One month of 2017 down, several others to go! I hope everyone has had a great January and 2017 thus far.

I’ve been going through something during this month which I’ve decided to term ‘Trump trauma’. Actually, my work colleagues initially termed the feeling ‘Trump trauma’ following day after day of witnessing me reading news articles on my phone during our lunch break, and experiencing the resulting exasperated, exhausted sighing and occasional outright rage.

I don’t know about you guys, but this constant doom and gloom of political news and #alternativefacts really saps my motivation to write or do anything creative, and I’m all the way down in Australia so I can’t begin to imagine how my similarly politically leaning friends in the USA might feel. There’s so much to worry about, and it’s difficult to know where to begin with normal life when so many things are politically not normal. Does anyone else feel this way? This was not a favourite thing of mine in January 2017, but I thought it would be important to mention.

Anyway, please see below a selection of some of my favourite posts and things from January 2017!

I started up my Blindspot series again for 2017! I’ve already watched a couple so far, so I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts on them! I love looking at other bloggers’ Blindspot lists because it gives me inspiration about what else I’m missing out on seeing, if there are any huge gaps in my film knowledge, et cetera. Keith of Keith and the Movies posted a great Blindspot list, filled with some pretty amazing films!

I never saw Passengers (2016) and probably never will, but I sure did enjoy Matt of Assholes Watching Movies‘ take on what sounds like a really silly film. Jay also wrote a fantastic and passionate piece on US president #45’s ‘Muslim ban’, and the impact of this on the Oscars and general film community, given that certain filmmakers and creatives will be denied entry to the country based on their religion. It’s so, so wrong.

January in the film blogosphere saw a lot of end of year lists, which I find useful. But what I find the most useful is lists of things to avoid wasting my time on. The Movie Evangelist has put together a great list of terrible films from 2016, which could serve as a list of films I’ll continue to avoid in 2017.

Does anyone else miss TV’s Hannibal? That was such a beautifully grotesque work of art in the form of a television series. You can relive the series’ gorgeous yet bloody opening title sequence via this very detailed post over at The Art of the Title, which includes an interview with the people who worked on the sequence.

Episode four of the podcast I co-host, Partial Credit Podcast, is up! If you feel like hearing some exclusive information about the upcoming Nintendo Switch release, a little bit about Lion (2016), and my feelings about Allied (2016) spoken aloud instead of in written form, do feel free to have a listen.

That’s just about it for my January favourites of 2017! What did you enjoy this month? Is there anything you think I should check out? Feel free to post a comment below with links or recommendations!