Nick's Flick Picks Goes Under the Knife

The problem was bigger than Botox could solve. No mere nose-job did I need. Only an all-encompassing, LaToya-scale transformation was adequate to the problems facing Nick's Flick Picks, or the Fug Girls would be after my website for sure. And indeed, like some lank, shapeless, natural-fibered poncho that Chloë Sevigny might tie off with a lariat and accent with some wristbands and teal jellies on her feet, my site was fugging. We all knew it. So much text and so little pretty. Yards of empty space on both sides of your screen, especially now that all of our laptops have extra-wide Cinemascope monitors. And yes, I know: the white-on-black text. As you're still observing on this blog. Maybe in small doses, anyone can read anything, but with all that blinding-white Times New Roman spreading across the screen during one of my XXL film reviews? The one way my web-design filled available space was by swelling the screen with text that a lot of people had trouble reading.

I am the first to admit that the makeover is not yet complete, and that it's pretty badly dated. If I told you the programs I still use to write my html and make my graphics, you would weep a salty tear. STILL! Check it out:

Before... After! and After, and After, sexing up the joint with some graphics, and divvying out the reviewed movies, even those with only capsule or blog or externally-hosted reviews, from the chaff I just grade, or that I have seen but not graded. (You can still peruse those titles at the bottom of each page, in case you're wondering whether I've seen something.)

Before... After! Still bringing sexyback with the illustrations, even though The Movies of 2007 is so far the only yearly index that is fully up-to-date with the new style templates. But check it out: you can instantly sort 2007 releases by title, grade, or the order in which I saw them (the default option, so those of you who check frequently can see what's new up top). Lo and behold, too, six of the eleven movies I've seen so far in 2007 have reviews up: from the engagingly sluttish Black Snake Moan through the fascinating but inconsistent Zodiac to the overrated The Lives of Others and the horrendous Alpha Dog, a certain contender for worst-of-year dishonors. Note, too, that for those of you allergic to framesites, you can always take the other train; it leaves from the same station, with all the same goodies on-board, though it isn't as pretty.

I didn't save a "Before" of my Full Reviews page, but here's the After, for easy skimming without cycling through all the alphabetical pages.

Once more, I know I still have lots more work to do simply to integrate the new features and design components, to say nothing of retroactively restoring all of the previous pages. Headline features like the soon-to-resume favorites countdown, the Top 100, and the almost-finished Best of 2006 will be brought up to speed soonest, and everything else will follow as quickly as I can manage. I hope you'll enjoy the new layout, though; that you'll let me know of any changes or tweaks you suggest; and that you'll get back in the habit of reading the main site once I'm back in the habit of writing and maintaining it.

And with that, in my best Helen Mirren voice: ladies and gentlemen, I give to you, Nick's Flick Picks!