Aaron's 25 Of 2020

Mouth Dreams

   When Soderbergh won the Oscar for Traffic  (in whatever category he won; I don't remember because it's not important) he said "this world would be unlivable without art" and that's been especially true in 2020. Neil Cicierega reminded me of that with this surprise follow-up to his Mouth Trilogy. It makes the world around me less miserable but it's not an important or profound album - quite the opposite. It's just extremely well-made absurdist mash-ups that split the atom of pop-culture into a glorious explosion.

Solar Opposites

  At some point I felt like I'd outgrown Rick & Morty, or it just fell off for me and I've been neglectful (most likely the case). Solar Opposites is nowhere near as 'smart' as R&M but that's kinda refreshing; it's just a harsh, raunchy, screamingly funny scifi comedy that I can't get enough of. Hitting play on the next episode as I type this.

Conner O'Malley's
Hudson Yards Video Game

    I've always loved Conner O'Malley for keeping YouTube wild, weird, wet, and disturbing. He's like a combination of Eric Andre, Tom Green, Andy Kaufman, as well as his own unique brand of abrasive satirical comedy (unfortunately The Eric Andre Show took a giant shit this year [and not in that good way]). More than once Conner's videos have made me laugh so hard I've nearly thrown up and I think it might happen someday, too. It was hard to pick just one, because he had great content this year, but this video is probably the best on his channel. It's one of the most bizarre, striking things he's ever done. It's not his funniest but it's the most inspired and conceptual. It's also fucking brilliant.
PRESS 'B' TO CONTINUE HEARING ABOUT THE OFFICE.

The Kendrick Lamar Leaks

  I should have probably avoided these--I usually avoid these--but we haven't gotten new Kendrick music in almost 4 years and curiosity got the best of me (not to mention my suspicion that K-Dot himself leaked them, but this isn't about my theorizing). As an unofficial EP it feels like a sequel to Untitled Unmastered. As usual, Kung-Fu Kenny is bringing the most forward-thinking lyricism and song concepts to the entire rap game; one song in particular, The Prayer, is an epic treatise on cancel culture and art vs. artist. More than just that, the song is from the perspective of Art itself; fucking mindblowing. And if these are just a few rough cuts?? SHIIIT, my excitement has no depth for the full album.

Ty Segall's Cover Of
JUMP INTO THE FIRE

  As a covers album this is pretty cool but Fire specifically is so goddamn thrilling. The original is obviously great but this electric take sounds like a gigantic oil tanker speeding toward an inferno during a tornado. It's BIGGER, NOISIER, AND MORE ABRASIVE. Listen to it, run 200 laps around the block, and then die. You'll come back to listen to it again.
And again [...]

EUPHORIA
Special Episode, Part 1: Rue
Trouble Don't Last Always

I didn't want to do any kinda ranking list or countdown so here's my favorite thing of 2020 - movies, music, and TV combined. It's easily my favorite thing, too, because it's all my favorite shit; an hour long dialog-driven bottle episode where two people clash philosophical in a diner and the dialogue is so excitingly, enviably, annoyingly good. It contains some of the sagest, challenging wisdom about cancel culture, moralism, addiction, the utility of religion, the bullshit of corporate allyship, and dating. It feels less like Sam Levinson, a former addict, trying to be profound and more like wanting to get something off of his chest and his catharsis is our enlightenment.
Nothing else from 2020 can top this.

Better Call Saul
Season 5

   Until Euphoria dethroned it, this was my favorite thing of the year.
Episode after episode this season was on a glorious winning streak and a good number of them were some of the best media in the entire Breaking Bad canon. It's solidified as one of the most reliable shows on TV but, specifically: the MVP this season is Rhea Seehorn. Praises need to be sung in the highest register for her; she's the best part of the show, and that's saying a lot because it's a fucking GREAT show. She should be a household name like Bryan Cranston because the work she puts in is some of the best acting I've ever seen. If you haven't started Saul yet: do it today, if only for Kim Wexler and the outstanding actor who brings her to full fucking life.

The Joe Rogan Experience
#1419: Daryl Davis

  I'm a part-time listener of JRE, it usually depends on the guest, but this interview with Daryl Davis is his absolute best. It's 2 hours, 40 minutes long and not for a second is it ever even close to boring. There are plenty of Davis interviews on the internet but Rogan's interview, specifically, is great because it's such a relaxed-fit atmosphere. Listening to him talk about the minutiae of the KKK and how he convinced over 200 Klansmen, including a Grand Dragon, to hang up their robes, is truly compelling stuff. Davis has lived a fascinating, storied life and he knows exactly how to tell those stories because he's a loquacious dude and that gift for gabbing is exactly how he does what he does. One might feel like Davis' efforts are futile, that he's not dismantling racism as the system of oppression that it is - doing it one person at a time. But he not only risked his life to do it, he's devoted his life to it - that's truly radical.

