Books/Shows/Movies of 2022
Dec. 28th, 2022 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walleyeAs of writing, this year i have watched/read:
Man I am looking back at my letterboxd and none of the movies i watched this year really hit like That. (why did i watch all the best movies in 2020!) Though honestly, I think that’s always how it is to some extent with movies, like fundamentally either you get it or you don’t. It’s not always about a character you can imprint onto, or a story arc that you can follow. Sometimes the movie is just a look into someone else’s twisted mind and you walk out of it like :| (me because i watched cats and spore this year)
I also rewatched a bunch of Old Favorites, like Pride and Prejudice (2005) and all the Kung Fu Panda movies (hello Kung Fu Panda 4 is coming in 2023, i’m prepared, are you??). And the John Wick movies (this is all for Rina okay!! Keanu is an insanely bad actor but idgaf i love him anyway....). And of course...neeta visited me (<3) and we were finally able to watch Cats (2019) but it was soooo bad. I don’t understand cats as a musical very well because, as neeta said, the structure is simply you get introduced to a million different characters, and all of a sudden, The Main Event happens at the very end. The entire movie being in song, and taking place in like just two different locations, made me feel like i was enduring a very strange fever dream that would never end. This isn’t even saying anything about the horrible CGI (ian mckellen’s character truly was the worst for me...his meowing...harrowing). Like why did they give the cats human noses idgi.
Okay so the Good Stuff:
The Fall (2006)
On here mostly only because Lee Pace (who played Roy) is a pretty boy and the main child actor is SO CHARISMATIC!!! The story was intriguing, def gave Wes Anderson vibes, I just wish there was More to it (like the inner story was not as fleshed out/reflective of Roy’s despairs as much as it could have been, I think). I did think it was interesting how the story reflected who was listening to it. Like how the Indian to Alexandria (the main child actor) was South Asian (like the worker at the fruit farm her family works at), whereas to Roy they were Native American (hence the references to wigwam/etc at the beginning.) And how the inner story’s female protagonist was the nurse to Alexandria, but Roy’s ex-girlfriend to himself. Narratives within narratives are always fun, especially when people who care about you can come in and change the story, and you in the process!!
Lake Mungo (2008)
When i first watched this with neeta i was just Shrugs about it. i didn’t think it was particularly scary or anything. But i did grow a bit disconcerted after, like something ominous was behind me and since watching, the movie has been on my mind a lot because of how the main themes frightened me. Not being able to share your feelings of doom, the utter horror of realizing no one can truly See You, not even the people you had hoped would protect you. Also ugghhh the “I have a feeling like something bad is going to happen to me. I feel like something bad has happened. It hasn’t reached me yet but it’s on its way.” is such an iconic line to me, i love it as a general horror line to instill fear but i’ve also been thinking about how doppelgangers factor into this. And how the only jumpscare in the movie is one of Dead ghost alice palmer. The bad thing about to reach alice was her own death and she couldn’t escape it, that’s so frightening! Like maybe from the moment when she learned this, she was basically just a dead girl walking. Since we started watching the movie, she was dead to us, and to her family. We never got her as Real and Alive! Also knowing that all this was coming but that she couldn’t reach out to her mother especially for help was touching and sad. In her dreams, she would call and call for her mother, but her mom never heard her, in real life or the dream world.
And then the last scene, where finally, the family thinks they can move on and so they move from their house, relieved that this is all over. And in the picture of their final day at the house, there’s ghost alice palmer in the window, looking onward as she is forgotten! The only ghost that can’t be disproven. it’s a horror of a very real but almost banal human fear, as opposed to one of a direct threat (like dying in the first place). Also, there are some theories online that alice’s death was actually caused by her brother matthew, which is certainly an interesting perspective. It’s just fun to think of and read analyses for this movie.
Wah...dead girls are so iconic.
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
I think I’m at the point in my life where i’ve given up on finding a horror movie that I think is genuinely good. Like all the closest ones are thrillers and not really horror. But now im settling on finding the most amusing horror movie and this one is really up there like. It’s so excessively gen z so i watched it fully leaning into a cringe because its like yeah, there are def people like this that i have seen online, whereas most Young People Cringe representation is not quite accurate. I was not expecting pete davidson to be in this but honestly it worked out, and the final Climactic scene was just sooo funny to me. Anyways we need more ironic horror movies.
Popstars: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
Not me and kevin being in our lonely island era (stream Spring Break Anthem fr fr). All i have to say is that the songs are bangers, the cameos are crazy, and this movie is actually really funny. I’M ANDY SAMBERG STAN...
Books
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
By Alison Bechdel
Aaaough this was so good, a really cutting narrative. I’m thinking about the ending, the way the worst people can mean so much to you, how family bonds can change so much just from time and distance. Alison bechdel is truly a comics master.
The Only Good Indians
By Stephen Graham Jones
Ooo i found this to be soo gruesome and meaty. The writing style was a bit difficult for me to read at times. There’s also incredibly long descriptions of motorcycle/basketball related things, neither of which i know anything about, but it’s certainly worth powering through.Also DENORAH FINAL GIRL! I was rooting for her so much. Her being the one to break cycles both with regards to her basketball skills and with the elk woman too, like oough it was meant to be.
