Year Roundup

Written By Michelle Henley

I wanted to jot down some of my favorite shows, movies, videos and music I came across this year!

Movies

  • Worst Person in the World - a film about a woman in Oslo that has lots of my favorite: long scenes heavy with dialogue that explore the complexities of relationships. The film shows the messy side of the characters and made me think of how we all are likely the “worst person in the world” to someone. I appreciated how I empathized with each character despite their shortcomings nonetheless - something ground in that - remembering we’re all just attempting to map the void and trying our best.

  • American Movie - a documentary, that I somehow only just recently watched, about a charismatic aspiring filmmaker who is making a low-budget movie. It is filmed/edited so smart and I’m pretty sure I was laughing the whole time - I was convinced there was no way it was actually a documentary because it was so funny.

  • Search for Sugar Man - The story of musician Rodriguez. Such an incredible person and story and I binged his music for weeks after watching.

  • Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain - This one is obviously telling the story of Anthony Bourdain and I was amazed at how much of his life was on film, so there is an incredible pool of footage that is used in it. It definitely isn’t light fare and destroyed me a bit, but I loved the honesty there. It was a reminder to be good to people, we are all tender and this life is hard.

TV Shows

  • Love on the Spectrum - I just love the most recent season of Love on the Spectrum. I loved that you can feel that the filmmakers had special connections with each of the people they highlighted, it was created with care and leaves you adoring each of them.

  • Russian Doll - 1) I love Natasha Lyonne, 2) this is beautifully shot and 3) it has a sensitive look at mental illness. Love it.

Music Videos

  • Marlon Williams - Beautiful Dress. I’ve watched this video several times and obsessively listened to this song over the year. Also him singing First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

  • Alice Boman - Feels Like a Dream with Perfume Genius. She can be at the limits of my tolerance for melodrama, but 1:47 on in this video is stunning. I also appreciated Night and Day.

  • Okay Kaya - Comic Sans. A lot of her music videos are very lo-fi, which isn’t my go-to with video usually, but I appreciate it about her, especially being used for this song.

  • Ry X - Spiral. Always a sucker for slow motion of dancers.

Concerts

I went to a lot this year: Kevin Morby, Julia Shapiro, Loving, Preoccupations and Cindy Lee, Marlon Williams, Warpaint, Babe Rainbow, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Waxahatchee + Sleater-Kinney + Courtney Barnett, but my favorites were:

  • Widowspeak at Belltown Yacht Club

  • Cate Le Bon at Crocodile

  • Patrick Watson at St. Mark’s Cathedral

Favorite Spaces

  • Martha Washington Park - had my birthday, 4th of July and skinny dipped under the Super Moon all here

  • Myrtle Edwards/Olympic Sculpture bike path

  • Screwdriver, Sloop, Sunset, Tin Hat

Get-aways

  • Captain Whidbey’s

  • Camping out near Roslyn

Other Loves

  • The Future is O - this show is AMAZING! So glad I got to see it - I laughed so hard and it felt so specific to Seattle in the best way, reminded me of why I love here.

  • Dead Baby Downhill

  • Sailing around Golden Gardens

  • Nadia Lee Cohen’s exhibit promo video - especially the end, love how wacky she is

Michelle Henley
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Observations: Part II