Larf Awards 2025

2024 list here

AOTY - I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi


There were plenty of great releases this year, but no full album felt more complete than this one for me. Nina said she put a ton of effort into the tracklist flow for this album and it shows - it includes the best song transitions I’ve heard this year. Every time I hear a song out of context of the album I anticipate the next song on the album, especially songs like Ipod Touch and CSIRAC.


Ninajirachi covers a wide range of EDM genres to keep the sound from getting stale throughout the runtime, and ties it together with her own voice and consistent perspective. Anyone who grew up with the internet can relate to the stories on this album.


It’s also great to hear someone who’s still having fun with their computer. Nina clearly associates the computer with music making, and thus her self-actualization through art, but also makes clear early on that she appreciates that her computer can take her anywhere, even a country that she’s never gone to physically. “Everything is possible with fingers, eyes, a mouse, and a screen.” 


MOTY - Eddington (dir. Ari Aster)


First of all I’ll note that I saw few new movies this year, so I’ll just rate them all right here:


  1. Eddington

  2. No Other Choice

BIG GAP

  1. Weapons (had me engrossed until the big reveal)

  2. Sinners (wish it didn’t have vampires)

  3. Kpop Demon Hunters (a lot to like but the plot sucks)

  4. Chainsaw Man Reze Arc (my least favorite CM arc)


Wish I saw: One Battle After Another, Bugonia


Ari Aster is probably my second favorite American director right now, after Robert Eggers. Both got started by kicking off the A24 elevated horror trend in the mid-2010’s, but have drifted towards different styles in their subsequent films. While Eggers has focused on historical period pieces with an eye for accuracy in language and setting, Aster seems to find his inspiration from mining his own modern neuroses.


While Beau is Afraid is more personal to Aster himself, Eddington is about our collective psychosis, specifically at the most psychotic period of modern American history: the year 2020. The important thing about this movie is that none of the characters are right about anything, because the villain barely speaks at all and gets everything he wants. The villain, of course, being the guy building the data center that is making everyone in the town lose their marbles. Regardless of what Americans think, the tech money people are going to continue to profit off our addiction to screens, and continue to invest in making us even more insane. The chilling final shot of the movie shows the data center lit up with as much or more light than the entire town it’s built next to. Data is replacing humanity.


TVOTY - The Chair Company (because I can’t choose Real Housewives of Salt Lake City again)


I hate to use the word, but I haven’t seen anything more Lynchian than this show besides the works of David Lynch himself. The world that Tim Robinson creates for this show is exactly the same as ours in terms of power dynamics and class, and the people in it have the same motivations as us, but their words and actions can have a bizarre non-sequiter quality. As opposed to the works of Lynch, who often uses these curveballs to unsettle the viewer, Tim Robinson is a comedian who primarily wants us to laugh. The Lynch moment that I feel best exemplifies the mood of The Chair Company is in the first episode of Twin Peaks where a high schooler closes a locker and moonwalks away in the background. Totally unexplainable behavior that has no relevance to the plot, but funny just for happening at all.


This show contains some of the most out of pocket jokes I’ve ever seen on TV (mainly thinking of the Christmas Carol "adaptation" that Mike watches), and a bunch of scenes that would be great ITYSL sketches (like the bar patron who taunts Ron by dunking his elbow in soup). My favorite joke may have been the man who sporadically attacks the boxes in Ron’s garage mid-conversation. All these jokes are elevated by being embedded in a plot rather than being simply sketch comedy. A mystery is a great genre for gags to be in as well, because you don’t know what’s just a joke and what might actually be plot-crucial. 


The final episode of the season, which I still don’t know how I feel about, upends pretty much every lead that was presented in the show already. I see that there’s going to be a second season, so excited but a bit nervous that it won’t live up to this fantastic first (looking at you, Severance).


GOTY - Silksong


I don’t know how much I really need to say about why this game is good. It fits my tastes perfectly. I love a metroidvania and I love a challenge, and this game is a masterclass on how to do both. My only complaints were in some of the runbacks, and how the biggest challenges were often the arenas rather than the bosses, but luckily the unfairly difficult parts are optional. If you like platformers then you’ve probably already played it because you knew it was going to be good before it came out just like me.


BOTY - The Fort Bragg Cartel by Seth Harp


(Taken from my Books I Read 2025 post, this is my favorite book that came out this year)


This was a book of reporting that came out this year about the rampant crime in North Carolina’s military base Fort Bragg. Most of the information included in the book came from these soldiers' mothers and ex-wives/girlfriends, since the code of silence is a point of pride for many of the operators stationed there. The book covers a lot of ground from a lot of angles, but there were two major points that stuck with me.


First, and most obvious, is the fact that these soldiers can get away with pretty much anything. The police in Fayetteville, NC drop murder, drug trafficking, and rape charges against these guys constantly; and the military courts also try their best to cover up what goes on at the base. One telling story was of a female service member who was raped outside a bar by a Delta Force operative, who fought like crazy to bring him to justice. The military put up every possible hurdle for her to move forward with the case, until years later she finally gave up, exhausted, realizing that these guys are trained in getting away with murder too.


The second point was that many of these guys at Fort Bragg are Global War On Terror (GWOT) veterans. Army doctors prescribe them adderall, xanax, and opiates freely to make them able to carry out the dirty work of the USA in the middle east, and they take this baggage home. That’s how a lot of them end up trafficking and using illegal drugs, and their PTSD makes them liable to fly off the handle and kill Americans. We can’t just inflict wanton violence on the rest of the world and expect ourselves to stay normal.

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