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
By John Boyne
Longest book i read this year, i think. God! Say what you will about John Boyne (the man, on researching dyeing methods, saw “Octorok eyeballs” on a botw guide and was like “yeah, that seems like something that would be used in the real life human world”), but this book is So good. Really just an all encompassing tale about the highs and lows of human life. I think of this book as a kinda “rebuttal” to the ceaseless suffering of Hanya Yanagihara’s novels, because i refuse to believe that all the pain and agony is for nothing. Like not even to say that good things can come FROM suffering, but rather that good things can happen in SPITE of it. Of course you don’t have to suffer to be happy, but sometimes, bad shit just happens to you anyways. i also love the way things in this book are segmented based on specific time periods from cyril’s life. Like he certainly has his flop eras...but he also has redemptive arcs, and even through all the horrifying things that happen, this book still made me laugh as well. Highly recommend.
Blud
By Rachel McKibbens
favorites: three strikes, letter from my heart to my brain, outhouse, ***, the last time, the other children have agreed to forfeit their inheritance
The poetry is very unapologetic and poignant and invigorating to read. The plagiarism incident with Ailey O’Toole is so horrible though, like O’Toole stole so much of McKibben’s work. One particularly horrifying incident:
And O’Toole said she though the “spitting teeth in the sink” part was metaphorical when it was actually McKibben’s literal description of trauma/abuse she endured...like...how are you going to pass someone’s EXPERIENCES as your own that is insane to me.
Anyways...read this lol.
A Natural History of the Future
By Rob Dunn
My main genres of books are mystery/thriller/horror and then graphic novels...but i think next on the list would be Biology based nonfiction. I really loved this book! i’m starting to learn the best way to read nonfiction is to not worry about trying to Remember everything, but rather paying attention to parts that really interest you, and skimming over/not dwelling too much on parts that don’t. This seems to me an efficient way to get into the habit of reading nonfiction more, so that later you can improve focus on the less gritty parts. I learned a lot from this book, here’s two of my fav parts:
Regarding Joseph Leidy, a parasitology who is also apparently the first person to use a microscope to solve a murder mystery. Something something “I love the way that men love” but instead it’s something something I love the way that scientists love.
This part about the recent extinction of the dusky seaside sparrow:
WAHHHHHH
When i tell you i teared up at this part. It’s interesting to think about how as children, we thought extinction was a massive huge problem. And it’s true, that due to human influence, a lot of species are going extinct that would have otherwise survived for some time. But it appears that 1. Extinction is way more common than 7 year old me previously understood and 2. Sometimes...if it wasn’t humans...it would have been something else. That’s not to say that humans should stop being conscientious of their impacts on the environment, but species are really so fragile. Sometimes it truly is a matter of luck, and this is just so sad! (pours one out for the dusky seaside sparrow)
Sorry kevin i promise i’ll finish your inner fish soon <3
Misc
I also did partake in Dracula Daily which is honestly quite a fun experience. I think it’s a good way of consistently reading classics and it really did feel like I was hearing back from my friends abroad. I def did not get into it as much as Some People did adkfajlfd but it makes me want to get back into reading classics. I remember as a child, I read a lot of classics/old books, and even though I’d be kinda bored/uninterested the whole time, I couldn’t stop reading them lol. I guess I liked them in my own perverse way, or confused my poor attention span with dislike.
Romance rant + Blue Flag <3
Unfortunately I also read a lot of bad romance novels/comics which made me think maybe i don’t enjoy the genre as much as I thought i did. But then i read Blue flag and i was back into it. I think my main issue is I dislike when the entire premise of the story is miscommunication. I just find at my Age + from my Experiences, if the entire book is spent in an embarrassing struggle to communicate, then it’s not meant to be lol. Especially if the main characters are adults! That’s why I disliked The Ex Hex and The Charm Offensive </3 actually the ex hex was also bad because there was just no chemistry between the protags and their history is so bland, I cannot understand why they even cared about each other that much.
I think blue flag worked well for me because it was about teenagers who were learning a lot about themselves, and they were changing so much too, that it made it more difficult for them to truly express themselves. Like that makes sense! I loved the theme of how helping someone else change is also a part of changing yourself, that there’s many different ways to Be someone you idolize - whether by being in their place or taking on every characteristic of them, bordering on idolatry. Not to mention the Gender Confusion of it all, which I think the manga didn’t really go into directly, but I was reading between the lines. All of this makes me realize that my fav romances are definitely fraught, but with stresses from outside the relationship. It’s a tug that makes you wonder, do I make choices for myself, or for this other person as well? It’s a classic growing up young love question (i.e. with high schoolers, going to the same college as your partner or not) but it reiterates back to the first point: Doing things to help/be there for others also ends up changing yourself. And there’s just so many paths you can take as a high schooler, so many Selves you could be, that it makes the question of romance more interesting because it truly is a Will They Won’t They situation. And it managed doing all that without having typical cringe that you would expect in a high school love story.
Anyways the ending to BF was kinda...not for me I think? It was very strange. But i still do love the ephemeral nature of the high school romance genre and i do think other romances i like would have themes similar to it, that love has to be a conscious choice but it can also be lost at any point, and sometimes that’s just the way it goes.
TV Shows
I actually watched a lot more tv this year than i expected lol...
Succession S1 - S3
This shit was crazy. we await season 4. Im a big fan of whatever greg and tom have going on. I love it when toxic rich people just ruin each other’s lives...also. Kendall Roy definitely listens to crack baby by mitski.
Castlevania S1
Throw rice at a vampire and they have to stop and count every grain...throw a vampire at a bisexual and they Do This. I highly recommend everyone watch it but the show is very violent and gory, so viewers beware.
