First of all, hello! I haven’t posted to this blog in just about four years. There are reasons for that. So if you’re reading this, welcome, or welcome back!
I haven’t written for my blog in so long because, well, I haven’t needed to, for one. I have a platform where I write for a living, and I’d rather not do more WordPress posting and editing after a long day of it.
But back in the day this blog was my outlet not to establish a platform but to get my thoughts on the page about anything and everything I had watched, to polish my chops and keep me sharp. I’ve gotten away from that, and I miss that part of it.
Now though, I actually agonized about whether to post anything here at all. Wouldn’t Facebook be just fine? What if some source of mine or my employer got mad because of something I wrote here? Would dredging up this blog and all my bad old takes expose something embarrassing I’d rather not have out there? I genuinely have no idea.
But I still want to share my favorite pop culture of the year. I’m always making lists and want to put my stamp on my favorites in some way for the historical record.
Yet every year I seem to push this off later and later into the year. I’m often embarrassed by comparison to my colleagues who seem to have seen certain films months in advance of me and appear way ahead of the curve, even though I’m still being invited to the premieres of the things. So here I am sitting on December 29th wondering how I can possibly put out a legitimate list that anyone will care about when I still haven’t seen that one that won a prize at Cannes but won’t even be released wide until March 2024. What a joke, amirite?
I’ve also had to accept that I am not a critic any longer and haven’t been for quite some time, so I haven’t flexed this muscle as often as I used to or as often as I should. That’s also giving me anxiety about drawing a line in the sand lest anyone think I’m uncool for my now basic business person tastes. You liked “Barbie?” That’s cool, I guess.
But I still saw about 85 new movies in 2023 and will probably get to 100 once I’m done playing catch up. That’s not too shabby, and my insecurities about this list have as much to do with list making as anything else. Know that these lists are constantly evolving and changing with my preferences in a given moment and my number 5 today could be 25 as early as tomorrow.
Below though are the 15 (plus 11) movies I wanted to write about and would be more than willing to talk with anyone about if given the chance. Of the 15, I have two animated films, a doc, three largely in a foreign language, one that has no distribution, and also the biggest movie of the year. It was that kind of year for the movies, as is every year.
After my movies list, I also took the time to write about my favorite albums and TV shows of the year. More on those in a bit.
The Best Movies of 2023
1. “Oppenheimer”
Christopher Nolan’s breathless pacing seems to carry the weight of the world in every scene. It’s a movie of science, of possibility, and of hubris, and it would be an understatement to say this movie hit me like an atomic force.
2. “Asteroid City”
Who are we? Why are we here on this Earth? What’s the meaning of it all? Are we doomed? How many physicists’ name can you recite in a row from memory? Can you do it in reverse? These are the questions that percolate and fester throughout Wes Anderson’s latest Andersonian odyssey, a delight and a puzzle through and through.
3. “Killers of the Flower Moon”
I waited three and a half hours wondering when Jack White would show up, and there he was, giving a stark reminder that the true crime story Martin Scorsese weaves here involved real people, lives, and consequences for an entire culture that can no longer be erased or forgotten.
4. “Poor Things”
Twisted, silly, and endlessly inventive, Yorgos Lanthimos crafts a story of coming-of-age and female agency in an unexpectedly colorful and engrossing package. Emma Stone gives the best, mostly fully lived-in performance of the year as this most peculiar of Frankenstein monsters.
5. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
It is a miracle that Lord and Miller and the animator team took the first “Spider-Verse” movie that was already perfect and bursting with creativity and somehow made it better and more ambitious. Every frame is a work of art, loaded with attention to detail, rewarding viewing for years to come.
6. “Past Lives”
Celine Song’s debut feature is beguiling, weaving intimate moments of a life that could’ve been and people you thought you knew in a way that feels weightless and out of time. It’s romantic, profound, and a soothing viewing experience.
7. “Barbie”
What I love most about “Barbie” is not that it found a way to package feminism in the biggest and funniest movie of the year but in how silly it makes me look as a straight man, a Ken who has almost certainly gushed about Robert Evans, Stephen Malkmus, or played guitar AT someone.
8. “The Boy and the Heron”
“The Wind Rises” may have felt like a swan song, but “The Boy and the Heron” is the movie Hayao Miyazaki has been building toward his entire career. It has dashes of all his masterpieces and finds him back in anime-action-fantasy form, yet is his most personal film to date. It is thrilling to have a new film from the master.
9. “The Holdovers”
Alexander Payne brings such warmth and detail to “The Holdovers,” I could spend weeks stranded alone inside this movie. Paul Giamatti is a witty and hilarious misanthrope with untold depth, Dominic Sessa is a true discovery as his sharp tongued foil, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph gives the most sympathetic performance of the year.
