My 2020 in Media
Ok so 2020 sucked. I made a list of the media I consumed that also consumed me. This is my top 9 because I had a rough time with this.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
I’ll be honest, this may have been just an extremely well timed watch. The next day I got back on adderall and was skyrocketed towards mania in a way I haven’t been in around a year. Fantastic movie tho and I made some GREAT content surrounding it.
Truly Devious
Ok I don’t want to spoil anything but I ADORE this series and I think that everyone should read it and talk to me about it. Going in, I was afraid I wouldn’t like Stevie, but I ended up loving her so much. The mystery and the characters are so compelling, and the books just keep on giving. This is a 100% recommend for everyone.
“Last things were so strange. Most people had no control over of what their last acts would be.”
Final Girls by Riley Sager
When I first finished this book, I was a little underwhelmed. I thoroughly enjoyed it all the way through, but the twist came too close to the end, and I didn’t really have time to process it in the context of the story. But I keep coming back to the ending, and the twist. I though initially it was a bad twist, but I’ve been thinking about it for six months, so I guess the jokes on me.
“That’s not your choice. It’s already been decided for you. You can’t change what’s happened. The only thing you can control is how you deal with it.”
Folklore/Evermore
I think the double surprise drop of folklore and evermore were impactful parts of any Swifties year, especially since Taylor released Lover less then a year before folklore. Both albums are so thoroughly Taylor Swift, without being like anything she’s ever released before. She drives me insane, and it’s so worth it. She wrote This Is Me Trying so that I could cry forever.
Wolf of Wall Street
Mayhaps my most joyous day of 2020 was watching Joseph descend into his jail era. A great film, but mostly on here for the memories.
https://twitter.com/4rogs_/status/1306055165858906114?s=20
The work of Anne Carson
Anne Carson constantly makes me feel like I’m being lobotomized. She consistently blows my mind and makes me feel like I’ve been lifted 1000 feet and then dropped into a free fall. She said it herself! “To feel anything/deranges you!” She writes about love and pain and loss and the self in a way I can only hope to someday reach.
“You remember too much,
my mother said to me recently.
Why hold onto all that? And I said,
Where can I put it down?”
The Scream Franchise
Again, not a new addition. But, it’s one of my favorite franchises and I kept returning to it this year. I love Sidney, and I love the story so much. I genuinely thing everyone should watch it, even when they don’t care about horror films. When I asked why it was a comfort movie, my friend George said “It’s the Matthew Lillard” and he’s right.
Punisher — Phoebe Bridgers
When you listen to a song about not believing in god and losing a friend and hear a line like “Because I think when you’re gone, it’s forever/But you know I’d stand on the corner/Embarrassed with a picket sign/If it meant I would see you when I die” sometimes you just gotta sit in that hurt for a while.
Knives Out (2019)
So I technically saw this movie in 2019 when it was released, but it stuck with me through this year so I will be including it. It’s a truly perfect whodunit that kept me, a person who has read ALL the whodunits, constantly guessing. That makes me sound full of myself. In middle school I read almost every Agatha Christie book so this is not a cool thing. But I loved this movie! The costumes, the sets, the cast, the plot! Fantastic!
Honorable Mentions: John Cheever’s The Swimmer (“Was his memory failing it had he so disciplined it in the repression of unpleasant facts that he had damaged his sense of the truth?”), the entirety of Fleabag (self-explanatory), Emma (both the book and the 2020 movie) (“If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more”), Star Wars (Always), Riverdale (yeah)