YEAR IN REVIEW: 2023

Running down all the Film, Television, Music, Food and more that mattered in 2023!

(NOTE: The following was originally written/published on 1/22/24)

FILMS

There’s a pretty reasonable case to be made we just caught one of the five best years in cinema this century. You’d probably go ’07 first overall, then ’19, then probably ’01 third, and then ’04, 17, and ’23 in some order. Then round out a top 10 with some cluster of ’03, ’05, ’13, or ’16. We’re heading towards arguably the strongest Best Picture slate since the 1970s. The franchises floundered. Barbenheimer saved us. I watched 214 films this year, 28 of which in a theater. Here’s what ruled, in my humble opinion:

30 (TIE). MI: DEAD RECKONING PART 1 (Dir. Christopher McQuarrie) & ACROSS THE SPIDERVERSE (Dir. Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, and Justin K Thompson)

Perfect cutoff films for me. Excluding Dune, these are probably the two most reliable franchises we have. Both were great, if notable steps back from their previous outings. Both have 2nd acts that have the habit of grinding the pace to screeching halts. But there were a few set pieces here (Guggenheim, Rome, & Orient Express) that rival anything below. Here’s to high hopes for the finales!

29. EILEEN (Dir. William Oldroyd) I’m a simple guy. I like simple pleasures. Gimme Hitchcockian riffs and Anne Hathaway cold-cocking a random Mass-hole on a dive bar, dance floor.

28. FAIR PLAY (Dir. Chloe Dumont) Terrible movie to watch right before getting engaged. Most stressed out I was in a theater this year, by far. Totally loved it.

27. AMERICAN FICTION (Dir. Cord Jefferson) Two wonderful films. Not 100% sure they fit together. But I actually enjoyed the shagginess. Kinda bummed Tracee Ellis Ross wasn’t in it more; she just missed my supporting actress ballot.

26. FERRARI (Dir. Michael Mann) I wish I could eternal sunshine House of Gucci out of my memory, because I think that this much subtler, more understated movie suffers from proximity. This is a tale of two halves: First half of this movie? Kind of a total mess. Didn’t work for me. But the second half? Probably the most exciting Michael Mann in well over fifteen years. The crash might be the most horrific thing I saw all year.

25. PRISCILLA (Dir. Sofia Coppola) Jacob Elordi seems too tall. Cailee Spaney seems too young. Both are entirely the point. One of Sofia’s absolute best. A perfect case of: right frame of the right story being made by the best possible filmmaker for the job.

24. THEATER CAMP (Dir. Molly Gordon & Nick Lieberman) Incredible D.A. Pennebaker riff. Gordon is absolutely bonkers start to finish. Best Tatro’s been since Vandal. A contender for funniest line of the year comes when Molly is talking about one of the pre-pubescent campers: “I’m worried she doesn’t have the sexuality to play it. Obviously everyone here is a virgin, but Chantal seems like a virgin the minute she steps into a room.”

23. BOTTOMS (Dir. Emma Seligman) Probably the best “safety-all-the-way-off” movie of the year. To quote Kareem Abdul Jabbar (seriously): It has “the razor sharp edge of Heathers, the satiric chops of Network, and the comic raunchiness of Superbad. But it does what so many of the more pretentious art films fail to do: entertain.” Preach, Kareem!

22. THE IRON CLAW (Dir. Sean Durkin) Here’s my pitch: Flip Efron and J.A.W. Switch Stanley Simons to the 6th brother that wasn’t portrayed, Chris. Shift Harris Dickinson over to Michael. And cast Channing Tatum as David. Give Sean Durkin 15 more million, blow this out to 3 hours, include more formal invention like those first 5 minutes and go bigger. But as is? Still works. And against all odds: keep the dock scene almost exactly as it is. It shouldn’t work. But it does.

21. THE BOY AND THE HERON (Dir. Hiyao Miyazaki) Cinema’s greatest jenga tower. Cinema’s weirdest bird. And animation’s most profound titan giving a revelatory self-reflection in the only magical way he knows how. If this is truly it? What a way to go out.

20. MAESTRO (Dir. Bradley Cooper) The nose plays.

19. SHOWING UP (Dir. Kelly Reichert) The most devastating moment in cinema this year is when Michelle William’s new sculpture gets fucked up in the kiln. Poor André 3000 offers a lame: “I think it looks cool!" It does not. The bird in this movie is my the onscreen animal of the year.

18. ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME MARGARET (Dir. Kelly Fremon Craig) Welcome to the coming-of-age cannon! Perfect adaptation. Jewish excellence at full force. McAdams is the onscreen mom of the year. Fuck parent committees.

17. PASSAGES (Dir. Ira Sachs) Messiest sex dramedy since Girls. Actually…come to think of it…nothing would delight me more than seeing Franz Rogowski’s character & Hannah Horvath have a night out together.

16. HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE (Dir. Daniel Goldhaber) What if Tenet was structured like Reservoir Dogs, but about gung-ho, Gen Z lefty terrorists?

15. THE KILLER (Dir. David Fincher) A lean, mean, and gig-ecomony, assassination machine. Funnier than expected! Mostly because the protagonist is SO much worse at his job than a) I expected & b) he thinks that he is. Like all Fincher releases, I suspect we’ll assume this is a fun trifle: a sleek exercise in cool genre control…and then realize 10 years from now it’s a masterwork.

14. BARBIE (Dir. Greta Gerwig) I think there’s probably at least two plot lines in here that could be diminished or removed entirely. That said, there’s probably not a movie this year (hell, in the last 10 years) with a higher degree of difficulty. That this movie emerged not only massively entertaining, but sharp, incisive and filled to the brim with ideas is a minor miracle. Per minute, there’s probably not a funnier film of 2023. See more below under my Comic Performer of the Year.

13. POOR THINGS (Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) It’s hardly original to say, but this is still my preferred of the two Barbie movies this year. Maybe the single happiest ending on this list. It’s hard to take for granted what a goddamn fearless performance is from one of the ten biggest movie stars alive. But the greatest summation of the pleasures of this film is delivered by none other than its lead character: “I’ve adventured and found nothing but sugar and violence.” Bingo.

12. THE HOLDOVERS (Dir. Alexander Payne) First recent entry into the holiday movie cannon in…quite awhile, right? Since Elf?? And it’s not just because of the winter break setting, that dinky little Christmas tree, or all the holiday lights. It’s a perfect holiday film because of how that all thaws. Slowly, steadily: inevitably. How it shapes these loners into a pack. How delicately they learn to treat one another. That final beat might be cinema’s most emotional handshake.

11. ASTEROID CITY (Dir. Wes Anderson) Of all his recent elaborate Russian-nesting-dolls, I’m not sure a Wes framing structure has ever felt more germane and appropriate for the project than with Asteroid City. This film looks at the terrors of the modern world: the unknowability of our existence, our place in the universe, the destructive weapons we create, the terrifying horizons of adolescence, how to best parent our children, the devastation of grief, and ultimately the possibility of love. And it asks us: how to make sense of it all? How to make stories about it? Do those stories mean anything? And of course maybe life’s greatest question, as Schwartzman later asks: “Am I doing it right?…do I just keep doing it, without knowing anything?” And Adrien Brody replies: “Just keep telling the story.” Do the work. Make the art. That’s enough. As Tilda Swinton says earlier: “It’s all worthwhile. Your curiosity is your most important asset. Trust it.” Dance with that cowboy. Keep pictures of those that passed. Be there for your kids. Tell a girl you love her. Tell it to the moon.

