About

Hello friends, subscribers, cinephiles, and random people on the internet! I’m Melissa Hunter and welcome to my film review blog, The Soul of the Plot. Let me show you around.

Lawrence of Arabia (my favorite film) welcomes you to the blog too.
“No Dryden, it’s going to be fun.” (I promise!)

Mainly, I do film reviews. At the date of writing, I’ve done 356. Occasionally I do television reviews as well. At the top of the page there is the menu, which has different pages. “Rating system” explains my rating system (out of four stars), “All the Films” a list of every film I’ve ever seen with links to the ones I’ve reviewed, the “suggestion box” which is exactly what it sounds like, “Director Reference” which is a running tally of directors whose entire filmographies I’ve sworn to watch, “4 star films” which is a list with links to the best of the best films I’ve reviewed so far, and “About” which is where you’re at right now. One the right side you can search for a post, see the five most recent films I’ve seen, look for announcements and tweets, subscribe by email, and access the most recent comments. On the left, there’s my yearly Blindspot lineup for reference, my top ten favorite films of all time, and the blogroll (follow any of those and you won’t be sorry!).

I rarely review TV, but that doesn’t mean I don’t watch it. My favorite show of all time is Twin Peaks.

I kind of get into a yearly rhythm around here. January is catching up on the Oscar nominees from the previous year and also posting my top ten from that year. February is all about previous best picture winners in the lead up to the Oscar ceremony. March and April are usually free for alls, and my posting generally gets less frequent because school gets busier. In the summer I try to get as many reviews in as possible, and try to at least do some kind of themed month or marathon (I’ve done Sci-fi and Westerns in the past). Then during the fall I focus more on recent releases, as all those Oscary movies start getting released around October. My blogaversary is in October, which I traditionally celebrate by reevaluating my top ten favorite films. Then there’s another top 20 on New Year’s Eve of every year where I look back on the “New To Me” films I enjoyed. Then I start all over again!

The Third Man was the first film I ever reviewed, and one of my favorites to this day.

I started The Soul of the Plot on October 7, 2012, with the primary goal of documenting my movie watching and getting some discussions going about some great (and maybe not so great) films with other movie lovers. It has since evolved from me wanting to just be a film fan, to thinking more critically, and eventually leading me to want to make films of my own. Whether or not that works out as a long term career plan is irrelevant at this point; I have already had so many positive and affirming experiences exploring every aspect of film and it all started with this blog. And for that reason, I’m going to try and keep going as long as I can.

At 1.5/4 stars, Dune, Alien 3, and How to Marry a Millionaire are my lowest rated reviews.

My mission in reviewing films is to try and give every film a fair look, to the greatest extent I possibly can. While it can be a lot of fun to mercilessly trash a film, making films is incredibly difficult and even the most terrible ones probably had a lot of passion go into them. That said, a bad film is a bad film, and you can’t just let that go. Like anyone, I have my own personal biases regarding films (and everything else really) and if I can’t ignore them while reviewing a film I will at least try to point them out.

Back against a wall, I’d say my favorite film genre is musicals.

There are three main goals for this blog. One is to connect with other movie lovers and share our enthusiasm for films. The second is to broaden my horizons in terms of the films I watch, and not just get bogged down watching the same things over and over again. In order to know what’s possible, you need to constantly be taking in new material. Finally, the blog helps me get my thoughts on them down in one place to I can refer to them again. If I review a film on this site, chances are it’ll be easier to for me to use my observations later in a paper or as inspiration for a film of my own. To this end, I might not have my thoughts on a given film all set by the time I write my review, and I think that’s okay. It’s not so much about handing off my completely polished opinions as documenting my journey through cinema.

Raging Bull represents my favorite film from my favorite director, Martin Scorsese.

Also, I hate to be that person, but please do not use my blog to advertise your own. Anybody can click on anybody else’s name in a comment to get to their blog, and if there is anybody that doesn’t know that I’m saying it now. So please don’t push your blog on other people; it’s not nice.

So enough about what you shouldn’t do, here’s what you should do: if you like what you see, be sure to subscribe and tell your friends! You can also follow me on various social media sites or reach out to me through email: Twitter @SoulofthePlot, Instagram @Hunter_SoulofthePlot, tumblr @ melissaahunter.tumblr.com, and souloftheplot@gmail.com.

I’m already honored that you have come across my humble blog in your internet wanderings, and hope you decide to stick around.

– Melissa Hunter, “The Soul of the Plot”, 11 January 2016

RIP David Bowie, who besides making great music had a fascinating film career. One of his later roles as Nikola Tesla in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige.