Hey Dad #7 (My Favorite Things in 2022)

Hey Dad,

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been very busy with the Mass Effect series, moving, and recently getting sick. It’s been quite a lot lately. I figured I would give you all something to end the year off with. I usually like to use the Patreon as my dumping grounds for my opinions on anything outside of video games. I talk a lot about video games on the main channel, but I don’t get to talk about movies, TV, or music, all of which I have considerable interest in.

That’s why I usually put it here, as I know people also take some interest in my ramblings on these things as well.

In this list, I’ll be running down and talking about my favorite pieces of media this year.

I’ll also be putting a shorter version of this on my twitter, same sentiments, but less in-depth than I’ll go into here.

I should also note that these ramblings are in no particular order, just a cluster of my favorite things from 2022 in their respective categories.

I’ll note as well that I’ll try to not spoil anything in these brief reviews, as I don’t want to give anything away. This is just more of a year in review, and a smattering of my tastes in different forms of media for you to peruse.

Let’s say goodbye to this year and talk about some great things.

Movies

I’ll start off with movies, since I’ve probably interfaced with those most (after video games of course) this year.

I’ve watched a lot of movies this year, and actually finally started going back to the theater quite often after taking a bit of a hiatus for a while. I used to go see movies a lot, but that stopped for about a year. I’ve been trying to go see as many movies as I can, but the theaters near me don’t always get showings of things I’d like to see. For example, The Whale recently came out on Dec. 9th, and it’s still nowhere to be found in my area. Which is a shame, because it was easily the movie I was most excited for this year.

I have to start off by talking about The Menu. I saw this recently in theaters and it just absolutely blew me away.

I saw the trailer for this movie while going to see Tar, and I wanted to see it right away. It was marketed as a horror comedy, which it mostly, sort of was. It’s a weird blending of genres, mostly a drama with comedy elements. It’s less horror than I expected, but there’s a bit of everything here.

The movie itself is a commentary on art, the artist himself, and the critics that talk about art. It generally decides to make fun of every archetype that’s involved with the whole scene. It specifically focuses on a world renowned chef who has a remote island restaurant where he provides a once in a lifetime experience. The performances in this are fantastic, Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Nicholas Hoult all bring their A-Game here. Mark Mylod’s directing is also fantastic, mostly having directed TV Shows up to this point, it’s pretty impressive.

Another fantastic and hilarious movie that I saw this year was The Banshees of Inisherin. Martin McDonagh really creates something special here. The entire film is hilarious with incredibly bleak undertones. Set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, we follow the feud of two best friends. It’s build up is incredibly strange and funny, but I wouldn’t exactly call it fun. The film constantly has you questioning motives, and the characters themselves are interesting enough that you want to know more about them. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson both shine here, giving wonderful performances and hitting all the right beats. Kerry Condon also stands out here and gives a very emotional performance. Barry Keoghan also takes on his usual role of “Creepy Fucking Guy”, but this time he’s a little less creepy and a little more endearing.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot as I feel it’s better to just go in blind. The ending is extremely emotional, and the climax of the film had me tearing up quite a bit.

Speaking of comedy, one of the movies that had to go on my list is Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special. This technically isn’t a “movie” but a comedy special. Norm Macdonald is my favorite comedian, it was a shock when he passed away in 2021. But when a new special dropped posthumously that he had recorded during Covid, I was incredibly excited. He’s just as funny here as he’s always been, and It was incredibly touching to see one final set released from him, a final send off.

Barbarian is an incredibly interesting horror movie that plays with a lot of different ideas. The movie for the most part surrounds two people that accidentally rent the same Airbnb, but totally goes off the rails about halfway through. It kept throwing things my way that I totally didn’t expect from it. It’s twists and subversions play with the pace of the film, until it’s final climax where it just shatters you. An incredible movie from a genre that I don’t particularly watch that often. Also, my shock was outmatched when the credits rolled and I saw that Zach Cregger was the director. Zach was apart of The Whitest Kids You Know, a sketch comedy group from the 2000’s. Incredibly funny, but I never expected him to direct one of the most talked about horror movies of the year. Interesting stuff and I’m excited to see what he makes next.

The last movie I want to talk about is Navalny. I absolutely love documentaries as you probably know if you watch the content that I make. They’re fantastic and they remove a layer from the classic “movie” formula, one of fiction.

Documentaries that say something important are obviously great, covering situations one might not have known about to deliver the viewer more information. But the best kind of documentary is when it changes throughout it’s narrative. Icarus is a perfect example of this, a movie about the Russian OIympic doping scandal that just unfolds as it continues. Navalny is no different.