10. THE ZONE OF INTEREST (Dir. Jonathan Glazer) We open with an unsettling overture of only blackness and noise, preparing us not simply to look, but to listen. We remain immersed in the blackness for longer than is reasonably comfortable, as though we are descending into some sort of hell. We jump to a quotidian countryside, a family picnic, swimming in the river, then a sunny, flower-laden garden befit with a pool and a slide, all in front of a well-appointed stucco villa in which a large, cheerful family (the Hösses) reside rather happily. Just beyond the garden is a tall gray cement fence with barbed wire, smokestacks in the distance. On the other side of the garden wall, of course, lies Auschwitz. The Zone of Interest is Arendt’s “banality of evil” writ large. What initially scans as conceptual exercise in which the vilest people imaginable are seen enjoying a mundane and petty bourgeois life, soon evolves into a radical denunciation of fascism. Because our ears can’t help but pick up on an unceasing, if muted, chorus of screams, barking dogs, low burning embers, and the soft crackling of distant gunfire. But the Hösses are not fools, they’re oblivious to nothing; they’re just experts at compartmentalization. They’ve dissociated through, to again quote Arendt: “stock phrases and self-invented cliches.” Damnation may be coming, but our only respite here, if you can even call it that, comes late and with a distinct break from the cinematic reality up to that point. Like with my #1 film, this late sequence is the skeleton key for the entire experience.

9. A THOUSAND AND ONE (Dir. A.V. Rockwell) An absolute miracle of naturalism and one of the all time great evocations of ‘90s NY, carefully tracking the city’s slow gentrification through the turn of the millennium. But this is anything but a clinical study: it’s a film with a massive beating heart. A brashy, indignant, self-righteous woman, recently released from Rikers, heads back to her old stomping grounds looking for work, a place to live, and a chance to reconnect with her six year old, presently toiling in a broken foster care system. When they agree to flee the borough and forge a path on their own, we witness the two grow together as the boy’s potential flourishes. When the lie-agreed-upon rears its ugly head twelve years later, the results are an emotional wallop of the highest order.

8. ANATOMY OF A FALL (Dir. Justine Triet) This would make a killer double feature with Gone Girl: an analysis of a marriage masquerading as a crime thriller, except instead of the American tabloids, Triet’s masterpiece plays out in the goofy French Courts. The guy playing the prosecutor is one of 2023’s greatest cinematic fuckheads. To quote Bilge Ebiri: “If Asteroid City explored the notion of humanity facing the unknowable, Anatomy of a Fall reveals our ability to turn the knowable into an ever-expanding, unanswerable question.”

7. R.M.N. (Dir. Cristian Mungiu) It came and went at the beginning of the year, but I think the former Palm D’Or winner Mungiu may have quietly delivered his masterpiece. This was the political movie of the year. Based on a true story, set in a fracturing small town in Romania, the film follows the tensions rising between the residents and immigrants hired at a local factory. It’s as specific and grounded as a story can be, but look closely and you’ll see the same brush strokes of pain and fear that woe all global politics: from October 7th to our Republican party and beyond. The final shot is as good as anything on this list.

6. MAY, DECEMBER (Dir. Todd Haynes) An expert Persona-riff (with a final line aimed directly at Mulholland Drive), this is not so much a film about a scandal, but rather a film about the myth-making of a scandal. After all, our two leads are always performing for one another, their mannerisms molded into a kind of pantomime after years of living at the mercy of cameras. Portman (never better) goes about her business with an indifference to boundaries and a naked vampirism; her own artistic journey threatening to eclipse those that she’s supposedly there to make “feel seen and known.” Melton’s Joe on the other hand is mired in an obvious suspended adolescence. You’re both waiting for and dreading the moment his kids finally utter the word “Dad.” (He shares with his son one of funniest, then scariest, then most casually heartbreaking joints ever smoked in film history.) And then of course there’s Julianne Moore’s Gracie (our Letourneau stand-in) an expert micromanager with a magnificent knack for casual cruelty (Moore remains one of cinema’s all-time criers.) Aside from Joe, these characters' self reflection is seldom shown. We are asked to become their mirrors, the film’s most potent (but hardly sole) visual metaphor. May December makes you feel one thing, and then in an instant makes you regret that very feeling. It makes you empathize, then presents a new toxic angle that threatens to shatter that very empathy, possibly within the very same scene or line reading.

5. ALL OF US STRANGERS (Dir. Andrew Haigh) A good ole fashioned, deeply open-hearted ghost story, one that resists the urge to ‘solve it’. The most logical explanations of the events are the least dramatically interesting: Is it really happening? Is it a writerly conception? Time travel? Simply a romance? Or a Freudian thought experiment? The magic of the movie exists in a resounding: all of the above. Anchored around the highest possible concept, All of Us Strangers is a storytelling leap of faith that unfolds in the simplest possible dramatic terms. It is instinctual with every moment. You’re always a little bit adrift but the movie never fails to provide a life raft. It’s a heady movie that packs a body blow.

4. PAST LIVES (Dir. Celine Song) By far my favorite genre of cinema is the ‘What-If Love Story.’ Things like Before Sunrise or Sunset, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Eternal Sunshine, Brief Encounter, Moonrise Kingdom, My Night at Maud’s, Worst Person in the World, Moonlight, or Lover’s Rock. With the exception of the latter few, seldom do American audiences see these stories told about non-white characters, with multicultural experiences. Well, Past Lives didn’t just join this cannon: it subtly reinvented it. Reshaped it’s structure. This film is like all three Before films rolled into one, maintaining all the same weight of time passed, while pairing things down to just their essential elements. Flat out one this century’s greatest debut features.

3. THE TASTE OF THINGS (Dir. Trần Anh Hùng) The essential element of the culinary arts, much like cinema itself, is transience. Endless prep, sweat and effort culminate in experience that at face value lasts no more than a few hours of our lives. What remains from each—the lingering echo, the ephemerality—is what it’s all about. It’s why we live to eat, every bit as much as we eat to live. And films like Taste of Thing are why I write all this shit year after year, time and again. While this one seems lab-grown, reverse-engineered for my palette, this is a film that is nothing if not hand made. One of the great, tender love stories of this century, full stop. There are very few things that are more my thing than this thing. That it borrows the humble nature of it’s finale (and original French title) from Ratatouille’s climax only deepens my love.

2. OPPENHEIMER (Dir. Christopher Nolan) In retrospect, who else could have made the definitive chronicle of the original sin of science in the 20th century? It had to be Nolan. As we crest towards an uncertain future of A.I., Nolan gave us a cautious technological myth that will no doubt echo through time. If this ain’t quite my #1 Nolan, it’s certainly knocking on Dunkirk’s door. And I hope he never stops crosscutting. It’s not a retread, it’s a signature. For my part, I’ve never really understood his legion of detractors, seemingly so determined to hold the line that American blockbuster cinema not be overrun by such earnest, emotional, time-shifting storytelling, as if there were some horde of other comparatively-budgeted filmmakers doing this kind of thing, on this scale, as opposed to literally just one dude. BTW, just to say: last hour = best hour. Oppie’s greatest accomplishment was creating a device on a scale larger than any other in human history, and his tragedy was decided in room smaller than most dining rooms. If that storytelling-implosion-device registers anticlimactic, uncomfortable, or unexciting given the roller coaster that has come before, I’m inclined to feel that’s very much the fucking point.

