Throughout 2023, contributors of The News’ Lifestyle section commented on the latest trends overtaking social media, covered live events ranging from concerts to celebrity-driven conversations and, of course, penned thoughtful critiques of the latest films, television shows and albums. With that in mind, and 2023 firmly in the rearview, the Lifestyle editors asked The News staff to send in their favorite films, TV shows and music albums of the year.
Here are the top responses, as well as a recommendation in each category from Lifestyle editors Jake, Kristina and Laura.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Best film of 2023: “Barbie”
On July 21, 2023, two movies, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” were released, earning widespread acclaim and generating massive ticket sales. Though both films garnered support from The News’ staff, it was Greta Gerwig’s gorgeously crafted, cleverly written “Barbie” that ultimately prevailed — and for good reason. The Warner Bros.’ release follows Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) as she ventures into the real world alongside Ken (Ryan Gosling) after Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) tells her that her life in Barbieland has gone awry due to the negative thoughts and feelings of whoever is playing with her in “real life.” Featuring faithful recreations of iconic Barbie playsets and outfits, the film is a visual treat, allowing viewers to see their favorite childhood toys on the grandest scale imaginable. That said, there is more to “Barbie” than its illustrious visuals. It does an excellent job commenting on feminism and toxic masculinity in an accessible manner — something exemplified by a monologue delivered by Gloria (America Ferrera), a Mattel employee who assists Barbie in the film. All this and more culminate in an endlessly rewatchable blockbuster that, beyond being unlike anything released in recent memory, is one of the year’s very best.
Jake’s pick: “Past Lives”
No list of the greatest films of 2023 is complete without a mention of Celine Song’s intimate debut feature, “Past Lives.” Set over the course of 24 years, it follows the relationship between Nora (Greta Lee), a New York-based playwright who emigrated from South Korea as a young girl, and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), the childhood sweetheart she left behind. This emotionally devastating romantic drama thrives on Song’s delicate direction. The shots she constructs, for instance, though striking, never draw attention to themselves; they sufficiently absorb the viewer, reducing the proximity between them and the contents of the film itself. Further bolstering the A24 film are the performances of Lee, Yoo and John Magaro, who portrays Arthur, Nora’s husband. With Song’s direction, each actor plays their respective character with a high degree of restraint, effectively conveying how they’re feeling with subtle glances and shifts in posture alone. Suffice it to say, “Past Lives” is a must-watch movie — one that’s bound to resonate throughout this lifetime and the next.
Kristina’s pick: “Poor Things”
Director Yorgos Lanthimos, known for delivering the award-winning black comedy films “The Lobster” and “The Favourite,” comes back better than ever with “Poor Things.” Emma Stone delivers a brilliant performance as Bella Baxter, a Victorian woman reanimated by mad scientist Godwin (Willem Dafoe), who she pointedly calls “God.” When Bella runs off with the posh and corrupt lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), she commences a whirlwind adventure around Europe, where she becomes enlightened on both the pleasures and harsh realities of the outside world. At first, Bella is simply enamored by sex, dancing and pastries, but as her development progresses, she becomes interested in philosophy and feminism, wishing to free her mind and body from masculine controls. It’s a whimsical journey watching Bella go from guarded lab rat to liberated intellectual, and the plot’s richness, paired with striking cinematography and a dissonant, quirky score, is the cherry on top of this must-see movie.
Laura’s pick: “Bottoms”
Want a girl to fall in love with you? Just start a fight club at your local high school. In the teen comedy “Bottoms,” best friends Josie (Ayo Edebiri) and PJ (Rachel Sennott) — or the “ugly, untalented gays” — lightly tap quarterback Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine) with a car, leading to rumors that they physically fought him using techniques they supposedly acquired while in juvie. The two girls, both having crushes on popular cheerleaders and taking advantage of what the rumor mill has spun, decide to start a fight club at their school in hopes of winning them over. Following a series of comedic schemes and betrayals, the fight club puts its newfound skills to use, defeating its rival school’s football team after realizing that its players intend to seriously harm Jeff. Depicting the desire for acceptance many young LGBTQ people harbor and featuring hilariously absurd moments, “Bottoms” forges new ground in a genre typically reserved for straight people.
Honorable mentions: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” “Oppenheimer”
Best TV series of 2023: “Succession”
Nothing dominated the TV landscape in 2023 quite like the final installment of HBO’s crown jewel “Succession,” and rightfully so. Creator Jesse Armstrong’s fourth season once again pits three of the four Roy siblings — Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook) — against each other as they vie for control of the family media empire, Waystar RoyCo. The stakes become higher than ever when Logan (Brian Cox), the Roy family patriarch and head of the company, unexpectedly dies in the third episode. With his death happening so early in the season, the Roys and Waystar’s other employees, especially Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), spend the remaining episodes picking up the pieces — and occasionally stabbing each other with them. Despite Logan’s absence for most of the season, the episodes that revolve around him (“Connor’s Wedding” for his death and “Church and State” for his funeral) are the best of the season, showcasing the cast’s strongest work of the show. Overall, “Succession” proved to be at its best when the actual matter of succession became the main storyline.
Jake’s pick: “The Bear”
In the second season of Hulu’s “The Bear,” Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edeberi), Richie Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and the rest of the gang face personal and professional struggles while pursuing the seemingly impossible: opening a high-end restaurant from the remnants of The Original Beef of Chicagoland in a mere three months. As with the show’s first season, the real standout of the show is its clever writing, courtesy of creator Christopher Storer and writer-producer Joanna Calo, amongst others, which features expletive-laden dialogue and tense situations that are sure to make audiences squirm. Unlike the initial batch of episodes, though, each one tends to spotlight a specific character. “Forks,” for example, concerns Richie almost exclusively, while “Honeydew” primarily follows employee Marcus Brooks (Lionel Boyce), allowing viewers to better understand their motivations, shortcomings and innermost dilemmas. Moreover, in addition to its superb main cast (particularly White), the latest season features plenty of stellar turns from an impressive roster of guest stars — Jamie Lee Curtis, Olivia Colman, Will Poulter and more. Simply put, the second season of “The Bear” is not to be missed.
