Seeing is Believing (The Year in Review 2019)

The end of a decade meant the end of many beloved series, and I spent much of 2019 bidding fond farewells to my favourites: the Skywalkers; the Baskets family rodeo; detective Angie Tribeca and her merry band of misfit cops; Jared-Donald and the gang from Silicon Valley; Selina Meyer, who will forever remain our Veep; Maggie Gyllenhaal and the Jameses Franco inhabiting The Deuce; and, of course, Fleabag, who left us just as we were getting to know her.

But 2019 was also a year for some wonderful new creations, challenging us not only to look forward, but to reconsider how we look. From a drug-fuelled odyssey that dizzily toyed with our perceptions, to a religious dramedy that circled questions of faith, to a glitchy Space Odyssey riff that forced gamers to view the world through an artificial lens, these are my picks for the best of 2019.

FILM 

Hereditary was terrifying, but MIDSOMMAR is believable. That's the main reason why Ari Aster's sophomore effort, a horror film set in a remote Swedish community, is better than its predecessor. The always excellent Florence Pugh stars as Dani Ardor, a college student struggling with the combined burdens of (a) a recent, if cliché, personal tragedy, and (b) a fucking awful boyfriend. It's that boyfriend who grudgingly allows Ardor to tag along on a "guy" trip to study a pagan cult hidden away so far north that, for several months mid-summer, the sun never sets on their community. Such a setting would be alien enough as is, but thanks to a combination of peer pressure and more insidious methods, Pugh's character spends most of the film high as a kite, taking the audience along for a very unsettling and hallucinogenic ride. Just call it the world's longest anti-drug PSA.

It begins with ABBA and ends with the Beatles, but THE TWO POPES is about so much more than the musical tastes of its title characters. Though nominally about a fateful meeting between popes Benedict (Anthony Hopkins, excellent) and Francis (Jonathan Pryce, in his best role since Brazil), this funny and moving chamber piece is better described as a biopic of the latter, current pontiff. Say what you will about the Catholic Church, but the film makes a strong case for Pope Francis as a real reformer, a man of unwavering faith and a deeply felt moral commitment to concerns such as inequality and climate change. The witty and banter-heavy script won't score any points for profundity, but its earnestness may make even the most hardened cynic reconsider their views on the guy(s) in the funny hat.

The delightfully-named US is the best socially-conscious horror film since Get Out, which means it is also the best Jordan Peele film since Get Out. In quick succession, director Peele has established himself as a brilliant satirist of western hypocrisies - especially those of our neighbours to the south. Where Get Out directly confronted anti-black racism, US operates as a slightly more subtle - as subtle as a mounting pile of blood-splattered corpses can be - allegory on, well, whatever you choose to make of it. Is US's tale of creepy doppelgängers really about capitalism? Race relations? The North American genocide of Indigenous peoples? That each of those interpretations is equally plausible - far more so than the comparably inane conspiracy theories that surround Peele's beloved influence The Shining - is a testament to the director's skill at putting just enough, but never too much, information up on screen. Lupita Nyong'o is fantastic in the lead role.

TELEVISION

Is it déjà vu, or is it THE TWILIGHT ZONE that's making you wonder whether you've seen Jordan Peele's name twice on this list? Nope, it's just the fact that in Peele's effort to take over all corners of your pop cultural mind, he put together a (mostly) enjoyable new sci-fi anthology series that, like his films, is heavy on the social commentary, loves to play with audience perceptions, and can be very funny - but only when it needs to be. Not all the episodes land, but standouts like "Replay" and "Not All Men" make for must-watch television, in the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and between the pit of man’s fears, and the summit of his knowledge.

Violently satirical THE BOYS works well both for those who love superheroes (me!) and those fed up with their total domination of contemporary pop culture (also me!). While the concept is hardly original - what if superheroes existed in our world (or a close approximation of it) - the delivery is first-rate. Jack Quaid and Karl Urban headline a stellar cast of vigilantes who set out to expose and take down a team of intimidatingly powerful corporate-owned "heroes"/asshole celebrities known as The Seven. Each member of the Seven is a thinly veiled analogue for a familiar Marvel or DC superhero, inviting viewers to imagine what would happen if someone like Superman or Aquaman, instead of using their powers for good, did that thing which, frankly, seems far more likely: exploit those abilities for personal gain.

GAMING

OBSERVATION really only works if you've already seen 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you have, then you'll get infinitely more enjoyment out of this intriguing and at times bewildering sci-fi adventure that places you in the digital shoes - and behind the digital eyes - of a spaceship's mysteriously evolving on-board Artificial Intelligence, nicknamed HAL SAM. As SAM, you must try to survive a doomsday scenario in which most of your crew are dead and your ship is falling to pieces. Much of Observation is confusing by design; other parts are confusing by mistake. But even when the going gets seriously weird and the glitches threaten to derail the experience - at one point, I spent ten minutes floating blissfully outside the spaceship before realizing that I wasn't actually supposed to be there - it never ceases to be compelling. CUBE, CUBE, PYRAMID, DOUBLE ARROW, INFINITY, amirite?

UNTITLED GOOSE GAME asks the question no one dared ask: what's it like to see the world through the eyes of a chaos-fomenting waterfowl terrorizing the inhabitants of a quaint English village? The answer is the most absurdly low-stakes stealth-puzzle adventure this side of Sneak 'n' Snore. Nipping little boys on the shirttails, stealing carrots from a cranky old farmer: does life get any better than this?

When you're tired of reality, it's nice to know that Home VR has finally landed, bringing with it a whole new way of looking at - and experiencing - the world, including that of the wonderful little puzzler A FISHERMAN'S TALE. It's not a long game, and most of it boils down to finding the right widget to stick into the right doohickey. But oh, what a joy to move around in Fisherman, its world made vastly more intriguing by VR's ability to mess with the player's concept of space (and, after a couple hours in the headset, time). Short and sweet, and one of the finest demos for what not-reality can offer.

This is 2018 (The Year in Review 2018)

In an era defined by rich bastards and the rich bastards who enable them, there were a surprising number of sympathetic elites on display in the best pop culture creations of 2018. From the billionaire investor chuckling his way through the great art documentary, to the trust-fund kids of the year's three best TV series, it was hard not to like these occasionally fictional, occasionally fictionalized, depictions of the quote-unquote "elect". Elsewhere, proper escapism was in order, with audiences treated to flights of fancy - some beautiful (the world's greatest video game), some joyous (thank you Stan Lee), some thrilling (this year's best film) - that provided momentary respite from this darkest of timelines. And then, after all that excess and escapism, there was also the year's best, and most incisive, depiction of "America", through that most honourable medium of the protest song. Though you'd be hard-pressed to find one unifying theme across this year's great art, I can offer this: even as things fall apart, our artists will never fail us.

FILM

I wasn't the biggest fan of Alex Garland's previous film, Ex Machina, which I thought embraced a lot of the misogyny and male-gaze it was ostensibly meant to criticize. I wasn't alone in this sentiment, and whether by happy accident or by design, Garland's masterful follow-up, ANNIHILATION, is just about the polar opposite: a film about five brilliant and strong women - all soldiers and scientists - sent to investigate a mysterious energy bubble enveloping an unidentified and thickly forested area of the United States. Within, our heroes - Jennifer Jason Leigh, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson lead a stellar cast - find an eerie, alien landscape where flora and fauna have mutated into strange hybrids (and where to say more would constitute spoilers). Intelligent and unusual, Annihilation is a lucid, feverish, dream - often beautiful, mostly terrifying - that proves just as unsettling for audiences as it does for the characters on screen.

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE takes a gloriously absurd idea - what if there were an infinite number of Spider-Mans (Spider-Men?), and at least one of them sounded like Nicolas Cage? - and turns it into a thrilling, hilarious, and surprisingly affecting animated film. In fact, this cartoon(!) may well be the greatest Spider-film to date, a worthy tribute to its two creators - Stan Lee and Steve Ditko - who both passed away this year. On the one hand, its many variants on the Spider-theme only serve to remind us what made their creation so brilliant in the first place. On the other hand, the film's greatest feat is that, among all the wacky Spider-alternates (the standout of which is Peter Porker, Spider-Ham), its best character is the one least connected to the "classic" Spider-mythos. I'm referring to the film's true star, Afro-Latino teenager Miles Morales, who manages to find time, amongst all the psychedelic and fourth-wall-breaking mayhem, for his own, very touching, origin story as the Ultimate Spider-Man. More so than any Spider to date, by the time Morales finally dons his own version of the costume, and goes for that exhilarating first swing across the New York City skyline, you get the feeling that he's damn well earned it.

The great documentaries are those that tell a very specific story - say, about bible salesmen, or aspiring basketball players - that also illustrates something broader about the world in which we live. The wonderfully titled THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING is just that: a "niche" film about the hyper-inflated contemporary art market that also features enough fascinating shades of humanity to be of interest to any, general, audience. What's particularly impressive is this film's refusal to dwell on the obvious - that wealthy investors are dangerously distorting the market - instead offering up a host of complex perspectives (and personalities) that challenge viewers' expectations and prejudices. These include: the (unavoidably likeable) collector with deep pockets, tacky taste, and an earnest love of art; the semi-forgotten Warhol contemporary, Larry Poons, whose decades-long refusal to commercialize makes for an uneasy relationship with a white-hot market that has suddenly "rediscovered" him; and the brash, opinionated Sotheby's auctioneer who speaks dismissively of museums, yet also gets genuinely choked up while reflecting on her first love: a painting at her local public gallery.

TELEVISION

You've never heard of him, but Jesse Armstrong was an integral part of the team that turned the TV series "The Thick of It", and its film spinoff In the Loop, into two of the funniest British comedies of all time. SUCCESSION, Armstrong's New York-set HBO series following the trials and tribulations of a Rupert Murdoch-like family of one-percenters, is hilarious, offensive, gratuitous, and - ever-so-rarely - actually kind of charming. Mostly, though, it's an opportunity for a fantastic cast - Kieran Culkin and Matthew Macfadyen are standouts - to unleash the kind of profanity-laden tirades that would make Malcolm Tucker proud. That said, the ending is pretty dumb, setting up a rather silly plotline for Season 2.

Speaking of selfish, insensitive, billionaires: the infamous John Paul Getty III kidnapping - the one that inspired that part of The Big Lebowski - gets a non-exploitative and exceedingly well-crafted miniseries adaptation in TRUST. Donald Sutherland stars as the elder Getty, a right-bastard of an oilman who refuses to pay ransom on his own kidnapped grandson (that would be Getty III), a ne'er-do-well who's gotten mixed up with sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, and some brutal Italian gangsters. Harris Dickinson is very good as the angel-like Getty III, and he's joined by acting stalwarts including Hilary Swank, the always-terrific Anna Chancellor, and - in the role of a lifetime - Canada's own Brendan Fraser.

This year's other trust-fund fuck-up was probably the most likeable: PATRICK MELROSE, as portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, in one of the best short-form miniseries in ages. A series that, sadly, not many people watched, though given the subject matter - a survivor of child sexual abuse spirals downwards into drug and alcohol addiction, only to slowly crawl his way back out - it's perhaps not that surprising. Content warning aside, it's an insightful and truthful account of a man's despair, and also his remarkable ability to, if not overcome it, at least learn to live with it. Deeply affecting, and of course brilliantly acted, it's also at times quite funny, with intelligent writing (it's adapted from a series of novels by Edward St. Aubyn) that's acerbic in the best possible way. This is the kind of series where, even while Cumberbatch is stumbling around a grime-laden bathroom with a rusty and comically oversized syringe bleeding out of his arm, he's still got a quip or two for the occasion.

GAMING

This is an easier category, insomuch as the best game of the year also happens to be the best game of all time. A reissue of it, anyway. SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, the PS4 remake of this wanderer-vs.-giants tale, is the definitive version of a game of astonishing scope, sophisticated narrative, and utter beauty. It is the answer to the (annoying) question “are video games art?” and it is absolutely essential. It is the reason to own a PS4, or if you can't afford it, a PS3, which is home to an equally beautiful HD remaster.

Remakes aside, this year's best game is RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN, Lucas Pope’s hotly anticipated, and yet totally surprising, follow-up to Papers, Please. I wrote about Papers, Please in this blog before, where I called it a "subtle but highly sophisticated rumination on dehumanisation." Obra Dinn is not those things, but rather a murder mystery game with shades of sci-fi/fantasy and an incredible retro art style. The fact that Obra Dinn is so different from its predecessor is both a letdown and also its best feature. Violent, mysterious, and compelling, it is quite unlike, and therefore about 99 times better than, any other game in this (very bloated) market.

MUSIC

Blogspot inexplicably prevents me from embedding it here, so just go watch THIS IS AMERICA, again, as a reminder of why Childish Gambino's era-defining music video is easily one of the great artistic achievements of 2018. It's also one of the great protest songs of all time, managing to be both painfully explicit in its condemnation of anti-Black violence and racism, and also tantalizingly enigmatic in just about every other way. A year after Bob Dylan won a Nobel Prize, and in the same year that Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer, it was Gambino, aka Donald Glover, who provided the best argument for the vital role of music during these (and any other) turbulent times.

Teenage Mutant Hero Reptiles (The Year in Review 2017)

Even as it becomes increasingly obvious that we're living in the darkest timeline, 2017 still managed to deliver some absolute gems. It so happens a lot of the best art this year was decidedly old-fashioned, linked to comic books, heroic young people, and/or an era in which the bad guys were easy to spot. But there was also art that held up a mirror - dark, ugly, damning - to our own society. And still more, like this year's best video game, that just asked us to embrace it all. So go, enjoy. There were some wonderful creations this year. And if you're anxious for it to be over, 2018 is just around the corner and I hear the second season of Legion is starting soon.

FILM

An old-fashioned war movie spruced up with modern editing and special effects, DUNKIRK is a thrilling yet respectful account of the most infamous defeat of World War II. Like the greatest war movies, it gives audiences a core group to cheer for, without forgetting the wider impact of the conflict. Thus, we see tragedy - untold casualties, the fall of France in what Churchill called "a colossal military disaster" - but also incredible heroism. Those heroes include the teenage soldiers struggling to survive until rescue, the Air Force pilots who chased down German bombers in order to buy time, and the incredible true story of the little ships of Dunkirk, a flotilla of civilian boats that raced across the English Channel to assist in the evacuation. Somewhat surprisingly, the film clocks in at a lean 1 hour 47 minutes, in an admirable show of restraint on the part of writer/director Christopher Nolan.

The first three-quarters of woke horror-thriller GET OUT are so insidious, so unnerving, that it helps to remember you're essentially watching a straight adaptation of the African-American experience in the United States. Yes, black people live under the unrelenting threat of violence in the white police-state that is America. Yes, even the liberally-minded can get hung up on platitudes - "I voted for Obama", "I like Tiger Woods", the (unspoken, but hanging over the film) "Some of my best friends are black people". Even in the latter part of the film, when the particularly unspeakable evil that lurks in these white woods reveals itself, it's hard not to see it as a manifestation of every white (and to a degree, male) insecurity that gave rise to another unspeakable evil: the one currently residing in the White House.

TELEVISION

If superhero stories require a suspension of disbelief, then LEGION requires a suspension of that suspension. This show is weird, unlike any comic book property you've ever encountered, and unlike anything else on TV. A loose X-Men spinoff, the series features Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens as David Haller, a maybe-schizophrenic/maybe-psychic weirdo who may also be the most powerful mutant on Earth. But whatever he is, and whatever that (deliberately?) artificial American accent is supposed to be, it's all secondary to the increasingly strange scenarios that Haller and friends get caught up in. Echoing Haller's fragile mental state, the show plays at the fuzzy edges of the mind, offering up oddball scenarios that dare the audience to believe what they're seeing. Did they really just indulge in a Bollywoodeseque dance number? What's that weird obese creature with the glowing eyes? Is Aubrey Plaza even real? That the show admirably answers (most of) these questions within the space of its brilliant first season only makes us wonder: what the hell are they going to do next year?

The absurdly self-aware and borderline satirical RIVERDALE is the Archie Comics adaptation you never knew you wanted. And like its lead character, perennially young 75-year-old teenager Archie Andrews, it's dumb, funny, and a pleasure to look at. In hindsight, adapting Archie Comics into a teen soap-cum-murder mystery makes perfect sense. You get to keep all the heightened personalities of the comics, from beanie-wearing Jughead to the impossibly perfect Betty and Veronica, while also leveraging those personalities to tell an actual, compelling, serialized story. Its only fault? Too much maple syrup, not enough hamburgers.

