Tag: movies

New Fiction 2017

Previously: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013

Short Stories 

  • “Most Die Young” by Camille Bordas (2017)
  • “That Baby” by Lindsay Hunter (2010)
  • “On the Street Where You Live” by Yiyun Li (2017)
  • “The Mule Rustlers” by Joe R. Lansdale (2001)
  • “Underground” by David Gilbert (2017)
  • “Constructed Worlds” by Elif Batuman (2017)
  • “Chairman Spaceman” by Thomas Pierce (2017)
  • “Quarantine” by Alix Ohlin (2017)  
  • “Maniac Loose” by Michael Malone (2001)
  • “Counting” by Fred Melton (2001)
  • “You Don’t Know Me” by Annette Meyers (2001)
  • “The High School Sweetheart” by Joyce Carol Oates (2001)
  • “Harlem Nocture” by Robert P. Parker (2001)
  • “Midnight Emissions” by F. X. Toole (2001)
  • “A Lepidopderist’s Tale” by Daniel Waterman (2001)
  • “The Copper Kings” by Scott Wolven (2001)
  • “Everywhere” by Geoff Ryman (1999)
  • “Willing”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People” by Lorrie Moore (1998)
  • “Dance in America”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “Community Life”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “Agnes of Iowa”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “Charades”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “Beautiful Grade”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “What You Want to Do Fine”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “Real Estate”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “People Like That Are The Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “Terrific Mother”

    by Lorrie Moore (1998)

  • “Veterans” by Laurie Alberts (1982)
  • “The Vanity of Small Differences” by Eileen Pollack (1987)
  • “The Big Sway” by Dennis Johnson (1986)
  • “Things to Draw” by Katharine Andres (1984)
  • “I Ate Her Heart” by Bob Shacochis (1986)

Novels

  • Night of the Living Dummy III by R. L. Stine (1996)
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)

Plays

  • The Crucible by Arthur Miller (1953)

Graphic Novels/Trades

  • Sex Criminals Volume 1 by Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky (2014)

  • Sex Criminals Volume 2 by Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky (2015)

  • Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson (2016)
  • Blobby Boys by Alex Schubert (2013)
  • Very Casual by Michael DeForge (2013)
  • My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris (2017)
  • The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures by Phoebe Gloeckner (2002)
  • Batman: Earth One Volume 1 by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Jonathan Sibal, Rob Leigh, Brad Anderson (2012)

  • Batman: Earth One Volume 2

    by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Jonathan Sibal, Rob Leigh, Brad Anderson (2015)

  • Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Batman by Brian Azzarello, J. T. Krul, Peter Milligan, Jimmy Palmiotti (2012)

Video Games

  • The Walking Dead: Michonne dev. TellTale Games (2016)
  • The Walking Dead: A New Frontier dev. TellTale Games (2016-2017)
  • The Last Guardian dev. SIE Japan Studio (2016)
  • Octodad: Dadliest Catch dev. Young Horses (2014)
  • Among the Sleep dev. Krillbite Studio (2014)
  • Grow Home dev. Ubisoft Reflections (2015)

  • Grow Up dev. Ubisoft Reflections (2016)

  • DuckTales dev. Capcom (1989)
  • Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers dev. Capcom (1990)
  • TaleSpin dev. Capcom (1991)
  • Darkwing Duck dev. Capcom (1992)
  • DuckTales 2 dev. Capcom (1993)
  • Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers 2

    dev. Capcom (1994)

  • Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor by Monolith Productions (2014)
  • Mad Max by Avalanche Studios (2015)
  • INSIDE by Playdead (2016)
  • The Beginner’s Guide dev. Everything Unlimited Ltd. (2015)
  • The Adventures of Batman & Robin for Sega CD (1995)
  • Frog Fractions by Twinbeard Studios (2012)
  • Grand Theft Auto IV by Rockstar North (2008)
  • Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City by Rockstar North (2010)
  • Cuphead by StudioMDHR (2017)
  • Hidden Agenda by Supermassive Games (2017)

Short Films

  • “Conventional” dir. Karen Gillan (2015)

  • “Mindenki” dir. Kristóf Deák (2016)

  • “Silent Nights” dir. Aske Bang (2016)

  • “Ennemis Intérieurs” dir. Sélim Azzazi (2016)

  • “Timecode” dir. Juanjo Giménez Peña (2016)

  • “La Femme et le TGV” dir. Timo von Gunten (2016)

  • “Borrowed Time” dir. Andrew Coats, Lou Hamou-Lhadj (2016)

  • “Pearl” dir. Patrick Osborne (2016)

  • “Blind Vaysha” dir. Theodore Ushev (2016)

  • “Piper” dir. Alan Barillaro (2016)

  • “Asteria” dir. Alexandre Arpentinier, Mathieu Blanchys, Lola Grand, Tristan Lamarca, Thomas Lemaille, Jean-Charles Lusseau (2017)
  • “The Head Vanishes” dir. Franck Dion (2016)
  • “Once Upon a Line” dir. Alicja Jasina (2016)
  • “Pear Cider and Cigarettes” dir. Robert Valley (2016)
  • “Things Wong Kar-Wai Taught Me About Love” dir. Alice Dallow (2004)
  • “Nut Guilty” dir. Lloyd French (1936)
  • “June” dir. John Kahrs (2016)
  • “5 Films About Technology” dir. Peter Huang (2017)
  • “A Short Vision” dir. Peter and Joan Foldes (1956)
  • “Lou” dir. Dave Mullins (2017)
  • “Grickle Television (vol.2)” dir. Graham Annable (2017)
  • “Killing Time”
    dir. Graham Annable (2017)
  • “Sunday afternoon”

    dir. Graham Annable (2017)

  • “Blower”

    dir. Graham Annable (2017)

  • “Story of R32” dir. Vladimir Vlasenko (2015)
  • “Flight 851”

    dir. Graham Annable (2017)

  • “Hi Stranger” dir. Kirsten Lepore (2016)
  • “El Chapulín Brujo” dir. Gabriela Badillo (2013)

Films

  • Why Him? dir. John Hamburg (2016)
  • Passengers dir. Morten Tyldum (2016)
  • Snowpiercer dir. Joon-ho Bong (2013)
  • The Men Who Stare at Goats dir. Grant Heslov (2009)
  • Hidden Figures dir. Theodore Melfi (2016)
  • Elle dir. Paul Verhoeven (2016)
  • Silence dir. Martin Scorsese (2016)
  • The Founder dir. John Lee Hancock (2017)
  • Split dir. M. Night Shyamalan (2017)
  • 20th Century Women dir. Mike Mills (2016)
  • Growing Up Smith dir. Frank Lotito (2017)
  • Un Padre No Tan Padre dir. Raúl Martínez (2016)
  • Night of the Comet dir. Thom Eberhardt (1984)
  • Puppet Master dir. David Schmoeller (1989)
  • Magic dir. Richard Attenborough (1978)
  • John Wick dir. Chad Stahelski, David Leitch (2014)
  • John Wick: Chapter 2 dir. Chad Stahelski (2017)
  • Get Out dir. Jordan Peele (2017)
  • Poltergeist dir. Tobe Hooper (1982)
  • Dolls dir. Stuart Gordon (1987)

  • Dead of Night dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Robert Hamer, Basil Dearden (1945)

  • Logan dir. James Mangold (2017)
  • A United Kingdom dir. Amma Asante (2016)
  • Trilogy of Terror dir. Dan Curtis (1975)
  • Dead Silence dir. James Wan (2007)
  • The Conjuring dir. James Wan (2013)
  • Goosebumps dir.  Rob Letterman (2015)

  • Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind dir. Hayao Miyazaki (1984)

  • Annabelle dir. John R. Leonetti (2014)
  • The Conjuring 2 dir. James Wan (2016)
  • The Great Gabbo dir. James Cruze, Erich von Stroheim (1929)
  • Devil Doll dir. Lindsay Shonteff (1964)
  • Tourist Trap dir. David Schmoeller (1979)
  • Pinocchio’s Revenge dir. Kevin S. Tenney (1996)
  • Black Devil Doll from Hell dir. Chester Novell Turner (1984)
  • Tales from the Hood dir. Rusty Cundieff (1995)
  • Blood Dolls dir. Charles Band (1999)
  • Demonic Toys dir. Peter Manoogian (1992)
  • Doll Graveyard dir. Charles Band (2005)

  • House of Evil dir. Jack Hill, Juan Ibáñez (1968)

  • Kong: Skull Island dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts (2017)

  • The Doll Master dir. Jeong Yong-ki (2004)

  • Death Doll dir. William Mims (1989)

  • The Devil’s Gift dir. Kenneth J. Berton (1984)

  • Dolly Dearest dir. Maria Lease (1991)
  • Kiki’s Delivery Service dir. Hayao Miyazaki (1989)
  • Fantastic Mr. Fox dir. Wes Anderson (2009)
  • Sleeping Beauty dir. Clyde Geronimi (1959)
  • Life dir. Daniel Espinosa (2017)
  • Ghost in the Shell dir. Rupert Sanders (2017)
  • Beauty and the Beast dir. Bill Condon (2017)
  • Gifted dir. Marc Webb (2017)
  • Frantz dir. François Ozon (2016)
  • The Fate of the Furious dir. F. Gary Gray (2017)
  • Your Name dir. Makoto Shinkai (2016)
  • Colossal dir. Nacho Vigalondo (2016)
  • The Lost City of Z dir. James Gray (2016)
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 dir. James Gunn (2017)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales dir. Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg (2017)
  • Going in Style dir. Zach Braff (2017)
  • The Lovely Bones dir. Peter Jackson (2009)
  • 2 Fast 2 Furious dir. John Singleton (2003)
  • Fast Five dir. Justin Lin (2011)
  • Fast and Furious 6

    dir. Justin Lin (2013)

  • Furious 7

    dir. Justin Lin (2015)

  • The Zookeeper’s Wife dir. Niki Caro (2017)

  • Wonder Woman dir. Patty Jenkins (2017)

  • Alien: Covenant dir. Ridley Scott (2017)
  • Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem dir. The Brothers Strause (2007)
  • Arrietty dir. Hiromasa Yonebayashi (2010)
  • It Comes at Night dir. Trey Edward Shults (2017)
  • Cars 3 dir. Brian Fee (2017)
  • Baywatch dir. Seth Gordon (2017)
  • Transformers: The Last Knight dir. Michael Bay (2017)
  • Face/Off dir. John Woo (1997)
  • Ghostbusters dir. Paul Feig (2016)
  • Black Mask dir. Daniel Lee (1996)
  • The Fog dir. Rupert Wainwright (2005)

  • R.I.P.D. dir. Robert Schwentke (2013)

