Well, here we are! A few days into 2022 and awards season is about to start. Normally I would give an enthusiastic hoot of excitement but between the last two years of poor ticket sales at the theaters not to mention the utter failure of the Golden Globes and the Oscars to not only bring some diversity to their tables but make ANYONE on the planet other than the dogged few care to watch them, well, you can surely forgive my lack of excitement.

My interest notwithstanding (I will watch the Oscars and I will lament the downfall of the Globes of course) I spent the year keeping careful track of every show and movie I saw, waiting to see if I would agree or disagree with whatever each inevitable award’s show bestowed their statues upon.

But now, you know what? I’m over it! Judging by my current list I can already see the writing on the wall. The Globe nominations are already out, and not surprisingly I’m annoyed. I mean I didn’t do bad honestly! Usually, I am way way off! But, not unlike picking the winners of a horse race, this year I got lucky! Some of my favorite shows are indeed on the nominee lists. Pat myself on the back. I am proud.

On the other hand, one thing totally out of my control (and what will drive me and I’m sure many others insane come Oscar time) is the inclusion of nominated films that have not yet even made it to the theaters! This is a big pet-peeve of mine and one that seems to get worse each year; covid or no. I spent much of January and February 2021 catching up on nominated movies I had been unable to see in 2020. They hadn’t been streaming. Many of them hadn’t even been released to theaters and by the time they were it was too late. Reviewers and academy voters may have gotten their copies of Nomadland and The Father but the rest of us never saw those films until they came out on Hulu for FREE.

So, I’m out! I’m not going head-to-head with Emmy’s and Oscars and SAG’s and Globes this year. I am not banging my head in frustration over their boring choices, their safe choices, their incredibly blind insistence on refusing to recognize best reviewed blockbusters. I am going all podcast on you folks! I am just giving you a plain old top 10 list. Boom! Thats it! Top 10 Television and top 10 movie choices for 2021 from your truly. That is all you are getting from me!

Well, maybe 11…or 12. But that’s it I swear!

Ok here we go in no particular order: Top ten Movies of the year!

• West Side Story: Look I know Spiderman opened the week after this one and we all needed to save our money, but please, if you have a shred of musicality in you and you can brave the covid spike in your area, GO SEE THIS! In a lifetime, I never would have advocated for this movie to be remade, but this film is an absolute wonder. I know I said no particular order, but it is my number one pick. With the tiny exception of the last 10 minutes of the film feeling a little bit rushed, it is a stellar piece of work, stylish, reverent, and freaking gorgeous. And Rita Moreno kills it. Again.
• Power of the Dog: Quiet and still, this movie is very tight, and it moves forward in spurts. Sit very still and don’t let anyone interrupt you while you see this. Pay careful attention to EVERYONE in this, not just Benedict Cumberbatch (who is mesmerizing of course). The director won’t hold your hand, but it’s worth your time.
• King Richard: I wish I could say this movie was actually about Venus and Serena. It’s not of course. It’s about Will Smith playing Venus and Serena’s father and by god he is incredible. Fantastic family film! I got my dad to sit through this one. Two thumbs up from him.
• Annette: This in an unconventional one, and for anyone who saw this musical/opera starring a surprisingly vocal Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, you know what I mean. It is really bizarre. But I found it fascinating. I only saw it once, and maybe once is all you need, but it left an acute impression on me.
• Encanto: Disney animation plus Lin Manuel Mianda equals a family full of wildly colorful characters singing rapid fire lyrics in a movie you know the kids will be replaying again and again. (Extra points for the film’s curvier than average leading lady). Crossing my fingers for a new ride in the parks sometime soon!
• The Suicide Squad: My first super-hero entry into the race, this one surprised even me. But this over-the-top sequel to the underwhelming and similarly titled Suicide Squad of 2016 had me laughing from moment one. Margot Robbie steals the show as usual, but this time she had some real competition. I mean, gimme Sylvester Stallone as the voice of a big dumb half human half shark ANY day. Hands down his best part in years.
• The Last Duel: The first time Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have written a movie together in years and literally NO one saw it. Granted the material doesn’t exactly scream “Good Will Hunting” and let’s be honest, the look of the trailer, the wigs alone, was almost laughable. But give it your time. Our boys are all grown up and they truly made a very thoughtful and serious piece of theater here; something the #Metoo movement can relate to. That Ben took a backseat to leading man Adam Driver here and that Matt Damon himself was willing to play such an irredeemable character only gives the point they are trying to make more weight.
• Being the Ricardos: You don’t have to have watched a single episode of I Love Lucy to know who she was or what she sounded and looked like. Ditto her famous husband Desi Arnaz. It is impossible not to hear them and think, “Ah, that’s them.” Like hearing William Shatner and immediately knowing the voice as Captain Kirk! Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem are so good as Lucy and Desi it seems they must have practiced for years. The story of the red scare they and their cast experienced over one week of filming their show is one that I never heard before, and it was a fascinating watch.
• Raya and the Last Dragon: Another Disney one I know! But bear with me. This one is pure fantasy adventure! There’s no love story, no musical numbers. Just a girl on a quest, kicking ass. It is gorgeously picturesque, extremely funny and the fight scene choreography is stellar! Encanto will win animated feature for sure, and it should. But Raya remains my secret Disney crush of the year.
• Spiderman-No Way Home: Ok, here we are, at the giant one-thousand-pound elephant in the room. Inevitably there will be dozens of arguments once again this year when nominations come out and the biggest box office smash is left off of the nomination list. So, I will just answer simply YES, this movie deserves to be nominated. Not just by me, but by actual professionals. And not just because it made the most money (actually it was the ONLY movie that made money) But because it also got some of the best reviews of the year as well. King Richard which will surely get a best picture nod this year is less well reviewed.
• Honorable mentions go to…Dune, Don’t Look Up and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

