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Category: Recommendations

A drawing of an old-fashioned arcade cabinet with a screen showing the Unwinnable logo. Large graphic text reads "2021 Unwinnable Games of the Year."

The Best Games of 2021

By Team Unwinnable • December 31st, 2021

2021 was a year full of great games – some brand new, and some seeing a triumphant return after literal (as in, not hyperbolic) government censorship.

Best of 2021
A TV screen showing nothing but static snow.

The Best TV Shows of 2021

By Team Unwinnable • December 30th, 2021

So 2021 ended with our having to once again (maybe?) stay anchored to our homes by our couches. We could be doing a lot worse than this year’s TV offerings.

Best of 2021
A side-view of partially unspooled movie film.

The Best Movies of 2021

By Team Unwinnable • December 29th, 2021

2020 was a year of establishing a new normal in terms of media consumption, specifically with film, and this year continued the trend.

Best of 2021
A sound wave represented electronically by sound editing software.

The Best Music of 2021

By Team Unwinnable • December 28th, 2021

Compared to 2020, 2021 was a not-nearly-as-terrible-but-still pretty-awful year. For musicians and their fans at least, it was a marked improvement.

Best of 2021
Dark wooden bookshelves filled with leather-bound volumes.

The Best Books of 2021

By Team Unwinnable • December 27th, 2021

Pick up one of these books and disappear into a different world, maybe one not populated by new COVID variants.

A set of five pictures showing the covers for Winter's Orbit, Silent Reading, Love or Hate, Lost in Never Woods and Nothing but Blackened Teeth

I read over 100 books in 2021 and here are the 30 best

By Amanda Hudgins • December 22nd, 2021

What I’m going to do here is talk about the best books I read in 2021.

A close up of the cover art from Nghi Vo's The Chosen and the Beautiful featuring a young Vietnamese woman with a stylish 20's bob looking down.

more genre fiction by people who aren’t cis white dudes

By Amanda Hudgins • October 15th, 2021

it seems very odd that we associate science fiction with near identical looking white guys when the first science fiction novel was written by a goth teenage girl who lost her virginity on her mothers’ grave.

Try Reading...

50 Years Later, Superman Defeats the Klan Again

By Harry Rabinowitz • February 10th, 2021

Superman punching Nazis, chucking Klansmen and standing up for diversity has never been this good.

I Got Myself a Plan: Tremors (1990) on a Very Fancy New Blu-ray

By Orrin Grey • January 22nd, 2021

When I was a kid, I had a short list of favorite monster movies that had come out during my lifetime, and Tremors was right at the top.

World Tour

Germany

By Oluwatayo Adewole • January 4th, 2021

Bring out your beers and your bratwurst, and let’s get going! On tap: Herzog’s Aguirre and Wenders’ Wings of Desire.

Exploits Feature

Two Minutes to Late Night – Bedroom Covers

By Ed Coleman • January 3rd, 2021

Our pick for best thing on the internet that makes the pandemic bearable.

The Best Games of 2020

By Team Unwinnable • December 31st, 2020

This year has put on one hell of a spectacular shit show. But at the same time, games have proven to be the one salve we need to tide us over through 2020.

Best of 2020
A TV screen showing nothing but static snow.

The Best TV Shows of 2020

By Team Unwinnable • December 30th, 2020

Has there ever been a better year to binge?

Best of 2020

The Best Movies of 2020

By Team Unwinnable • December 30th, 2020

At this point, it’s almost parody, the movies’ editor writing a screed about how terrible the movies list is; “This list is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here…nothing valued is here.”

Rookie of the Year

365 Days of Halloween

By Matt Marrone • December 29th, 2020

Practically every time we saw Phoebe Bridgers in 2020, she was wearing a full-body skeleton costume. 

Best of 2020
A sound wave represented electronically by sound editing software.

The Best Music of 2020

By Team Unwinnable • December 29th, 2020

Despite the shit show of 2020, musicians soldiered on, doing what they do and providing us all with the briefest of respites from staring at our phones, our walls or each other.

Best of 2020
Dark wooden bookshelves filled with leather-bound volumes.

The Best Books of 2020

By Team Unwinnable • December 28th, 2020

Books will continue to inspire, instruct, entertain, baffle and illuminate our lives and the interestingly cursed times that we find ourselves embroiled in.