Kristina’s pick: “The Other Two”
The original plot of “The Other Two,” a product of former “Saturday Night Live” writers, followed adult siblings Cary (Drew Tarver) and Brooke (Heléne Yorke) Dubek living in the shadow of their 13-year-old brother Chase (Case Walker), a Jacob Sartorius-type pop idol who goes viral overnight. The final season, however, is a fully developed satirical comedy that boldly takes on show business, pop culture and the entertainment industry as a whole. Tarver, Yorke and Ken Marino, playing Chase’s dim-witted manager Streeter, do some of their best comedic work this season, while Molly Shannon, the Dubek matriarch, reaches new emotional depths. The strength of the show’s third season also appears in the form of many surprising guest stars, including Lukas Gage, Ben Platt and Simu Liu. During its three-season run, “The Other Two” never failed to be one of the most original comedies on TV, and, with its quirkiness and out-of-the-box storylines, it may be on par with “30 Rock” as one of the greats.
Laura’s pick: “The Last of Us”
Adapted from the video game of the same name, HBO’s post-apocalyptic drama “The Last of Us” follows Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), a smuggler hardened by the death of his daughter. He traverses west from Boston with Ellie Williams (Bella Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl who is immune to the fungal infection that decimated society, in the hopes of finding a cure after millions of “Infected” transformed into zombie-like creatures. During their journey, Joel comes to care for Ellie like a daughter and is ultimately forced to decide between saving the world or saving his own world. With incredibly strong and emotional performances from Emmy nominees Pascal and Ramsey and an immensely talented supporting cast (many of whom also received nominations) — as well as a misunderstanding of Massachusetts’ geography — “The Last of Us” is a testament to the power that love can have over someone’s choices.
Honorable mentions: “The Golden Bachelor,” “Daisy Jones & The Six,” “Heartstopper”
Best album of 2023: “Unreal Unearth” by Hozier
Hozier’s debut single, “Take Me to Church,” reached the top five of the Billboard charts in 2014, and the Irish folk singer has yet to lose momentum. His third studio album, “Unreal Unearth,” released Aug. 18, follows a narrative structure, unlike his first two records. The album is inspired by Dante Alighieri’s poem “Inferno,” taking listeners through the nine circles of hell. Some songs reflect on Hozier’s cultural experiences, such as “Butchered Tongue,” which touches upon violence inflicted on the Irish by the British and the attempted erasure of the Gaelic language in the late 1700s. Earlier in the album, on “De Selby (Part 1),” Hozier reclaims his native language, singing the final verse of the song in Gaelic. Through powerful storytelling, drawing from stories of the past and his experiences, Hozier delivers a strong and thought-provoking third album.
Jake’s pick: “Something To Give Each Other” by Troye Sivan
With “Something To Give Each Other,” Australian singer-songwriter Troye Sivan has delivered a 32-minute collection of irresistible and unabashedly queer pop tunes. Throughout his third album, Sivan deftly conveys various aspects of the gay experience, highlighting its many highs and lows. “Rush,” for instance, illustrates the joy and pleasure of tearing up a crowded, sweaty dance floor with an attractive stranger through a catchy chorus and an infectious house beat. Conversely, Sivan tackles the anguish of pining after a straight man who, at best, would be interested in just sexual experimentation on the synth-pop track “One of Your Girls,” singing, “Give me a call if you ever get lonely / I’ll be like one of your girls or your homies / Say what you want, and I’ll keep it a secret / You got the key to my heart, and I need it,” during the chorus. The two aforementioned songs, along with “Got Me Started,” all spawned music videos sporting some of the year’s best choreography.
Kristina’s pick: “GUTS” by Olivia Rodrigo
In 2021, Disney Channel actress-turned-singer Olivia Rodrigo broke the internet with her first studio album, “SOUR.” For many, it would be hard to follow up on that type of viral success — but not for Rodrigo, who remains the people’s pop princess two years later. “GUTS” is Rodrigo at her most introspective, looking back on relationships with exes, old friends and the standards she has had to live up to in the entertainment industry. In a strong pivot from her debut album, Rodrigo infuses “GUTS” with many punk-rock influences, making this album one that is chock-full of headbangers, from “all-american bitch” to “ballad of a homeschooled girl.” There is a balance, however, with delicately-produced, slow ballads, as “the grudge” and “teenage dream” come out on top as some of the most powerful. Rodrigo’s ability to create an album that is equally devastating and lively reaffirms her talent as a songwriter and artist.
Laura’s pick: “the record” by boygenius
Over four years after the release of its eponymous EP, indie supergroup boygenius — consisting of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — came together again for its first full-length studio album, “the record.” The trio has received widespread critical acclaim for its second collaboration, receiving six Grammy nominations, top spots on album of the year roundups and a recommendation from Barack Obama (though Dacus wasn’t very happy about it). The album explores themes of friendship and platonic love, most present in tracks “True Blue” and “We’re In Love,” with beautiful lyricism demonstrating what the trio’s relationship means to them. With a variety of sounds, from rock songs like “$20” to emotional ballads like “Letter To An Old Poet” — the latter of which interpolates “Me & My Dog” from the band’s first EP — the debut studio album from boygenius offers something for all listeners to enjoy.
Honorable mentions: “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” by Taylor Swift, “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” by Lana Del Rey, “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” by Mitski
