Welcome to "Lost in the Movies"

By way of quick introduction, my name is Joel Bocko (the site is maintained under my screenname, MovieMan0283, but here I'll sign my pieces with my own name). I've been "lost in the movies" since I was a little kid and have been tying to communicate the experience for almost as long. The purpose of Lost in the Movies will be to review contemporary films - in theaters and on DVD. For the past two years, as I've focused on the classics in viewing and writing, I've seen a lot of great movies, but fallen out of touch with what's going on at the moment, for better or worse. On my end, hopefully this site will rectify that; on your end, hopefully I can bring you a new perspective and stimulate interesting discussion on new releases.

Every Sunday, beginning tomorrow with a review of Avatar, I will be visiting a movie currently on "the big screen." For the next two weeks, I'll be writing rapidly on the bevy of late '09 releases which are currently winning and up for awards: in addition to Avatar, I'm anticipating reviews of Up in the Air, A Single Man, The Hurt Locker, and Crazy Heart, among others. After early March I will hopefully be able to review movies the weekend they come out, with my take up by Sunday. Followed by - ideally - a new-to-DVD review (sometimes contemporary, sometimes classic) on Wednesdays.

I will continue to write for The Dancing Image - several series are in the works there and a fresh piece is prepared for Sunday morning - and The Sun's Not Yellow will remain the hub for all my online activity; I encourage you to keep that on your blogroll if you want to know what I'm up to here, there, or elsewhere. Finally, this week I will be introducing a series on Wonders in the Dark - a review of 21st century "classics" which I haven't seen. The first piece, on The Hurt Locker, will be posted on Lost in the Movies as well as Wonders next week. Meanwhile, I'll dive head-first into contemporary cinema over here, so stay tuned to this spot. If you want to support my efforts, you're welcome to follow the blog, leave comments, or just lurk. If you have pecuniary interests in mind, as Mr. Micawber would say, you are welcome to buy DVDs or other products through the Amazon by clicking on their advertisements here. It's my understanding that this will ultimately benefit the site, though I'm pretty new to this aspect of blogging.

Thanks again for your interest and support - and let me know if you've any tips or suggestions on how to improve Lost in the Movies. See you tomorrow.