Happy new year! I hope you got some gifts, danced, had as few fights with family as possible, and spent the amorphous days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve abandoning your corporeal human form in pursuit of never-before-seen levels of rest and relaxation. I hope there’s something in the year ahead that you’re looking forward to. Personally, I’m eager to put more effort into building my writing life: submitting to places, taking more workshops, simultaneously taking the act of writing poems more and less seriously. Maybe take a class in something, who knows. May 2026 bring us closer to the freer, gentler, more compassionate world we want to live in. I’m very excited for the interviews that I’ve got planned (so far) for WATCH! this year and I think you will be too, hehehe. And I’m stoked to kick off 2026 interviewing a poet whose work I’ve enjoyed for some time now, the inimitable Ally Ang.
Before we get started, remember: if this is your first time reading one of these, welcome! Writers and Their Cherished Hobbies, or WATCH!, is a mutual aid effort that seeks to interview writers and artists on the hobbies they keep separate from their primary creative practice while donating to important causes of the interviewee’s choice. New interviews release on the first of every month. All the money this newsletter receives is turned around and given back to people and communities in need. If you’d like to have a small portion of your money go toward the survival of someone else, you can do so by clicking the button below.
For those unfamiliar, here’s Ally’s bio—
Ally Ang is the author of Let the Moon Wobble (Alice James Books, 2025). A National Endowment for the Arts fellow and MacDowell fellow, Ally’s work has appeared in The Rumpus, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, The Seattle Met, and elsewhere. They co-host Other People’s Poems, a poetry open mic and reading series in Seattle. Find them at allysonang.com or @TheOceanIsGay.
and without further ado, kicking us off for the year, here’s Ally talkin’ movies:
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Okay, so obviously many people enjoy, in a general sense, watching movies, but I love chatting with those who make a dedicated commitment to watch movies. Those who make a kind of ceremony out of going to the cinema. When did the shift toward making the consumption of films into a proper hobby happen for you? Was there an inciting movie that kicked it all off?
I think the inciting incident that transformed me from an occasional movie-goer to a burgeoning film bro was the first time I went to the movies by myself around six years ago to see Uncut Gems. I went for a spontaneous solo matinee which was something that hadn’t really occurred to me to do before. There was something so liberating, almost transgressive about it—being alone in a room full of people, getting lost in the film without worrying about any companions’ thoughts or reactions. Ever since then, I’d say about 85% of my trips to the movie theater are by myself. Of course I still love going to the movies with other people (one of my all-time favorite moviegoing experiences was seeing Get Out with three of my best friends in a packed theater and shouting gleefully at the screen as all the white people got killed off), but there’s something wonderfully reverent about being at the cinema by myself. Plus, as someone who is more or less addicted to my phone, it’s nice to be in a space where I have to put it away and allow myself to become fully absorbed in another world for a couple of hours. As sad as this sounds, it’s helping to fix my broken attention span.
Ugh, yes. I loved seeing Uncut Gems in theaters. I watched it with a bunch of my cousins and was so locked in. Great moviegoing experience. It’s surreal to think that it came out six years ago. Who, if anyone, in your life taught you about movies and/or what, if anything, have movies themselves taught you?
There are a few people who helped to usher in my film lover (I refuse to say “cinephile”) era, but the person who deserves the most credit is my college roommate Aathira. They would often rent a projector from the library and screen films in our dorm room, stuff like Suspiria and House. At the time I was like, WTF am I watching? But even though it took me a while to get on board, Aathira definitely expanded my horizons and made me more open-minded to strange, surreal, transgressive art, which in turn has made me a braver writer. Aathira and I live across the country now, but we still have regular movie nights where we will pick a movie and call each other on the phone and press play at the same time. It’s a wonderful way to stay connected--
Oh my gosh, yes, I love doing this with my long-distance friends, too.
--In terms of what the movies themselves have taught me, one of my favorite lessons I’ve learned from movies is that a work of art doesn’t have to be “good” in order for me to enjoy it. Of course I love well-made, poignant, high art films, but I also love trashy, lowbrow, stupid films just as much. I think it’s important to expose yourself to as many different genres, mediums, and registers of art as possible in order to be a well-rounded artist and person.
I imagine there must be so many possible avenues you could take this question, but how, if at all, has movie watching changed and/or affected your relationship to your writing?
My favorite movies have a lot in common with my favorite poems: deep attention to the image, unexpected voltas, blurred lines between the erotic and the grotesque. I don’t write much ekphrastic work that directly responds to films I’ve seen, but they find their way into my poetics regardless, since I’m basically just the culmination of all my influences. My favorite film subgenre is body horror and I find it fascinating how body horror reveals (intentionally or not) cultural anxieties around gender, queerness, and what makes us human. That is one of the things that has given me permission to explore the uncomfortable and disgusting aspects of having a body in my poems.
And as I mentioned in my previous answer, watching a wide range of films has made me more willing to be bold and take risks in my writing. Divine as Babs Johnson in Pink Flamingos wearing that iconic red dress and shouting, “Filth are my politics! Filth is my life!” plays in my head constantly. It’s aspirational. It helps me resist the urge to beautify my poems. I can only hope to be as filthy and queer as John Waters and Divine one day.