1. KILLER’S OF THE FLOWER MOON (Dir. Martin Scorsese)

You’re fooling yourself if you don’t think this is top-tier Scorsese, another essential entry into his tapestry of American ideology. We follow a particular archetype of white American male: greedy, dumb, easily manipulated into a path of evil. Ernest is identified by his Uncle early on as someone to be controlled, someone whose predilections for sin align with Hale’s goals and conspiracy. The only problem with Ernest? He’s also dumb enough to fall into whatever his version of love is (though I suspect you, like I, would agree it is definitively not love.) But that very tension is the soul of the movie. Because he is—and I use this word imprecisely—manipulated in a way by both Hale and Molly. Into vice; into love. And while for so long he tips the balance exclusively towards Hale, in the end he finally decides to bend  back towards his wife. But simply out of self preservation. And of course, she is the one to tell him that, simply by asking a question that reveals the truth: it’s not good enough, he went too far, and he can’t be redeemed. It’s a film that wrestles with the original sin of this country: We sure do love it here, but we did unspeakable things to call it our own. And that ending. Oh BOY that fuckin’ ending. For a hundred years America was content to have the tale of the Osage be a small-stage, whiz-bang entertaining story, where the bad guy went to jail and we’re all safe to forget about it. But then in the final two shots of the film, Marty says to us: I, as the director, will step out and call attention to the entertainment of it all, to read an obituary and say 'This was a woman. She lived, she struggled, and she died.’ And then in the last shot we understand: these people lived on, they persist. And their story is unfinished.

TOP 3 “LIKED THE IDEA OF THIS FILM MORE THAN THE ACTUAL FILM”: Fallen Leaves, Rye Lane, & All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

HONORABLE MENTIONS IN SOME VAGUE ORDER: You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, You Hurt My Feelings, Joy Ride, No Hard Feelings, Flora and Son, The Dial of Destiny, Dream Scenario, Wonka, Nyad, and Air.

AND THEN THERE WAS: Saltburn

WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY BE TOP 10 AFTER I SEE IT: Menu Plasirs -  Les Troisgros (Dir. Frederick Wiseman) Just need to find the four hours to knock it out. Because man oh man was there a dearth of docs this year.    

STILL HAVEN’T SEEN: Perfect Days, Pacification, Our Body, The Delinquents, Love Life, Freemont, John Wick Chapter 4, The Color Purple, American Symphony, Earth Mama, Trenque Lauquen, Anyone But You, Foe, Society of the Snow, Godzilla Minus One, Memory, Monster, Origins, Kokomo City, The Boys in the Boat, The Royal Hotel, & Napoleon.

SUPERLATIVES

BEST ACTOR:

ANDREW SCOTT, All of Us Strangers

Nominees:

Teo Yoo, Past Lives

Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

Benoît Magimel, Taste of Things

Franz Rogowski, Passages

Zac Efron, Iron Claw

BEST ACTRESS:

LILY GLADSTONE, Killers of the Flower Moon

Nominees:

Teyanna Taylor, A Thousand and One

Emma Stone, Poor Things

Greta Lee, Past Lives

Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall

Juliette Binoche, The Taste of Things

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

DAVID KRUMHOLTZ, as the not-so-secret soul of Oppenheimer.

Nominees:

Jason Isbell, Killers of the Flower Moon

John Magaro, Past Lives

RDJ, Oppenheimer

Corey Michael Smith, May December

Charles Melton, May December

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

RACHEL MACADAMS, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret

Nominees (Sorry too hard, had to expand the field):

Margot Robbie, Asteroid City

Tantoo Cardinal, Killers of the Flower Moon

Cara Jade Myers, Killers of the Flower Moon

Tilda Swinton, The Killer

Hong Chau, Showing Up

Penelope Cruz, Ferrari

Julianne Moore, May December

DaVine Joy Randolph, Holdovers

Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers

**LET’S PLEASE NOT TAKE THIS FOR GRANTED ACTOR OF THE YEAR **: We may or may not be barreling towards his inevitability at the Oscars (give or take Giamatti, also great) and I know the film has made all the money, and I know there’s some backlash (and backlash to the backlash) but what Cillian Murphy does holding together the center of Oppenheimer should not be soon forgotten. There’s Ledger in Dark Knight, Cillian here, then a massive drop-off for the rest of Nolan’s oeuvre as far as performances go. Its hall of fame stuff.

2024 OSCAR COMMENT: In a related story, if Oppenheimer wins Best Picture, and it’s looking increasingly likely that it will, I’d just like to say it would join ’03, ’07, ’13, ’16, and ’19 as the six truly elite winners this century (with ’00, ’06, ’15 and ’22 lingering somewhere behind.) And I’d probably put Oppie at #4 of that whole bunch. (I hope I didn’t just jinx it.)

ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR: All of Us Strangers. There’s functionally four speaking roles in this film and all four knock it out of the park, with Scott in particular hitting it out of orbit.

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: Marshawn Lynch, Bottoms

BEST “WAIT, THAT’S WHO???” PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR: In an all time ‘I-didn’t-know-they-had-it-them’ turn, Teyana Taylor is fucking revelatory in A Thousand and One.

BEST CAMEO: Marty, in Flower Moon

SCARRIEST CAMEO: Casey, in Oppie

BEST “Who the hell is that?” NEWCOMER ACTOR OF THE YEAR: Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers

BEST “Who the hell is that?” NEWCOMER (TO ME) ACTRESS OF THE YEAR: Ruby Cruz, Bottoms.

TOP 8 CHILD PERFORMANCES:

1. Abby Ryder Forston, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

2. Milo Machado Graner, Anatomy of a Fall

3. Ella, Grace, and Willan Faris as the three witches of Asteroid City

4. Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, Josiah Cross, playing the three ages of Terry in A Thousand and One

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Ludwig Göransson, Oppenheimer.

POSTHUMOUS SCORE AWARD: Robbie Robertson delivering masterclass Americana for (tragically) one final time in Killers of the Flower Moon.

BEST SCORE REMIX: Marcelo Zavros, May, December, who is wonderfully riffing on a Michael Legrand score of a forgotten 1970s Pinter melodrama.

BEST SOUND DESIGN OF 2023 (And maybe of all time): The Zone of Interest

COMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR: Ryan Gosling, Barbie. Has anyone else noticed that roughly every five years Gosling reemerges from the shadows to remind us that he’s perhaps the most gifted comic performer of his generation? After giving one goofy, aw-shucks, Mickey Mouse-alum role in 2000’s Remember the Titans, he leans into challenging and dramatic indie roles before popping up as a lovable, broken-hearted goober 6.5 years later in 2007’s Lars and the Real Girl. Then he waits four more years before laying out the full charm-offensive in what is by far the most compelling storyline from Crazy, Stupid Love. Then another 4.5 years go by before he rips off the insane 1 2 3 punch of Big Short, Nice Guys & La La Land. Hilarious Gosling RETURNS!! And then…vanishes for a solid 7 years before finally becoming Kenough. In between he’s drifted between brooding romantic, tortured romantic, simply brooding, or just plain tortured. And in those “quiet” periods he’s probably done some of his finest work. But this is a man who has cited Gene Wilder as one of his acting inspirations, and perhaps he’s never fully been unleashed in that regard until now.

