So, well… that’s 2025. Woohoo? On a global level, I think few would call it one of their favorite trips around the sun—and yet, if you’re reading this, you’re still here, and I say that counts for a lot. In the meantime, too, some pretty remarkable movies debuted on our screens! In deciding which to see, and what I then loved, I’ll admit it: I’m no tastemaker. I like what I like, and that typically involves at least one explosion or zombie per reel. Per usual, too, a lot of critical darlings didn’t grab my attention, so you won’t find Hamnet or Sentimental Value among my annual accolades. Still, visual storytelling means a lot to me, and ten motion pictures in particular this year went down as prospective classics!
(If you like these reviews, I’ve got expanded versions and much, much more on my Letterboxd!)
HONORABLE MENTIONS
i. Havoc
Scumbag cinema. Everybody here sucks and/or is having a bad time, while the script is like a stoic parody of edgy Aughts gangland thrillers, but—as expected from Gareth Evans—my God are these fights glorious. When I envision a melee in one of my own works, this is what it looks like: fast, loud, and tightly choreographed yet plausibly chaotic. Most of this schlock, you can take or leave, but when Tom Hardy shuts his mouth and picks up a weapon, lock in.
ii. The Home
Pete Davidson’s questionable comedy gig choices aside, The Home is—for a good while—just generic horror teeming with scattershot editing and flaccid jump scares. Stick around for that third act, though, and you’ll be treated to a hard left into what rivals Weapons (see below) as the most satisfying climax of 2025 that also involves… well, just see it. Especially if you’re under 35.
10) Hallow Road
A spooky little thriller that plays like a horror version of Locke, as our protagonists embark on a feature-length midnight car ride which grows increasingly ill-advised. A couple of cheesy visual flourishes do cramp an otherwise grounded presentation—looking at you, cyberpunkish text reflections (or rather, you’re looking at me). Nevertheless, this overall made for great pre-Halloween viewing, haunting score and all! Simple yet mysterious, and with an eminently applicable moral: don’t go driving off into the middle of the woods.
9) Bugonia
Everything and everybody kinda sucks. In the new Roaring Twenties (that’s pain you’re hearing, not partying), this is hardly an earth-shattering observation. Still, Greek/freak director Yorgos Lanthimos puts enough of his alarming, absurdist sauce on contemporary malaise to get Bugonia buzzing. Jesse Plemons (forever having a bad time) and Emma Stone, girlboss hostage, facing off is the main draw, but the sound deserves credit as well, in a sparse yet thunderous score which heightens dread amidst its humble setting. From a simple premise—an embittered conspiracy theorist and his autistic-coded cousin kidnap a CEO, believing her an evil alien—comes a stage for both galling violence and self-aware dialogues on how internet poisoning can be as toxic as any pesticide. From where does our own “colony collapse disorder” come? And wouldn’t it be nice if just one person was to blame? Well… be careful what you go looking for.
8) Sisu: Road to Revenge
Grindhouse Looney Tunes, just like I ordered. With double the budget of 2022’s Sisu comes double the thrills: a bigger bad guy (Stephen Lang, Soviet psycho), bigger stakes (with “The Immortal” toting a morose mobile home), and most critically, even gorier yet goofier action beats set along scenic expanses. It’s conventional yet niche (my theater had two screenings and zero attendees outside family), but as a descendant of Finns with a taste for tales of relentless retribution, that’s my favorite flavor of cheese. A silent protagonist, buckets of blood, and minimal regard for the laws of gravity—what more do you require?
7) Bring Her Back
If there’s ever a Mad Maxian gas shortage in Australia, that’ll be because director-bros Danny and Michael Philippou cooked with so much of it. While I liked but didn’t love Talk to Me, Bring Her Back is a sophomore escalation in all the right ways: greater scale, a higher-profile cast, but still a chiller that goes for the heart. Sally Hawkins is a standout like never before, warping her affable screen persona into something far darker and more desperate as a foster mom with designs for her new charges. Nauseating sound design, an alarming score, and ever-tense camerawork are in full force as well. You may predict the plot’s broad strokes, but gore comes swiftly and without mercy, and it’s seeing the lengths to which this villain will go and why that make the picture. Indeed, the recurrent circular imagery couldn’t be clearer: this is a story about cycles of grief, of violence, of life and death. If someone you loved was stolen from you forever… what wouldn’t you do to undo that?
6) Weapons
There’s hooks, and then there’s hooks. With as much as I enjoyed writer/director/Whitest Kid I Knew Zach Cregger’s Barbarian, I was sold as soon as I saw this front-of-the-poster premise. As I should’ve seen coming, though, the follow-through isn’t a grim, linear thriller but rather a comic mystery box, splitting skulls and sides in equal measure. Weapons taps an ensemble cast for a quasi-anthology about an Everytown upended when a classroom’s worth of kids go missing, where modern American fears and foibles—teachers, child-snatchers, digital witch hunts, bad cops, the homeless—come alive in relentless succession. Unlike Ari Aster’s Eddington, though (all I’ll say here on that is: too soon, man), such timely themes and imagery aren’t a cushion but a springboard, launching viewers somewhere between suburban fantasy and a love letter to the greats (Kubrick, Lynch, Raimi, et al.). The closing minutes may abandon physics in favor of applause, but with how twisted both its plot and imagery get, this journey matters so much more than the destination.
5) Frankenstein
Has a man ever spiritually helmed a film as much as Guillermo del Toro has Frankenstein before finally earning the byline? Without doubt, the man’s skills and fixations are on rapturous display: sympathy for the creature (a patchwork yet hunky Jacob Elordi), opulent costumes, grim yet grandiose set design, and formidable genre alums—chief among them, Oscar Isaac as the scenery-chewing Victor (here solidified as an arrogant, controlling creator damaged by an abusive father) and Mia Goth as the macabre bride-to-be who astutely calls him out on his BS. The project accomplishes its own feat of genius by balancing Mary Shelley’s cerebral sci-fi novel with the lurid spectacle of its Universal incarnation: the Monster bodies bystanders with Tromatic zeal, but the truest villain here is the good Doctor, warmonger money in pocket and designs on his brother’s girl while he tries to imitate mommy. I’d hesitate to call this the definitive version, but is it the most lavish, poetic, yet ruthless? I think GdT has that one in the (body)bag.
4) 28 Years Later
Let it be known: this is how you make a belated sequel. It hasn’t actually been that long since director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland’s original collab, but thank goodness they didn’t wait any longer for another crack at a post-apocalyptic U.K. This time, the focus is on island-bound Scots, whose community fractures once a resentful tween resolves to bring his ailing mum to a mainland mad doctor (Ralph Fiennes, in a hell of a pivot from Conclave). Since 28 Days Later, innumerable media took inspiration from its portrait of a city fallen to inhuman hordes, so the tropes here will be familiar to most: agrarian communes, bowhunting, an “alpha” zombie, etc. However, Years delivers not only tension and gross-out moments head and shoulders (and severed spine) above intervening imitators but also artful, iconic sequences like our protagonists fleeing an Infected while seeming to run on water, or pillars of bones which evoke a birch grove. An alternately ethereal and raucous score and rock-solid performances don’t hurt either! Mind only that The Bone Temple could either raise or lower this rating—suffice it to say that Garland must be quite confident in Nia DaCosta’s pending follow-up to end such a shocking, somber picture with what feels like a crunkcore music video.
3) Superman
Good to have you back, Kal-El. The Snyderverse was a bracing diversion, but James Gunn—appointed by DC to save their world in his own right—recaptures the color, optimism, and vulnerability which befit a “Metahuman” powered by sunshine. There’s the irreverence and icky moments for which the writer-director is known, but also his strengths: an exposure-therapy approach to absurd spectacle and a cavalcade of characters as goofy as they are unforgettable. Smartly, this isn’t an origin story, yet for all the expanded-universe ambitions, neither does it require knowledge of prior lore. Classic characters are back and well-cast (I love Nicholas Hoult’s tech-bro take on Lex Luthor), but the new faces are a delight as well, Mr. Terrific in particular (or maybe I’m just biased towards a badass nerd who puts a “T” on everything). Superman’25 might turn off folks who wanted a more focused, reverent take on the Man of Steel, but I didn’t mind. When it’s time to be serious or scary, Gunn clicks the safety off, and yet an acceptance that we’re here to have fun is ever-present. It was only a matter of time until we got a Superman younger than me, but I feel no less inspired for it—goodness is the power we need, now more than ever.
2) Sinners
God bless that sweet spot where a talented director returns with a fatter check to “one for me” after clocking out of the franchise factory. With a pair of Jordans in tow (the irresistibly named “Smokestack” twins), Ryan Coogler mixes Southern Gothic, gangster drama, erotica, and Hammer horror into a slick, exciting “one crazy night” flick about the perils of assimilation personified by (stay with me here) song ‘n dance vampires. On the surface, we’ve got From Dusk Til Dawn inverted—with a cadre of ‘30s outcasts whose rollicking evening at a new “juke” is upset by the arrival of entitled bloodsuckers—but composer Ludwig Göransson puts music front and center as a force of nature to be reckoned with. It’s been a minute since the blues sounded this powerful on-screen! The theme is exemplified nowhere better than a literally timeless midpoint party, where Coogler’s camera tracks tribal dancers and modern rappers cavorting amid period-appropriate revelers. Rest assured, too, the closet Klansmen who haunt the first act get their comeuppance…
1) One Battle After Another
After years of period pieces that I either sat out or more respected than championed, P.T. Anderson came around the bend and fired a late lock for Best of 2025 right at me. I didn’t know the guy had a contemporary thriller in him, but with Leo in the lead and an electrifying supporting cast—chiefly, Sean Penn as a white-power cop and rebel girl Chase Infiniti—the hours fly by alongside bullets and cars. Casting his camera upon generations of freedom fighters, Anderson presents action with a haste and energy that industry veterans could learn from, while still leaving room for nuanced character development and expansive cinematography, all set against Johnny Greenwood’s jittery score (plus some classic pop drops). There’s plenty of oddball touches and humor, but the burning core of the film is a sincere, timely, yet timeless paean to progress. True life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness means a forever war against those who would subjugate us—but the fight can’t survive without friends and family looking out for each other. Even if one of them is a little too baked to remember the right code words.
I. Had to be released on streaming in the U.S. in 2025 (buying more albums in 2026!)
II. Had to sound good to me (be aware, I have niche tastes!)
III. Wasn’t just something I liked one particular single from (see the Top 10 Singles list for such cases!)
Honorable Mentions
Fooled by the Rush of Growing Up – Kidburn (nobody soundtracks sunsets like this guy!)
Coloura – Coloura (I gotta start a playlist of song titles that reference Pete Wentz)
Closer to the Sun – Said the Sky (“You can cry in the storm or you can dance in the rain”)
So Much for Second Chances – SoSo (if Eiffel 65 went emo??)
Love on the Edge of Desire – The Lightning Kids (makes me want to go on a night drive)
10) This Never Happened – The Frst
The feature: often a transparent label move to boost profits by uniting two big names, and yet also an opportunity for smaller performers to rev their engine with gas from established peers. Thus enabled, The Frst may not be as standalone as their name suggests, but as their “About” page once clarified: “You’re The Frst… We’re your soundtrack.” And the duo play that role ably, rolling with rockers like Sleeping With Sirens (rap-meets-mope “Bruce Lee”), Eagles of Death Metal (“Murderabilia,” Josh Homme still in fine form), and The Dangerous Summer (“Torpedo”). Meanwhile, “Pop Punk Song” is my hypothetical wrestling entrance fanfare. Consider me glad this album did, in fact, happen!
