Best and worst of 2023:

We are permanently working from home now so kinda bored but here goes:

Best film: 

Note that I haven’t seen the good roster of MMFF films yet.

 So hard to choose. I loved Barbie  and Killers of the Flower Moon, but i have to give it to Oppenheimer because i wasn’t even interested in it but it successfully made a film about science so interesting. My only complaint is that there were too many stars in cameos. 

*** update: also saw The Holdovers, which was great, but I really loved Anatomy of  a Fall, which might be even better than Oppenheimer. It’s about a German writer who is accused of killing her French husband while their blind son is caught in the middle. I thought it would be a suspense or court drama, but it really was an examination of the little resentments that snowball in a marriage. Also note to myself: don’t get involved in a french court trial. Stressful!

Worst film:

 The Little Mermaid. I don’t care about the race of the lead actress. What i hated was how they ruined the emotional tug of the original. This just left me cold with their realistic cgi of the animals. 

Best tv show:

 Ghosts. Now on its final season, it consistently entertained us, even until the last. Christmas special that had my sister in tears. 

Ted Lasso was also good, as well as Jury Duty, which felt like The Truman show. I was also surprised at how much i liked Blue eyed samurai. But Pluto was a great retelling of Astroboy.

Worst TV:

 Voltes V. The writer ruined it with the awful , idiotic subplots. The robot scenes were world-class and proudly made by Pinoys, which made the soap opera story so disappointing. 

Runners-up were Black Rider which is just too much mindless violence and sex for an early timeslot when kids are watching. The Crown became cringey with the ghost appearance of Diana and Dodi. 

Best book: 

i only read Ducks, two years in the oil sands by Katie Beaton and it’s really deserving of all the awards. I feel so proud of her because I was a fan of her Hark, a Vagrant

I only bought one book this year, Trese book 8: Shadow Agents. I thought it was going to build up to something big, but it was kind of a dud. Too much like a superhero story. I prefer the old cases. 

Best song:

i have never been a fan of Miley Cyrus but i loved Flowers and Used to be young. 

I crowdsourced these from my crazy jhenny fans and I agree that Raining in Manila was the mood of the season and JK Labajo’s Ere proved he was a real artist to watch.

Worst song: 

Carlos Agassi’s songs. It’s like he’s still stuck in the 90’s Andrew E style of rappingbwithout the humor.

Best Trend: 

Revenge travel. I’m glad we were able to fly to Boracay with my nephew, which was a promise I made before covid happened. But I am so envious of my retired balikbayan tita who has traveled all over the country from Sagada to Marawi! 

Worst Trend:

 Breakups. Sad about the celebrity split ups of Kathniel and Kim Chiu and Xian Lim, whose blogs we even watched. The only breakup I don’t mind is the end of Uniteam, Marcos and Duterte camps.