Top Everything of 2021

Sorry this is so late, everyone.  I had finished up about 2/3rd of this post toward the end of 2021 when, on the morning of December 30th, I found out my dad passed away in his sleep.  To go into detail about the complicated feelings that consumed me thereafter would be to write an entire post in and of itself, but suffice to say I wasn't in any condition to finish writing.

Since then, I've wanted to finish this post.  I had a lot of other things to keep me busy, though: my wife and I having a honeymoon in Paris (my first time ever leaving the western hemisphere), my wife and I moving to San Diego, my wife and I finding out we will be parents.  This was all in addition to my already busy normal schedule.  There were times I wanted to abandon this post completely.  But at the end of the day, writing this list every year is something of a tradition for me.  I enjoy writing, and I enjoy hearing what people have to say about it.

Anyway, here is my top everything of 2021.  Long time readers will notice this post is shorter than those of previous years.  There's no real objective reasons for which categories I left out vs kept this year.  Basically, of the categories I hadn't already completed before the news of my dad's death, I simply just decided in the moment which ones I wanted to finish for this post vs which I didn't.  My top everything of 2022 post will have every category I've used in past years.

As always, these picks are highly subjective.  I make no claims toward objectivity here, if such a thing even exists.  I hope y'all enjoy!

MOVIE: Judas and the Black Messiah

How the hell did this movie get made?

Let's back up.  The Black Panther Party was a political organization created in 1966 on the basis of socialism, black liberation, and solidarity with oppressed people all over the world.  The Black Panthers weren't just talk, either.  They went on armed patrols against police brutality, started free breakfast programs for children across the country, created coalitions with other groups to agitate for a better society, and also engaged in numerous rallies, protests, and marches.  Of course, being the threat they were to the status quo, they were vilified, infiltrated, sabotaged, arrested, and assassinated.

At only 21 years old, Fred Hampton was one of the Black Panthers set up for assassination by the FBI and police.  That's where this movie comes in, to tell the story.  Hampton was an incredible (and, to those in power, dangerous) combination of charismatic, dedicated, and insightful; Daniel Kaluuya of Get Out fame plays Hampton while Lakeith Stanfield plays the titular Judas, named William O'Neill, a car thief turned FBI informant.  We see O'Neill get caught, become an informant in order to avoid prison, and gradually gain the trust of Hampton.  The movie concludes with the police raid on Hampton's apartment that ended in his assassination.

The movie impressed me with how real they were about Hampton's politics.  We get direct quotes and speeches from Hampton and other Panthers showing their unique blend of Marxism, black nationalism, and internationalism.  The movie even shows shoot-outs with cops!  It's really not something I expected to see in a major Hollywood movie.  The fact it's a well-written, well-acted story on top of that makes it even more impressive.  Kaluuya clearly studied Hampton's mannerisms and speech quite well, whereas Stanfield does a great job playing a nervous yet steady informant who gets in over his head.  This is truly one of the most bold movies I've seen in years.

COMEDY: Don't Look Up

Climate change is a rapidly approaching disaster that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree on.  Because of how thoroughly the oil industry controls our government (or perhaps more accurately put, because of how much corporations and finance as a whole control our government, of which oil companies are a part of that web of corporate power), we are not doing nearly as much as we could.  This movie takes that idea and creates a thinly veiled metaphor through the story of a meteor hurling towards Earth.

The premise is straightforward, but it goes in fun places.  It's helped by the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence are both at the top of their game here, as is the rest of this surprisingly star-studded cast.  While I don't think the movie was perfect, and in fact there were some people who thoughtfully critiqued the movie in a way that I thought really fair, I still enjoyed it.  Just having a movie that created these kinds of discussions while also giving a good mix of laughs and memorable lines is pretty cool in my opinion.

I was only left with one question: why did that general charge them for the snacks?

ANIMATED: Belle

I've really come to like Mamoru Hosoda over the last few years.  I've seen almost every movie of his, and was excited to check out what people described as "his spin on Beauty and the Beast."  Of course, if you've seen this movie, you know that this movie isn't really like the beloved Disney classic beyond some surface level plot points.  But that's a good thing, because it's a completely different type of adventure.

The story follows Suzu Naito, who used to love to sing, but lost her mom as a young girl and hasn't been in the singing mood since.  She clearly suffers from depression, and also has a little bit of resentment toward her mom for always helping others at her own expense.  It was, after all, that noble part of her mom that led to her death.  For all that happens plot-wise in this movie, at the end of the day it's really about Naito coming to terms with her pain and learning to embrace both her voice and her mom's good nature.