9) The Last Laugh – VOILÀ
VOILÀ topped this list in 2024, so if they’re lower in the ranking this time around, it’s nothing personal—just the shockwave of discovery fading into familiarity. Still, that familiarity is as one of my favorite bands, a debonair pair who mix cabaret aesthetics with witty wordplay and a gothic fixation on death and heartbreak. For this year’s bifurcated LP, the stage is unveiled with a slow-boil title track before launching into a screaming stream of odes to drinking alone (“after (h)ours”; “Unhappy Hour”), internet addiction (“Digital Zombies”), and the one that either got away or can’t fast enough (“Wish You Hell” and “VOGUE,” respectively). There’s tenderness too, though, from the homebody seduction of “Better Off” to the tearjerking vows of “LIFEBLOOD”… and I don’t have TikTok, but if I did, I think I’ve got some winning moves for “FMK!” Fellow magicians got a show indeed this year, and I’m ready for as many more acts as Messrs. Eisner and Ross have waiting in the wings.
8) Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party – Hayley Williams
For some, it’ll be the moment when the girl once rumored to have apologized for saying “God” in a song now calls out Americans whitewashing Christ. For others, it’ll be out of the gates, with the clamorous bravado of “Ice in my OJ.” Maybe, if you’ve got the right sense of humor, it’s “Discovery Channel,” interpolating exactly the Bloodhound Gang line you think it does. To everyone who experiences Ego Death, however (everyone who can belt out “That’s What You Get” at their own karaoke bar, at least), a realization will come: oh, Hayley Williams is an artist. As if there was any doubt, but in striking out on her own during COVID, Williams introduced a sound evocative of Paramore yet undeniably more personal, diverse, and perverse. Over an hour and change, the singer-songwriter vents about racists, antidepressants, and bad flings, but also looking toward a brighter future (“Love Me Better”; “I Won’t Quit on You”). With as vibrant as her hair and advocacy have always been, I’ve no doubt she’ll get there!
7) Vaxis III: The Father of Make Believe – Coheed & Cambria
The “Vaxis” cycle is where I went from being Coheed-curious to an unabashed C&C fan, if only because they eased up on the suites and threw in some more hooks. With part tres of the prospective pentalogy, little has changed sonically or narratively since A Window of the Waking Mind and Unheavenly Creatures—it’s metal, it’s theatrical, it’s nerdy, and I’m still not sure what’s going on without finishing the bonus novella. Notice how there was no complaint in there! “Goodbye, Sunshine” pours one out for a late companion with fitting vigor, “Someone Who Can” backgrounded more than one self-pep-talk this year, and I just about swerved off the road (complimentary) when I heard absolute firestorm “Blind Side Sonny” segue into the breakbeats of “Play the Poet.” I’ve seen them in concert twice, and Claudio willing, I’ll see them twice more for the next acts of this interstellar adventure.
6) Going, Going, Gone – Knox
I’m not above unabashedly happy tunes, and yet I can’t deny that—thanks to Spotify’s deluge of content (canceling that subscription, promise)—I judge thumbnails at first glance. Look at this chump tossing paper airplanes, I might’ve thought; he will never be ballin’. Chalk me taking a chance on Knox up to wild curiosity—after Bilmuri rocked my world, I went scrolling though colleagues and wondered what a clean-cut kid was doing with that hog-man. Turns out, something mellower yet equally up my alley! “You Happened” scorns an ex with darkly comic specificity, “Pick Your Poison” bops all around a chance encounter over underage drinks, and “Not The 1975” parodies its namesake for a self-deprecating anthem. I’ve no doubt the performer has a diligent crew at the studio, but all the same, the result is mononym-worthy music.
5) Sweet and Sad – Mayday Parade
Mayday Parade: you know ‘em, you love ‘em, you have five of their shirts and want a huge umbrella largely to imitate their old album covers (that last part was written while looking into a mirror). It’s tough to admit we can now say “three cheers for twenty years,” but the love’s still there—in smug Knuckle Puck collab “Who’s Laughing Now,” in half-full-hearted adieu “Pretty Good to Feel Something,” in requisite Calvin & Hobbes quote “I Must Obey the Inscrutable Exhortations of My Soul.” Elsewhere, “I Miss the 90s” plays misdirection with its nostalgic label, while “It’s Not All Bad” enters the canon of certified MP bangers, infusing their signature melodrama with 80s synth for a toast to—honoring one of their rawest cuts—“the good that became of that crash.” This spot’s a little crowded, but until I hear a release date for the prophesied threequel, I’m treating these as an S-tier double album.
4) YESTERDAY FOREVER! – Jack the Underdog
Watching the edgy rock star archetype evolve over generations can be fascinating. Whereas all-purpose rage and casual homophobia may once have been the play (Hollywood Undead really just climbed onto the charts in ‘08 with some of those lyrics, huh), contemporary bad boys are more likely to get loud and proud about not just queerness but also mental health. Exhibit J: Jack the Underdog, who blessed my collection with this effervescent sophomore effort (and a sugarcoated nightcore version) when I least expected it! “I’M HAPPY (JUST IN CASE)” taps the UFO fixation of fellow Tom DeLonge fans for a rush of stoner optimism, “LIL ME” acerbically wallows in dreams dashed by people “who give me head—aches,” and “LIVE LAUGH LOBOTOMY” raises a two-minute-fifty-three-second middle finger to… well, can you take a number? At last count, this guy covered “Wood” and didn’t change a word. Taylor Swift isn’t on the list this year (wonder why), but with any luck, Mr. Underdog will be again.
3) A Collection of Greetings – Haunted Mouths
We have music for every season, or so it often seems. Cheery melodies for a spring in one’s step, that coveted “song of the summer,” autumnal indie, and then about four months of Christmas jingles (nights, rainy or not, synthwave’s got you covered). But what about when it’s just kinda… spooky? Chilly, misty, not a lot of people on the street? Enter Haunted Mouths, the side project from Sleeping With Sirens frontman/roving guest vocalist Kellin Quinn, and A Collection of Greetings. “Further Til We Disappear” sets the mood, eerie tones quivering over passages about rabbit holes, pumpkin tarts, and crashing waves, and what follows are soundscapes at home in bleak January (where I first listened) or pre-Halloween October alike. It comes across as traditional yet bold, meek yet forceful, and cold yet comforting. This is music for equinoxes, where day and night are symmetrical but there’s not as much to celebrate, and it’s all just a bit gray out. Glad to finally have something to stroll to in such weather!
2) Meet Me at the Record Store – The Summer Set
Some of my favorite bands got that way because of how well they blow up a projection of my heaviest emotions, like shadow puppets lit to towering proportions: Mayday Parade’s chin-up wistfulness, the operatic angst of My Chemical Romance, A Day to Remember and their easycore screeds against conformity. If I had to pick the group that best captures how I’ve actually felt on my most trying days, though, it’d be The Summer Set. “About a Girl” crystalized the unrequited what-ifs of undergrad, and “Legendary” dominated countless twentysomething daydreams, but it was when the inspiring “Figure Me Out” led—after a mutual creative hiatus—to the callback of “Back Together” that I knew. Now, with MMATRS, the quartet have zeroed in with GeoGuessr precision on my feels… and not a moment too soon! “For the First Time” revels in realizing it’s never too late to come alive, “34” is a bittersweet celebration of nearing middle age, and leave it to these guys to riff on that myth about where a certain shoe name came from with “ADIDAS.” For TSS, life has always been one big party, for better or worse. I used to not really like parties, but I think I’m ready to let myself enjoy one.
1) Everyone’s a Star! – 5 Seconds of Summer
Look, I’m just as surprised as you are. With as tiring as “fake geek girls” discourse was at the time, I defended a rising 5 Seconds of Summer against “fake punk boy” allegations—but there’s no denying that “She Looks So Perfect,” with its product-placement chorus and lullaby-adjacent verses, was a corny first impression deserving of the One Direction comparisons. I got down with a few tracks from their eponymous debut and its successor, but that was kinda it. Until.
Everyone’s a Star! marks a total reinvention, if not breaking new ground then at least breaking away from the Top 40 ambitions of old and toward something darker, sexier, yet still eminently catchy. As titles like “NOT OK” and lines like “can you feel my heart” indicate, these gentleman have enjoyed some emo in their time, but this is no mere sad-boy cash-in; there’s notes of Bring Me the Horizon, but also the soft-spoken rambles of Gorillaz, The 1975-like wails (sorry, Knox!), The Weeknd’s electric lasciviousness, and on and on, with room to spare for serenades like the anguished “I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep Again.” It’s minor-key one minute, club-ready the next, and—as the deluxe edition and one unexpectedly funny track acknowledge—evolved indeed. In studying their most gracefully aged genre forefathers, 5SOS have arrived at my ideal merger of pop and the hard stuff. It’s not a guilty pleasure; honestly, I think I’m ready to retire that phrase. It’s just a pleasure—to dance to, croon to, love to, and everything in-between. As said stars, let’s keep those good vibes going into 2026 and beyond!
I. Had to be released as a single on streaming in the U.S. in 2025 (buying more albums in 2026!)
II. Had to sound good to me (be aware, I have niche tastes!)
III. Wasn’t also a track on one of my Top 10 Albums (coming soon!)
10) “Acid Rain” – Greywind
There’s a certain vibe—you know it when you hear it—to Aughts alt-rock that contemporary acts carrying a torch for the era can struggle with: not just mad and sad but keening, wistful, and apt to equate despair with some ruinous natural phenomenon. 2017’s brief Afterthoughts was admittedly just that for many moons, yet in what’s been teased so far, Greywind’s pending trip to Severed Heart City is poised to whip up a whole new storm.
9) “Hurry Up, Darling, We’re Going to Miss the Crucifixion” – First & Forever
Who was the first band to do the whole “sardonic long song name” thing? I’ve always assumed Fall Out Boy, but it’s fun to imagine some similarly verbose predecessor. In any event, First & Forever have been dropping downtrodden tracks for a while with no full-length in sight, but in their latest batch, they’ve arrived at a promising flourish: medieval melancholy meets bangin’ riffs. Toss on a title that’s irreverent in every sense, and this might just be my favorite F&F not led by Vin Diesel (although, just imagine…).
8) “Let it Out” – FlickN
Hey, do you miss vintage Blink? The fellas in FlickN do, and with cheeky moniker in tow, they spent 2025 cranking out one skate-punk homage after another. That I came to learn of them through a fellow attorney acquainted with one member might’ve tilted the scale (without giving away too much, I believe they’re from the area), but I suspect I’d relish hearing this sound come back ‘round regardless. Looking forward to that freshman album!
7) “Better Days” – Yellowcard
An embarrassing anecdote is that, growing up, I didn’t know Yellowcard had a violinist. I was introduced to them by “The Takedown” in Guitar Hero: Van Halen (2009), where I just assumed—sandwiched between saintly Eddie solos—I was miming really fast strumming. While I arrived at their full catalog too late to embrace every minute of this year’s titular album, then, the band’s resurgence at the crest of the “When We Were Young” wave is a welcome call to positivity, Blockbuster-bound music video and all. No, it’s not too late!
6) “Oh No!” – All Time Low
It’s the aging emo’s dilemma: If I finally, for serious this time, clean up and turn that frown upside-down, am I still me? All Time Low was always bubbly even for “pop punk,” but when decades-strong frontman Alex Gaskarth frets about whether, now “over the rain clouds,” he’s as appealing as back then, it’s hard not to relate, even without merch sales to monitor. I’d like to be known as happy and well-adjusted… but what if it is the madness in the man that makes the music?
5) “Please Me” – Coven Dove
Gotta rep for local talent! Coven Dove, in their own words, makes “witch-pop stories from the pit,” and having attended a hometown concert earlier this year, I can confirm the classic-meets-cryptic appeal firsthand. If you like smooth tunes for an evening in or at the bar, this is an outfit to watch out for.
4) “6SPEED” – Rematch
The cross-pollination between hip-hop and punk rock always intrigues meeven as it tends to go one way, with rappers copping a guitarist and new flow. Rematch, however, picked a fitting name twice over, coming back from years of sporadic singles with their first record proper and this gear-switching centerpiece. With its pity-party chorus and nod to weeping at G-notes, “6SPEED” is a sure shoutout to scenehood, and yet it’s also cocky and self-referential, singer Matt LeGrand spitting boasts about stacks of cash as his “boys” blast through fangirl speakers that feel spiritually at home in the club. It may claim to be Nothing Like You Wanted, but this blend of flavors is just what I needed.