Let me preface the following by saying that it feels counter to the entire mission of the project and the ultimate feminist messaging of the film to say: what Gerwig, Baumbauch and Gosling have crafted in ‘Ken’ is the movie’s true masterstroke. The movie is at its most alive when he’s playing the Id to Barbie’s Ego. When their Adam & Eve, modern gender drama is humming, the film is at its least preachy and most incisive. Ultimately, Barbie tells us about the dignity, patience, and individuality of women most effectively through the most insecure and impish of boys. SUBLIME!

RUNNER-UP COMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR: Sarah Sherman, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. (I laughed at every single thing she said.)

1ST ANNUAL (AND HOPEFULLY NOT LAST) ‘BARBENHEIMER’ AWARD FOR EVENT THAT SAVED MOVIES: Barbenheimer! The clever analysis bouncing around film twitter during those rapturous weeks at the end of the July (beaten to death, one might say, but still shrewd in hindsight) went something like this: Barbie and Oppenheimer! Two peas in a pod! The ying to each others yang! Joined together in a massively budgeted, wildly successful pas de deux! Two original(ish) blockbuster films paired oh so perfectly with one another…wink wink wink. Or so the bit seemed…until we donned our best pink and blacks, saw ‘em both, and it actually turned out to be more a fitting double feature than we ever could have imagined. If you’ll allow me to elaborate…

Two films with protagonists plagued by visions of death and a hidden world, who venture out to seek truth. After facing the harsh realities of that hidden world, they encounter hardship, the destruction of their ideals, and soon become entangled in a battle of wills over where power should truly reside. Each character (Babs & Oppie) is initially blithely unaware and unprepared for the sheer power they wield over those that follow them, and especially those that will ultimately betray them. And those betrayers (Ken & Straus) feeling slighted, use the circumstances of their society to momentarily turn the tides in their favor. But they too are blind to the inevitable fallout and are both ultimately left devastated when their ruthless ambition is laid bare. (And no, I’m not going to close out this metaphor by linking nuclear disaster to a gynecology appointment.) Suffice to say the disparate tenor of each film’s final beat can be attributed to, respectively: the dourness of men and the persistent optimism of women.

There was an inevitable criticism of each film’s faults, which included reservations not wholly without merit, but largely seemed besides the point, as if to miss the forrest for the trees. Just as one can criticize the naked corporate tie-of Barbie, one can easily do the same of the scattered storytelling and thin representation of women in Oppenheimer, both of which I’d contend are features of their stories as well as bugs. But to consider the totality of the projects—their central theses and cinematic aims—and to only harp on such failures registers as woefully diminishing of their respective accomplishments, reducing something magical to something minor. To judge Gerwig on her inability to subvert corporate interests and deliver a Michael Moore-ian screed (or more precisely: a Barbie-land Jeanne Dielman) is to deprive us the pleasures of once-in-a-generation production design and 21st century, Singing in the Rain-esque dance numbers. To judge Nolan’s ability to frame a linear story, to present a simple A—>B—>C recruitment, test, and deposition as well as…I don’t know what people wanted, Sorkin? If Nolan has failed to live up to the cinematic straightforwardness of Molly’s Game and Chicago 7, then so be it. I’d never once elect to miss the chance in witnessing Hollywood’s greatest montage artist (and greatest IMAX image-maker) weaving the threads he feels prudent to Oppie’s life. Maybe I’m building straw men out of two of the greatest box office miracles this century, but there are vanishingly few films of this artistic merit that have neared or soared over a billon dollars. Perhaps they need no defending. But I’d like the record to reflect that July 21st mattered far more than the money we spent that weekend. By virtue or accident, be it post-pandemic blank checks, or some bout corporate vindictiveness: a double feature was born, portmanteau readymade, into film history forever consecrated.

BEST USE OF A GOOD SONG IN A BAD MOVIE: “Murder on the Dancefloor” by Sophie Ellis-Baxter, Saltburn

BEST USE OF A BAD SONG IN A GREAT MOVIE: “P.I.M.P.” by 50 Cent (Steel Drum Instrumental Version), Anatomy of a Fall

SECOND BEST USE OF A BAD SONG IN A GREAT MOVIE: “Push” by Matchbox Twenty (Kens’ Version), Barbie

BEST SOUNDTRACK: The Holdovers. A tremendous mix of both period-specific and anachronistic (but spiritually dead on) folk tracks to anchor the film in a perfect vibe and place. Toss in a few Christmas classics and some Cat Stevens? You get the auditory facsimile of a warm hug.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: All due respect to Billie & Finneas & Dua Lipa, but I’m gonna throw a fucking hissy fit if “I’m Just Ken” doesn’t win the Oscar. The former is a non-diegetic ballad played to underscore a montage and the latter is a catchy dance number. Neither has half the wit, inventiveness or (most importantly) crucial narrative function that Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt’s masterpiece possesses.

This category should not be ‘original song written for a film’, it should be ‘original song performed in a film’ to be judged predominantly on the merits of vitality to the story. Give me a “Shallow.” A “Let it Go” or a “Remember Me.” Something with function. (In a related story: an underrated all time Oscar travesty is the fact that 2019’s “Glasgow” by Jessie Buckley, one of the great film songs this century, not only didn’t win, it wasn’t even fuckin’ nominated!!)

I’m sick and tired of movies signing up the biggest pop star available to make some forgettable bop that plays in the credits so the Academy can curry favor with a celebrity. Fuck that. Rant over.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

By Grace: Jonathan Ricquebourg (The Taste of Things)

By Athleticism: Erik Messerschmidt, pulling double duty (Ferrari & The Killer)

By Grandeur: For his 2nd straight win in this category Hoyte Van Hoytema (Oppenheimer)

MOST WELCOME VISUAL TREND: Lush black & white photography is BACK, baby! Between films that had significant chunks shot in B&W like Oppenheimer, Asteroid City, Maestro, or Poor Things, plus two wonderful opening passages in both Ferrari and The Iron Claw (not to mention a better-left-unmentioned set of sequences in Zone of Interest) 2023 saw filmmakers going old school in magnificent ways. Nolan & Hoytema even created a new film stock for it!

TOP 5 SHOTS OF THE YEAR (Oppenheimer-only edition, with timestamps):

1. Oppie Kisses Kitty (34:50)

2. Flying Into Germany (5-way tie: 7:24, 7:36, 7:44, 7:54, & 15:11)

3. Oppie, Frank, and Ernest crest the Mesa (24:47)

4. Lighting the Tower (1:51:20)

5. The Face in the Crowd (2:07:29)

BEST FIRST SHOT OF A MOVIE: Past Lives, made all the better for when you see it again from another angle an hour later.

BEST CUT: Past Lives, that final cut to the stairs back in Korea during the final scene. Absolutely destroyed me.

BEST FINAL SHOT OF A FILM THAT SHOWS LIFE GOES ON: Killers of the Flower Moon

BEST FINAL SHOT(S) OF A FILM THAT SHOWS LIFE MAYBE WON’T GO ON: Oppenheimer

TOP 10 SCENES OF THE YEAR:

1. Auditorium, Oppie

2. Town Hall, R.M.N.

3. Lizzy’s Death, Flower Moon

4. Walk to the Uber, Past Lives

5. Kitchen Fight, Anatomy of a Fall

6. Cathedral, Maestro

7. Balcony, Asteroid City

8. Cleaning Crew, Zone of Interest

9. Makeup, May December

10. Whiskey Flight, The Killer

RUNNER-UP FOR MOST BITING LINE OF THE YEAR: Natalie Portman’s brutally ice-cold “This is just what grown ups do,” at the end of May December.

MOST BITING LINE OF THE YEAR: The Holdovers, when just moments after being fired, Giamatti’s character, with his single glass eye, prepares to leave the headmaster’s office and summons the following:

“Hardy, I have known you since you were a boy…so I think I have the requisite insight and experience to aver that you are, and always have been…Penis Cancer…in human form.”

MOST TOUCHING LINE (THAT IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWS SAID INSULT): Also The Holdovers, because mere seconds later, after walking out of the door, Giamatti locks eyes with the young man he’s just sacrificed his career for and finally tells him:

“It’s this one. This is the one you should look at.”

TOP 3 LINE-READINGS OF THE YEAR:

1. “I don’t think we have enough hot dogs.” - May, December

2. “I must go punch that baby.” - Poor Things

3. “To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn’t about horses, I lost interest anyway.” - Barbie

LEAST FAVORITE DISCOURSE OF THE YEAR: There’s just something about Natalie Portman (who is, I should note, an extremely self-aware actress) playing an extremely un-self-aware actress in May December that just seemed to break people’s fucking brains. It’s masterclass stuff. Grow up.

BEST COSTUME OF THE YEAR: Franz Rogowski’s slutty little shirt worn to a dinner with his future in-laws in Passages.

BEST ACTION SCENE: Fassbender vs. The Brute in The Killer

ACTION STAR(S) OF THE YEAR: Hayley Atwell & Rebecca Ferguson, Dead Reckoning. WHY DID THEY NEVER GIVE HAYLEY ACTION SHIT TO DO IN MARVEL!? WHY AREN’T THEY GIVING REBECCA MORE ACTION SHIT TO DO IN DUNE?! (I hear Rebecca kicks ass in SILO.) Anyway, the ladies fucking ripped.

BEST CAMERA MOVE: The 360 at the end of Taste of Things.

BEST “HOLY SHIT” IN THE THEATER MOMENT: I mean…none of us breathed for the entire 7 minutes of the Trinity test, right?

BEST SEQUENCE: And yet…the entire first 30 minutes and 40 seconds of Taste of Things was honestly every bit as exhilarating to me as the Trinity test. I am who I am. (Plus, the 2nd extended meal, when he cooks for her at night, is every bit as good.)

SCARIEST SCENE: When Daniel does an experiment on his dog in Anatomy of a Fall

BEST DANCE SCENE: Maya Hawke and Rupert Friend’s swing dance over the little kid’s country ‘warble’ in Asteroid City.

RUNNER UP BEST DANCE SCENE: Lenny in the clüb, Maestro.

BEST 2022 MOVIE THAT WOULD HAVE CRACKED LAST YEAR’S TOP 10: Happening (Dir. Audrey Diwan) I’m absolutely furious that I missed this movie in the moment. It might have even topped last year’s list and is certainly threatening top five for the decade thus far.

TOP 10 OLD(ISH) MOVIES I SAW FOR THE FIRST TIME:

1. Come & See (1985)

2. A Bread Factory Pt. 1 & 2 (2018)

3. Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962)

4. Something Wild (1986)

5. The Age of Innocence (1993)

6. Panic Room (2002)

7. In A Lonely Place (1950)

8. Witness (1985)

9. Shutter Island (2010)

10. Notting Hill (1999)

MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS OF 2024:

• Hit Man (Dir. Richard Linklater)

• Mickey 17 (Dir. Bong Joon Ho)

• 2une (Dir. Denis Villeneuve)

• Civil War (Dir. Alex Garland)

• Blitz (Dir. Steve McQueen)

• Mother Mary (Dir. David Lowery)

• Emmanuelle (Dir. Audrey Diwan)

• Megalopolis (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

• The Bikeriders (Dir. Jeff Nichols)

• Polaris (Dir. Lynne Ramsay)

• Challengers Dir. Luca Guadagnino)

• Drive Away Dolls (Dir. Ethan Coen)

• Love Lies Bleeding (Dir. Rose Glass)

• Alien: Romulus (Dir. Fede Alvarez)

• Gladiator 2 (Dir. Ridley Scott)

• Nosferatu (Dir. Roberts Eggers)

• The Outrun (Dir. Nora Fingscheidt)

• Bird (Dir Andrea Arnold)

• Anora (Dir. Sean Baker)

• C’est Pas Moi (Dir. Leos Carax)

• A Different Man (Dir. Aaron Schimberg)

• The End (Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer)

• Flint Strong (Dir. Rachel Morrison)

• Furiosa (Dir. George Miller)

• Havoc (Dir. Gareth Edwards)

• Maria (Dir. Pablo Larraín)

• Kinds of Kindness (Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)

• La Chimera (Dir. Alice Rohrwacher)

• Rebel Ridge (Dir. Jeremy Saulnier)

• Twisters (Dir. Lee Isaac Chung)

TV

Quite the slight year in television! I wonder what could have possibly caused that! It’s funny that 3 and only 3 shows (#11, 5, & 1 below) have been winning awards this season. Four series came to incredible conclusions. Plus a lot of mixed bags. Here’s what kept me going:

15. INSIDE THE NBA (TNT) They should make my list every year, but I always forget come the winter. Not this year, friends. The four horseman of the NBA Playoffs were simply in elite form all spring. Funniest show on television, every damn year.

14. SNL (NBC) This has been a real return-to-form season from Lorne and Co. They ditched the nonstop celebrity cameos of recent years and they let the kids cook (and few of ‘em really started to break out, too.) We didn’t have to deal with the election of it all, yet. And they got 3 or 4 of the best hosting gigs in recent memory. Great stuff.

13. THE LAST OF US (HBO) I think “Long, Long Time” is tremendous, expertly placed in the season, and perhaps in a different (possibly more interesting) show. I’m fully invested in the characters of Joel and Ellie, largely because Bella and Pedro are simply phenomenal, but I could argue that the two cold opens that start the season were more terrifying and fascinating than anything that followed. I still think about that Indonesian woman quietly saying: “bomb.”

12. SEX EDUCATION (Netflix) Talk about a show that played with it’s food, retreated past characterizations, and ran in circles for six episodes…and then delivered what was essentially a two-part finale reminding us how Sex Education is one of the great high school stories with one of the richest ensembles ever.

11. BEEF (Netflix) Actually the scariest scene of the year is watching Steven Yeun crush four (FOUR) Burger King Chicken Sandwiches in a bout of anxiety. He does a great Incubus cover, though. I ride for the surreality of the finale.

10. THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL (Prime) Like with #12, it took them a minute to get there, but I thought this was a marvelous landing of the plane. They took a risk with sprinkling in those flash forwards, the kind of thing that never works, but they gave the final season a real verve. One of the best series finales we’ve gotten in awhile. Tits up.

9. BARRY (HBO) It has never made my list in any previous season: twas always a little too dark or a little too acidic for my taste. But something about this final season—when I think Hader was fully in his directorial bag—really stuck with me. The line reading of the final episode title remains absolutely hilarious.

