Superhero movie release after superhero movie release, in eager anticipation of watching the newest blockbuster the following Friday, Jeremy Jahns’s reviews kept me fed. Listening to somebody with a “trusted opinion” rave about a film or be gravely disappointed was my first taste before actually going into the movie myself. Eventually, as I got older, I went from watching Jahns to Karsten Runquist to eventually Roger Ebert, gaining a pension for reading reviews as well.
To me, the reception of a piece of art, and the discourse surrounding it, was as important a conversation as the art itself. Seeing how people discussed Billboard chart-toppers and box-office hits helped me understand what people felt in the zeitgeist. As a massive fan of pop culture, watching the Star Wars movies and listening to The Beatles from a very young age, seeing how popular culture was unfolding in real time was deeply exciting to me.
Going into quarantine, creating an account on the “Letterboxd” website, and watching a plethora of video essays, I got more into the act of writing about art. Watching hundreds of films in a year and writing about each one gave me the opportunity to understand my own feelings about a work and engage with discourse.
But just as I stopped writing after hundreds of hours spent reviewing movies, I realized almost no one was reading them. While for myself, the expression of writing was personally fulfilling on the merit of the process, it did feel quite empty writing in an often dark room with little to no perception from anyone else online.
Eventually while at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), working in the department of Residential Education, during summer training I met a member of The Highlander staff who encouraged me to write for the newspaper. It was during lunch in Glasgow and I was looking at a job listing for The Los Angeles Times for a position as a film critic. She said, “Well if you don’t get that job, you should consider writing for The Highlander.”
Since that time I’ve written more articles than I can count on everything from defending auteur-driven movies, to new album releases, to even fashion guides. I stepped beyond the lines of writing for the Radar section, writing for Opinions, Features and Sports. Working at the newspaper not only gave me an audience to write toward, but also opportunities to expand my writing skills.
I’ve interviewed documentarians and actors and had the opportunity to cover film festivals and early screenings. Writing for The Highlander has made me sustain my passion for art as I study Computer Science and make clear for me the passion I have for writing which is something I will be pursuing in further depth as I move beyond UCR. I’m forever grateful for this opportunity and glad to contribute to such a historical institution, working alongside such incredible talent like Radar editor Ian Palma and Editor-in-Chief Mata Elangovan.
