New Years Mega-Post: Top 10 of 2017
Happy New Year readers! It has been a wild ride of a year, and we are finally back in warm sunny (Lol it's been raining all day) Los Angeles. We hit the ground running on a project when we came back, and that combined with a lingering Holiday laziness has kept us from wrapping up our Top 10 of 2017. Let us rectify that.
Wonder Woman (duh)
There are no words, readers. In a year that felt like a battle for most of the women we know, it was so heartening to watch a woman take on a literal battlefield and walk away victorious. It was empowering and visually stunning. Gal Gadot brought a female superhero to life without making her hard or jaded. Chris Pine was charming and a little broken and the perfect sidekick. The fact that Patti Jenkins hasn't gotten a truck full of little gold statues delivered to her house is one of the big injustices of the awards season. We are both guilty of watching the No Man's Land scene to hype ourselves up for big meetings. For those reasons and oh so many more Wonder Woman tops our list this year.
Brooklyn 99
Okay Brooklyn 99 is in season 5 this year, but this is the first year we have been following along with it in real time. And we're so glad we are. Jake and Amy are engaged, Rosa came out as Bi and Terry Jeffords exists! Everything about this show is a delight and on the days where the world has seemed broken beyond repair (there have been a lot of those this year) this show is a small island of warmth and humor where we can escape for half an hour every week. Same goes for Fresh Off the Boat, Superstore, and The Good Place.
IT
We've got a bit of a personal stake in this one, as our lovely and talented big sister was the casting associate on this film. And we are only bragging a little when we say that the casting was perfect. We are also not joking when we say that this was one of the most terrifying movies we've ever watched. It was tense and violent and we are sure Bill Skarsgard is lovely in person but we may need a little time before we trust him again... But the combination of brilliant filmmaking and sheer, mind numbing terror leaves this as our number 3 of the year.
Bone Clocks
Little C picked this book up after a heavy recommendation from CT. It's weird and the mythology is in a different place than almost anything we've read but there's something really beautiful about the way David Mitchell describes the connection between people. But also he knows how to create villains that casually pop up in our nightmares so... Just be aware of that going in.
Series of Unfortunate Events
Oh wow guys. We read these books way back when they first came out and were technically age appropriate to us, so we were so excited that they were being turned into a Netflix series. And then they let Neal Patrick Harris play the evil Count Olaf... it was pretty magical. And dark and funny and weird and wonderful. We love ourselves a good childhood adventure story, but even we have to admit that watching those three precious kids have their lives ruined over and over was a lot to take in a binge-y situation. We recommend you break this show up with kitten videos.
New York
It's been a few months and as much as we would love to tell you that we've pulled ourselves together and gotten over our deep obsession with NYC, we have not. The city has a rhythm and a feel that got to us in a deep way. The subway! The architecture! THE CANNOLIS!!! Right now our lives in LA are back into a semi-normal work pace, but we keep casting longing eyes to New York. Just as soon as it stops being a frozen wasteland.
Gishwhes
We may have decided to give ourselves whole-heartedly into a desperate sense of whimsy this summer. So for ten days our house participated in an international charity scavenger hunt with several strangers in other states. We made a wedding dress out of old movie posters, we taped quarters to laudro-mat machines, we made a chupacabra costume for CT's cat. It was random and ridiculous and at times completely absurd. It was also one of the most fun experiences we've had as a household. We gave flowers to a Greek Orthodox church and my best friend made an insane amount of banana bread for a senior center. Mixed in with the fun items in the hunt were items that helped us engage in our communities and make the world a little better, even as we made our lives a little stranger.
Seveneves
CT was assigned this in one of her many book clubs and it's a hefty little read but so, so worth it. Neal Stephenson goes into worldbuilding to the nth degree. Every decision his characters make, every bit of detailing about the science and the ship and the way people survive following a global cataclysmic event is so well thought out that it's breathtaking. If you're at all into hard scifi, this is a must read. It's a beaut of a novel that is already begging for a second read.
Atomic Blonde/ xXx 3
We have lumped our summer action movies with kick-ass females into one category. Because we are greedy and we wanted both of these movies on the list but we couldn't find it in our hearts to leave either of them off. They are wildly different. Atomic Blonde was hard edged and dark- a period piece about the Cold War where everyone's actions are layered and complicated. xXx 3 is a bright movie about really pretty people who like to blow things up. Everyone's motives are relatively straightforward and the ending is bright and hopeful. They could not be more different and yet... Charlize Theron's many fight scenes are at the same level of female awesomeness as Depika Padukone and Ruby Rose taking down a dozen bad guys in a warehouse. Plus they both had a truly healthy appreciation for some crazy neon saturated images and we are 100,000% behind that.
School Spirits
Have we mentioned to you guys that we wrote a movie and then someone actually made it and now it's available on several major platforms such as Amazon, iTunes, and Vudu? Have we mentioned that? Cuz that happened. We are officially real person writers y'all and we will shut up about it when you pry this blog from our COLD DEAD HANDS!!! If you were interested, here is a link to the site where you can find all your download options: http://schoolspiritsfilm.com/.
Happy 2018 everyone!
CT and Little C
Wonder Woman (duh)
 |
| Image from IMDb |
Brooklyn 99
Okay Brooklyn 99 is in season 5 this year, but this is the first year we have been following along with it in real time. And we're so glad we are. Jake and Amy are engaged, Rosa came out as Bi and Terry Jeffords exists! Everything about this show is a delight and on the days where the world has seemed broken beyond repair (there have been a lot of those this year) this show is a small island of warmth and humor where we can escape for half an hour every week. Same goes for Fresh Off the Boat, Superstore, and The Good Place.
IT
 |
| Image from IMDb |
Bone Clocks
Little C picked this book up after a heavy recommendation from CT. It's weird and the mythology is in a different place than almost anything we've read but there's something really beautiful about the way David Mitchell describes the connection between people. But also he knows how to create villains that casually pop up in our nightmares so... Just be aware of that going in.
Series of Unfortunate Events
 |
| Image from IMDb |
New York
It's been a few months and as much as we would love to tell you that we've pulled ourselves together and gotten over our deep obsession with NYC, we have not. The city has a rhythm and a feel that got to us in a deep way. The subway! The architecture! THE CANNOLIS!!! Right now our lives in LA are back into a semi-normal work pace, but we keep casting longing eyes to New York. Just as soon as it stops being a frozen wasteland.
Gishwhes
 |
| Pictured: CT's cat Ron Weasley dressed as the most precious chupacabra you've ever seen. |
Seveneves
CT was assigned this in one of her many book clubs and it's a hefty little read but so, so worth it. Neal Stephenson goes into worldbuilding to the nth degree. Every decision his characters make, every bit of detailing about the science and the ship and the way people survive following a global cataclysmic event is so well thought out that it's breathtaking. If you're at all into hard scifi, this is a must read. It's a beaut of a novel that is already begging for a second read.
Atomic Blonde/ xXx 3
 |
| Image from IMDb |
School Spirits
 |
| Say whaaaaa?! |
Happy 2018 everyone!
CT and Little C
Comments
Post a Comment