I’m locked in a race with the upcoming release of Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons this week to see if I can finish reading the book by Dan Brown before I see the film. Last time Howard tackled a Dan Brown opus with The DaVinci Code, I tried the other approach, and read the book after having seen the film.

About 20 years ago I was in a kind of partnership with another film historian who told me that, no, there wasn’t a market for a book on pre-code movies. I can only wonder what he thinks today after MGM has released three sets of pre-code movies and Universal just put out their first. Either I was ahead of my time, or he was just simply wrong.

For those of us who aren’t diehard Star Trek fans—or even those who think the new incarnation looks a little like kids playing dress-up—the upcoming week offers little prospective joy in mainstream terms. Everyone and every thing seems geared up for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot.

The question of whether or not Asheville would support a theater—or a part of a theater—devoted to showing older movies—by which I mean movies not currently in release—has come up several times in discussions I’ve had with local theater managers. It’s a question to which there is no easy answer, though input from moviegoing readers might offer some clues in the matter.

As you can see, I opted to go with Weekly Reeler, despite the idea that it might make it appear like I’m announcing my weekly bender. I decided to run that risk, because that’s just the kind of risk-taker I am. Well, actually, I went with it just because the name appealed to me more than the others.

Let me say from the onset that this particular column isn’t aimed at moviegoers who like to argue that certain people (like myself) “overthink” movies. It’s not aimed at passive viewers. No, it’s aimed at people who view the process of movie watching as a kind of inner dialogue between the viewer and the filmmaker.