Try Reading...

Avatar Forever

By Harry Rabinowitz • December 21st, 2020

Writer Gene Luen Yang understands exactly what made Avatar great, and continues the magic in comic book form.

World Tour

Brazil

By Oluwatayo Adewole • November 27th, 2020

Welcome to this month’s stop on our world tour! Take a break from post-election stress, sip your Cachaça and let’s dive right in to Bacurau.

The Beat Box

Noteworthy Hip Hop – November 2020

By Noah Springer • November 27th, 2020

Fresh hip hop for you!

a mans face made of leaves and branches. This is a detail shot of the cover art from Emily Tesh's Silver in the Wood.

genre fiction by people who aren’t cis white dudes

By Amanda Hudgins • November 25th, 2020

Every few years there’s a push for people to read more books by writers who are not white or writers who are not male or writers who are not cis-gendered or Western.

Try Reading...

Coven Edition

By Harry Rabinowitz • November 13th, 2020

Witchy comic recommendations for our resident hexers.

World Tour

Indonesia

By Oluwatayo Adewole • October 23rd, 2020

That’s why Gone With the Wind is/was revered and why we’re inundated with period pieces that refuse to meaningfully interrogate the class/colonial violence that this splendor is built upon.

The Beat Box

Noteworthy Hip Hop – October 2020

By Noah Springer • October 21st, 2020

Last year, I was overwhelmed by all the quality drops over the full season, and this year, September 25 seemed to mark the beginning of the season with an amazing selection of releases I just can’t do justice.

World Tour

Finding the poetry in The Burial of Kojo

By Oluwatayo Adewole • September 24th, 2020

An existential wail, followed by a look at Ghanaian film The Burial of Kojo.

The Beat Box

Noteworthy Hip Hop – September 2020

By Noah Springer • September 23rd, 2020

In honor of the new old Tony Hawk game, we’ve got hip hop to grind to.

World Tour

England

By Oluwatayo Adewole • September 4th, 2020

Oluwatayo starts his tour on his home turf of England with the film Bait and the latest album from Charmpit.

Try Reading...

Descending Into Yourself

By Harry Rabinowitz • September 2nd, 2020

Iasmin Omar Ata has published a hard and honest debut novel tackling epilepsy, isolation and illness

The Beat Box

Noteworthy Hip Hop – August 2020

By Noah Springer • September 1st, 2020

“We’re still in quarantine, and I’m still listening to beats and rhymes.”

Try Reading...

The Movement Marches On

By Harry Rabinowitz • August 6th, 2020

Now and then, the privileged and the powerful imply that the “right way” to protest is not to protest at all. John Lewis stands against that.

Exploits Feature

Phase IV

By Ciara Moloney • August 3rd, 2020

American man vs. communist ants.

The Case Against Reality

By James K. Anderson • July 27th, 2020

Is human perception akin to a species-specific user interface?

Try Reading...

The Power of Perspective

By Harry Rabinowitz • July 7th, 2020

The Nameless City is a story about power, privilege and history’s bias. It’s also a story of two kids doing a bunch of parkour.

The Beat Box

Music for the Revolution

By Noah Springer • June 18th, 2020

Noah highlights some new hip hop albums well suited for our moment in history.

Try Reading...

The Road to Dawn

By Harry Rabinowitz • June 12th, 2020

On a road trip and in Tillie Walden’s Are You Listening?, the “frontiers” are less about physical locations and more about us.

Try Reading...

Buck Destiny

By Harry Rabinowitz • May 14th, 2020

In Norroway, is destiny something to fulfill or defy?

The Beat Box

Noteworthy Hip Hop – April 2020

By Noah Springer • May 8th, 2020

Noah finds a bit of normalcy in hip hop when that quarantine paranoia begins to set in.

Try Reading...

New Kid on Earth

By Harry Rabinowitz • April 9th, 2020

Space Boy Volume 1 proves that – even eons into the future – moving still sucks.

The Beat Box

Noteworthy Hip Hop – March 2020

By Noah Springer • April 8th, 2020

Noah celebrates this column’s one-year anniversary with some great new albums.

The Usurper

Noteworthy Metal – February 2020

By Astrid Budgor • March 6th, 2020

New year, new metal.

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