I will not beat around the bush! I love awards season. Who/what gets included and excluded, the dreamy vs dreamily ugly outfits, planning the imaginary acceptance speech I would give if I was to win an Oscar for best Original Screenplay and the inevitable apology I’d have to make in private after forgetting to thank someone pivotal… there’s just Too Much!
As another awards season comes to a close, and because I love making lists of all kinds, I present my absolute favourites of everything I consumed in 2022.
2022 Books
It’s my goal in 2023 to read more books as they’re released, instead of reading them years later when the adaptation is about to be released…but let’s revisit that a year from now. Miriam Toew’s Women Talking is a beautiful book, and stayed with me the most out of all the books I read last year. I think a lot about forgiveness, grace, and faith, and these three concepts were discussed in the novel in plain and profound ways. I wish I could have kept reading past the end, to know how everyone’s lives went.
Tender is the Flesh (by Agustina Bazterrica) isn’t a book I necessarily recommend… or do I? It was incredibly difficult subject matter and at times I felt sick or weak while reading, but I kept reading it anyway. Definitely not a book for everyone. It was striking and terrible, yet I’ve found myself talking about it over and over again.
Two beautiful but very different graphic novels that I read were The Third Person by Emma Grove and the manga Ping Pong, volume 1 by Taiyo Matsumoto. Ping Pong was visually so stunning. I will always be a sucker for a story that follows the friendships through the years, through their ups and downs, through their changes in identity…Pain. The Third Person had a simpler illustration style but was no less incredible or gripping: a memoir of a trans woman going through therapy and struggling to get help with her transition. It blew my mind open and I read it all in one day. Both of these bbs were hefty… I love a graphic novel that makes your wrists tired!
Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street is such a short book but I read it slowly, in tiny bursts through the course of the whole year, like small bites of a dessert I didn’t want to finish. It’s so lovely and heart-rending. I wanted to cut out sentences and put them in my pocket to carry around with me, to pull them out when I need to make my day more beautiful.
2022 TV shows
If you have talked to me in real life then you’ve heard me talk about the Bear, Andor, and Severance. If you haven’t seen them, go watch them right now!! Or come over to my house if you don’t have the streaming services needed and I’ll happily rewatch them with you as long as you bring snacks.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but I am NOT a Stars Wars girlie. I’ve tried many times, and it’s fine and fun, but I always immediately forget about it as soon as I turn away from the screen. Kylo Ren who?.,,, Jedi, huh?,, Han Solo Cup? It’s never done anything for me… until Andor! What the heck? It’s so good!
Watching The Bear had my heart rate up for the whole 30 minutes of each episode, which definitely counted as exercise! Love that for me. I also used to listen to Iconography religiously and it was so so exciting to see Ayo Edebiri killing it on screen.
And Severance was inspired by my life <3 Of course I had to include it! Thanks to the writers for casting Adam Scott as me, the resemblance is uncanny. :)
Like the rest of the internet I was obsessed with The White Lotus. To be honest I’ll watch anything that Hayley Lu Richardson is in and frankly I’d love to be friends with her in real life. This sentence counts as manifesting.
Finally a special shout out to Reservation Dogs (binged in January 2023 but absolutely still counting as a 2022 watch!) This show made me laugh so hard and also made me cry. Willie Jack 4ever!!
2022 Movies
Is there anyone who actively didn’t like Everything Everywhere All At Once? (Except for [redacted]1 who will not be named! But you know who you are. I love you despite this divide and I know our friendship will survive.) The entire experience I was overwhelmed by emotion, switching from tears to laughter then back again the whole way through. It made my heart feel full. It made me ache for my mom. This movie was all I’ve ever wanted and I watched it twice in theatres. It deserves all the praise it’s getting.
Aftersun broke me. I was sitting in silence crying as the credits rolled. What a soft, tender, beautiful film. I keep putting it into my top 4 films on Letterboxd2 then taking it out because it feels too soon to say that it’s one of my favourite movies of all time… not that anyone’s keeping track of that timeline but me!
Nope. Why was this ignored at the Oscars?? Damn the Academy. Anyway, I loved everything about this. There are whispers that a sequel may take place and I am on board. Also I agonized over this drawing because I fully love Keke Palmer and I would love to be friends with her in real life too…A girl can dream!
Special shout outs to Tar, which WASN’T long enough, and Bodies Bodies Bodies, which was just plain fun. Finally, the Belgian film Close is also nestled into my heart. It’s such a beautiful and sad film. I hope more people watch it and talk about it.
2022 Albums
Like everyone else with taste I had Renaissance and Gemini Rights on REPEAT for months. And like all other sad women processing ~emotions~ I sobbed for hours and days listening to Laurel Hell. Mitski, I love you. (Is the underlying theme of this edition about women in the arts that I want to befriend?)
This section is short because I don’t have anything profound to contribute to music discourse; my version of reviewing an album is whether or not I blast the album on repeat in my car and sing at the top of my lungs. Frankly I’m just thankful that my top song this year wasn’t a K.K. Slider acoustic cover (like it was in 2020!). I will note that I got tickets to see Beyoncé this Fall. No big deal!
2022 Food
Sorry to say but almost everything I ate in France last year was unforgettable (except for the croissants! Were my croissant expectations simply too high?): the melt-in-your-mouth duck confit at pastoral restaurant Auberge Les Contes d'Albret; the sleeve of six sweet macarons that I inhaled in 15 minutes; all seven surprising courses at a tiny place called Monsieur Guss; the fresh profiteroles from the local patisserie; when I say I was living, I really was…
I would like to note that I had a very mediocre ham sandwich at one point during my trip there and it was comforting how mediocre it was. I didn’t finish it, and I threw it in the garbage, but I do remember it. :) Unforgettable, truly!
In non-French food I’d like to highlight every breakfast egg sandwich I ate through the fall, courtesy of Dope Bakehouse and Kafka’s; the wasabi fries at Pizza Coming Soon; fried chicken from Donky Chicken; the entire family-style meal eaten with my family at Lasita in LA; and my personal rediscovery of just how much I love soft-boiled eggs.
Finally: K-Munchies Orion Turtle chips. I wandered into H-Mart one day and bought these because of the packaging. They’re light, crispy, and delicious? I adore. Thank you, H-Mart, for the perfect snack. Thank you, me, for continuing to make impulse purchases despite my better judgement. It pays off!
<3 TY for reading! See you on the red carpet that leads to the kitchen!
Yours in movies and dreams,
April
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