The Dixie Chicks
Gaslighter

  I never got around to listening to the full album but this comeback single from The Chicks is undeniably one of the catchiest songs of the year. Despite what some old heads claim, Country music is on the upswing.

The Vast Of Night

  My favorite movie of 2020:
 Super 8 and the Twilight Zone reboot completely failed to be everything this is, which is a breathless, endearing 89 minutes of oh-so-boss moviemaking about two kids, one a DJ and the other a switchboard operator, investigating an alien transmission and strange phonecalls. Shot like a lost Spielberg movie it's all engrossing dialogue that wanes from funny to creepy to cathartic. For all I care, Elliott and Fay could bicker for 8 more hours and I'd watch it - their chemistry is off the charts. Don't look up the trailer or anything else about it, just let it woo you like it did me.

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made

  I already wrote about this but not enough can be said about it. It's easily the best kids' movie this year (and I sat through a lot of them since I was quarantined with my family and Disney+) but it's also my favorite comedy of the year and I don't say that lightly. If you like your humor dry and silly, this is for you.

Danny Elfman's
HAPPY

    What starts like a typical Burton collaboration gradually deforms into a glitchy, thrashy, creepy pandemic anthem; a fun and freaky alternative to Gal Gadot's even creepier Imagine singalong (haha...YIKES).

Kevin James' YouTube Channel

  No matter how bad the Blart movies are, or Here Comes The Boom, The Zookeeper, Grown-Ups, Grown-Ups 2, etc. I've always liked Kevin James (I'll admit I find him charming as Blart). I grew up on, and grew out of, The King Of Queens but he's still had something there that's never quite been tapped into. Apparentlyy in short bursts, with great production, he can be really funny. Sometimes the editing is downright seamless and sometimes, not every time, when it's not, it's funny because he's just going with it completely straight faced. There's even a P.T. Anderson cameo in one of them!

Sound Of Metal

A stellar performance from Riz Ahmed, an even better supporting performance from left-field actor Paul Raci, immersive sound design, and potent drama makes this one of the best movies in a year without many best movies (it'd stand out in a good year). Watch it with subtitles and headphones on if you can; it's a movie about going deaf so the sound is the most important part of the experience, especially when it's absent.

i'm thinking of ending things

  I already wrote a gigantic fucking post about this and I'm still exhausted from it so I'll keep it brief:
Good movie, thinky movie, horror movie, funny movie, sharp edits, Zemeckis, performance from redhead good, brain hurty.

Dave Chappelle's SNL Monologue

Four years after his triumphant return to the spotlight, Chappelle comes back to deliver 16 more minutes of bold, insightful, and funny wisdom that breaks up the monotony of SNL. He touches on all the typical topicals of 2020 but in a way that only he could, bypassing the censors and taking full advantage of his clout blanche: not only does he go on for 16 minutes, and it's some of his best material, but he doesn't even bother to cap it off with the customary "we've got a good show for you tonight..." He ends it like a stand-up set. I needed it and I'm thankful for it.

MOONBASE 8

   A workplace comedy lying somewhere between the purely wholesome and surreal comedy of Joe Pera Talks With You and the boneheaded silliness of '90s sitcoms, MOONBASE 8 is a great antidote to the year of the virus. It's dumb, fun, and surprisingly sincere. And with a cast this good, who even needs to praise them? They're them and if you love 'em, then...

The Devil All The Time

  With time this might climb as my favorite of this year, I love it for a lotta reasons, but in a year that's as bleak as this one was, I can't quite stomach it as much as the goosebump-inducing whimsy of Vast Of Night nor the innocent comedy of Timmy Failure. Devil isn't misery porn, though, it's quite funny and hopeful, but like a Jennifer Kent movie: you suffer as you enjoy it. In its defense, I haven't seen it since it came out but from what I remember it's an ambitious southern gothic ensemble piece. At the center of the mosaic is a a coming-of-age story that gives Tom Holland a chance to reveal his range and for Robert Pattinson to give, in my opinion, his most complex performance to date. And if you're a slut for a good narrator, Donald Ray Pollock brings so much personality and insight to your ears.

