One thing you might not know about me is that I use every goddamned tracking app known to mankind. Some day in the near future someone can do a study on why some people (me) feel the need to keep data on media consumption habits, but for now: here are my Top everythings of 2022.
I tried to rank these in order, but then I decided that was too difficult, so here we go, in no particular order!
“Martin Scorsese Was Right” 🎬
I didn’t watch as many movies as I’d have liked to this year, so there are definitely some notable exceptions here. Still, movies!
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Glass Onion, dir. by Rian Johnson is probably the funnest movie I’ve seen this year. Every part of it just oozes fun, and you can tell everyone on set was just having a total blast making this.
Bones and All, dir. by Luca Guadagnino is the queerest movie about a cis-het couple I’ve seen in years. Least subtly queer-coded film in existence. Also contains cannibals and excellent performances by Taylor Russell and Timmy Chalamet.
Nope, dir. by Jordan Peele is likely his most polarising film but it’s also just amazing spectacle. Keke Palmer also just completely steals the show.
Everything Everywhere All at Once dir. by the Daniels is on this list because obviously. There’s been a bit of a backlash against this film because it’s sort of become The Best Film To Ever Exist to some, and while I don’t agree, it’s still a really great film and is the only reason I will overlook Michelle Yeoh’s BN comments.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, dir. by Guillermo del Toro is probably the only reinvention of a previously-touched-by-Disney film that works. It expands a bit more on the story, and also has the guts to make Pinocchio the most annoying character ever.
“Stream Me, Daddy.” 📺
I spent a lot of time watching TV this year — part of that is because my work involves watching a lot of TV, but another part is that it’s just easier than movies. You can sneak in an episode of Barry on your lunch break, but you can’t really watch The Banshees of Inisherin on a whim.
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Every single season of RuPaul’s Drag Race that’s come out this year. Look, I know that Drag Race is overproduced reality television, but I still love it so very much. And honestly, its camp.
The White Lotus‘ second season did the whole “rich people suck” thing, which seems to be a theme of 2022, and also took a look at the different ways masculinity can suck. Sharp, witty and still grounded.
Fleishman is in Trouble. A last-minute addition! Fleishman made me feel a lot of things, but mostly it just made me fear my own mid-life crisis. Takes a very close, hard look at love, divorce, money and all the ways we can love and be horrible to each other.
Interview With The Vampire. Gay vampires! A remake that’s better than the original! Excellent character drama! Consistently some of the best hours of television of the year.
The Bear. The actual best half-hours of television of the year. I’ve never worked in a kitchen, but The Bear manages to imbue the show with the intense urgency and chaos of one so well that I already feel like I’m running my own restaurant.
The Sandman is a really successful adaptation of the extremely influential graphic novel by Neil Gaiman, and like its original material, stands alone as a very unique piece of television.
Honourable Mentions: Heartstopper • Heartbreak High • Andor • Severance • House of the Dragon • Stranger Things 4 • Barry • We’re Here • Abbott Elementary • Peacemaker • The Rehearsal
“Oh You Wouldn’t Know Them, They’re Like Really Indie” 🎧
(That’s a bit of a joke — my music taste is VERY pop heavy. Pop off though indie queens, you’re probably just not on this list 💔)
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‘meta angel’ and ‘honda (feat. pa salieu)’, FKA Twigs. FKA Twigs’ voice is so soft and delicate, but can really carry a punch. These songs portray that well.
‘Bends’ and ‘Anxious’, Carly Rae Jepsen. Carly Rae Jepsen has been underappreciated for years now. She makes some of the best Pop-with-a-capital-P music around, and that’s a fact.
‘Crash’ and ‘Constant Repeat, Charli XCX Oddly-enough, I think ‘Crash’, the opening title track of her 2022 album, is one of my favourites off of it. It packs a whole lot of song into its ~2min runtime, and is a great example of Charli mixing together her more mainstream pop leanings with her left-of-centre instincts.
‘Coochie (a bedtime story)’, Shygirl. It’s the best bedtime lullabye about vaginas ever made. Probably the only bedtime lullabye about vaginas ever made, but that’s neither here nor there.
‘PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA’ and ‘PURE/HONEY’, Beyoncé. Two very different songs from the same album — one of RENAISSANCE‘s best qualities is how it pays homage to the queer roots of dance music, and you hear that in full blast on ‘PURE/HONEY’.
‘Sunset’ and ‘Billions’, Caroline Polachek. Almost 2 decades in the music industry and Caroline still brings us songs that I can’t hear coming from anyone else. Genre-hopping yodel-pop is probably the best way to describe her.
‘Imagining’ and ‘This Hell’, Rina Sawayama. Rina’s sophomore album doesn’t quite hit me as hard as he stunning debut did, but it’s still really good. ‘Imagining’ is definitely the most unrestrained song on the album, and ‘This Hell’ is just extremely fun.
‘It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody’, Weyes Blood. An intimate, personal song about how big changes in the world have atomised all of us and made us into lonely strangers.
‘Part of the Band’, The 1975. If you already dislike Matty Healy, which is fair, then you’d probably do best to skip this song.
‘Twin Flame’, KAYTRANADA and Anderson .Paak. KAYTRANADA consistently makes music that sounds both timeless and fresh, and IMO is so good that he ends up a little bit overlooked because of course the new KAYTRANADA song is good.
Honourable mentions: ‘What I Want’, MUNA • ‘American Teenager’, Ethel Cain • ‘Shotgun’, Soccer Mommy’ • ‘NBPQ (Topless), Sudan Archives’ • ‘Out Of Time KAYTRANADA Remix’ – The Weeknd • ‘No Merci’, Little Simz
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