Writing Elsewhere - Divergent: 5 Options For This Future Franchise

In the future, I will assemble posts that I've written for other websites under the tag 'Writing Elsewhere'. As you may know, I was selected as a writer for The Artifice about a year ago, but after I had written my Love Actually Review, I never got around to writing more for the site. I'd like to change that and at least write one post per month there. The content will be a little bit different from my usual blogging content, since there are stricter guidelines for tone and quality on The Artifice, so that's exciting for me. 

The first post I wrote is a post about the upcoming Divergent Franchise - I compare it to 6 other big YA franchises of the last few years and try to decide how the turnout for this one will be. I hope you'll enjoy reading it!

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My 9 UNOFFICIALLY Favorite Films of 2013

You already know my 9 UNOFFICIALY Least Favorite Films of 2013, now it's time to take a look at the most magnificent, most wonderful, most splendid film viewing experiences that I've had with some movies from the last year.

Let me remind you once more; I have only seen 35 films of 2013 (one more than in the previous list since yesterday's 12 Years a Slave) due to various reasons, I do not claim this list to represent the 'best' of the year nor am I going so far as to make it an official list. That list is going to be published some time at the end of the year. Or perhaps even later, who knows? I'd love to wait until I've seen 100 films from the year but that's a very high aim. Perhaps 50 or 70 will suffice.

But back to the UNOFFICIAL list - let's start with the bottom of the top then, shall we?

My 9 UNOFFICIALLY Least Favorite Films of 2013

A new year has come upon us in all its shining glory... and I haven't even seen more than 34 films of the last one. There are many reasons for this - lack of money, lack of interest in paying too much money to watch movies, lack of possibility to watch new releases in English (I can't handle German dubs more than 4 times a year), outdated German and Danish release dates, lack of time and the fact that we moved to the country side. So maybe I should be happy that I've even seen 34 movies!

To honor this little bunch of flicks while not dishonoring the film year itself, I have decided to put together an unofficial list of my favorites and least favorites. Be gentle with this one though; I don't deliberately go out and watch the movies that are supposed to be bad, so it's nowhere near representing the worst last year had to offer. Let's start with the top of the bottom then, shall we?

Guest post: Aesthetic similarities between The Nightmare Before Christmas and German Expressionist Art

There's a first time for everything, right? ...The lovely Brandon Engel, a blog-less blogger it seems, approached me with some ideas for articles he would like to have featured on my blog and they sounded so great that I couldn't reject him. Even if this article will make my own scribblings seem less original than ever. Here it is then, the first guest post on Lime Reviews and Strawberry Confessions...

It takes oddballs like Tim Burton and Henry Selick to infuse all of the macabre, sinister aesthetics of post World War I German Expressionist filmmaking into a Christmas film. You have to hand it to them, though! Consider the public response to the film. Audiences have been so receptive that even 20 years after the film’s initial release, the film is still heralded as a classic, and there is more Nightmare merchandise floating around than any goth teenager could ever possibly fit in their bedroom. Just consider all of the animated films that were produced over the course of the past twenty years...how many of them have completely fallen off the face of the earth? Nightmare has stood the test of time.

HAPPY NEW MONTH!

Wrapping up December 2013.

Let it all out, Leo.

A Happy New Year post is also coming up, but for now let's just have a look at the month that passed. I spent most of it in Harbor Spring, Michigan with my lovely grandparents which was a wonderful time. This is how the holiday season should always be: filled with big chunks of snow, hot chocolate and your family. Oh, and the latest fresh-out-of-Hollywood end-of-the-year blockbusters. And some great books. And new plans for the new year. With a dash of confusion about friends, the future... life. So let's capture those snow flakes and - ok bad metaphor... Anyway, let's have a look at December.