10. “The Zone of Interest”
Deeply disturbing and otherworldly, it’s not a surprise to say that Jonathan Glazer’s film is a Holocaust movie unlike any you’ve seen. That you can’t look away at the decadence and are made to be complicit with this Nazi family is what makes it so unsettling.
11. “Maestro”
A ravishing, tour-de-force of a movie. Bradley Cooper as a director has a little Fosse, a little Spielberg, a little bit of every master director rolled into one, and he puts it all on screen and holds nothing back, including when he conducts a 6-minute symphony and becomes a sweaty mess in what is one of my more memorable movie moments this year.
12. “A Thousand and One”
A layered, New York character study spread across 20 years that for some reason fast forwards past 9-11, I was floored by the surprise ending and deeply moved by Teyana Taylor’s powerhouse performance.
13. “The Deepest Breath”
It’s like “Fire of Love” meets “Free Solo” but underwater. It also pulls a daring narrative trick I wouldn’t dare spoil that pays off beautifully.
14. “The Taste of Things”
Two and a half hours of legit food porn in the 19th century and I loved it. The film is quiet, ravishing, and will make you blush for the curves on both Juliette Binoche and your Christmas ham.
15. “Parachute”
This movie could easily be in my Top 5 but inexplicably doesn’t even have a distributor yet, which makes me worried that I’m the only one who likes it. Brittany Snow’s debut is a stunner of a melodrama about eating disorders but also has a lot of heart and humor.
11 Others Must-See’s
“Mission Impossible 7 – Dead Reckoning Part 1,” “Divinity,” “May December,” “John Wick Chapter 4,” “The Killer,” “American Fiction,” “Bottoms,” “The Eternal Memory,” “Flora and Son,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”
The Best Albums of 2023
Maybe next year I’ll make the New Years Resolution to listen to fewer sports talk radio podcasts and start discovering more new music when I’m out walking the dog. I still find there’s a lot of good music out there, but my days of seeing 30 shows a year are behind me, as are my days of absorbing every new artist and venturing into new genres. Music is so sprawling that a list of 10 rock records doesn’t even scratch the surface of all that people are talking about, but I still hope people get the same enjoyment out of these albums that I did this year.
1. Boygenius – “The Record”
This album was on repeat for me all year. A supergroup album yes, but one that flexes the best of each of Phoebe Bridgers’ emotional wallop, Julien Baker’s soaring anthems, and Lucy Dacus’ poetry, and it cranked up the volume for all of them. “I can’t hide from you like I hide from myself” is a lyric that will live rent free in my mind for a long time.
2. Foo Fighters – “But Here We Are”
The death of Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl’s mom lingers over Foo Fighters’ latest, and Grohl manages to deliver his best song writing in a decade for some pummeling, uplifting, and invigorating bangers. I even asked Grohl back in February 2022 before Hawkins’ death if they had an endlessly long, sludgy jam in them, and turns out they did.
3. Olivia Rodrigo – “GUTS”
Guys, why did no one tell me this was a rock record? Or that Olivia Rodrigo loves everyone from Bikini Kill to the Go Go’s and has a mentor in St. Vincent? It’s the hookiest pop record of the year but is loaded with riffs and swagger and made me want to pick up the guitar.
4. Wednesday – “Rat Saw God“
I confess, I discovered this band only weeks ago after I saw them atop several critics’ Best Of lists, and then I heard Karly Hartzman scream her fucking head off on “Bull Believer” and became a believer myself. Holy shit.
5. Sufjan Stevens – “Javelin”
Sufjan has a way of doing that thing where he plays like one chord on a keyboard and I’m instantly sobbing? Does that happen to anyone else? But rather than just more “Carrie & Lowell,” this is him straddling that line between sobering songwriter folk and explosive freak out synth weirdness. It really works.
6. Palehound – “Eye on the Bat“
El Kempner’s socially awkward songwriting combined with riffy shoegaze found a new gear on “Eye on the Bat.” It’s exactly the sort of indie rock I’ve gravitated towards of late in this era of lo-fi indie girl rockers making meat and potatoes jams.
7. Mitski – “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We”
From making operatic grandness on simple, sparse acoustic tracks like “Bug Like an Angel” to sweeping twang on “Heaven,” not to mention certified TikTok crooners like “My Love Mine All Mine,” Mitski remains rock’s most versatile chameleon.
8. Ratboys – “The Window”
Recommended by Steven Hyden as simply “good ass indie music,” Ratboys certainly live up to that moniker with a catchy and fuzzy bunch of bangers. Notch an extra point for being a Chicago band.
