I never do these year-end wrapups of the best movies, music, tv, tweets, for all sorts of reasons, some of which have to do with just not being the sort of person who rates things and some of which have to do with the occupational hazard that the best things I see in a given year are probably things I’m teaching. So if I said that the most amazing constellation of cinematography & soundtrack I saw in 2023 was in Battles without Honor and Humanity from 50 years ago, well, sure, but that isn’t the discourse, is it?
But then I saw The New Yorker’s lugubrious (yeah) 2023 tv wrapup and John Waters’s 2023 movie wrapup and it reminded me that the other other reasons I don’t do these things are 1. I am absolutely uninterested in measuring up to some sort of critical responsibility. (Are you snubbing The Bear? I could not care.) 2. I cannot possibly have seen enough stuff to render a real verdict. There are ~600 scripted series and probably that many unscripted ones in the U.S. and more than a thousand movies and did I mention that Battles without Honor and Humanity is part of like a 10–film series on its own?
But in the interest of pushing back on the tyranny of the dutiful roundup to which even Waters is susceptible, I will try to compile my own list of the good shit, the stuff that came across my radar that may not be getting attention, or not be getting attention for the right reasons. I guarantee my list will have more comedy on it. And also probably horror. And avant-garde stuff? For this to work, I need your help. Let me know if you see something good and underrated and either new or newly accessible. And a year from now I’ll try to gather those together, and I will thank you publicly.
Either that or I will have gone underground in an effort to defend the remnants of democracy in the U.S. At this point it’s 50-50 at best.