2021 is over. The year in review.
Last year I managed to reach the impressive mark of 190 movies, in 2021 I wasn’t as prolific but 150 is still a really great number in my opinion.
I started the year with The Wind Rises (2013) and ended with Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021), in between then there were many new movies, rewatches and movies I had been recommended.
Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:
Swallow (2019) - couldn’t forget this movie for the longest time.
Another Round (2020) - definitely not just about getting drunk.
The Father (2020) - impossible to forget.
Together (2021) - I certainly didn’t think we would actually get a good covid movie.
Evelyn (2018) - already one of my all time favorite documentaries.
Promising Young Woman (2020) - I would follow Emerald Fennell to the end of the world.
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005) - another documentary that really touched me this year.
Mogul Mowgli (2020) - I still don’t know how to explain this movie but there is a very beautiful scene of someone raping while in the toilet.
Deserto Particular (2021) - my favorite queer movie of the year, brazilian call me by your name.
Dune (2021) - it’s fabulous and there’s no way I wasn’t going to love this.
The Power of the dog (2021) - made me so nervous even when nothing was happening on screen.
Pieces of a Woman (2020) - I feel like people forgot about this movie and they really shouldn’t.
Emma. (2020) - there’s nothing new here except there is.
I have read 88 books this past year of my usual goal of 70. In 2020 I read 95 novels, short stories, and graphic novels.
I started the year with “Madam Satan” (graphic novel) by Eliot Rahal and finished with Dostoievski’s “Memories from the underground”.
I’m always reading different formats, ebooks, actual real books, audiobooks and graphic novels. 2020 something was different, I joined a surprise book club, and managed to read almost all of them each month.
Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:
Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - a short story that took my breath away.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - a beautiful story about twin sisters living different lives.
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay and The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante - impossible not to fall in love with this series.
Nuestra parte de noche by Mariana Enríquez - witches, queerness, dictartoship, death and growing up all together in this unique novel.
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë - my favorite new old book of the year, read it as a teen and now, many years later loved it all over again.
My Policeman - Bethan Roberts - I would not have read this if it wasn’t for Harry Styles and I don’t regret it.
Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell - a book about Shakespeare that never even mentions his name but tells us this beautifully painful story about loss during a pandemic.
Ponciá Vicêncio - Conceição Evaristo - this is only a few pages long, but every single word hits you.