3) “100%” – New Found Glory
Yeah, it’s all gonna be about self-improvement from here on. The hit-to-eh ratio on NFG’s (many) LPs has always been a bit too bottom-heavy for me to identify as an outright fan… so if I saw them in concert and have a pennant of theirs on my wall, that’s just because when they’re good, they’ve glorious indeed. I may not always reach that coveted full quantity, but I aspire to this attitude, this goal, and with the same jubilant insistence that’s kept these dudes going strong since ‘99.
2) “Kept Me Alive” – Grayscale
Here comes a technicality, since only a variant with Slowly Slowly from a deluxe reissue of The Hart made it as a single, but it’s my self-imposed gesture at music critic conventions and I’ll bend it if I want to. Bend and break, really, as this gale-force tribute to a loving partner became the latest installment in a small, unwritten playlist of ballads I can’t carpool-karaoke along to without welling up. Pining for unrequited love may be the cornerstone of many songs, but celebrating someone who’s already there for you, and always has been? That’s bedrock.
1) “Lose Your Way & Find Yourself” – AS IT IS
In the early months of 2024, I sought mental health services for the first time. The circumstances aren’t relevant, suffice it to say that I worried I’d be a hazard to myself if I didn’t phone a professional. Therapy followed (“professional growth coaching,” rather—tomayto, tomahto) as, by coincidence, my boss decided I had enough potential that it was worth bankrolling me seeing someone who could loosen up a few interpersonal kinks. And with their powers combined… well, it worked. I’m still not perfect, but I’m better than I was five years ago, and I want to keep improving. As I always try to remind myself, regret is cheap. There’s infinite things we all could’ve done, but there’s just as many things we still can do. I won’t turn my back on the past like I once did, but I’m also ready to move from reaction to action. I won’t let the future just come—I’ll bring it toward me. I’ll still get scared, sad, anxious, and angry sometimes. But when it happens, with eyes on the horizon, I won’t let that pain haunt me.
Time to call “cut” on 2024! I could do without a sequel for this one, but as somebody once said, life’s like a schlocky movie–even if you wouldn’t watch it again, no sense walking out in the middle. And as far as films themselves go, I saw plenty this year that gave me a fine occasion to kick back, lock in, and enter a world more dramatic, ecstatic, or kick-ass than the daily grind (plus, can’t beat theater popcorn butter!). I didn’t manage to catch some folks’ favorite pictures, like Anora or A Different Man, but among those I did, these are…. my Top Ten Films of 2024.
#10) The Beekeeper
How long can one man look the same and play the same character? Every action star must confront the question, but for my ticket stub, Jason Statham is so far so good. Which brings us to The Beekeeper, written by Kurt “we have The Wachowskis at home” Wimmer and directed by David “Suicide Squad could’ve been great bro” Ayer, a thinly sketched yet enthralling honey of a B-movie. True, the lore of our titular badass isn’t confusing so much as unfinished, presupposing audience familiarity with “secret assassin underworld” franchises like John Wick in lieu of actually developing its premise. However, with his trademark sneer and pugilist’s build, Statham shoots, slices, and immolates his way through a cadre of Saturday morning cartoon-tier villains in fight scenes that left me buzzing with excitement. Phone scammers, crypto bros, PMCs—make up a guy to get mad at, and “Adam Clay” is here to put them down. The brawls are good, but the sets are no slouch either, from neon-drenched call centers to yellow and/or grid-like environs which slyly symbolize the societal “hive” our hero seeks to protect. There’s plenty of memorable nemeses too, both colorful (a colleague with a minigun; a merc with a prosthetic leg) and subdued (Josh Hutcherson as a twisted tech mogul; the Jeremy Irons). Wimmer’s script has a lot of glib “wait, what’d they just say?” dialogue, but it balances comedy and violence well, while still raising genuine awareness of elder abuse and cybercrime. Who knows if this’ll get a sequel, but if it does, I’ll bee there!
#9) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
For a while there, it felt like Tim Burton forgot how to direct a clever, colorful horror-comedy, but he’s got the juice again. As legacyquels go, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice checks all the boxes: a prior protagonist’s descendant in a similar pickle, copious lampshading for absent major characters, and elevating its predecessor’s events to the realm of myth. Fortunately, all the players are game: Jenna Ortega is at her most adorkable, Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz remains a goth girl crush for the ages, with Catherine O’Hara as her mother still a blowhard artiste, and Willem Dafoe makes his long-overdue Burton debut as an undead cop. And at the risk of saying his name too frequently, Michael Keaton doesn’t disappoint: the actor may be over 70, but he disappears back into the title role with horny, gruesome, one-liner-addicted aplomb. The plot’s a bit hit-and-miss, if not in service of the anarchic mood then at least as an apparent result of overcooking this script for the last three decades. Monica Belluci, Franken-babe though she may be, gets little to do, while Oretega juggles subplots with both a charming boy and the loss of her father, neither of which resolve with much fanfare. Fortunately, there’s more great comedy—and music!—to pick up the slack, from a cover of “MacArthur Park” to a “Soul Train” which dives headlong into the obvious pun. Makeup and production design throughout are wonderful; I delighted especially in mixed-media flashbacks like a claymation plane crash and a black-and-white Italian interlude, as well as the darkly funny image of a house covered in a mourning shroud. Yeah, the logic of the afterlife makes no sense, but why should it? Being along for the ride was still a spooky good time.
#8) Monkey Man
Action flicks were in fine form indeed this year, but unlike The Beekeeper, it didn’t take a veteran heavy to carry ‘em all. Case in point: Monkey Man, a brutal yet pensive, politically charged thriller starring former Slumdog Millionaire/Chappie sidekick Dev Patel. In presenting a downtrodden man who shoots, stabs, and car-chases his way through the criminals that’ve wronged him, the clearest point of comparison for Patel’s directorial debut is again John Wick—yet in all the best ways, this vengeful simian couldn’t be further from Keanu’s iconic hitter. Our hero doesn’t have street cred, gold coins, or even more than one gun—he’s an orphan from the slums, living a dual life as a bare-knuckle brawler and a waiter at an “elite” club. He’s a man on a mission, yet in making that mission not just vengeance but also justice for groups marginalized by right-wingers, Monkey Man steps out of its bloodbath with a moral resonance greater than its contemporaries. Most fights feel a little cramped, but there’s still enough head-spinning camerawork and choreography to make each appropriately frantic. It all builds to a climax among 2024’s best, where Patel literally lights up goons with fireworks before going to town with a dinner knife. An exciting score and soundtrack top it all off, from bumpin’ rap beats to a humble drummer who sets the pace during a training montage. It’s not perfect—tragic-backstory flashbacks get a touch samey, for one—but Patel still made a picture which both honors and confronts Indian culture while leaving room for red-blooded martial arts mayhem. Whether he doubles down on his badass potential or sticks with dramas, I can’t wait to see what Dev-elopments are next.
#7) Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Between COVID burning their threequel’s box office and Will Smith’s post-Slap spiral, I was worried we might never see Miami’s finest again. Much to my delight, however, this year brought us Bad Boys: Ride or Die, an irresponsible, silly, yet relentlessly thrilling buddy-action flick! Mononymous duo Adil & Bilall return for another commendable homage to Aughts Michael Bay: fast cars, neon colors, beautiful women, and absurd beatdowns, just the way I like it. High-contrast Florida remains a dazzling stage, which the directors pepper with kinetic flourishes like drone shots, POV shootouts, and—surprisingly—a couple fantasy sequences. From its tropical sets to stars old enough to be my dad kicking extrajudicial ass in the name of family, and even a BBQ outro, one could write this off as Fast & Furious Lite—but Vin Diesel wishes he had half the charm Smith’s still rocking, while an R rating lets shootouts and dialogue get that much more audacious. Some of the junior “AMMO” squad is still here, but no matter, for I rejoiced at moments like a prison transport crash evocative of Uncharted and the stepson ascending from meek punchline to stone-cold killer when his home is set upon by goons. The only major flaw is, unfortunately, a load-bearing one carried over from its predecessor: the dude playing Mike’s son is a vacuous walking plot device. Look past that, the tired callbacks, and the enthusiastic copaganda, though, and you’ve still got an energetic, hilarious, and skillful return to form for the Bad Boys!
#6) Dune: Part Two
2021’s Dune ensnared the senses with director Denis Villeneuve’s new take on the oft-maladapted sci-fi novel, the first of a quiet duology. With such a strong introduction, then, perhaps it was inevitable for the follow-up to feel like a downgrade. Aside from a few cutaways to greener environs and a monochrome gladiatorial match—the standout sequence—this film is brought to you by the colors brown and gray, and I found myself intermittently confused about who was where, why, how, and for how long. Meanwhile, Hans Zimmer’s score is more often loud than memorable, while dialogue oscillates between portentous muttering and melodramatic hollering. That said, I came to Dune: Part II for that which made its predecessor, and on which it delivered in spades: spectacle. Costume and set design continue to run circles around every other major franchise, the CGI is believable and engrossing, action sequences are captivating, and we’ve got another batch of sexy weirdos with all kinds of drama: Léa Seydoux as a Bene Gesserit talent scout, Florence Pugh as a fretful royal, and Austin Butler as the baldest lunatic yet. Meanwhile, I don’t think it’s even a question that Christopher Walken got cast because of the “Weapon of Choice” video, but dang is it good to see the man back in a blockbuster as… well, the Emperor of the Universe! Yeah, when Timothée Chalamet starts putting the moves on Zendaya and yelling about ruling the planet, it doesn’t do anti-colonial critiques of the story any favors—especially with yet another cliffhanger ending. But whether it’s freedom fighters blowing up Harkonnen tech, Paul riding a sandworm for the first time, or just eye contact with Rebecca Ferguson in general, I lost track of how many times I had to fight back the urge to pump my fist in the air like a concertgoer. It’s kinda repetitive, it’s confusing, it’s three hours long, and one of the characters is a psychic fetus… but hey, when I go to see a picture shot in IMAX, it’s not for the safe and simple.
#5) Love Lies Bleeding
Love Lies Bleeding is a dark, delirious, and outrageously sapphic crime thriller. In pivoting from slow-burn scares to turn-of-the-90s New Mexico, Rose Glass branches out from her prior effort Saint Maud, and yet the director’s style remains omnipresent, from bursts of gnarly gore to a climax which glides on the razor’s edge between magical realism and dream sequence. The cast, while small, looms large—literally, in the case of Katy O’Brian as “Jackie,” a bisexual bodybuilder with few qualms about either ‘roids or premeditated murder. Meanwhile, Kristen Stewart plays another horny little dweeb to perfection, Dave Franco is gone not a moment too soon as an abusive husband, and Ed Harris delivers another great villain performance as a mob boss with a thing for big bugs. The score is my choice mix of period-appropriate licensed tracks and an unsettling score (the talented Clint Mansell), while sound design is replete with all manner of pops and squelches for physical acts both brutal and intimate. Sets are varied and immersive, with a borderline bottomless pit in the desert being the standout, all the more so when rendered in blood-red flashbacks. Like many films under the A24 shingle, Love Lies Bleeding is a heady mix of horror, eroticism, abrupt violence, and odd fantasy—admittedly, it sometimes feels like Glass is working backwards towards those bullet points at the expense of coherence or pacing. However familiar its broad strokes may be, though, this is the kind of sleek, provocative, adults-only mid-budget picture that I’m elated to see regain prominence in theaters!
#4) The Substance
From Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Freaky Friday, there’s a long tradition of tales where an aspirational body-swap goes bad. The latest to take a crack at it is writer-director Coralie Fargeat with The Substance, a grisly yet glitzy Hollywood horror story and the rare feminist fable that delights in buckets of gross-out practical effects! Dreams and dreamlike imagery sew long shots of Kubrickian corridors to hyperactive edits across a radiant L.A. which highlight the growing divide between our dual protagonists: Demi Moore as faded starlet “Elisabeth Sparkle” and a rarely clothed Margaret Qualley as the sensuous “Sue” birthed from her spine. When the rules of the titular injection are established early on, it’s easy to predict the tragedy to come, but one can’t be prepared for just how absurdly and grotesquely it plays out. I’m torn on the script, to that end; a lot of names are generic enough to feel like placeholders (a talk show called “The Show”), supporting performances are downright cartoonish (Dennis Quaid as a studio head/avatar of toxic masculinity), and Fargeat situates viewers in a world that’d seem to be present day yet a sexy fitness TV show is somehow a ticket to the A-List. Dated in spots or not, though, The Substance is overwhelmingly fresh: energetic, vicious, and righteously angry. It’s the progressive mashup of Resident Evil and The Nutty Professor that I never knew I needed!
#3) Dìdi
If I don’t have as much to say about writer-director-producer Sean Wang’s Dìdi despite its height on this list, maybe it’s just because I feel like I already lived it myself—the highs, the lows, and everything in-between. Late-Aughts coming-of-age pieces are finally here, and so am I for it! I may not have grown up in California or an Asian-American household, but while those elements are certainly core to the story of Dìdi, so too are the idiosyncrasies of being a teenage boy in 2008: causal homophobia among friends, skater culture, a whole Warped Tour’s worth of needle drops, and finding out the girl you’ve been DM’ing with isn’t all you hoped. The drama is grounded—conventional, even, but no less impactful for it—and like Everything Everywhere All at Once, deals in themes of intergenerational strife, regret, and the occasional comically surreal interlude, while still ending on a note of wistful hope. Props for Motion City Soundtrack dusting themselves off for that new single, too!
#2) Civil War
Alex Garland’s work has always compelled me, even if I don’t necessary “get” it:Men was more like Meh, but scenes in the eldritch Annihilation haunt me to date, while Devs is a crazy-underrated series in conversation with his Ex Machina about how far is too far when it comes to technological leaps. Civil War is the director’s masterstroke: a harrowing dystopian vision that’s not quite fantasy, not technically alternate history, and not even really a war picture, yet packed with all of the rich worldbuilding, biting commentary, and indelible imagery that make great speculative fiction. Following a troupe of photojournalists in near-future America as they journey from NYC to DC to interview a dictatorial President, the writer-director keeps one foot firmly in his horror roots with scenes that are, to put it bluntly, really fucked up: a man torturing an old classmate in a carwash; bodies hanging from an overpass next to “GO STEELERS” graffiti; snipers firing at someone they can’t see or hear until no one’s firing back. It’s all as subtle as a bullet to the head, but the film isn’t about Left versus Right, as it’s never made concrete why this war started and who’s even fighting for what. One could call it playing coy to not alienate audiences, but it’s all in keeping with the premise: our protagonists don’t care—can’t care, lest they lose their jobs and their minds—so neither shall the audience. Whether it’s a rifle or a camera, Kirsten Dunst as a weathered photographer or Jesse Plemons as a bone-chillingly inquisitive white nationalist, all anyone can do is point and shoot. Another film might focus on a civilian or soldier, drop a voiceover about the titular conflict, but Garland goes instead for a road trip of haunting vignettes set across a bombed-out East Coast. The cinematography, editing, and command of tension are stellar, presenting both chaotic shootouts and abandoned outdoor spaces complemented by sound design which careens between dead silence, ear-splitting gunfire, and atonal pop songs. Only time (or at least the next four years) will tell how well Civil War ages, but here in 2024, its portrait of a divided nation rang out like a gunshot.
#1) I Saw the TV Glow
I don’t think anybody is what they want to be. Dissatisfaction is human, consciousness cursing us with the phantom pain of what could be or have been—and from it, a drive to either keep fighting or, if we’ve no one in our corner, collapse in agony. For some, however, that sense of being trapped is more literal. It’s in this limbo that I Saw the TV Glow sets its stage, and in so doing, writer-director Jane Schoenbrun presents the rare film which is horrifying and hopeful at the same time. It’s a story about stories, but not in a metafictional or self-satisfied way like many scripts; rather, it’s about the power of media to allow oneself to embrace their true identity. The queer subtext is unmistakable, but Schoenbrun speaks to anyone of their generation—Millennials and the otherwise VHS-adjacent—who’s ever wanted to be somewhere else, whether that’s another body or just another town. Scenes alternate between solemn dialogue and hypnogogic terror, while the soundtrack runs a flawless gamut of alt-rock and eerie ambiance, plus a heart-rending title theme. From fourth-wall breaks to interludes in a totally 90s supernatural TV show, The Pink Opaque, Justice Smith captivates as a teen struggling with a dysfunctional family (including Fred Durst, presaging his appearance in the far weaker Y2K) and social anxiety who stumbles into a tumultuous friendship with Brigette Lundy-Paine (whose climatic monologue should, in a just world, net an Oscar). It’s tempting to wonder if The Pink Opaque conspiracies which Lundy-Paine’s troubled fangirl spins are real, but as a bubble-bursting final act concedes, the feelings such media can stir matter more than any lore-ready singular “truth.” If things don’t make sense, if there’s no satisfying ending, if you go to bed full of regret and fear… just get up in the morning and keep searching. It’s okay. There’s still time.
And with that, 2024 comes to a close. Not a moment too soon, many may argue, and understandably so! Wherever you live, whatever you do for a living, it often felt like there wasn’t much to get excited about, to say nothing of 2025 creeping around the bend. But with that New Year comes an occasion for hindsight, and with rose-tinted glasses equipped, I found there was actually an abundance of great games which dropped over those 366 days. I didn’t have a chance to make my way through some folks’ favorite titles, like Metaphor: ReFantazio or FFVII Rebirth, but among those I did, a select set stood out as especially exciting, addictive, or otherwise unforgettable. These are…. my Top Ten Games of 2024.
#10) Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 [Campaign]
If you were to program an interactive museum of everything broken about American pop culture—obscene production budgets, gambling disguised as loot boxes, stories whose moral starts at “might” and ends at “makes right”—it’d look like Call of Duty. Having long since mutated from mere shooter franchise to something like a jingoistic Fortnite, I conscientiously objected to the last couple CODs, if not for their ethics then just for what a hassle it is to dig any given story mode out from beneath layers of launcher menus and juvenile DLC promos. But then a certain subseries reemerged from the shadows—with an unprecedented same-day Game Pass drop, no less. I don’t do multiplayer or Zombies, but for however brief a time, the campaign for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was my guilty pleasure of the year. The lifelike graphics, the taut controls for a suite of combat options, the reckless delirium of positioning serious real-world events alongside tinfoil-hatted sci-fi, the globetrotting level design with setpieces to rival Naughty Dog… like it or not, this is what gaming looks and plays like when the resources of the U.S. military and Activision-Blizzard combine. I wouldn’t call it art, and it’s got nothing to say about politics that might interfere with selling Nicki Minaj costumes, but if you like action media, period, then you owe it to yourself to go dark and accept this mission.
#9) Silent Hill 2
On paper (a stained note lying in an abandoned diner, one must imagine), Silent Hill 2 2024 was going to be a disaster: a remake of one of the most acclaimed titles ever, published by the company that canned a new entry to focus on pachinko and developed by a studio known for tacky rip-offs? Purists indeed scoffed, dismissing the result as too conventional, too fixated on aggro gross-out moments in lieu of the source material’s subtler, more evocative torment. I sympathize with such critiques, and yet it’s been a while since I played a horror game which had me so glued to the red-drenched screen. Calling upon the camera and graphical overhauls by which Capcom modernized Resident Evil 2 through 4, Bloober Team breathe new afterlife into the misty burg while still retaining the pathos and surrealness which distinguished the 2001 original. Combat is responsive yet appropriately haphazard, riddles are tricky yet intelligible, and while I’ve never been all in on Akira Yamaoka’s rock-meets-ambient score, the music remains a nightmarish feast for the ears. There’s just enough familiar to revel in its retooling, and just enough new to keep you on your toes. In my restless dreams, I still see… well, usually me forgetting some nonexistent task at work, but the mystery and metaphorical monsters of that town remain ever-haunting.
#8) INDIKA
I studied Japanese for a year in college, after which I had to stop when my GPA couldn’t withstand fumbling through a new language. In so doing, I reached a point where I could look at some words and, thanks to the symbolic nature of certain kanji, understand what they meant even if I couldn’t understand what they said. In a way, I feel the same about INDIKA: I think I know what this game is about, but I’ll be damned if I can explain what happens in it. The story of an Orthodox nun booted from her convent to journey across a wartime snowscape, INDIKA whorls walking sim, retro platformer, and horror-puzzler into an experience that’s brief, bizarre, and mature in the truest sense. Grotesque impossibilities, like a factory line of whale-sized fish or our heroine praying to literally fix the world while Satan bullies her, pass by with nonchalance between sober dialogues about faith and human frailty. With an openly irrelevant “points” system and Adult Swim-style asides like a little dancing guy emerging from someone’s mouth, INDIKA’s tone is as inconsistent as its gameplay… but for the few hours it took to complete, I was a believer in its sermons.
#7) Balatro
If there’s two genres I don’t care for, it’s deck-builders and roguelikes: I don’t like installing software only to pretend to move paper around, and I don’t like banging my head against a wall of randomized assets instead of traveling through a bespoke, immersive world. Consider me shocked, then—even after a whole casino’s worth of outlets heaped awards upon it—that this next entry captivated me so much, so fast, with just days left in the year. “Poker meets solitaire” may be the superficial pitch, but Balatro pulls so many tricks that a physical deck just couldn’t: in addition to your standard 52, there’s the multiplying effects of Tarot cards, Planet cards, Spectral cards, Vouchers, snazzy variants like foil and gold cards, and a whole DC Multiverse worth of Jokers, all in service of one goal: lay down the best hand possible, cash out, and then ante up. Add in a catchy main theme, nostalgic CRT-style visuals, and sound design that eggs you on like a slot machine for just one more run, and you’ve got a game that draws a line from millennia-old gambling to contemporary mobile titles, all without a single microtransaction. It may be more about serotonin than storytelling, but when the chips are down, I’m just straight flush with praise for this one.
#6) Animal Well
The Metroidvania: Obtuse name notwithstanding, it’s among the most prolific of indie subgenres, where smaller studios can do a lot with a little by focusing on labyrinthine side-scrolling in lieu of photorealism. It takes pizzazz to stand out in the scene, then, but solo dev Billy Basso made a name for himself and YouTube goof Dunkey’s new publisher Bigmode this year with Animal Well. With vintage art design enlivened by dazzling lighting effects, and both literal and figurative hidden depths, Animal Well foregoes spectacle in favor of mystery and quiet revelation. Every room is either a captivating fork in the road or a chamber to be cleared by your growing arsenal of endearing tools, from a frisbee to a bouncy ball. As nods to classics like Startropics and Super Mario Bros. 2 acknowledge, Basso knows that color and wonder made the 2D era great, but unlike in the ‘90s, uniting with other players to crack every secret is far more feasible! Can’t say I’m keen to hop on a Discord to literally piece together certain Easter eggs, but the added appeal to community is just one more reason why Animal Well is, well, great.
#5) The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Granted, The Legend of Link doesn’t have the same ring to it, but isn’t it weird how few games set in Hyrule let you play as the character whose name is on the cover? That was until 2024, when Nintendo—fresh off of taking six years to release a Breath of the Wild expansion pack—put out The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom! Combining the toylike style of 2019’s Link’s Awakening remake with the anything-goes summoning powers of that last installment, Echoes of Wisdom places players in the shoes of the Princess herself, who must set out with a tiny sidekick to quell the supernatural blight which has ensnared the Hero of Time and much of her land along with him. Per usual, most people and places are remixes of somewhere else in The Timeline, but combining the layout of classic Zelda with modern open-world features like fast travel and mission markers makes this iteration of the kingdom a joy to venture through. The summons menu can be a hassle to navigate, but the sheer number of ways to tackle each puzzle is a marvel of design, and means every player will have a unique journey (me, I often relied on either a staircase of beds or projectile armadillo). I’ve got great expectations for Nintendo’s next full-3D Zelda, but in the meantime, offering this cozy, creative throwback entry was a wise decision.
