I’m trying to get back into writing things, but no promises that I’ll manage to post regularly in 2026.
Movies
If you want my top 20 of 2025 with no commentary, it’s here on Letterboxd. Here’s a breakdown of my top ten:
- Sinners
This could be number one for that one transcendent sequence where past, present, and future are summoned to commune to an amazing song alone. But that’s not the only excellent thing about it: the lighting, the sound, Michael B. Jordan and Wunmi Mosaku, the music. Sammy’s voice. Rocky Road to Dublin sung by an Irish vampire, the Choctaw vampire hunters (who deserve their own spin-off). It’s just a feast of a film. I’ve watched it multiple times now and the power doesn’t fade. - No Other Choice
Caught this late in the year, and it’s still rattling around in my brain days later. Beautifully shot with a genius use of lighting and color palette for different moods as the story progresses. Masterful use of transitions, great editing and sound. It’s slapstick, it’s social commentary, it’s anti-capitalist, it’s gorgeous and horrifying all at once, and it doesn’t have a single off moment. Park Chan-Wook is a master. This beats the hell out of Bugonia, imo. - One Battle After Another
For Benicio, for a few small beers and the Latino Harriet Tubman situation, for that incredibly shot rooftop chase sequence that took my breath away, for the nuns with guns, for all the stupidity and satire, and the powerhouse that is Teyana Taylor (please, please watch A Thousand and One if you haven’t already). For Sean Penn being hilarious and Leo being befuddled. For NO. MORE. LUNATICS. and fond hopes for the next generation. - Weapons
Amy Fucking Madigan. Give that woman all her flowers. This is a straight-up fun time at the movies, best seen with a crowd. - Sorry, Baby
Gently devastating but also funny and heartwarming. There are so many moments in this that are just sublime. Sign me up for whatever Eva Victor does next, they made one hell of a début. - The Mastermind
There’s a shot near the start of this that lingers on swirling leaves outside the art museum that instantly reminded me of the sound of the trees near the start of The Straight Story. Reichardt and Lynch have a lot in common, they tell the stories they want to tell how they want to tell them. They also make (or made, RIP David Lynch) beautiful movies where shots will linger in your mind and reappear unbidden forever after. I’m honestly down with watching whatever she wants to make. Josh O’Connor is perfect in this, as he has been in so many recent movies. - Fréwaka
A folk-horror movie as Gaeilge? Yes, please. This is atmospheric af and extremely creepy. I couldn’t even be mad at the mixing up of different strains of folklore because it all just worked. Never going to see the (ubiquitous in older Irish homes) Sacred Heart lamp the same way again. - Black Bag
Smart, stylish, sexy, Soderbergh at his best. - Christy
Not the Sidney Sweeney one, the low-budget Irish one. It’s about a troubled teen who is bounced from a foster home to live with his older brother. Nowhere near as grim as it could have been, with wonderful guest spots from the kids in the Kabin Crew. Saw this at the Galway Film Fleadh where it got a deserved and sustained standing ovation. - Cutting Through Rocks
I had an Iranian landlord years ago who left Iran with his family as soon as the Ayatollah took over. His wife was a college professor which would not be permissible under the new regime, and they had daughters. Watching this documentary about an Iranian woman who becomes head of her village council against all odds reminded me of him. As a person whose gender regularly gets questioned the latter part of this was absolutely terrifying to me. Watch this to see how far theocracy goes and how brave you have to be to challenge it.
Books
Here’s a summary of my year in books from Storygraph:
Not ranking books but here are some of my faves:
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
I wish that I didn’t understand so many of the references in this book, but I do.
This won’t be for everyone, but if it’s for you, you’ll love it with every cubic centimetre of your internet brainwormed (and possibly charred) heart.
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One by Kristen Arnett
Kristen Arnett has a knack for creating characters that feel real, in their quirks and preoccupations, and their messy humanity. Cherry, the main character here, is the antithesis of the “model gay”, and I’m honestly so grateful for some dirtbag lesbian representation in this our time of troubles.
