Matt Shore began his love affair with writing in the seventh grade when his first entry into the Ohio-based Power of the Pen Competition won him the Director’s Choice Award. Like any decent adolescent-minded writer, Shore began immediately sequelizing the story that had brought him such modest success, much to the chagrin of his friends and classmates. As a life-long fan of The Simpsons, Shore became familiar with film and television tropes thanks to the show’s pull-no-punches sense of humor, making him well aware of cultural references and allusions that were well beyond the norm for a pre-pubescent child. Shore’s father instilled in him a deep love for comedy and the written word thanks to an onslaught of Monty Python and Firesign Theater routines, warping him severely into the strange but lovable writer he is today. Since those inauspicious beginnings, Shore’s fixation on mastering the craft of writing has plagued his mind, resulting in dozens of unfinished screenplays, theatrical productions and, of course, the Great American Novel (currently collecting dust inside his hard drive).
Shore is a graduate of Northwestern University where he studied English with a specialization in Creative Writing. One of the first fifteen students to attempt the nouveau Creative Writing Non-Fiction Program, Shore was guided and heavily criticized by his brilliant mentor, author Eula Biss, for his unlikely ability to craft competent assignments from unwieldy premises. In spite of his academic battles, Shore’s obsession with introspection and deconstruction of the written word lead him to craft non-fiction essays that blurred the boundary between writing and performance, resulting in interview and research based pieces about stand-up comedy and its troubled relationship with off-color subjects. When not delving into bawdy or edgy material, Shore enjoyed the repose and intellectual comfort provided by the film, television, and stage performances that he frequented. It was only later in life, when studying the structural integrity of the great comedic essayist Dave Barry that Shore discovered his own knack for crafting informative and interesting short essays, articles and reviews for the web.
Inspired by a lifetime of positive creative influence, familial and academic mentors, and too much pop culture trivia swimming around his brain, Shore launched his latest attempt at a buzzworthy blog, The Unstoppable Collossus. His movie reviews began to attract the interest of peers and industry colleagues, eventually leading him to a very pleasant conversation with Working Author founder, René Garcia. Shore hopes to bring his unique brand of diction, sardonic humor and love for film to the Working Author community and hopes you will enjoy his take on the latest cinematic releases. Shore welcomes those who do not agree with his reviews to post their comments in the talkback section, as discussing movies is a non-stop personal pastime for the writer. When it comes to opinions on film, there is very rarely one correct answer, but there can surely be no harm in the free exchange of well-constructed arguments and interesting ideas.