What a year!
From January to April, things were moving along nicely. My goddaughter-niece turned one – despite the fact that I cannot remember life before she arrived – but then a few things rocked my little bubble and the people I hold the dearest. It has culminated in the twelve months of 2023 feeling like three years. It wasn’t all bad, there were some positives amid the… seizures… tears… pneumonia… the end of a friendship… cyst on the brain… a stenosis diagnosis… a healing trip to London to experience the shattering catharsis of A Little Life on stage… a Fringe & Bracket reunion… tears… fractured limbs… a much needed sunshine break… I started writing again… all those murdered babies and no ceasefire in sight… ‘Whoopi’ was vacated… relief… healing and self-care… stopped expecting a ‘me’ from anybody… I stopped writing again… boundaries… said enough… I am enough… oh, and Last Christmas finally made Christmas #1 39 years after initial release – RIP George x
Anyway. Phew. Shrugs, *blows raspberry at stress and worry*
I did manage to see some films this year albeit non-film festival ones courtesy of my Curzon and mubi memberships. Below are the twenty I admired the most, half of which excitedly were directed (and written) by women and depict the whole gamut of emotions experienced by a multitude of fully-rounded, complex humans. My favourite being the masterclass in misogyny, Justine Triet’s pitch perfect Anatomy of a Fall.
Favourites Films of 2023
Favourite Books of 2023
Thankfully, I also managed to read. Again, not as many as I’d have liked but personal distractions aside, 60 isn’t too bad. That’s 17,339 pages – actual pages too as I just don’t think I’m cut out for a Kindle. Absolute fave eleven are below left, on the right is a pile of honourable mentions: fiction and non, a volume of comics, women in translation, four blokes and a bit of poetry. If somebody was to make me choose just one, then today it would be Lagioia’s The City of the Living which I happened to review earlier in the year.
TV/streaming highlights of 2023
It was the year that bid farewell to The Marvellous Mrs Maisel (flashbacks, forwards and ageing make-up galore. Also, can’t spell it with just the one ‘l’, soz), Succession (AKA Wambsgans Win) and Happy Valley (bye-bye Tommy Lee Royce). There was a second series for Somebody Somewhere which is just the loveliest show in the world; gentle, tender, funny, and full of grace and warmth. Other TV highlights for me included:
Poker Face – Casino cocktail waitress Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) entangles herself with some shady people following the murder of her best friend. She goes on the run, solving crimes wherever she ends up. Made all the more interesting by her uncanny ability to spot a lie. Think Wonder Woman (sans lasso) meets Columbo via the quick-witted brain of Rian Johnson.
The Last of Us – Pedro! In the adaptation of a game I will never play! Yet more importantly, S1 E03: Long, Long Time – Survivalist Bill (Nick Offerman) makes an unlikely connection in Frank (Murray Bartlett). Perfection.
The Bear S2 E08, Forks. Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) finally comes into his own after Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) sends him to a posh restaurant to ultimately polish the cutlery.
Dark Winds – It’s 1971 and the discovery of three dead bodies in a motel coincide with an armoured bank heist. Navajo reservation cops Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and Sgt. Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) investigate the brutal deaths of three of their own with the help of a new recruit, Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon). A revisionist western mini-series at its finest, re-appropriated from the perspective of indigenous Americans by indigenous Americans (producers Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin’s names add a little cash/cache). It’s brilliant and thankfully has been renewed for two more series. Whether we, in the UK get those remains to be seen but I sincerely hope so.
The Fall of the House Usher – I, admittedly, haven’t really been a fan of anything Mike Flanagan has done since The Haunting of Hill House (2018) but I think, he may have surpassed even that with this celebration of all things Edgar Allan. The whole cast bring their A-game and it is deliciously dark, twisted and utterly compelling from the first ten minutes. Poe-etic even (ugh). As an aside, I bloody love Bruce Greenwood – the perfect replacement for the other guy.
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The Framing Device 