Wow, it’s been a while since the ole blog has seen any action! Consider this LONG post covering my favorite artistic creations of the past year a partial remedy. It’s broken up into sections by medium, but is otherwise fairly disordered — no rankings, and no rules about dates of release or publication. They are all things I experienced for the first time in 2015, though.<\/p>\n
MOVIES<\/b><\/p>\n
Selma<\/a><\/b> (2014) — An account of the historic marches in 1965 that helped pave the way for the passage of the Voting Rights Act. David Oyelowo seems like he is channeling the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. Truly amazing oratory. I love how this story focuses on many people of the civil rights movement, including members of the SCLC and SNCC as well as King and his wife. The Black community is not portrayed as monolithic \u2013 there is a true diversity of viewpoints and opinions that makes it clear how important a figure King was: a person who could bring others together at least long enough to get some groundbreaking things done.<\/p>\n The Wind Rises<\/a><\/b> (2013) — Supposedly Hayao Miyazaki\u2019s last film, this is a fictionalized biographical picture about Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Zero, Japan\u2019s most famous and lethal fighter plane in World War II. For a renowned pacifist like Miyazaki, the subject matter is inherently charged: how does one reconcile the creation of something elegant or beautiful in an aesthetic sense with the destruction that it might cause? As far as I can tell, the film leaves this question unanswered, but there are obvious empty spaces that draw attention and really make you think. And the disaster scene in Tokyo (depicting the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake) is genuinely hair-raising!<\/p>\n The Martian<\/a><\/b> (2015) — After Ridley Scott\u2019s last few misfires, I didn\u2019t think he had any more good movies in him. I was happy to be surprised! A lot of the credit is due to Andy Weir\u2019s very entertaining space-shipwreck novel (on which the screenplay is based), but the movie is given some warmth and nuance by its actors (especially Matt Damon and Chiwetel Ejiofor) that the book doesn\u2019t quite achieve.<\/p>\n Only Lovers Left Alive<\/a><\/b> (2013) — I was on board from the high concept: Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as centuries-old vampire lovers. But I was surprised at how stylish and fun this movie turned out to be, especially as it was filmed entirely at night and focused a lot on ennui and world-weariness. Ultimately, its absurdist humor and love of literature and music added up to something quite lovely and life-affirming. Special props to Jeffrey Wright for his small but hilarious role as a doctor Hiddleston\u2019s character clandestinely buys his blood from.<\/p>\n Lilo & Stitch<\/a><\/b> (2002) — This Disney animated movie came out over 10 years ago, and though I have heard generally positive comments about it, I had never watched it until Christmas Eve, while I was visiting my sister\u2019s family, and we were scanning through Netflix looking for some random entertainment. I was gripped the entire time, and so moved at points that tears dripped down my face. Quite a surprising experience!<\/p>\n A number of things set this film apart from other Disney kids\u2019 fare: a setting (Hawai\u2019i) that is culturally specific, but not stereotyped. Some hard edges. A moving bond between sisters. People of color! Unusual character design \u2013 Nani\u2019s legs are enormous! (No Barbie figures here.) A fascinating oddness about the way Stitch moves \u2013 he\u2019s like an insect, or a spider, rather than a mammal. And there is a real antic sensibility \u2013 the havoc that is wreaked by Stitch and the aliens is not merely \u201ccute\u201d, it\u2019s destructive in a way that makes you cringe even as it amuses. I\u2019m not sure how this odd little film got past the gatekeepers of mass entertainment, but I\u2019m happy it did.<\/p>\n TELEVISION<\/b><\/p>\n The Fall<\/a>, series 2<\/b> — A continuation of the first season\u2019s death dance between a serial killer (Jamie Dornan, who subsequently became famous for the dire 50 Shades of Grey<\/i>) and the police detective (played by Dana Scully herself, Gillian Anderson) who is pursuing him. The underlying themes of kinship between them are subtly done \u2013 there\u2019s no question that Spector is a monster and that Stella wants him apprehended, but the final scenes of this season left me wondering if she was tumbling down into an abyss of dark fascination. I\u2019ll certainly be watching series 3, but I also like ending on a question and would be happy if this were the show\u2019s conclusion.<\/p>\n Mad Men<\/a>, season 7.5<\/b> — We\u2019ve been waiting 10 show years for Don Draper to clean up his act, and in the end, it\u2019s really not clear if he has. But at least he seems to understand himself better and to have developed some genuine compassion. For a show that often seemed to be about the impossibility of escaping dysfunctional patterns even when you have the best of intentions, it was a surprisingly optimistic ending. And we also got Peggy Olson sauntering down the hall, sunglasses on, cigarette dangling from her lips, and a painting of \u201can octopus pleasuring a lady\u201d under her arm \u2013 finally confident enough to not give a damn. Instant classic.