Books/Shows/Movies of 2021

[walleye]

As of writing, this year i have watched/read:

• 48 movies
• 36 books
• At least 4 tv shows
• Lots of youtube videos!!!

Movies

I love to watch movies (almost) every week with neeta <3 i feel like i was able to finally understand what people/tumblr/the media are putting down, and recognize references/be more of a well rounded person through movie watching!! I love to watch movies at home so much more than watching in theaters because 1.) Subtitles. I can’t watch movies without them because not only do they help me understand garble but they also help me focus better. 2.) Being able to take breaks whenever. 3.) I can talk and make comments while watching with friends! I also love doing horror movies with bimbos whenever we do that, because nothing is more fun than shitting on a bad horror movie with friends <3 just everyone screaming in the background...

Even though metastream has a lot to improve on, it has sufficed for my purposes. I wish online streaming technology advanced some more though. Just a little. Out of sync issues are a bit of nuisance..

Okay picking just a few movies from the many that I watched is gonna be hard but. I will try and you can see the rest on letterboxd.

The Wind Rises (2013)

Okay this movie kinda hit close to home...Jiro just wanting to make “beautiful planes” in the shadow of wartime (me in the t*ch industry: fuck). Like damn there certainly are consequences huh! The romance in this movie is so cute and i really loved it (i’m heartbroken). Overall another solid from ghibli.

One point that neeta made that i agree with is that studio ghibli has not evolved at all...like i genuinely thought this was one of their movies that was made in the 90s or whatever but apparently it’s NEW. i wish they’d be more brave and try new things (like into the spiderverse/arcane/other styles!) because like yeah it’s pretty but also kind of boring...but otherwise i did love this movie a lot it’s very tender.

Shoplifters (2018)

Found family hello.....the “If they love you, this is what they do” scene has stuck with me for a LONG time since i saw it gifed on tumblr. Expressions of love...that’s what’s most striking about this film to me, it’s all about love in the end, even when things fall apart!!! definitely recommend you watch if you haven’t.

Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended Versions)

This is like my one exception to hating long movies because each movie was 4 hours long and i thought all of it was VITAL. Also anyone try...the gigolas??? Sam’s speech in The Two Towers gets me soooooo hard... like tears in my eyes...good people really do exist out there in the world!!!

We watched the last one on my birthday and that was very fun <3 it’s also a good movie to play drinking games to lol.

I really hope to read the books in 2022!!

The Green Knight (2021)

tits out for dev patel moment...he is a handsome boy to me. So much fun, and mr dev is amazing in this. I am obsessed with him in every way!!!!! This telling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight left me thinking “Huh?” as soon as I finished but I grew to appreciate it more and more after reading about it. Love to read the discussion threads about movies on reddit after I finish them <3 what a very lush and verdant film, the coloring was gorgeous!!

Pig (2021)

Me and neeta watching this as a joke but then it was serious. Nic cage actually does a great job in this movie, there are definitely whimsical parts to it but i really liked it overall and also ALEX WOLFF OF THE NAKED BROTHERS BAND???? This movie bordered on the absurd at all times but there was something very poignant about it. Its bizarre nature is what gives it its appeal, and it ends up being surprising in ways I was initially resistant to, but on embracing the madness, I realized this was a gem.

Mulholland Drive (2001)

I think this is my first david lynch film?? Another one of those reddit-perusing-after-watching-is-necessary movies but i really love those kinds of movies sooo not a problem. I loved seeing the pieces come together toward the end. Is club silencio a real place? i’d love to go, it reminds me of the liminal space unreality vibe that i love so much (i saw it executed best in these Glade Wondrous Autumn Nights ads that i really love alkdjalkfjd i watch it every halloween). Anyways i need to watch Blue Velvet at some point.

So many boobies in this movie ahah...

Noroi: The Curse (2005)

Out of all the horror movies bimbos watched this year...this one was my fav. It was the right amount of serious to keep u watching but also a good amount of funny (They Were Found Dead Five Days Later) and i like the concept of found footage/docuhorror.

Books

I passed my goodreads annual reading goal of 30 by 6 (at least!). I’m not sure whether to increase my goal next year or keep it the same. I want to keep reading but i fear that whenever i get behind schedule, i end up reading a lot of books i don’t really care about to catch up, and i think in 2022 i want to be more thoughtful about books i read + the pace i read them at + enjoying the moment rather than feeling rushed. My reading goals for next year:

1. Read at least one nonfiction book that’s not true crime
2. Read more scifi/fantasy! Including LOTR :’)

I do the bulk of my reading in the winter/cold months with one short burst in the summer as well. In spring I feel too excitable to stay and read. Those are my reading patterns.

