year-end roundup: the culture edition.

radical love letters | on art i loved in 2023

Dec 05, 2023

I absolutely love, without apology, end of year roundup lists. The impulse to reflect is in my blood, whether it’s on recent pop culture or more personal happenings. And this month, I will bring you both. This week, a round-up of movies, television, and other culture that moved me (to laughs, tears, thoughts); next week, a look back on my year of life-stuff and writing accomplishments.

A note on the curation: With one exception, I am sticking with things that were released in 2023, though for music this was tough, because some of my most beloved albums of the year were only new-to-me in 2023, and had earlier release dates. Ditto with books — I read some brand new books, but I’m often playing catch up on the past few years’ releases. I have a few other caveats that I’ll name below each category.

Finally, please tell me your 2023 picks! What do we agree on, what do you think I’m totally bananas for loving? Share in the comments. <3

MOVIES.

My note here is that I am not including the recent surge of Oscar-buzzy films that just got released; P and I will likely do another movie commentary video around the Oscars in March. These are my picks from roughly January-October 2023.

Bottoms

I loved. Bottoms is a delicious new asset to the genre of film that we can trace back through Jennifer’s Body, But I’m a Cheerleader, and Jawbreaker, all the way back to Heathers. In its own right, Bottoms is a Zoomer masterpiece of a violent, deranged, raunchy, tonally-confusing (in a likely intentional and impressively seamless way), campy portrayal of the violent, deranged, raunchy, tonally-confusing, campy lives of teenage girls. There is so much more to say but the final thing I'll note here is how impressed I was that this camp-horror-comedy also had heart; I definitely teared up more than once. Ayo Edebiri, Rachel Sennott, and Emma Seligman are forces and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Barbie

As most of you know, I spent a lot of time writing and thinking about Barbie this year. It was genuinely a highlight of a very tough, cancer-heavy summer. I wrote a long reflection on the themes of the film here, and had a neat smart conversation with writer

Margeaux Feldman

here. TLDR: the feminism isn’t revolutionary, but a zealous celebration of femininity is still, ultimately, radical.

Perfect Quotes From Barbie Movie (2023) — (why not both?)

Past Lives

This slow, beautiful film is true catnip for A24-types (#implicated!). Directed by South Korean-Canadian Celine Song, this story follows childhood friends, Na Young/Nora (Greta Lee, of “sweet birthday baby” fame) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), over the course of 24 years. The two only lived in the same country for a brief period, but each rekindling of their friendship — even across distance — is ignited with their undeniable romantic chemistry. But the timing and geography is never right; when they finally meet in person again, Nora is married to an American. The three share an evening together — at times awkward, at times sweet, and always entirely layered with intense emotions which Song and the actors manage to evoke with utter subtlety. Ultimately this is a ghost ship film, which (if you’re not familiar with the oft-referenced essay) means it’s a film about accepting that whatever life we choose inevitably acts as the foreclosure to another life. There is grief in making choices—this film demonstrates beautifully the weight of it.

Honorable Mentions: Sanctuary; No Hard Feelings; Nyad; Theater Camp

TELEVISION.

Beef

Beef was an extremely difficult series for me, and up until the last episode I wasn’t sure if I would be able to say I liked it, or even that I was glad I watched it. Revenge is not a thing with which I have much of a relationship; intense anger, sure, but the impulse or desire to get back at someone? That’s not in my wheelhouse of destructive impulses. Given that, it was hard for me to feel connected to either main character (which is something I prefer to feel in shows I watch). It’s a testament to the writing and the actors that, by the end, I loved them, not in spite of their horrific behaviors, but because of how their actions were offered context and compassion without excusing them. I also thought they did a great job offering a nuanced take on class without falling into easy ‘eat the rich’ stereotypes that have become almost tropey at this point; both Amy and Danny are people who suffer, and I think it’s helpful for us to consider how wealth can also lead to alienation and despair. Which is not to say that, like, poor folks don’t have it qualitatively and structurally worse, but that the human experience under capitalism and white supremacy is hell for everyone.