<\/p>\n Halt and Catch Fire<\/a>, season 2<\/b> — This show about the world of personal computing in the 1980s really comes into its own with this season\u2019s focus on Cameron and Donna\u2019s startup game company, Mutiny. Season 1 leads Gordon and Joe both have interesting storylines, but they are no longer at the center. Instead, we get to see two women with very different personalities and skill sets working together in the world of tech on something truly groundbreaking and exciting. All is not sweetness and light between them, though \u2013 their disagreement about the place of \u201cCommunity\u201d (a multi-room chat feature) is interesting both because it illuminates their characters and because it presages the creation of social networking sites two decades later. Very interesting stuff.<\/p>\n Sense8<\/a><\/b> — This Netflix-produced show is co-written by J. Michael Straczynski (of Babylon 5<\/i> fame) and the Wachowskis (of The Matrix<\/i> fame; let\u2019s not talk about the sequels), and has an intriguing premise: eight people in countries around the world suddenly find that they are having each other\u2019s experiences, and seeing the others when they are not physically there. Are they going crazy? Or is something even weirder going on?<\/p>\n It\u2019s fashionable these days for genre fiction to be grim and full of betrayal, antiheroes, and loneliness. Sense8<\/i> is the corrective to all that. It dares to posit that true \u201chuman nature\u201d (or \u201csensate nature\u201d?) is not angry vigilantism or existential emptiness, but connection and oneness. The most rapturous scenes in the first season all involve members of the \u201ccluster\u201d (did Straczynski choose this inelegant word just so he could use the term \u201cclusterfuck\u201d later? stay tuned\u2026) spontaneously connecting and sharing an intense experience \u2013 a song, some great sex, even recovered memories of birth! The potential is obviously there to focus much more on the sharing of bad experiences, or even psychic rape (the character of Whispers is a nightmarish example of this), but that does not seem to be what the show\u2019s creators are really interested in. A placard held by someone in the credits sequence seems to resonate much more with their message: \u201cKindness is sexy.\u201d Amen to that. And gorgeous cinematography, a very pretty & diverse cast, and great action scenes don\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n Miss Fisher\u2019s Murder Mysteries<\/a><\/b> — A glamourous and liberated woman in 1920s Melbourne, Australia solves mysteries because she can and damn well wants to. Phryne Fisher does not experience angst. She just does her thing with confidence and style and takes the rest of us along for the ride. (She drives, and drives fast.) True comfort viewing.<\/p>\n The Knick<\/a>, season 2<\/b> — A continuation of season 1\u2019s story of the (somewhat fictionalized) Knickerbocker Hospital in New York City at the dawn of the 20th century \u2013 and the people connected to it, who are variously sympathetic, funny, or low-down dirty mustache-twirling scoundrels. Not quite as electrifying as season 1, but still gripping \u2013 and hide-your-eyes grotesque on multiple occasions. This season delves into new historical territory: black consciousness-raising, eugenics, birth control, a medical model of addiction. The ending seems very final in some respects, but there is talk of a possible third season regardless. How will they manage it? I\u2019m interested to find out.<\/p>\n MUSIC<\/b><\/p>\n Milky Chance<\/a>: Sadnecessary<\/b> — Relaxing, reggae-inflected folky electronica \u2013 made by Germans! A surprise and a pleasure.<\/p>\n Grimes<\/a>: Art Angels<\/b> — Following up on her mostly wordless (or verbally incomprehensible) Visions<\/i> (also a favorite), Grimes goes for more conventionally structured poppiness here, but still with an off-kilter idiosyncratic approach. Exhibit A: the most catchy, uptempo song on the album, \u201cCalifornia\u201d, has some of the most depressing lyrics I have ever heard! Top 40, this is not. But I dig it.<\/p>\n Hamilton: the Musical<\/a><\/b> — A hip-hop infused musical about the life and times of our most unjustly obscure founding father? Bring it on! No joke: the genius of creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has made me more interested in the early days of my own country than I have ever been before. If history teachers know what\u2019s good for them, they\u2019ll be assigning this in class. Or maybe they should be using the ole reverse psychology trick and forbidding their students to listen to it? Whatever works to get it in their ears will result in far greater understanding of our nation\u2019s founding \u2013 and a lot of entertainment to boot.<\/p>\n BOOKS<\/b><\/p>\n