Literally was gonna make a separate post about this show but then forgot everything that happened in it. Next year i will endeavor to better notate my thoughts on things as i watch them but here’s a summary of whatever i was gonna say:
Firstly, just a random observation: Something important i learned about myself through watching this is that a show does not have to be perfect to be good. For me, it just has to inspire Thought, aka break the barrier of my very short attention span. There are certainly a lot of points about the show I could criticize but the fact that I am able to think about it at such depth and still enjoy it is a plus to me. I know this doesn’t seem like a particularly useful point but...it has helped me enjoy my media consumption more.
This is definitely a very artful show...it is very polished and the animators did a great job of creating this cool, crispy, snappy style animation that I really enjoyed watching. Punches look like they hurt, the blood looks like it’s gonna pour from the screen, and everything has this nice overlay tone that i find quite appealing in modern animation LOL. i also just love the way eyes and hair are done in this....the gang is looking GOOD. i also honestly love a Cartoon Violence so i find all the gore in this truly satisfying and fleshy. The story is also very compelling - character arcs make a lot of sense and it’s exciting to rally behind a lot of them too (like issac hehe).
TBH i think the romantic relationships in this show were a bit of a weak point in this show, and I blame it on the ~franchise~, because if you wanna keep something going for generations, someone needs to have kids regardless of whether it makes any sense. Actually the main exception to this is Dracula + his wife because the story of their relationship is pretty much the inciting incident of this whole show. But also, other than that, I think alucard should have been a part of trevor/sypha’s relationship. Make it a throuple.
I also think the way sumi and takawere clearly so in Genuine love with alucard and then got shafted was messed up. Like i do not believe it. I edited that in my head to them just [redacting] and being like thanks alucard for teaching us :) we are going to go now.
Overall though, i really cannot recommend this enough o7
The Bear S1
Im kin with sydney. Everything bothers her and me too honestly. I kinda wished this stayed one season. I think shows should just be shorter and stop happening if you’ve said what u wanted to say...but otherwise i did like it. it was certainly very intense at times, but maybe people from chicago are just like that. food and found family lovers will be all into this.
The Sex Lives of College Girls S1
I was cringing so hard but surprisingly in a good way. Like bella really being such a mindy kaling self insert character (honestly i kind of hate the Weird Desi Girl trope but like i am kinda like that myself so what can i really say -__-) but i still found myself genuinely rooting for them instead of watching something else. One thing that certainly helps is that it’s an early college story, instead of a high school story (teenagers being cringe is too much), or an Adult story (adults being cringe also too much). (college students are a happy medium. I blame it on them being cringe just by virtue of being fake adults). Anyone else shook to learn that kimberly is played by timothee’s sister and also her [redacted] are so distractingly [redacted]
The Rehearsal S1
When i watched this i was extremely high and just so in awe of the lengths nathan fielder went through to make this realistic. That’s all i could think about. Like the budget for this show must have been so high, the way they’re making entire models of bars and houses! For those who don’t know (because even after watching the trailer I still didn’t get it), nathan basically meets with someone who is having anxieties about a situation (e.g. telling something very personal to a friend and not knowing how it will turn out). So nathan creates this elaborate Set full of actors so that this person can consistently practice how the situation will go, and the actors will try different responses so they can be prepared for anything. One of the situations is a person (angela. Very annoying) not knowing if she would be able to raise a child on her own, so they put her in a house with a child (who was an actor), and wow, they kept having to swap out so many child actors throughout the day because of labor laws LOL. and she would basically sit around in that house working on her...etsy store and raising the child. It’s bizarre but i love it. i think the best parts are when nathan is coming slightly out of character because he’s just really frustrated with all the Extreme Christianity esp coming from angela lol. i am nathan fielder fan. I wonder what season 2 will look like though, because it kinda feels like the show achieved all the primary revelations/etc that it was initially aiming for, but I won’t complain...
Severance S1
Best show i watched this year i think...just served incredible high tension and #class conflict and cult ideology that i found intriguing. Also because this year ive been into thinking about distinction between’s one’s own selves/identities, and how they form in different environments. Like how would a You that only works function, versus a You that does everything else? I also loved patricia arquette in this so much, perfect villain to me. the way she does Devotion bordering on obsession <3
I also thought it was fascinating how much the severance break room apology / general vibe of lumon reminds me of l ron hubbard’s affirmations!
The Cabinet of Curiosities S1
Why was this lowkey bad....Guillermo del Toro in his flop era with this. Each episode is an independent, stand alone story directed/written by a different person (like a short story anthology, in a way). Sorry to bimbos for suggesting we watch the episode with eric andre and then it was Bad. i am still in awe about how they had one directed by ana lily amirpour based on an emily carroll story (that one, plus The Autopsy, were some of the better episodes) but. Hm. the writing is not quite there. It seems like the writing is very heavy handed with whatever statement they’re trying to do and the acting quality is...very varied. Anyways don’t watch this alkdfjalsdf
Chainsaw Man S1
Yet another show to depict how Advanced anime studios have gotten. The animation is crazy gorgeous. But..at the end of the day it’s still just chainsaw man lol. The fight scenes are kinda meh even as an anime and i’m just not super into the story, though the characters are interesting to me and i do see how people like it. I am obsessed with kobeni and overall the Gang is very fun but yeah....Yeah.
