Instead of focusing exclusively on December, we decided to pick the very best of 2016. I think, we all can agree that this was a controversial and trying year. We experienced Brexit and Trump, the Columbian referendum failed, and the word of the year is post-truth. An unbelievable amount of people died, who made our world a better place.
For us, personally, 2016 was a very intensive and beautiful year. For instance, we got married and moved to the U.S. We've experienced more new things in this year than in the previous three combined. Watching series and movies, reading books were our way of everyday normality to keep us sane amongst the various tasks of wedding organizing, surviving the first weeks in the USA or just navigating through other challenges.
Happy New Year to All of You, thanks for being with us in 2016.
Happy New Year to All of You, thanks for being with us in 2016.
1. [SERIES] The People v. O.J. Simpson - American Crime Story
In 1994 American football was not a thing in Hungary to put it politely. Yet the news of a criminal trial of a disgraced former NFL-star, called O.J. Simpson constantly appeared in newspapers. It was such a huge thing for America. Considering the evidence, 22 years later it looks obvious that athlete turned movie star (remember Towering Inferno) has indeed murdered his ex-wife and another innocent soul. However, facts were the least important things in this highly publicized trial that divided a nation and brought the issues of race, police misconduct (its was only two years after Rodney King riots), the responsibility of the media to a boiling point.
It took the film industry 22 years to come up with series that was able to capture this complex and highly sensitive case and produce a show that addresses all its angles. The result is terrifically lean, sober, and concise piece of television that ruled its league this year. The ensemble cast of stars (Cuba "ruined my career after winning an Oscar" Gooding Jr., John Travolta, David Schwimmer, etc.) does a magnificent job; however, the show is stolen by two relatively unknown actors. Sarah Paulson brings such an intensity to troubled, media-exploited character of Marcia Clark that it would fill a full movie alone. Clark's story also tells us novels how hard it is for professional women to get a fair chance in a profession where toughness and your public image are essential. Sounds familiar? Well, 22 years passed, but some work still has to be done... Sterling K. Brown's performance as the young, black attorney, who instantly becomes a traitor to his community as he joins the effort to bring O.J. to justice, is brilliant as well. When the two of them share scenes, the series gets to another level telling us about friendship, commitment, hard-won trust, and honesty.
It has been particularly fascinating for us to watch this show right after we arrived in St. Louis, whose suburb of Ferguson has in the last couple of years become the focal point and symbol of the ongoing struggle of race, police, and social coexistence. It was a reminder that the country still has a long way to go...
Runner-up: Borgen
This Danish masterpiece is just simply the best political drama series ever made. Period. More realistic than West Wing, far more serious than House of Cards has ever been. Brought to life by the precision and atmosphere-creating power of the Scandinavian movies. Besides, we are grateful to put Sidse Babett Knudsen on the map for us, we loved her as the smart prime minister, and hope to see her more often in international productions. The same goes for Pilou Asbaek who also appeared in our favorite Scandinavian movie of the year, the WWII drama April 9th.
In 1994 American football was not a thing in Hungary to put it politely. Yet the news of a criminal trial of a disgraced former NFL-star, called O.J. Simpson constantly appeared in newspapers. It was such a huge thing for America. Considering the evidence, 22 years later it looks obvious that athlete turned movie star (remember Towering Inferno) has indeed murdered his ex-wife and another innocent soul. However, facts were the least important things in this highly publicized trial that divided a nation and brought the issues of race, police misconduct (its was only two years after Rodney King riots), the responsibility of the media to a boiling point.
It took the film industry 22 years to come up with series that was able to capture this complex and highly sensitive case and produce a show that addresses all its angles. The result is terrifically lean, sober, and concise piece of television that ruled its league this year. The ensemble cast of stars (Cuba "ruined my career after winning an Oscar" Gooding Jr., John Travolta, David Schwimmer, etc.) does a magnificent job; however, the show is stolen by two relatively unknown actors. Sarah Paulson brings such an intensity to troubled, media-exploited character of Marcia Clark that it would fill a full movie alone. Clark's story also tells us novels how hard it is for professional women to get a fair chance in a profession where toughness and your public image are essential. Sounds familiar? Well, 22 years passed, but some work still has to be done... Sterling K. Brown's performance as the young, black attorney, who instantly becomes a traitor to his community as he joins the effort to bring O.J. to justice, is brilliant as well. When the two of them share scenes, the series gets to another level telling us about friendship, commitment, hard-won trust, and honesty.
It has been particularly fascinating for us to watch this show right after we arrived in St. Louis, whose suburb of Ferguson has in the last couple of years become the focal point and symbol of the ongoing struggle of race, police, and social coexistence. It was a reminder that the country still has a long way to go...
Runner-up: Borgen
This Danish masterpiece is just simply the best political drama series ever made. Period. More realistic than West Wing, far more serious than House of Cards has ever been. Brought to life by the precision and atmosphere-creating power of the Scandinavian movies. Besides, we are grateful to put Sidse Babett Knudsen on the map for us, we loved her as the smart prime minister, and hope to see her more often in international productions. The same goes for Pilou Asbaek who also appeared in our favorite Scandinavian movie of the year, the WWII drama April 9th.