  • Spider-Man: Homecoming dir. Jon Watts (2017)
  • The Mummy dir. Alex Kurtzman (2017)
  • My Cousin Rachel dir. Roger Michell (2017)
  • Baby Driver dir. Edgar Wright (2017)
  • War for the Planet of the Apes dir. Matt Reeves (2017)
  • The Beguiled dir. Sofia Coppola (2017)
  • Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets dir. Luc Besson (2017)
  • Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me dir. David Lynch (1992)
  • Dunkirk dir. Christopher Nolan (2017)
  • The Diary of a Teenage Girl dir. Marielle Heller (2015)
  • Atomic Blonde dir. David Leitch (2017)
  • The Dark Tower dir. Nikolaj Arcel (2017)
  • The Little Hours dir. Jeff Baena (2017)
  • Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman dir. Curt Geda (2003)
  • Ingrid Goes West dir. Matt Spicer (2017)
  • Kingsman: The Secret Service dir. Matthew Vaughn (2014)
  • Kingsman: The Golden Circle

    dir. Matthew Vaughn (2017)

  • The Dino King dir. Han Sang-Ho (2012)
  • The Crucible dir. Nicholas Hytner (1996)
  • Blade Runner 2049 dir. Denis Villeneuve (2017)
  • Happy Death Day dir. Christopher B. Landon (2017)
  • The Foreigner dir. Martin Campbell (2017)
  • Black Christmas dir. Bob Clark (1974)
  • Thor: Ragnarok dir. Taika Waititi (2017)
  • Zodiac dir. David Fincher (2007)
  • Murder on the Orient Express dir. Kenneth Branagh (2017)
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy dir. Tomas Alfredson (2011)
  • The Imitation Game dir. Morten Tyldum (2014)
  • Train to Busan dir. Yeon Sang-ho (2016)
  • Okja dir. Bong Joon-ho (2017)
  • Nightcrawler dir. Dan Gilroy (2014)
  • Death Note dir. Adam Wingard (2017)
  • Inside Man dir. Spike Lee (2006)
  • Coco dir. Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina (2017)
  • First They Killed My Father dir. Angelina Jolie (2017)
  • The Shape of Water dir. Guillermo del Toro (2017)
  • Justice League dir. Zack Snyder (2017)
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi dir. Rian Johnson (2017)
  • Krampus dir. Michael Dougherty (2015)
  • The Croods dir. Kirk DeMicco, Chris Sanders (2013)
  • Home dir. Tim Johnson (2015)
  • Minions dir. Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda (2015)
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2 dir. Dean DeBlois (2014)

TV Episodes

  • Goosebumps – “Night of the Living Dummy III” (1997)
  • Goosebumps – “Bride of the Living Dummy” (1998)
  • The Twilight Zone – “Miniature” (1963)
  • The Twilight Zone – “The Living Doll” (1963)
  • The Twilight Zone – “Mr. Motivation” (2002)
  • The Twilight Zone – “The Collection” (2003)
  • Tales from the Cryptkeeper – “Sharon Sharalike” (1999)
  • The Twilight Zone – “The Dummy” (1962)
  • The Twilight Zone – “Caesar and Me” (1964)
  • The Alfred Hitchcock Hour – “Where the Woodbine Twineth” (1965)
  • Tales from the Crypt – “The Ventriloquist’s Dummy” (1990)
  • Tales from the Crypt – “Strung Along” (1992)
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents – “The Glass Eye” (1957)
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents – “And So Died Riabouchinska” (1956)
  • Night Gallery – “Pamela’s Voice”, “Lone Survivor,” and “The Doll” (1971)
  • Night Gallery – “The Doll of Death” (1973)
  • Rick and Morty – “Pilot” (2013)

  • Rick and Morty – “Lawnmower Dog” (2013)

  • Rick and Morty – “Anatomy Park” (2013)

  • The Simpsons – “Simpsorama” (2014)
  • One Punch Man – “The Strongest Man” (2015)
  • The New Batman Adventures – “Cold Comfort” (1997)

  • The New Batman Adventures – “Love is a Croc” (1998)

  • The New Batman Adventures – “Torch Song” (1998)

  • The New Batman Adventures – “Judgment Day” (1999)

  • The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror XXVII” (2016)

  • The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror XXVIII” (2017)

  • Bob’s Burgers – “The Wolf of Wharf Street” (2017)
  • Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma  – “An Endless Wasteland” (2015)

  • Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma  – “God Tongue” (2015)

  • Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma  – "That Chef Never Smiles" (2015)

  • Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma  – "The Madonna of the Polar Star" (2015)

  • Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma  – "The Ice Queen and the Spring Storm" (2015)

  • Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma  – "The Meat Invader" (2015)

  • Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma  – "A Quiet Don, An Eloquent Don" (2015)

  • Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma  – "The Concerto of Inspiration and Imagination" (2015)

  • Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma  – "The Breading to Adorn the Mountains" (2015)

  • Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma  – "The Heavenly Recette" (2015)

TV Series

  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-2009)
  • Sherlock – Series 4 (2017)
  • The Walking Dead – Season 7 (2016-2017)
  • Darkwing Duck (1991-1992)
  • American Gods (2017)
  • Twin Peaks – Season 2 (1990-1991)
  • Iron Fist (2017)
  • The Defenders (2017)
  • Fargo – Season 2 (2015)
  • Narcos – Season 3 (2017)
  • BoJack Horseman – Season 4 (2017)
  • It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – Season 11 (2016)
  • Mindhunter (2017)
  • The Punisher (2017)
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season 4 (2016-2017)

  • American Horror Story – Seasons 1-7 (2011-2017)

20th Century Women had me floating in the black for its entire runtime. It was a relatable, funny escape. The people in the film expressed complexity, rarely giving straight answers. (Obfuscation and avoidance are central to complexity, and I don’t know if that’s right.) The topics of generational understanding of relationships, feminism, energy crises, hippy and punk countercultures, or governmental angst were all woven into the film the way they tend to get woven into life. There were rainbow blur shots of cars on the road that were California road film 101. I appreciated the landscape and its inhabitants as a Californian, and remembered that perhaps this is a unique place after all.

I had more thoughts but they’re gone already. I reckon they would’ve added up to: I liked it.

20th Century Women had me floating in the black for its entire runtime. It was a relatable, funny escape. The people in the film expressed complexity, rarely giving straight answers. (Obfuscation and avoidance are central to complexity, and I don’t know if that’s right.) The topics of generational understanding of relationships, feminism, energy crises, hippy and punk countercultures, or governmental angst were all woven into the film the way they tend to get woven into life. There were rainbow blur shots of cars on the road that were California road film 101. I appreciated the landscape and its inhabitants as a Californian, and remembered that perhaps this is a unique place after all.

I had more thoughts but they’re gone already. I reckon they would’ve added up to: I liked it.

Star Wars and Laserdiscs

My only memory of the defunct laserdisc video format is the player my uncle Ramiro owned sometime in the early nineties. I remember noticing the device sitting on a high shelf of his classic wood and lacquer entertainment center, the type frequently seen in the homes of my Mexican uncles and friends of my dad. Someone always knew a wood-working friend or uncle who could whip one of these things up in no time.

I didn’t know what a laserdisc was, of course, since my parents would never spring for such a frivolous device when a VCR and VHS tapes were far cheaper. My uncle explained its purpose, showed me an actual laserdisc (like a CD the size of a 12″ vinyl record), and then demonstrated that his particular player included two disc trays. I recently learned that laserdiscs could only fit about fifty-five minutes of video on one side, so the early players required one to get up and manually flip the disc. Later players introduced automatic flipping and that multi-disc support my uncle showed me.

It was most likely the Pioneer LD-W1.

We didn’t even watch a movie on laserdisc that day. He just showed it off. I never thought about laserdiscs again except as a Betamax-like curiosity.

Then there’s this past month, and Star Wars. I was a huge Star Wars fan in the late nineties and early aughts. In addition to watching the movies, I played all the video games, read all the novels, collected many toys. Star Wars was a big part of my life. I first ventured into chat rooms to discuss Star Wars with strangers, and had my first online crush when I chatted with a girl from San Diego who loved Star Wars enough to write her own songs about the series. Later, I joined Star Wars video game forums and participated in my first collaboration with online strangers when we worked together to discover the requirements for the most challenging medals in Star Wars: Episode I Battle for Naboo, a game for the Nintendo 64. I officially credit this as the beginning of my career in video games.

So I loved Star Wars, and still care about that universe and its stories. An appreciation for Star Wars got passed along to my brothers.

They were there with me when I was in the mood to watch the films on our VCR and they know the stories of the myriad film characters as well as I do. They always join me to watch the latest installment of the franchise. It’s become a treasured tradition for me.

Now those VHS copies from the nineties, they were the 1997 Special Edition versions of the films. They were released on VHS, naturally, and laserdisc, but by the time Lucasfilm got around to DVD releases in 2004, they’d made additional changes to make Specialer Special Editions. These were different from the versions I loved and it left my beloved Special Editions in a limbo between the CG-free originals that most grumblers prefer and the constantly tweaked releases of today. No one cared enough about these versions of the films with their nineties CG to create digital copies and share them online. I grudgingly watched other versions of the original trilogy until this past December when I could no longer carry on. I needed to find copies of my Star Wars films that I could hold onto and share for years to come. VHS copies were available but any VHS film would look pretty poor on a modern television or monitor. 

Laserdisc was my best chance of finding those films in the best possible quality.

What a cluster. Unlike DVD or even VHS, laserdisc player quality seemed to vary greatly between players and from year to year. I wasn’t willing to shell out the money for the high-end holy grail players. So I bought the Star Wars 1997 Special Editions on laserdisc and

a Pioneer CLD-D701

from ebay. The motor sounded a bit rough but it still played the discs well. I managed to get through two of the films before the player’s motor crapped out at the start of the third. I can’t get it to budge and fixing it is a project for another day.

Then I checked Craiglist. (Last ditch is when Craigslist is most useful.) That’s where I found a Pioneer CLD-S201 from an electronics recycler. The forums I checked said it’s a low-end player (and it’s missing the disc flip feature), but I was ready to wrap up this project. I needed it to literally play one more movie. I drove there and they confirmed it worked with one of their discs, so I bought it. The motor on this one sounds fine and I’m just now getting through the final side of the final disc.

There’s going to be a new Star Wars film each year for the foreseeable future. It’s not just my brothers and I who get to watch them, but our girlfriends and kids join us as well. Technology, entertainment, film… All elements of our lives that seem to fly by inconsequentially but leave indelible memories of the times when we enjoyed them together.

Star Wars and Laserdiscs

My only memory of the defunct laserdisc video format is the player my uncle Ramiro owned sometime in the early nineties. I remember noticing the device sitting on a high shelf of his classic wood and lacquer entertainment center, the type frequently seen in the homes of my Mexican uncles and friends of my dad. Someone always knew a wood-working friend or uncle who could whip one of these things up in no time.

I didn’t know what a laserdisc was, of course, since my parents would never spring for such a frivolous device when a VCR and VHS tapes were far cheaper. My uncle explained its purpose, showed me an actual laserdisc (like a CD the size of a 12″ vinyl record), and then demonstrated that his particular player included two disc trays. I recently learned that laserdiscs could only fit about fifty-five minutes of video on one side, so the early players required one to get up and manually flip the disc. Later players introduced automatic flipping and that multi-disc support my uncle showed me.

It was most likely the Pioneer LD-W1.

We didn’t even watch a movie on laserdisc that day. He just showed it off. I never thought about laserdiscs again except as a Betamax-like curiosity.

Then there’s this past month, and Star Wars. I was a huge Star Wars fan in the late nineties and early aughts. In addition to watching the movies, I played all the video games, read all the novels, collected many toys. Star Wars was a big part of my life. I first ventured into chat rooms to discuss Star Wars with strangers, and had my first online crush when I chatted with a girl from San Diego who loved Star Wars enough to write her own songs about the series. Later, I joined Star Wars video game forums and participated in my first collaboration with online strangers when we worked together to discover the requirements for the most challenging medals in Star Wars: Episode I Battle for Naboo, a game for the Nintendo 64. I officially credit this as the beginning of my career in video games.

So I loved Star Wars, and still care about that universe and its stories. An appreciation for Star Wars got passed along to my brothers.

They were there with me when I was in the mood to watch the films on our VCR and they know the stories of the myriad film characters as well as I do. They always join me to watch the latest installment of the franchise. It’s become a treasured tradition for me.

Now those VHS copies from the nineties, they were the 1997 Special Edition versions of the films. They were released on VHS, naturally, and laserdisc, but by the time Lucasfilm got around to DVD releases in 2004, they’d made additional changes to make Specialer Special Editions. These were different from the versions I loved and it left my beloved Special Editions in a limbo between the CG-free originals that most grumblers prefer and the constantly tweaked releases of today. No one cared enough about these versions of the films with their nineties CG to create digital copies and share them online. I grudgingly watched other versions of the original trilogy until this past December when I could no longer carry on. I needed to find copies of my Star Wars films that I could hold onto and share for years to come. VHS copies were available but any VHS film would look pretty poor on a modern television or monitor. 

Laserdisc was my best chance of finding those films in the best possible quality.

What a cluster. Unlike DVD or even VHS, laserdisc player quality seemed to vary greatly between players and from year to year. I wasn’t willing to shell out the money for the high-end holy grail players. So I bought the Star Wars 1997 Special Editions on laserdisc and

a Pioneer CLD-D701

from ebay. The motor sounded a bit rough but it still played the discs well. I managed to get through two of the films before the player’s motor crapped out at the start of the third. I can’t get it to budge and fixing it is a project for another day.

Then I checked Craiglist. (Last ditch is when Craigslist is most useful.) That’s where I found a Pioneer CLD-S201 from an electronics recycler. The forums I checked said it’s a low-end player (and it’s missing the disc flip feature), but I was ready to wrap up this project. I needed it to literally play one more movie. I drove there and they confirmed it worked with one of their discs, so I bought it. The motor on this one sounds fine and I’m just now getting through the final side of the final disc.

There’s going to be a new Star Wars film each year for the foreseeable future. It’s not just my brothers and I who get to watch them, but our girlfriends and kids join us as well. Technology, entertainment, film… All elements of our lives that seem to fly by inconsequentially but leave indelible memories of the times when we enjoyed them together.

New Fiction 2016

It was another sad year for novels, but short stories and movies boomed.

Previously: 2015, 2014, 2013

Short Stories

  • “The Philosophers” by Adam Ehrlich Sachs (2016)
  • “A Life of Adventure and Delight” by Akhil Sharma (2016)
  • “Choking Victim” by Alexandra Kleeman (2016) 
  • “These Short, Dark Days” by Alice McDermott (2015)
  • “Breaking News: Guatemalan Kitchen Work Cures Ego” by Ally Yancey (2014)
  • “My Curls Have Blown All the Way to China” by Amos Oz (2015)
  • “Save a Horse Ride a Cowgirl” by Ann Beattie (2015)
  • “For the Best” by Ann Beattie (2016)
  • “1=1” by Anne Carson (2016)
  • “Back the Way You Went” by Anne Carson (2016)
  • “A Resolute Man” by Annie Proulx (2016)
  • “The Gospel According to García” by Ariel Dorfman (2015)
  • “Moon Man” by B. A. Brock (2015)
  • “Cold Little Bird” by Ben Marcus (2015)
  • “The Day I Met Buddha” by Benjamin F. Schafer (2014)
  • “Lose the Battle” by Beth Brock (2014)
  • “A Family Game” by Brendan Dubois (2001)
  • “Fable” by Charles Yu (2016)
  • “The Cobalt Blues” by Clark Howard (2001)
  • “Lost Souls” by Clive Barker British (1985)
  • “Anhedonia, Here I Come” by Colin Barrett (2016)
  • “Gender Studies” by Curtis Sittenfeld (2016)
  • “The Edge of the Shoal” by Cynan Jones (2016) 
  • “Jelly and Jack” by Dana Spiotta (2015)
  • “In the Act of Falling” by Danielle McLaughlin (2015)
  • “The Blue Mirror” by David Edgerley Gates (2001)
  • “To the Moon and Back” by Etgar Keret (2016)
  • “Buttony” by Fiona McFarlane (2016)
  • “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor (1955)
  • “The Cookooburrahs and the Goolahgool” by Folktale Australia (1896)
  • “Why Dogs Wag their Tails” by Folktale Filipino (1916)
  • “I Know” by Galadriel Mozee (2014)
  • “Mother’s Day” by George Saunders (2016)
  • “The Striding Place” by Gertrude Atherton (1896)
  • “The goblin and the huckster” by Hans Christian Andersen (1915)
  • “My Purple Scented Novel” by Ian McEwan (2016)
  • “Little Snow-white” by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm (1884)
  • “The Almond Tree” by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm (1886)
  • “The Championship of Nowhere” by James Grady (2001)
  • “The Apartment” by Jensen Beach (2015)
  • “Inscrutable” by Joe Gores (2001)
  • “It Is Raining in Bejucal” by John Biguenet (2001)
  • “Three Short Moments in a Long Life” by John L’Heureux (2016)
  • “The Republic of Bad Taste” by Jonathan Franzen (2015)
  • “A Gentleman’s Game” by Jonathan Lethem (2016)
  • “The Abandonment” by Joshua Ferris (2016)
  • “Chicken Hill” by Joy Williams (2015)
  • “Stuff” by Joy Williams (2016)
  • “Honey Bunny” by Julianne Pachico (2015)
  • “The Bog Girl” by Karen Russell (2016)
  • “The Prospectors” by Karen Russell (2015)
  • “The Specialist’s Hat” by Kelly Link (1998)
  • “Deer Season” by Kevin Barry (2016)
  • “God’s Work” by Kevin Canty (2016)
  • “The Midnight Zone” by Lauren Groff (2016)
  • “Who Will Greet You At Home” by Lesley Nneka Arimah (2015)
  • “The Story of a Painter” by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (2016)
  • “Total Solar” by Luke Mogelson (2016)
  • “The Weir” by Mark Haddon (2015)
  • “Two-Bagger” by Michael Connelly (2001)
  • “Man Kills Wife, Two Dogs” by Michael Downs (2001)
  • “Zaabalawi” by Naguib Mahfouz (1963)
  • “A Study in Emerald” by Neil Gaiman (2003)
  • “The Beach Boy” by Otessa Moshfegh (2016)
  • “An Honest Woman” by Ottessa Moshfegh (2016)
  • “The Things” by Peter Watts (2010)
  • “A Short History of Zaka the Zulu” by Petina Gappah (2016)
  • “Fifty-Seven” by Rachel Kushner (2015)
  • “The Three Little Birds” by Rindy Gradford (2015)
  • “How Can I Help?” by Rivka Galchen (2016)
  • “Usl at the Stadium” by Rivka Galchen (2015)
  • “Invasion of the Martians” by Robert Coover (2016)
  • “In the Court of the Dragon” by Robert W. Chambers (1895)
  • “Tiny Man” by Sam Shepard (2016)
  • “The Burglar” by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (2016) 
  • “Summa Mathematica” by Sean Dolittle (2001)
  • “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét (1937)
  • “Sometimes Something Goes Wrong” by Stuart M. Kaminsky (2001)
  • “Are We Not Men?” by T. Coraghessan Boyle (2016)
  • “Patient Zero” by Tananrive Due (2010)
  • “Aspic” by Tatyana Tolstaya (2016)
  • “Dido’s Lament” by Tessa Hadley (2016)
  • “The Fix” by Thomas H. Cook (2001)
  • “The Driver” by Thomas McGuane (2015)
  • “Papaya” by Thomas McGuane (2016)
  • “Bedtimes” by Tim Parks (2015)
  • “Vespa” by Tim Parks (2015)
  • “The Chair Carrier” by Yusuf Idris (1974)
  • “Upside-Down Cake” by Paul Theroux

    (2016

  • “Spiderweb” by Mariana Enriquez

    (2016)

  • “Pardon Edward Snowden” by Joseph O’Neill

    (2016)

  • “Flower Hunters” by Lauren Groff

    (2016)

  • “The King’s Teacup at Rest” by Michael Andreasen

    (2016)

  • “The Hanging of the Schoolmarm” by Robert Coover

    (2016)

  • “Two Men Arrive in a Village” by Zadie Smith (2016)
  • “The Polish Rider” by Ben Lerner (2016)
  • “Seven People Dancing” by Langston Hughes (1961)
  • “Maybe It Was the Distance” by Jonathan Safran Foer (2016)

Novels

  • Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (1989)

Plays

  • Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (429 BC)

Comics

  • “Commercial Success” by Graham Annable (2010)
  • “walk-in" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "articulate conception" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "dead weight" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "misery and his company" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "futile space" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "decency" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "Old Man River" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "fishin’ trip" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "the bomb" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "love monster" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "photo opportunity" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "Sea Life" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "slight aberration" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "by necessity" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "the sound of paste" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "wee man" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "A Brief History of the Art Form Known as "Hortisculpture” by Adrian Tomine (2015)
  • “Amber Sweet” by Adrian Tomine (2015)
  • “Go Owls” by Adrian Tomine (2015)
  • “Translated, from the Japanese," by Adrian Tomine (2015)
  • "Killing and Dying" by Adrian Tomine (2015)
  • "Intruders" by Adrian Tomine (2015)

Graphic Novels

  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Chaos by Yukito Kishiro (1997)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Fallen Angel by Yukito Kishiro (1998)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel’s Ascension by Yukito Kishiro (1998)
  • Hopeless Savages: Break by Jan Van Meter, Meredith McClaren, Christine Norrie (2015)
  • Steve Lichman: Volume I by David Rapoza and Daniel Warren (2016)

Video Games

  • Predator 2 for Sega Master System dev. Teeny Weeny Games (1992)
  • Fallout 4

    dev.