The existence of RUNAWAYS is a miracle akin to Rocket Raccoon having multiple action figures. Runaways is, of course, its own little beast, a quirky tale of teenagers who find out that, yes, their parents really are that evil. The creation of Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, the original comic quietly came and went in the early 2000s, barely a handful of readers even aware of its existence. Now, like everything else these days, it's part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and for my money, it's a more accurate portrayal of the teenage experience than the life of Peter Parker. Plus (light spoilers) there is a goddamn dinosaur.

GAMING

The first moments of EVERYTHING (Windows, Mac, PS4) are so aggressively alienating it almost feels like a joke from the developer. But once the game really gets going, once its mechanics are revealed and you're encouraged to really play around with it, you realize what a special experience you're in for. I hesitate to say more, but if you ever thought Katamari would be more fun if you could be the objects rather than picking them up, then you have a good idea. (Honourable mention here to CONSTELLATION, a nifty free browser game that embraces a similar spirit, albeit at a more limited scale.) 

RESIDENT EVIL VII (Windows, Xbone, PS4) is a fantastic and long-overdue corrective to a series grown over-reliant on big guns and loud set-pieces. Even if it can't live up to its obvious inspiration Alien: Isolation - i.e. the scariest video game ever made - it nevertheless offers a mostly rewarding, mostly terrifying experience. The first few hours in particular, when you find yourself trapped in a strange house with no weapons, no map, and no clue as to what terrors lurk in the shadows, are unforgettable.

It's hard to imagine a huge audience for SCOTT PILGRIM'S PRECIOUS LITTLE CARD GAME, but Toronto-loving gaming-and-comic book nerds will be happy with this board game release. Playing a bit like Dominion, it improves on the deck-building model by adding humour - in the form of challenges like "get a job" and "win the girl" - and Street Fighter-style combat. 
↓↘→B ↓↘→B ↓↘→B but don't spam or you'll anger the other players!

The strange, the weird, the beautiful (The Year in Review 2016, pt. 2)

Nocturnal Animals

A week out from the collapse of the American Empire, it's hard not to carry a lingering grudge against 2016. That said - and as we discussed in our last entry - there were some good, beautiful (and Better and Stranger) things produced in the past year.

That extends to the worlds of film and video games as well, and in this second part of our Annual Review, we take a look at lonely curators, hard choices, and - strangest of all - the success of a good ole un-ironic Hollywood musical. Spooky.

FILM

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS is, above all else, an intelligent film. Yes, it is violent and disturbing, and it has moments that are hard to stomach. But that squeamishness is all in service of a sophisticated and well-observed psychological drama about love, loss, and loneliness. Indeed, one of the striking - and brazenly unusual - aspects of the film is the way it deploys an already thrilling form - the neo-Western - in service of a far more grounded story. That the viewer winds up caring more about the life of one lonely art curator (Amy Adams, stellar) than that of a gun-toting avenging duo (Michael Shannon and Jake Gyllenhaal, also excellent) speaks volumes about the artistry of director Tom Ford.

The sequel we didn’t know existed, TEN CLOVERFIELD LANE, which was filmed under an alternate title and a cloud of secrecy, is a remarkably thrilling entry in the growing Cloverfield universe. Where its Godzilla-like predecessor used found footage to great effect, this take is smaller, more claustrophobic, and way creepier. John Goodman is great as the survival nut who kidnaps a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), ostensibly to protect her from an unseen apocalypse happening outside. Buckle your seat-belts, this one's a thrill ride.

Oh, and LA LA LAND is great. Go watch La La Land.

VIDEO GAME

In what’s becoming a running theme here at Seven Seas, the best game of the year is THE WALKING DEAD: MICHONNE. Ostensibly a zombie horror game, it’s really a choose-your-own-adventure, but with the hardest choices you've ever faced. Who will you trust? Whose lives will you save? There are no correct answers, only the nagging feeling that you somehow did the wrong thing anyway.

It landed with a bang and a whimper, but for all its faults THE LAST GUARDIAN is still a wonderful game: an exciting, breathtaking, deeply flawed successor to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus.

EDIT: BONUS "HEY GUYS IT'S YOUR FRIEND WADE WILSON HERE GETTING ALL UP IN BLOGSPOT'S BUSINESS BECAUSE APPARENTLY THIS IDIOT FORGOT TO INCLUDE A CANCON AWARD THIS YEAR SO I'M MAKING SURE MY GOOD FRIEND DEADPOOL (NO RELATION)'S MOVIE WINS THE ANNUAL OBLIGATORY AWESOMELY CANADIAN" AWARD

Deadpool is one of the funniest mainstream movies released in the past few years and I promise this sentiment is fully endorsed by the jerk who writes this blog.

p.s. isn't ryan reynolds so dreamy?

The strange, the weird, the beautiful (The Year in Review 2016, pt. 1)

Well, that sucked.

As we all turn our backs on the God-Level Troll that was 2016, it helps to at least consider the few good things that snuck through last year. The following films, games, and (for the first time ever) TV series and podcasts may not save 2016 from the dustbin of history, but at least they made the year tolerable. (Part I covers TV and podcasts; part II film and gaming.)

TV

This is the first time I'm covering television, which is a bit surprising given that it's probably the best mass art form right now. In fact, there's far too much great stuff on-air right now, so I've had to limit myself to new series only. (Sorry, Veep, Silicon Valley, and Girls!)

We begin with Louis C.K., the brains behind two of the year’s best new comedies, BETTER THINGS and BASKETS.

The former features C.K.’s long-time writing/producing partner Pamela Adlon as a lightly fictionalized version of herself, a 40-something mother and actress (in that order) navigating love, race relations, gender roles, Feminism, and (of course) sex.

The latter, an exceedingly weird black comedy, stars Zach Galifianakis as a Paris-trained Clown-artiste with lofty ambitions, despite an unfulfilling job at a rodeo in Bakersfield, California. It’s absurdist in the Camus sense: sad, funny, but deeply sympathetic towards the many oddballs who inhabit its universe. Louie Anderson won a deserved Emmy for his decidedly non-mocking (it would be belittling to call it "drag") portrayal of the family matriarch, Christine.


The best dramas were, of course, on Netflix.

STRANGER THINGS came at the right moment, an 80’s throwback sci-fi adventure starring Winona Ryder and a bunch of non-precocious American child actors. Alternately fun, scary, and awesome, it was the year’s must-watch event. But then you know that already, because everyone watched Stranger Things.

That said, the far stranger thing to come out last year was THE OA, an auteur-driven sci-fi series unceremoniously released by Netflix mere days before Christmas. That weird timing underscores the weirdness of the whole endeavour: a young woman (the brilliant Brit Marling) resurfaces after a seven-year disappearance, sporting strange scars and even stranger ideas about life and death. At its core, it’s another series about decent people trying to do the right thing, including Phyllis Smith (The Office), in a breakout role as the kind-hearted schoolteacher.

PODCASTS

The return of Bowe Bergdahl

Who knew radio journalism was so good? And who knew radio dramas were still a thing? Apparently everyone but me. So, alongside this long-overdue list of great podcasts, I'd like to offer up an apology to all those fans of the medium I kept ignoring these past few years.

Probably the most-anticipated podcast of 2016, SERIAL: THE BOWE BERGDAHL STORY did not disappoint. Journalist Sarah Koenig investigates and interrogates the story of PFC Bergdahl, an oddball Idaho boy deployed to Afghanistan, gone missing in 2009, and resurfaced in 2014 as part of an infamous hostage-swap deal negotiated by President Obama. That deal is mere backdrop for a gripping and heart-rending tale of a war gone FUBAR, the camaraderie of soldiers, and the tragedy of a lost son. (And for what it's worth, it's a more interesting story than Adnan Syed's.)

Finally, further proving he can and should do everything, Oscar Isaac co-stars in HOMECOMING, the year’s best fiction podcast. Also a war story (coincidence?), this one is about the soldiers who come home, the ones who don't, and how society struggles to deal with what that means. The near-future setting allows for a modicum of sci-fi shenanigans, but the core of the story - about the rehabilitation of soldiers - carries an entirely contemporary message. Catherine Keener and David Schwimmer co-star.

SURELY YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS? BONUS AWARD:
Do you like Airplane!? Do you like The Naked Gun? Have you ever seen a grown man naked? If you answered yes to any of these questions, go watch Angie Tribeca, the hilariously goofy police satire from Nancy and Steve Carell.

Coming soon in PART II: Creepy movies and even creepier video games.

Let's Think About This For a Minute (The Year in Review 2015)

What does it mean for a society to reward criminals with promotions?  How can a literary genius thrive in the age of television?  When is a game not a game?  There was a lot to ponder in the past year's creative output, with even the World's Biggest Movie inspiring more than a few heartfelt think pieces. So, as we roll into Awards season, let's take a look back at all the stuff that made us think in 2015.

FILM

If we judged films purely on how angry they make the viewer, both THE BIG SHORT and SPOTLIGHT would come up winners.  Both deal with enormously powerful institutions propped up by lies and deceit.  Both films document the uncovering of the truth, and what this means for the millions of people who had placed their faith in these institutions.  And both serve to remind us just how few of the culprits have actually been held accountable.  Some ten years out from the financial crisis and revelations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic church, has anything really changed?

Beautiful, confusing, and largely overlooked, THE ASSASSIN is an enthralling Taiwanese period drama that may well be the best martial arts film you never see.  Devoting far more screen-time to beautiful environments and wordless gazes than actual swordplay, the film does suffer from some abstruse storytelling, but nevertheless remains a joy to behold.

What could have been an exercise in actorly ego-stroking, THE END OF THE TOUR turns out to be a moving, intelligent, and totally atypical outing for (of all people) Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg.  Eisenberg mostly plays Eisenberg as writer David Lipsky, but Segel shines as a version of David Foster Wallace constantly ill at ease with himself, with others, and especially with the internal struggle between his vast intellect and the lowbrow Middle America culture he obviously loves.  Here's one of his best essays.

VIDEO GAMES
Though we move into the age of VR, it should come as no surprise that the most interesting game design is still happening out in the weird, wide, world of indie.

Probably the most interesting example of this is HER STORY, in which players sift through a series of video interrogations involving a key murder suspect.  With videos only unlocked by guessing the right keywords, the story can be resolved in minutes or hours, depending on the approach you take.  If the ultimate revelation is a bit cliché (I can think of one Canadian filmmaker who handled the same theme a lot better), it's still a fun little game-like experience.

There's a wonderful art form known as the shadow sculpture (click that link and you won't be disappointed), in which a pile of miscellaneous objects is stacked in just such a way that its shadow takes the shape of a familiar image.  The iOS app SHADOWMATIC offers an interactive version of precisely that experience, and is just so damn cool you need to go drop your $2.99 on it right now.

And how would you like your fandom served? (The Year in Review 2014)

A beloved indie filmmaker.  An obscure comic book.  A crowd funding appeal.  From humble beginnings come great things, and it was interesting to watch this year as previously niche products found success in ways once unimaginable.  From Oscar buzz to box office boffo to critical accolades, this was the year when that old cliché finally did ring true:

This year, they really could not have done it without the fans.

Film

Twelve years in the making, three hours in execution, Richard Linklater’s BOYHOOD is a risky film experiment that, on the whole, works admirably.  Obviously inspired by the Up documentaries, the film follows Mason (played by newcomer Ellar Coltrane) across twelve years of adolescence into adulthood, stopping for short character vignettes a dozen times along the way.  The tropes are a bit mundane – the working mom, the alcoholic stepdad, the bullies at school – but it’s hard not to fall for these characters as you follow them through what was, in real life, a decade-plus of filming.  Sure, this might have worked better as a mini-series (hyper-extended DVD edition, anyone?), but it’s still filmmaking at its finest, from a director finally getting some well-earned recognition.

Of all the oddball fandoms served, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY stands walking tree-like tall as the funniest, most entertaining mass product since the golden age of Spielberg and pre-Howard the Duck George Lucas.  Wearing such inspirations very much on its sleeve, GOTG tells the story of the Han Solo-like Star-Lord (a hilarious Chris Pratt) and his merry band of misfits on their quest for a cosmic MacGuffin of the “let’s not worry the plot too much” variety.  Star-Lord’s teammates include Rocket, the anthropomorphised raccoon with a chip on his shoulder to match the size of his laser gun; Groot, a living tree who’s the gentlest low-vocabulary giant since Chewbacca; Drax, a surprisingly well-meaning wrestler-type out for revenge; and Gamora, who’s possibly the best-written empowered female since whatever film Michelle Rodriguez appeared in last.  You’ll laugh!  You’ll cry!  You’ll buy the lunchbox!

If Disney’s cult comic adaptation was a financial risk (and it was), then someone must have lost an awfully big bet in order for Terry Gilliam’s THE ZERO THEOREM to get made.  Thankfully, after years of disappointment the ex-Pythoner is back in form for this conclusion to his informal “Dystopia” trilogy.  Fans will appreciate the overt influence of predecessors Brazil and Twelve Monkeys, but anyone can enjoy this adventure of an existentially-challenged hero (Christoph Waltz) working on the formula to prove everything amounts to, well, nothing.  Throw in a virtual reality hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold (Mélanie Thierry) and a surprisingly sympathetic asshole boy genius (Lucas Hedges), the film is weird, visually delightful, and a welcome cap to Gilliam’s long (if mostly blighted) film career.

Video Games

If the crowd fund is the ultimate form of fan service, then KickStarter mega-hit BROKEN AGE (ACT I) is a success for the - cough - ages.  Tim Schafer’s charming tribute to the genre he helped create, BA is a throwback point-and-click adventure full of humour, wild ideas, and more celebrity cameos than you can shake a controller at.  Following parallel story lines – the sacrificial maiden who fights back, the isolated space boy on his first real adventure – the game takes players on an enchanting journey across the universe and back again.  From a cult leader whose adherents “enlighten” by handing over their golden eggs, to the Space Weaver who crochets the fabric of space and time, it’s all in good, weird fun.  I can’t wait for Act II.

They said it couldn’t be done, and they were right: Telltale Games’ THE WALKING DEAD: SEASON 2 simply does not reach the lofty heights of its predecessor, which, let it be said, was the first video game to ever make me cry.  That being said, damn if this second “season” doesn’t come close.  Picking up where the original left off, main character Clementine is forced through a series of increasingly mean, brutal, and ugly situations as she struggles to survive the ongoing zombie apocalypse.  She’s joined by a mix of familiar faces and new companions, and for the most part the narrative succeeds in making you feel for, say, the sheltered teen Rebecca the way you once felt about that goofy kid known as Duck (“as in, he never stops quacking”.)  Still, Clem’s been through a lot, and her and the game’s general grimness may leave players longing for the more sympathetic lead from Season One.  It’s worth pushing through though, as fantastic plotting, great pacing, and yet another remarkable (and traumatic) ending make it a definitive experience of 2014.

They said it couldn’t be done, and… they were wrong!  Telltale Games’ THE WOLF AMONG US is every bit the compelling, heart-rending experience as its zombified sister.  Like DEAD, this is a comic book adaption, taking place in a fictional Manhattan borough populated by “adult-rated” versions of fairy tale characters – Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, the titular B.B. Wolf, and so on.  Thankfully, even though this is “Red Riding Hood X-Rated” it never feels exploitative.  The lore instead serves as backdrop for an intelligent noir-style mystery touching on illicit “glamour” (magic as an acknowledged metaphor for drugs) and the dealings of the infamous Crooked Man (his crooked house an acknowledged metaphor for organised crime).  Private Detective Wolf is one gruff (see what I did there?) anti-hero, but for pure villainy nothing compares to this game’s version of Bloody Mary.  Creeeeepy…

Obligatory Canadian Early-Access Award

Yet another Kickstarter success, THE LONG DARK is a Vancouver-made survival adventure pitting players against the elements.  And that’s it, really.  The game is entirely built around keeping your character alive in the freezing Canadian wilderness, where managing body temperature, burnt calories, and fatigue is the only way to survive.  At the moment, “Early Access” mode means there isn’t even a story to speak of, although it will eventually update with a narrative and endgame that take players on the titular journey through the dark.  Even as it stands, however, wandering through the hauntingly beautiful landscape is an exciting, if terrifying, experience.  Each Game Over (and there are many) is not a reason to quit, but rather an invitation to dive back in.  This time, you'll swear, as you warily eye the wolves across the frozen lake, I'll make sure to get indoors before night falls...