By Ping, For Ping
love 2 rank
I am not a film critic. It’s fun to play one, and I probably had aspirations at one point. But this is a hobby. I have no obligation but to myself. Sometimes I need to remind myself of that. I always preface my list with a tongue-in-cheek apology for not seeing all the movies I […]
2019 may have been a banner year for major film releases, but 2020’s slate was relatively scant. There was actually a reason for this: an outbreak of a novel coronavirus forced the closure of movie theaters, among other things, for almost the entire year. I had been opposed to the coronavirus as soon as I […]
Hey, was 2019 an incredible year for cinema? I mean look at this: This is…… a good list, if I may say so myself. Heck, this is a great list. Even accounting for my “not living in NY or LA” filmgoing handicap. This is a list of 10 excellent movies. With one unmissable quirk right […]
You get better at anything with practice. That goes for whatever creative endeavor you choose: making pottery, writing poetry, blowing glass, whatever. Less discussed, or notable, is the fact that applies to passive hobbies of consumption as well. The other day a coworker asked what I meant when I said Hamnet was well-directed. I explained […]
2017 was the year of MoviePass. It was also the year I lived within walking distance of two movie theaters. A dangerous combination. We all knew MoviePass wouldn’t last. Unlimited movies for $10 a month? Get in on that early before it inevitably goes bankrupt. The most surprising part of its 2019 shutdown was that […]
It’s odd to look back on now that growing up I didn’t particularly care for movies at all. I had nearly every Disney musical on VHS, as I’m sure much of my generation did, and as a teenager I’d go to the theater with my friends for the event releases, but it wasn’t a passion. […]
This was a mediocre year for movies. You’re not supposed to start your list like that. You’re supposed to open with the comfortable cliche that it was a great year, like last year was and the year before, despite whatever industry trend or high-profile box office bomb would indicate otherwise. Focus on the positives. It […]
No more schlock. That’s the promise I made myself. I had a lot of growing up to do this year, and one way I had to get that done was going to the movies less. So I made the decision that franchise schlock was not worth going to the theaters. Guardians of the Galaxy 3? […]
Kenneth Anger passed away in May this year. The director is probably most well-known for the 1963 experimental short Scorpio Rising, a film about neo-Nazi bikers set entirely to a soundtrack of contemporary pop music. I discovered it in a film class over 50 years later, and I can tell you it’s still a hit […]
This list is mostly a side effect of next week’s. I’m usually pretty bad at keeping up with new music releases, and when I do I’m (1) not at all adventurous and (2) more interested in singles than albums. Maybe I’m part of the problem. I think the way I engage with music is closer […]
