restarting paid subscriptions on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal Feb 1st

I’m restarting paid subscriptions (which I paused at the end of October 2022) on February 1st for Patreon and legacy PayPal subscribers; I’ve already restarted paid subs on Substack, but apart from one monthly subscriber who will (I think) be billed on Jan 31st, no one subscribing there will be billed again until after the 1st, most long after. (Restarting Substack allows new readers to initiate paid subs there, which I hope some people will do. Maybe even some people who are reading me only on Substack at the moment!)

Everyone supporting me should have received notice of this: Patreon peeps back in December, PayPal supporters last weekend, and Substack folks just now. (FYI: PayPal subs have been grandfathered in; they predate the very existence of Patreon and Substack, that’s how long I’ve been doing this. Right now, you can use PayPal to make a one-time donation, though you’ll miss out on subscriber benefits. You can also use PayPal at Patreon. Substack subs are payable by credit card only. For whatever it’s worth, I think Substack has a slightly better user experience, but Patreon is good, too, and both platforms net me about the same amount from your subscriptions, after the fees the platforms take, if that’s something you’re wondering.)

I hope everyone will continue to support my film criticism, but if that’s not possible, for whatever reason, your subs are always within your control, and you can cancel at any time. No hard feelings! I know times are tough all over.

I am still working toward figuring out what I should be doing here, and what it means to be a film critic in 2023, when writing has become “content” and no one wants to pay for anything. (Not that anyone ever did want to pay for anything.) One thing I’m sure of: I’ll be writing a lot more about older films. I’ll do a big post running down my thinking on this, such as it is, soon.

I continue to claw my way back to… productivity? Creativity? While civilization collapses around us, hashtag-LOLsob. The past few years have been the worst time of my life, and it all just keeps getting worse. Our global pandemic has stressed me like never before, and my inner resources were already at an absolute breaking point, but then, in late August last year, my mother went into a hospital and died weeks later (only a week after I finally got over to NYC to see her; I may write more about this soon). Since I returned to London, I’ve been diagnosed with a health issue of my own that is incredibly challenging. (I’m not dying! It’s not cancer or anything like that. I’ll write about this soon, too.)

My head is spinning. I have no resilience left. Even just trying to whittle the natterings in my brain down into thoughts small enough to wrangle and write about has been nigh on impossible.

But I’m trying.

And movies continue to give me hope.

I’m working on finding meaningful ways to shape what I’ve been going through — which is, to be fair, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary at all — into words that might resonate. I hope you’ll continue along on this absurd existential journey with me.