Jury Duty

Jury Duty is a mockumentary about a jury, but the catch is one of the cast members (Ronald Gladden) isn’t an actor, he thinks he’s actually on a jury. Weird, funny, and charming shenanigans ensue. Mockumentaries can be real hit or miss, and although this took a saccharine turn towards the end, I am so glad we watched it (two weeks after P’s surgery, we needed saccharine). Some specific things it did well: nailing quirky character development (I laugh everytime I think of the transhumanist); requiring real improv from the actors responding to the non-actor; James Marsden playing himself/leaning into the always-treasured ‘celebs making fun of themselves’; Ronald Gladden’s post-show glee.

The Bear (Season 2)

“It’s about trauma.” But seriously, holy shit. I loved season one of The Bear for it’s fast-paced, funny, gritty Chicago worldbuilding, and for the complicated characters they shared with us. But season two was nothing short of generous — we got to really know the staff of the diner-turned-fine-dining establishment, we got to behold some of the most powerful performances I’ve seen streaming, we got to laugh and cry and feel empathy for a ton of shitty, fucked up choices. It was profoundly moving to watch some of the most grueling aspects of the human experience reflected so bravely, and I am so excited to see what’s in store for season three.

Honorable Mentions: The Golden Bachelor; Pokerface; Minx (Season 2); Yellowjackets (Season 2)

MUSIC.

Abigail Lappel, Lullabies

Abigail Lappel is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter, with a knack for haunting. Her songs and her voice both feel ghostly, in the best way. I’ve been a fan of her earlier, folkier stuff for a few years, and in 2023 she released an album called Lullabies which features lullabies in several languages and from several cultures—we hear her sing in French, Spanish, Yiddish, Welsh, Japanese, German, and English. It’s a moody, quiet collection, and was perfect for the shift to darker days.

Wednesday, Rat Saw God

Wednesday is a band that I’d include in the beloved genre I like to call: “this sounds like this is a 1995 alternative/grunge band but actually they are contemporary.” Silversun Pickups is another great example of this, also early Hop Along. Anyway, Wednesday is grungey, they are what we meant by ‘alternative’ back before Y2K, they are loud and fuzzy and I imagine them all in flannel in a garage. But they are also doing something unique on Rat Saw God, which is screaming in a way that isn’t hardcore. On the bold eight-minute and thirty-second “Bull Believer,” lead singer Karly Hartzman just sort of….yells. It’s growly, ragey, but also, I think, entirely listenable even for folks who aren’t usually drawn to screaming. The whole album is a vibe, and it was cool to be immersed in it, start to finish.

SZA, SOS

Okay, listen. This technically came out in 2022. But it was released on December 8th, which means I was already in full-force Christmas mode, and it wasn’t on my radar until early spring 2023. I played “Snooze” on repeat so, so many times (and then I played the “Snooze” remix EP—-which did come out in 2023— on repeat so, so many times). It’s one of the dreamiest, floatiest love songs, and the whole album feels like the softest parts of romance.

Honorable mentions: Palehound, Eye on the Bat; Ahoni and the Johnsons, My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross; the two new Big Thief singles (*loved*); not 2023, but I played Courtney Marie Andrews’ 2020 and 2022 albums nearly non-stop this past spring.

BOOKS.

No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating, Alicia Kennedy

I gushed a bit already about how much I appreciated Alicia Kennedy’s nonfiction debut, but I’ll say again — this is an incredibly interesting, sharply written book that delves into aspects of culture that are often dismissed as irrelevant to bigger questions of food sovereignty and environmental justice. But through reporting, personal narrative, and loads of research, Kennedy makes their relevance clear. Whether delving into the powerful impact of punk and zines, refuting the idea that veganism is a ‘white thing’ (by amplifying past and present plant-based traditions across the globe, and in Black and Brown communities in the US), or critiquing wellness culture and tech meat, Kennedy reminds us that understanding how we eat can help us understand how we live…And more importantly, how we could live, in a way that keeps the planet and our joy alive.