This is probably the most ambitious Hosoda film I've seen.  It attempts to juggle a lot, both in terms of plot and theme.  It doesn't always succeed.  There are some moments where the focus of the story veers sharply in a way that seems a little out of nowhere.  On top of that, themes will get dropped and picked back up again.  The story feels less like a smooth tapestry of well-integrated, interlocking character and theme ideas, and more like a haphazard collection of ideas thrown into a mixing bowl, hoping everything will work out.

Two things save this movie for me, however.  One is its unflinching sincerity.  The movie truly cares about Naito and the ideas it's trying to juggle, even if it doesn't always handle these things gracefully.  The other is that it contains one of the most incredible endings I've ever seen of any movie.  There's a hilarious masterpiece of a scene at a train station toward the end, followed by the movie building toward an emotional climax that had me in tears.  While the ending doesn't perfectly resolve every weakness the movie had, it sends us off with such a grand finale that you forget about the parts that don't work.  To stick with the juggling metaphor, it's as if you were watching a juggler who dropped a couple pins here and there throughout their performance, but ended with a finale so grand and memorable that you don't even notice the pins on the ground.

While Wolf Children remains my favorite Hosoda film, Belle among my favorites of his because of how ambitious, sincere, and memorable it is, especially with its ending.  The music being great (at least in the Japanese version, I haven't watched the movie in English) doesn't hurt, either.

TV SHOW: Squid Game

It almost feels like a bit of a cop-out to choose this as my show of the year.  I mean, choosing the most-watched Netflix show of all time, the show that became a global phenomenon?  What a lazy choice!  What, am I gonna choose Nas as the best rapper of all time next, or Citizen Kane for my choice as best movie?

But some things are so good that they deserve the nod, even if it's ultimately a predictable pick.  And Squid Game really is that good.  Its characters, its themes, its pacing, its world-building, its ability to make you feel whatever it wants to make you feel in any given moment is remarkable.  It has the ability to pivot like a fleet-footed boxer between story beats and emotional tempos.  A lot of modern entertainment tries its best to balance comedy with drama, and often ends up executing in a way that undermines both.  Not this show, though.

A lot of things make Squid Game work, but one thing that comes to mind in particular is how everything here is in service of theme.  I think that's why so many of the jokes don't take away from the drama: you're never unaware of the stakes of the game or the ugliness of the world that brought them to that island.  Most of the jokes themselves are related to this fundamental threat, which makes the jokes less fun distractions and more gallows humor.  All of this also makes the genuine moments of sincerity and kindness in the show stand out all the more (RIP to my boy Ali).

The show isn't just fiction, either.  It's reflective of a real debt crisis that the people of South Korea face.  My friend Sam (who runs a podcast/community called Southpaw that everyone interested in the intersecton of martial arts, politics, and social commentary should check out) wrote a great article connecting Squid Game to Korean history and how that affects Korea in the present.  I'd highly, highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about Korea.

MMA FIGHTER I'D LIKE TO SEE BOUNCE BACK: Weili Zhang

It was cool to see Zhang's combination of strength, attack volume, smart footwork, and clinch work bring her to the championship.  It's also always cool to see a fighter from a country that hasn't held a UFC championship before, in this case China, become champion.  On top of all that, she seems like a genuinely nice person with a willingness to learn- not just about martial arts, but about other cultures and people in general.

Rose Namajunas has always been a fan-favorite for her openness about her mental health struggles and general sense of well-meaning humility.  Leading to this fight, however, she began spouting off anti-Chinese and anti-communist talking points that made this fight seem like it was about more than just a contest between two worthy combatants.  It's not a huge surprise since the combat sports community is full of rightwing goofballs who spend their time blaming China for much of the US's problems, but it was a shame to see her help stoke the flames of racism that helped lead to waves of racist vitriol that Weili experienced in their two fights.

Ultimately, Rose scored an impressive knockout in their first fight.  Their rematch was an exciting, closely fought affair.  As much as I was rooting for Weili, the decision really could've gone either way.  Both fighters gave great accounts of themselves.  I just hope Rose can learn from her mistakes- which she probably won't, as she trains in a rightwing echo chamber where her beliefs will only be rooted in deeper and never challenged.  For Weili, I just wish her well in her fight career going forward. 

(2022 Note: as you can probably tell, this was one of the entries I wrote before this post was shelved.  It's nice to see that Weili has since gotten a win in 2022)

MMA MALE FIGHTER: Charles Oliveira

This spot could've gone to either Oliveira or Usman.  Since I went with Oliveira, I'll start by hyping up Usman as just as worthy for this spot.  He had three dominant title defenses, and has nearly cleaned out the welterweight division.  It seems pretty clear as of now that Colby Covington is the 2nd best welterweight in the world, and Usman has defeated him twice.  His wins against the well-rounded Gilbert Burns and crafty veteran Jorge Masvidal were also impressive.