The Safdie Brothers & Ari Aster On Scorsese

  If you're down to listen to three accomplished, highly talented, intimidating filmmakers turn into pretentious, lame, goofy nerds gushing about Scorsese, then this video is Heaven. Josh Safdie won't shut up, Benny keeps hitting his mic and upsetting the sound girl, Ari is always inserting himself to be heard, it's all shouting -I love every single fucking second of it. It's so relatable because it feels like every conversation I've had with fellow media hounds, especially a bit where one of the Safdies talk about watching The Big Shave on YouTube and then having to search for it every time it was taken down. If that's not relatable on this site then I don't know what is.

The Trailer for THE BATMAN
   This had to be on here. I thought maybe it didn't really 'fit' the theme but whatever. I spent enough time watching it (over and over and over) that it's probably added up to a movie's length. It's a perfect trailer because I know nothing about it yet everything about it grabs my curiosity by the throat. It feels like Matt Reeves gets Gotham. It finally looks like I've always pictured it when reading the comics and watching The Animated Series: like a gothic noir. The fact that he says "I'm vengeance," not "I'm Batman," is the most comics-accurate thing I've seen in any of the movies. What makes this trailer ecen more special is it came out the night of my birthday and it felt like a beautiful gift-wrapped tease. In a year where every fucking movie was put on hold for another year, this trailer dropped and then we were told it's delayed for TWO years. It's exciting but it's also fucking maddening, in the best way possible, because it looks fucking good but also like it could be the definitive Batman movie made by a truly passionate fan. I believe in Matt Reeves.

The Outsider

  This joins The Shining (1980) and Carrie (1976) as one of my favorite Stephen King adaptations ever. It's what It Chapter 2 failed to be: a mature, character-driven story about an ancient interdimensional monster, but with a procedural twist to ground it. True Detective season 1 danced on the edge of the metaphysical, to great end, but The Outsider heaves into the abyss - think HBO's answer to The X-Files.

DEVS

Someone told Alex Garland that he couldn't write sci-fi, so he wrote Sunshine to spite them and continued by adapting Never Let Me Go, Annihilation, and writing both Ex Machina and DEVS. Always indulge in rubbing someone's nose in your talent if they don't believe in you because DEVS is Garland's successor to Twin Peaks: The Return. There have been plenty of those who've been influenced by it, just like Peaks' original run, but DEVS is the first one to truly capture the spirit of it without being outright derivative. This isn't Garland doing David Lynch but him artfully tearing down Silicon Valley's hipster facade for 8 hours. He plays with structure, pacing, and subverts expectations in wildly unexpected ways. For example, toward the end of the season, he thrusts us into a great episode that halts plot momentum for a game of frisbee while everyone discusses matters of life and death... and relationships. It's funny, tense, and all-around fantastic. DEVS might have a few problems with its writing on a small scale but its large scale ideas are so heady, ingenious, and existentially haunting. Saul might be the best TV I saw last year but DEVS was the most ambitious (with some truly inspired casting of Nick Offerman).

Joe Pera Talks With You
Season 2

  The most wholesome, gentle, folksy ASMR therapy that [adult swim] could ever produce. It's like Twin Peaks if there was no Black Lodge, Roadhouse, or One-Eyed Jack's but, instead, Andy and Lucy breaking the fourth wall to give us innocent musings on the mundane. I wouldn't call it 'pure,' though, there's a great streak of odd, surreal humor throughout, especially episodes written by Conner O'Malley. The reason season 2 is so significant is because it has more of an ongoing frame narrative as well as a better sense of everyone else around Joe, like his girlfriend Sarah, his best friend Gene, and Gene's wife Lulu. I don't just see it as a calming ASMR novelty show anymore, I'm invested.

The Gretel & Hansel Score

  I thought I loved this movie but on rewatch it's mostly just a good mood piece with great photography. It's not bad but Oz Perkins is definitely punching under his weight. Honestly, it should have been a miniseries because it feels, in a bad way, like a pilot episode with its brief but intriguing world-building and scant character development. That said, this score is fucking incredible. Instead of the typical string sections and woodwinds, it's a soundscape of synth and electric guitar that I've been addicted to since February. It's like Tangerine Dream's score for Legend but less soapy and crystalline, more nocturnal and grand.

clipping
Chapter 319

  I barely kept up with music this year but this is the one that stuck with me the most; featuring samples from George Floyd himself and sounding like that cover art looks, this is the protest anthem of the summer of protests. Catchy, topical, harsh, thoughtful, and unforgettable.

