Just in time for Oscar season (so, late), it’s my takes of my top favorite films of 2023! This time, for want of a red carpet or recent, decent occasion for cosplay, I decided to engage in some entry-specific costumery… tune in and see! What were your favorite films of the year?
My Top Music of 2023
You’ve heard from the best, now hear from… well, me! I’m no Fantano or Pitchfork, but I do have Airpods in at most hours–along with a well-used car stereo–so I heard plenty of music in 2023 for which praise is due. To complement my Top Games of 2023 list from the other day, then (a brief movie one is on my Letterboxd – expanded video adaptations of both pending!), here’s some quick ‘n dirty takes on my favorite albums and singles which hit my ears this year:
TOP ALBUMS OF 2023
#10) Noah’s Ghost, Lost Nights
Low on the list out of principle ’cause I didn’t get around to listening until I was driving home from a NYE party, but still: Solid vocal and instrumental synthwave of the eerie Stranger Things-adjacent variety, all wrapped in an endearing package honoring the same retro aesthetic.
#9) Hackney Diamonds, The Rolling Stones
Half a century and change after their biggest hits, there’s admittedly more hack than diamonds in this LP, but having the boys back in town with new material felt like a cause to rock all the same. And we got a Lady Gaga feature, no less!
#8) Badlands, Magic Sword
In a genre full of nostalgia-mongering and fantastical imagery, Magic Sword has cornered the market on a specific yet indelible mood: Music to quest to. With eerie synth tones and song titles like “Nowhere Else to Run,” “A Dark Task,” and “There is Still Good in You,” how can you not want to don a cloak of your own and journey towards what lies on the horizon?
#7) Halloween Mixtape II, Magnolia Park
Back in my day, if you wanted Halloween-themed emo music, you had Blink-182’s “I Miss You” and maybe a Panic! at the Disco track or two. Leave it to young guns Magnolia Park, though, to dole it out on the regular! Amid tracks which explicitly name-check the holiday and other suitably spooky subjects, raucous yet wistful opener “The End: An Emo Night Rhapsody” more than earns its subcultural pretension, 408 collab “Manic” is an infectious ode to a dysfunctional relationship, and “Life in the USA” makes for a darkly funny, unapologetically political dig at late-stage capitalism.
#6) The Jaws of Life, Pierce the Veil
If Vic and the gang put out a new record, you know it’s gonna be on this list somewhere. Shouty lead single “Pass the Nirvana” had me wary when it dropped in 2022, but I came around to its sound on the release proper, and numerous other tracks keep PTV’s quality-over-quantity discography going strong: The thunderous yet dreamy promises of “Even When I’m Not with You,” the cacophonous pleading of “Emergency Contact,” and the aching reflections on Chloe Moriondo duet “12 Fractures” were particular highlights.
#5) The Maine, The Maine
I’m always a little wary when a band well into their career releases a self-titled album. Are we in for a bold, image-defining musical experience, or just a going-through-the-motions contractual obligation? With The Maine, however, it’s neither, as their 2023 eponymous LP may well be my favorite yet. From the indignant yet bouncy chorus on “Blame” to the downright danceable “Leave in Five,” The Maine remain an indelibly entertaining missing link between radio-friendly pop rock and heart-on-the-sleeve, Hopeless Records catharsis. Generous of them, too, to write the theme song for every college party I ever peaced out on with “How to Exit a Room.”
#4) Desert Hearts, W O L F C L U B
It’s a crowded scene out there for 80s-throwback acts, especially in my library, but WOLFCLUB stands apart from the pack (no pun intended) by having… well, just really darn good hooks. As ever, young love, sleek cars, and dark nights are the imagery du jour, but with tracks like soaring, insistent opener “Crystalise” and breathless call-and-response “Shoreline” (complete with a sax solo!), they simply outrun the competition.
#3) Intellectual Property, Waterparks
I don’t consider myself a sonic tastemaker at the best of times, but I was still surprised to see Waterparks’ latest LP pop up on multiple critics’ worst-of lists for 2023, because… this thing slaps? I get it–rambunctious production, goofball lyrics, and random stylistic transitions aren’t for everyone, but the loopy, corny, often horny energy of tracks like “Funeral Grey,” “Brainwashed,” and “Self-Sabotage” is just too infectious for me to pooh-pooh.
#2) The Heavy Box, Derek Sanders
We didn’t get a new Mayday Parade record in 2023, but we did get the next best thing: Another acoustic outing from frontman Derek Sanders! Despite its five-track run, this box is heavy indeed — “Home” is a melancholy reflection on the road to peace, “Howell Canyon” evokes The Postal Service with its thrumming percussion and laments that “we exist to only fall apart,” and the sparse instrumentation of “True Story of a Boy Whose Exploits Panicked a Nation” encloses a heartbreaking look back at a life literally or figuratively reaching its end… while also continuing Sanders’ cute tradition of naming songs after Calvin & Hobbes quotes. Cap it off with a reunion with classic Mayday compatriot Jason Lancaster on “For Dear Life,” and you’ve got an EP which all transported me back to 2013–not a place I ought to linger, in truth, but a comfort in certain troubled moments all the same.
#1) Emotaku, Sunrise Skater Kids
Four words: emo songs as anime themes. As prolific as the overlap is between weebs and scene kids, it’s amazing no one capitalized upon this peanut butter-and-chocolate combo before, but bless SSK for giving it a go, turning pop-punk hits by Yellowcard, My Chemical Romance, and more into even peppier J-pop bangers, complete with translated lyrics. Enjoy the back half, too, where each track is convincingly condensed into what could well be the opener to your new favorite slice-of-life series! Now for someone to actually produce the shows that’d go with these…
TOP SINGLES OF 2023
#10) “Burning Rubber,” Arcade High
Nothing too complicated here–just another rad, funky throwback perfect for neon-lit night drives, from the dudes who arguably do it best.
#9) “Mess it Up” (Purple Disco Machine Remix), The Rolling Stones
As alluded to above, I won’t pretend Hackney Diamonds is a newsworthy return to form for the rock titans, but to just have (1) a disco remix (2) of a Rolling Stones song in the year 2023 felt like a rift in time had opened in the best way.
#8) “Nobody Tells You When You’re Young,” Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
To have weathered my twenties to the sound of Everything in Transit by Jack’s Mannequin, only to reflect along with frontman McMahon on the things only growing older can teach you… it’s nice. Not uplifting, but nice.
#7) “Tell Me I’m Alive,” All Time Low
For all their overproduced earlier work and off-stage scandals, I stand by my conviction that All Time Low can always be counted on to fire off a rowdy earworm about being an unambitious screw-up. Their 2023 record may have been too familiar to make my Top 10 in aggregate, but this all-too-relatable lead single of the same name stands tall (or, maybe, slumps against wall) just the same.
#6) “After Destruction,” Descartes a Kant
I don’t know exactly what’s going on here, but it’s loud, it’s vaguely sci-fi, and I have a thing for orange hair, so color me pleased.
#5) “More Like a Crash,” Mayday Parade
We did get some new Mayday Parade singles this year, at least! And the first was the best, or at least the most promisingly unique: “More Like a Crash,” in which classic Mayday heartbreak (“guess it’s been a while since I had nothing to do”) crests before the trademark guitar breakdown with a holler of the title line, feeling right out of their rawer Black Lines period. Eager to see where the overall sonic direction of their next project goes!
#4) “Childhood Eyes,” Yellowcard
Among the many bands experiencing a renaissance thanks to emo-era nostalgia, none were perhaps more surprising–or welcome–than Yellowcard reneging on their 2016 final bow with a new EP. Of particular note was this track, in which the band openly carries forward their original youthful energy without sounding desperate or pandering. Another pop punk group that tried to make a comeback in 2023 should blink their own eyes and take note…
#3) “LosT,” Bring Me the Horizon
Some songs capture a specific emotion so well that it’s almost like a part of you has been carved out and pressed on vinyl. Not always a pleasant emotion, mind you, but all the same, “LosT”–with its incessant guitars, glitched-out electronic segments, and furious lyrics–is the sound of that one adjective, that one feeling, running like a bull in a china shop through one’s head in moments of self-doubt. I (thankfully) can’t relate to controversial lead singer Oli Sykes watching anime while doing ketamine, but to wanting to scream “what the hell is fucking wrong with me?” after a bad day? Consider me found.
#2) “Take Me with You,” Neck Deep
Hey, remember that week or two in 2023 when some random government guy claimed he saw UFOs, and everyone decided that was irrefutable proof aliens exist? Neck Deep does, or at least they struck while the iron (or some other metallic substance not of this planet) was hot and dropped this silly little homage to The X-Files, E.T., and the increasingly sensible anxiety of wanting to leave Earth while there’s still time. I didn’t know these dudes had a nerdy novelty song in them, but it just makes their library of A-tier pop punk even better!
#1) “Eat the Acid,” Kesha
In the late Aughts, Ke$ha was widely derided as the nadir of music: trashy, airheaded, unconscionably perverse. With time, however, came change for the artist, both for good–a reappraisal of silly, sexy pop stars–and for ill: namely, a #MeToo-adjacent sexual abuse case and subsequent industry fallout. I don’t have the space, much less the education, to dissect how all of this influenced Kesha (long since bereft of the dollar sign) during the production of her 2023 record Gag Order; I just know that, for all of the bombastic tracks I showered with accolades earlier, “Eat the Acid” is the most interesting song I heard this year: a calm, haunting, hypnotic mantra about faith, isolation, and the dilemma of seeking self-actualization from without as opposed to within.
My Top Games of 2023
2023: Not a good year, am I right? We all have our own reasons—be they personal, political, or just not caring for the weather—but in any event, I think we can all agree that 2024 hopefully holds better days. Fortunately, the last 365 days had some pretty darn good videogames to tide us over! I didn’t get around to most folks’ GOTY, Baldur’s Gate III, but here’s my quick thoughts on ten titles that left me especially impressed, be it for visuals, story, and/or just sheer fun. I’m fixing to “adapt” this into a YouTube video by January, but for the traditional sake of year-end takes, let’s kick it off in writing with…
#10) Amnesia: The Bunker
Since Amnesia: The Dark Descent in 2010, the premise of the indie stealth-horror series (plus sci-fi spinoff Soma) has remained consistent: awaken as a memory-challenged wretch in some bygone era, solve environmental puzzles, and avoid making eye contact with whatever’s slithering around the abandoned building you’re stuck in as you look for both answers and an exit. With The Bunker, though, it’s World War One, and developer Frictional Games adds a new twist accordingly: the titular barracks are under attack by more than just soldiers, but your generator only has so much fuel. What could otherwise be just a spooky walking sim, then, becomes a terrifying cycle of resource management and cost-benefit analysis, every trip deeper into a given tunnel valued in real-world minutes until the lights go out and your nocturnal pursuer gains the upper claw.
As ever, there’s plenty of cheap deaths and finicky physics, and the conclusion is more eerie than satisfying, but the franchise hasn’t felt this fresh and anxiety-inducing in years. For genre fans, you can’t go wrong with hunkering down in this bunker.
#9) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Can a game be both a sequel and, effectively, DLC for the last one? It’s a query that’s arisen more and more in recent years, as ballooning development costs and higher demand for consistency between entries have led to many follow-ups taking place, in whole or in part, on maps carried over from their predecessor. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom may well be the poster boy for this trend: the graphics look the same and the overworld is functionally identical, so if, like me, you spent a hundred hours exploring post-robopocalypse Hyrule in 2017, the magic’s just not quite there anymore.
It’s the underworld, though—and the, uh, over-overworld—where Tears both flows freely and reconnects with the series’ roots, as in addition to a bevy of caves and flying islands, we get a roundabout Dark World with The Depths: a subterranean abyss full of new monsters and challenges. Add in some honest-to-Goddesses (if not meager) dungeons and bosses, a stirring dual-timelines plot, and arguably the most robust physics-based crafting system… ever, and you’ve got an adventure which, while missing the impact of Breath of the Wild, improves upon everything which made that game great, and adds much of what it lacked. As contemporary sequels go, that’s alright with me!
#8) Resident Evil 4
Whether Resident Evil 4 is one of the greatest games ever can make for a spirited discussion, but there can be no debate that it’s one of the most influential: from Gears of War to Dead Space to The Last of Us, if you’ve played a game about a guy with a weapon in his hand and a camera over his shoulder that came out in the last eighteen years, you’ve probably got Leon and Ashley here to thank for it.
Expectations were high, then, for Capcom to nail a modern reimagining of the action-horror classic in keeping with the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes—and it’s safe to say they delivered. If you’re an RE4 diehard, it may all seem a bit too slick yet familiar, but at least for a casual fan such as myself (I didn’t play the ‘05 version in earnest until the PC port, mere years ago), this is an update in the best way: satisfying gunplay, stellar graphics, and a script which retains the original’s cheesy thrills while both knowing what to cut (sorry, statue-fleeing QTE) and where to add breathing room (a wide-linear lake segment). Post-game support, in the form of comparable revisions of “The Mercenaries” arcade mode and Ada Wong’s “Separate Ways,” are just the icing on the campy, gore-drenched cake!
#7) Star Wars: Jedi – Survivor
When I was a kid, a new Star Wars story coming out was a capital-E event—I still remember the months leading up to the 1999 release of The Phantom Menace in particular, when everything from Pepsi cans to KFC buckets had the cast’s faces plastered on it, heralds of a date so monumental that it was as if the new millennium was coming a year early. Post-The Force Awakens, though, with new shows dropping semiannually and George Lucas’s original vision—however bungled and childish—distended into an indefinite cinematic universe, I must confess that I feel like Yoda under his blanket in Return of the Jedi, on the verge of just evaporating from the burden of so much extraneous ~content~.
All of this is to say that it takes a lot for me to get invested in a galaxy far, far away these days, but Star Wars: Jedi – Survivor (I think that’s where those punctuation marks go) earns it. Like 2019’s Jedi – Fallen Order, from which its events directly follow, it’s a single-player, story-driven action game which combines the combat loop of a Soulslike, the madcap setpieces of an Uncharted, and the block-pushing of a traditional Zelda (it’s a compliment, I swear) with a cast of likeable characters who develop themselves and the Star Wars universe in compelling ways, all without sacrificing the series’ pulpy charm. Like many sequels, its conclusion feels more like a stepping stone to some grand finale than its own resolution, but hey—for a brand defined by sets of trilogies, I’m sure another memorable adventure with Cal Kestis and company is just a few parsecs away!
#6) Pikmin 4
Among Nintendo’s many beloved IPs, Pikmin is perhaps the oddest, if not for its conceit (diminutive astronauts enlist peppy plant people to salvage valuables on an ambiguously abandoned Earth) then definitely for its sparseness, with only two sequels in as many decades (we don’t talk about Hey! Pikmin). That changed in 2023 with Pikmin 4, and while this installment is certainly the most accessible yet, it’s all relative—even with a suite of defensive options and the privilege to re-do a bum expedition, you’ll still have your hands full and palms sweaty managing elemental types, tearing down obstacles, and trying to nab as much loot as possible before sunset.
But thanks to new nighttime missions, the day being over no longer means your adventure is, while a cadre of stranded coworkers make for good company in the hub area, whether by handing out upgrades or allowing you to restyle your custom protagonist. Did I mention there’s also a little dog-like alien to ride, as well as all-new competitive segments where you see who can lift the most trinkets in time? If the word “Dandori” doesn’t mean anything to you, play this latest Pikmin, and it’ll become your mantra soon enough.
#5) Final Fantasy XVI
What is a Final Fantasy game? That’s not a rhetorical question—after over 35 years, seven console generations, and an untold number of androgynous hunks with spiky haircuts, I’m still genuinely curious. To some, it’s a turn-based JRPG, plain and simple; to others, it’s a checklist of endearingly specific elements: Moogles, magic crystals, deicide, a guy named “Cid” with a vehicle to loan out. Whatever its core values, Final Fantasy XVI caused a stir this year, as not only was it the first Fantasy to secure an M rating, but the gameplay is the simplest the mainline series has ever seen, even after XV’s “hold A to attack, hold B to dodge” format. There’s a relative handful of meaningful items or equipment upgrades, most levels are a chain of slim corridors broken up by vacant fields, and on the rare occasion a fight is difficult enough that you die, you’re given the choice to resurrect on the spot with more Potions.
And yet, call me a lowly Branded, but I had a blast, because when this game gets going, holy hell does it go. From the cold open, where you drop into a battle between two kaiju plummeting into the earth like Gandalf and the Balrog on steroids, the design directive is clear: make a boss fight as exciting as possible, and then make the next one even more exciting. This is not an RPG, it’s a cinematic spectacle fighter, and while I can understand why sticklers might bristle at that arguable dumbing-down, it’s a blessing under my roof—there are brawls in FF16 which make God of War look reserved, including at least one which even rivals the OTT spectacle of Asura’s Wrath. Routine encounters are exciting as well, as juggling melee combos, ranged shots, a canine companion, and nearly a dozen magic attacks means there’s literally never a dull moment in the heat of battle.