I also tried an audiobook for the first time in my life this year and as expected I did not enjoy the experience. I can’t even listen to podcasts without having a transcript on hand and with audiobooks if you do that you may as well read the book. So yeah, never doing that again, was too difficult for me to follow!!

She of the Mountains

Vivek Shraya

— Finished Jan 31, 2021

This story about a nonbinary bisexual desi was very touching to me as a nb bi desi lolololol. Like it was really THAT personal u guys. I was going through a lot of gender feelings this year in general and to start off 2021 with this book...foreshadowing. It’s beautifully written, short and succinct but gave me a lot to think about and I wish I had read more books like this. I will read more books like this!!

The Broken Earth Trilogy

N.K. Jemisin

— Last one finished Dec 8, 2021

Read this thanks to neeta’s recommendation <3 and in turn i recommended it to my work friend hehe. The cyclical nature of seasons and book recommendations and... Anyways! Overall i thought it was so good...the writing style was very inviting and the “magic” system in the book is refreshing and very well developed. Definitely recommend everyone try this out if you’re looking for a new fantasy series to read. I do think the first book is the best. The last one especially makes me go ??? at a lot of things but i still enjoyed reading!!! Me and kevin bookclub-ed this together. U should read it and let me know what u think.

Sadie

Courtney Summers

— Finished Jan 7, 2021

I think this is a book jessica recommended to me when i asked for horror/crime thriller books and it’s so good. The format is a little bit different from other books like this and i was obsessed with it from the start to the end. Fairly quick read too!!

Goodbye Tsugumi

Banana Yoshimoto

— Finished August 4, 2021

A lot of the time when im hanging out with friends at their house and we’re just chilling i’ll just pick up a random short book i see and start reading it. Adfadf sorry if this is toxic.

Anyways i started reading niki’s copy of this at the beginning of August after a hangout at her place, and early august was the perfect time to read it. As always, Yoshimoto's writing reminds me to hold onto the small details, and to pay attention. So many moments that just hit me deep, reminding me of personhood and the vulnerability that I feel strongest especially towards the end of summer.

This Is How You Lose the Time War

Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone

— Finished Jan 29, 2021

This book is just so beautifully written and i’d love to reread it again at some point but aughghh. What a lovely book!! I’ve been really interested in reading books of different formats this year and in letter writing!! This really pushed me to get back into writing to my penpals again LOL. The scifi/time travel element also makes it a brain tickler.

Other than that I read World War Z by Max Brooks. SOOOO bad lol like the kind of book that makes u wish humanity never survived such a collectively traumatic event. Everyone in this book is such a weird asshole and the characters are all written the same and its just full of national/racial stereotypes and for a format that could have been interesting to explore (collection of interviews from survivors of the zombie apocalypse) it was done really badly. I’m sorry to the penpal who recommended me this but why T_T

What else did I read...bad horror (A God in the Shed by J.-F Dubeau)...bad horror erotica ( im depraved what can i say babey )....boring books that are really popular for some reason (Gideon the Ninth, The Midnight Library, Mexican Gothic), interesting poetry collections (Where Decay Sleeps by Anna Cheung and Louise Gluck’s The Wild Iris), and a few comics, of course (like Funky Town by Mathilde Von Gheluwe and The Accursed Vampire by Madeline McGrane. I still have to read all the shortbox comics I got!!).

I’m now reading Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler with kevin but hope to read Ursula K Le Guin soon as well! Books are fun again for me and I’m just happy about that <3

Other

This is the last category of medias I can think to make for a roundup post.

The Witcher

I did enjoy this show, though the pacing in the beginning was very weird!

I also hate Geralt x Yennefer. Like it’s just bland. It’s just so bland. They are insufferable together...There is a lot of sex in this show but none of it is erotic!! (like whatever orgies go on in the background are more erotic than whenever a main character has sex). But i do love jaskier and geralt and i think their dynamic is literally the funniest thing to ever exist so i’m ok with it, and i think yennefer as a character is of Interest to Me. everyone in this show has a butt chin, too.

I do plan on watching season 2, hope the pacing and.... relationships are better. i expect it to be, as the stories all begin to weave together...

Arcane

OKAY I KNOW.

Cons: r*ot games. The music choice (i hate when fantasy/non irl shows use real music because it breaks my immersion and i feel like it’s kinda tacky), medarda’s characterization is kind of weak.

Pros: everything else kjldkjadlf

What can i say i was very impressed with the animation! Everything looked gorgeous. Also thought the villains were really compelling, and for a pretty commonly used social issue i think they handled the nuance of it decently?

My favorite characters were:

1. Viktor. I think as a character he is REALLY GOOD and nuanced and bears the burden of scientific discovery and innovation vs. the evils it brings about in a much more compelling way than J*YCE’s flip-flopping ass did. That said i do like the concept of him and jayce together only because it gives jayce more personality and viktor a sad little meowmeow badge.

