Author’s Note
Since my 2023 media diet featured very little in the way of works released in 2023, I figured I’d extoll the works I read, watched and played in 2023 that were released in prior years. Perhaps some of them will be as new to you as they were for me!
Books
HARLEY QUINN: BREAKING GLASS (2019)
This work crystalized to me exactly what Harley can impart on folks. Fundamentally, Harley Quinn is victim of her own circumstance, and BREAKING GLASS showcases her as a youth, shining a light on how she’ll inhabit that space, her space, while still never browbeating her decisions but — Harley being Harley — she’s rarely makes the ‘best’ decision.
It’s a tale of growing, of self-realization, but also realizing you can be drawn into the webs of others and that they may not have your best interests in mind.
Is it labeled for young adults? Yup. Could anyone read and love and empathize with it? Definitely.
It also helps that Steve Pugh’s art is so fucking energetic and the colors are so vibrant and fitting!
I wrote more about it here!
Also, my wife found me the All Saints equivalent of her argyle sweater. (They literally label it as Harley Argyle. They knew what the fuck they were doing. And yes, yes I’m fucking rockin’ it.)
LIFE IS STRANGE: STEPH’S STORY (2022)
While doing research for my LIFE IS STRANGE posts, I discovered STEPH’S STORY, a LIFE IS STRANGE: TRUE COLORS tie-in novel by Rosiee Thor which is something I didn’t know I needed, but I desperately did. It’s an intimate character-based queer romantic melodrama that hit me from all sides and I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to revisit it.
Predictably, I wrote about it almost immediately after reading it.
DOOM PATROL: RACHEL POLLACK OMNIBUS (2022)
Have I repeatedly re-read Grant Morosson’s DOOM PATROL iconic run? Yes, yes I have.
However, I was shocked to discover that I’d never read Rachel Pollack’s DOOM PATROL which is ever queerer and just as inventive and far more heartfelt.
I wish I had been prodded to read it earlier — I only found out about it due to her death earlier this year — but better late than never.
As I’ve previously penned, DOOM PATROL is all about the misfits of society, the ostracized, those who have to live on the edges and never feel like they fit in, except in the house that Chief built who — spoiler alert! — not as altruistic as he makes himself out to be.
It is a supremely resonant work, one that cuts to the quick when it comes to coercion and the desperation to want to be seen and accepted. Again, I wish I had found it earlier.
And yes, yes I wrote about it.
The Story of the Lost Child (2014)
This was the year that I finished reading Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels.
Yes, yes, I realize that these works are frequently lumped in with (apologies in advance for the pejorative term) chick-lit for reasons absolutely unknown to me.
This is a supremely amazing epic of lives lived, of contrasts, of personas pushing-and-pulling, of classism, of intellectualism, of hubris; it is a lot and I fucking loved it and the fact that it isn’t recognized as capital ‘L’ literature reminds me how much women’s stories are so belittled. Ferrante’s prose is so succinct and exacting in a way that makes me so jealous of her skills.
Film
WEREWOLVES WITHIN (2021)
Cinematic comedic horror at its fucking best. While it doesn’t have the visual verve of Sam Raini’s work, it is so clever, so funny, but also features a human core.
I’m not one for making ‘island’ lists, but I could watch WEREWOLVES WITHIN every fucking day of the year. It’s so funny and endearing and thrilling but never traumatizing. It is an astounding work.
(I’ll note that I did finally try to play the game, but it’s VR-only and while I’m sure they make the most of it? Fuck that noise.)
As you might surmise, I couldn’t shut up about it.
FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! (1965)
“Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to violence!”
It is a fucking crime that this film is practically impossible to watch without doling out far too much money or catching it on Turner Classic Movies — R.I.P. TCM Underground — which is why I was so delighted that my favorite theater — the Music Box — wrangled a print of it.
While, yes, yes, Russ Meyer mostly wrote films solely so he could stare at busty women but, perhaps accidentally? This is an extraordinarily subversive work, one that has influenced so many others.
This is a ferocious film, one that simmers with anger and frustration, and while it is definitely meant to be titillating, you can feel the resentment against the motherfucking patriarchy.
It’s goddamn thrilling, a film that makes you pump your fists in the air, one that makes you root for fucking awful people throat-punching even worse people, and those doling out the hits? They look amazing while laying louts to the fucking ground.
PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974)
Brian De Palma at his campy best. This pre-dates the Webber work by a good decade, and is definitely my favorite take on the work.
(I’ll note: I do need to re-evaluate Wes Craven’s take on it. Also: In high school I had to play the cello part of the theme and for fucks sake, nothing else apart from perhaps Canon in D is a duller work to play.)
I briefly wrote about it as part of our 2023 Halloween binge!
TV
LEOPARD SKIN (2022)
Yes, it was only available via NBC’s peacock streaming service, but it was still terribly overlooked. This is one steamy potboiler of a neo-noir thriller that deserved more attention. It has an intensity so many shows which they could aspire to.
Do not sleep on this, because who knows how long it’ll be available to watch.