A Few of my Favourite Things (2022 Edition)

Aftersun by Charlotte Wells: A beautiful and touching movie about the relationship between a man coming into fatherhood and his pre-adolescent daughter coming into adulthood, on a holiday vacation to Turkey in the 1990s. It combines grainy digital camera footage, pulsing dancefloor strobe flashes, and scenes moving on the slow tempo of ordinary vacation life. It is a masterful work full of subtlety, nostalgia and “gorgeous melancholy”, as Vulture reports, about “wanting to reach across time, and to meet a loved one in an impossible space where, for once, you’re both on the same level, and you can finally understand them for who they are — or who they were.”

The Worst Person in the World by Joachim Trier: This Norwegian coming-of-age tale in 12 chapters is an “ode to self-actualization” that “follows the romantic adventures and misadventures of its protagonist, who is many things, none of them less than profoundly human”, as suggests FFT. The protagonist Julie slowly discovers what interests her from medical school to photography, what she wants, and who she is. It also features an incredible fantasy sequence of the actors strolling free-spiritedly through an Oslo frozen in time, surely the most memorable sequence of any film I saw this year. The final sequences with her ex-partner Aksel are raw and gut-wrenching.

Stutz by Jonah Hill: The Netflix film is a “a funny, emotional glimpse at the dynamic between a psychiatrist and his patient, which heartwarmingly underscores the importance of an active focus on one’s mental health”, according to Rotten Tomatoes, where the film has a 97% score. Follow actor Jonah Hill unpacking his pain and struggles to his thoughtful and caring psychiatrist Phil Stutz, using the latter’s multitude of tools/frameworks to gain insight into his life. The various sequences where they seem to jump out the documentary to self-analyze the film they are making together are great comedic relief to heavier themes tackled, and highlight with endearing sincerity the messiness of the process to tell such as story about their friendship.

The Bear: This FX show turns up the heat in the kitchen to 11, as points out the Guardian. It follows Carmen, a chef with pedigree working in top restaurants who inherits a sandwich shop in Chicago. The dialogue is fast and furious, almost as much as the intense pace of the kitchen, not to mention full of screaming and expletives. The cast of characters is a group of misfits, each delivered with impeccable performances (notably his sous-chef Sydney played by Ayo Edebiri), for whom the restaurant is home and who somehow manage to come together just enough to keep the restaurant alive and open every day. Episode 7, titled Review is frantically heart-pounding, almost unbearably, as well as quite unique, filmed in one shot and perfectly set to Norwegian metal band Refused’s classic New Noise. The show is smart, deep, visually sharp and totally stressful, in the best way possible.

[Francophone] L’Avenir nous appartient on Télé-Québec: Journalists Monic Néron and Émilie Perreault present the stories of people who try to create change in various fields in innovative ways. They turn the projector on local NGOs and community protagonists making a difference on a varied range of current themes, such as cyberbullying, eco-anxiety, or the cultural challenges of First Nations youth. Not to mention an interview with ex Doctors without Borders president Joanne Liu. On the horizon for the rest of the season, local organizations rethinking education, vertical agriculture, microcredit for immigrants, as well as exploring the protection of the St-Lawrence River fishery with reputed chef Colombe St-Pierre and her Collectif Manger notre Saint-Laurent. Sound interesting?

[Francophone] Ce n’est qu’un jardin on Télé-Québec: So, yes, this is a gardening show, but a very enjoyable one. It features two families launching a home garden project, from thought to finish, in their quest to grow vegetables for self-sufficiency. It features star farmer Jean-Martin Fortier who guides both families through key challenges to manage their garden, like planning, irrigation, insects and winterizing. The show also highlights a few interesting side-quests, such as building a dome oven to cook outdoors, learning foraging skills and mastering food conservation techniques, all of which brings us closer to being one with our environment. It’s fun, easy to watch and insightful.

A Light for Attracting Attention by The Smile: “The debut from Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and drummer Tom Skinner’s new group is instantly, unmistakably the best album yet by a Radiohead side project”, proclaims Pitchfork. It’s indeed got all the raw ingredients. “We’ve got Greenwood’s lattice-like fingerpicking and saintly electric guitar tone. There’s Yorke’s voice, still in pristine form, wailing like an angel in limbo and gnashing like a punk who woke up on the wrong side of the gutter. There are synths and Greenwood’s sidelong orchestral flourishes signalling end times. Longtime producer Nigel Godrich is in the control room, giving each sound an immense and terrifying and beautiful glow”, Pitchfork continues. My favorite songs were Open the Floodgates and Skrting On the Surface.