I read the manga (up to Ch 113) and honestly.The plot is kinda... Meh. i hate how all the characters are killed off (besides kobeni thank god) just to pave way for a new arc, and the new arc is boring!!! The stakes have diminished significantly like how am i supposed to care about any of this anymore! I think the pacing is a bit wonky and fast and i still do not understand why Chainsaws are That scary, and how denji is so powerful? I suppose i can’t complain much but i don’t get why it’s That popular, even if the primary focus is character interactions there must be better offerings...
Another random observation: I think the reason i am not super into anime is that in a lot of anime, 20% of the episode feels like a flashback or deja vu or it’s just pausing on the same dramatic moment for a long time which kills tension for me and gets very tiring. Also the often weird tropes that come out of nowhere. In short me and kevin tried to watch neon genesis evangelion but after 12 episodes nothing happened yet and the one weird naked rei scene killed interest for me. I know it’s an old one but i feel like a lot of anime is still like that (but if you know any that’s not...i’d be interested!). Chainsaw man was okay in that regard because i get it was largely trying to be like Oh hohoh these sexy women are being #manipulative but then there would be a random chapter art of them in lingerie and like huh???? T_T
Want to Watch:
Abbott Elementary S1 (to continue)
3-4 eps in and enjoying it so far. It has very classic sitcom vibes and is fun to watch but so far not anything that i’m desperate to finish. I think the principal is SO funny though.
Derry Girls S3
I loved the first two seasons so much (in my irishboo era. Alkdfjalsdkfjal okay sorry) and need to finish it.....when i have...time...or whatever
The Sex Lives of College Girls S2
For continuity reasons...
Reality TV
Making this a separate section because it’s all insignificant hours wasted anyways oops. Looking back on it now though I am Very Embarrassed about how much i watched this year ammm
F Boy Island S2 (i actually watched this twice :’) )
This season is more bland drama wise but sooo much better with regards to the story/editing. The editing is genuinely the best i’ve seen in reality tv. It’s so self aware, sometimes when watching it’s almost back to being unironic, but then as soon as you’re like “no way are they doing this” the show hits you with a segment that brings it back down to earth. Like the way they just cut out one of the date segments because it was sooo boring and literally told us that LOL really reminding us that true love is NOT found on reality tv. Goofy goofy goofy. The ending is dumb but i am sad there won’t be more seasons of this show specifically...
Love is Blind S3
The men on this show are so rank no words.
Love is Blind: Japan S1
The men on this show are so rank no words.(except for the two that actually got married. I like those guys)
Love is Blind: Brazil S1
The men on this show are so rank no words.
The Ultimatum S1
They’re running out of ideas for reality tv so they’re like okay let’s open OTHER people’s relationships and see what happens. I think the lachey’s are truly devious people like i kinda hate them. Theyre living for the drama, every time vanessa is like “watching [whatever the fuck weird scene], my HEART was in my THROAT” like no girl. You were living for every moment of it...but if you like messy reality tv (like....*raises hand*...me) its pretty fun lol
Bling Empire S1 - S3
These people are soooo bland and they have soo much plastic surgery done it is kind of crazy.
Indian Matchmaking S1 - S2
-_- no words.
Twentysomethings: Austin S1
Honestly i liked a lot of the people in this show but nothing happened. Like they literally didn’t do anything i really did not understand the point of this at all. They just hang out...and interviewed for jobs at bars all day T_T
Misc
AEW
As many of you already know i have a new hobby: pro wrestling hehe. I won’t talk about it much here because i plan on making a separate post for it but it was been so much fun and im going crazy Analyzing the Narratives and such... awaiting my first live show soon <3
Danny Gonzalez
This dude is so fucking funny to me. As you already know. My fav vid of his this year.
I think danny has the best skits out of all those from the commentary-drama youtuber genre and he doesn’t draw out criticisms/commentary for too long, which i feel a lot of other youtubers do. Like some tend to kind of go on and on regarding a specific Nitpick that might make a lot of sense to them but i don’t think they need to talk about it thatttt much. I also watched his lemonade mouth video and that was soooo good.
John Wolfe
John Wolfe hasn’t been hitting as much for this year to me. I think it’s part of because he’s been posting less regularly and his jokes are less effective to me but his Quarry series was very enjoyable to me. But i will still be loyal john wolfe fan for life!
I am also obsessed with dylan lenivy in that game (played by Miles Robbins, susan sarandon’s Real Life Son). it’s like imagine all the gay kids being trapped at horror camp because of werewolves...it’s interesting. Has good banter. Even the annoying characters make points. Brenda song mocaps for this. yeah!
Otherwise this year i haven’t been watching that much youtube...maybe more kurzgesagt, started watching ironmouse and cdawgva (not really in my vtuber era but i see the appeal now...), and some booktubers (like Reads with Rachel... so many booktubers are pretentious english majors who just buy hundreds of books for the ~vibes~ like i hate it fr. but i love the ones that do really intense reviews of bad books like yes...end booktok once and for all..). I’ve also been watching hour long wrestling documentaries adlkjadlf it’s been good.
well...That’s all for this post! Thanks for reading, even though looking back on this it feels a lot like i have just been detached from...everything. I am hoping for Heartier media interactions this year. also wow, no dnd consumption this year. I'm kinda surprised but also have been a bit disappointed with recent D20 offerings but maybe I will try and get back into it! but i would much rather actually be playing dnd instead bwehehe. anyways, Hope u all have had a good time with ur medias, and have even better ones to come <3
- 49 movies (48 last year)
- 32 books (36 last year)
- At least 7 tv shows (4 last year)
- Lots of youtube videos!!!