#4) The Plucky Squire
The Plucky Squire is just plain cute. Many have dabbled in mashing up genres and graphical styles before, but developer All Possible Futures lived up to their name in this debut, where the stars of a children’s book leap off the page after they discover their fictional nature—and the evil wizard who seeks to exploit it. In some levels, you’ll be watching top-down, swapping physical words and flipping pages to proceed like a combination of Baba is You and the home video scene from Spaceballs. In others, our hero will emerge into full 3D, hopping over stray pencils and books to trounce the foes who’ve invaded the bedroom of his biggest fan. In-between it all are hilarious minigames like a Punch-Out-esque boxing match with a badger, a rhythmic duel with a metalhead troll, and a shoot-em-up segment played out around the circumference of a plastic mug. The art design is a cheery delight, the humor is self-aware without ever growing tiresome, and the game never stops adding new, clever ways to interact with your surroundings. With Devolver Digital to rep for them, here’s hoping APF are plucked from obscurity and can produce many more wholesome adventures to come!
#3) Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Yes, it’s a new game—if AAA slop like Concord can hit shelves as a standalone title only to expire faster than a prepackaged salad, then dozens of hours of engrossing new world design, lore, and battles aren’t disqualified just because they’re behind a “you must git this gud to pass” gate in their predecessor. With that out of the way, Shadow of the Erdtree is FromSoftware’s greatest follow-up content ever, literally filling huge gaps in Elden Ring by transporting Tarnished to a realm hitherto obscured, where the seeds of conflict that’d doom the Lands Between were sewn. A new leveling system centered on scattered collectibles caused some diehards to fuss, but I never minded, because as with my Top Game of 2022 on which it expands, Shadow of the Erdtree isn’t just about dying twenty times to some mournful, mutated madman—it’s about exploration, improvisation, and jolly cooperation. A coastline glittering with neon-blue flowers, an abyss clotted with giant coffins shaped like ships, the Blair Witch-grade horror of stumbling upon an abandoned mansion in the woods… every area competes with every other area as one of the most memorable in not just this game but in any game. Even if I gave up on beating Promised Consort Radahn (though we’ll see about that nerfed version), I adored the dozens more hours I sunk into setting out, sword in hand, to see what treasure or terror awaited over the crest of that hill or at the bottom of that chasm. Now more than ever, Elden Ring is just one of the greatest pieces of fantasy media ever.
#2) Black Myth: Wukong
In the centuries since it was penned, Chinese novel Journey to the West has inspired innumerable epics, from Dragon Ball Z to at least one Andy Serkis side gig—even if Westerners themselves may not know it by name. Latest among these adaptions was Black Myth: Wukong, the long-brewing sophomore effort of developer Game Science, which transforms the tale into a gorgeous, high-energy Soulslike. As one does, you’ll be planning a path through gauntlets of foes and tweaking loadouts at the last rest stop after getting bodied by another relentless boss, but far from the measured, stoic brawls which define peers like Elden Ring, Wukong’s simian star yelps, swerves, and unleashes magical beatdowns with the stylish, rapid-fire brutality of Kratos or Dante. The outlandish bosses are massive in size and quantity, yet with so many alternate routes and equipment caches in even the most linear of levels, rare is a moment of boredom or despair. It’s a nice change of pace, too, from the bevy of medieval England or Feudal Japan-inspired action games for one steeped in another culture’s art and mythos… which you’ll then bash to bits with a flaming staff. As with Shadow of the Erdtree, I must confess I didn’t see credits, but no matter—Game Science has cracked the formula for a great cinematic action-RPG, and when the rumored sequel drops, I’m ready to go ape all over again.
#1) Astro Bot
Why are we here? Why are we even doing this? Not life in general, although I think we can all agree this year often raised the question. No, I mean gaming—what’s it all about? Escapism? Exploration? Strategy? The empathy afforded by embodying someone from another country, another species, another planet? Or is it just about… fun? Not the fleeting rush of spending funny money on a new emote or hat, nor the primal release of sending a bullet through a foreign-looking opponent, but the sustained, childlike joy of navigating an environment like the playgrounds of old: shiny, inviting, full of noise and obstacles but in a way that’s invigorating, never truly painful or discouraging. To that end, the PS5 stepped off its high horse of narrative-driven prestige in 2024, and by that metric, Astro Bot could be the most fun I’ve ever had with a game. Team Asobi taps into the console’s power like never before, honoring old-school platformers while also not letting a second pass without something to make the DualShock rumble, jingle, or veer in your hands. There’s always a cool trinket to uncover, always a grin-inducing gimmick to a given level that’ll make you eager to come back again—no trouble at all, given how fast everything loads and how beautiful everything looks. True, it’s also a parade of PlayStation IP that pats the brand on its back harder than a choking victim, but with as much as I’ve enjoyed Super Smash Bros. over the decades, I’d be a hypocrite to deduct points for self-congratulation. In fact, after experiencing so much awe and merriment in a single package, my bar for the next Mario game has been raised rocketship-high. It’s silly, thrilling, charming, challenging, and full of nods to us Millennials who’ve been gaming since the 1900s. When I turn on the TV and sit down on the couch, that’s what I’m here for. What about you?
I like music — my artists of choice are rarely high art, and often either super-mainstream or trivially niche, but I think it’s the most efficient form of storytelling, and for that I’ll forever treasure the medium. As a sailor man who’s going into public domain next year once said, I yam what I yam! With that in mind, here’s my top ten albums and singles of 2024:
TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2024
10) Daggers, Dreamkid
This year, I started writing my first fantasy novel, Neon Bonfire. The story takes place in a world akin to 1980s America but completely uncoupled from our reality, like how typical fantasy occupies medieval-era trappings—think Game of Thrones, but with tape decks and blocky phones alongside the magic and monsters. As with all creative projects, I made a semi-official playlist, the predominant genre being synthwave—and the main theme being the propulsive, defiant title track from Dreamkid’s latest LP. As in their debut, the artist’s palette paints in familiar tones of Day-Glo, static, and melancholy, but once you’ve heard wistful, glittering numbers like “Take Me on Tonight” or “Hometown Memories,” driving home while the sun sets will never quite hit the same again.
9) Birdwatching, CLIFFDIVER
Art is both contagion and medium: Without spreading, it can’t thrive. It’s in that spirit that I have a friend to thank for knowing about CLIFFDIVER, as hearing them belt out “New Vegas Bomb” at a karaoke night in 2023 put the goofy group on my radar. While the rest of their last record, Exercise Your Demons, was just serviceable for this critic, 2024’s Birdwatching won me over with its high spirits, irreverent song titles (see “black lodge breakfast burrito (limited time only)”), and ever-more identifiable passages about being a dork in your mid-thirties. “Team fight tactics” in particular is relationship goals—and I don’t even watch football!
8) American Motor Sports, Bilmuri
Speaking of musicians introduced to me by a loopy single at karaoke! Even after knowing about them for at least a year—and seeing a live performance at The Showbox in Seattle—I still don’t know how to describe this tongue-in-cheek lunk’s punk-meets-Nashville-meets-comedy niche. “Y’allternative”? “Divorced dad rock”? “Memecore”? Whatever the subgenre, the result is cuts like “EMPTYHANDED,” where our singer bemoans a one-sided relationship before agitated guitars pause en route to the breakdown for a Kevin James sample. If the Hot Topic crowd are to age into country fans the same as our forefathers, I could think of no better entry point than the beer-chugging, lawnmowing stylings of Bilmuri.
7) Haven, Marianas Trench
The rules are simple: A new Marianas Trench record comes out, I put it on this list in a second and make it my personality for a month. Once more game for a concept album befitting their roof-raising sound, Haven sees the Canuck quartet soar across thirteen tracks inspired by The Hero’s Journey, the duality of man, and—as their “Force of Nature Tour” (a proud attendee!) foregrounded—the elements themselves. “Lightning and Thunder,” “Now or Never,” “Stand and Fight,” “Turn and Run”… one could get déjà vu scrolling down the track list, but as ever, the band bounces between new wave, funk, and suites befitting a Broadway stage with a verve which flaunts the influences worn on their bedazzled sleeves yet nevertheless drowns out most contemporaries. In a year where I finally made peace with my place in the world, lithe and loud lead Josh Ramsay shouted it best: “In the end, I don’t belong inside a normal life!”
6) From Zero, Linkin Park
Chester Bennington. The name hovered over another Linkin Park project ever since the iconic singer tragically passed in 2017. Initial reactions to the appointment of Emily Armstrong were thus mixed: A woman! Scientology-adjacent! Who asked the family!? But the show must go on, and From Zero is an album which, while perhaps slight, still taps into the group’s trademark ire with a relish not seen in years. Gone are the club-friendly compositions of preceding records, replaced with returns to form like “The Emptiness Machine,” in which Mike Shinoda spits fire which continues to burn for nine more tracks, and “Two Faced,” where Armstrong scorns a deceitful opponent with eardrum-splitting intensity. Maybe I’m just an easy mark for rocker chicks, but while my sympathies go out to the Benningtons, I can’t wait to see what LP L.P. puts out next
5) A Dream Through Open Eyes, The Strike
Rock outfits founded on ‘80s appreciation are a booming business, but there’s a fine line between those who paint a new picture with the era’s vibes and those content to just, say, paraphrase Huey Lewis & The News. It’s my pleasure to report that The Strike plants a flag in the former category, and I got outta some serious funks this year for it. From the jubilant “American Dream” to plaintive closer “Until the Lights Go Out,” and reckless ballad “The Getaway” in-between, A Dream Through Open Eyes is just that: the sound of days gone by, yes, but in service of aspiration and love. Headed into 2025, we could use a whole lot of both.
4) Neck Deep, Neck Deep
As it was with The Maine in 2023, so shall it be with Neck Deep in 2024: a belated self-titled which confirms that, oh yeah, this is what this band is about and why I dig them. The Welsh pop-punkers allow for zero skips, to the point that it’s a struggle to not just go full Fantano and break down every track. Self-deprecating opener “Dumbstruck Dumbfuck,” political call to action “We Need More Bricks,” post-dumping paen “Heartbreak of the Century,” even Mulder-mode “Take Me with You” from last year’s Top Singles list—it’s all good, it’s all fun, it’s all a mood. It’s been a long, lonely December, but with Neck Deep on the aux and in my soul, I’m never really alone.
3) POST HUMAN: NeX GEn, Bring Me the Horizon
If music can be a form of therapy for the musician, then Bring Me The Horizon has been controversial frontman Olli Sykes’ appointment for some time now—the stage his couch, the audience his doctor. Fortunately, BMTH go big yet go dorky, so while tracks like “Kool-Aid” are kinda just a retread of the cult commentary from 2019’s “MANTRA,” we also get the irreverently titled screed “Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd,” despondent tantrum “n/A,” and a home at last for the most a song has ever sounded like a 1-800-273-8255 call, “LosT.” Here’s hoping Sykes keeps it together enough to finish off this gaming-influenced chapter of the band’s saga, but while I sympathize with folks who see “POST HUMAN” as a glorified mixtape series, I know no better way to encapsulate the fevered dissonance of mental unwellness than an hour of screaming, snark, and asides about wanting to make love to a chainsaw.
2) THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, Taylor Swift
Look what she made me do. For four album cycles in a row now, Taylor Swift has entered my Top Five—but for the first time, I have no reservations. I identify as a writer, and having penned poems since I was at least six years old, a poet in turn. As such, framing her first bona fide double LP as an assemblage of intimate, long-winded verses is the closest I’ve come to seeing America’s sweetheart validate my own approach to the medium. Yes, some anecdotes are cringe (“you take my ring off my middle finger and put on the one people put wedding rings on”— hey Taylor, you mean… the ring finger?), but I can only envy the clout it takes to trauma-dump for 30+ tracks to a fanbase larger than some countries and walk away all the bigger for it. The title track paints a searing portrait of a fractured relationship, “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” embraces the starlet’s drama-queen history with scream-queen zeal, and “I Can Do it with a Broken Heart” makes radio-ready pep of weathering industry pressure. Pending how things pan out with Travis, it’s anyone’s guess what the next phase of Ms. Swift’s career will be… but if she’s ever in town, I’m happy to become a liner note.