8. PLANET EARTH (BBC) Since 2006, they’ve been at the absolute forefront of nature documentaries. With age, Attenborough & Co have only gotten sharper, craftier, more visually dynamic, with an increasing and necessary insistence on the effects humans have had on the natural world. Ironically the more beautiful their photography has become? The more tragic the realities they capture.

7. FARGO (FX) Talk about a fuckin’ return to form. Best Home Alone-ing since Skyfall. Jennifer Jason Leigh cooking with kerosene. Protect our sweet girl-dad Wayne Lyon forever. I’ve always loved Juno Temple; she’s never been better. The final sequence is a true unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. And through it we get a lovely revision of Kelly MacDonald’s final No Country scene.

6. POKER FACE (Peacock) Please, please, please, please, please give me “Natasha Lyonne Columbo” for several decades. If you need to do the Curb thing where if you take a few years off, go for it! But this shit should run forever. What a joy. (Also squint for Rian Johnson’s scathing post-mortem on the Kathleen Kennedy experience.)

5. THE BEAR (FX) Listen. Do I still find it wildly uneven? I do. Did one of the major guest stars not work for me, like at all? They did not. Did it totally bungle one of the key storylines this season? I’d say so. But when Poulter and Marcus are cutting dough, talking ‘90s Pippen? When Olivia and Richie are peeling mushrooms talking about their military fathers? When the show slows down, breathes, and gets out of its own way? It’s as good or better than pretty much anything on this list.

4. DEAD RINGERS (Prime) A remake no one asked for, no one expected, and was so much better than we could have imagined. Weiss was the performance of the year on Television. Bar none. It was gonzo, emotional, surreal and one of the great onscreen portrayals of twins I’ve ever seen. Few things have ever captured the dread of Manhattan better than this.

3. THE GOLD (Paramount+) Spoiler alert for my next pick, but my year was defined by stuffy and dodgy Brits up to no good on the outskirts of London. Was The Gold on the level of peak The Wire? Not by any stretch, but it scratched a similar itch for me: anthropological street-level view of hustlers in a time and place…plus you get a trip through Europe out of it! The two lead detectives were my favorite onscreen duo of the year.

2. SLOUGH HOUSE (Apple) Let me walk you all through my feelings these last couple of years. SEASON 1: “Wow this is SO charming. Such witty writing. Action: rock solid. I love being in London! Oh wait there’s a…” SEASON 2: “Wow I forgot how much I value my time with this lovable losers. I’m pretty goddamn invested in all of them, I hope no one gets hur—oh fuck.” SEASON 3: I’ll lay down my fuckin’ life for any of these dipshit spies.

1. SUCCESSION (HBO) To quote my friend Alison on this very subject, let’s please not overthink this. Off the air and straight to Cooperstown.

NOT LISTED: The Curse, Like with The Rehearsal before it: I tried. I appreciate and respect the Nathan Fielder experience, but he’s my cultural cilantro. I just don’t have the gene receptors for it. I hear the finale ruled.

THERE’S A GOOD SHOW IN THERE, BUT NOT QUITE SURE WE GOT IT:

• PERRY MASON (HBO) My toughest cut. Beautifully acted. Production Design rivaling anything on this list. But it petered out to a quiet end and felt inessential. I wish it went for nine seasons. Grateful for the two we got.

• THE DIPLOMAT (Netflix) Trying to be three different shows, none of ‘em awful per se, but I want to monitor how it grows. Keri Russel innocent.

• MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD (FX): Vastly preferred the “Emma Corrin & Harris Dickinson doing Sherlock meets Kerouac karaoke”—half over the “Agatha Christie by way of Elon Musk”—half of the show. That latter part suffered from “if these people were honest with each other for five minutes (and they really have no good reason not to be) the plot probably falls apart” syndrome. One of my least favorite syndromes.

• THE CROWN (Netflix) A few very high highs, but after all said and done: an ignominious end. Ultimately the monarchy’s slow slide into tabloid antics and minimized influenced was sadly reflected in the show itself. Debicki innocent. Final Marge episode ruled.

• LOKI (Disney+) Decent ending, rocky start. Was the only Marvel thing I watched this year. The only one.

• DROPS OF GOD (Apple) I’ve never met a show I wanted to like more. Here’s the pitch: world’s greatest wine collector dies and the fate of his vast rare wine collection, worth hundreds of millions, will be decided in a three-part blind taste test between his estranged French daughter (who has a violent nose bleed every time she drinks alcohol of any kind) and his young indignant Japanese protege. Felt tailor made for me…but in the end it was like five degrees too out-there for even me to fully commit.

• MRS. DAVIS (Peacock) Actually I take back what I just said. This was the show I most wanted to like. One my favorite living actors starring in my favorite showrunner’s gonzo grail quest. Watched the whole thing with bated breath. Haven’t really thought about it since.

• TED LASSO (Apple) Yeah, I forgot this came out this year too. Justice for Keeley’s plot line. I thought they were really getting at something interesting with Season 2’s therapy stuff…and then they totally bailed on it? I thought they laid incredible groundwork for Nate’s betrayal in Season 2….and then he immediately feels bad about it and is forgiven? Good finale. Rough all around.

• YELLOWJACKETS (Showtime) Really wonder how much this suffered from plot stretching. Felt like half a season of plot stretched to add an extra season in the future.

• FULL CIRCLE (HBO) Another one of those Soderbergh exercises I appreciated more than enjoyed. Still one of the best depictions of modern NY this year.

JUST NOT QUITE MY TEMPO: Jury Duty seemed really delightful. I’m happy for all involved. Marsden was fun.

The Tiger King/Squid Game/Yellowstone Honorary “Didn’t Even Bother, Hope That Was Fun For Y’all!” Award: Lol, remember The Idol? Me neither.

MY ‘FAVORITE’ THING I DIDN’T WATCH: Reservation Dogs. Just an absolutely unforgivable blindspot for me. Let’s call it my New Years resolution.

ALSO HAVEN’T WATCHED: Daisy Jones, Somebody Somewhere, Silo, Hijack, & Primo.

EPISODE OF THE YEAR: Connor’s Wedding, Succession. (Also, the funniest episode title of the year.)

SCENE OF THE YEAR: Olivia Colman and Richie peel mushrooms, The Bear.

BEST LOVE STORY OF 2023: The Two Columbus Crabs that miraculously meet on the back of a sea turtle in the middle of the ocean in Episode 2 of Planet Earth and spend the rest of their lives together. Jules and I were sobbing.

TOP 10 MOST ANTICIPATED TV SHOWS OF 2023:

RETURNING:

True Detective S3

Curb S12

Hacks S3

House of the Dragon S2

Andor S2

NEW:

The Sympathizer

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Masters of the Air

Monsieur Spade

The Regime

TOP 5 STANDUP SPECIALS:

1. John Mulaney, Baby J

2. Marc Maron, From Bleak to Dark

3. Pete Holmes, I Am Not For Everyone

4. Michelle Wolf, It’s Great to Be Here

5. Nate Bargatze, Hello World

TOP 10 PEOPLE THAT HAD THE BEST 2023 IN POP CULTURE:

WINNER:

Sandra Huller, with a bullet (or a shove) (Anatomy of a Fall & Zone of Interest)

Runners Up:

Jason Schwartzman (Spiderverse, Asteroid City, Hunger Games)

Emma Stone (Poor Things, The Curse)

Ayo Edibiri (The Bear, Bottoms)

Margot Robbie (Barbie, Asteroid City)

Jack Lowden (The Gold, Slow Horses)

Alden Ehrenreich (Fair Play, Oppenheimer)

Sean Durkin (The Iron Claw, Dead Ringers)

Jeremy Allen White (The Bear, Iron Claw)

Benny Safdie (The Curse, Are You There God/Margaret, Oppie)

MUSIC

My finger wasn’t on the pulse as strongly as it usually is, so I’m forgoing the write-ups in this section (also we’re cresting near 25 pages already) but 2024 brings a lot of my favorites making records again. Here’s to high hopes.