The music is invigorating, the characters are compelling, and while certain scandalous asides and the warring-kingdoms drama are transparent nods to Game of Thrones, it suits a world (in)famous for complicated, continent-spanning mythology. I didn’t expect a major developer to revive the glory days of early-2010s character action games, but I’m so grateful that Square-Enix pulled out a Phoenix Down and made it happen.
#4) Spider-Man 2
Tears of the Kingdom wasn’t the only game this year which followed up an acclaimed open-world console exclusive with a sequel set in more or less the same location! To be sure, Spider-Man 2 takes place in a New York that’ll be mighty familiar to anyone who played Spider-Man or the Miles Morales expansion which accompanied its intervening remaster… but while I still feel like Tom Holland-izing Peter Parker’s face in-between entries was uncalled for, it can’t be understated just how fun this game is, both to gawk at and to play.
The Big Apple has never shone so brightly in the medium, and thanks to the subtly enhanced power of the PS5, you can swing, launch, and now outright fly across not only Manhattan but also western Queens and Brooklyn, without a loading screen to be found—including the fastest fast-travel system I’ve ever experienced. Combat remains delightfully chaotic yet coherent, there’s oodles of collectibles (including some seriously sick suits), and being able to swap between two web-slingers at virtually any time is a great feature.
While the story is admittedly less focused than Spider-Man 2018, it balances our heroes’ great powers and responsibilities well: Miles must weigh an opportunity to confront Mr. Negative against the safety of his community, while Pete’s elation at a recovered Harry Osborne inviting him onboard a scientific foundation is tempered when a certain “symbiote” takes a liking to their bodies. Per usual, a threequel is all but explicitly set up, but I can’t wait to see what these Spider-Men do next.
#3) Super Mario Wonder
Among the major videogame developers, Nintendo gets a lot of flack, and not without reason: whether it’s antiquated hardware, letting celebrated franchises stagnate for inscrutable reasons, or the Disney-like dissonance of wielding both a family-friendly image and a ruthless legal department, there’s plenty to dislike about The Big N (wait, does anybody still call them that?). But at the end of the day, there’s arguably no other company that, at least in their first-party efforts, answers one simple question with polish and verve: what would make people smile?
To that end, Super Mario Bros. Wonder delivers a cavalcade of clever, colorful, and rambunctious platforming challenges that can be enjoyed solo or with friends. After years of the New Super Mario Bros. sub-series coasting off nostalgia (to the point that the adjective in its title stopped even being accurate), the name change is both an implicit statement of intent and a merry warning—for with every level comes a strange new enemy or hazard to navigate, crescendoing with the acquisition of a trippy “Wonder Seed” which throws time and space itself into unpredictable tumult. Structurally, there’s nothing here you haven’t seen before—and don’t expect a plot more complicated than “Bowser’s at it again!”—but when it comes to the journey mattering more than the destination, this latest outing with the bros is a wonder indeed. Now if only two-player mode didn’t cause one guy to die if the other one just moves a little too far in any direction…
#2) Alan Wake II
Trevor reclined on his couch, holding his phone in front of him like a menu at a bar whose drinks he wasn’t sure he could afford. It was more comfortable than hunching in front of a computer, let alone a typewriter, and yet the words wouldn’t come. He had to review “Alan Wake II,” the long-awaited sequel to the 2010 videogame developed by Remedy Entertainment which combined a setting inspired by the television series “Twin Peaks” and “The Twilight Zone” with a tale of a writer tormented by dark spirits ripped right from the pages of a Stephen King novel. But where to start?
Should he lead with the story, how it skillfully balanced episodes about not only Alan’s struggle to escape Cauldron Lake after thirteen years but also Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating a murder cult in Bright Falls with ties to her own past? Would it be ideal to focus on the gameplay, which– while often cumbersome and simplistic–looked better than ever, every building convincingly cluttered and dark forest ripe with fear lurking behind each tree? Or were the personal touches the most important, the enthusiasm with which Remedy included so many signatures that resonated with Trevor as well? Rock-show musical numbers, live-action interludes, Finnish cultural pride, the mere fact that it starred a horror writer and took place in rural Washington State and New York City, both places he had lived? No, surely it was right to at least open with a tribute to the recently deceased James McCaffrey, whose weathered voice brought so much presence to not only Agent Alex Casey but also Max Payne, upon whom the new character bearing director Sam Lake’s face was clearly based.
Trevor sighed, rubbed his eyes, and put his phone down on the coffee table to go make some lunch. He may as well have been staring into a bottomless pit, a black void stretching into infinity. As uneven as it could sometimes be, when it came to writing about Alan Wake II, the amount of praise he had to give wasn’t a lake. It was an ocean.
#1) Hi-Fi Rush
On February 14, 1991, The Silence of the Lambs released in theaters across America. Starring Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, and Ted Levine, the film made back over ten times its budget and swept the Academy Awards the following year, winning Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay (from Thomas Harris’s novel), and Best Picture. To date, it is considered by many to be one of the greatest motion pictures of all time.
What on God’s metallic, neon-green earth does this have to do with Hi-Fi Rush, a jaunty little character action game inspired, if anything, by a combination of Guitar Hero, Devil May Cry, and Toonami reruns? Well, aside from the fact that developer Tango Gameworks is best known for creepy, grisly titles like The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo, it’s proof positive (in this humble critic’s opinion) that, sometimes, the winner comes forth at the beginning of the year, not near the end. Hi-Fi Rush was both announced and released on January 25, 2023, and since that surprise drop, I haven’t been able to stop gushing about it, nor—with generous bonus DLC—run out of reasons to return to it. This coming from a man whose reaction to rhythm games is typically to run in the opposite direction with poorly timed steps!