    Bethesda Softworks (2015)

  • Undertale dev. tobyfox (2015)
  • Cibele dev. Star Maid Games (2015)
  • Firewatch dev. Campo Santo (2016)
  • T2: The Arcade Game

    for Sega Master System dev. Probe Development (1993)

  • Castle of Illusion dev. Sega Studios Australia (2013)
  • Alien: Isolation dev. Creative Assembly (2014)
  • Autonomous dev. Double Fine Productions (2012)
  • Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End dev. Naughty Dog (2016)
  • Back to the Future: The Game dev. TellTale Games (2011)
  • SPACEPLAN dev. Jake Hollands (2016)
  • Ben There, Dan That! dev. Size Five Games (2008)
  • Bientot l’ete dev. Tale of Tales (2013)
  • Bioshock Infinite dev. Irrational Games (2013)
  • Bone: Out from Boneville dev. TellTale Games (2005)

  • Bone: The Great Cow Race dev. TellTale Games (2006)

  • Cart Life dev. Richard Hofmeier (2011)
  • The Halloween Google Doodle dev. Google (2016)
  • The Simpsons Tapped Out: Halloween 2016 dev. Electronic Arts (2015)
  • Headlander dev. Double Fine Productions (2016)

Short Films

  • "Vincent” dir. Tim Burton (1982)
  • “Madame Tutli-Putli” dir. Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (2007)
  • “World of Tomorrow” dir. Don Hertzfeldt (2015)
  • “Felix in Exile” dir. William Kentridge (1994)
  • “Ku’u Lei Melody: A Mickey Mouse Cartoon” dir. Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Paul Rudish (2016)
  • “Many Moons” dir. Alan Ferguson, The Wondaland Arts Society (2008)
  • “Death in the Dust” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Frozen Hell” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “The Bad Back Bus” dir. Graham Annable (2010)
  • “Transmission at outpost 79” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Old Reliable” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “The Lonely Hunter” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Death Defying” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Morning Glory” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Dreams of Sloshy- number 1” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Dummy” dir. Graham Annable (2016)
  • “No Quarter” dir. Mike Trent (2007)
  • “Defective” dir. Rani Naamani (2004)
  • “One More Beer” dir. Pedro Conti, Alan Camilo (2012)
  • “Lunch” dir. Graham Annable (2016)
  • “Premonitions Following an Evil Deed” dir. David Lynch (1995)

  • “Alien Song” dir. Victor Navone (1999)

  • “Flys!” dir. Eder Cardoso (2009)
  • “Halloween MADNESS” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Closet” dir. Graham Annable (2007)
  • “Intermission” dir. Graham Annable (2016)
  • “Joy to the Weird” dir. Graham Annable (2008)
  • “Reach” dir. Luke Randall (2008)
  • “Help Me” dir. Isaak Fernandez Rodriguez (2005)
  • “Inner Workings” dir. Leo Matsuda (2016)
  • “Piper” dir. Alan Barillaro (2016)

Films

  • Escape from L.A. dir. John Carpenter (1996)
  • ParaNorman dir. Sam Fell and Chris Butler (2012)
  • Galaxy Quest dir. Dean Parisot (1999)
  • It’s Such a Beautiful Day dir. Don Hertzfeldt (2012)
  • The Revenant dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu (2015)
  • Hail, Caesar! dir. Ethan Cohen, Joel Cohen (2016)
  • Regression dir. Alejandro Amenábar (2015)
  • Room dir. Lenny Abrahamson (2015)
  • The Boy dir. William Brent Bell (2016)
  • Jane Got a Gun dir. Gavin O’Connor (2015)
  • Bridge of Spies dir. Steven Spielberg (2015)
  • The Big Short dir. Adam McKay (2015)
  • Spotlight dir. Tom McCarthy (2015)
  • Brooklyn dir. John Crowley (2015)
  • The Martian dir. Ridley Scott (2015)
  • The Witch dir. Robert Eggers (2015)
  • The Wicker Man dir. Robin Hardy (1973)
  • Terminator Genisys dir. Alan Taylor (2015)
  • Whiskey Tango Foxtrot dir. Glenn Ficarra, John Requa (2016)
  • Anomalisa dir. Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman (2015)
  • 10 Cloverfield Lane dir. Dan Trachtenburg (2016)
  • Deadpool dir. Tim Miller (2016)
  • Zootopia dir. Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush (2016)
  • Knight of Cups dir. Terrence Malick (2016)
  • Only Yesterday dir. Isao Takahata (1991)
  • Dinotasia dir. David Krentz, Erik Nelson (2012)
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice dir. Zack Snyder (2016)
  • Man of Steel dir. Zack Snyder (2013)
  • Eraser dir. Chuck Russell (1996)
  • Collateral Damage dir. Andrew Davis (2002)
  • Dope dir. Rick Famuyiwa (2015)
  • The Babadook dir. Jennifer Kent (2014)
  • Vampire Hunter D dir. Toyo Ashida (1985)
  • Captain America: The First Avenger dir. Joe Johnston (2011)
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier dir. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo (2014)
  • Jungle Book dir. Jon Favreau (2016)
  • Thor dir. Kenneth Branagh (2011)
  • Iron Man 3 dir. Shane Black (2013)
  • Thor: The Dark World dir. Alan Taylor (2013)
  • Ant-Man dir. Peyton Reed (2015)
  • Green Room dir. Jeremy Saulnier (2015)
  • Captain America: Civil War dir. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo (2016)
  • X-Men: Apocalypse dir. Bryan Singer (2016)
  • The Nice Guys dir. Shane Black (2016)
  • The Neon Demon dir. Nicolas Winding Refn (2016)
  • Twisted dir. Philip Kaufman (2004)
  • Basic Instinct dir. Paul Verhoeven (1992)
  • The Saint dir. Phillip Noyce (1997)
  • Twilight dir. Robert Benton (1998)
  • Star Trek Beyond dir. Justin Lin (2016)
  • Kubo and the Two Strings dir. Travis Knight (2016)
  • Don’t Breathe dir. Fede Alvarez (2016)
  • Now You See Me dir. Louis Leterrier (2013)
  • The Lobster dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (2015)
  • Captain Fantastic dir. Matt Ross (2016)
  • Hell or High Water dir. David Mackenzie (2016)
  • Hunt for the Wilderpeople dir. Taika Waititi (2016)
  • Finding Dory dir. Andrew Stanton (2016)
  • Suicide Squad dir. David Ayer (2016)
  • Magnificent Seven dir. Antoine Fuqua (2016)
  • Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children dir. Tim Burton (2016)
  • What We Do in the Shadows dir. Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi (2014)
  • Sleepaway Camp dir. Robert Hiltzik (1983)
  • The Girl on the Train dir. Tate Taylor (2016)
  • Deepwater Horizon dir. Peter Berg (2016)
  • Desierto dir. Jonás Cuarón (2016)
  • Inferno dir. Ron Howard (2016)
  • Moonlight dir. Barry Jenkins (2016)
  • The Handmaiden dir. Park Chan-wook (2016)
  • Doctor Strange dir. Scott Derrickson (2016)
  • Arrival dir. Denis Villeneuve (2016)
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them dir. David Yates (2016)
  • Nocturnal Animals dir. Tom Ford (2016)
  • The Take dir. James Watkins (2016)
  • Loving dir. Jeff Nichols (2016)
  • Allied dir. Robert Zemeckis (2016)
  • Moana dir. Ron Clements, John Musker (2016)
  • The Edge of Seventeen dir. Kelly Fremon Craig (2016)
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine dir. Gavin Hood (2009)
  • Lion dir. Garth Davis (2016)
  • The Hunger Games dir. Gary Ross (2012)
  • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire dir.  Francis Lawrence (2013)
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 dir.  Francis Lawrence (2014)
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 dir.  Francis Lawrence (2015)
  • Trolls dir. Mike Mitchell
    , Walt Dohrn (2016)
  • Sixteen Candles dir. John Hughes (1984)
  • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story dir. Gareth Edwards (2016)
  • La La Land dir. Damien Chazelle (2016)
  • The Wolverine dir. James Mangold (2013)
  • Manchester by the Sea dir. Kenneth Lonergan (2016)
  • Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows dir. Guy Ritchie (2011)
  • Jackie dir. Pablo Larraín (2016)
  • How to Train Your Dragon dir. Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois (2010)

  • Wayne’s World dir. Penelope Spheeris (1992)

  • Fences dir. Denzel Washington (2016)
  • Midnight Special dir. Jeff Nichols (2016)
  • Straight Outta Compton dir. F. Gary Gray (2015)

TV Episodes

  • The Big Bang Theory – "The Bozeman Reaction" (2010)
  • The Big Bang Theory – "The Einstein Approximation" (2010)
  • The Big Bang Theory – "The Wheaton Recurrence" (2010)
  • Sherlock – “The Abominable Bride” (2016)
  • The Simpsons – "Every Man’s Dream" (2015)
  • Bob’s Burgers – “The Hauntening” (2015)
  • Bob’s Burgers – “Teen-a Witch” (2016)

  • The Walking Dead
    – “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “The Well”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “The Cell”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “Service”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead – “Go Getters”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “Swear”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “Sing Me a Song”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “Hearts Still Beating”

    (2016)

TV Series

  • Californication – Season 7 (2014)
  • House of Cards – Seasons 2-4 (2014-2016)
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2014)
  • Better Call Saul – Season 1 (2015)
  • Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1975)
  • Daredevil (2015-2016)
  • The Fall (2013-2014)
  • Agents of SHIELD (2013-2016)
  • Agent Carter (2015-2016)
  • Stranger Things (2016)
  • BoJack Horseman – Season 3 (2016)
  • Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)
  • It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – Seasons 3-10 (2007-2015)
  • Archer – Season 6 (2015)
  • Luther (2010-2015)
  • Bones – Seasons 10-11 (2014-2016)
  • Luke Cage (2016)
  • Narcos – Season 2 (2016)
  • Futurama – Seasons 6-7 (2010-2013)

  • Black Mirror (2011-2016)

  • The Walking Dead – Seasons 4-6 (2013-2015)

New Fiction 2016

It was another sad year for novels, but short stories and movies boomed.