Morphologies by Anna Valsk: The under-the-radar album from this talented multi-instrumentalist from Quebec, who previously worked alongside accomplished artists like Tire le coyote and Cœur de pirate, is absolutely worth discovering. An ode to the cycle of the seasons, the album was created season by season across an entire year. Many songs transform progressively from minimalist indie pop to more expansive symphonies, emanating a cinematic ambiance not unlike the music of Klô Pelgag, as suggests Metro, seamlessly melding synthesizers, strings, horns and choirs. The self-produced album collects together the eleven songs previously released on EPs/micro-albums.

Blue Rev by Alvvays

Who Would Hold You If the Sky Betrayed Us? by Thus Owls… (Read more)

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big Thief

Soon It Will Be Fire by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (feat. Moses Sumney): This 9-minute song was the one on repeat for the longest this year. It’s the combination of the soft strings and the impossibly perfect brass orchestra, set to the soulful voice and arresting harmonies of Ghanaian-American singer-songwriter Moses Sumney. It’s medidative and soothing. The rest of the EP, a “fully reimagined reissue of Richard Youngs’ 1998 album Sapphie” features Sharon Van Etten, Perfume Genius, is also fantastic.

L’Enfer by Stromae: This was the most stunning live performance this year, with the Belgian singer and rapper using French news channel TF1 as a backdrop to launch into l’Enfer, an expressive and introspective song about being mentally drained, exhausted, frustrated and lost. During the transition from interview to performance, it almost feels for a few seconds like a musical, but set to a song of sadness and suffering. No fancy camerawork, lighting, or backup singers/dancers. The artist’s gaze straight into the camera communicates feelings of vulnerability even beyond the pain-filled lyrics, but surely a liberation for the artist to share with the world. Genius.

L’habitude de mourir by La Bronze: This beautiful song boasts a video showcasing a breathtaking choreography of modern dance, including the artist herself with dancer Nico Archambault, set in and out of a Quebec countryside house on a foggy day. It speaks to the purity and exhilaration of human relationships, elevating La Bronze’s sublime lyrics (“Ton cœur vers moi à pleine vélocité / C’est l’accident assuré / Mais tu ne ralentis pas / Même si ton corps sait déjà.”) to another level. So much beauty here. This is a 3-minute work of art.

Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building by Claire Hughes Johnson: “A leader at both Google and Stripe from their early days, the author has worked with founders and company builders to try to replicate their success”. The book is a practical and empathetic guide to being an effective leader and manager in a high-growth environment, as well as scaling the most important resource it has: its people.

A Few Good Reads (2022 edition): I publish every year a separate list of articles, blog posts and longer reads from around the internet that I’ve enjoyed. View my list here.

Oura Ring: This biometric ring continuously tracks your sleep, fitness, activity, recovery, stress and other vitals using a number of sensors. The ring itself is great, but it’s really the software/app that shines, displaying very simply key insights, distilling a number of complex health metrics into three scores, and sharing timely insights and notifications. It’s detected a few times that I was getting sick, notably by increased body temperature or heart rate variability. If you like me don’t love wearing a watch to sleep, this can be a convenient way to get some useful sleep data. Apparently, the index is also one of the most precise areas to get data from, more so than the wrist. Read The Verge’s thorough review.

Notion: Notion is a super productivity and collaboration app to organize your work/projects in one place. It combines simplicity with great depth. It is incredibly flexible, but in my opinion fills two key gaps: wiki (organize content in sections in a handbook like format) and light database (organize items into tables, for example to create a pipeline or a roadmap). It allows the user to tailor both the wiki-style pages and the database tables to his/her heart’s content, with custom labels, fields, filters, groups, sub-groups and more. It builds on earlier productivity apps like Trello and takes it to the next level. There are some power-tool features like templates and integrations. Its newly-launched “Notion AI” is jaw-dropping useful.

Strava: This fitness app allows users to track their physical activity (run, bike ride, hike, ski, etc), get detailed analysis of their workouts (some of the advanced insights require a subscription) and compare their results with a social network of friends and other sport lovers. It boasts the largest sport community in the world with 100M+ athletes in almost 200 countries.

Yuka: Not sure of the nutritional value of a product at the grocery store? Get a data-driven answer from Yuka, a small app that scans barcodes to help consumers make the right choices for their health, for both food and cosmetics. The product score is genuinely helpful, breaking down nutritional value into several components, positive and negative, such as sugars, proteins, sodium, fat and additives. I am sure the scoring methodology will continue to evolve and improve over time. Also, I found the recommendations great, allowing us to swap out a poor product for a healthier one. The app is free for most key features.

Stuff by Expedia: Expedia launched this surprising ad at the Superbowl, weighing the value of experiences against the tangible goods. Ewan McGregor is the perfect choice, both credible and authentic, to narrate the ad, which reflects on “all the stuff people love to buy — and then regret buying. So what’s worth buying, according to Expedia? Travel experiences”. It goes beyond trivial travel advertisements and strikes a philosophical chord reminding the audience of why we travel.

MTL Moments by Tourisme Montreal: The city’s promotion office, with the help of local ad agency LG2, hits another home run with this 2-minute ad to promote Montreal. It’s based on a simple premise: asking 100 Montrealers to film their city on the same day at the same time (5pm). Then, the imagery does the talking, to the tune of Montreal post-modern piano artist Alexandra Stréliski. The ad showcases the multitude of things/places/experiences that make Montreal the vibrant city it is, including its diversity, indie culture, festivals, parks, poutine, and more. A great way to celebrate the first post-pandemic summer!

Mon Lapin: This 30-seat gem in Montreal’s Little Italy serves small plates featuring Quebec vegetables, meats and seafood, accompanied by a fantastic selection of natural wines. The corner restaurant is run by chef Marc-Olivier Frappier and sommelier Vanya Filipovic, who got married shortly after opening in 2018, after parting ways with the Joe Beef group. It was #21 on the 2020 Canada’s 100 Best restaurants. I had a very special evening here when Mon Lapin’s team hosted Newfoundland chef Jeremy Charles (Raymonds and the Merchant Tavern) for a meal filled with fresh local seafood (urchins, mussels and more) and tasty traditional Maritimes dishes (cod stew).

Gia: This new hotspot in Montreal’s Saint-Henri, from the same team behind other Italian neighbourhood cult favourites Nora Gray and Elena, serves mouth-watering “arrosticini” (not to be confused with arancini!), ie. charred meat skewers (the best I remember having ever) typical of the Abruzzo region in Italy, along with varied Italian fare in family-style dining. “We really liked this idea of a grill restaurant in the same spirit of the dinners you might have in Italy, with a group of friends, maybe at a winemaker’s house — these big sit-down dinners that are very communal and festive, warm and welcoming,” co-owner Ryan Gray told Eater. The dinner room is very cozy, despite being in an industrial building/location, and also boasts an amazing terrace.

Comptoir-Épicerie Beaumont: This small grocery counter in Montreal’s Mile-Ex neighbourhood, kept by owners of top Montreal restaurant Toqué, offers a wide range of high quality prepared meals, aged meats, local wines and microbrews, as well as fresh seasonal products from local farmers.

Lachine Canal: The ideal destination for a sunny weekend afternoon, whether for a picnic or outdoor activities. Starting at the Peel Basin (keep your head up for the famous Farine Five Roses sign, a symbol of Montreal, and other industrial vestiges), and steps away from the Atwater market and famed Notre-Dame street restaurants, the 13.5km bike trail bordering the waterway and running between the Old Port and Lake Saint-Louis is probably the best in the city. The St-Ambroise Terrasse is an ideal pit stop to rest your feet after a day of biking.

Cité Mémoire: This is one of my favourite projects in the city, which makes the Old Port of Montreal come alive on late-night strolls. I’m always happy to discover a new interactive light projection around a corner while meandering through its streets after dark. Frommer explains: “Created for the 375th anniversary of the city in 2017 but continuing indefinitely, these gorgeously produced snippets will suddenly pop up around Old Montreal on walls, cobbled streets, or even clusters of trees. The projections cover everything from the dark tale of the city’s first executioner to a circus-clown rendition of one of the most famous matches in Canadian hockey history”, celebrating a selection of great and unknown moments in Montreal’s history — such as “Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s colour barrier, or the legend of tavern owner Joe Beef, or when Rocket Richard scored five goals in a single game”, as MTL Times lists. Get the app to find the sights and hear the accompanying audio.

Untitled by Nikki Küntzle: This wall off St-Urbain street in Montreal was created as part of the great Mural festival and sponsored by the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement. It shows minds growing as gardens. “Using bright and contrasting colours, and a minimalist esthetic, Küntzle creates a pop art effect, forging a dialogue between her own experiences and the human experience in order to reflect a collective feeling”.