1) Glass Half Empty, VOILÀ
I don’t make music. I’ve always wanted to, I can, and I should, but I don’t. Even if I never do, though, I’ll rest easy knowing the music I’d want to make was already made by VOILÀ. Fashioning themselves not as singers or even artists but rather “magicians,” Gus Ross and Luke Eisner blend the dissonant sounds of my coming-of-age—emo and sensual electro-pop—into a package that made me kick myself for not clocking them upon their 2019 emergence. A feature by The Ready Set led me to the first act of Glass Half Empty, upon which I relished their back catalogue full of bangers like scene girl ode “My Type” and the flagrantly erotic “So Hot That it Hurts,” but it was the belated joinder of this album’s back half that made me decide my recency bias was justified. I like clever, I like cacophonous, and I like knowing that someone else feels as deeply as I do about the heart and hereafter. “Hope That I Go First” says the quiet part oh-so loud in treasuring an aging partner, “WAR.” unapologetically equates infatuation with the masculine urge to do battle, and when “The Treasure (6 Feet Under)” caps a career fixation on memento mori with a reprise of lyrics past, I knew I was in the hands of connoisseurs of the craft. In enjoying this debonair duo, my glass is not just half full—it runneth over.
Top 10 Singles of 2024
10) “Classical,” Vampire Weekend
Yep, these guys are still around… but so am I, here to treasure wry, baroque ruminations on culture and the human condition the same as I did in high school!
9) “NO FUN,” blink-182
While One More Time was too nostalgia-mongering and, well, mixed like crap to earn space on my 2023 list, the industry-standard second wind of tracks dropped this year made for a pleasant surprise—this B-side in particular. Tom’s autumnal laments may ring like inside baseball, but as an outsider, the sentiment remains relatable: so hey, fuck me, and fuck you too.
8) “TRENDSETTER,” Glorb
I’m serious as a stroke when I say that this anonymous YouTuber doing obscene gangsta rap in the AI-enabled voices of SpongeBob characters is my favorite new find of the year.
7) “Aim for the Bushes,” Silhouettes
Personally, I’d never have chosen to combine dialogue from The Other Guys with emo grievances, but whoever’s behind this Washington-based project with only two singles to their name still has me among their dozens-strong IG followers as a result.
6) “You’re So Ugly When You Cry,” The Funeral Portrait
Do you want to get mean, dark, and a little theatrical? If so, The Funeral Portrait is for you, this collab with The Used frontman Bert McCracken in particular.
5) “Lithonia,” Childish Gambino
After his latest album—a premature soundtrack to sci-fi comedy Bando Stone and the New World—Donald Glover said he’s done playing Childish Gambino. Fair enough if so—after Atlanta, “This is America,” and Lando Calrissian, where does one even go but back behind the curtain? Hell if I know who Codi LeRae is, but were the artist to bow out with this single, I’d take its wailing about the futility of love as a suitable swan song.
4) “JOYRIDE,” Kesha
I like when Kesha does that thing with her voice. Which thing? Oh, all of them.
3) “Girls,” The Dare
I won’t pretend I’m unique in stumbling upon a new favorite song after seeing an inordinately high stream count and going “hmm.” Even still, The Dare’s “Girls” supplanted comparably named tracks by Mayday Parade and The 1975 for me this year with its breathless, lascivious lines that read like the diary of a dude three weeks into a fraying vow of celibacy. Arctic Monkeys may’ve moved on to piano noodling, but “indie sleaze” is back in action!
2) “Cold as Hell,” Dance with the Dead
When I said earlier that Dreamkid’s “Daggers” inspired my novel Neon Bonfire, I lied by omission a little. This track, part of a soft comeback from dark synth collective Dance with the Dead, was the real impetus, infusing me as it did with such badass energy (if only upon mishearing the chorus as “it’s cold as hell under us”) that I was helpless to not imagine my own cool fight scene set to its icy strains… stay tuned!
1) “Russian Roulette,” Porter Robinson
It’s easy to contemplate self-harm—we all have a reliable “off” switch, in the form of the nearest sharp or blunt object propelled inward at sufficient speed. It’s more rewarding, however, to recognize that the flicker of nihilism occasioned by a spate of self-doubt or a stranger’s snide remark is nothing compared to the buoyant, shining promise which the future still holds. From Porter Robinson, such observations might come off as first-world problems, but the acclaimed musician’s delivery is one for the ages, as bemoaning imposter syndrome gives way to a recognition of all that life still has to offer, followed by a triumphant EDM breakdown and, finally, words of wisdom from a Stephen Hawking-alike which conclude with a curt but essential mandate: “Don’t kill yourself, you idiot!”
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?
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.
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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?
False alarm – I got a bit to say about my Top 5 Albums and Top 5 Singles of 2022 as well! Trying to keep my YouTube channel chiefly focused on film and videogames, though, so I’m sticking with the classic blog format this time:
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ALBUMS
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5 – It Was Fun While it Lasted, Sueco
As someone who barely listened to anything outside my parents’ music collection ‘til the end of high school, I missed pop punk’s mid-Aughts heyday. Still, call me a late bloomer, but I’ve coveted its idiosyncratic blend of youthful indignation and radio-ready chords ever since! It’s been interesting yet invigorating, then, in recent years, to see the scene resurrected with an injection of hip-hop—and as albums like It Was Fun While it Lasted by Sueco prove, the procedure can produce striking results. Granted, there’s a bit more misogyny and fixation on substance abuse here than I’d prefer, but every swift song crackles with snotty, infectious energy, especially when elder statesman Travis Barker clocks in for a feature on “SOS.” Elsewhere, “Loser” gets points for mixing self-deprecating malaise with manga nods (“If I had a Death Note, I would write my name on every page”), while “Drunk Dial” had me singing along before the end of my first listen. It’s crass, it’s mopey, and it’s riding Machine Gun Kelly’s ratty coattails from the first note to the last, but damned if I won’t still have it on repeat when I’m either feeling real good or real bad. What else is the subgenre for?
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4 – Midnights, Taylor Swift
Lover and Folklore were my favorite albums of 2019 and 2020, respectively, so it’s with a somewhat heavy heart that I put Taylor Swift’s latest record comparatively low on this list. However, while Midnights may be moodier and less focused than its predecessors, it’s still full of outstanding tracks that further boost the singer’s climb back from the insecure Reputation era to the throne of the Queen of Pop. Jack Antonoff continues to be an ideal co-writer/producer, aiding in an introspective vibe which befits both the titular setting and Swift’s matured delivery. I like the apt little blinging noises on “Bejeweled,” I like that we’re keeping shades of red going as a theme with “Maroon” and “Lavender Haze,” and I especially like the standout single “Anti-Hero,” which feels like a follow-up to “The Archer” in its fretful confessions, even as it contains one of the worst verses I’ve heard in recent memory (with all due respect, ma’am, no one else has ever felt like “everybody is a sexy baby”). With a “3am” edition that practically adds a bonus EP, we got a whole lotta Taylor this year, but you’ll never hear a complaint out of me!
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3 – Dreamkid, Dreamkid
From a certain point of view, it doesn’t take much to make a latter-day “synthwave” album: a palm tree here, an electronic keyboard riff there, sprinkle in some cyberpunk or John Hughes references, and you’re golden. As a fan of the genre—nay, the lifestyle—though, one learns to discern artists who nevertheless put their all into a sincere spin on the sound—and I’m here to report that Dreamkid, with their self-titled debut, is the genuine article. With track titles like “America,” “Game Over,” and “Night Ride,” there’s one particular group whose neon-lit shadow hangs heavy over this project. But while The Midnight explored ballads and Eighties rock this year on Heroes, Dreamkid stakes their claim with a combo of cozy and pulse-pounding instrumentals layered with vocals uniquely evocative of Eiffel 65. From gaming anthem “Restart” to the plaintive refrain of “Parents” (“Mama said, ‘I’m sorry, but I gotta go—your daddy and I still love you so’.”), this is nostalgia incarnate—and sometimes, a little comfort goes a long way.
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2 – Dawn FM, The Weeknd
Few artists make music suited for both the bedroom floor and bathroom floor like The Weeknd, who followed up 2020’s outstanding After Hours with another torrid, time-centric LP: Dawn FM. A concept album presented as transmissions from a fictional, fantastical radio station, the sixteen core songs explore love, loss, and all the little pains in-between as that light at the end of the tunnel grows ever-brighter. Jim Carrey, of all people, plays a soothing DJ in several interludes, and even closes things out with an existential poetry reading. Along the way, “Gasoline” is a nihilistic banger, “Take My Breath” spins that three-word plea into another eminently hypnotic danceable track, and I still can’t decide whether my favorite line in “Here We Go… Again” is “make her scream like Neve Campbell” or Tyler, The Creator aggressively intoning “you gon sign this prenup.” If I’m looking to keep a smile on my face, I’ll probably keep Dawn FM out of my stereo, but when the sun is down and you’re short a plus-one, there’s no better soundtrack.
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1 – Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind, Coheed & Cambria
For the longest time, Coheed & Cambria was a band I liked in concept more than execution: a prog outfit whose discography is 95% concept albums set in an elaborate sci-fi universe, with the visuals and bombast to match. That changed with 2018’s Vaxis I: The Unheavenly Creatures, which embraced not only a new cast of characters unmoored from the alliterative couple but also shorter, poppier songs. The wait was agonizing, but 2022 finally brought us Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind—in this humble listener’s opinion, their best album yet. “The Embers of Fire” cranks the riff from Vaxis I’s “Up in Flames” to eleven, an opener sure to give even first-time listeners goosebumps, before delivering a dozen more tracks of straight fire indeed. Older C&C fans maybe bemoan the arena-rock production and new emphasis on electronic instrumentation, but for my money (spent on not only VIP concert tix but also the ultra collector’s edition), it’s only fitting for a band this nerdy to finally sound the part. The actual “story” is as thinly sketched as ever—most lyrics pull double duty as vague glimpses into a dysfunctional relationship—but after experiencing this many propulsive earworms under one cover, Vaxis III can’t enter our galaxy soon enough!
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SINGLES
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5- “emo girl,” Machine Gun Kelly & WILLOW
I already know I’m not getting invited to a party at Anthony Fantano’s any time soon, so I’ve got nothing to lose by saying I actually really liked “emo girl” by Machine Gun Kelly. The encircling album, Mainstream Sellout, unfortunately let me down in comparison to 2021’s surprise guilty pleasure Tickets to My Downfall—the hooks were weaker, MGK wastes a Bring Me the Horizon feature, and at least on the stream I listened to, the vocals were mixed like crap. Smack dab in the middle, though, comes this loud, boneheaded duet with WILLOW (easily having the best 2022 among Will Smith’s family), about the helpless appeal of a gal in fishnets and a Blink-182 shirt. Who else can relate?
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4 – “EDGING,” Blink-182
Speaking of Blink-182: Tom’s back! After 2019’s NINE saw Matt, Mark, and Travis kinda just going through the motions to fill time, what a joy it was to hear “EDGING,” the band’s lone 2022 release, get the band back together for the second time in… twenty years? Good lord. You can say the boys are still on autopilot here, but if only til the next album drops, two-and-a-half minutes of catchy, classically irreverent Blink is all it took to get in my top five.
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3 – “You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween,” Muse
I never know how to feel when Muse puts out a new album—from piano rock to glam, to dubstep, to synthwave, the troupe has constantly reinvented its sound while also not-unjustifiably being accused of copying their peers’ homework, all while maintaining a tinfoil-hatted persona that’s often more cringeworthy than cerebral. This culminated with 2022’s Will of the People, a distressingly aimless record that careens wildly between literal and figurative tones in search of a standout moment it never finds. At least, though, with an early-autumn street date, we got the delightfully groovy, creepy “You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween,” which scorns an abusive partner while also being a certified spooky bop. For the holiday, one is usually stuck with “The Monster Mash” and some Danny Elfman tracks, but count this one amongst my annual October playlist from now on!
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2 – “Emergency Contact,” Pierce the Veil
There’s not much to report about my number two slot, except to say that it’s another classic emo group triumphantly returning to the airwaves: Pierce the Veil with “Emergency Contact.” While I wasn’t crazy about “Pass the Nirvana,” their other single from earlier in 2022, this tune gives me exactly what I look for from Vic and company: a portrait of chaotic yet enduring romance, with a chorus that won’t easily leave your head once it enters. If this track is any indication, the pending Jaws of Life LP will make for a worthy followup to 2016’s Misadventures!
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1 – “Don’t Let the Light Go Out,” Panic! at the Disco
As has been a theme with this list, the full album from which my top single of the year emerges left me lukewarm in sum: on Viva Las Vengeance, Panic! At the Disco pivoted from the brooding and/or operatic tenor of previous albums to functionally generic rock ‘n roll, buoyed only by Brendon Urie’s incomparably hyperactive voice. Indeed, the man likes to shout—but on “Don’t Let the Light Go Out,” he channels that gusto into the beseeching of a man laid low by heartache. When Brendon wails “you’re the only one that knows how to operate my heavy machinery,” the guitar seeming to beg along with him, it’s a peculiar yet immediately understandable metaphor, one which only grows in intensity with every repetition. To me, some of the best songs are the kind that sound as raucous and desperate as true love feels. P!atD may have long since have become a solo project, but when its frontman gets theatrical, I’ll always tune in to belt it out to the cheap seats—or just an empty passenger seat.
Time may be an illusion, but when it comes to the end of December, listicles are a cold, hard fact. In keeping with my annual diet of movies, music, videogames, and– a tad shamefully–not that many books or TV shows, here’s my Top Stuff in each medium that (typically) released within the last 365 days. I always say “Top Stuff” because I’m sure there’s even better ones I haven’t seen/played/whatever, and I’d never dare presume that my personal interests represent some objective, or even subjective, metric by which you should judge your own preferences. This is just some art I thought was cool as I kept on truckin’ in 2021–and if you did too, then that’s cool too!
FILMS
5. Nobody
When pop culture historians look back on the late 2010s, John Wick will stand as a lodestar for cinema. Vengeful popcorn flicks had existed before, of course, but the tip of the still-flourishing Keanussance brought a vibrancy—a commitment to coherent and well-choreographed, not just violent, action—that the genre largely lacked post-Matrix. The stage set, Wick’s director David Leitch then teamed up with the brains behind the hyperactive first-person shooter movie Hardcore Henry for a film with a similar story, yet founded on a critically different question: what if the guy kinda looked like a weenie? That’s no disrespect on Bob Odenkirk’s name, though, for while the actor is old enough to be my father, he plays both sides of the coin with aplomb: a meek pencil-pusher one moment, and a long-dormant hitter putting the heads of Russian thugs through walls the next. Owing, I suspect, to it being a common cramped location, there’s a lot of scuffles on public transportation in action movies—even 2021 gave us another in Shang-Chi—but the bus brawl here ranks among the best, most deliciously brutal fight scenes in recent history. And the R-rated Home Alone climax, complete with Doc Brown packing heat? An all-timer. Fingers crossed that Odenkirk’s health scare earlier this year doesn’t keep him from safely stepping back in for a sequel—I pity the next crook who absconds with that kitty-cat bracelet!
4. Dune
2021’s Dune excels because of what it is, but also what it isn’t—the shadow of David Lynch’s Dune (1984) looms large over any subsequent adaptations, if not on its merits then as a reminder of the perils of trying to cram all of Frank Herbert’s bizarre, politically charged novel into one film. Thankfully, then, director Denis Villeneuve didn’t try; as coy as the marketing may have played things, this is “Part One,” and the third act unquestionably sags because of it. By that same token, though, the sights and sounds of this world are given room to stretch out—and what a blessing, because both are utterly captivating. The sets, costumes, and effects work are detailed and convincing, and Hans Zimmer’s score—while as blaring and dialogue-unfriendly as ever—aptly channels the formidable scope of these alien planets and their rulers’ ambitions. Inevitably, there’s exposition dumps, but the dialogue scarcely feels forced, and I rarely got lost in the world-building or globetrotting. And, of course, dat cast: from Timothée Chalamet to Jason Momoa to Rebecca Ferguson, there’s smokeshows here for every age and gender! Zendaya stans were understandably irked by her borderline cameo, but given that 2une got greenlit in the middle of opening weekend, I’m confident Villeneuve and company will do the continuing story of the Fremen justice. After all, the Spice must flow!
3. F9: The Fast Saga
Fast & Furious is a superhero franchise. Once I became aware of that, consciously or not, I stopped seeing the movies as meathead-meets-gearhead Michael Bay runoff and started… well, seeing them, period. Part soap opera, part Mission: Impossible, and part Talladega Nights, the Fast series has morphed over my lifetime into a ridiculous yet unironically entertaining staple of the megaplex, and nowhere more so than this, its ninth mainline installment. The absurdities pile higher than ever: Vin Diesel and John Cena play blood brothers, a character we saw die in a fiery crash inexplicably teleports to a building across the street, and falling upwards of three stories is apparently fine so long as you land on something with a steering wheel. But in turn, we get cars swinging on ropes, cars getting flipped by supermagnets, cars going to mf’ing outer space—just utter nonsense I would’ve come up with while racing Hot Wheels around my bedroom floor as a child, but starring Helen Mirren and costing more than the GDP of some nations to produce. What it all comes down to, though, is really straightforward: family. And you know what? I’ll be there with my own for Fast 10 on opening night.
2. Malignant
When questioned on my seemingly inconsistent taste in media, whether by myself or others, I’ve come to answer with a blunt philosophy: I like stupid shit, so long as it’s also awesome. Few men in Hollywood have their finger on that pulse like James Wan, who—after more or less inventing an entire subgenre with Saw and proving his action chops in Furious 7 and Aquaman—returned home in 2021 for the world’s first neo-giallo body horror martial arts slasher. That description, in itself, is arguably a spoiler, but believe me when I say that nothing can still prepare you for what goes down in the final minutes of this thing. Suffice it to say that, after an hour or two of getting immersed in the moody lighting, cheesy dialogue, visceral kills, and a wicked Pixies cover, I went from clutching my armrest to internally hooting and hollering like a WrestleMania spectator. When everyone loves or loathes a movie, it’s unifying but stultifying—because what’s even left to discuss? But when, as with Malignant, reviews were split between “that was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen” and “GOAT,” I know now—as I did the moment I left my screening— that it’s a picture I’ll be talking and thinking about for years to come… always there, in the back of my mind.
The Green Knight
What makes a myth, a story that can endure for generations? For my money, on the silver screen, it’s spectacle: the clang of swords, the spark of a flame, the sight of someone or something massive looming in the distance, and a hero in the foreground who’s willing and able to brave it all to accomplish their quest. Modern blockbusters deliver such thrills in spades, but lest we forget: in a sense, Arthurian legends walked so that everyone from Tarzan to Iron Man could run, swing, and fly. Drawing from an epic poem older than my own country by centuries, The Green Knight may take some liberties to entertain a contemporary audience, yet at its core is a haunting, slow-boil tragedy far from any of the family-friendly Disney adventures that clog theaters. Our protagonist’s fate is sealed in the first act, and for all intents and purposes, his is a pilgrimage to doom. En route, the cavalcade of characters he encounters keep the proceedings varied, as does director David Lowery’s arresting eye for color and creeping dread, from the yellow of Sir Gawain’s cloak to the orange fog which suffuses the air as a vulpine companion suddenly reveals it can speak. There’s magic, bloodshed, sex, ghosts, and giants. It’s sad, frightening, monumental, and it has not one but two Alicia Vikanders. Dev Patel has a beard. What more can you ask for in an epic tale?
VIDEOGAMES
5. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Would they learn their lesson?This was the question looming over Marvel videogames—at least, those published by Square-Enix—after the glitchy, glorified gacha machine that was Marvel’s Avengers proved the second-biggest gaming letdown of 2020 (Cyberpunk 2077 takes the heavy crown, of course). I was pleased to learn, however, that they had, and the once-omnipresent curse of The Superhero Videogame returned to its slumber once more. I haven’t beaten it yet, so it’s low on the list as a matter of principle, but Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy earns top marks across the board: the graphics look great and the design of its alien worlds is wildly creative; the combat is satisfyingly chaotic yet intuitive (though my PS4, in its autumn years, sometimes struggles to keep up); and the soundtrack is chock full of 80s bangers—God only knows what these licensing rights cost, but it was worth every flarkin’ penny. The titular ensemble is wonderfully written and acted, too—the MCU casting leaves big shoes to fill, but the amount of funny, context-specific dialogue is remarkable. There’s some jank, sure (I’ve had to reload a save more than once after one of the score of audiovisual cues overlapping at any given moment got stuck on-screen), the Telltale-ish dialogue choice system feels half-baked, and Rocket is way more of an asshole than even Bradley Cooper played him for no good reason. Also, does the rest of the squad really have to get on my case every time I gently veer off a sub-Uncharted linear level route for a moderate cache of upgrade points? Still, it’s a minor miracle for a AAA single-player game with minimal microtransactions to release in the ‘20s—here’s hoping future cape games take note!
4. Unpacking
I like a good loud, violent shooter, but I’m not above a humble point ‘n’ click narrative jaunt when the mood strikes me. Case in point: This year’s Unpacking, a “zen puzzle game” which simulates a common yet comforting ritual: taking stuff out of boxes and putting it on shelves when you move into a new place. In so doing, across a handful of locations spanning a decade, you slowly piece together… not a story, per se, but rather a young life. Photos of a friend once held high on the wall go into a drawer; an iPod weathers with age before being relegated to the ubiquitous box ‘o cables; videogames advance with the generations, from a chunky little Game Boy to an Xbox 360. Along the way, the cozy, colorful isometric graphics and pleasant soundtrack make even the humblest bathroom look like somewhere you’d just want to curl up and relax. That art style in particular does so much with so little—who knew I could recognize, say, a DVD of Ghost World or Up from a chunk of pixels smaller than my thumbnail? It’s not long, it’s not particularly challenging, and it implicitly casts you in the role of a character way outside my usual range (a Jewish lesbian illustrator, I think?). Now more than ever, though, the serenity of new beginnings is something we could all enjoy—just cut the tape with your Stanley knife (so that’s what those are called) and get to Unpacking.
3. WarioWare: Get it Together!
After years of glorified tech demos and greatest-hits collections, WarioWare returned in earnest! This time, instead of capitalizing on a control gimmick (see, e.g., Touched, Twisted, Smooth Moves), the greedy garlic-chomper’s latest meta-game outing went back to the drawing board for a radical tweak: playing not as “yourself,” but rather as Wario’s many beleaguered friends and employees, sucked into their own work product by some malicious malware. This seemingly basic change opens up all kinds of possibilities, for the split-second solution which each microgame inherently demands becomes that much more daunting when you’re switching between not only settings but also entire control schemes! The lack of the bonus “toys” which have been a tradition in the series is a shame, but in their place, we get a bevvy of diverse multiplayer outings, as well as a challenge system and shamefully addictive postgame “Prezzies” to level up characters and unlock bonus content. Among the quick, on-the-go games which flourish on Nintendo Switch, Get it Together! is well worth your time.
2. Psychonauts 2
If, like me, you do yourself a favor and don’t read Tim Schafer’s Twitter, you’ve probably been looking forward to Psychonauts 2 since the first one debuted sixteen years ago. But unlike many gaming sequels long-damned to development hell, Double Fine didn’t miss a beat: the graphics are cleaner, and the combat takes a cue from modern action-RPGs, but the delightful Burton-adjacent art style and creepy, clever levels stuffed with collectibles are all back just as you remember them. Too often, latter-day platformers dine on ‘member berries instead of advancing the subgenre (looking at you, Yooka-Laylee), but Psychonauts 2 adds a plethora of diverse new characters and psychic abilities, as well as a surprisingly robust open world full of side missions. After this long between entries (plus or minus the canonical but slight VR trip In the Rhombus of Ruin), it may be too much to ask for a threequel already, but there’s precious few franchises willing to get this zany and unapologetically fun!
