About

Who Is This Guy

My name is Nick Ochipinti. I go by ochippie online because that’s what my students called me and it stuck. I’m 42 years old. I live in Logan Square, Chicago. I grew up in Bridgeport, off Archer Avenue — hence the name of this thing you’re reading.

I was a high school English teacher for twelve years. Then I wasn’t. Now I write copy for brands I don’t care about to pay rent on an apartment where I watch movies and think about movies and occasionally write about movies. This blog is the writing I actually want to do.

Why This Exists

Letterboxd only gives you 8,000 characters for a review. That’s not enough for me. I have opinions that take longer than 8,000 characters to express. I tried keeping it short. I failed. So here we are.

Also I needed somewhere to put the stuff that isn’t movies. TV shows. Video games. Books. The occasional rant about nothing in particular. A blog seemed like the only format that would let me do all of that without some algorithm deciding whether people see it.

How I Got Here

My dad had a massive VHS collection. We’re talking hundreds of tapes, all labeled in his handwriting, stacked in the basement of our house in Bridgeport. He worked nights at the Tribune printing plant which meant he had days to himself. What he did with those days was watch movies. When I was old enough he let me join him.

I saw stuff I probably shouldn’t have seen at ages I probably shouldn’t have seen it. The Godfather at ten. Apocalypse Now at twelve. Dog Day Afternoon at thirteen. My film education happened in that basement, on a tube TV, on tapes that got worn out from rewinding.

Later I discovered Roger Ebert. His books first, from the library. Then his TV show. Then his website when that became a thing. The man taught me that criticism could be its own art form. That writing about movies was as valid as making them. I have a framed copy of his obituary on my desk. Yeah, I’m that guy.

I went to college for English because it was the only thing I was good at. I became a teacher because I didn’t know what else to do with an English degree. I taught for twelve years — freshmen and seniors, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, creative writing electives that were the only classes I actually enjoyed.

I quit in 2021. The reasons are complicated and I don’t feel like getting into them here. Let’s just say the job stopped being what I signed up for and I stopped being able to pretend otherwise.

Now I write emails about SaaS products and landing pages for DTC brands and occasionally tweets for executives who want to seem human. It pays fine. It’s soul-crushing. But it leaves me time for this.

What I Like

In no particular order:

70s American cinema. The Conversation. Dog Day Afternoon. Chinatown. The era before blockbusters when movies could be small and weird and about nothing.

Horror movies that don’t pretend to be about something. Just scare me. I don’t need metaphors.

Practical effects. Give me a guy in a suit over CGI any day.

Stephen King. The man has written some garbage but when he’s good he’s as good as anyone.

Single-player story games. God of War. The Last of Us. Red Dead Redemption 2. I’m too old to get yelled at by teenagers in multiplayer shooters.

Paddington 2. Unironically one of the best films of the last decade. I will defend this position.

Chicago. It’s complicated. I left Bridgeport but I didn’t leave Chicago. I just moved north. The city is in me even when it frustrates me.

What I Don’t Like

Marvel movies as a concept. Individual Marvel movies can be fine. The idea that every movie now has to be part of a “universe” with “phases” and post-credit scenes setting up other movies — that I hate. Movies used to be allowed to just be movies.

Prestige biopics. Especially music ones. They all follow the same formula. Rise, fall, redemption, triumphant performance, roll credits. I’ve seen it a thousand times.

The word “content.” Art is not content. Movies are not content. I write content for my job and I hate it.

Sound mixing that buries dialogue. Just let me hear what people are saying. I shouldn’t need subtitles for English-language films but I use them anyway now because otherwise I miss half the words.

Watching movies on phones. I know I’m old for saying this. I don’t care. A phone is not a screen.

Microtransactions in video games. Paying $70 for a game and then being asked to pay more to skip the grind the game deliberately designed to be frustrating is. I mean. Come on.

The Rating System

I use stars because numbers feel too precise for something as subjective as whether a movie is good.

★ — I want those two hours back. Active regret.

★★ — It exists. Unfortunately. Not offensively bad, just. Why.

★★★ — Solid. Won’t change your life. Competent at what it’s trying to do.

★★★★ — This is why I do this. Movies this good are rare enough to matter.

★★★★★ — Made me cry or think for a week. Reserved for the real ones.

I’m stingier with five stars than most people. I don’t give them out for vibes. A movie has to actually affect me. Four stars is a genuine compliment. Three stars means I didn’t hate it.

Contact

I’m not on social media much anymore. You can email me at nick@archeravenue.net if you want. I read everything. I don’t always respond.

If you want to tell me I’m wrong about a movie you can do that in the comments. I probably won’t change my mind but I’ll read it.

One More Thing

Everything on this site is my opinion. I’m not objective. I don’t try to be. I like what I like and I explain why. You might disagree. That’s fine. Disagreement is interesting. The alternative is everyone pretending to have the same opinions to avoid conflict and that’s boring.

Anyway. Thanks for reading. Now go watch a movie.

— Nick