ALBUMS

10. HAPPY ADJACENT E.P. by Cece Coakley

9. THE AGE OF PLEASURE by Janelle Monáe

8. AUDIOLUST & HIGHER LOVE by SG Lewis

7. THE RECORD by boygenius

6. PARANOIA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE by Christine and the Queens

5. OPPENHEIMER (ORIGINAL SCORE) by Ludwig Göransson

4. THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS YES by Alex Lahey

3. PROOF OF LIFE by Joy Oladokun

2. TIME AIN’T ACCIDENTAL by Jess Williamson

1. WATER MADE US by Jamilla Woods

SONGS:

1. Tiny Garden by Jamilla Woods (feat. Duendita)

2. Sweet Symphony by Joy Oladokun (feat. Chris Stapleton)

3. Time Ain’t Accidental by Jess Williamson

4. A day in the water by Christine and the Queens

5. Halfway by Cece Coakley

6. GLOW by MICHELLE

7. The Hardest Part by Olivia Dean (feat. Leon Bridges)

8. Not Strong Enough by boygenius

9. Float by Janelle Monáe (Feat. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80)

10. Hunter by Jess Williamson

11. A&W by Lana Del Rey

12. Can You Hear The Music by Ludwig Göransson

13. Pick Your Tears Up by Grace Carter

14. True Love by Christine and the Queens (feat. 007 Shake)

15. The Sky is Melting by Alex Lahey

16. get him back! by Olivia Rodrigo

17. Oh Laura by SG Lewis

18. Tell Somebody by Young Fathers

19. Spirit 2.0 by Sampha

20. Matter of Time by Vandelux (Deepend Remix)

21. Goin’ Down to Sing in Texas by Iris Dement

22. The World Person Alive by G Flip

23. Back To You by Bob Moses (Amtrak Remix)

24. Shiver by Fever Ray

25. Sitting by Brian Jordan Alvarez (Josh Mac Version)

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST OF TOP 25

WEIRDEST CONCERT MOMENT: Maggie Rogers being disarmed by the ritzy folk in the front row finishing their wine and dinners at the Hollywood Bowl during the first few high energy songs in her set, and the subsequent thirty minutes it took for her to get the crowd (and herself) back into it.

READING, WRITING, & ONLINE

BEST NEW BOOK I READ: WOLFISH, by Erica Berry (I’d been waiting for this one a long time and it was better than I could have imagined.)

BEST 2022 BOOK I READ: TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW, by Gabrielle Zevin (Yep, it was as good as you all said. The “NPC” chapter was as good a chapter I’ve read in a decade.)

FASTEST I DEVOURED A BOOK: MCU: THE REIGN OF MARVEL STUDIOS by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards

(I didn’t watch a single second of an MCU film this year, but I absolutely tore through my friend Joanna’s exhaustive account of the last several decades of Marvel Studios. One of the great behind the scenes Hollywood accounts of a studio seemingly stumbling ass-backwards into immortality, for a time…)

WRITER I BECAME OBSESSED WITH IN 2023: David Grann.

Started the year with The Wager, then backtracked and read Killers of the Flower Moon twice. The dude’s just got the juice. You were all right!

SPEAKING OF READING FILM ADAPTATIONS:

I actually also read American Prometheus twice last year, all 721 pages of it. It’s really quite spectacular.

BEST LONGFORMISH ARTICLE: TIE:

• “The Problem with Planned Parenthood” Eyal Press’ deeply considered look into the landscape of both corporate and independent women’s health centers, from The New Yorker

• “Who Killed The Fudge King?” How Tom Donaghy (possibly) solved a cold case on summer vacation, from The Atavaist

AND HERE WERE 10 OTHERS THAT I LOVED AND RECOMMEND:

• “Last Stand of the Hot Dog King” Chris Crowley on a 5th Ave Legend

• “You’ve Been Served” Sarah Larson on the lies in our Grocery Stores

• “Why Everyone Feels Like They’re Faking It” Leslie Jamison on Imposter Syndrome

• “An Interview with the School Board Chair Who Forced out a Principal for Michelangelo’s David” by Dan Kois

• “Finding Lena, the Patron Saint of JPEGs” by the great Linda Kinstler

• "He’s The Trans Son Of An Anti-Trans Influencer. It’s His Turn To Speak” by Christopher Mathias

• “Critical Misconceptions” by Matt Goldberg

• “Why Gen X Dads Can Appreciate Olivia Rodrigo” by Jay Caspian King

• “Carlos Alcaraz and a Thrilling New Era of Unpredictability” by Brian Phillips

• “The Art of the Restaurant that Never Changes” Jason Diamond on Cafe Lux

BEST FOOD WRITER: Helen Rosner has always absolutely cooked, but I found myself checking her byline more often than usual this year. Banger after Banger. Always makes me miss home.

BEST ARTICLE TREND: Wrestling with the Landscape of A.I. & Being Online

More than ever this year—as OpenAI, Chat GPT, and the like truly reared their nascent heads in our culture—we were treated to thoughtful, critical writing about what this technology could mean for our future. Here were seven that stuck with me:

• “Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey?” By Ted Chiang

• “On Generative AI and Satisficing” by Dave Karff

• “The Year AI Conquered Our Imaginations” by Brian Phillips

• “They Don’t Want Us And We Don’t Need Them” by David Roth

• “Mrs. Davis Is Weirder Than Anything AI Could Dream Up” Phillip Maciak

• “The Internet is an Empty Labyrinth” by Film Crit Hulk

• “How to Fix the Internet” by Katie Notopoulos

‘COULDN’T-LOOK-AWAY PROFILES’ AWARD: My other favorite trend this year were the litany of what I like to call: Deeply Critical Analyses of Deeply Flawed Tech Giants. Whether from the heel-turn reappraisal of one Elon Musk, to the strange (& often absent) ethics and personality of Sam Altman, to my personal favorite: the fucking batshit quest of Bryan Johnson to live forever, in which the great Charlotte Alter learns through negative example what it actually means to be a person in this world.

BEST INTERVIEW: A Conversation Between Céline Sciamma & Annie Ernaux for The Dial.

BEST PUBLICATION: Speaking of! I couldn’t get enough of the stellar writing at newly minted The Dial this year. In particular, I devoured their Issue on Shipwrecks, including pieces on the Sinking of the Concordian, The Millions of Tons of Sunken Explosives in our Oceans, and the Problem of a Drowning Paris.

BEST PROFILE: Playbill did a pretty nice write up of a pretty nice lady a few weeks back, y’all should check it out.

BEST FILM WRITING OF 2023:

• “Who Was BARBIE?” A Symposium for N+1

• “Cinema as Sacrament” Adam Piron on KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

• “The Face of Another” Michael Koresky on MAY DECEMBER

• “Inside the Liminal Spaces of PAST LIVES” by Brendan Hodges

• I also really enjoyed this chat with Nolan about Oppie and AI, from Wired

BEST OLD FILM REVIEWS:

• Zadie Smith’s piece on TÀR “The Instrumentalist” is flat out one of the great pieces of film writing, ever.

