The (Bad) Taste Test: What to Watch, Read and Listen To in 2023

I’m not a “new year, new me” kind of person. I’ve never been a big believer in New Year's Resolutions, and the constant exclamations from the stage of the Clapham Grand - where I saw in the end of 2022, and the beginning of 2023 - that this was yet another shit year made me wonder why we bother celebrating the occasion at all. 

But until we declare an official moratorium on New Year celebrations - surely if we end up with five consecutive years of people saying that the last twelve months were shit then we need to call time on the entire enterprise - then I’ll continue to engage in the one thing I ask of myself that approaches a resolution: my attempts to read more, watch more films, and generally engage with The Culture in a way that extends beyond eye-rolling my way through Twitter. 

And it feels like most years, everyone bemoans the state of contemporary culture: how its only ever franchise films that get made; how contemporary novels are just riding on the coattails of the last novelist to Make It Big. But if you’re willing to go a little off the beaten track, and get your hands a little dirty, there’s plenty of things - books, movies, podcasts - that can arouse your curiosity. 

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TV: The Year of Junji Ito

After the disappointment of The Junji Ito Collection, a 2018 adaptation of short stories by Junji Ito, the writer and artist behind stomach-turning horror manga like Uzumaki, Tomie, and scores of short stories that get under your skin like nothing else (most famously The Enigma of Amigara Fault, wherein the population of a village are subconsciously, desperately drawn to fissures, holes that they insist are “theirs”), it might be ambitious to come out of the gate and say that 2023 will be different, but for better or worse, I’ve decided to come out swinging. 

While Ito might not be the most familiar name in the world, if you’ve got an appetite for horror, then his work should leap to the top of your list. Occupying a sweet spot somewhere between Lovecraft and Cronenberg, where visceral transformation is a precursor to existential dread, Ito’s brand of horror is all about inescapability; what we can’t understand, or break free from. 

There are two different Ito adaptations coming out in 2023. The first comes out later in January; Junji Ito Maniac is another episodic adaptation of his one-shots, this time being produced by Netflix. Most episodes will feature two different shorts, but others - like ‘The Hanging Balloons,’ and a story from Ito’s Tomie serial - will have an episode all to themselves. 

And then there’s the big one: Uzumaki. What might be Ito’s most famous work, the story of a town driven mad by an obsession with spiral shapes - is finally coming to screens later this year as a miniseries, after a handful of delays at the tail-end of 2022. From just the small teaser released last year, it seems like Uzumaki will be painstakingly faithful in trying to recreate Ito’s visual style: the first of these adaptations to use the same stark black-and-white of his manga, this might end up being the last word on how to adapt Ito well, if such a thing is even possible. 

Film: Beau Is Afraid 

Ari Aster, the king of the cinematic trauma-dump returns with what he’s described as a four-hour-long “ nightmare comedy,” starring Joaquin Phoenix. This is another titled that was delayed out of 2022 and is now coming out this year, and FKA Disappointment Boulevard has a shiny new title to go with its release date: Beau Is Afraid. If Aster’s description of the film, and the presence of Phoenix - a master of the cinematically unhinged - is anything to go by, then we should be afraid too. Be very afraid. 

Beau seems like it offers an interesting changeup when it comes to Aster’s filmmaking to; it’s difficult not to imagine, with equal parts curiosity and dread, what the man behind Hereditary associates with the word “comedy,” and if the kind of stories that he wants to tell will change with his first film that has a male protagonist. Alongside Phoenix, Beau features a supporting cast packed with icons like Patti LuPone and Nathan Lane. 

Aster’s latest film is still shrouded in mystery; nothing beyond a one sentence story summary is readily available, and seeing just what kind of nightmare he has in store for audiences next is something that feels impossible to look away from. 

Novel: Brainwyrms

I wasn’t expecting this list to be quite so crammed full of horror when I was first planning it; I hope this list doesn’t become some kind of omen for the direction that the year could go in. If this is the beginning of my own lengthy nightmare comedy, then you can find me at the end of the year in Clapham, saying that everything was a disaster. 

Next up in this gallery of horrific rogues is Brainwyrms, Alison Rumfitt’s to the 2021 novel Tell Me I’m Worthless. Like her debut, Brainwyrms exists at the intersection between trans identity, contemporary politics, and some deeply unsettling horror. 

The set-up for Brainwyrms is violent, intense, and nakedly political, as Frankie tries to recover from the carnage of a transphobic woman bombing her workplace. And while this might not sound like a good time, Rumfitt described the novel on Twitter as being a horror comedy/satire - even if this came with the caveat that “the opening is maybe the most bleak and upsetting thing I’ve ever written,” all of which seems like Brainwyrms is shaping up to the best kind of fucked up. 

Podcast: You’re Wrong About…

And now for something completely different. A breath of fresh air from the various horrifying things that I’m looking forward to being unleashed this year, You’re Wrong About has been a mainstay in my podcast listening for a long time now, and is perfect for the overly-analytical, slightly conspiratorially-minded listener; the kind of person that looks at outlandish news stories and moral panics, raises their eyebrow and asks: really?

You’re Wrong About is hosted by Sarah Marshall, and until 2021 was co-hosted by Michael Hobbes - who now hosts the podcast Maintenance Phase, aimed at debunking myths around the health and wellness industry. Each episode has Marshall, and a guest (or her co-host) diving into topics that are rife with misunderstanding and misinformation: whether it’s a one-off episode on topics ranging from Martha Stewart to The Porn Wars, to longer-form miniseries on Princess Diana, You’re Wrong About is the best example of the kind of thing that has something for everyone. 

Marshall’s podcast is also the only long-running recommendation / morbid curiosity on this list; everything else is new for 2023. But You’re Wrong About is the kind of thing that feels increasingly urgent as time passes; as it gets increasingly tempting to complain about the death of media literacy, a show like this is the perfect antidote: something that revels in nuance and uncertainty instead of shying away from it.

Words: Sam Moore