Jacob Spickelmire's Top 100 of the 2010s, or: The New War for the Soul of Rock n' Roll

One thing has become abundantly clear: all films are “youth films” now.

In ‘73 Lester Bangs declared that rock n’ roll was dead. “The war is over,” he said. “They won.”

Once upon a time in Hollywood, the term “youth film” meant “challenging, subversive, transgressive, exciting.” But the war is over. We won. Now we’re Hollywood’s only child, and when the film industry has a singular target demographic all those aforementioned adjectives quickly get swapped out for just one: “inoffensive.” Cuz nothing angers momma more than somebody upsetting her baby.   

One of the criticisms most often levied against S. Craig Zahler is that he “makes movies for the Alt-Right.” Let’s ignore for a second the implicit (or explicit) dismissiveness and laziness of such an accusation, as well as the implausibility of it, and just look at the basic premise: a filmmaker making movies for “problematic people.” Now, that’s a tricky thing, true or not. If the industry’s target demographic was Ben Shapiro’s audience then the Ghostbusters remake would be “problematic.” 

Of course, it’s obvious to anyone with the capacity for critical thought - or, frankly, just the ability to pay attention - that Zahler is not, in fact, a closet Nazi. But that’s beside the point, which is: since when does a film’s or filmmaker’s audience dictate the artistic merit of said film or filmmaker? It’s bad enough when someone dismisses a work of art because the person who made it was a woman-beater or a racist, but now we’ve graduated to guilt-by-association, and for what? What is the goal here? Do we have such a low opinion of one another that we cannot possibly fathom a world in which people are allowed to think for themselves because “stupidity will always prevail”? That’s a starkly pessimistic view of the human race from those who fancy themselves bastions of humanism. Looks like stupidity might prevail after all.

The truth is that what annoys people most these days is something we’re all guilty of: trolling. We’re all tribalists at the end of the day. We all love getting a rise out of our ideological opponents. It validates our ‘radical’ online personas. But admitting this isn’t enough, because there’s some much needed reckoning that awaits us.   

I don’t like Eli Roth - nor do I know anyone who does - but something I’ve heard from practically every swingin’ dick - including myself - is that he’s “immature”; that he engages in “shallow provocation” in order to satisfy his own misplaced sense of self-righteousness. 10 years ago that complaint might’ve stuck...but now? Conventional wisdom tells us that shallow provocation is a childish form of faux-rebellion, but when the world is being run by children, what higher form of rebellion is there? Just take a look at Eli’s critics: they’re as much to blame for this culture of slap-fighting as he is. 

Almost every “woke” movie I saw in the 2010s was a giant pile of fucking dogshit. Truth be told, I’m actually jealous of the so-called Red Pillers and Alt-Right Neo-Nazi Incel Jihadists because at least they have something to rebel against. I’m stuck here “agreeing” with Black Panther like a chump. The racists get Zahler, and who do I get? Patty Jenkins. 

Yeah, sure, I know: not every movie falls into this regressive binary, and there are plenty of “hidden gems” from throughout the 2010s that subvert the mainstream culture of milquetoast pandering. I know this cuz I’ve seen every “hidden gem” there is to see (many of them will appear on this list), but you know what? Fuck hidden gems. Rock n’ roll isn’t about being quiet.

I shouldn’t have to don a trenchcoat and magnifying glass to find something worth watching. This is just more ‘inoffensive’ pandering as far as I’m concerned: keep the meaningful art out of view of those who don’t want to be challenged. Put it on Netflix, where those who want to watch “that sort of thing” can find it. Then we can point at them and shout “problematic!” to protect the hegemony of cynical Hollywood execs who make their money off of brownnosing the very people ‘cancelling’ them for raping 5,000 women. 

That being said, lemme draw your attention to a woke hidden gem: Assassination Nation (2018)

If you haven’t yet seen the HBO series Euphoria, you will. That’s not a recommendation, it’s a prediction. And that’s where I’m going with this: although it’s hidden right now, I suspect (and more than that, I hope) Assassination Nation won’t be for long... 

When I first watched Euphoria, I was struck by a feeling that I’d never felt before; a feeling that I now know previous generations took for granted: I felt old. The sights, the sounds, the explicit sexual content, the confrontational politics - it was all a bit much for my coddled, Millennial brain to handle. Why? Because it wasn’t meant for me. This is a show about and for Generation Z (or Zoomers). I wanted to cross my arms with a disapproving frown and huff, “Kids these days!” This wasn’t the mealy-mouthed ‘pandering’ that I was used to. This was something more substantive; something with teeth. “Didactic” comes with a negative connotation, but perhaps that’s only because the movies and shows that usually talk down to us are dumber than we are. 