Previously: 2015, 2014, 2013

Short Stories

  • “The Philosophers” by Adam Ehrlich Sachs (2016)
  • “A Life of Adventure and Delight” by Akhil Sharma (2016)
  • “Choking Victim” by Alexandra Kleeman (2016) 
  • “These Short, Dark Days” by Alice McDermott (2015)
  • “Breaking News: Guatemalan Kitchen Work Cures Ego” by Ally Yancey (2014)
  • “My Curls Have Blown All the Way to China” by Amos Oz (2015)
  • “Save a Horse Ride a Cowgirl” by Ann Beattie (2015)
  • “For the Best” by Ann Beattie (2016)
  • “1=1” by Anne Carson (2016)
  • “Back the Way You Went” by Anne Carson (2016)
  • “A Resolute Man” by Annie Proulx (2016)
  • “The Gospel According to García” by Ariel Dorfman (2015)
  • “Moon Man” by B. A. Brock (2015)
  • “Cold Little Bird” by Ben Marcus (2015)
  • “The Day I Met Buddha” by Benjamin F. Schafer (2014)
  • “Lose the Battle” by Beth Brock (2014)
  • “A Family Game” by Brendan Dubois (2001)
  • “Fable” by Charles Yu (2016)
  • “The Cobalt Blues” by Clark Howard (2001)
  • “Lost Souls” by Clive Barker British (1985)
  • “Anhedonia, Here I Come” by Colin Barrett (2016)
  • “Gender Studies” by Curtis Sittenfeld (2016)
  • “The Edge of the Shoal” by Cynan Jones (2016) 
  • “Jelly and Jack” by Dana Spiotta (2015)
  • “In the Act of Falling” by Danielle McLaughlin (2015)
  • “The Blue Mirror” by David Edgerley Gates (2001)
  • “To the Moon and Back” by Etgar Keret (2016)
  • “Buttony” by Fiona McFarlane (2016)
  • “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor (1955)
  • “The Cookooburrahs and the Goolahgool” by Folktale Australia (1896)
  • “Why Dogs Wag their Tails” by Folktale Filipino (1916)
  • “I Know” by Galadriel Mozee (2014)
  • “Mother’s Day” by George Saunders (2016)
  • “The Striding Place” by Gertrude Atherton (1896)
  • “The goblin and the huckster” by Hans Christian Andersen (1915)
  • “My Purple Scented Novel” by Ian McEwan (2016)
  • “Little Snow-white” by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm (1884)
  • “The Almond Tree” by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm (1886)
  • “The Championship of Nowhere” by James Grady (2001)
  • “The Apartment” by Jensen Beach (2015)
  • “Inscrutable” by Joe Gores (2001)
  • “It Is Raining in Bejucal” by John Biguenet (2001)
  • “Three Short Moments in a Long Life” by John L’Heureux (2016)
  • “The Republic of Bad Taste” by Jonathan Franzen (2015)
  • “A Gentleman’s Game” by Jonathan Lethem (2016)
  • “The Abandonment” by Joshua Ferris (2016)
  • “Chicken Hill” by Joy Williams (2015)
  • “Stuff” by Joy Williams (2016)
  • “Honey Bunny” by Julianne Pachico (2015)
  • “The Bog Girl” by Karen Russell (2016)
  • “The Prospectors” by Karen Russell (2015)
  • “The Specialist’s Hat” by Kelly Link (1998)
  • “Deer Season” by Kevin Barry (2016)
  • “God’s Work” by Kevin Canty (2016)
  • “The Midnight Zone” by Lauren Groff (2016)
  • “Who Will Greet You At Home” by Lesley Nneka Arimah (2015)
  • “The Story of a Painter” by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (2016)
  • “Total Solar” by Luke Mogelson (2016)
  • “The Weir” by Mark Haddon (2015)
  • “Two-Bagger” by Michael Connelly (2001)
  • “Man Kills Wife, Two Dogs” by Michael Downs (2001)
  • “Zaabalawi” by Naguib Mahfouz (1963)
  • “A Study in Emerald” by Neil Gaiman (2003)
  • “The Beach Boy” by Otessa Moshfegh (2016)
  • “An Honest Woman” by Ottessa Moshfegh (2016)
  • “The Things” by Peter Watts (2010)
  • “A Short History of Zaka the Zulu” by Petina Gappah (2016)
  • “Fifty-Seven” by Rachel Kushner (2015)
  • “The Three Little Birds” by Rindy Gradford (2015)
  • “How Can I Help?” by Rivka Galchen (2016)
  • “Usl at the Stadium” by Rivka Galchen (2015)
  • “Invasion of the Martians” by Robert Coover (2016)
  • “In the Court of the Dragon” by Robert W. Chambers (1895)
  • “Tiny Man” by Sam Shepard (2016)
  • “The Burglar” by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (2016) 
  • “Summa Mathematica” by Sean Dolittle (2001)
  • “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét (1937)
  • “Sometimes Something Goes Wrong” by Stuart M. Kaminsky (2001)
  • “Are We Not Men?” by T. Coraghessan Boyle (2016)
  • “Patient Zero” by Tananrive Due (2010)
  • “Aspic” by Tatyana Tolstaya (2016)
  • “Dido’s Lament” by Tessa Hadley (2016)
  • “The Fix” by Thomas H. Cook (2001)
  • “The Driver” by Thomas McGuane (2015)
  • “Papaya” by Thomas McGuane (2016)
  • “Bedtimes” by Tim Parks (2015)
  • “Vespa” by Tim Parks (2015)
  • “The Chair Carrier” by Yusuf Idris (1974)
  • “Upside-Down Cake” by Paul Theroux

    (2016

  • “Spiderweb” by Mariana Enriquez

    (2016)

  • “Pardon Edward Snowden” by Joseph O’Neill

    (2016)

  • “Flower Hunters” by Lauren Groff

    (2016)

  • “The King’s Teacup at Rest” by Michael Andreasen

    (2016)

  • “The Hanging of the Schoolmarm” by Robert Coover

    (2016)

  • “Two Men Arrive in a Village” by Zadie Smith (2016)
  • “The Polish Rider” by Ben Lerner (2016)
  • “Seven People Dancing” by Langston Hughes (1961)
  • “Maybe It Was the Distance” by Jonathan Safran Foer (2016)

Novels

  • Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (1989)

Plays

  • Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (429 BC)

Comics

  • “Commercial Success” by Graham Annable (2010)
  • “walk-in" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "articulate conception" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "dead weight" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "misery and his company" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "futile space" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "decency" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "Old Man River" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "fishin’ trip" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "the bomb" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "love monster" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "photo opportunity" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "Sea Life" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "slight aberration" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "by necessity" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "the sound of paste" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "wee man" by Graham Annable (2010)
  • "A Brief History of the Art Form Known as "Hortisculpture” by Adrian Tomine (2015)
  • “Amber Sweet” by Adrian Tomine (2015)
  • “Go Owls” by Adrian Tomine (2015)
  • “Translated, from the Japanese," by Adrian Tomine (2015)
  • "Killing and Dying" by Adrian Tomine (2015)
  • "Intruders" by Adrian Tomine (2015)

Graphic Novels

  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Chaos by Yukito Kishiro (1997)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Fallen Angel by Yukito Kishiro (1998)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel’s Ascension by Yukito Kishiro (1998)
  • Hopeless Savages: Break by Jan Van Meter, Meredith McClaren, Christine Norrie (2015)
  • Steve Lichman: Volume I by David Rapoza and Daniel Warren (2016)

Video Games

  • Predator 2 for Sega Master System dev. Teeny Weeny Games (1992)
  • Fallout 4

    dev.

    Bethesda Softworks (2015)

  • Undertale dev. tobyfox (2015)
  • Cibele dev. Star Maid Games (2015)
  • Firewatch dev. Campo Santo (2016)
  • T2: The Arcade Game

    for Sega Master System dev. Probe Development (1993)

  • Castle of Illusion dev. Sega Studios Australia (2013)
  • Alien: Isolation dev. Creative Assembly (2014)
  • Autonomous dev. Double Fine Productions (2012)
  • Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End dev. Naughty Dog (2016)
  • Back to the Future: The Game dev. TellTale Games (2011)
  • SPACEPLAN dev. Jake Hollands (2016)
  • Ben There, Dan That! dev. Size Five Games (2008)
  • Bientot l’ete dev. Tale of Tales (2013)
  • Bioshock Infinite dev. Irrational Games (2013)
  • Bone: Out from Boneville dev. TellTale Games (2005)

  • Bone: The Great Cow Race dev. TellTale Games (2006)

  • Cart Life dev. Richard Hofmeier (2011)
  • The Halloween Google Doodle dev. Google (2016)
  • The Simpsons Tapped Out: Halloween 2016 dev. Electronic Arts (2015)
  • Headlander dev. Double Fine Productions (2016)

Short Films

  • "Vincent” dir. Tim Burton (1982)
  • “Madame Tutli-Putli” dir. Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (2007)
  • “World of Tomorrow” dir. Don Hertzfeldt (2015)
  • “Felix in Exile” dir. William Kentridge (1994)
  • “Ku’u Lei Melody: A Mickey Mouse Cartoon” dir. Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Paul Rudish (2016)
  • “Many Moons” dir. Alan Ferguson, The Wondaland Arts Society (2008)
  • “Death in the Dust” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Frozen Hell” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “The Bad Back Bus” dir. Graham Annable (2010)
  • “Transmission at outpost 79” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Old Reliable” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “The Lonely Hunter” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Death Defying” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Morning Glory” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Dreams of Sloshy- number 1” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Dummy” dir. Graham Annable (2016)
  • “No Quarter” dir. Mike Trent (2007)
  • “Defective” dir. Rani Naamani (2004)
  • “One More Beer” dir. Pedro Conti, Alan Camilo (2012)
  • “Lunch” dir. Graham Annable (2016)
  • “Premonitions Following an Evil Deed” dir. David Lynch (1995)

  • “Alien Song” dir. Victor Navone (1999)

  • “Flys!” dir. Eder Cardoso (2009)
  • “Halloween MADNESS” dir. Graham Annable (2006)
  • “Closet” dir. Graham Annable (2007)
  • “Intermission” dir. Graham Annable (2016)
  • “Joy to the Weird” dir. Graham Annable (2008)
  • “Reach” dir. Luke Randall (2008)
  • “Help Me” dir. Isaak Fernandez Rodriguez (2005)
  • “Inner Workings” dir. Leo Matsuda (2016)
  • “Piper” dir. Alan Barillaro (2016)

Films

  • Escape from L.A. dir. John Carpenter (1996)
  • ParaNorman dir. Sam Fell and Chris Butler (2012)
  • Galaxy Quest dir. Dean Parisot (1999)
  • It’s Such a Beautiful Day dir. Don Hertzfeldt (2012)
  • The Revenant dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu (2015)
  • Hail, Caesar! dir. Ethan Cohen, Joel Cohen (2016)
  • Regression dir. Alejandro Amenábar (2015)
  • Room dir. Lenny Abrahamson (2015)
  • The Boy dir. William Brent Bell (2016)
  • Jane Got a Gun dir. Gavin O’Connor (2015)
  • Bridge of Spies dir. Steven Spielberg (2015)
  • The Big Short dir. Adam McKay (2015)
  • Spotlight dir. Tom McCarthy (2015)
  • Brooklyn dir. John Crowley (2015)
  • The Martian dir. Ridley Scott (2015)
  • The Witch dir. Robert Eggers (2015)
  • The Wicker Man dir. Robin Hardy (1973)
  • Terminator Genisys dir. Alan Taylor (2015)
  • Whiskey Tango Foxtrot dir. Glenn Ficarra, John Requa (2016)
  • Anomalisa dir. Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman (2015)
  • 10 Cloverfield Lane dir. Dan Trachtenburg (2016)
  • Deadpool dir. Tim Miller (2016)
  • Zootopia dir. Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush (2016)
  • Knight of Cups dir. Terrence Malick (2016)
  • Only Yesterday dir. Isao Takahata (1991)
  • Dinotasia dir. David Krentz, Erik Nelson (2012)
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice dir. Zack Snyder (2016)
  • Man of Steel dir. Zack Snyder (2013)
  • Eraser dir. Chuck Russell (1996)
  • Collateral Damage dir. Andrew Davis (2002)
  • Dope dir. Rick Famuyiwa (2015)
  • The Babadook dir. Jennifer Kent (2014)
  • Vampire Hunter D dir. Toyo Ashida (1985)
  • Captain America: The First Avenger dir. Joe Johnston (2011)
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier dir. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo (2014)
  • Jungle Book dir. Jon Favreau (2016)
  • Thor dir. Kenneth Branagh (2011)
  • Iron Man 3 dir. Shane Black (2013)
  • Thor: The Dark World dir. Alan Taylor (2013)
  • Ant-Man dir. Peyton Reed (2015)
  • Green Room dir. Jeremy Saulnier (2015)
  • Captain America: Civil War dir. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo (2016)
  • X-Men: Apocalypse dir. Bryan Singer (2016)
  • The Nice Guys dir. Shane Black (2016)
  • The Neon Demon dir. Nicolas Winding Refn (2016)
  • Twisted dir. Philip Kaufman (2004)
  • Basic Instinct dir. Paul Verhoeven (1992)
  • The Saint dir. Phillip Noyce (1997)
  • Twilight dir. Robert Benton (1998)
  • Star Trek Beyond dir. Justin Lin (2016)
  • Kubo and the Two Strings dir. Travis Knight (2016)
  • Don’t Breathe dir. Fede Alvarez (2016)
  • Now You See Me dir. Louis Leterrier (2013)
  • The Lobster dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (2015)
  • Captain Fantastic dir. Matt Ross (2016)
  • Hell or High Water dir. David Mackenzie (2016)
  • Hunt for the Wilderpeople dir. Taika Waititi (2016)
  • Finding Dory dir. Andrew Stanton (2016)
  • Suicide Squad dir. David Ayer (2016)
  • Magnificent Seven dir. Antoine Fuqua (2016)
  • Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children dir. Tim Burton (2016)
  • The Girl on the Train dir. Tate Taylor (2016)
  • Deepwater Horizon dir. Peter Berg (2016)
  • Desierto dir. Jonás Cuarón (2016)
  • Inferno dir. Ron Howard (2016)
  • Moonlight dir. Barry Jenkins (2016)
  • The Handmaiden dir. Park Chan-wook (2016)
  • Doctor Strange dir. Scott Derrickson (2016)
  • Arrival dir. Denis Villeneuve (2016)
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them dir. David Yates (2016)
  • Nocturnal Animals dir. Tom Ford (2016)
  • The Take dir. James Watkins (2016)
  • Loving dir. Jeff Nichols (2016)
  • Allied dir. Robert Zemeckis (2016)
  • Moana dir. Ron Clements, John Musker (2016)
  • The Edge of Seventeen dir. Kelly Fremon Craig (2016)
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine dir. Gavin Hood (2009)
  • Lion dir. Garth Davis (2016)
  • The Hunger Games dir. Gary Ross (2012)
  • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire dir.  Francis Lawrence (2013)
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 dir.  Francis Lawrence (2014)
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 dir.  Francis Lawrence (2015)
  • Trolls dir. Mike Mitchell
    , Walt Dohrn (2016)
  • Sixteen Candles dir. John Hughes (1984)
  • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story dir. Gareth Edwards (2016)
  • La La Land dir. Damien Chazelle (2016)
  • The Wolverine dir. James Mangold (2013)
  • Manchester by the Sea dir. Kenneth Lonergan (2016)
  • Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows dir. Guy Ritchie (2011)
  • Jackie dir. Pablo Larraín (2016)
  • How to Train Your Dragon dir. Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois (2010)

  • Wayne’s World dir. Penelope Spheeris (1992)

  • Fences dir. Denzel Washington (2016)
  • Midnight Special dir. Jeff Nichols (2016)
  • Straight Outta Compton dir. F. Gary Gray (2015)

TV Episodes

  • The Big Bang Theory – "The Bozeman Reaction" (2010)
  • The Big Bang Theory – "The Einstein Approximation" (2010)
  • The Big Bang Theory – "The Wheaton Recurrence" (2010)
  • Sherlock – “The Abominable Bride” (2016)
  • The Simpsons – "Every Man’s Dream" (2015)

  • The Simpsons – "Treehouse of Horror XXVII" (2016)

  • Bob’s Burgers – “The Hauntening” (2015)
  • Bob’s Burgers – “Teen-a Witch” (2016)

  • The Walking Dead
    – “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “The Well”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “The Cell”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “Service”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead – “Go Getters”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “Swear”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “Sing Me a Song”

    (2016)

  • The Walking Dead

    – “Hearts Still Beating”

    (2016)

TV Series

  • Californication – Season 7 (2014)
  • House of Cards – Seasons 2-4 (2014-2016)
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2014)
  • Better Call Saul – Season 1 (2015)
  • Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1975)
  • Daredevil (2015-2016)
  • The Fall (2013-2014)
  • Agents of SHIELD (2013-2016)
  • Agent Carter (2015-2016)
  • Stranger Things (2016)
  • BoJack Horseman – Season 3 (2016)
  • Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)
  • It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – Seasons 3-10 (2007-2015)
  • Archer – Season 6 (2015)
  • Luther (2010-2015)
  • Bones – Seasons 10-11 (2014-2016)
  • Luke Cage (2016)
  • Narcos – Season 2 (2016)
  • Futurama – Seasons 6-7 (2010-2013)

  • Black Mirror (2011-2016)

  • The Walking Dead – Seasons 4-6 (2013-2015)

New Fiction 2015

Really light on short stories and novels this year. Gotta make up for that in 2016.

Short Stories

  • “Lobster Night” by Russell Banks (2000)
  • “The Hermit’s Story” by Rick Bass (2002)
  • “1-900” by Richard Bausch (2003)
  • “Poor Devil” by Charles Baxter
  • “Lavande” by Ann Beattie (2008)
  • “Off” by Aimee Bender (2005)
  • “Mercy” by Pinckney Benedict
  • “Hypercorporeal War Simulator” by Cara Ellison (2015)
  • “Alice” by Elizabeth Harrower (2015)
  • “Kino” by Haruki Murakami (2015)
  • “Musa” by Kamel Daoud (2015)
  • “Anya” by Karen Smyte (2015)
  • “Five Arrows” by Heinz Insu Fenkl (2015)
  • “Silk Brocade” by Tessa Hadley (2015)
  • “Little Man” by Michael Cunningham (2015)
  • “The Flower” by Louise Erdrich (2015)
  • “Ghosts and Empties” by Lauren Groff (2015)
  • “The Freezer Chest” by Dorthe Nors (2015)
  • “Apollo” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2015)
  • “Peacetime” by Luke Mogelson (2015)
  • “Major Maybe” by Ann Beattie (2015)
  • “The Grow-Light Blues” by Ben Marcus (2015)
  • “So You’re Just What, Gone?” by Justin Taylor (2015)
  • “Escape from New York” by Zadie Smith (2015)
  • “Love Is Blind and Deaf” by Jonathan Safran Foer (2015)
  • “Quaestio de Centauris” by Primo Levi (2015)
  • “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong (2015)

Novels

  • The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940)
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937)

Comics

  • “Super Mega Buds” by JP Coovert (2014)
  • “Broken Summer” by JP Coovert (2014)

Graphic Novels / Collections

  • Through the Woods by Emily Caroll (2014)
  • Bayou Volume One by Jeremy Love (2009)
  • American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (2006)
  • Flashbacks: Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury by G. B. Trudeau (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Tears of an Angel by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • A Contract With God by Will Eisner (1978)
  • A Life Force by Will Eisner (1988)
  • Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Killing Angel by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Victory by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Redemption by Yukito Kishiro (1996)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Death by Yukito Kishiro (1997)
  • Batman: Death of the Family by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Jonathan Glapion, Jock, FCO Plascencia, David Baron (2012 – 2013)

Video Games

  • 80 Days by inkle Studios (2014)
  • Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent by Telltale Games (2010)
  • Maniac Mansion by Lucasfilm Games (1989)
  • The Dig by LucasArts (1995)
  • The Wolf Among Us by TellTale Games (2014)
  • F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon by Monolith Productions (2005)
  • The Stanley Parable by Galactic Cafe (2013)
  • Puzzle Agent 2 by Telltale Games (2011)
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Bethesda Game Studios (2011)
  • Her Story by Sam Barlow (2015)
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain by Kojima Productions (2015)
  • The Simpsons Tapped Out: Halloween 2015 by Electronic Arts (2015)
  • Another World by Éric Chahi (1991)
  • Dropsy by Jay Tholen and A Jolly Corpse (2015)
  • Hylics by Mason Lindroth (2015)
  • The Path by Tale of Tales (2009)
  • Costume Quest 2 by Double Fine Productions (2014)

Short Films

  • “Edmond Was a Donkey” dir. Franck Dion (2012)
  • “Kung Fury” dir. David Sandberg (2015)
  • “The Hidden People” dir. Graham Annable (2008)
  • “Down by the Bay” dir. Graham Annable (2014)
  • “Space Wolf” dir. Graham Annable (2007)
  • “The Last Duet on Earth” dir. Graham Annable (2007)
  • “We Sing the Forest Electric” dir. Graham Annable (2008)
  • “Principal Skeleton” dir. Graham Annable (2009)
  • “Performance” dir. Graham Annable (2010)
  • “V Day” dir. Graham Annable (2012)
  • “After Hours” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “Pumpkin scrap” dir. Graham Annable (2014)
  • “Dreams of Venus” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “The Webb” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “Holicraze” dir. Graham Annable (2015)