Resident Evil: Village
In 2017, licking its wounds after the bloated mess that was Resident Evil 6, Capcom had a lot to prove to survival horror fans. Inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hideo Kojima’s ill-fated P.T. in equal measure, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard met those expectations and then some, literally bringing a new perspective to the series and remembering to actually include some fear alongside all the gross monsters and explosions. A follow-up was inevitable, and while I felt vindicated to learn that leaks about the eighth entry being called “Village” were accurate, nothing could’ve prepared me for how frightening, crazy, and exciting this game would be. Werewolves, living dolls, a giant fish-man, cyborg zombies which may or may not violate intellectual property rights… and, yes, a certifiably scarousing vampiress with a least a foot on most of the NBA all torment you at one point or another. But unlike most other modern horror, where your only options are to run, hide, and/or read a journal about how this is all a metaphor for repressed trauma, you’ve got shotguns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, and a morbidly obese nobleman who’ll sell you ammo for all of them. Throughout it all, the RE Engine coats this grotesque Gothic world in a photorealistic patina that makes the prior generation of consoles sing (or shriek, as the case may be). If “badass camp” is the tone Resident Evil wants to strike going forward, consider me a happy camper indeed, and ready for whatever the shocking conclusion here promises for RE9!
Honorable Mention: The Pathless
So The Pathless actually came out in 2020, but I first played it this year and, to my knowledge, it was marketed predominantly as a PS5 game—and really, who even has one of those? I can see how the game would take advantage of the next gen’s daunting processing power: the entire world is one big, loading screen-free map, gated only by passages which are out of reach ’til you beat a given boss. However, it runs just fine on PS4 as well, and what a joy that it does, because The Pathless provides a setting that I relish wherever it arises: a vast, quiet, mysterious world to just run through and make sense of. From crumbling temples adorned with carvings of giant beasts to scattered puzzles which reward a little block-pushing or clever jumping with a power-up, the game is unapologetically inspired by Breath of the Wild and, in turn, Shadow of the Colossus. Yet moment-to-moment play actually evokes—of all things—Marvel’s Spider-Man: Your protagonist, a veiled warrior with an eagle by her side, gains bursts of speed from firing arrows at omnipresent, floating glyphs, and so most traversal is accomplished by taking auto-aim at the nearest doodad to sprint across fields and valleys in search of your next friend or foe. It’s beautiful, strange, and invigorating all in one—just what I seek out all art for.
ALBUMS
5. Sinner Get Ready, Lingua Ignota
When women want to make a name for themselves in music, it can feel like the industry presents them with two doors: innocent naif or objectified doll. Lingua Ignota, aka Kristin Hayter, elected for Door Number Three: apocalyptic medieval priestess. Or at least, that’s the vibe one gets from a scroll through her discography, replete with track titles like “If the Poison Won’t Take You My Dogs Will” or “God Gave Me No Name (No Thing Can Hide from My Flame).” On this, her second LP, Hayter screams, mourns, and calls for bloodshed over an ominous organ, dire strings, and guitars which crash with the force of an angry demon, along with a whole orchestra of other unnerving instrumentation. More than any heavy metal, this is music to perform human sacrifice to—and yet it’s undeniably technically impressive and, in its own noisy, cataclysmic way, self-affirming! If you want girl-power rock that’s less tsundere and more sundering, Mistress Ignota demands your supplication.
4.The Atlas Underground Fire, Tom Morello
That Rage Against the Machine largely tapped out post-9/11 is arguably one of the biggest missed opportunities in music history, but guitarist Tom Morello never rested on his laurels: following the rise and fall of Audioslave, the man’s been cranking out consistent solo albums and side projects for almost two decades. In 2018, taking a page from Slash and other virtuoso contemporaries, Morello released The Atlas Underground, a collection of collabs that applied his gnarly, propulsive sound to artists ranging from Knife Party to Vic Mensa. 2021 saw the release of two spiritual successors, The Atlas Underground Fire and The Atlas Underground Flood, each with their own collage of diverse features (and unintentionally funny, Pokémon-esque album art). It’s the former of these LPs that won me over the most, though: the cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” with Bruce Springsteen fits both men’s styles like a studded leather glove, “Let’s Get This Party Started” gets Bring Me the Horizon on this list for the third year in a row, and “Naraka,” with its almost hymnal verses and Mike Posner (of all people) talking about killing cops, fascinates me more every time I hear it. The Machine may still need plenty of raging against, but Tom’s got it covered!
3.What it Means to Fall Apart, Mayday Parade
After 15-odd years in the saddle, one couldn’t be blamed for questioning whether the Florida quintet can still wax emo with the best of ‘em. To be sure, Mayday Parade largely leans away from their more complex, bombastic inclinations on this latest full-length, but their wistful lyrics and singalong hooks are as strong as ever. “Kids of Summer” kicks things off with a rousing ode to reckless youth, while “One for the Rocks and One for the Scary” is prime MP, starting off plaintive and sparse before erupting into an all-cylinders ode to fragile love (“we can do everything, we’ll start right here in this room… just don’t take off too soon”). Things admittedly peter out in the latter half: “Bad at Love” is so boilerplate that I thought it was a OneRepublic cover at first, and filler track “Heaven” feels named after the exact opposite afterlife, running a tired pun into the ground over a triphop beat for two-and-a-half minutes. On balance, though, the boys continue to age more gracefully than many of their peers, and still have me catching feelings as much as when I first heard “Jamie All Over” post-high school. The real oversight, though? No song named after a Calvin & Hobbes quote!
2. Kingdom II, Arcade High
The 80’s homage is a crowded subgenre these days; it’s all too easy to paste some rudimentary electronic riffs over kick drums, slap a neon palm tree on the cover, and call it a day. But Arcade High continues to outrun the competition with a mix of vocal and instrumental tunes targeted like a light gun at Millennial-era videogame vibes. The duo hearken back to fuzzy chiptunes (“Glow”), deliver a nod to Dark Souls (“DGYK,” feat. Jei-Laya), and even remix the title opener of 2016’s original Kingdom for some nostalgia of their own (“Welcome Back”). Not every track’s a hit—“Slay” is a perfect example of a song that’s catchy but not memorable, a repetitive and off-brand slab of dance-rock that had me wishing it’d perform as advertised by the first minute. But on the whole, making a trilogy of this “series” would be fine by me!
1. The Rearview Mirror EP, The Midnight & The Magik*Magik Orchestra
I turned 30 this year. I didn’t accomplish everything I once said that I would, by now—some of that’s on me, some isn’t. But when I inevitably reflected on my past with greater frequency in 2021, this was how the tranquil “now,” the wistful “then,” and the aching “maybe somebody” sounded in my soul. Veering away from 80’s throwbacks, L.A. duo The Midnight reimagine five of their top tunes with a wholly unprecedented vibe: out with the saxophones and synthwave, in with violins and piano. The transplant, however, breathes beautiful new life into their songwriting: As cool as tracks like “Endless Summer” and “Memories” felt before, they nearly bring a tear to the eye now—and when I saw the group live in downtown Tacoma in November, to celebrate my birthday, the latter’s lines never felt truer: “Summer days are growing colder… we’ll know better when we’re older.”
Honorable Mention: Heartwork (Deluxe), The Used
Heartwork made my last Top Stuff list, so I won’t dive into its primary tracklist much here, except to reiterate that it’s marvelous to see a group I’d written off as screamo has-beens turn around and drop one of my favorite albums of 2020. As is the style of late, however, they re-released it a year later with another entire record’s worth of cuts! But these are no mere B-sides—each tune could’ve readily been on Heartwork 1.0, continuing its themes of both literary references (“The Brothers Karamazov,” “Blood Meridian”) and love gone very, very bad, all while killing it with their chorus game (belting out “nobody hates me like you do / you’ve got that perfect misery” has no right to feel as good as “Mi Medicina, Mi Heroína” makes it). Wherever the band goes next, I’m now confident that time Used won’t be wasted!
SINGLES
5. “Fruit Roll Ups,” Waterparks
Waterparks is (are?) a lot of things: artists, self-aware industry critics, a boy band that also makes songs with names like “I Miss Having Sex But at Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore.” In that spirit, this year’s coyly titled Greatest Hits was—like 2019’s FANDOM—a bit too scattershot and longwinded to crack my top five. However, this track in particular really did a number on me; let’s just say that a ballad by a shut-in who likes junk food and horror movies, and “bought some really sick lights, if you want to come over,” hit close to home. The modern wave of electronica and hip-hop-tinged emo wasn’t around when I was a teen, but had it been, you can bet I’d have been sharing memes of lines like “If you want to see me acting so desperately, all you gotta do is stop texting me” left and right on my socials!
4. “I MISS 2003,” As It Is
TheLegend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The Iraq War. Kill Bill, Vol. I. The Challenger explosion. 2003 was like any year, full of ups in downs. But as of January 1, 2022, there’ll be no children who were alive for it, and one thing those 365 days irrefutably had in abundance was a certain, special kind of youthful music: capital-P Pop Punk. Nearly twenty years hence, As It Is has struggled to find its place in what remains of that community, settling of late on an MCR-lite doom ‘n’ gloom aesthetic that I must confess doesn’t do it for me. However, on “I Miss 2003,” the quartet funnel this dreariness into a longing for the early Aughts that’s achingly potent to me and my fellow Millennials. Like a Hot Topic T.S. Eliot, the band stuffs the lyrics here with references to a dozen different emo mainstays, from Paramore to Good Charlotte, turning mashed-up lines like “tell me that you’re alright, cuz I’m not okay” into a veritable sonic time machine. As It Is are British, so call them phonies if you want for reminiscing about Americana, but I myself have always felt like an outsider to the scene—heck, I didn’t even really start listening to anything beyond my parents’ CD collection until about 2009. Since then, though, there’s always been a place in my heart for the rebellious, lovesick energy of this subgenre. “Now life is boring, let’s write a story where we never grow up…”
3. “Meant for Misery,” Settle Your Scores
While As It Is wallowed, for better or worse, in the salad days of pop punk, Ohio outfit Settle Your Scores charged forth like it hasn’t aged a day. To be sure, the band’s not opposed to hindsight—they themselves have a song called “1999”—but they blew the doors open on this year’s Retrofit with this snotty earworm about a universal sentiment: feeling like the world sucks and you just can’t catch a break. Really, hasn’t 2021 all made us feel like we’re “in the eye of the shitstorm”?
2. “Rise, Nianasha (Cut the Cord),” Coheed & Cambria
Coheed & Cambria has continued to surprise me, going from a group I respected more than enjoyed (can’t knock that sci-fi prog-rock hustle) to one whose every single enters heavy rotation on release day. 2021 brought two of them, the first being “Shoulders,” which nearly made this list with its rip-roaring riffs and classic tale of a damaged relationship (“maybe we weren’t made for each other, and I’m just the one you can keep around”). However, this second one edged it out, not just because it’s catchier by a hair but because it explores a dynamic that’s novel to me in pop, at least outside Cat Stevens or “Cat’s in the Cradle”: father-to-son love. “Call me, and I’ll be there when you need your great destroyer,” the speaker assures his boy—a Dad of the Year line if I’ve ever heard one! Given the maddening ambiguity of this space rock-opera to date, I’m fully prepared for Vaxis II (the presumptive next LP) to never satisfyingly piece this paternal saga together, but I’ll be singing along either way.
“The Last Picture Show (Lost Outrider Remix),” Arcade High
It’s a 2021 remix of a 2019 song, that was in the style of a 1980s song, named after a 1970s movie set in the 1950s. If there’s a more potent Matryoshka doll of nostalgia on the market right now, I haven’t seen it. Maybe it’s just having changed both my job and my city earlier this year, but something about the reflective lyrics—of Anytown melancholy and the promise of a better tomorrow—cut deep to my core, no matter how many times I hit “repeat.” Whether it’s escaping a bad day or rushing towards the promise of a good one, that same hope is still there when I hit the road, whether by foot or by car, and miles to go before I sleep: “They can’t catch me… I’m already gone.”
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Now go have a Happy New Year! Masks aside, I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling ’22. If nothing else, Elden Ring isn’t going to play itself!
Notes&Sketches 