2. [FICTION BOOK] Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“The only reason you say that race was not an issue is because you wish it was not. We all wish it was not. But it’s a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America. When you are black in America and you fall in love with a white person, race doesn’t matter when you’re alone together because it’s just you and your love. But the minute you step outside, race matters. But we don’t talk about it. We don’t even tell our white partners the small things that piss us off and the things we wish they understood better, because we’re worried they will say we’re overreacting, or we’re being too sensitive. And we don’t want them to say, Look how far we’ve come, just forty years ago it would have been illegal for us to even be a couple blah blah blah, because you know what we’re thinking when they say that? We’re thinking why the fuck should it ever have been illegal anyway? But we don’t say any of this stuff. We let it pile up inside our heads and when we come to nice liberal dinners like this, we say that race doesn’t matter because that’s what we’re supposed to say, to keep our nice liberal friends comfortable. It’s true. I speak from experience.”
Runner-up: Ilium/Olympos - By Dan Simmons
I have to admit, I am not a big fan of sci-fi novels. However, I think Dan Simmons two -part novel series is the best the genre could offer. It is an epic, adventurous, yet philosophical novel that blends the Homerian tradition, Shakespeare, and sci-fi into something fascinatingly new. Additionally, the journey of Orphu and Mahmut is one of the most compelling and heart-warming depictions of genuine and lasting friendship I have ever read.
3. [MOVIE] The Big Short
Runner-up: Spotlight
It is an irony that this title goes to a film that depicts the machinations of Wall Street that led us to the 2008 financial crisis. A crisis that has hugely contributed to the resentment and disillusionment that culminated in the upheavals of 2016.
As a new-leftist liberal, the notion that our free-market capitalism is broken is not a new thought for me. There are tons of literature to be read about almost every aspect of the rotten system that slowly strangles the middle class while creates a caste of a global elite. Yet these mostly academic or investigative journalism texts are not able to bring the arguments and most importantly the answers further than a small intellectual base. We need smart, yet easy-to-understand pop-culture to bring this important message to the ones who will be the crucial factor of change: the masses. The Big Short does exactly that job: it tells the story how the perfect storm of 2008 was created. The single biggest achievement of the movie is to efficiently break down and show the logic of the complex financial dealings. As a result, if you pay attention (and why wouldn't you, when these segments are wittily and narrated by celebrities?) you will quickly understand how fundamentally messed up the whole system was - a realization that escaped almost every financial professional in the industry that time, hence the party went on until the last possible minute. One of the most powerful moments comes when a small team of a Wall Street brokers takes a field trip to Florida to actually see the neighborhoods and houses that are behind the bonds, CDOs, and other newly created exotic financial products. They simply buy tickets and travel to the Sunshine state to realize that almost nobody is able to pay the mortgages on the fancy new houses - therefore the numbers on the laptop screens will not hold, disaster is coming. Apparently almost nobody else from their Brooks Brothers-suited colleagues took the trip - they just believed the numbers without any proof or hard evidence and cashed-in their bonuses.
The story is brought to life by yet another ensemble cast (Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale etc.) - they are not heroes, not saviors, just smart guys who see the coming storm before anyone else. Among these solid performances, Steve Carrel shines out with the most jaded, cynical character of the bunch who thinks the whole system is doomed and all the players are either fools or simply crooks. Yet when the disaster starts he is the one who breaks down - behind his cynism and anger, this man still hoped that the better nature of people will prevail. They did not (as they never do in market bubbles) - strong performance, Steve Carrel at his best.
Runner-up: Spotlight
Investigative journalism has always been one of the pillars of free societies. However, the digitalization of media, shrinking revenues, and post-truth tendencies (oh, 2016 again...) are shrinking the playing field for this kind of money and time intensive media work. So this movie is a well-timed hymn to the profession - we follow a group of journalists (Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Rachel Mcadams and our favorite Mark Ruffalo) uncovering how the Catholic Church in Boston tolerated, enabled and even covered up a vast number of child abuse cases. Straightforward, simple, yet powerful filmmaking.
4. [NON-FICTION BOOK] Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future - By Martin Ford
Okay, this one has a bad title: reading the word robots makes you think of the Austrian-born guy, who will never be president. However, automation is one of the biggest trends that shape our near future - maybe the quietest and most gradual one. Despite we have heard that "Software is eating the world", most of the mainstream politicians and economists in the Western world still neglect the tendency and make their plans/predictions without taking this fundamental change into account. In his book Martin Ford collects the most astonishing examples how technology is already changing a wide range of professions (journalism for example) and makes a strong case that the phenomenon will not stop after eliminating the majority of blue-collar jobs, thus putting a huge number of repetitive white-collar jobs in danger as well. At the end he offers some steps to cope with the changes (endorses basic income for instance), however, you finish the book with the feeling that we are far from being prepared. Disturbing, crucial read.
Runner-up: Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity - By Joseph Stiglitz
The last couple of years has seen a rise in books about the shortcomings of the free-market capitalism that we live in. While this is a welcome development, most of these works concentrate on the analysis and criticism of the current situation, and are short on answers and practical recommendations. Stiglitz, who has already written numerous books on the subject, dedicates the last section of his latest book to outline a detailed program how to make our societies more equal, just and fair. While you may argue against some of his solution (like I do) and realize that the text mostly focuses on the U.S., it is undeniable that the Nobel-recipient professor brought the discussion a step further.
Photo by Csaba Fender
Photo by Csaba Fender
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