Films

  • A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night dir. Ana Lily Amirpour (2014)
  • Django Unchained dir. Quentin Tarantino (2012)
  • Natural Born Killers dir. Oliver Stone (1994)
  • Seven Dollars on Red dir. Alberto Cardone (1966)
  • Alphaville dir. Jean-Luc Godard (1965)
  • Flirting With Disaster dir. David O. Russell (1996)
  • Hesher dir. Spencer Susser (2010)
  • Lolita dir. Stanley Kubrick (1962)
  • X-Men: First Class dir. Matthew Vaughn (2011)
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past dir. Bryan Singer (2014)
  • Le Mans dir. Lee H. Katzin (1971)
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild dir. Benh Zeitlin (2012)
  • Terminator Salvation dir. Joseph McGinty Nichol (2009)
  • They Met in Bombay dir. Clarence Brown (1939)
  • RED dir. Robert Schwentke (2010)
  • Only Lovers Left Alive dir. Jim Jarmusch (2013)
  • Fast & Furious dir. Justin Lin (2009)
  • Body of Lies dir. Ridley Scott (2008)
  • Cowboys & Aliens dir. Jon Favreau (2011)
  • Clash of the Titans dir. Louis Leterrier (2010)
  • Colossus: The Forbin Project dir. Joseph Sargent (1970)
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron dir. Joss Whedon (2015)
  • Mad Max: Fury Road dir. George Miller (2015)
  • Inside Out dir. Pete Docter (2015)
  • The Tree of Life dir. Terrence Malick (2011)
  • The Judge dir. David Dobkin (2014)
  • Death Warrant dir. Deran Sarafian (1990)
  • Of Mice and Men dir. Gary Sinise (1992)
  • The November Man dir. Roger Donaldson (2014)
  • Patriot Games dir. Phillip Noyce (1992)
  • Clear and Present Danger dir. Phillip Noyce (1994)
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction dir. Michael Bay (2014)
  • National Treasure dir. Jon Turteltaub (2004)
  • Beyond the Law dir. Giorgio Stegani (1968)
  • Gang Related dir. Jim Kouf (1997)
  • Sicario dir. Denis Villeneuve (2015)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture dir. Robert Wise (1979)
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan dir. Nicholas Meyer (1982)
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock dir. Leonard Nimoy (1984)
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home dir. Leonard Nimoy (1986)
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier dir. William Shatner (1989)
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country dir. Nicholas Meyer (1991)
  • Witness dir. Peter Weir (1985)
  • Along Came a Spider dir. Lee Tamahori (2001)
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens dir. J. J. Abrams (2015)
  • Instructions Not Included dir. Eugenio Derbez (2013)
  • Hot Fuzz dir. Edgar Wright (2007)
  • The Hateful Eight dir. Quentin Tarantino (2015)
  • Heaven dir. Tom Twyker (2002)
  • Beasts of No Nation dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga (2015)

TV Episodes

  • The Simpsons – “Halloween of Horror” (2015)
  • The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror XXVI” (2015)
  • Star Trek: Enterprise – “Broken Bow” (2001)

TV Series

  • Fargo (2014)
  • Bones – Seasons 5 – 9 (2009 – 2013)
  • Freaks and Geeks (2000)
  • True Detective (2014)
  • Bob’s Burgers (2010 – 2015)
  • Archer (2010 – 2014)
  • BoJack Horseman (2014 – 2015)
  • Star Trek (1966 – 1969)
  • Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973 – 1974)
  • Jessica Jones (2015)
  • F is for Family (2015)
  • Narcos (2015)

New Fiction 2015

Really light on short stories and novels this year. Gotta make up for that in 2016.

Short Stories

  • “Lobster Night” by Russell Banks (2000)
  • “The Hermit’s Story” by Rick Bass (2002)
  • “1-900” by Richard Bausch (2003)
  • “Poor Devil” by Charles Baxter
  • “Lavande” by Ann Beattie (2008)
  • “Off” by Aimee Bender (2005)
  • “Mercy” by Pinckney Benedict
  • “Hypercorporeal War Simulator” by Cara Ellison (2015)
  • “Alice” by Elizabeth Harrower (2015)
  • “Kino” by Haruki Murakami (2015)
  • “Musa” by Kamel Daoud (2015)
  • “Anya” by Karen Smyte (2015)
  • “Five Arrows” by Heinz Insu Fenkl (2015)
  • “Silk Brocade” by Tessa Hadley (2015)
  • “Little Man” by Michael Cunningham (2015)
  • “The Flower” by Louise Erdrich (2015)
  • “Ghosts and Empties” by Lauren Groff (2015)
  • “The Freezer Chest” by Dorthe Nors (2015)
  • “Apollo” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2015)
  • “Peacetime” by Luke Mogelson (2015)
  • “Major Maybe” by Ann Beattie (2015)
  • “The Grow-Light Blues” by Ben Marcus (2015)
  • “So You’re Just What, Gone?” by Justin Taylor (2015)
  • “Escape from New York” by Zadie Smith (2015)
  • “Love Is Blind and Deaf” by Jonathan Safran Foer (2015)
  • “Quaestio de Centauris” by Primo Levi (2015)
  • “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong (2015)

Novels

  • The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940)
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937)

Comics

  • “Super Mega Buds” by JP Coovert (2014)
  • “Broken Summer” by JP Coovert (2014)

Graphic Novels / Collections

  • Through the Woods by Emily Caroll (2014)
  • Bayou Volume One by Jeremy Love (2009)
  • American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (2006)
  • Flashbacks: Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury by G. B. Trudeau (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Tears of an Angel by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • A Contract With God by Will Eisner (1978)
  • A Life Force by Will Eisner (1988)
  • Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Killing Angel by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Victory by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Redemption by Yukito Kishiro (1996)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Death by Yukito Kishiro (1997)
  • Batman: Death of the Family by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Jonathan Glapion, Jock, FCO Plascencia, David Baron (2012 – 2013)

Video Games

  • 80 Days by inkle Studios (2014)
  • Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent by Telltale Games (2010)
  • Maniac Mansion by Lucasfilm Games (1989)
  • The Dig by LucasArts (1995)
  • The Wolf Among Us by TellTale Games (2014)
  • F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon by Monolith Productions (2005)
  • The Stanley Parable by Galactic Cafe (2013)
  • Puzzle Agent 2 by Telltale Games (2011)
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Bethesda Game Studios (2011)
  • Her Story by Sam Barlow (2015)
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain by Kojima Productions (2015)
  • The Simpsons Tapped Out: Halloween 2015 by Electronic Arts (2015)
  • Another World by Éric Chahi (1991)
  • Dropsy by Jay Tholen and A Jolly Corpse (2015)
  • Hylics by Mason Lindroth (2015)
  • The Path by Tale of Tales (2009)
  • Costume Quest 2 by Double Fine Productions (2014)

Short Films

  • “Edmond Was a Donkey” dir. Franck Dion (2012)
  • “Kung Fury” dir. David Sandberg (2015)
  • “The Hidden People” dir. Graham Annable (2008)
  • “Down by the Bay” dir. Graham Annable (2014)
  • “Space Wolf” dir. Graham Annable (2007)
  • “The Last Duet on Earth” dir. Graham Annable (2007)
  • “We Sing the Forest Electric” dir. Graham Annable (2008)
  • “Principal Skeleton” dir. Graham Annable (2009)
  • “Performance” dir. Graham Annable (2010)
  • “V Day” dir. Graham Annable (2012)
  • “After Hours” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “Pumpkin scrap” dir. Graham Annable (2014)
  • “Dreams of Venus” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “The Webb” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “Holicraze” dir. Graham Annable (2015)

Films

  • A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night dir. Ana Lily Amirpour (2014)
  • Django Unchained dir. Quentin Tarantino (2012)
  • Natural Born Killers dir. Oliver Stone (1994)
  • Seven Dollars on Red dir. Alberto Cardone (1966)
  • Alphaville dir. Jean-Luc Godard (1965)
  • Flirting With Disaster dir. David O. Russell (1996)
  • Hesher dir. Spencer Susser (2010)
  • Lolita dir. Stanley Kubrick (1962)
  • X-Men: First Class dir. Matthew Vaughn (2011)
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past dir. Bryan Singer (2014)
  • Le Mans dir. Lee H. Katzin (1971)
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild dir. Benh Zeitlin (2012)
  • Terminator Salvation dir. Joseph McGinty Nichol (2009)
  • They Met in Bombay dir. Clarence Brown (1939)
  • RED dir. Robert Schwentke (2010)
  • Only Lovers Left Alive dir. Jim Jarmusch (2013)
  • Fast & Furious dir. Justin Lin (2009)
  • Body of Lies dir. Ridley Scott (2008)
  • Cowboys & Aliens dir. Jon Favreau (2011)
  • Clash of the Titans dir. Louis Leterrier (2010)
  • Colossus: The Forbin Project dir. Joseph Sargent (1970)
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron dir. Joss Whedon (2015)
  • Mad Max: Fury Road dir. George Miller (2015)
  • Inside Out dir. Pete Docter (2015)
  • The Tree of Life dir. Terrence Malick (2011)
  • The Judge dir. David Dobkin (2014)
  • Death Warrant dir. Deran Sarafian (1990)
  • Of Mice and Men dir. Gary Sinise (1992)
  • The November Man dir. Roger Donaldson (2014)
  • Patriot Games dir. Phillip Noyce (1992)
  • Clear and Present Danger dir. Phillip Noyce (1994)
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction dir. Michael Bay (2014)
  • National Treasure dir. Jon Turteltaub (2004)
  • Beyond the Law dir. Giorgio Stegani (1968)
  • Gang Related dir. Jim Kouf (1997)
  • Sicario dir. Denis Villeneuve (2015)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture dir. Robert Wise (1979)
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan dir. Nicholas Meyer (1982)
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock dir. Leonard Nimoy (1984)
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home dir. Leonard Nimoy (1986)
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier dir. William Shatner (1989)
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country dir. Nicholas Meyer (1991)
  • Witness dir. Peter Weir (1985)
  • Along Came a Spider dir. Lee Tamahori (2001)
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens dir. J. J. Abrams (2015)
  • Instructions Not Included dir. Eugenio Derbez (2013)
  • Hot Fuzz dir. Edgar Wright (2007)
  • The Hateful Eight dir. Quentin Tarantino (2015)
  • Heaven dir. Tom Twyker (2002)
  • Beasts of No Nation dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga (2015)

TV Episodes

  • The Simpsons – “Halloween of Horror” (2015)
  • The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror XXVI” (2015)
  • Star Trek: Enterprise – “Broken Bow” (2001)

TV Series

  • Fargo (2014)
  • Bones – Seasons 5 – 9 (2009 – 2013)
  • Freaks and Geeks (2000)
  • True Detective (2014)
  • Bob’s Burgers (2010 – 2015)
  • Archer (2010 – 2014)
  • BoJack Horseman (2014 – 2015)
  • Star Trek (1966 – 1969)
  • Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973 – 1974)
  • Jessica Jones (2015)
  • F is for Family (2015)
  • Narcos (2015)

