End of the Year Round Up Letter 2023
It’s fair to say that 2023 was a transitional period at thereallouistbruno, as the articles I wrote were far more personal for me. Here’s a personal page that we at the reallouistbruno, I, saw as my personal favorites that I covered that irritated me and gave me the most pleasure. Sometimes reviewing art can do that.
The Last of Us (2023) was one of the most mixed bags I have ever seen. Somehow it manages to recreate the world I loved so dearly in NaughtyDog’s 2013 video game, but there were narrative choices that were so tone deaf that even fans of the show wouldn’t know unless a super fan like myself would have known. For the first time on my Substack page, I had to give a 1.5 to Episde 5 “Endure and Survive” because it really fucked up something crucial. They made the Clickers and Runners equivalent to the Locust holes in Gears of War. As I always say “They put a grub hole in my series.” Don’t get me started either, because it’s a show that somehow wanted to feel like an HBO show but not like the video game. As I said in my first two reviews, it’s a show of convenience. It was like looking at a gun with no bullets. And nobody takes an unloaded gun seriously.
But there was a few articles I was pretty proud to cover: The Writer’s Strike of 2023. It was a weird time to see Writers on strike, because the quality of Hollywood writing is at a staggering low that nobody wants to see movies anymore. It makes me sad as a movie goer to feel this way, but if the quality of writing is SHE-Hulk and Marvels level writing is the standard for 2023, it makes me want to cancel my subscription to any streaming service immediately. But that’s not all the 2023 Writers Strike was about. ChatGPT, or AI writing, is becoming dominant, and threatening writers livelihood, too. But if writers aren’t willing to become more and write what people actually want, then why should studios feel the need to give them a six figure raise? Why would I want to hear anti-Donald Trump jokes when all I want is to escape into a fantasy world where politics should be engrained into the world. It’s pretty simple really but that would take some real imagination, too. And most millennial Hollywood writers don’t have that in their stock and trade. But the problem is, if I’m supposed to write bad quality, low level imaginative writing, then why bother doing it? Even AI would be mad at me for being so lazy, right?
A movie I was proud to cover was the Sound of Freedom. That film is the winner of 2023. It covered a real life ex FBI agent, who captures pedophiles for a living, decides to go on a mission to the jungle to save one little girl, at the behest of her brother. It’s the first film in a long that actually talked about the sex slave industry without being too ham fisted about the issue. It used cinematic techniques and subtlety to drive the point home, but still be as moving as it could be. Like I said, they didn’t need to make the film even more gross than it was to help address the point of sex slave trafficking. And I had to shit on the media for calling it “an alt right” movie when sex slave trafficking is a human issue, not a political issue.
Covering Berserk, after the death of Kentaro Miura, has been an emotionally scalding journey, even as a reader. But to see Guts become a shell of his former self, after the journey he has made, the decision to shackle him after being defeated by Griffith, is riveting, heart breaking, and had to happen in order to force Guts to become something more than a Dragon Slayer. For many it might be awful, but honestly, we all knew this would happen. Griffith is a God now, and Guts has to make some serious strategies in order to defeat Griffith, or at least die trying. I don’t want Guts to die, but all of the narrative possibilities are endless in the Berserk’s endgame.
An article that made me personally chuckle but also cringe was learning that Yong Yea, a well known Youtuber, who’s also a voice actor, failed when he couldn’t sing in Yakuza game, The Man who erased his Name, which was blowing up all across social media, felt like it butchered the legacy of a twenty year old game. Yong Yea botched the one part of the game, the Karoake bits, as ‘Baka Mitai” tell as much a story as Kiriyu’s life did. While I didn’t personally play the games, I felt obligated to defend a game the people have come to love since it’s original release in 2005.
What I want to cover, and the list of things that might be humanly possible: I want to try and write a play, or publish poetry, that is only available on Substack. I will still cover Berserk, as it’s released throughout the year. I will be publishing two books for sale in 2024. Love, Your Favorite Hitman and the third installment of the City of Sand series, America the Free.
What I do want is to be fair yet accurate to my opinions on movies, books, and more in the following year. But the writing schedule for Substack will be sparse and sporadic at best. Thanks to so many people who read and take part in my writing journey. Finding a subject to talk about and convey a few short paragraphs is sometimes about timing and the right moment for me.
But I wish everyone a Happy New Year, and Merry Christmas!
LtB
12/23/2023