Old and bold

Two films this week, one about oldies who play table tennis at an international level and another that is a love story funded by an Oxfordshire village, whose inhabitants feature as bit-part characters and extras. And I’ll be upfront about it: one is rather good whereas, although I’d have liked to like the other, and said it was sweet and charming, it wasn’t, so I can’t. Either way, at least there isn’t a reboot of a rebooted comic book movie that ‘redefines the genre’ — until everyone realises it does not — in sight. You get what I’m saying? Good. Let’s move on.

Ping Pong is a documentary about the over-80s table tennis world championships. Who knew? I didn’t. But they take place every year and, this year, pensioners from all over the world are heading to the Inner Mongolian city of Hohhot. Directed by Hugh Hartford, and produced by his brother Anson, this is the first release from the newly formed Britdoc organisation and, as far as documentaries go, it is utterly conventional in its structure.