The 2022 Multiverse of Love

Hello beautiful holiday babes! It’s Christmas Eve-Eve, and I wrote more about Winter Solstice than I planned to, so this week I’m doing my own spoiler-free end-of-year wrap-up of my favorite movies, books, shows, and music of 2022. Did you love any and/or all of these too? Got any other under-the-radar faves or recommendations? Let us know–comments are open, subscribers!

Favorite Movie of 2022: Everything Everywhere All At Once

What can I say about this movie that hasn’t already been said? Nothing, because it’s one of the most wildly entertaining and emotionally affecting movies I’ve had the pleasure to see in a very long time and I know I’m far from the only one who feels that way. All the hype is real—I’m mad at myself (yet again!) for not seeing it in the theater because it is a BIG movie that felt barely contained by our (relatively large) home TV. Michelle Yeoh is indeed literally everything, 80's kid actor Ke Huay Quan returns to the screen with the kind of enthusiasm we stan eternally, and Stephanie Hsu is so complex and brilliant as their daughter. Bonus: Jamie Lee Curtis schlubs it up and lets her comedic skill loose, without dimming any of Yeoh’s shine.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is an action movie, a sci-fi movie, a family and marriage drama, an absurdist comedy—wholly original while also paying homage to classic 80’s capers and the ever-timeless hero’s journey. It’s one of the few movies where both my spouse and I got teary in the exact same spot, and it’s the only movie we've had to pause to process those emotions together. Don’t let anyone tell you that movies can’t be powerful experiences, even for a couple of jaded Millennial adults watching at home, probably slightly buzzed. I haven’t watched it again because I’m afraid it won’t be as powerful, and it very well may not be on second watch, but I want to go back and soak up the little details of the costumes, the production design, the the nuances I missed as I was swept up in the frenetic fantasy and aching reality of it all.

Runner Up: Nope

I was so pumped for this movie, like most of the planet, and while I was initially puzzled after the lights came up, it lived in my head for weeks as I started to realize the depth of the layers of this film. For all my fellow Jordan Peele fans (if you haven’t seen it yet??), you need to know that Nope is not actually a horror movie. It has a good bit of dread and suspense, sure, but it’s almost more of an action movie in parts and honestly, it don’t think it would be out of place among some modern Westerns? That's the levels we're talking about here.

We saw this one in the theatre the weekend it came out, but I wish we had seen it in IMAX—the cinematography is breathtaking, and the craft of the film itself is really incredible. It’s not as good as Get Out and not as scary as Us, but it’s an extremely assured and ambitious third entry from a smart, original filmmaker who’s changing the way we think about horror and cinema itself. I can’t wait to see what Peele does next.

Favorite Books Read in 2022

Confession time—I did not finish any books in 2022 that were published this year. I usually don’t buy books fresh off the presses, unless it’s a preorder from a writer I love and want to support, so I had actually had both of these on my Kindle for actual years before I finally got around to reading them, and I’m so glad I finally did.

The Essex Serpent (2017) by Sarah Hall is catnip for me: a literary historical novel with an eccentric heroine who doesn’t fit the time in which she lives and two extremely smart men (and maybe a few women) in love with her. I was excited for the AppleTV+ series with Claire Danes (who is also having a renaissance now with Fleishman is in Trouble) and Tom Hiddleston, but ultimately I never finished it–it didn’t have the same simmering intellectual and physical chemistry among the main characters to really keep me engaged, tying things up a little too neatly compared to the heartbreaking ambiguity of the book (Pachinko has been their only literary adaptation so far that remotely lives up to the book for me).

I was saddened by Madeleine Albright's death this year, and not just because I was in the middle of her excellent memoir/history of the Czech Republic in WWII, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War (2012) when I heard. Albright has always been a heroine of mine, someone I always thought would make an amazing President had she not been born in Czechoslovakia. I knew almost nothing about WWII Eastern Europe besides Nazi death camps, and this book is both a detailed and loving history of the country, its people, and the challenges it faced as Germany “reclaimed” it—and an intriguing family history. Albright's father, Josef Korbel, was ambassador to Yugoslavia and advisor to the Czech government, one of the first and strongest European democracies, before being exiled in London, and her family moved frequently to avoid potential political violence.

Even though this book is 10 years old, there are some uncomfortable but unsurprising similarities between Germany’s grab for the Sudeten region (formerly known as Bavaria) in the 1930's and Russia’s recent annexation of Crimea and eventual war with Ukraine:

Czechoslovakia was an artificial state with a made-up history and no right to exist; moreover, it was becoming a base for Communists. There was only one solution: German occupation of the Sudetenland was to be unconditional and would begin on or before the first of October. There would be no need for international supervision, no thought of compensation, no permission to dismantle infrastructure, and no right to remove military or commercial property...

