FINAL JUDGEMENT 2023
This year gets Points For Trying
In innumerable ways, 2023 was a year marked by profound disappointments. We needed all the good stuff to be even better, to make up for how much everything else sucked! Sometimes this worked out okay, but overall we just learned to make do.
From ES:
Best Music of 2023:
Best Anime of 2023
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (Season 2)
Magical Destroyers
Hell’s Paradise (Season 1)
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — Swordsmith Village Arc
Jujutsu Kaisen (Season 2)
The Boy and the Heron
Best Horror Movies of 2023
Saw X
M3GAN
Talk to Me
When Evil Lurks
Skinamarink
Godzilla Minus One
Infinity Pool
Beau Is Afraid
From TB:
Favorite Films of 2023
Not ranked, and with the disclaimer that there were many fab releases which I still haven’t gotten around to:
May December
Saltburn
Barbie
Talk To Me
The Color Purple
They Cloned Tyrone
Nyad
Couldn’t Stop Watching…
Fargo Season 5 (Hulu)
…Because they’re adapting and re-imagining the home invasion/kidnapping plot from the actual Fargo movie, with campy (but rock-solid) performances from Juno Temple and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Escaping Twin Flames (Max)
…Because so far this real-life cult is still completely operational and has faced no federal charges, but this heartbreaking docuseries is stuffed with interviews from survivors which may actually turn the tide.
Phrogging: Hider In My House (Hulu, via Lifetime)
…Because the first episode scared me out of my wits, so I needed to watch ALL of them in order to become an expert on the subject. Now I’m sure to recognize the signs of someone secretly living in the attic space that connects all the apartments in our building.
Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God (Max)
…Because unlike the Twin Flames doc, the interviews here were mostly true believers who regret very little about mummifying their leader in a sleeping bag wrapped in Christmas lights.
The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix)
…Because Flanagan has a plan again, and we cannot help but stan again. Extremely gothic family melodrama with lots of gruesomely unpleasant surprises — many involving Carla Gugino.
Mayfair Witches (Roku, AMC+)
…Because despite being kind of ass, it was still more entertaining all-around than Interview With the Vampire or American Horror Story.
Best Music Releases of 2023
I wrote about many of these at some point throughout the year!
Powders - Eartheater
New Blue Sun - André 3000
GUTS - Olivia Rodrigo
The Age of Pleasure - Janelle Monáe
Top JUDGEMENT Posts of 2023
Shirley's Letter
By T. Bloom For the reader’s comfort, what follows probably should’ve been veiled in fiction. However, this letter from Shirley (my paternal grandmother) to my parents upon the death of Mina (my maternal grandmother) seems worthy of being presented in its raw entirety, with as little commentary as possible.
Madonna: Cringe and Loving It
By T. Bloom It’s everywhere lately, and it started way before the Grammys: "Madonna looks so gross/scary now. Why can’t she just age naturally? I feel sorry for her." You know, people have always thought Madonna was gross and scary. One could say those were the folks who truly launched her to stardom in the ‘80s, because literally everything she did or sa…
Dystopia and Logomania: Fascism and Fashion at the End of the World
By Eric ShoreyJUDGEMENT is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. When you think of the sci-fi author William Gibson, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not the stitch-count of a Mongolian button-down shirt. The world-renowned progenitor of cyberpunk literature is…
The New Real Housewives Of New York, Ranked
By Eric ShoreyJUDGEMENT is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The lights dim and a spotlight appears on a stage and a very tall man says patiently into a mic “It is happening again…