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...

      Yayyyyy! Murders!  I generally do not like sharing openly about my interest in true crime stories and history- I don't want people to get the wrong idea, nor do I want to attract the wrong kind of audience to myself. That's because I feel like there's a handful of distinct outcomes for people who get deeply invested in learning about the material, and it ties into some serious issues we're experiencing in the digital age.  If you're like me, your curiosity leads you to learn about how much of violent crime is connected to inherent societal injustice. Serial killers get to prey on people largely due to police incompetence and the fact that they often choose victims that "won't be missed". Victims are in impoverished areas, they're sex workers, drug addicts, gay, trans, people of color, Native Americans, homeless, etc (and any combination and intersection of these things). There's a term for this- The Less Dead, because they're not view...

         Patricia Piccinini's sculpture "Young Family"      There's something I really resent about "weird" media going viral, mostly in that it loses context or becomes harder to find information about- such as original creator, or even the original unaltered video/piece itself. Rumors spread, urban legends even crop up about the content. It's interesting as a cultural phenomena but it's also kind of maddening. I especially dislike when something becomes permanently attached to a streamer, YouTube critic, or an influencer, moreso than the original creator. I also dislike the trend of YouTube videos "explaining" any media, including viral art projects. There's this ever-expanding economy of clickbait that self perpetuates and thrives on further decontextualization of everything, which has happened in part due to YouTube's own algorithms and the ongoing struggle that video creators have to be seen and get paid for their work. The tre...