Learn: The 10 Best Books of 2023
Finest TV Exhibits
Nathan Fielder, the Canadian actor identified for his deadpan supply, is again with a darkish comedy known as “The Curse.” Right here’s a trailer. It’s streaming on Paramount+ Canada. (Mr. Fielder was an government producer on “How To With John Wilson,” one other present that critics say is worth your time.)
Learn: Best TV Shows of 2023
Finest Motion pictures
“Previous Lives,” the debut film by the South Korean-Canadian director Celine Track, is “an examination of future, likelihood, love and the invisible thread that binds one soul to the subsequent,” writes Alissa Wilkinson, a film critic at The Occasions. (I loved watching this movie on the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, which has made it accessible for rent. It’s also possible to catch it on streaming platforms in Canada.)
An honorable point out on the listing goes to “BlackBerry,” by the Toronto-born director Matt Johnson. The film is tailored from the 2015 book by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, two Canadian enterprise writers, and tells the story of the rise and fall of the Waterloo, Ontario, firm behind the wildly fashionable smartphone. If you happen to’re desirous about an prolonged lower of the movie, you possibly can try the three-part miniseries of “BlackBerry” on CBC Gem.
Learn: Best Movies of 2023
Finest Songs
Three pop music critics at The Occasions supply their picks of greatest songs of the yr. A couple of Canadians made the listing of 77.
Allison Russell, “Eve Was Black”
“The tune could possibly be a toe-tapping Appalachian hoedown. However the title’s blunt, irrefutable assertion carries Allison Russell towards harsh ideas about racism, slavery, exploitation, lynching and sin — after which to an sudden coda.” — Jon Pareles
Mustafa, “Name of God”
“Few artists conjure a richness of sorrow the best way the Canadian folks singer Mustafa does. Right here, his singing is gorgeous and somewhat distant, as if flinching ever so barely from a ache that can by no means be something however uncooked.” — Jon Caramanica
Ken (Ryan Gosling), “I’m Just Ken”
“When this stridently unhappy tune from the ‘Barbie’ film hits its apogee, it’s channeling Dashboard Confessional, Meat Loaf, the Phantom (of the Opera) and perhaps even Scott Stapp. Slash performs guitar, salting the melodrama laborious.” — Jon Caramanica
Drake that includes Sexyy Purple and SZA, “Rich Baby Daddy”
“Exhibit Z that Drake is at his greatest not when he tsk-tsks grown ladies, however when he dangers being outshone by inviting them on the monitor.” — Lindsay Zoladz
Learn: Best Songs of 2023