This blog is hardly the forum for airing my grievances against Millennials but I’ll say this: we have more in common with Boomers than we want to admit. Like them, we’re a generation of Hall Monitors. That’s what I’ve been accustomed to for the past decade, so to suddenly be confronted by a piece of aggressively contemporary art... well, it was exhilarating. And it speaks to what’s around the corner (hopefully).

Sam Levinson is a guy who’s forward-thinking enough to rebel against the libs without being labeled “immature” and against the chuds without being labeled “thought police.” He is, I suspect, the voice of a new generation. 

Assassination Nation might be underseen by general audiences, but I doubt Levinson will abide that. He’s not making humble art films for Netflix or A24 and then giving polite interviews about them. To borrow a heteronormative, cissexist, patriarchal phrase: dude’s got balls. He possesses the directorial and screenwriting acumen necessary to go toe-to-toe with Quentin or Refn or PT, and he’s woker than his wokest detractors -- indeed, he has the bona fides to dismissively roll his eyes and say “OK Millennial.” 

We like to say that film is dead, but that’s too permanent. You can’t kill an art form any more than you can kill a season of the year, and if Assassination Nation and Euphoria are any indication, “youth films” in the 2020s may very well be smarter and ballsier than they’ve been in two decades. If that happens then winter could finally come to an end and rock n’ roll could rise again, as angry and rebellious as it ever was, ready for war. So rally your fucking crew. Grab your guns and hide behind your masks. Because this ain’t rock n’ roll, after all. This is genocide.

1. The End of the Tour (2015)
2. Under the Silver Lake (2019)
3. Bridge of Spies (2015)
4. Room (2015)
5. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
6. Shazam! (2019)
7. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016)
8. Alien: Covenant (2017)
9. Dragged Across Concrete (2019)
10. Assassination Nation (2018)
11. Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
12. The Lost City of Z (2017)
13. Doctor Sleep (2019)
14. There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011)
15. Wind River (2017)
16. The Void (2016)
17. First Reformed (2018)
18. Nocturnal Animals (2016)
19. Savageland (2017)
20. Wheelman (2017)
21. Honey Boy (2019)
22. Green Room (2016)
23. Concussion (2015)
24. Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
25. Uncut Gems (2019)
26. Split (2017)
27. The Nightmare (2015)
28. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
29. Blackfish (2013)
30. Nymphomaniac: Vol II (2014)
31. Gerald’s Game (2017)
32. Blue is the Warmest Color (2013)
33. Pain & Gain (2013)
34. 21 Jump Street (2012)
35. True Grit (2010)
36. The Lighthouse (2019)
37. Out of the Furnace (2013)
38. The House That Jack Built (2018)
39. Foxcatcher (2014)
40. Suspiria (2018)
41. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
42. Room 237 (2013)
43. The Hateful Eight (2015)
44. Interstellar (2014)
45. Overlord (2018)
46. Contagion (2011)
47. Whiplash (2014)
48. Sicario (2015)
49. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
50. Ford v Ferrari (2019)
51. Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
52. The Master (2012)
53. Bone Tomahawk (2015)
54. It Comes at Night (2017)
55. mid90s (2018)
56. Prisoners (2013)
57. Nymphomaniac: Vol I (2014)
58. Killer Joe (2011)
59. Blue Ruin (2014)
60. Looper (2012)
61. It (2017)
62. The Counselor (2013)
63. 22 Jump Street (2014)
64. Destroyer (2018)
65. Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
66. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I (2010)
67. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II (2011)
68. Red State (2011)
69. Glass (2019)
70. Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
71. Annihilation (2018)
72. Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)
73. Hail, Caesar! (2016)
74. Logan (2017)
75. Melancholia (2011)
76. Locke (2014)
77. Pacific Rim (2013)
78. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
79. Mud (2012)
80. X-Men: First Class (2011)
81. Digging Up the Marrow (2015)
82. Waves (2019)
83. Only God Forgives (2013)
84. Anomalisa (2015)
85. Django Unchained (2012)
86. Tusk (2014)
87. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
88. Nightcrawler (2014)
89. Halloween (2018)
90. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
91. The Revenant (2015)
92. First Man (2018)
93. Inherent Vice (2014)
94. The Nightingale (2019)
95. Krampus (2015)
96. Good Time (2017)
97. Moonlight (2016)
98. Knight of Cups (2015)
99. Take Shelter (2011)
100. Under the Skin (2013)