2. Ekko. okay apparently some things about him are more meaningful if you play league (i could never) but i think he’s definitely a little neglected and i hope season 2 has more of him! (so excited to see what him and the yorble do together.)

3. Caitlyn/Vi. Caitlyn annoyed me at first but eventually...yeah...i get it. Kevin did tell me something about vi in LoL lore that is very upsetting to me though -_- (spoilers? It’s from the game: apparently she’s a cop in league. VI HOW COULD YOU i wonder if they’ll do it differently in the show though).

Also. “Is there anything so undoing as a daughter” makes me go SOOO crazy everytime. Silco was nuts for that. History repeats itself to me.

Spoiler: something else that was very striking to me was about jinx’s role in vander’s death/the explosion/etc. Because if not for her monkey, the others wouldn’t have had time to open vander’s shackles/open an entryway/not die from the dude who was about to barge in on them, but that also ultimately led to like. All their deaths. I just think it’s an interesting moral conundrum to think about because vi only lived because of her but also she wouldn’t have known that and it’s so fucked up! Im glad they didn’t make it like They Hate Each Other Forever (yet) like i respect vi trying to get back to powder, otherwise it would have been very annoying/overdone/TOO SAD to me. Yes i’m an only child obsessed with sibling dynamics what of it.

Midnight Mass

I watched this...and i get why people on tumblr would be obsessed with it...but...i found a lot of it kinda boringe...sorrie...mike flanagan would not stop popping off with the monologues and it was a bit tiring. Also the “main” character is really bland and i get he’s not supposed to be the focus but even then...he still is...I did like the ending though those last two episodes were quite fun.

Spoilers; sorry i think it was SOOO FUNNY when riley took erin on that boatride at sunrise just to burst into flames right in front of her like. Sir there had to have been better ways of telling her than leaving her at sea with ur ashes. I did like the bait to make it seem like he wasn’t gonna die though LOL.

Over the Garden Wall

Finally watched this for the first time and I adored it! It really got me into the fall/halloween mood and honestly i think this show is so profound. There’s so much attention to detail and completeness to the story and i love the worldbuilding and character design. It has everything i could have ever wanted!! Loved reading theories and essays about it afterwards and looking at fanart and ah!!!! Definitely recommend everyone watch this in october.

John Wolfe

Some things never change. He has the range and there really is an art to making horror game play-throughs and john is my favorite! I also can’t really tolerate a lot of other youtube gamers...and especially if the games are bad (most horror games in general)...it can get bad all around lol.

But anyways i think john has been a staple for me since 2018/2019 and i always look forward to watching his videos. This one was particularly funny but i also loved the I’m on Observation Duty series and the classic __ Random Horror Games.

Kurtis Conner/Danny Gonzalez/That Genre of Video

Sorry i think these white boys are pretty funny...like i literally love watching people shit on tiktok because i hate tiktok personalities so much and they do a pretty good job of it adsasdfadf I think Kurtis Conner’s bestie picks bae videos are the best of the best though like the fact that him and his friend ended up doing it THEMSELVES is wild. Kevin has made so much fun of me for liking them like IM SORRY....OKAY.,..

My youtube binge phases this year included: black hole videos (outer wilds impact). Tornado videos. wasp videos. Videos about volcanos. Tornado videos again. Paolo from Tokyo’s Day in the Life videos. Camping with Dog (Matthew Posa) videos. Random breath of the wild videos. etc.

I’m really bad at watching long videos (u guys: yeah bitch we know!!) but i did watch a greater variety of content and have increased my knowledge (better than last year’s This or That kpop video spree).

I’ve gotten bored with dunkey lately :( i feel like his content does not slap as hard as it used to. I’ve also stopped watching ondo(same boat...also some of her habits kind of irritate me but its fine i just need to let people live their lives. adfasfd)

Started watching You and while it was fun for the first few episodes i couldn’t continue </3 i think the same thing happened with fleabag...

Also...me and kevin were watching merlin but we stopped around season 4 because kevin couldn’t tolerate it any longer </3 which is very fair bc the writing is a lot worse than i remember but still </3 ill probably talk about merlin in a diff post (u guys: oh god not this again) but just bear in mind that i was back on my merthur/katie mcgrath + angel coulby bullshit again this year.

2022 I want to watch succession and ted lasso (my duality).

Anyways. hooray!

The End

Sorry for the wonky spoiler tags LOL
As always, recommendations forever welcome. If you want to add me on letterboxd/goodread feel free (i am friendly). Now i need to come up with ideas for dw posts to make now (i’m thinking of documenting medias that have had an impact on me since i was young because i find it interesting. Sorry to sound obsessed with myself but im aries sun/gemini moon/sag rising). Hope i make sense to u.

Thanks for reading!!!