Man I am looking back at my letterboxd and none of the movies i watched this year really hit like That. (why did i watch all the best movies in 2020!) Though honestly, I think that’s always how it is to some extent with movies, like fundamentally either you get it or you don’t. It’s not always about a character you can imprint onto, or a story arc that you can follow. Sometimes the movie is just a look into someone else’s twisted mind and you walk out of it like :| (me because i watched cats and spore this year)
I also rewatched a bunch of Old Favorites, like Pride and Prejudice (2005) and all the Kung Fu Panda movies (hello Kung Fu Panda 4 is coming in 2023, i’m prepared, are you??). And the John Wick movies (this is all for Rina okay!! Keanu is an insanely bad actor but idgaf i love him anyway....). And of course...neeta visited me (<3) and we were finally able to watch Cats (2019) but it was soooo bad. I don’t understand cats as a musical very well because, as neeta said, the structure is simply you get introduced to a million different characters, and all of a sudden, The Main Event happens at the very end. The entire movie being in song, and taking place in like just two different locations, made me feel like i was enduring a very strange fever dream that would never end. This isn’t even saying anything about the horrible CGI (ian mckellen’s character truly was the worst for me...his meowing...harrowing). Like why did they give the cats human noses idgi.
Okay so the Good Stuff:
The Fall (2006)
On here mostly only because Lee Pace (who played Roy) is a pretty boy and the main child actor is SO CHARISMATIC!!! The story was intriguing, def gave Wes Anderson vibes, I just wish there was More to it (like the inner story was not as fleshed out/reflective of Roy’s despairs as much as it could have been, I think). I did think it was interesting how the story reflected who was listening to it. Like how the Indian to Alexandria (the main child actor) was South Asian (like the worker at the fruit farm her family works at), whereas to Roy they were Native American (hence the references to wigwam/etc at the beginning.) And how the inner story’s female protagonist was the nurse to Alexandria, but Roy’s ex-girlfriend to himself. Narratives within narratives are always fun, especially when people who care about you can come in and change the story, and you in the process!!
Lake Mungo (2008)
When i first watched this with neeta i was just Shrugs about it. i didn’t think it was particularly scary or anything. But i did grow a bit disconcerted after, like something ominous was behind me and since watching, the movie has been on my mind a lot because of how the main themes frightened me. Not being able to share your feelings of doom, the utter horror of realizing no one can truly See You, not even the people you had hoped would protect you. Also ugghhh the “I have a feeling like something bad is going to happen to me. I feel like something bad has happened. It hasn’t reached me yet but it’s on its way.” is such an iconic line to me, i love it as a general horror line to instill fear but i’ve also been thinking about how doppelgangers factor into this. And how the only jumpscare in the movie is one of Dead ghost alice palmer. The bad thing about to reach alice was her own death and she couldn’t escape it, that’s so frightening! Like maybe from the moment when she learned this, she was basically just a dead girl walking. Since we started watching the movie, she was dead to us, and to her family. We never got her as Real and Alive! Also knowing that all this was coming but that she couldn’t reach out to her mother especially for help was touching and sad. In her dreams, she would call and call for her mother, but her mom never heard her, in real life or the dream world.
And then the last scene, where finally, the family thinks they can move on and so they move from their house, relieved that this is all over. And in the picture of their final day at the house, there’s ghost alice palmer in the window, looking onward as she is forgotten! The only ghost that can’t be disproven. it’s a horror of a very real but almost banal human fear, as opposed to one of a direct threat (like dying in the first place). Also, there are some theories online that alice’s death was actually caused by her brother matthew, which is certainly an interesting perspective. It’s just fun to think of and read analyses for this movie.
Wah...dead girls are so iconic.
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
I think I’m at the point in my life where i’ve given up on finding a horror movie that I think is genuinely good. Like all the closest ones are thrillers and not really horror. But now im settling on finding the most amusing horror movie and this one is really up there like. It’s so excessively gen z so i watched it fully leaning into a cringe because its like yeah, there are def people like this that i have seen online, whereas most Young People Cringe representation is not quite accurate. I was not expecting pete davidson to be in this but honestly it worked out, and the final Climactic scene was just sooo funny to me. Anyways we need more ironic horror movies.
Popstars: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
Not me and kevin being in our lonely island era (stream Spring Break Anthem fr fr). All i have to say is that the songs are bangers, the cameos are crazy, and this movie is actually really funny. I’M ANDY SAMBERG STAN...
Books
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
By Alison Bechdel
Aaaough this was so good, a really cutting narrative. I’m thinking about the ending, the way the worst people can mean so much to you, how family bonds can change so much just from time and distance. Alison bechdel is truly a comics master.
The Only Good Indians
By Stephen Graham Jones
Ooo i found this to be soo gruesome and meaty. The writing style was a bit difficult for me to read at times. There’s also incredibly long descriptions of motorcycle/basketball related things, neither of which i know anything about, but it’s certainly worth powering through.
