top watches of 2020

A belated list, but fleshing this out for those interested in what I watched in the pandemic. I watched a total 64 TV shows and movies.

10. Queen’s Gambit

Chess made sexy again since Nabokov’s Luzhin Defense.

9. We Are Who We Are

Are today’s teens watching this? Gender fluidity while looking for love and its meaning never felt so relevant in Luca’s television series.

8. Normal People

One of the rare instances where the show was better than the book. Sally Rooney’s characters were beautifully fleshed out in this series.

7. Kajillionaire

An oddly-paced movie with scenes stranger than the next to unfold something beautiful. Miranda July never fails to touch upon the experiences of human fragility and she does so here through sexuality, motherhood, daughterhood, and poverty in the hidden hearts of LA.

6. Possessor

Body horror done right in this entrancing film that made me grit my teeth harder than Swallow did.

5. Host

With a budget probably less than the Blair Witch Project, this Zoom call spook flick is short and unsettling, brisk and entertaining within the genre of camcorder horror.

4. Your Name Engraved Herein

If you need a film that totals all of your anxieties as a queer Asian, look no further. This will make you horny and cry all at the same time.

3. Soul

I don’t know what all the peeps are smoking at Pixar, but I want what they’ve got. A film that will jump you out of your art block in the classic existential format that we now affirm with Pixar films.

2. I May Destroy You

The single most important show to come out of 2020 when it comes to trauma, race, sex, and everything in between. A tour-de-force not to be messed with.

1. Tropical Malady

“Spiritual” is a word that I cannot use without a bit of scoffing, but this is exactly what this film is, drawing you in, quietly, and when moments of surrealism appear, they seem completely other-worldly that makes your heart skip a few beats before letting you land on your feet safely.