2025 is almost over. Literally, today is the last day. I’m always surprised by the end of a year, as it seems like we just rang it in. Wasn’t that just a few months ago? No? It was a whole year ago? Huh.
But one of my favorite activities to indulge in as a year wraps up is to pick out the highlights in entertainment. What did I watch or read that ignited my imagination and all of my fangirl instincts? My favorite things may not be yours but that’s part of the fun. Taste is subjective, and a discussion about this kind of thing helps you get to know someone and may give you some recommendations of things you may not have thought to try.
This image was made by me in LibraryAware. Which medium will come out on top?
You may have heard it before. “The book is always better.” It’s a mantra that has rung around the internet and in conversation for a long time now. Every time a movie or tv show adaptation of a book or book series comes out, many potential viewers have already made up their minds that the book is or will be better than anything on screen.
And can that be true? Definitely. You only have to look at movies like Artemis Fowl or the Percy Jackson films to see proof of that. But is it ALWAYS the case that the book is better?
Welp, it’s that season again. No, I don’t mean the lingering frigid temperatures and precipitation of February. I mean award season. Is it just me or do The Oscars nominees seem particularly far removed and uninteresting in comparison to what us plebs are actually watching? I’m intrigued by The Brutalist, now being heralded as Adrien Brody’s greatest work since The Pianist, but I have a feeling my interest in architecture won’t be enough to keep me in my seat for over three and a half hours. Do you ever get the feeling that the teams behind these often bloated, slow-moving marathon pieces are in some kind of secret competition to make the longest movie possible? Whenever a film exceeds two and a half hours, I generally wish the editor had stepped in with their metaphorical (and anachronistic) scissors to cut large swaths of unnecessary film from the picture. If you’re like me, and you look for award competitions that honour plucky, underdog ventures, look no further. I found some awards that have applauded what I’ve actually been watching and what I hope you’ve been watching too! In the tradition of anti-proms, I hereby dub this the Anti-Oscars. Last year around this time, I introduced you dear readers to the Dorian Awards — a competition run by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. Read more about the Dorians here, but suffice it to say, there are traditional award categories like Film of the Year, and there are also ones you don’t see everyday, like LGBTQ Film of the Year and Visually Striking Film of the Year. This time around, more than one of the nominations for Unsung Film of the Year are movies I’ve seen and very much enjoyed. Let me tell you a bit about them.
