Music:
“Girlfriend” by Grace Ives (2026)
I got into her because she played at this years Primavera Sound. I had never heard of her and I am now a big fan. Girlfriend is her newest album, released in 2026. I think her 2nd album Janky Star from 2022 is her best but this ones a close 2nd. It’s Pop which I don’t always like but her stuff just sounds really good to me and the lyrics are very relatable. If you like Chappell Roan or Lorde you might like her too.
My favs from Girlfriend are “Avanlanche”, “Dance with me” and “Trouble”.
“The World Is Not Good Enough” by Sean Solomon (2026)
Another artist I’ve just recently discovered. Apparently he’s part of multiple bands, but I had never heard of any of them.
The album is kind of indie folk with a lo-fi vibe. Both the general vibes and the lyrics are quite depressing and emo, which I love.
Also he said that one of his influences is Elliott Smith which always gets bonus points from me.
If you like melancholic indie stuff like Neutral Milk Hotel or Sufjan Stevens you might like his album.
My favorite songs are “Car crash”, “Overdose” and “Remember”.
Film:
“The Drama” by Kristoffer Borgli (2026)
This movie was sooo good. Mild spoilers ahead (but only stuff you find out like 15-20 min into the movie)
It’s about an engaged couple played by Robert Pattinson and Zendaya who, shortly before their wedding, hang out with a couple they are friends with and one of the friends want to play a game where everyone tells one really bad secret. When it’s Zendaya’s characters turn she reveals that she was a really alienated, angry teenager (relatable!) and that when she was in high school she planned to do a mass shooting but then didn’t end up going through with it. The friends and her fiance are really disturbed by the revelation and it completely changes their dynamic and makes him question their relationship during the time right before their wedding.
Both the acting and the script are really good. 9/10!
Show:
D.T.F. St. Louis (2026)
It stars almost exclusively actors I love from other shows or movies. Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), David Harbor (West End Girl lol), Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks), Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) and, in a small-ish role Peter Sarsgard (Garden State).
The setting is that two straight married guys (Bateman and Harbor) start a really close friendship and one of them ends up dead. The death is being investigated by two detectives (one of them played by Jenkins). But that’s just the setting. The whole murder mystery set-up is really captivating but the show, at its core isn’t really about that in my opinion. It’s about how precious and important friendship can be, how lonely and desperate most people are deep down and how everything (people, relationships) isn’t as it seems when you judge it at first glance. The writing is soooo fucking good. It’s the best show I have seen in years and I watch a lot of TV. It is so good in fact that I watched it 2 and a half times within a couple of weeks after discovering it (shout-out to my friend Anna who recommended it) and honestly I could watch it a third time right now if someone asked me to. That’s how much I love it!! It both broke and healed me at the same time and it made me realize how much I crave the kind of love the two friends have with each other. I don’t remember ever having such a beautiful intimate friendship or relationship in general. 11/10
Book(s):
Famesick by Lena Dunham (2026)
This is Lena Dunhams 2nd memoir and I’ve read both. This one is far superior to the first one. I read a lot memoirs written by famous women. In fact it might be my favorite genre of books. I feel like I gain a lot of knowledge from reading them and I feel connected and less alone when I read about how complex and, a lot of the time, fucked up even people that I admire are.
This book is about letting yourself be treated like shit because you don’t value yourself both in relationships and at work, about how difficult it is to be a woman in the industry, how it feels to be chronically ill but forcing yourself to act and work like you aren’t. How the expectations are to work until you can’t anymore and how being a person, especially a woman in the public eye leads to being sucked dry of all your energy and scrutinized until you feel completely unlovable.
I laughed and cried and related a lot. And I gained a lot of admiration for Lena Dunham. I wasn’t always a fan and it’s easy to judge her for all the controversies she had. But I honestly can’t imagine many people not liking her after reading this.
It’s so funny and honest and incredibly well written. 10/10
The Make-Believe by Hannah Murray (2026)
Another memoir by a famous woman. My favorite!
This one is written by Hannah Murray who played my favorite character in one of my favorite shows from when I was a teen: Skins. I didn’t really follow her career after that. Apparently she also played Gilly in Game of Thrones (which I never watched beyond S1 because I was so put off by all the rape scenes).
The book is specifically about how she was lulled into joining an esoteric wellness cult in her 20s and about her having a psychotic break due to undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
I’ve read multiple books by people who suffer from severe mental illness but her account of how it felt/feels to be bipolar and have psychotic delusions were really especially interesting to me. I’ve never heard such an honest unfiltered account about what can happen in your brain during psychosis. I feel like I gained a new sense of empathy for people who are bipolar and/or psychotic through reading this book.
Also the whole esoteric energy healing cult thing is really interesting. My whole family is very esoteric and I always want to stay away as far as possible from all of it. Her experiences only solidified my opinion on people who present themselves as gurus trying to sell you healing and enlightenment.
Really really interesting and well written. 9.5/10
Stand-Up:
Robby Hoffman: Wake Up (2025)
This was released very late into 2025 and it’s the second comedy special of Robby Hoffman, who you might have seen on Hacks or Rooster. She’s also married to a former Bachelorette Gaby Windey.
It’s really rare and special these days for someone to create a new comedy special that feels entirely original and not at all obnoxious or politically incorrect just for the sake of screaming how the woke left will never be able to cancel you.
Robby Hoffman’s humor is quite edgy but in such a refreshing way that I really enjoyed it. A lot of the jokes are about growing up poor, being gay and genderqueer and about the queer community. She also pokes a lot of fun at straight people.
She’s not trying to be sensitive AT ALL. In fact she’s a bit of an asshole but most great comedians are in my opinion.
Would not recommend for people who are overly sensitive when it comes to humor or who don’t enjoy some edginess.
I watched it twice already and will probably watch it again. 9/10