• “Friends, Lovers, or Neighbors” Frank Falisi on ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED.

• “Blah Blah Blah” Julien Allen wrestling with CITIZEN KANE in Reverse Shot’s Revisions Symposium

• I stumbled across this decades old, transcendent essay on A.I.: Artificial Intelligence by Tim Kreider.

FAVORITE THINGS I WROTE THIS YEAR: One bout of officiating, and two rehearsal dinner speeches for my three best friends in the world, all of whom got married last year. (BTW, to the three of you reading this right now: I’m counting on you for mine.)

FOOD & LIFE:

BEST DAY:

October 24th

BEST UNREMARKABLE, REMARKABLE DAY:

December 2nd

BEST TRIP:

Paris, duh.

BEST ART EXHIBIT:

“Reflections of the Century” Peter Doig, Musee D’Orsay

BEST OFF-BROADWAY PLAY:

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Lucille Lortell

BEST BROADWAY PLAY: (Sue me, I’m biased)

Prayer for the French Republic, Samuel Friedman Theater, MTC

BEST LIVE SPORTING EVENT:

Watching the Bills baaaaarely beat a hobbled Chargers team at SoFi, 12/23

FAVORITE BASKETBALL GAME I WATCHED:

Game 4, Bucks vs. Heat, 1st round, AKA The Jimmy Butler 56 Point Eruption

LEAST FAVORITE BASKETBALL GAMES I WATCHED:

Eastern Conference Finals: Games 4, 5, especially 6, and even Game 7 when I was absolutely petrified and increasingly certain they would blow NBA History’s first 0-3 lead. Winning that series wasn’t elation; it was simply a minor (and short lived) relief.

OBJECT THAT BECAME A LIFE TOTEM:

Incense of the West: Juniper Bricks

BEST AMAZON ORDER:

Portable White Leather Record Player with Bluetooth (Really came in handy in Paris. Highly recommend. BYOCustom Record.)

BEST HIGHWAY:

Route 27; it’d been a minute!

TOP 6 DISHES I MADE (Pasta Tasting Menu, 8/19, Sous Edmund Karmin):

• lumache, vodka, tomato, cream, chili, grana padano, basil

• sedanini, spinach dough, pesto, fresh basil, parsley, thyme, garlic, meyer lemon, toasted pine nuts, pecorino

• bucatini, reggiano, cracked peppercorns, yolk, smoked guanciale 

• tagliatelle, beetroot dough, lemon, rosemary, thyme, fennel pollen, breadcrumbs, peas, cherry tomato, lobster

• pappardelle, 8 hour short rib ragu, veal, mirepoix, burgundy, mushroom, truffle, cream, celery leaf

• agnolotti mac, black truffle, pecorino, gruyere, reggiano, burrata

TOP 5 BEST NEW RESTAURANTS LA:

1. Le Great Outdoor, Bergamot Station

2. La Dolce Vita, Beverly Hills

3. Isla, Santa Monica

4. Shirubē, Santa Monica

5. Funke, Beverly Hills

BEST “Goddamn, they really still do got it” RESTAURANT LA:

Hatchet Hall, Culver City

BEST NEW RESTAURANT NY (TIE):

• Corner Bar, Dimes Square

• Mels, Meatpacking

BEST “Oh, yeah, that was definitely as good as you all said” RESTAURANT:

Bell’s, Los Alamos

RESTAURANTS MOST EAGER TO TRY:

Los Angeles:

1. Barra Santos

2. Anajak Thai

3. Bar Chelou

4. Donna’s

5. Loreto

New York:

1. Tatianna

2. Torrisi

3. Superiority Burger

4. Libertine

5. Roscioli

BEST FRIES:

Vin de Bellechasse, 7th, Paris

BEST NEW BURGER:

Hamburger America, Soho

TOP 3 PIZZAS:

1. L’Industrie, West Village

2. Secret Pizza, Monterey Hills

3. Shin’s, Cypress Park

SINGLE DISH I ORDERED THE MOST IN 2023 (by a significant margin) :

Grilled Cheese, Hinano Cafe

BEST WINE STORE:

Once again: Vin on Rose, Venice

BEST BARS OF THE YEAR:

- Best: Candelaria (reaffirmed as my favorite bar in the world), 3rd, Paris

- Runner Up: Clandestino, Dimes Square

- Old Faithful: Rodger Room, WeHo

- McNally Old Faithful: The Odeon, TriBeCa

- Dive: Hinano Cafe, (always) Marina Del Rey

- Whiskey: Old Man Bar, Mar Vista

- Revival: The Georgian Room, Santa Monica

- Hotel Bar: Jacques, Lowell Hotel, UES

- Speakeasy: Danico, 2nd Paris

- Speakeasy (that also serves killers guac): Tiger, 6th, Paris

- Ski Town: Shadyside Lounge, Tahoe City

- Best Bar Banter: Bar Nouveau, 3rd, Paris

BEST MEALS OUT, PARIS ONLY EDITION:

(Cracks knuckles & opens up log book)

1. LE SERVAN — 10/24

• Raviolis De Tourteau, Champignons Noirs, Bisque Harissa

• Wonton De Boudin Noir, Sauce Chili Douce

• Poitrine de Porc Croustillante, aubergines glacées à l'abricot

• Paris Brest

2. DOUBLE DRAGON 10/25

• KFC: Poulet frit coréen

• Kimchi Bao au Comté

• Bok Choi Avec Sauce XO, Oignons Verts, Arachides

• Ceviche de Thon aux Poivrons et Feuille de Riz

• Nouilles Gochujang aux Oufs et Tomates

3. LE GRAND VEFOUR 10/24

• Saint-Jacques poêlées, purée de céleri-rave et céleri-rave sauté

• Risotto Fregula sarda, courge musquée et sauce parmesan

• Profiterole au chocolat et amande caramélisée

4. CHEZ JANOU 10/26 & 10/27

• Ravioles du Dauphiné

• Friture de petits poissons

• Moules gratinées

• Petit pot de ratatouille, anchoïade et tapenade

• Mousse au chocolat

5. CHEZ JULIEN 10/23

• Jouno Tomate, œuf mollet bio, émulsion de burrata aux herbes fraîches

• Coeur de sucrine, parmesan, grenade

• Chateaubriand, sauce aux poivres (sarawak et penja), frites maison

• Risotto, mélanosporum truffe

• Cheesecake, fruit de la passion

BEST BOTTLES OF WINE (having Jim Ruxin in my life absolutely rules):

• Red: 2001 Ridge Zinfandel

• White: 1992 Dom Perignon

TOP 5 MOST RELIABLE BOTTLES OF WINE:

1. Rodeo Mama, Rosé, Catch & Release Wines X Vin on Rose - 2023

2. Marcel Lapierre, Morgon - 2022

3. Vins Nus Jus De Rouge, Granache, Alfredo Arribas - 2020

4. Lestignac "Michel-Michel" Orange VDF - 2022

5. SRC - Etna Rosso - 2020

Biggest Wish for 2024: Let’s get Evan home.

Best Life Decision:  Gave the most beautiful lady in the world a piece of jewelry. She’s still swell.

Until next year,

-Sam Austin