Dobes Zone

 2021 was a bad year in a lot of ways but it was a stellar year for me in terms of watching new films (or at least films that were new to me). I spent a lot more time doing solo watches as well as hosting movie streams over discord with a fun and friendly group of folks who share my passion for weirdo cinema. I'll admit that this year was not particularly one where I watched a ton of current releases but I'm hoping to catch up soon- still need to see Titane, Benedetta, tons of other stuff. So here in no particular ranking or order are a bunch of my faves from this year. I'm also listing at the end the movies I didn't enjoy. I'm not including short films on this list either but might consider making another post about favorite shorts by theme. You can also check out my letterboxd to see all the stuff I watched in 2021 and years prior. My Faves viewed in 2021 1) Shirley (2020) I started my year off strong by catching a digital screening of Shirley (paired with Leigh...

 Content warning: discussions of rape and CSA. Also spoilers about the series and how it ends. If you don't care about spoilers, give it a read.        Where to begin, really? I finally finished my watch through of Banana Fish, a series I'd started on some years prior but hadn't watched in its entirety until recently. I'd also read through a good portion of the manga and it's interesting to note that the anime is fairly faithful in its adaptation- just updating the setting to the contemporary and swapping the Vietnam war for the gulf war in the backstory.     At its heart, Banana Fish is a tragic romance between two teen boys from vastly different worlds- Ash Lynx, a former child prostitute turned gang leader who'd been groomed by a mafia don to be a successor, and Eiji Okumura, a gentle Japanese boy accompanying a journalist as an assistant. They meet on a story focused on Ash's gang and their lives get turned upside down as Ash is caught up in a...