This double feature is about desperation beyond comprehension; these aren’t films about the about the possibility of a disaster but the fruition of one.

James Gray takes the vacuum of space–including your lofty and high-minded expectations of space movies–and plugs it all up with self-help books about learning to love yourself. Cue Whitney Houston!

To simply rattle off the movies I enjoyed, and the reasons why, would be too safe and too shallow. What follows is not a list of my favorite movies this year but rather an examination of one obvious, omnipresent theme: desperation.