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Looking Back: Goals for 2024

At the start of 2024, I set some goals for myself. How’d I do? Let’s check!

Pictured: Report card from Clueless

  • Goal: Watch 365 feature films
  • Result: I watched 279 feature films

I’m not sure I’ll ever hit 365 features in a year ever again, though I might try one more time. The pandemic was just different. My brain was different. My kids were younger and I was more isolated and weirder. Actually, scratch that, weirdness has probably increased.

  • Goal: Publish at least 200 reviews, lists, or essays
  • Result: I published 117 reviews, lists, and essays

I fell pretty far short, unfortunately. I had several gaps of a week or longer without a new review. But I’m not going to beat myself up. I don’t want to burn out on movies, and I published 50+ podcast episodes, too. The silver lining here is that those 117 posts were on average much longer and, I hope, commensurately more thoughtful, than in past years. I published nearly 150,000 words on this site in 2024, not including guest posts.

  • Goal: Revamp the Review Index
  • Result: I revamped the Review Index

There you go! It bled into 2025 but I did most of the work in 2024.

  • Goal: Make fewer mistakes
  • Result: Gradual improvements, maybe?

I’ve been writing a little bit slower and, I think, published fewer mistakes in 2024. A big improvement came in the fall when, at the advice of an author friend, I started using a writing tool called ProWritingAid to catch broken grammar, misspellings, and awkward phrasing. It’s like Microsoft Word’s spelling and grammar checkers on ‘roids.

  • Goal: Try something new
  • Result: I tried a few small things, but not as much as I hoped

Despite my vagueness when I wrote this goal, I had a few specific ideas in mind, and they didn’t really pan out, both for reasons in my control and out of my control. (How’s that for vague?) But I did try a few small things, and they went pretty well. First, I spent much of the early portion of the year binging the filmographies of some directors with movies that came out in 2024 that I’d never seen anything by, including some smaller-name directors I likely never would have sought out otherwise, and I found that to be illuminating. I may try it again in 2025. Second, I roped in another guest writer in JV. Third, I reached out to someone whose Letterboxd reviews I enjoy and started trading emails with him. His name is Mitch and he lives in Georgia and he’s a cool guy. First friend I’ve made directly through Letterboxd.

Looking at the last two, I’m thinking that maybe these goals should be a little more specific. A little SMARTer.

Overall, in my personal and movie life (deliberately setting aside the world at large), 2024 was a very solid year. I’m looking forward to 2025; I’ll post my goals for the upcoming year here soon.


Dan is the founder and head critic of The Goods. Follow Dan on Letterboxd. Join the Discord for updates and discussion.

4 replies on “Looking Back: Goals for 2024”

According to Letterboxd, I watched 747 films in 2024, but 469 of them were Looney Tunes (or another fifty or so animated shorts, also a special episode of ALF), leaving 275 feature films, and in combination I think an argument could be made that that’s too much.

I’ve enjoyed The Goods over the past year, anyway!

That’s a lot of Looney Tunes! And a lot of movies! I’m definitely receptive to the idea that anything approaching a full movie a day diminishes the joy of watching them. I don’t think I’ll change my habits, but I’m receptive to the idea nonetheless. Thanks as always for your regular presence here and on Letterboxd!

Out of curiosity, might I please ask if you’ve watched NOSFERATU (2024) as yet?

I’m curious as to what other Film fans think, but so far I’ve only seen one of the film blogs one regularly follows put up a review (Please Note: this is not actually a request for a full review).

I saw it last night. I’m a fan. I’m hoping to write a review of it in the next few days, whether or not that’s your request 🙂

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