Information
What is the purpose of Confederate Wing?
Confederate Wing is the personal website and online writing repository of Andrew Gyorkos, an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto with a fondness for writing, journalism, and film.
What does “Confederate Wing” mean? How did you select the name?
If anyone ever sees Gordon Chow, tell him “How’s doing?” on my behalf. He’ll know what it means…
What makes your Movie Reviews so special?
My goal with these reviews is to engage film on a more ponderous level, examining and considering the subject from a variety of angles while keeping the language and end product accessible to the everyman. Do I always achieve this goal? No, but I do feel that I keep getting better both the more I write and the more time passes. I started writing reviews in March 2007 as notes on Facebook, my very first review being 300, which thankfully to my knowledge no longer exists. Frankly, I wouldn’t consider anything I’ve produced from March 2007 to September 2008 as being worth anyone’s time. From October 2008 to March 2009, I feel that my writing improved significantly, being both more frequent and more focused. And finally, the period from April 2009 to present has produced what I personally consider to be some of my best work when it comes to film criticism. I’ve always been an advocate of the whole “practice makes perfect” mantra, and I still keep that attitude when it comes to writing.
The majority of movie reviews I have written so far deal with new movies as they arrive in theatres and not personal selections or nostalgic favourites. I generally take in a currently released movie once or twice a week, and can be expected to produce new reviews on a weekly basis provided I have no other pressing obligations (such as class work or paid work), and provided that the movie in question merits in-depth discussion.
I do not have a routine reviewing schedule, so please do not anticipate a new review every Friday at 12 noon on the dot, or something to that effect. I write reviews when I’m able to do so.
For the reviews that contain such information, please be aware of the original writing and posting date! If it was posted before March 2009, odds are that it is not a very good review. If it was posted after April 2009, chances are that it is.
What else can I find here?
Along with Movie Reviews, you can also find Video Game Reviews and Performance Reviews. When I’m not writing reviews, I write general interest articles for U of T students as a journalist for the campus’ Weekly Independent Newspaper. I’ve also dabbled in fiction by writing an as-of-now incomplete “Let’s Play” of Sid Meier’s Civilization 4, but hope to expand further with the aim of becoming a more versatile writer. Additionally, when university studies get rough, I’m not above taking some time to vent about my classes here. I’m a critic, after all. Complaining is sort of my thing.
The last thing I want this site to be, however, is a personal blog where I do nothing but chronicle my rather unremarkable existence or, worse still, spread inanity (awful YouTube videos, memes, pictures, random thoughts, etc.) like the plague. I don’t want to write about myself, and I’m rather confident that the internet at large doesn’t care anyway. First and foremost, I want people to come here for my opinions and writings. I like to think I’m above pretending that my peculiarities are just as interesting to the handful of people who know me well in real life as they are to the rest of the internet (although clearly I’m still not yet above pretending that my musings are universally appealing).
Any further questions?
I’m pretty sure the above about covers everything the average person out there would like to know. Still, I’ll happily address any other questions you might have, provided that such questions are entirely reasonable. Just head to the “contact” page, select the ideal way you’d like to reach me, and fire off a message. I’m not a terribly busy person (even in my most hectic moments), so I should be able to respond rather swiftly.