Again, we are at the end of one year as looking forward to another one to come, but things seem to get worse and worse during this year. While my country is still struggling to recover from a social/political disaster caused by that deplorable predecessor of the current president, many other countries have been threatened more and more by the ongoing rise of fascism. As a matter of fact, I often considered taking a long break from the Internet for avoiding more anger and anxiety, though I also know well that I must keep following how the world and its people keep going day by day.

Nevertheless, I kept watching movies and writing reviews as usual, because that is how I have gotten connected with more people out there. Good movies always make me feel and think more actively while also reminding that I am just a plain audience and human being who is also your average amateur reviewer, and I really like to share my rather inconsequential thoughts and feelings with you, regardless of whether we agree or disagree. In my humble opinion, any disagreement between you and me can actually lead to a fun and interesting discussion, just like any agreement between us can lead to an equally meaningful conversation.

Early in this year, I promised to myself that I would watch less movies than before just for reading more books and reaching for more human connection, but I found that I miserably failed again, as looking back at all those reviews of mine written during this year. Again, I wrote more than 300 reviews during one year, and I do not regret watching most of them, but, folks, the Penguin Books edition of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” remains mostly untouched in my bag even though I planned to read it before watching the recent movie adaptation by Guillermo del Toro.

Anyway, here is the list of many interesting films which I think are the highlights of this year. You will notice that I do not include several notable movies of this year such as “Hamnet”, “Marty Supreme”, “Rental Family”, “The Secret Agent”, “Sentimental Value”, and “Sound of Falling”, and they cannot be included because I could not watch them before making my list in last week. If they are as good as I heard from others, they will surely be included in the annual list of the very next year.