It’s that time of the year! In total I watched 13 films, 17 series, and read just 4 books. I’m particularly disappointed with my book count. I was heavily distracted with taking care of Koomi that I lost time to read. Yeah, I blame Koomi haha.
My favorite movie of 2023 would be Oppenheimer, hands down. It’s too epic and too masterfully made. A genius portrayal of intense calm and deafening silence. Just recalling the film gives me goosebumps!
John Wick was wildly entertaining, as usual.
Howl’s Moving Castle is beautiful, surreal; I don’t know with Ghibli but I find myself more immersed in the animation than the story itself. It’s so magical. Never fails to delight.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is Marvel’s best movie installment of 2023. There’s not much competition though. Good Lord, Marvel Studios has been spiraling downwards big time ever since it put politics ahead of entertainment. There’s QuantuMEHnia, The lackluster Marvels, and an unimpressive Secret Invasion. Loki Season 2 was dragging up until the last episodes when everything finally gets held together (quite literally) and Loki gets an epic character arc. I loved that. Should’ve turned that into a movie instead.
My love for Mythic Quest and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia remains the same. Great writing as always.
Emily in Paris ended on an intriguing note.
Selling Sunset released 2 seasons in a year, and as usual, I live more for the drama than the houses. Chrishell kicked ass this season, not rolling over for anyone and defending herself eloquently. When I say that I mean she explains herself well. She listens and makes sure she’s listened to as well. Whereas Nicole stutters, Amanza panders, Mary walks out, Brie couldn’t care less, Chelsea backstabs. At least Emma is frank.
Mary-lou, on the other hand, I feel bad for. I don’t know what the real deal is with her but it seems like she’s struggling to make a scene with Chrishell because production says so, and she needs to bring drama to the table if she wants screen time. Just a hunch. And Chrishell saw through that and quickly calls off her BS. There’s no stopping Chrishell. She’s super focused this year no one can break her peace. Love her!
I forgot to add this in the collage but we started watching Impractical Jokers and got hooked! It’s so hillarious!
As for books…
I don’t even want to talk about it cos I didn’t read much. The Lottery (dark) and The Communist Manifesto (idealistic) are very short and I’ll be honest, I read them because I wanted to get a quick book count. They’ve been on my list anyway, but yeah. The Hating Game is a re-read which I re-enjoyed, and Book Lovers… I can’t even remember what it’s about. Urgh.
Still stuck reading A Little Life. I don’t want to give up on it because of my pride. I’m more than 50% in! Just 10 more hours to go lol. People have so much regard for this book that’s why I wanted to read it. And for the first few chapters I liked it. But the pace is so slow, author is really taking the time fleshing out the characters, introducing them properly, which is good. I love how it’s written. It’s just that there’s not much of a conflict apart from the mystery that is Jude’s childhood. I feel so bad for him I cried so hard at one point in the book. But it’s just that… it’s too slow and I don’t see an end to it haha. But I’ll power through. For the sake of my abovementioned pride lol.
♥