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
By John Boyne
Longest book i read this year, i think. God! Say what you will about John Boyne (the man, on researching dyeing methods, saw “Octorok eyeballs” on a botw guide and was like “yeah, that seems like something that would be used in the real life human world”), but this book is So good. Really just an all encompassing tale about the highs and lows of human life. I think of this book as a kinda “rebuttal” to the ceaseless suffering of Hanya Yanagihara’s novels, because i refuse to believe that all the pain and agony is for nothing. Like not even to say that good things can come FROM suffering, but rather that good things can happen in SPITE of it. Of course you don’t have to suffer to be happy, but sometimes, bad shit just happens to you anyways. i also love the way things in this book are segmented based on specific time periods from cyril’s life. Like he certainly has his flop eras...but he also has redemptive arcs, and even through all the horrifying things that happen, this book still made me laugh as well. Highly recommend.
Blud
By Rachel McKibbens
favorites: three strikes, letter from my heart to my brain, outhouse, ***, the last time, the other children have agreed to forfeit their inheritance
The poetry is very unapologetic and poignant and invigorating to read. The plagiarism incident with Ailey O’Toole is so horrible though, like O’Toole stole so much of McKibben’s work. One particularly horrifying incident:
And O’Toole said she though the “spitting teeth in the sink” part was metaphorical when it was actually McKibben’s literal description of trauma/abuse she endured...like...how are you going to pass someone’s EXPERIENCES as your own that is insane to me.
Anyways...read this lol.
A Natural History of the Future
By Rob Dunn
My main genres of books are mystery/thriller/horror and then graphic novels...but i think next on the list would be Biology based nonfiction. I really loved this book! i’m starting to learn the best way to read nonfiction is to not worry about trying to Remember everything, but rather paying attention to parts that really interest you, and skimming over/not dwelling too much on parts that don’t. This seems to me an efficient way to get into the habit of reading nonfiction more, so that later you can improve focus on the less gritty parts. I learned a lot from this book, here’s two of my fav parts:
“Leidy called these life-forms “parasites,” but he understood that they might be beneficial. He thought they were beautiful, and he and his wife drew them with what one could only call love.”
Regarding Joseph Leidy, a parasitology who is also apparently the first person to use a microscope to solve a murder mystery. Something something “I love the way that men love” but instead it’s something something I love the way that scientists love.
This part about the recent extinction of the dusky seaside sparrow:
“The dusky seaside sparrow was a small bird with a small presence in the universe. But since its passing, much has been said about its loveliness. It has been the subject of fiction, poetry, and numerous scientific treatises. As the writer Barry Lopez put it, “As with so many things, deep appreciation and a sense of loss arrived simultaneously.” Ultimately, the dusky seaside sparrow was a victim of the intersection of its own specialization and the forces of development, technology (rockets), politics (the space race), and pleasure (Disney World). It could no more have anticipated these forces, with its specialized autonomous intelligence, than it could have anticipated a meteor.”
WAHHHHHH
When i tell you i teared up at this part. It’s interesting to think about how as children, we thought extinction was a massive huge problem. And it’s true, that due to human influence, a lot of species are going extinct that would have otherwise survived for some time. But it appears that 1. Extinction is way more common than 7 year old me previously understood and 2. Sometimes...if it wasn’t humans...it would have been something else. That’s not to say that humans should stop being conscientious of their impacts on the environment, but species are really so fragile. Sometimes it truly is a matter of luck, and this is just so sad! (pours one out for the dusky seaside sparrow)
Sorry kevin i promise i’ll finish your inner fish soon <3
Misc
I also did partake in Dracula Daily which is honestly quite a fun experience. I think it’s a good way of consistently reading classics and it really did feel like I was hearing back from my friends abroad. I def did not get into it as much as Some People did adkfajlfd but it makes me want to get back into reading classics. I remember as a child, I read a lot of classics/old books, and even though I’d be kinda bored/uninterested the whole time, I couldn’t stop reading them lol. I guess I liked them in my own perverse way, or confused my poor attention span with dislike.
Romance rant + Blue Flag <3
Unfortunately I also read a lot of bad romance novels/comics which made me think maybe i don’t enjoy the genre as much as I thought i did. But then i read Blue flag and i was back into it. I think my main issue is I dislike when the entire premise of the story is miscommunication. I just find at my Age + from my Experiences, if the entire book is spent in an embarrassing struggle to communicate, then it’s not meant to be lol. Especially if the main characters are adults! That’s why I disliked The Ex Hex and The Charm Offensive </3 actually the ex hex was also bad because there was just no chemistry between the protags and their history is so bland, I cannot understand why they even cared about each other that much.
I think blue flag worked well for me because it was about teenagers who were learning a lot about themselves, and they were changing so much too, that it made it more difficult for them to truly express themselves. Like that makes sense! I loved the theme of how helping someone else change is also a part of changing yourself, that there’s many different ways to Be someone you idolize - whether by being in their place or taking on every characteristic of them, bordering on idolatry. Not to mention the Gender Confusion of it all, which I think the manga didn’t really go into directly, but I was reading between the lines. All of this makes me realize that my fav romances are definitely fraught, but with stresses from outside the relationship. It’s a tug that makes you wonder, do I make choices for myself, or for this other person as well? It’s a classic growing up young love question (i.e. with high schoolers, going to the same college as your partner or not) but it reiterates back to the first point: Doing things to help/be there for others also ends up changing yourself. And there’s just so many paths you can take as a high schooler, so many Selves you could be, that it makes the question of romance more interesting because it truly is a Will They Won’t They situation. And it managed doing all that without having typical cringe that you would expect in a high school love story.