Oliveira has, to put it midly, not cleared out the lightweight division.  It's a hard division to clear out considering how competitive it is.  What was amazing about Oliveira's wins, though, were how hard-fought, entertaining, and technical they were.  As a long time fan of the sport, it's wonderful to see a fighter with potential finally fully realize it and reach the top.  It doesn't hurt that his style is a great combination of technically sophisticated and exciting.

Oliveira always had good muay thai and jiu-jitsu, but he had serious weaknesses, too.  Wrestling was an obvious one, but even his striking had holes.  Though he had great technique when he attacked, he was also stiff and lacked fluidity.  He often didn't use any head movement at all, making it easy for him to get hit often even in fights where he was the "better" striker.  His grappling had always been great, but in modern MMA you need a good combination of striking and wrestling for that to really matter.

Oliveira has solved that puzzle.  He has become a much smoother striker while adding enough wrestling wrinkles to his game so that he can employ his elite jiu-jitsu skills.  After an incredibly thorough win against Tony Ferguson last year, this year he used his improved skill set to beat Michael Chandler for the lightweight belt and Dustin Poirier to earn his first defense.  Both fights were the right mix of exciting yet technical.  Either could've been my fight of the year choice if they had lasted a little longer.

I'm excited to see what he does in 2022.

MMA FEMALE FIGHTER: Julianna Peña

I was there when Amanda Nunes knocked out Cyborg in 2018.  Since then, Nunes had defended both the women's bantamweight and featherweight belts multiple times.  In doing so, she had defeated every former champion of both divisions.  She had become one of only three UFC champions to ever hold two championships at the same time, and the only one to ever defend both.  She is not only the greatest female fighter of all time in terms of accomplishments, but one of the best of all time regardless of gender.

Then Julianna beat her.

Since coming to the UFC, Julianna has only lost to two women, both of whom have been champion (former women's featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie and current women's flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko).  While Julianna only had one win after her fight with Germaine to get the title shot against Nunes, she made the most of the opportunity.  For beating the best female fighter of all time, she definitely deserves this spot in my eyes.

MMA FIGHT: Holloway vs Rodriguez

Who doesn't love a good MMA fight that has it all?  In this fight we saw punches, kicks, knees, elbows, takedowns, ground 'n pound, scrambles, and submission attempts.  This truly was a mixed martial arts fight.  It was made all the more impressive by the fact that few would have given Yair Rodriguez a chance against Max Holloway in normal circumstances, yet this wasn't even normal circumstances for him- it was after a two year layoff.  While Yair ended up losing, no one saw the fight being as competitive and impressive as it was.

Yair used his arsenal of smooth, quick kicks to help keep Max at bay, especially in the first round.  Most fighters are told by their coaches to put kicks at the end of their punching combinations.  You'll sometimes hear this referred to as "letting your hands open up your kicks [or legs]" as a way to tell fighters that throwing quick, precise punches can create openings for kicks with less risk of getting caught.  For Yair, however, his kicks are so good that he was doing the opposite: he was throwing wonderful kicks, and often using them to set up boxing combinations he would rarely throw otherwise.  While his punches aren't as polished as his kicks, throwing them after Max just finished dealing with his kicks allowed Yair to get off boxing combos that he wouldn't have been able to get off in a pure boxing match.

Yair also had some suprisingly good fight craft, too.  He was making good use of feints, footwork, head movement, and stance-switching.  What cost him the match, though, was that while he made good use of these things, Max made great use of them.  For example, with the stance-switching, Yair switched stances randomly throughout the bout.  Max, however, often switched stances in the middle of a striking combination, or after some other sort of movement that momentarily distracted from his stance-switch.  Switching stances is a great way to attack from different angles, but they work best when your opponent doesn't immediately realize what you've done.  Max incorporated his stance-switching with better finesse, making it so that it was harder to keep up with what he was doing.

This was true of the other aspects of fight craft I mentioned too, such as head movement.  Yair made a big show of dancing around punches as if trying to imitate a prime Anderson Silva or Pernell Whitaker, whereas Max moved his head just enough to get out of the way of incoming punches, allowing him to transition from dodging to offense more efficiently.  It's much easier to dodge and throw a punch when your head is only a little off-center, as opposed to swinging your head all over the place and ending up completely out of attack position.  It was the combination of all these nuances of Max's game and his unreal volume (which comes from his incredible cardio) that helped him win the fight.  The fact he also started mixing in takedowns was cool to see, too.  Yair, for his part, showed suprising ability off his back.  His submission attempts never seemed too serious, and he had an odd habit of giving his back to Max whenever Max got top side control, but he generally gave a good account of himself the way he moved.