9. The National – “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” & “Laugh Track”
Hyden also mentioned how this year’s National albums were each uneven and should’ve been one, and I tend to agree, though I also can’t get enough of “Frankenstein” opener “Once Upon a Poolside” and even have a soft spot for their Taylor collab “The Alcott.” Many of these tracks sounded great live and they remain my favorite artist for a resaon.
10. Feeble Little Horse – “Girl with Fish”
More indie shoegaze goodness that has left little earworms like “Steamroller” lingering in my head for days.
5 More to Check Out
Lifeguard – “Dressed in Trenches” EP, JW Francis – “Swooning,” Wilco – “Cousin,” Arlo Parks – “My Soft Machine,” 100 Gecs – “10,000 Gecs”
The Best TV of 2023
Every year I feel like I watch a lot of TV. Too much TV. Way too much. Not included on here are the countless hours of “Survivor” and “The Challenge” for which I’ve now become consumed thanks to my wife’s nudging. And despite all the hours spent, I get to the Emmys and there are still a dozen dramas and miniseries that have been on for seven years that I’ve still never watched and for which I feel some gigantic blind spot. There’s too much TV. That appears to be changing soon in industry terms, but it will never feel that way in terms of real life terms. So there’s a chance if your favorite show is not on this list it’s because I haven’t seen it, not because I didn’t like it. But if you’re not watching at least a handful of these shows, what are you even doing?
1. “The Bear”
“The Bear” was already incredible but found a new gear in Season 2, revealing how our anxieties are not just a product of our environment but of our choices and the time we make for ourselves and others. Yet it’s still hilarious and thrilling and never homework. It is a masterful, savory meal AND a deep dish Pequod’s pizza all in one.
2. “The Last of Us”
You can suspend all your expectations about what a video game adaptation can be. “The Last of Us” is very faithful to the PS3 game, down to the look and sound of the clickers, the plot beats, and the accent in Bella Ramsey’s voice as Ellie. Yet it adds such depth and substance to make for an experience even more sobering than the game. All those newcomer bandwagon fans are going to be floored by Part 2.
3. “Succession”
It couldn’t have ended any other way. The smartest show on television still found a way to surprise with the shocking end for Logan Roy to the devastating emotion at his funeral. It will live forever in memes but those will never do justice to the brilliant writing and performances that have kept this so consistently great.
4. “Barry”
“Succession” was awesome all season long, but was the “Barry” finale even better than “Succession’s?” Bill Hader played with incredible structural twists, more surreal and formally daring turns, just as many gut busting, laugh out loud moments, and an ending that encapsulates everything “Barry” has been.
5. “Jury Duty”
It’s a miracle this show exists and is as funny as it is. Constantly you’re wondering how they did it, how can things possibly go horribly wrong, and then they give you the opportunity to see just how brilliantly it all came together. Good luck doing a Season 2 though.
6. “The Curse”
I’m still only halfway through the series, and it’s maybe not as pound for pound hilarious as Nathan Fielder’s “Nathan for You” or as formally brilliant as “The Rehearsal,” but the slow burn awkwardness and strangeness of “The Curse” is on another level. Emma Stone has a twofer of great performances this year, here playing the perfect paragon of liberalism and all the baggage that comes with that.
7. “Only Murders in the Building”
Three seasons in, “Only Murders” has cemented itself as one of the consistently great comedies on TV. It’s so good people have started to turn against it and Martin Short. But if the murder mystery itself didn’t have the same intrigue, it made up for it in sheer showmanship of its songs and one-liners.
8. “Schmigadoon”
Maybe I have a soft-spot for musical comedies this year, but what started as a cute trifle in its first season became an underrated gem in its second. “Schmigadoon,” now “Schmicago,” swapped musical eras and came away with one catchy, hilarious song after another.
9. “Abbott Elementary”
Technically we got only half a season’s worth of content within the confines of 2023, but “Abbott” just two seasons in already has enough episodes with characters so familiar that it feels like a mainstay that’s been on for a decade. With any luck, Season 3 will elevate this show into All-Timer territory.
10. “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
There’s no denying that this show is not what it was in its first two Emmy-winning seasons, and you may have given up a while ago, but the fifth and final season of “Maisel” was easily its best since then. The show re-framed itself from a journey of IF Midge would make it to HOW, and it allowed the show to focus on the characters and the familial bonds it does best.
Some Others to Check Out
“I’m a Virgo,” “The Afterparty,” “Lessons in Chemistry,” “Party Down,” “All the Light We Cannot See,” “Quarterback”