With an effervescent art style and a diverse gang of characters to match, fights aren’t a chore but a joy, and the pace is precision-tuned to keep you always upbeat, always eager to earn another “S” rank or grind down the next railing. During bosses or big cutscenes, the original score gives way to licensed cuts, and while there’s few tunes by music game standards, it’s a matter of quality over quantity—I never thought I’d face off against a buff she-wrestler while Nine Inch Nails’ despondent banger “1,000,000” thrums in the background, but it’s dreams like these that gaming brings to fruition. Also, leave it to this tracklist to indirectly inform me of a Smashing Pumpkins side project, Zwan, that’d somehow escaped my notice!
Hi-Fi Rush is, as much as my bones creak to consider it, an ode to 2000s nostalgia, back when teams of anime-tinged rebels ruled the airwaves and videogames were about power-ups and youthful ‘tude, not pay-to-play battle passes or weary fatherhood. It’s a game by people who know what makes them fun, made for people who share that wisdom. It’s not much, maybe, but as comforts go, it’s like a favorite song on a long drive with friends, volume cranked and windows down.
—————
And that’s, blessedly, a wrap on this turkey of a tour around the sun! I don’t know much about the future (if I did, I’d have quit my job ages ago and become a for-profit prophet), but I do know that there’ll be many more opportunities to come: opportunities to enjoy some fun games, yes, be they long-awaited and AAA or indie hits slumbering in your Steam backlog, but also to put the controller down and tackle the real quests, whether that’s moving on up in your job, finishing that book (reading or writing), or finally asking out that person who you just haven’t had a chance to chat with yet. As I said at the end of this list once, life can still make sense if you don’t force it to. I’m looking forward to 2024 being my most sensible year yet—how about you?
My Top Stuff of 2020!
So it’s been a bad year, but one nevertheless full of good stuff if, like me, you tend to enjoy looking at a screen more than out a window! So without further ado…
GAMES
5) Hades: Supergiant Games did the impossible: with their house blend of lush isometric visuals, memorable music, and ASMR-tier VAs, they got me to play a roguelike for more than 10 minutes. Can’t say I’ll ever beat it, but props all the same!
4) Visage: The horror community mourned the passing of “P.T.”, but one diligent dev succeeded in realizing its vision. Visage has some rough edges, but in a year where we’re all stuck inside, its photorealistic depiction of domesticity gone surreal scared me like nothing else.
3) Ghost of Tsushima: Ubisoft set the pace for last decade’s open-world action games, but Assassin’s Creed walked so this could run. Satisfying combat, a stealth system that actually matters, and the most gorgeous visuals ever for the subgenre combine to make essential playing.
2) DOOM Eternal: Marauders suck. With that out of the way, ripping and tearing reached legendary heights this year as the franchise doubled down on its 2016 revival with more items, more environments, more lore, and more gore. Multiplayer and DLC are just icing on the cake!
1) Final Fantasy VII Remake: FF7R has stellar graphics, soaring music, and slick combat… but is it a remake or a sequel? The question seems odd, but it’s at the (crisis) core of the game, and it made me both love this and want to play the original–that’s never happened.
Honorable Mention: The Last of Us Part II: TLOU2 is the best-looking game I’ve ever seen, with simple yet addictive gameplay and an epic plot. It deserved a story which wasn’t so willfully cruel, and creative leads without such contempt for their characters, staff, and audience.
FILM
5) Unhinged: I’m a simple man; I see a violent movie starring an Oscar winner playing a dangerous lunatic, I give a thumbs-up. In any other year this wouldn’t make the cut, but with theaters barren since March, this thriller was just what I needed.
4) Relic: When a loved one succumbs to dementia, it can feel like their world is falling apart right along with you. Drawing from Hereditary and The Taking of Deborah Logan, this Australian film puts grief before horror–until an insane final act collapses the two into one.
3) The Invisible Man: With movie monsters, seeing less can be scarier–but what if you see *nothing*? Director Leigh Whannell proves the adage still holds, as this reimagining of the Universal creature feature is tense like no other. Just mind your step around the plot holes…
2) TENET: “Don’t try to understand it; feel it,” a character tells The Protagonist (yes, that’s his name) in Christopher Nolan’s latest multimillion-dollar head trip. Sage advice; as a story TENET flounders, but as a twisty James Bond homage, it’s a hell of a good time.
1) Becky: This is a movie where a teenage girl brutally murders a bunch of skinheads led by Kevin James. It’s basically an R-rated Home Alone with an awesome score. What else do I need to say?
Honorable Mention: Murder Death Koreatown: 20 years after The Blair Witch Project, I didn’t think it was possible for found-footage to seem real again, but between prerelease viral marketing on 4chan and the uniquely unsettling cameraman character, this flick left me seriously spooked!
SINGLES
5) “Darkness,” Eminem: Leave it to Shady to spit an extended metaphor comparing the Mandalay Bay shooter to an anxious rapper, but the result is still both a haunting examination of inner torment and a crucial condemnation of gun violence.
4) “Your Man,” Joji: Less is more–especially when “less” is a music video of a dancing alien. The closing track from Joji’s Nectar LP doesn’t even crack 3 minutes, but its simple, earnest refrain feels both funky and sweet over a pulsing electronic beat. “Have you ever loved? Would you go again?”
3) “A Good Song Never Dies,” Saint Motel: There’s an odd subgenre of music on YouTube: songs from bands no one’s heard of with millions of views. Some are good and some are meh, but some–with a boppin’ beat, ’60s spy thriller riff, and slinky verses–are friggin’ awesome.
