My December in Media

Despite the fact that this month I've written three roundups of the media I consumed over the entire decade, I still felt like I had to wrap up 2019 with a little bow. I clocked 128 movies in total – not a nice round number, but not too bad!

Here's what I watched in December.

Knives Out*
Oh man, this was so fun. Absolutely one of my faves of the year – smart, funny and surprisingly thoughtful with a knockout cast. While Chris Evans's sweaters are, in fact, very good (though I'm partial to Jamie Lee Curtis's coats), there are so many more things to love about this film including but not limited to Daniel Craig's Southern accent.

Shazam!
This movie, like all superhero movies, is 15 to 30 minutes too long. But it's fun! And sweet! And it seems like kids would actually enjoy it, which is the actual point of superhero movies. The first act is slow, but the final one makes it worth it.

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding
These movies aren't good. Obviously. This one had a few cute moments and a lot of cringe-y ones. And the wedding dress – obviously the main reason to watch a movie about a wedding – looked like a straightjacket made of pillowcases.

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby
This one didn't even have a few cute moments, but credit must be given to it being the first time I thought Amber and Richard might actually like each other. Read my full review.

Tiffany Haddish: Black Mitzvah
She's just here to teach – and it's pretty entertaining but not as good as she's capable of.

Long Shot
On its surface, Long Shot looks annoying. It looks like a million sex comedies you've already seen and thought were dumb. But it's actually fun and cute! It's a solid rom-com with sex comedy tendencies. And Charlize Theron is so beautiful that it's almost infuriating.

Michelle Wolf: Joke Show
Going into this, I didn't know anything about Michelle Wolf except that she hosted the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2018. But I really liked this special and found myself laughing out loud a lot, sometimes just because of Wolf's delivery. Also, as a woman with a less than incredible voice, I love that Wolf has made a career out of using – and poking fun at – hers.

Michelle Wolf: Nice Lady
I watched Nice Lady immediately after Joke Show and liked it a little less. But it's also the earlier special, so I think part of that was just hearing jokes before they were polished.

Submarine
This movie is weird but funny in that specific, very British way where it's like "everyone is so awkward that I might die, so I have to laugh instead." It's a coming-of-age romance that isn't actually romantic and isn't relatable at all, but it's told in a frank style that's fun to watch. Especially if you're on the phone with your boyfriend, who recommended it – but that's a very specific experience.

Leave No Trace
From its trailer, I thought this movie looked very good and devastatingly sad. So, I kept putting off watching it. But when I finally did, it didn't really make me sad – it just stressed me out. It reminded me a lot of when I read The Glass Castle in college. I found it very hard to be warm or sympathetic to Jeannette Walls' father, and I felt the same way watching Leave No Trace. That probably says more about me than either piece of media.

John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch
This is so damn weird and fun. Somehow a therapy session, fever dream and children's special all at once that also happens to feature Richard Kind, Natasha Lyonne and Jake Gyllenhaal at possibly his weirdest – and that's really saying something. My favorite parts were actually the transitions, which felt so viscerally familiar in the way they looked and sounded, I almost got a little emotional about it. Being an adult is strange.

Though I've wrapped up my 15 favorite films released this decade, at the end of last year, I listed my six favorite movies I saw that year that came out that year and my six favorites I saw that came out before 2018. And I was going to do that but 2019 had so many good movies! So here are just 10 great movies I saw this year: Big Fish, Booksmart, Eighth Grade, The Florida Project, Hustlers, The Invitation, Jenny Slate: Stage Fright, Knives Out, Parasite and Ready or Not. Can you sense a theme?

Unfortunately, my most-anticipated movie of the year was The Dirt.

And, in keeping with the half-and-half practice, my favorite book I read that came out this year was Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (read, know it, love it) and my favorite that came out before was The Shining by Stephen King (LOL, bye, Kubrick).

The five best performances I saw this year were The Dirty Nil during SXSW, Aly & AJ in the rain, Alice Cooper featuring a surprise Joe Perry, Carly Rae Jepsen by myself and Childish Gambino at ACL.

Let's do this, new decade! (Here's what I'm hoping to work on.)