And now…The top 10 Television series of 2021

• Foundation: I hear this one got mixed reviews. I don’t get it. I was simply enthralled. Especially with the performances of the actors playing “The Empire” The entire concept of cloning and the fact that the three (mostly 2 of them) having to play different versions of themselves at different parts of life was fascinating. Lee Pace and Terrance Mann were simply Genius.
• Mare of Easttown: Kate Winslet leads a cast that includes Jean Smart and Evan Peters in investigating a murder in smalltown PA. It’s the first time I had ever seen Kate Winslet appear unattractive, her age (which is my age!) messy and out of control and I loved it. HBO still reigns on television in my book!
• Dopesick: This was the small series on the history of the opium epidemic starring Michael Keaton in one of the best performances I have ever seen him in. He plays a sort of conglomeration of small-town Kentucky doctors. You know the kind. The ones who worked on the weekend and made house calls. His patients were mostly old miners with lifelong aches and pains. Keaton’s doctor takes on a journey from the doc who brushes off the new drug, to trying it out on his patients, to not only using it himself but becoming so addicted he loses his license but continues to use and sell inside the clinic he is court ordered to stay in! It is a sad but necessary story of a time we are still living and unwilling to deal with.
• The Underground Railroad: Expect this one to take some major awards this season. It is very amazing, new and unusual. It is also quite brutal so make sure you are ready for it when you watch. But you SHOULD watch.
• The White Lotus: The 2nd HBO show on my list. This one is hard to explain. I thought it would be a murder mystery when it started, but it really isn’t at all. It’s about white privilege. Its satirical and infuriating. Much of the time I had my mouth open at the sheer gall of the guests staying at the hotel the series is named after. You have to see it to believe it.
• The Great-Season 2: This is hands down the naughtiest show I have ever seen (with my mother in the room). Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult as Catherine the Great and Peter the deposed emperor of Russia in a show that is only dancing around the possibilities of the truth. The writers fill in the blanks and give us the twisted hilarious version of what might have happened. It is beautifully irreverent. I adore it.
• Hacks: Jean Smart and HBO make a crack up combo! You barely recognize the actress as the mother of Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown now is high heels and sparkles as a Las Vegas comedian in the last years of her comedy circuit. She needs a new writer, and she hires a kid younger than the youngest millennial. A Zoomer! If that makes you feel old, it should! I didn’t even know gen Z had actors old enough to play adults yet!
• Hawkeye: Yes, I know, I should have picked Loki! But honestly, Loki was too heady for me. Hawkeye was more fun. It came right at Christmas, and it was exactly what I wanted at exactly the right time. Out of all of the Marvel shows we got; this was the one for me. Gimme a fight scene with Yelena and Kate any day!
• Yellowjackets: This one shouldn’t count really. It is still going on and I haven’t seen the end. But it is currently the best thing I have seen all year. It has a “Lost” kind of feel to it, with its flashbacks and forwards and it might be that nostalgia that has me desperate for each Sunday to get here so I can see more. But the acting is better than anything Lost ever gave us, and somehow, I am more positive that the payoffs will be too!
• Succession: Just give HBO and this show all of the awards. Without The Crown to compete with it this year, it should win. Season three ended with the Roy children almost coming together, almost really giving it to their dad. So close, just so damn close. How long do we have to wait for season four?
• Honorable mentions to: Reservation Dogs (Which I have yet to see the end of but what a quirky bit of a show that is!), The Young Rock (Seriously, they have a guy playing Ander the Giant. You can’t beat that!) and Loki (I put it in there see?)

Ok those are my lists folks! Let’s see if any of mine match up with any of theirs. I doubt it, but you never know!