Overall, this fight had it all- good fight craft, good entertainment value, and good attack variety.  While there were other good contenders for fight of the year (Gaethje vs Chandler and Ponzinibbio vs Baeza come to mind), this was the one that balanced all three of those things the best to me.  As a student of the game myself, there's nothing more I love to see in a fight.

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY: Humans Shaping Global Ecosystems

Until incredibly recently the view of modern scientists, both physical and social, was that the natural world had been largely untouched before the rise of industrial society.  People who lived off the land cultivated their crops, of course, but otherwise generally left the natural world as it was.  For us in the present, it just seems like common sense.

That view has been brought into question in recent years, though.  Some scientists, once again both physical and social, have revealed that our previous assumptions were based on our modern biased view.  As people who live outside of nature thanks to the rise of cities, we think of "modifying" nature to mean replacing it with urban infrastructure, or at least using modern industrial equipment to modify it.  But that's not the only way to modify nature.

More and more literature has come out in the past decade or two about how humans have been modifying their ecosystems well before the rise of industrialization and mechanized cities.  The book "1491" by Charles Mann, for example, makes the argument that Indigenous societies were far more complex than we give them credit for since they were complex in ways European settlers didn't understand.  A large part of his argument rests on the then-new evidence that Indigenous people all over the Western Hemisphere had used sophisticated land management techniques to modify their environments to make them more bountiful.

A new paper this year, put forward by a combination of anthropologists, ecologists, and other such environmental scientists, showed this idea to not only be true, but apply on a much wider scale.  Long story short, it shows that humans have been shaping the majority of global ecosystems for at least the past 12,000 years.

The study not only is important for the sake of understanding the human story better.  It also gives us insight as to how we might better take care of the planet by showing us previous land management techniques that helped preserve the environment far better than mass industrial agriculture.  To quote one of the authors of the study, Dr Erle Ellis: "there is very little scientific basis for conservation and restoration that does not involve Indigenous or traditional management."

SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT: James Webb Space Telescope

Yes, the vaccine rollout should be the story here.  The problem is that, if I talked about the impressive vaccine rollout, I'd also feel obligated to talk about how the refusal of the pharmaceutical companies to remove their patents so that other places around the world could begin mass production of the vaccine has helped lead to all the covid variants we're experiencing now.  My original vision for these science categories is to be more hopeful and positive, though, so I figured I'd go with this one.

MEME: Suez Canal Ship

Is it just me, or did this seem like the only time everyone on the internet was happy this year?

PHOTO: Haitian Refugees

It must be said: the way liberals have gone silent about our country's cruel treatment of immigrants and refugees now that President Biden is in office is truly unnerving.  This picture of a Border Patrol agent attacking Haitian refugees back in September contains some unpleasant visual echos to slavery, and in a more immediate sense gives a stark portrait of what our immigration system looks like.  It has looked this way under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

BADASS: Striking Workers & Labor Organziers

The last few years have been tough for workers.  Hell, the last few decades have.  Wages have stagnated while almost every workplace is short-staffed, and the stability that comes with a 9-5 is increasingly a thing of the past.  During that time, organized labor has been decimated- and often, sectors that are still unionized are led by unions that focus only on not rocking the boat and occasionally asking the Democratic Party for scraps.

But since the mid-10s, there has been a slow resurgence of worker activity.  It hasn't been much compared to other places, or even the US before the last few decades, but it was something.  Now those small whispers have become something of an ember.  Strikes are increasing, union drives are making a comeback, and public opinion of unions is ever-rising.  Even now, things still aren't even close to where they were during the heyday of US labor.  But trends are reversing thanks to the work of people on the ground who are sick of the bosses' greed and starting to discover their own power.  It is we who make the profits, after all.

One of the biggest stories of this last year is the victory of the Amazon Labor Union in unionizing an Amazon warehouse.  It was an incredible upset.  A real David vs Goliath story (I know it's become fashionable to talk about how "David vs Goliath wasn't actually that lopsided, but for now let's just pretend it was for the sake of making a point).  Such examples of workers defying the odds truly do give hope in an otherwise mostly bleak political landscape.  For that reason, workers are my choice for basass of the year.

If you're interested in further reading, here is a good write up about the 2021 labor movement as a whole, and here is a list of the 16 biggest strikes of 2021.