Anyways the ending to BF was kinda...not for me I think? It was very strange. But i still do love the ephemeral nature of the high school romance genre and i do think other romances i like would have themes similar to it, that love has to be a conscious choice but it can also be lost at any point, and sometimes that’s just the way it goes.
TV Shows
I actually watched a lot more tv this year than i expected lol...
Succession S1 - S3
This shit was crazy. we await season 4. Im a big fan of whatever greg and tom have going on. I love it when toxic rich people just ruin each other’s lives...also. Kendall Roy definitely listens to crack baby by mitski.
Castlevania S1
Throw rice at a vampire and they have to stop and count every grain...throw a vampire at a bisexual and they Do This. I highly recommend everyone watch it but the show is very violent and gory, so viewers beware.
Literally was gonna make a separate post about this show but then forgot everything that happened in it. Next year i will endeavor to better notate my thoughts on things as i watch them but here’s a summary of whatever i was gonna say:
Firstly, just a random observation: Something important i learned about myself through watching this is that a show does not have to be perfect to be good. For me, it just has to inspire Thought, aka break the barrier of my very short attention span. There are certainly a lot of points about the show I could criticize but the fact that I am able to think about it at such depth and still enjoy it is a plus to me. I know this doesn’t seem like a particularly useful point but...it has helped me enjoy my media consumption more.
This is definitely a very artful show...it is very polished and the animators did a great job of creating this cool, crispy, snappy style animation that I really enjoyed watching. Punches look like they hurt, the blood looks like it’s gonna pour from the screen, and everything has this nice overlay tone that i find quite appealing in modern animation LOL. i also just love the way eyes and hair are done in this....the gang is looking GOOD. i also honestly love a Cartoon Violence so i find all the gore in this truly satisfying and fleshy. The story is also very compelling - character arcs make a lot of sense and it’s exciting to rally behind a lot of them too (like issac hehe).
TBH i think the romantic relationships in this show were a bit of a weak point in this show, and I blame it on the ~franchise~, because if you wanna keep something going for generations, someone needs to have kids regardless of whether it makes any sense. Actually the main exception to this is Dracula + his wife because the story of their relationship is pretty much the inciting incident of this whole show. But also, other than that, I think alucard should have been a part of trevor/sypha’s relationship. Make it a throuple.
I also think the way sumi and taka
Overall though, i really cannot recommend this enough o7
The Bear S1
Im kin with sydney. Everything bothers her and me too honestly. I kinda wished this stayed one season. I think shows should just be shorter and stop happening if you’ve said what u wanted to say...but otherwise i did like it. it was certainly very intense at times, but maybe people from chicago are just like that. food and found family lovers will be all into this.
The Sex Lives of College Girls S1
I was cringing so hard but surprisingly in a good way. Like bella really being such a mindy kaling self insert character (honestly i kind of hate the Weird Desi Girl trope but like i am kinda like that myself so what can i really say -__-) but i still found myself genuinely rooting for them instead of watching something else. One thing that certainly helps is that it’s an early college story, instead of a high school story (teenagers being cringe is too much), or an Adult story (adults being cringe also too much). (college students are a happy medium. I blame it on them being cringe just by virtue of being fake adults). Anyone else shook to learn that kimberly is played by timothee’s sister and also her [redacted] are so distractingly [redacted]
The Rehearsal S1
When i watched this i was extremely high and just so in awe of the lengths nathan fielder went through to make this realistic. That’s all i could think about. Like the budget for this show must have been so high, the way they’re making entire models of bars and houses! For those who don’t know (because even after watching the trailer I still didn’t get it), nathan basically meets with someone who is having anxieties about a situation (e.g. telling something very personal to a friend and not knowing how it will turn out). So nathan creates this elaborate Set full of actors so that this person can consistently practice how the situation will go, and the actors will try different responses so they can be prepared for anything. One of the situations is a person (angela. Very annoying) not knowing if she would be able to raise a child on her own, so they put her in a house with a child (who was an actor), and wow, they kept having to swap out so many child actors throughout the day because of labor laws LOL. and she would basically sit around in that house working on her...etsy store and raising the child. It’s bizarre but i love it. i think the best parts are when nathan is coming slightly out of character because he’s just really frustrated with all the Extreme Christianity esp coming from angela lol. i am nathan fielder fan. I wonder what season 2 will look like though, because it kinda feels like the show achieved all the primary revelations/etc that it was initially aiming for, but I won’t complain...
Severance S1
Best show i watched this year i think...just served incredible high tension and #class conflict and cult ideology that i found intriguing. Also because this year ive been into thinking about distinction between’s one’s own selves/identities, and how they form in different environments. Like how would a You that only works function, versus a You that does everything else? I also loved patricia arquette in this so much, perfect villain to me. the way she does Devotion bordering on obsession <3
I also thought it was fascinating how much the severance break room apology / general vibe of lumon reminds me of l ron hubbard’s affirmations!
The Cabinet of Curiosities S1
Why was this lowkey bad....Guillermo del Toro in his flop era with this. Each episode is an independent, stand alone story directed/written by a different person (like a short story anthology, in a way). Sorry to bimbos for suggesting we watch the episode with eric andre and then it was Bad. i am still in awe about how they had one directed by ana lily amirpour based on an emily carroll story (that one, plus The Autopsy, were some of the better episodes) but. Hm. the writing is not quite there. It seems like the writing is very heavy handed with whatever statement they’re trying to do and the acting quality is...very varied. Anyways don’t watch this alkdfjalsdf
Chainsaw Man S1
Yet another show to depict how Advanced anime studios have gotten. The animation is crazy gorgeous. But..at the end of the day it’s still just chainsaw man lol. The fight scenes are kinda meh even as an anime and i’m just not super into the story, though the characters are interesting to me and i do see how people like it. I am obsessed with kobeni and overall the Gang is very fun but yeah....Yeah.
I read the manga (up to Ch 113) and honestly.
Another random observation: I think the reason i am not super into anime is that in a lot of anime, 20% of the episode feels like a flashback or deja vu or it’s just pausing on the same dramatic moment for a long time which kills tension for me and gets very tiring. Also the often weird tropes that come out of nowhere. In short me and kevin tried to watch neon genesis evangelion but after 12 episodes nothing happened yet and the one weird naked rei scene killed interest for me. I know it’s an old one but i feel like a lot of anime is still like that (but if you know any that’s not...i’d be interested!). Chainsaw man was okay in that regard because i get it was largely trying to be like Oh hohoh these sexy women are being #manipulative but then there would be a random chapter art of them in lingerie and like huh???? T_T
Want to Watch:
Abbott Elementary S1 (to continue)
3-4 eps in and enjoying it so far. It has very classic sitcom vibes and is fun to watch but so far not anything that i’m desperate to finish. I think the principal is SO funny though.
Derry Girls S3
I loved the first two seasons so much (in my irishboo era. Alkdfjalsdkfjal okay sorry) and need to finish it.....when i have...time...or whatever
The Sex Lives of College Girls S2
For continuity reasons...
Reality TV
Making this a separate section because it’s all insignificant hours wasted anyways oops. Looking back on it now though I am Very Embarrassed about how much i watched this year ammm
F Boy Island S2 (i actually watched this twice :’) )
This season is more bland drama wise but sooo much better with regards to the story/editing. The editing is genuinely the best i’ve seen in reality tv. It’s so self aware, sometimes when watching it’s almost back to being unironic, but then as soon as you’re like “no way are they doing this” the show hits you with a segment that brings it back down to earth. Like the way they just cut out one of the date segments because it was sooo boring and literally told us that LOL really reminding us that true love is NOT found on reality tv. Goofy goofy goofy. The ending is dumb but i am sad there won’t be more seasons of this show specifically...
Love is Blind S3
The men on this show are so rank no words.
Love is Blind: Japan S1
The men on this show are so rank no words.
Love is Blind: Brazil S1
The men on this show are so rank no words.
The Ultimatum S1
They’re running out of ideas for reality tv so they’re like okay let’s open OTHER people’s relationships and see what happens. I think the lachey’s are truly devious people like i kinda hate them. Theyre living for the drama, every time vanessa is like “watching [whatever the fuck weird scene], my HEART was in my THROAT” like no girl. You were living for every moment of it...but if you like messy reality tv (like....*raises hand*...me) its pretty fun lol
Bling Empire S1 - S3
These people are soooo bland and they have soo much plastic surgery done it is kind of crazy.
Indian Matchmaking S1 - S2
-_- no words.
Twentysomethings: Austin S1
Honestly i liked a lot of the people in this show but nothing happened. Like they literally didn’t do anything i really did not understand the point of this at all. They just hang out...and interviewed for jobs at bars all day T_T
Misc
AEW
As many of you already know i have a new hobby: pro wrestling hehe. I won’t talk about it much here because i plan on making a separate post for it but it was been so much fun and im going crazy Analyzing the Narratives and such... awaiting my first live show soon <3
Danny Gonzalez
This dude is so fucking funny to me. As you already know. My fav vid of his this year.
I think danny has the best skits out of all those from the commentary-drama youtuber genre and he doesn’t draw out criticisms/commentary for too long, which i feel a lot of other youtubers do. Like some tend to kind of go on and on regarding a specific Nitpick that might make a lot of sense to them but i don’t think they need to talk about it thatttt much. I also watched his lemonade mouth video and that was soooo good.
John Wolfe
John Wolfe hasn’t been hitting as much for this year to me. I think it’s part of because he’s been posting less regularly and his jokes are less effective to me but his Quarry series was very enjoyable to me. But i will still be loyal john wolfe fan for life!
I am also obsessed with dylan lenivy in that game (played by Miles Robbins, susan sarandon’s Real Life Son). it’s like imagine all the gay kids being trapped at horror camp because of werewolves...it’s interesting. Has good banter. Even the annoying characters make points. Brenda song mocaps for this. yeah!
Otherwise this year i haven’t been watching that much youtube...maybe more kurzgesagt, started watching ironmouse and cdawgva (not really in my vtuber era but i see the appeal now...), and some booktubers (like Reads with Rachel... so many booktubers are pretentious english majors who just buy hundreds of books for the ~vibes~ like i hate it fr. but i love the ones that do really intense reviews of bad books like yes...end booktok once and for all..). I’ve also been watching hour long wrestling documentaries adlkjadlf it’s been good.
well...That’s all for this post! Thanks for reading, even though looking back on this it feels a lot like i have just been detached from...everything. I am hoping for Heartier media interactions this year. also wow, no dnd consumption this year. I'm kinda surprised but also have been a bit disappointed with recent D20 offerings but maybe I will try and get back into it! but i would much rather actually be playing dnd instead bwehehe. anyways, Hope u all have had a good time with ur medias, and have even better ones to come <3
