Here are the best movies I watched this year. Also check me out on Letterboxd. Honestly, not my best year for watching new movies, but I did catch up on a bunch of classics. And since I'm posting this late, I'm including one Babygirl, even though I just saw it yesterday and it is now 2025.
I had a lot of time on my hands thanks to the dual strikes this year. So, I ended up having a lot of time to watch movies, especially movies that I had managed to miss up until this year.
Here's what I watched. Check me out on Letterboxd.
Now that theaters came fully back this year, I wanted to make the most of it and see as many movies on a big screen that I could. I also wanted to make a point of seeing as much non-blockbuster fare on a big screen as possible. I also started a Letterboxd account in May, so some of the films I caught up on early in the year aren’t on my Letterboxd diary, but they do appear here for a more complete picture of my movie watching experience.
Here are the best movies I watched this year.
I recently watched Spring Awakening: Those You've Known. And it really made me sad that Spring Awakening debuted when I was ten. So in the course of a bad night of insomnia, as one does, I kept thinking about the shows I was never able to see the original production of, for reasons of geography, being able to get a ticket, too young, my parents would never, or I just wasn't born yet.
I will preface that this is pretty much all musicals. Not because I'm against plays, but I think because we have some sort of performance recorded for posterity for musicals, plays don't usually have the same feeling that you missed out on something because you can see another amazing performer in that role and not have something to compare it to.
This was a great year for television, even the television I watched that I didn't fully enjoy and put on this list. I also had a problem where I could not process narrative, so that wasn't fun, so I ended up watching a lot of procedural tv to help me get through it, and it worked. But those shows did not make the list, and I chose them for that reason.
Here's the best television, whether it was new or new to me or a whole new season of a show I loved, that I watched this year.
I did not watch a lot of movies this year, at least compared to years past. At least when it came to catching up on movies I had never seen before. But the pandemic messed with my brain a bit when it came to processing narrative, and I turned to television to help with that situation.
So, here are the best movies I watched this year.
I love these clips. I hope you love these clips. And I thought since there is now a giant in the sky, I'd find some of my favorite performances of his work. May your memory be a blessing, Stephen Sondheim.
I stand 4'10", so I am very small. While I am okay with being a shortie, there are benefits to being a tall person I very much want.
These shows are considered the best of the best the medium of television has to offer. I have not seen an episode. I may have seen clips, but I haven't sat down and watched even the first episode of these series.
There are shows that, especially before DVR and streaming, you just miss it. Maybe you could catch a rerun eventually, or if you’re willing to invest your money into it, buy the season box set and catch up before the next season. Or, like, some of these you were just too young to watch.
The case with some of the more current shows is that there’s just so much television now that you have to pick how many shows you take on. Or they are more niche shows that gain cultural cache but you are so far behind the run that it seems too daunting to catch up. Or you just see a show that’s totally up your alley, say you’ll catch up over its offseason, and then just never do.
Some of these shows I will probably never watch, some I just haven't gotten to yet. Some of these are a point of pride that I haven't watched them and will never watch it, so suck it. (And there are shows I wish were on this list, but unfortunately do not qualify.)
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