Saturday Side Quest - My Top Five Books/Movies/Games of 2024

Where has faith and fandom intersected this week?

Tis the season for Top 10 lists! I don’t know about you, but I’ve been combing through dozens of lists from my peers and mentors over the past few days. I felt like I did a pretty decent job with what I read, watched, and played in 2024, but I clearly missed out on plenty.

I’m dropping my picks in this post to enter my thoughts into the fray. Media is vital to our formation as people. Discerning media is even more crucial. I believe that we simply must consume art if we want to be in honest pursuit of the divine. Maybe that would be an interesting main article here.

Without further adieu, let’s dive into the lists. Know that all of these lists are in no particular order. They also aren’t exclusively from 2024; I experienced them in 2024.

Top 5 Movies I Watched in 2024

1. Aftersun

   1. I wasn’t expecting this one to hit as hard as it did, especially since it was a random TikTok recommendation. This is a coming-of-age story of sorts. The viewer experiences a past vacation of a young girl and her father. It will be their last trip together. We piece together a fabric woven of home videos, her memories, and the truth the father experienced but never showed her. As a dad, this one was all the feels.

2. The Wild Robot

   1. Doubling down on the father-daughter vibes, I watched this with my oldest. It’s a movie about being a good parent and letting your children spread their wings. It’s cruel and unusual punishment to make a parent watch that with their 5-year-old. But I loved it.

3. The Long Goodbye

   1. This is a bit of a silly pick. Elliot Gould is the cooler-than-cool P.I. solving a case that involves himself and his best friend. It’s not the best-written story, but it’s got vibes for days. I was so immersed in the gritty culture and the characters. Like Agatha Christie, if she was writing for Grand Theft Auto.

4. Parasite

   1. This movie was as good as everyone said. I was skeptical and put it off for far too long. I admit that it really didn’t hit me right away—after I finished it, I thought it might be a 3 or 4-star. Then, I read an interview with director Bong Joon-Ho about the meaning behind the title. That was enough to click in my brain and bump it to the coveted 5-star.

5. Tampopo

   1. A ridiculous movie that may very well have inspired Jon Favreau’s Chef. This is an absurd story about a woman who takes on a mysterious mentor to improve her ramen shop. She works with a series of wacky characters (including some hilariously talented street urchins) and rises from irrelevance to stardom. The random interstitials are the real experience. This wholesome film goes into random bouts of eroticism that appear from thin air—I was thankful not to be watching this one with my girls around. One of the interstitials involves an elderly woman with a penchant for taste-testing produce, and a Wil E. Coyote-type chase ensues. A delight.

Top 5 Books I Read in 2024

1. Extremely Online

   1. If I had to Vulcan mind meld my comprehension of the Internet into someone else’s mind, this is the closest possible transcript. Fellow Substacker Taylor Lorenz masterfully tells the story of influencer culture and the rise of the Internet that younger Millenials and Gen Z have experienced in a social media era. It should be a primer for a college course.

2. The Courage to Be

   1. This year, Paul Tillich became an obsession after being introduced to him by another pick on my list. This was recommended as his starter work, and it was fantastic. Tillich sees the world in ways that feel very familiar to me, especially regarding art as a conduit for the divine. I can’t wait to read more.

3. Disability and the Church

   1. I met fellow Substacker Dr. Lamar Hardwick at the Nerd Culture Ministry Summit this year. When I learned that connection would be made, I wanted to read his work on disability in religion and enjoyed the perspective he provided. I am looking forward to reading How Ableism Fuels Racism next.

4. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

   1. This was one of our book club picks at

      Checkpoint Church
      and was probably my favorite one of the year. In this instant classic Americana, we meet some excellent characters that remind me of my first experience with Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird or even in King’s The Green Mile with a touch of spirituality.

5. House of Leaves

   1. What can I even say about this book? It’s an experience unlike any other I’ve had. If I were ranking these lists, this would be my number one book of the year—maybe my number one book ever. For perspective, I finished this 500+ page tome in two days.

Top 5 Games I Played in 2024

1. Void Stranger

   1. This game is like the House of Leaves of video games. Everything you think you know about playing games will be destroyed by this game. Do you think you’ve reached the end? Yeah, right, you’ve barely scratched the surface. This game has a jumpscare that is a random song with lyrics and a gorgeous and haunting melody. The gameplay isn’t the point and I enjoyed venturing into the Void.

2. In Stars and Time

   1. We played the entirety of this entry on our

      Checkpoint Church
      stream and I loved every minute. It was one of those games where I couldn’t wait for the next stream to learn what was next. The premise is Groundhog Day, but it’s told in the same style as Undertale. A delightful jaunt into mistakes, regrets, and friendship.

3. I Was A Teenage Exocolonist

   1. Colonist is a bit of a triggering term, so I admit I entered this one expecting one social argument and receiving something entirely different. This story follows the life of a child born on a spaceship bound for a new planet. The small community around them is settling on this planet. The plot isn’t so simple, however. Your character has to make tough decisions that aren’t always presented upfront, so you won’t learn the consequences until it’s too late. A great story with some of the most realized characters I’ve seen in a visual novel.

4. Until Then

   1. Wow. I really can’t stop thinking about this game. It’s a time loop game, which seems to be one of my favorite storytelling methods. You follow the life of Mark, a lazy high schooler in the Philippines. Some strange things have happened, and the world is experiencing bizarre natural disasters, but that isn’t Mark’s problem. He’s got assignments to finish, friends to flirt with, carnivals to attend, and he wants to learn the piano. This game is a masterclass in storytelling and unwinds the overarching mystery with a flawless pace.

5. 1000xRESIST

   1. Humanity seems to have ended, and all that remains are clones of the Allmother. Among these clones, there are some picked out of the crop to be leaders in their fields. We are one of those leaders, the Watcher, and we journey into memories of the Allmother. We discover there is more to this world than meets the eye and the Allmother has secrets we might not like. This is a transhumanist, tech-apocalypse story that took me by complete surprise.

Okay, that’s all you get for free. But I have another five picks in each category—consider becoming a paid subscriber to see the rest.