It surrounds a Russian politician that survived an assassination attempt by the Russian government. He then goes on to try and get the faces and numbers of the people that tried to kill him. The whole thing is incredibly tense and interesting, and it has one of the craziest scenes I’ve seen in a doc during the middle. The “phone call” scene had me on the edge of my seat. On top of that Navalny deals with incredibly topical issues, the whole situation is only more poignant after the conflicts in Ukraine began.

One the Count of Three is a fantastic dark comedy that I talked about in one of my previous Patreon posts. I’ve seen this movie a few times this year because it’s just so well done. Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott bounce off each other so well here. They have some fantastic charisma on screen and their performances are amazing.

Carmichael makes his directorial debut here as well and I can’t express the promise that he has moving forward. The movie is an incredible dark comedy about two friends who are planning on killing themselves. The comedy can get pretty dark here, but it’s one of the funniest movies I’ve seen all year.

It’s also incredibly heartfelt and emotional at the same time. Exploring both of these characters and their problems over the course of the movie is something that feels both fun and taxing at the same time.

Glass Onion the sequel to Rian Johnson’s Knives Out was a fantastic follow-up to the 2019 murder mystery. I haven’t seen this one more than once, primarily because I missed it’s theater run and it just released on Netflix a few days before writing this.

That being said, the movie was fantastic, incredibly fun, and interesting the whole way through. Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc is fantastic, and I could easily see him reprise this role 20 more times.

The mystery is so well done and has you constantly guessing the whole time. You’re always trying to figure out who did it, and how. On top of that every character in this movie is interesting. A cast of terrible people, with amazing performances, and interesting individuals.

The whole journey is so fun you just immediately want another when it’s over. On top of that, the movie is incredibly funny.

I easily enjoyed it far more than the first movie.

TV Shows

To be honest, I didn’t watch a lot of new TV this year. I did watch a lot of TV Shows, but most of them came out before 2022. If I opened up this list outside of the constraints of the past year, then I’d just be rambling about X-Files for tens of thousands of words.

The only TV Show that I actually finished this year, which was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, was Severance. Severance is an incredibly shocking release from Apple TV of all places. Adam Scott plays a man who has had a procedure to separate his brain so that he is effectively two different people, one at work, and one at home.

This show paces itself incredibly well and reminds me of the golden era of TV. It pulls you in, makes you curious, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. It’s a fantastic example of how to do a first season of TV. It gives us just enough things to wonder about, and answers enough to be fulfilling, but leaves so many open that it makes you yearn for a season 2. I absolutely cannot wait to see where this show goes, and I desperately hope that they can follow up with something great.

Music

I’ve listened to quite a lot of albums this year. I listen to music while working, getting footage for videos, writing, recording, editing, it’s always there. I try to branch out and listen to any genre, no matter how experimental. There’s a lot of albums that I loved this year, and it was actually a fantastic time for music. I'm going to try and condense all these albums into just a few, because I could put about 30 of them on here right now. I’ll try to just talk about the ones that I listened to the most.

The first on my list, and probably my absolute favorite of the year, was Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big Thief. I haven’t listened to Big Thief in a while. Their 2016 album Masterpiece was on constant rotation when I was younger.

But when I heard that their new album was getting some buzz, I had to check it out.

It’s an incredibly heartwarming and earnest album. The indie folk sound that they’ve developed is at once bleak, emotional, and comforting. It’s like a warm blanket, and on songs like “Heavy Bend”, the drums push through and carry a true impact. The whole thing is great and it’s one that I haven’t stopped listening to since it came out.

Another album that I listened to quite a lot was Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road. This experimental rock album is incredibly emotional. The vocals and lyricism of Isaac Wood are incredibly heartfelt. You can feel the emotion through the words and the song itself. Tracks like Concorde build up to this massive swell, this huge release that almost feels like a therapy session.

On top of that, the rest of the ensemble is on point. The saxophone sticks out in every song, giving these emotional pieces an almost forward looking and positive feel in these depressing tales. This gives more meaning to the band's name itself, the country is dark, but there is a new road here. The whole thing is amazing, and the finale, Basketball Shoes, finishes the piece in a massive triumphant 12 minute ending.

This one is a newer album, but one that I can’t stop listening to. White Trash Revelry by Adeem the Artist is a very personal, interesting take on the country genre. Country is a genre that I haven’t had too much experience with outside of the classics. Anything past the 80’s I haven’t really been too interested in. But this album is something that I’ve always wanted. Adeem ponders and sings the thoughts of his life, past and childhood. The opening track Carolina is a wonderful and earnest take on his own upbringing.

The whole thing is so open and honest. It feels like nothing is sacred here, and that honesty creates an interesting feeling, like speaking to an old friend.

Middle of a Heart, a track near the middle of the album, is one of my favorites. It might be my favorite song of the year. It’s so well structured lyrically. The progression just makes so much sense, and the chorus evolves throughout the track.

The entire album has a classic acoustic sound, but the things that Adeem is singing about almost don’t fit with the style. This may just be because I haven’t listened to much modern country music, but it almost seems like I haven’t heard anyone be this personal in the genre in a long time.

The project I was easily the most excited for this year was I love You Jennifer B by Jockstrap. I could not wait for this album after hearing the first single Concrete Over Water. That song’s 6 minutes are used incredibly well, to build you up and then break you down. The interesting and new diverse sounds are amazing. The electronic tones are thumping, giving you a huge sense of progression, almost a journey.

The album did not disappoint. I’m not even sure how to classify Jockstrap into a genre. Probably something in the area of experimental pop. Their sound is just incredibly unique and new.

The opening track Neon plays with distortion and synths. It starts out twinkly and flowery but degrades over time into this crippling mess. It eventually rises once again in a triumphant swell towards the end.

The album is constantly surprising and interesting. On first listen, you never know what you’re going to get moment from moment. It’s so well done and I can’t wait to see what Jockstrap does moving forward.

Another project that I was HOTLY anticipating was ROMCOM by Jakey. Obviously we all love our best Youtube boy. I’ve been a big fan of his since like 2017. When he started releasing music I was all about it, because it’s genuinely pretty good. This album was supposed to come out in February, but got delayed to all hell. The first single Pine Barrens was on repeat for me all of 2021.

Jakey releases some absolute bangers, and I think the things he does with samples are really interesting. His lyrics can be kind of corny and simple, but he’s definitely a guilty pleasure for me.

This new album is nothing different. There’s a couple stinker tracks on there, but I’ve listened to it quite a lot. The bangers hit pretty hard and it feels like Jakey has a lot of fun on the album.

Honorable Mentions

I’m just going to put some things here that I really enjoyed but weren’t great enough, or I didn’t listen to/watch them enough for me to actually talk bout them in depth.

Bones and All was a great romance/cannibal film directed by Luca Guadaginino, the director of Call Me By Your Name. I’ve only seen this once and I really liked it, but I’d need to watch it again to see if it’s something truly great.

Hustle was a great sports film starring Adam Sandler. I genuinely love when Adam Sandler does drama. He’s a great actor and I can’t wait to see more of these films from him. Heartfelt and well made.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande was a really great character piece about a woman hiring a male escort. Well directed with great performances.

I Want You Back was a fantastic romcom. Charlie Day is hilarious here and it was surprisingly good albeit a little formulaic.

10 by Westside Gunn is a fantastic hip-hop album. Great Features, killer bars, a great project all around.

God Don’t Make Mistakes by Conway the Machine the brother of the previous artist we talked about, is another amazing hip-hop album. These two are doing amazing stuff in the genre and you should check both of them out.

Bronco by Orville Peck is a great country album that I’ve listened to a handful of times now. It’s wonderful sound and lyrics truly mesmerize. I have to give a few more listens, but it shaping up to be one of my favorites.

Hellfire by black midi is a wonderfully interesting and unique sound. Geordie Greep’s vocals, cadence, and lyrics remind me of something akin to Protomartyr. Their instrumentals are wild, chaotic, and incredibly fun.

NO THANK YOU by Little Simz is a fantastic Hip-Hop/RnB album. Such great energy and lyricism here. Just recently found this one, but it’s quickly entering into my normal rotation.

A Year In Review

Before I go Dad, I’d like to talk about 2022 for the channel.

A lot happened this year. At the beginning, I was somewhere around 5,000 subscribers. I just recently hit 60,000 subscribers. I wanted to hit 10,000 subscribers by the end of this year. I thought that if maybe things went REALLY well, I could hit 20,000. That goal has been absolutely shattered. In that time, I’ve gone full time with youtube.

I genuinely love making videos so much. It’s my favorite thing to do. Talking about video games and creating something that I enjoy is fantastic, and being able to do it every day is such a gift. I can’t thank everyone enough that supports me and watches my content. This has been such a wild journey so far, and I can’t wait to see where we go next. I covered Devil May Cry, Fable, Silent Hill, Yakuza, Dragon's Dogma, Disco Elysium, Dead Space, and Mass Effect, all in one year.

This year has been one of the best of my life, thanks to all of you. Let’s do it again in 2023.

Bye Dad.