New Fiction 2014

Short Stories

  • “I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife” by Paul Theroux (2013)
  • “Summer of ‘38” by Colm Tóibín (2013)
  • “Zusya on the Roof” by Nicole Krauss (2013)
  • “Samsa in Love” by Haruki Murakami (2013)
  • “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce (1890)
  • “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” by Sherman Alexie (1993)
  • “Rock Springs” by Richard Ford (1987)
  • “Same Place, Same Things” by Tim Gautreux (1991)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe (1839)
  • “An Inch and a Half of Glory” by Dashiell Hammet (2013)
  • “Rough Deeds” by Annie Proulx (2013)
  • “Slide to Unlock” by Ed Park (2013)
  • “Happy Trails” by Sherman Alexie (2013)
  • “Scenes of the Crime” by Cormac McCarthy (2013)
  • “Brotherly Love” by Jhumpa Lahiri (2013)
  • “The Judge’s Will” by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (2013)
  • “Weight Watchers” by Thomas McGuane (2013)
  • “The Last Few Kilometres” by Leonid Tsypkin (2012)
  • “The Christmas Miracle” by Rebecca Curtis (2013)
  • “The Night of the Satellite” by T. Coraghessan Boyle (2013)
  • “The Lost Order” by Rivka Galchen (2013)
  • “Amundsen” by Alice Munro (2012)
  • “The Women” by William Trevor (2013)
  • “The Furies” by Paul Theroux (2013)
  • “Mayfly” by Kevin Canty (2013)
  • “Spilled Salt” by Barbara Neely (1990)
  • “The Laugher” by Heinrich Böll (1966)
  • “The South” by Jorge Luis Borges (1956)
  • “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” by Angela Carter (1979)
  • “The Seamstress” by Gabrielle-Sidonie Colette (19xx)
  • “Amy Foster” by Joseph Conrad (1903)
  • “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro (2013)
  • “Coming Soon” by Steven Milhauser (2013)
  • “Island of Manhattan” by René Marqués (1974)
  • “The Street-Sweeping Show” by Feng Jicai (1982)
  • “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
  • “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell (1917)
  • “Sarzan” by Birago Diop (1947)
  • “Paseo” by José Donoso (1969)
  • “Love Medicine” by Louise Erdrich (1982)
  • “Boys at the Rodeo” by Judy Grahn (1978)
  • “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1843)
  • “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway (1927)
  • “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes (1953)
  • “The Gilded Six-Bits” by Zora Neale Hurston (1933)
  • “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson (1948)
  • “A Story for Children” by Svava Jakobsdóttir (1975)
  • “Greville Fane” by Henry James (1892)
  • “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett (1886)
  • “A Report to an Academy” by Franz Kafka (1917)
  • “A Hand in the Grave” by Ghassan Kanafani (1962)
  • “Betel Nut is Bad Magic for Airplanes” by John Kasaipwalova (1972)
  • “The Gold-Legged Frog” by Khamsing Srinawk (1958)
  • “My Mother” by Jamaica Kincaid (1983)
  • “A Bird in the House” by Margaret Laurence (1972)
  • “The Old Chief Mshlanga” by Doris Lessing (1951)
  • “Or Else, the Lightning God” by Catherine Lim (1980)
  • “Half a Day” by Naguib Mahfouz (1989)
  • “Her First Ball” by Katherine Mansfield (1922)
  • “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason (1982)
  • “The Appointment in Samarra” by William Somerset Maugham (1933)
  • “Lush Life” by John McCluskey (1990)
  • “The One Who Goes Farthest Away” by Katherine Min (1990)
  • “Swaddling Clothes” by Mishima Yukio (1966)
  • “How to Become a Writer” by Lorrie Moore (1985)
  • “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison (1983)
  • “Mrs. Plum” by Es’kia Mphahlele (1967)
  • “The Elephant” by Slawomir Mrożek (1962)
  • “And We Sold the Rain” by Carmen Naranjo (1988)
  • “A Horse and Two Goats” by R. K. Narayan (1970)
  • “The Pale Fox” by Ōba Minako (1973)
  • “In the Shadow of War” by Ben Okri (1988)
  • “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen (1953)
  • “Black Girl” by Sembene Ousmane (1962)
  • “Nomad and Viper” by Amos Oz (1963)
  • “The Blue Bouquet” by Octavio Paz (1961)
  • “Mona Lisa” by Cristina Peri Rossi (1983)
  • “Insomnia” by Virgilio Piñera (1956)
  • “Rope” by Katherine Anne Porter (1930)
  • “The Proof” by Rodrigo Rey Rosa (1987)
  • “The Prophet’s Hair” by Salman Rushdie (1994)
  • “Gimpel the Fool” by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1953)
  • “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck (1938)
  • “Learning to Swim” by Graham Swift (1982)
  • “The Betrayal” by Véronique Tadjo (1992)
  • “Half and Half” by Amy Tan (1989)
  • “To All Eternity” by Haldun Taner (1948)
  • “The Complete Gentleman” by Amos Tutuola (1952)
  • “Luck” by Mark Twain (1891)
  • “Strange Things Happen Here” by Luisa Valenzuela (1975)
  • “Sunday” by Mario Vargas Llosa (1958)
  • “In Africa There Is a Type of Spider” by Yvonne Vera (2000)
  • “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker (1973)
  • “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty (1941)
  • “Kew Gardens” by Virginia Woolf (1919)
  • “The Daily Woman” by Niaz Zaman (1996)
  • “Pet Milk” by Stuart Dybek (1981)
  • “Saint Marie” by Louise Erdrich (1984)
  • “The Mail Lady” by David Gates (1999)
  • “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” by Amp Hempel (1985)
  • “Cold Snap” by Thom Jones (1995)
  • “The Management of Grief” by Bharati Mukherjee (1988)
  • “Meneseteung” by Alice Munro (1990)
  • “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx (1999)
  • “Strays” by Mark Richard (1989)
  • “Intensive Care” by Lee Smith (1988)
  • “The Way We Live Now” by Susan Sontag (1986)
  • “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan (1989)
  • “First, Body” by Melanie Rae Thon (1997)
  • “Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog” by Stephanie Vaughn (1978)
  • “Fever” by John Edgar Wideman (1989)
  • “Taking Care” by Joy Williams (1972)
  • “Terrified” by C. B. Gilford (1959)
  • “Peter Rugg, the Missing Man” by William Austin
  • “The Wives of the Dead” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” by Herman Melville
  • “The Ghost in the Mill” by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • “Cannibalism in the Cars” by Samuel Clemens
  • “The Storm” by Kate Chopin
  • “The Sheriff’s Children” by Charles Chesnutt
  • “The Middle Years” by Henry James
  • “In a Far Country” by Jack London
  • “Old Woman Magoun” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
  • “The Little Regiment” by Stephen Crane
  • “A Journey” by Edith Wharton
  • “The Strength of God” by Sherwood Anderson (1919)
  • “A Death in the Desert” by Willa Cather
  • “Blood-Burning Moon” by Jean Toomer (1923)
  • “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway (1933)
  • “An Alcoholic Case” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1937)
  • “The Girl with a Pimply Face” by William Carlos Williams (1961)
  • “He” by Katherine Anne Porter (1930)
  • “That Evening Sun” by William Faulkner (1931)
  • “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston
  • “Red-Headed Baby” by Langston Hughes (1934)
  • “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright (1987)
  • “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” by Flannery O’Connor (1953)
  • “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison (1948)
  • “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury (1950)
  • “Rain in the Heart” by Peter Taylor (1941)
  • “The Lecture” by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1968)
  • “My Son the Murderer” by Bernard Malamud (1968)
  • “Something to Remember Me By” by Saul Bellow (1990)
  • “The Death of Justina” by John Cheever (1960)
  • “Texts” by Ursula K. Le Guin (1990)
  • “The Persistence of Desire” by John Updike (1959)
  • “Alaska” by Alice Adams (1984)
  • “Are These Actual Miles?” by Raymond Carver (1972)
  • “Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff (1976)
  • “Big Bertha Stories” by Bobbie Ann Mason (1988)
  • “Fleur” by Louise Erdrich (1988)
  • “Gravity” by David Leavitt (1990)
  • “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros (1989)
  • “Town Smokes” by Pinckney Benedict (1987)

Video Games

  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door dev. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems (2004)
  • The Walking Dead: 400 Days dev. TellTale Games and Skybound Entertainment (2013)
  • Papers, Please dev. Lukas Pope (2013)
  • Actual Sunlight dev. Will O’Neill (2014)
  • Castles in the Sky dev. The Tall Trees (2014)
  • The Walking Dead: Season 2 dev. TellTale Games and Skybound Entertainment (2013-2014)
  • Shovel Knight dev. Yacht Club Games (2014)
  • The Simpsons: Tapped Out dev. Electronic Arts (2012-2014)

Novels

  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884)
  • Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (1997)
  • On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
  • The Getaway by Jim Thompson (1958)
  • The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver (1988)
  • Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver (1993)
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

Comics

  • Wolverine: Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven (2008-2009)
  • Black Hole by Charles Burns (1995-2005)
  • “Soup” by Irene Koh (2014)
  • We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (2004)

Films

  • 200 Cigarettes dir. Risa Bramon Garcia (1999)
  • Wild Boys of the Road dir. William A. Wellman (1933)
  • Detour dir. Edgar G. Ulmer (1945)
  • Two-Lane Blacktop dir. Monte Hellman (1971)
  • The Manchurian Candidate dir. John Frankenheimer (1962)
  • Patton dir. Franklin J. Schaffner (1970)
  • Badlands dir. Terrence Malick (1973)
  • On the Road dir. Walter Salles (2012)
  • Smoke Signals dir. Chris Eyre (1998)
  • The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert dir. Stephan Elliott (1994)
  • Cabeza de Vaca dir. Nicolás Echevarría (1991)
  • Ida dir. Pawel Pawlikowski (2013)
  • Pacific Rim dir. Guillermo del Toro (2013)
  • Transformers: Dark of the Moon dir. Michael Bay (2011)
  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes dir. Matt Reeves (2014)
  • Edge of Tomorrow dir. Doug Liman (2014)
  • Wicked City dir. Yoshiaki Kawajiri (1987)
  • The Equalizer dir. Antoine Fuqua (2014)
  • The Homesman dir. Tommy Lee Jones (2014)
  • The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies dir. Peter Jackson (2014)
  • Godzilla dir. Gareth Edwards (2014)

Short Films

  • “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” dir. Robert Enrico (1962)
  • “I’ll Wait for the Next One” dir. Phillippe Orreindy (2002)
  • “Zen & the Art of Landscaping” dir. David Kartch (2001)
  • “Inja” dir. Steve Pasvolsky (2002)
  • “Kitchen Sink” dir. Alison Maclean (1989)
  • “Gridlock” dir. Dirk Beliën (2001)
  • “Black Rider” dir. Pepe Danquart (1993)
  • “Our Time Is Up” dir. Rob Pearlstein (2004)
  • “Six Shooter” dir. Martin McDonagh (2004)
  • “Spider” dir. Nash Edgerton (2007)
  • “Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade” dir. George Hickenlooper (1994)
  • “More” dir. Mark Osborne (1998)

Television

  • Dexter – Season 8 (2013)
  • Sherlock – Series 3 (2013)
  • Adventure Time – Season 1 (2010)
  • Over the Garden Wall (2014)
  • Bee and Puppycat – Season 1 (2014)