It’s a stark reminder of just how accurate the old adage remains, that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

Runner Up TV Drama: Yellowjackets

I’ve already written about Severance, which is definitely my top drama of 2022, but Yellowjackets had been in the lead for months before it debuted. The immediate premise is a 90’s teen girl version of Lord of the Flies threaded with a tinge of Lost, but it goes much deeper as we jump to the future of the girls who survived and see the women they’ve become, along with the secrets they’re hiding. As much as I love a good 90’s throwback, the modern parts of the show are more sinister and suspenseful as the events on that remote mountaintop where they were stranded for nearly two years unfolds. Yellowjackets also kicked off the 2022 Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci resurgences, which I am ALL THE WAY here for. Season 2 premieres on March 24, and apparently it's already been picked up for a 3rd season as well, all part of the showrunners' set plans for a 5-season arc. Y'all know I love a show that plans ahead...

Favorite TV Comedy of 2022: I Love That For You

Showtime came in hot and then fizzled for me in the second half of the year, but that’s only because nothing could hold a candle to Vanessa Bayer’s savage home-shopping network satire, I Love That for You. Not only is Bayer fantastic in it as the new kid on the shopping block, but once again, a killer ensemble cast can make all the difference: Molly Shannon is an older, extremely popular host considering retirement, and Jennifer Lewis as the network’s vulgar and fabulous HBIC. I hope it gets picked up for another season (it's been written, but not renewed yet) because it’s simply too sharp not to.

Runner Up: Somebody Somewhere

And while I regularly wax poetic about ensemble casts, don’t discount how effective a strong lead can be to creating a searing emotional core to a show that might otherwise not have been as good. If you’re only familiar with Bridget Everett for her raunchy comedic cabaret performances, you’re missing out: she’s an absolute treat to watch on Somebody, Somewhere as prodigal daughter Sam returning to Manhattan, Kansas to mourn her sister’s death and having a nice little midlife crisis in the meantime. It’s a fairy easygoing show, without a lot of plot or action, but if you know small town and farm life in the Midwest (what up Knick Knacks and Doodads), you’ll recognize a LOT from the show's loving and accurate depiction. It was renewed almost immediately after it debuted back in January, so we should see season two in the near future.

Favorite Album of 2022: SZA, SOS

Apple Music’s godawful Replay ’22 told me that Lizzo’s Special was my top album this year, and while I’m not denying that, I really only listened to two songs on repeat (many, many times). And this was also before SZA finally dropped her sophomore album SOS earlier this month and rocked everyone’s world, including mine. Even at a meandering 23 tracks, SOS clocks in in at just over an hour, so there’s an economy to the songs themselves, even if a few could have been left behind for the inevitable deluxe edition. I’m so glad “Good Days” made it, even though it was released as a single two years ago, and I’ve been vibing to “Low,” “Snooze,” “Ghost in the Machine” (featuring Phoebe Bridgers), and “Too Late.” I appreciate the sonic variety across the full album as well, even if I aged out of “F2F”’s pop-punk a good two decades ago. Bottom line: it was well worth the five-year wait after her transcendent 2017 debut, CTRL.

Top Song of 2022: "Speeding 72" - Momma

Now this one, Replay '22 actually got right. Momma is a nouveau-grunge trio from LA, and while the rest of their album Household Name definitely fits that tone, I feel like “Speeding 72” gets me in ways I haven’t felt since I was in high school. What can I say? I like songs about driving, especially when they’re also really good to drive around to. This track is catchy and more upbeat than the rest of the album, and while the lyrics won’t really set the world on fire, it’s the overall hazy teenage vibe for me: just wanting to be out of the house but not really having anywhere to go or do in the meantime, layered on top of that very specific adolescent fear of what’s ahead and creeping sense of self-loathing that you don’t know what to do with until much later. Or maybe that was just me? Anyway, it's a jam.

No links this week my little sugar plums, because next week we'll have a big ole rundown and recap of the articles, newletters, podcasts and more Internet ephemera that got me through this year with at least some of my sanity in tact!

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Until next week, read this comprehensive Winter Solstice explainer, get into the extremely niche drama around Stonehenge's origins, dive into this heartfelt comic from Tuca & Bertie (RIP) creator Lisa Hanawalt, and learn the sweet story of how the Very Special Christmas album series came to be.

Multidimensionally Yours,
LKH