Cherry is mourning the loss of her brother, half-assedly working a nothingburger retail job in an Aquarium supply store to keep a roof over her head and cover the costs of pursuing her real passions (clowning and MILFs). She has one best friend, one crush, and a mother who seems to feel like the wrong kid died.
This is a breezy, fun read that is often deeper than I’ve just made it sound. It’s not all honks and greasepaint and buffoonery, though there is plenty of that. There’s also a lot in here about grief and feeling lost, and not liking yourself enough to go after what you want (or even to figure out what you might want). This book made me verklempt over a post it note on a car dashboard, I loved it so. And you might love it too, unless you’ve got coulrophobia in which case you should probably avoid it.
We Love You, Bunny – by Mona Awad
When I first read Bunny, back in the day, I compared it to a big juicy steak, served seared and bloody from a still-sizzling skillet. It made me laugh, it made me wince, and it made me very happy that there are writers like Mona Awad in the world.
When I heard that there was another book set in the Bunniverse (is that a thing? can we make it a thing?) I was on tender paws…err, tenterhooks, Bunny.
It wasn’t so much that I wanted answers, but that I wanted to spend more time in that world, on that campus, with those characters.
And that, We Love You, Bunny, delivers on fabulously. It’s every bit as funny-nasty-messed up (complimentary) as the first book was. This time, it’s not Sam’s story, but rather fills us in on events that Sam didn’t get to see originally, plus there are some sections told by the OG Bunny himself, Arieus. It’s an oral history, of sorts, told to a captive Sam, while she’s tied to a chair with an axe to her throat.
Each Bunny gets his/her/their turn at narration, and all of them have differing perspectives and preoccupations (despite the hive mind). In places it’s a gory comedy of errors, but it’s also a (fondly?) satirical attack on ideas about fiction and creativity.
There are references and memes aplenty, scads of social satire, and it manages to be both hilarious and oddly affecting, often in the space of a paragraph.
I don’t know what others are expecting from We Love You, Bunny, but this reader was thoroughly entertained.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
By this I mean not just the first book, but all seven of the series so far.
I picked up the first book in May because people were talking about it in Discord and I wanted something fun to read. A few months and thousands of pages later I have 2 Princess Donut t-shirts, have signed up to two different DCC crowdfunding situations, and am jonesing for book 8 (but trying not to impatiently read the advance chapters from Matt Dinniman’s Patreon, which I also subscribe to).
People (jokingly?) refer to this series as a cult, but it genuinely offers more bang for your buck than many series out there. It’s not remotely cozy (one of my favourite characters is a disembodied sex doll head inhabited by a murderous goddess) and it can be very grim and gory at times, but it’s also hilarious and every book is a rollicking good read. And it has Donut. Do other books have Donut? No, they do not.
I went back through Discord to pull out my progression posts:
I forced myself to read other books between books 5 and 6 and books 6 and 7, otherwise I’d have finished them a lot sooner. I could go listen to all the audiobooks now, but I’ve settled for the Soundbooth Theater Audio Immersion Tunnel version of Book 1 for now. Jeff Hays is one of the best audiobook narrators out there. He’s very possibly the best.
Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree
A foul-mouthed bookseller finds herself in the company of a legendary warrior, two elder blades, and a literal chaos goblin on a quest to find out what she really wants from life. And to find the words to apologise to the friends she abruptly left behind.
There is more action here than in the previous two books, but it mines the same vein of gentle humour and hope. My only (minor) complaint would be that there is not enough Potroast, but to make up for that there is a Zyll and I adore her (and her fondness for cutlery).
This is a rollicking, fun read with a lovely inbuilt meditation on friendship and figuring out what really matters in life.
If you enjoyed Legends & Lattes and/or Bookshops & Bonedust, you won’t want to miss Brigands & Breadknives. And if you know anyone called Bradley, you may not be able to resist giving him a new nickname.
Games
Honestly didn’t get to play all that much this year, but here are a few stand-outs:
South of Midnight
Gorgeous visuals, great storytelling, and a main character with the same name as my best friend. This one hooked me deep, and I learned a lot (in the best, most immersive way) while playing it. Always love Southern Gothic when it’s done well, and this is done really well.