2) “The Plan,” Travis Scott: The theme to Chris Nolan’s polarizing TENET is far from Zimmer theatrics, but this synthy rap track fits the film’s mood like an inverted glove while also delivering nods to its plot (“move in reverse on my turf / I draw the line and cross it first”; “close the opera / hear the red and blue outside, I think our options up”).
1) “Jessie’s Girl 2,” Coheed & Cambria feat. Rick Springfield: God knows who thought we needed a darkly comic sequel to “Jessie’s Girl” after 40 years, but they were right. C&C nail the storytelling, and man that chorus–who hasn’t wanted to scream “I don’t love you no more” over an ex or a relationship gone wrong?
ALBUMS
5) RTJ4, Run The Jewels: Breathless, merciless hip-hop with some killer (no pun intended) beats, gnarly hooks, and all-too-relevant lyricism. Take note, Eminem–it wasn’t just about the puns and the pace this year.
4) POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR, Bring Me The Horizon: Great alt-metal with nods to both gaming (tracks inspired by Parasite Eve and Death Stranding; production by DOOM composer Mick Gordon) and COVID (“The sky is falling, it’s fucking boring / I’m going braindead, isolated”). Looking forward to the foretold next entries in this series!
3) After Hours, The Weeknd: Forget the Grammys, this thing slaps; synthwave is an inspired addition to The Weeknd’s sound, and it manages to work as both night-drive and slow-jam music.
2) Heartwork, The Used: After hopping from protest rock with Revolution to the tearfully bland The Canyon, the boys took notes from Linkin Park and BMTH for a return to their roots with sixteen bleak but infectious tracks. Seriously, how can you not dig “Cathedral Bell”?
1) folklore, Taylor Swift: I regret nothing. In a year marked by many with loneliness and quietude, there was something comforting in hearing our top pop star drop the raucous bad-girl act and get back to some lowkey acoustic work. “Yeah, I knew everything when I was young…”
Honorable mention: Tickets to My Downfall, Machine Gun Kelly. I know, I know, but yours truly cut his musical teeth on pop punk, so I’m easy to please with a catchy chorus and a snotty delivery, artificiality be damned. Someone has to get songs with guitar charting!
VLOGGIN’ IN #6 – “The Invisible Man” (2020) | WHITE BUT NOT TRANSPARENT
Put on my full-body bandages and fake nose for a Saturday at the cinema with the new Leigh Whannell Blumhouse/Universal movie monster horror film “The Invisible Man”!
tl;dw: It starts off a bit predictable and ends with some plot holes, but overall it’s a fantastically shot, scored, and acted sci-fi thriller that ironically deserves to be seen.
All non-me media from Google Image Search or Adobe Premiere Elements. I know I fell off the wagon with movie reviews, but I’m hoping to get back on in time for the season of renewal that is Spring!
Also, an invisible man walking sim would be incredibly easy to program, now that I think about it.
–
VLOGGIN’ IN: “Joker” (2019)
Survived a “preview” screening of Joker on Thursday night, so I had to do my duty as a gamer and rise up with a front-seat review!
tl;dw: You’ve seen it all before, but never quite like this in a comic book flick–maybe not worth rushing out, but certainly worth checking out.
All non-me media from Google Image Search or Movavi Video Editor. Bad audiovisual quality this time can be blamed on Movavi being the poorer man’s Premiere than ever before; the exporter wouldn’t work so I had to screencap the laggy preview in OBS. Going to switch back to Team Adobe soon, promise.
Also, where are all those rioters getting their clown masks? It’s the ’80s, so it should be easy for the cops to just question whoever’s stopping by the pharmacy to grab one. Iunno.
TOP STUFF OF 2018!
Nobody reads the intros to end-of-year lists, so let’s get right to it! No books this year because everything I physically read was stuff I bought two or three years ago and only now got around to — and I’m all about keeping things current.
MY TOP 5 MOVIES OF 2018
5) The Night Comes for Us: With Iko Uwais and a cadre of colorful villains on deck, this spiritual sister to The Raid series — about a Triad heavy who incurs the wrath of his colleagues when he goes clean to save a girl — cements Indonesia as this generation’s epicenter for bloody, brutal, and overall badass martial arts action.
4) Annihilation: Hot off the success of Ex Machina, director Alex Garland administers another injection of sci-fi shock and awe with this adaptation of the acclaimed novel. The film expands on the source material’s meandering ambiguity in favor of a more explicitly horrific journey through a mysterious place where change itself is a deadly foe, without losing any of the story’s Lovecraftian dread and thought-provoking moments. “The bear scene” is a waking nightmare in all the right ways, and the climatic confrontation channels Kubrick’s 2001 in the transcendent paranoia it invokes.
3) Mission: Impossible – Fallout: It’s a longstanding joke that these missions can’t be too impossible if they manage to pull it off every time, but that very contradiction is a testament to the series’ ascension to the throne before which all other popcorn cinema kneels. With professional lunatic Tom Cruise at the helm, and a focus on practical stunt-work setpieces instead of the muddy CGI bonanzas which plague most blockbusters, this latest globetrotting adventure — while not the best yet (I’m still a bit sore over a few critical-looking scenes from the trailer not making the final cut) — proves the journey matters more than the destination.
2) Hereditary: An artist tries to balance work and parenting after her mother’s death, but as disasters and desperation continue to mount around the house, all hell slowly and surely breaks loose. Eschewing traditional jump scares in favor of a bleak, mysterious mood may not suit fly-by-night horror fans, but get in the mood and stick with it, and you’ll behold a series of last-act revelations so twisted and bizarre that you’ll be twitching at tongue-clicks and peeking over your bedsheets (specifically, in the corner of the ceiling) for many nights to come.
1) A Star is Born: Three remakes in, one would imagine this Old Hollywood tale would be played out, but with unprecedentedly vulnerable and grounded performances, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga breathe new life into the story of a world-weary celeb falling for a rising starlet — with heartrending, unforgettable music every step of the way. Not much more to say; it’s just a simple, timeless, and beautifully tragic love story.
(Honorable Mentions) Ready Player One and Avengers – Infinity War: This Spring belonged to a pair of movies hinged upon jaw-dropping spectacle and “I understood that reference” elbow-nudging — and that’s a compliment. RPO’s is more of an E for Effort, admittedly, owing to its Death Star-sized plot holes and willfully contradictory message, but the result is nevertheless a fantastic collage of nerd fantasy that makes one proud to both be a gamer and have had an at least 80s-adjacent upbringing. Meanwhile, Thanos did the unthinkable and snapped the last Avengers adventure in two; though we all know they’re coming back, those final moments, where half of all the superheroes we’ve come to know and love over the last decade disintegrate in front of our eyes, are a landmark in the subgenre. I saw Spidey die in Iron Man’s arms, for Pete’s sake! (no pun intended)
MY TOP 4 TV SHOWS OF 2018 (didn’t get around to a fifth one)
4) Westworld: “These violent delights have violent ends,” warned the closing hours of Season One, and yet it turns out a violent new beginning was just around the corner. Without a doubt, some serious glitches popped up in the programming this year — watching the Abramsian mysteries of the park unfold and following the hosts’ ascension from unquestioning robots to bonafide humans in search of freedom was vastly more engaging than the familiar revolution antics which take up the bulk of screen time here, and a few attempts at mimicking that mindblowing twist with the Man in Black fall flat. And there’s not nearly enough Shogun World! (and, uh, Jungle World?) But at the end of the day, the environments are still gorgeous, the effects work still stunning, and the commitment to cerebral, character-driven sci-fi still a cause to be championed. Here’s hoping season three both gets back on track and keeps up the good work.
3) The X-Files: The X-Files’ revival in 2016 had a lot to prove, and it mostly went about that by having Mulder and Scully shoehorn references to Google and Edward Snowden into a script already straining to explain why two graying former enemies of the state would be welcomed back to the FBI with open arms. But once you get past the mother of all cop-outs in the opening minutes, Season 11 settles back into the classic groove of “monster of the week” assignments interwoven with high-stakes conspiracy capers. Aside from a bafflingly technophobic midway ep (which I’ve been meaning to do a video analysis of), this new batch of cases left me eager for plenty more.
2) Channel Zero – The Dream Door: Imaginary friends come to life. Eerie doors. Old secrets returning to haunt our protagonists. There’s nothing in this fourth season of CZ that its predecessors (or, indeed, countless horror media) haven’t already shown us before, but the way it presents those tropes with lingering, uncannily grounded cinematography and a propulsive (albeit aesthetically questionable) synth score creates a memorably disturbing chapter of the creepypasta-cooking anthology series.
1) The Haunting of Hill House: Can grounded family drama and blood-curdling horror coexist? That’s the question both this Netflix miniseries and the protagonists themselves ask, as adult siblings reunited with their estranged father in the wake of a tragedy must grapple with their inner demons — and some outer ones. Director Mike Flanagan channels the dual-timelines conceit of his sleeper hit Oculus into another exploration of the fear inherent in confronting traumatic childhood memories, and even though it’s a square-peg/round-hole presentation at times (it really shouldn’t take this long for someone to just come out and say what actually happened when they were kids), the result is still a binge-worthy horror-mystery where the haunted house is as much a character as the dysfunctional people — alive and dead — wandering its halls. Not only that, but it’s the rare piece of ghost-focused media where whether the spooks exist or are just metaphors isn’t a binary interpretation. These spirits are real, but so is the all-too-human pain they represent and carry on.
MY TOP 5 ALBUMS OF 2018
5) Neon Future III, Steve Aoki: After two concept albums and countless intermittent collaborations (including a well-intentioned but heinous remix of “Welcome to the Black Parade”), Steve Aoki gamely maintains his DJ cred in an era when the genre’s mainstream fame is fading with this hat trick of straight-up bangers steeped in solid features (blink-182!) and science-tastic interludes.
4) ye, Kanye West: Yeezy garnered some not-unjustified scorn across 2018 for his scattershot, contrarian political ramblings, but from the unhinged confessions of “Yikes” to the hypnotic yet tormented outro to “Ghost Town,” this succinct LP is ironically his most focused in years — even if that focus is, as always, on Kanye.
3) M A N I A, Fall Out Boy: I was prepared to call this album one of the worst of the year when I first heard it, but chalk that reaction up to bad marketing and outdated expectations. The trap-EDM trash fire of a promo “Young and Menace” is wisely relegated to a penultimate slot on the tracklist, and while my inner emo will always miss the verbose, self-loathing ramblings of vintage FOB, what remains are some of the most badass, head-bopping pop tunes in the scene today. You may not believe Patrick Stump anymore when he declares “I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color,” but that won’t keep you from singing along.
2) The Unheavenly Creatures, Coheed & Cambria: For most of their career, C&C’s musical sci-fi epic “The Amory Wars” has been a chore for me to enjoy, much less understand — “Welcome Home” aside, most of their output is heavy on obtuse worldbuilding and light on memorable riffs. But with this debut to a promised pentalogy, the boys have struck pop-prog gold. While a number of tracks still drag, the highs are higher than ever — the title track soars like its titular dark angels, the pleading chorus of “Toys” is an earworm against all odds, and only a dead man could avoid na-na-na’ing along to “Up in Flames.”