No Meat Required: The Cultural History... by Kennedy, Alicia

TOSKA, Alina Pleskova

Reading Alina Pleskova’s collection of poems was an immersive, hot, joyful, and sometimes gutting experience. Pleskova writes about queerness and sex; magic and spirituality; immigrant culture and concepts of rootedness (& rootlessness); and the quotidian happenings in love and work and play….And she does it beautifully. A line I loved: “& everyone seems too woke or weary/ for a ruinous type of intimacy.”

A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars, ed. Erin Sharkey

A beautiful collection of essays — at times heartbreaking, at times hopeful, and nearly always juxtaposing the reality of Black life (the violence, the joy) alongside broad understandings of nature and the natural world. Some things that stuck with me: the role of rain on Black women’s hair at a protest against police murder; the meaning of home on stolen land, built up by stolen bodies; the windows in a prison, witnessing nature from behind bars; and this, which I can’t stop thinking about, from Sean Hill, on his interest in the organizing of Black railroad workers in Jefferson County, West Virginia, and John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry, in the same county: “I mentioned this connection….to my wife, a historian, and she politely corrected me, saying it sounds like you’re pointing out coincidences more than connections, and she was right, I am. As a historian, she doesn’t really track coincidences….As a poet and essayist, I think coincidence is fruitful. The fact that things happened on the same land, in the same space, even in different times, is enough to make me take note. If a photo contains many pasts and many futures, if it can preserve memories, then absolutely the land does as well.”

Honorable Mentions: Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex, eds. Bickers, Luna, Beshears, & Smith (I reviewed it here); Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth, Pamela Anderson; The Woman In Me, Britney Spears; Personal Problem, Brendan Joyce

PODCASTS.

The Dream

I dig what Jane Marie does on this podcast, now in its third season, which explores wellness MLMs, life coaching, and other adjacent-to-GOOP phenomena. She’s critical of the way the ideologies promoted by this sector ignore structural racism, the reality of capitalism, and so on, but she’s also compassionate to the human desire for improvement, for less suffering. In season three, she gets really vulnerable about her own mental and physical health, and I think it adds to the investigative aspects of the show. I have some small critiques of certain editorial decisions, but it was the highlight of my commute through the fall, and I waited eagerly for each new episode.

Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff

Margaret Killjoy’s new-ish podcast is a thoroughly researched showcase of both well known and hidden histories of social movements, resistant actions, and generally bad-ass people from the past. The show is a mix of archival reporting, playful conversation, and compelling storytelling, all in the service of looking back to help us move forward. Margaret doesn’t try to sanitize the reality that even the coolest people doing the coolest things were also flawed and complex humans, and I think this kind of nuance is imperative to apply to our movements today too!

For the Wild

For the Wild is like if On Being were invested in more radical, liberatory politics. Also like if On Being allowed itself to dig into some headier theory. Also like if On Being let itself explore sex more. Okay, so it’s really only like On Being in that it is gentle and spiritual and always leaves me with something to think about, but it is even more my cup of tea because of all the aforementioned divergences. It’s been around for years now, but every season has an interview that leaves me floored, and 2023 was no different.

Honorable Mentions: Critical Theory; On Being; Songs My Ex Ruined; Classy; Into It; It’s Been a Minute; and, don’t skip this one– Every. Single. Interview. With. Andrea. Gibson.

NEWSLETTERS.

I truly love that my leisure-internet time has become consumed primarily with newsletter reading (thanks to: no more Twitter, not as much Instagram, no regular contact with Bluesky, no Threads, no TikTok, no Mastodon). It’s a joy of my weeks to read smart, thoughtful reflections from talented writers. Here’s a shout-out to a non-exhaustive list of some favorites:

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Birds Before the Storm

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