Karl Puschmann: 2019's juicy entertainment hot takes

Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian. Photo / Lucasfilm Ltd

Well, friends, here we are. At the end. The end of the year and - bonus points - the end of a decade. Cripes. They both flew by didn't they? Where did the time go and am I the only one who feels like they lived every last, long minute of them?

Traditionally this would be the column where I'd run through some juicy entertainment hot takes to close the year. The best this. The best that. Best look elsewhere for that today. Sorry.

To be honest I've struggled naming anything 'Best' this year. Not from a consumerist viewpoint, 2019's offered many quality entertainments I've enjoyed muchly, but more from a naively idealistic stance.

Whether you consider the entertainment you consume as momentary distraction or as creative art this judgment and simplistic dumbing down followed by the subsequent competitive ranking just feels increasingly ridiculous.

I mean, Thom Yorke's electronic anxiety attack Anima soundtracked a lot of this year for me but I've also been assaulting my ears with Blood Incantation's thunderously moody, prog-death metal album Hidden History of the Human Race.

Both albums have been on heavy, high rotate, but for vastly different reasons, and you'd need a ticket on the Interislander to cross the strait that divides the two.

Judging one 'better' when they both set out to achieve completely different things in perversely opposite musical genres is, in my view anyway, simply not possible.

So while I won't insist that the below are 'the best' - because I increasingly don't believe that's a thing that exists - I will say that these are the entertainments I hugely enjoyed this year and are well worth your time.

Adding to those two aforementioned albums, some other records I can't recommend highly enough from 2019 include Aldous Hardings' cryptic and colourful Designer, the conceptual, woozy sonic trip of Flying Lotus' Flamagra, Black Midi's twitchy and raucous prog-rock revival Schlagenheim and the dreamily haunting Olympic Girls by Tiny Ruins.

So, if you're looking for something new to listen to, don't mind getting weird with it and find those descriptors enticing, or at least interesting, then jump in and give them a spin, you won't go wrong.

2019 turned out to be an usually slow movie year for me. I barely got to the cinema at all and indeed many of the year's 'must sees' remain, for the meantime at least, sadly unseen.

Of the movies I did see at the actual movies my recommend goes, somewhat predictably, to the final chapter of the Skywalker saga, Star Wars: Episode IX - Rise of the Skywalker which I managed to sneak out to last night before writing this column.

As someone who lived through the dire Prequel trilogy I've loved every damn minute of this Sequel trilogy and thought this one offered a tense, fun and satisfying conclusion to the nine film saga. Sure, it's got some problems but don't we all, right?

Had the force not been with me last night then I'd be giving my two thumbs up, cinema recommendation to Elsa and the gang in Frozen II, one of the very few films I caught on the big screen in 2019. Yeah, yeah... Like I said, slow movie year. One of my 2020 resolutions is to do better and get out more.

The trouble is I do like to stay in and, honestly, 2019 was a very good year on the small screen. Locally, I laughed my ass off at Jemaine Clement's Wellington Paranormal (TVNZ OnDemand) and internationally I laughed my ass of at Jemaine Clement's and Taika Waititi's What We Do in the Shadows (Neon).

The time-travelling action-comedy Future Man (Lightbox) seems to be lost to the whims of time, presumably because it screened way back in January, but I can't recommend it highly enough. Smart and dumb and increasingly mind-breaking it was the epitome of fun viewing and concluded with one of the most violently hilarious finales this year.

And though I've just recommended the new Star Wars film, I like television's The Mandalorian (Disney+) a tad more. Its zoomed in, 'adventure of the week' format is delivering the exact sort of Star Wars stories I want to see these days. And, even better, doing so without a lightsaber in sight.

Jim Carrey's surrealistic dramedy Kidding (Neon) also gets a shout out for starting in a dark place and then plunging headfirst into the deepest, grimmest void of blackness this side of outer space. Don't be fooled by all the happy puppets, the shockingly pitch black finale left me truly shook and momentarily stunned. Recommended, obviously.

And, friends, that's a wrap. Thanks for your time each week. Happy holidays, be safe out there and I'll see you again in the new year. Don't stop believing.

Your pal, Karl.