Perhaps this answer changes often, but for you right in this moment: what would you say is your favorite movie?
It’s hard for me to pick a single favorite anything, but one of my all-time favorite films is David Cronenberg’s The Fly. Cronenberg is my (problematic) favorite director and I love many of his films, but what I adore about this one is how romantic it is. The plot is about a scientist who invents a teleportation device and, while attempting to teleport himself, accidentally fuses his DNA with that of a fly. We watch him transform into a grotesque mutant fly-creature, his body and brain deteriorating until he loses any shred of humanity. But the heart of the film is the love story between the scientist and a journalist who is reporting on his work as she desperately tries to save him from his insect fate. What does it mean to love someone/something monstrous, to cling to the glimpses of the person you fell in love with even as they are transformed into something you can no longer recognize? It’s tragic and it’s gross and it’s hot. The actors who play the two leads, Jeff Goldbum and Geena Davis, were married at the time of filming, so their chemistry is off the charts.
Is there a movie or a scene from a movie that came out this year that you’ve found yourself thinking about/returning to often?
Oh gosh—there are a few. I fear these answers might be too basic, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the big juke joint scene in Sinners where the music travels backwards and forwards through time, and the car chase scene in One Battle After Another. The former made me cry and the latter made me hold my breath for what felt like forever. Honorable mention to my favorite movie released this year, Sorry, Baby, which had (SPOILER ALERT) one of the most well-done depictions of sexual assault I’ve ever seen. You watch the protagonist enter her professor’s house and the camera doesn’t follow her inside; it lingers on the exterior from a distance as the scene changes from day to night agonizingly slowly. There’s no sound or music, no catharsis or relief. The feeling of dread builds as the viewer is left to imagine what is happening inside until it’s almost unbearable, and then you watch the protagonist stumble out the front door, distraught, while the professor stands in the doorway backlit and silhouetted. That scene haunts me.
Is there something about movies or the specific act of watching movies that you are always talking to others about?
I will preface this answer by saying support your local indie cinemas! It’s always best to give your dollars to independent venues rather than big corporations, and they often play underrated and overlooked films that the big chains ignore. My favorites in Seattle are SIFF Cinema, Northwest Film Forum, and Central Cinema. That being said…I have an AMC A-list membership and I do evangelize about it constantly. The cost varies per city, but it’s around $25 per month and you are able to see up to four movies per week at no additional cost. Given the price of movie tickets these days, you’re basically saving money if you see more than one movie per month. It’s been great because it’s made me less hesitant to see movies that I’m not sure I’ll like, since it’s not like I’m wasting money if I end up hating it. It’s made me a more adventurous and certainly more frequent movie-goer. I am not being paid for this plug, although if AMC wanted to sponsor me I would absolutely say yes.
What are you typically getting at the movie theater concessions stand?
I’m cheap as hell. I rarely buy from the concession stand because the movie ticket is expensive enough and I’m not about to pay $10 for a box of Milk Duds or whatever they have. I always bring treats in my tote bag—usually a can of seltzer, a weed gummy, and some kind of chips or candy. Sometimes I get really bold and walk in holding a bubble tea or a latte; once I even brought half a falafel wrap left over from lunch which felt a little obnoxious. But in this economy, we do what we must.
And finally, where would you like the money from WATCH to be donated to this month?
The Sameer Project! They are distributing life-saving aid to people in Gaza who, despite the purported ceasefire, are still facing manufactured famine, harsh weather conditions, inability to access medical care, and are still being brutalized and killed by Israel. They’re doing amazing work and deserve all the support.
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Thank you, Ally! As a fellow Big Movie Guy™️, I found myself nodding to basically everything you were saying. I’m always trying to go to the movies. Some time later today, I’ll be sat snacking on Sour Patch Kids and watching Marty Supreme. Next week, it’ll be Park Chan-Wook’s No Other Choice. Long live the movie theater.
Ally Ang’s debut poetry collection, Let The Moon Wobble, is available to purchase or order from your local indie bookshop. In a photo album on my phone called “writing,” you can find several pics and screenshots of Ally’s poems which should tell you everything you need to know about what I think of them. Ally’s work is tremendous and I know you’ll think the same once you get a copy of their book for yourself. To keep up with them and their work, you can follow their Instagram, or otherwise just go to their website, allysonang.com.
Through your subscriptions, WATCH! is able to donate $76.60 to The Sameer Project! The Sameer Project is a “donations based initiative, led by Palestinians in the diaspora, working to supply aid to displaced families in Gaza” (quote pulled from the Sameer Project Instagram bio). That link will take you to their Instagram page where you can check out a more comprehensive look at the work they do. Given the fact that The Sameer Project accepts donations towards multiple, simultaneous humanitarian projects in Gaza, I elected to have the money support current efforts to bring food, clean drinking water, and tents to displaced families in Gaza who have been the battered the past several weeks by severe winter winds and flooding.
Remember— if you would like to subscribe to WATCH! and have a small portion of your money go toward the survival of someone else, you can do so by clicking the button below.
Thank you so much for reading. Be well, be safe. See you next month.
with warmth,
Jonny
jonnyteklit.com
uncut gems is also one of my favorite theater experiences <3 <3 <3