Unwrapping 2023: Our Favorite Films, TV & Documentaries of the Year!
Need some viewing options to help survive this holiday season? Check out our cultural highlights from the past year!
Last Monday, we picked our favorite books, music and art of 2023. But 2023 was also a great year for film, TV, and documentaries (especially documentaries!).
Which is why we’ve decided to continue showcasing our favorite cultural highlights from the past year of our Aesthetic Arrest Podcast, this time focusing on our top viewing recommendations. Though we love to talk about classic films on the podcast, everything listed here was originally released/aired/streamed in 2023, including a few that had a limited theatrical release in 2022 but weren’t widely available until 2023.
(Eagle-eyed readers might notice a few items we haven’t talked about yet, but which we’re planning to discuss in our upcoming podcasts this month. Consider this a sneak peek!)
Our Favorite Films of 2023:
Frybread Face and Me
The Great Escaper
Hilma
Joyland
The Lesson
Lie with Me [Arrête Avec Tes Mensonges]
Living
Rustin
War Pony
Our Favorite Stand-Up Comedy of 2023:
Hannah Gadsby: Something Special
My Name is Mo'Nique
Wanda Sykes: I’m An Entertainer
Our Favorite Documentaries of 2023:
Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (HBO Max)
American Masters: Roberta Flack (PBS)
Carole King - Home Again Live From Central Park, New York City, May 26, 1973 (PBS)
Casa Susanna (PBS)
Donyale Luna: Supermodel (HBO Max)
Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate (Netflix)
Fashion Reimagined
Fragments of Paradise
Little Richard: I Am Everything (HBO Max)
Love to Love You, Donna Summer (HBO Max)
Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes (PBS)
My Name is Ottilie (BBC)
Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV (PBS)
Peter O'Toole: Along The Sky Roads To Aqaba (BritBox)
The Picture Taker (PBS)
Stephen Fry: Willem & Frieda - Defying the Nazis (Channel 4)
The Stroll (HBO Max)
Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music (HBO Max)
Uýra – The Rising Forest (PBS)
Wham! (Netflix)
When Motown Came to Britain (BBC)
Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space (PBS)
And one more fantastic documentary we didn’t talk about on the podcast, but we raved about on one of our Mid-Week Libations:
Every Body
Our Favorite Docuseries of 2023:
Africa Rising with Afua Hirsch (BBC)
The Conversations Project (Hulu)
Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico (HBO Max)
Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World (PBS)
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. (PBS)
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America (Netflix)
Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop (Netflix)
Naked. Loud. Proud. (HBO Max)
Native America (PBS)
Planet Earth III (BBC)
Rise and Fall of the Maya (National Geographic)
Searching for Soul Food (Hulu)
Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi (Hulu)
Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity
Wild Isles with David Attenborough (BBC)
Our Favorite TV Series of 2023:
The Bear (Season 2)
Changing Ends
Dead Ringers
Fellow Travelers
Foundation (Season 2)
The Gilded Age (Season 2)
Happy Valley (Season 3)
Juice
Julia (Season 2)
Little Bird
Maryland
Nolly
Rain Dogs
Silo
Somebody Somewhere (Season 2)
Sort Of (Season 3)
Star Trek: Picard (Season 3)
Three Little Birds
UnPrisoned
The Woman in the Wall
For many more TV recommendations (including many series that are still currently airing), check out this series of articles from last year:
Ryan & Ryan’s 101 Favorite TV Series of the Last Five Years: Part One
Ryan & Ryan’s 101 Favorite TV Series of the Last Five Years: Part Two
Ryan & Ryan’s 101 Favorite TV Series of the Last Five Years: Part Three
Ryan & Ryan’s 101 Favorite TV Series of the Last Five Years: Part Four
One Great Thing That Can’t Be Categorized:
[Editor’s Note: This set would make a great holiday gift! You can hear us rave about it on this recent podcast.]
Soundies: The Ultimate Collection (1940-1946) — 4-Disc Blu-Ray Set of Soundies, curated by Susan Delson
The Best Gift of All! Give the Gift of The Epicurean Vagabonds!
Searching for some unique, one-of-a-kind gifts to give your friends and loved ones for the holidays? If you really love them, start by giving them the gift that keeps on giving . . . A Paid Subscription to The Epicurean Vagabonds!
This will grant them a year’s worth of reading, listening, looking, viewing and tasting recommendations from our Aesthetic Arrest podcasts, Mid-Week Libations and weekly articles and conversations. In addition, Paid Subscribers ($5 monthly or $50 annually) will receive:
Delicious recipes from Ryan Wildstar! (Only for paid subscribers!)
Ability to comment on all of our content and engage directly with us and our community.
Audio versions of selected articles read by one or both of us.
Exclusive content, including excerpts from our works in progress (such as Ryan Wildstar’s upcoming memoir and Ryan Elston’s upcoming novel), as well as poetry, creative writing and select articles.
The satisfaction of helping two Epicurean Vagabonds subsist in this increasingly difficult world so we can keep sharing our content with you!
It has indeed been a wonderful year for viewing (especially documentaries!). Cheers to that! *clink*
Tell us in the comments: What were YOUR cultural highlights this year? Which films, TV series and documentaries did you enjoy in 2023?
Frybread Face and Me was such a good film. Love your recommendations.