Ok, I went through all the action-oriented and foreign genre sites yesterday and now I’m back to finish up the rest of the Genre sites to see what I’m up against and share my thoughts with you. And remember, if you’re a Lamb member yourself, feel free to use these first impressions to help make your decision on what to vote for to make the final nominees for this year’s Lammy awards.

Indie Films

Indie Film Spotlight #165

It’s a little weird that on a site called “Indie Film Spotlight”, the first post is about the Percy Jackson sequel, which I could be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure that’s a major motion picture and not an indie film. Aside from that, there’s a lot of nice information about film festivals like Tribeca and South by Southwest, I especially thought that the series “Real Tips for Real People” was a great idea. There’s plenty of regular updates with lots of news and information, but I went through two full pages of posts without finding a single review for an independent movie outside of a brief “top 8″ picks from Sundance + Reviews” I was also a little annoyed that there was an extra click needed to read the full article. Clicking on the post title showed me the exact same blurb I was looking at and I still had to click the link to view the article on another site, though realizing that now I can bypass that extra click from now on. There is also a text link to the Lamb site in their blogroll on the sidebar.

Cinehouse #673

This site focuses a little more specifically on UK-based indie films, the site has a pretty clean design and there are plenty of reviews on the front page that have all been posted recently. There’s also quite a few DVD giveaways which are always nice to see, and a mix of other film news too. I enjoyed reading the review for John Dies at the End and there’s a nicely prominent image link to the Lamb at the bottom of the sidebar on every page except the main index.

Bonjour Tristesse #820

Another site that I’m more familiar with and was another participant in my Follow Friday series. While I’ve put it in the Indie film category here, there’s also a strong focus on foreign films, though at least in the US they are often lumped into the same category as they are both typically featured in film festivals. The look of the site is very nice, and there is a good mix of news and reviews on the first page of the site along with regular updates. There’s also a very prominent Lamb image link at the bottom of the sidebar.

Life Between Films #1248

This is the last of the submitted blogs that I was familiar with before today, Shala is a frequent visitor here and is a great blogger. I’m rather jealous at how many different film festivals she’s been able to attend and her coverage is pretty nice. I also like the concept of her 100 things Independent Films have taught me. It’s a great looking site run by a friendly writer who is very passionate about independent films. There is a text link to the Lamb in the stickied “What You Need to Know” post at the top of the main page.

Filmscope #1285

This site’s focus is not only independent film, but also foreign and some mainstream movies as well. Alongside several indie and foreign movies I’d never heard of were also reviews of Les Miserables and Lawless. There’s also a massive selection of randomly changing header images from various movies. The site appeared to be very active back in November and beforehand, and there was a post explaining that their job took up much of their time in December, but they appear to have gone AWOL once again since January. I do also like their fun looking Filmscope Pictionary, and there is a nice sized image link back to the Lamb in the sidebar.

The Rest

Movie Dearest #35

This site’s focus is on looking at movies from a gay and gay-friendly movie fan’s perspective. There is also some non-gay movie reviews like one for Oz: The Great and Powerful, but there is an obvious link right back to gay culture with several of James Franco’s other film projects. The site is regularly updated which is pretty impressive since it’s been live for over 5 years and has a combined total of over 3,000 posts. Alongside the reviews, there’s also plenty of film news and festival news. There’s also a text link to the Lamb in the blogroll in the sidebar.

Just Chick Flicks #237

This site’s focus is on Chick Flicks, or specifically romantic comedies, tearjerkers, and other films with a female in the lead role(s). When checking out the site, I noticed that the front page is littered with “popular” posts mostly from several years ago. On the rotating main image, and also checking out the recent tab on the sidebar shows that it has been updated a bit more frequently than that, with a new post showing up every couple weeks or so. There aren’t a whole lot of easily found reviews, even checking on the categories on the header show more lists and related posts than reviews. And there is a text link to the Lamb towards the bottom of the sidebar.

Scared Silly: Classic Hollywood Horror-Comedies #604

This site’s focus is on classic horror-comedies, it seems like an awfully narrow genre, but so did superhero movies when I first started this site. It’s interesting to me that the author of the site is also a comic book artist and author in his own right and has recently had his site take a slight back seat in favor of his comics, though he still manages to put out content every couple weeks or so. His reviews are easy to find right at the top of the sidebar with many familiar classics like Abbott and Costello. There’s also a text link to the Lamb at the very bottom of the site in the blogroll.

A113 Animation #984

This site’s focus is on animation and was the one I was personally most interested when I saw the list and it didn’t let me down. There’s plenty of updates as far as news and trailers are concerned, reviews were a little harder to find, but there was a mini-review of an old Disney short film and there’s a Reviews tab on the menu at the top of the page, although it was hard to tell how the reviews were sorted as it wasn’t alphabetical or by release date, unless it is sorted by UK release date, which is entirely plausible. And there is a nice image link to the Lamb in the middle of the sidebar.

Let’s Misbehave: A Tribute to Precode Hollywood #1374

This site’s focus is on classic movies from before the Hays Code in 1930 which was the precursor to the MPAA. More than just a classic film site, it does its best to feature the more lascivious films that were prohibited by the Hays Code. There’s a stronger focus on articles rather than reviews though you can easily find the archived reviews by clicking on the Films button on the top menu. Updates appear to be a couple weeks or so apart so far this year, and there is an image link to the Lamb in the middle of the sidebar.

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And there you have it, I managed to cover all of the submitted sites up for best Genre blog alongside my own site. As for what sites among these that I enjoyed well enough to garner a nomination nod, I’m happy to be transparent about my own feelings and will be giving the following sites my vote:
1. Myself, obviously
2. A113 Animation
3. War Movie Blog
4. Life Between Films
5. Silver Emulsion

Good luck to you all, I enjoyed visiting all of your sites even though many of them I am not likely to visit again, there are a couple I imagine I will be keeping an eye on from now on. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.