1) A Star is Born (Soundtrack): Was there any doubt? Combining rock, folk-country, pop, and show-stopping piano ballads with vocal interludes delivers a roundabout audio version of the film which invites repeated listening for any mood. “Shallow” deserves every bit of praise its crescendoing urgency has already received from countless others, and “I’ll Never Love Again” wraps a simple ode in a stunning, shimmering farewell that brought me dangerously close to manly tears.
MY TOP 5 SINGLES OF 2018
5) “KILLSHOT,” Eminem: Em got off to a shaky start this year in the wake of the profoundly mediocre “Revival,” and an abrupt follow-up in “Kamikaze” — while proficiently a return to form — still felt more like a collection of insecure grievances than a confident release (and the contractually obligated turd-on-top “Venom” didn’t help). But when Machine Gun Kelly had the audacity to call him out, Shady responded with a blistering dis track that delivers a public lesson in respecting your elders. Now if only he’d spit that kind of fire on a consistent basis!
4) “We Appreciate Power,” Grimes feat. HANA: No doubt influenced by the time with Elon Musk on her hip, the pop charts’ resident goth girl delivers a dark, dominant, and undeniably catchy siren song on behalf of our inevitable robot overlords. What will it take to make you capitulate?
3) “Slow Dancing in the Dark,” Joji: Plenty have scoffed at George Miller’s transition from grotesque YouTube clown to glitched-out R&B crooner, but as an always-aspiring renaissance man myself, I say more power to him. While his debut LP this year was a bit too weak overall to make my list, this plaintive, dreamy early track establishes that the “Joji” name could have serious staying power.
2) “Never Sure,” Mayday Parade: Melodrama and fragile young love have been the name of the game for this Tallahassee quintet going on twelve years, and while the band bucks convention by dialing back their operatic side, the juxtaposition of clichéd and achingly real sentiments (“I know how much that it makes you cringe / to think about you and I as friends / together forever until the end”) — held together by a humble yet powerful chorus — get their latest record “Sunnyland” off to an unforgettable start.
1) “Choke,” I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME: “IDK” lifts its name proper from a Back to the Future quote, but a more apt geek reference for this breakout single would be “Aliens” — the merrily acid-tongued delivery of lines like “if I could burn this town, I wouldn’t hesitate to smile while you suffocate and die” puts Xenomorph spit to shame, and recalls vintage Panic at the Disco in all the right ways.
MY TOP 5 VIDEOGAMES OF 2018
5) Tetris Effect: Tetris is, by at least one metric, the most popular videogame of all time — but for better or worse, only so much could be done to modernize it (no, Tetrisphere doesn’t count). That was, until this year, when the revelatory decision was made to draw inspiration from the trippy rhythm-based puzzlers that’d seemingly lapped Tetris in relevance. Combined with virtual reality functionality and side modes that upend the very convention of four-sectioned tetriminoes (heresy!), you’ve got a basic but peerlessly addictive game that more than justifies its invocation of the titular psychological compulsion.
4) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Since the original Super Smash Bros. almost twenty years ago, each entry has distinguished itself in some way: Melee unwittingly set the standard for the self-fashioned genre of “party fighter,” Brawl doubled down on fanservice with an ambitious story mode, and Smash 4… well, you could play it on two different systems? Iunno, that one was kinda just okay. But Ultimate aims right out of the gates to be the definitive Smash Bros. experience: Everyone really is here — over 70 fighters, with more on the way — and even novice players are bound to notice tweaks both large and small that refine the combat to a unprecedented T. Only the focus on a trading cards-y “Spirit” system in lieu of classic modes like Home Run Contest and Break the Targets hampers the game’s potential GOAT status. Overall, though, it’s a well-oiled machine of cartoonish clobbering effectively two decades in the making — and plenty worth the wait.
3) A Way Out: In an age of online-only multiplayer, one could rightly wonder whether the split screen is dead. Fortunately, from the makers of indie sleeper hit Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons comes a short but sweet title that not only allows two players to share the same TV but requires it. You and a friend assume the role of freshly imprisoned felons seeking to fly the coop co-op, but what starts as a Shawshank-esque jailbreak turns into a wild adventure full of shocking developments and clever puzzles that require timing and teamwork in equal measure. You’ll either love or hate your compatriot by the end, but you won’t be able to deny the experience is one for the ages.
2) Marvel’s Spider-Man: With great power comes… well, you know. But Marvel and developer Insomniac were as responsible as could be in crafting this outstanding superhero adventure, and while its combat cribs shamelessly from the Arkham series, the result is an action-packed open-world brawler that makes you feel like the Webbed Wonder as never before. In a virtual Manhattan stuffed with gadgets, side missions, Easter eggs, and more, there’s never a dull moment, and the rejiggering of famous friends’ and foes’ roles ensures even dedicated fans won’t quite know what to expect (even if you’ll be checking your watch for when Dr. Octavius has a certain workplace accident).
1) God of War: Like Uncharted 4 before it, this soft reboot of the deicidal hack-n-slash series accomplishes the seemingly impossible in transforming its focus from mindless adventure fantasy to an earnest, deeply emotional journey. But this is no touchy-feely walking sim — mountains split and monsters bleed with equal intensity to its predecessors, and with a groundbreaking “single-take” camera style, Kratos’s fights and feats feel more raw than ever. If it weren’t for some samey enemy variety and “expanded universe”-style plot threads left frustratingly strewn across the story, this game would be practically perfect — with how well it deservedly sold, the sequel will hopefully pick up the slack ASAP.
–
Now y’all go out there and check this stuff out if you haven’t already, but be sure to set aside some time to create your own art, too! And have a Happy 2019.
Notes&Sketches 