex n’ Drugs n’ Rock n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, directed by Kenneth Bowser (DVD). Link to Amazon. Shout Factory Theatr, 2004.

Coast of Dreams, by Kevin Starr. Link to Amazon. Penguin UK, 2004.

They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators, by Harold Evans. Link to Amazon. Back Bay Books, 2006.

The Great Funk: Falling Apart and Coming Together (on a Shag Rug) in the Seventies, by Thomas Hine. Link to Amazon. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Populuxe, by Thomas Hine. Link to Amazon. Overlook TP, 2007.

Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, by Mark Harris. Link to Amazon. The Penguin Press HC, 2008.

Personal Note:

Before 2009 I kept a personal blog obsessively. It was an aimless hodgepodge of thoughts on paper, desperate attempts to impress the internet ether and satisfy my ongoing personal requirement of writing at least a little bit monthly. In 2009 It’s Okay With Me became a substitute for that. Three years had passed since I’d finished school, since my graduating thesis on films noir, and while I’d written some non-fiction between then and 2009, I missed academia. I wanted to research and think analytically and formulate arguments and write again.

As a film-geek I’d always wanted to try my hand at movie reviews, but there was something too intimidating about tackling cinema in its entirety. Then I realized, looking at my DVD collection, how many of my favorite films happened to fall between 1970 and 1980, and I decided on the ultimately too-ambitious plan to review one seventies film a month. That year of my life, which happened to also be the year I lived in San Diego and the year I began writing for The Eaten Path, taught me how to park myself in a coffee shop and produce words.

In the end it was my lack of expertise in the subject that proved the greatest obstacle. While I did study cinema at times in college, it was always as a complement to literature or culture. While reviewing films I found myself musing on directing, on acting, and on cinematography, and in hindsight I realize that I should never have tried writing on things I have very little know-how regarding. If I were to take up the project again and review more movies, I would make a point to write from the vantage point of my strengths; narrative, character, allegory and mise-en-scene; things I’ve been trained to do.

it’s okay with me

Other Favorites:

References

Personal Note:

- Zach