Tiny Bookshop
Got this on a recommendation from a friend (thanks, Shawnali!). It’s a cute and cozy little game where you set up a mobile bookshop in a seaside town and sell books to finance upgrades and complete quests.
Not gonna lie, at one point my personal bookselling history kicked in pretty badly so I got extremely cranky when a customer told me a Jane Austen book wasn’t romantic enough for her (bitch, please!). I also really enjoyed selling the same book over and over to a sweet metalhead who gave me his demo tape. I knew he wasn’t reading anything I sold him. Books as accessories, a tale as old as time.
Type Help
Stayed up stupid late multiple nights in a row playing, made a google sheet to track things, this was extremely my jam. To save you the frustration of sifting through pages of search results, here’s the link to it on itch.io. This is getting a remaster soon by the same studio that made the remaster of The Roottrees are Dead, so if you want additional bells and whistles (audio! graphics! etc.), then look out for it in 2026 as The Incident at Galley House.
Blue Prince
I’ll admit that I didn’t finish this, it’s hooky and fun to start but the roguelike aspect of it and the repetition started to grate on me and there being still more after I’d thought I’d finished just ticked me off. Typing of which….
The Roottrees are Dead
I’d never played the original of this so set aside some time very late in the year for the remaster. It’s excellent, hooks you in, keeps you playing past your bedtime, provides a notebook for tracking things. All catnip to anyone who likes puzzle games, and it all pays off nicely in the end.
But then there is (optionally) more, with the Roottreemania add-on unlocked when you finish the main game. From the jump this felt less compelling and was tonally off from the original. It has some frustrating box-checking exercises that feel pretty shoehorned in and not enough intriguing lore to balance them. Base game: excellent, add-on: annoying.
(I started Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 but have never really had enough time to get a proper go at it. What I played, I’ve enjoyed but I’m far from finished with it)
Other good things
Music
In heavy rotation: From the Pyre by The Last Dinner Party, Moisturizer by Wet Leg, Bleeds by Wednesday, Lux by Rosalía, Debí Tirar Más Fotos by Bad Bunny, Drive to Goldenhammer by Divorce, Altar by NewDad, the Sinners soundtrack, Virgin by Lorde.
Plays
Druid 50: Riders to the Sea/Macbeth: impossible to explain the experience of being one of 75 audience members in the tiny Mick Lally theatre with these plays taking place in a pit just below you. Unforgettable.
Reunion – Mark O’Rowe. I missed this at the Galway Arts Festival so travelled to Dublin to see it and it was definitely worth the journey. I adored Felix and kind of hated everyone else (but in a good way). This is the hell of family trips writ large.
Random stuff
My Loch Electronics Capsule dishwasher. This is the first time I’ve had a dishwasher other than in my parents’ house and it has been a game changer. I tried lots of different powders in it, but my fave (and the least abrasive on dishes) is from Dirty Labs which I’ve merrily imported from the U.S. on multiple occasions.
Kai’s Pistachio cake and Buckfast Hot Sauce (not eaten together). It’s always a joy to introduce a friend to the wonders of Kai, so I was extra happy when they had the pistachio cake available when I brought Gav there earlier this year. As for the hot sauce, it was dynamite on the Kai x Dough Bros collab in the Covid times, so I was thrilled to score a botte of it when they repeated it this year. I also bought the Kai cookbook, which has recipes for both in it.
Magpie Bakery – I don’t care about having to queue, it’s always worth getting up early in the morning for. Their coffee is from Calendar, so always delicious and they sell Mad Yolk eggs, which are amazing, local, and from free-roaming hens.
Alice layout keyboards – 2025 was the year where I got so firmly ergo-pilled that I bought myself a new keyboard for going back to the office. Fascinating to me that this keyboard has never been in my apartment but has managed to accrue Kaliyo fluff regardless.
Smudge and Kaliyo – who continue to be my boon companions. If you’ve scrolled this far, you deserve a cat pic. This one is my favourite from 2025:
