The Big Picture: The Top Five Movies of 2022

Published 2022-12-06; 1:39:46 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “The Big Picture (The Ringer)” and the episode “The Top Five Movies of 2022”.

Hosts: Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins. Guests: Chris Ryan, Adam Nayman.

Subject films: Crimes of the Future (2022), Barbarian (2022), The Eternal Daughter (2022), Babylon (2022), Decision to Leave (2022), Speak No Evil (2022), Happening (2021), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022), Nope (2022), Tar (2022), The Fabelmans (2022), Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Saint Omer (2022), The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), Aftersun (2022).

On the transcript: No speaker labels; four voices (Sean, Amanda, Chris Ryan, Adam Nayman) distinguished by list order (Adam, Chris, Amanda, Sean per slot) and direct address. About the first 21 minutes are a Sight and Sound poll discussion, not the top-five lists; ads at the start, at about 0:53:33 to 0:55:13 and at the end were skipped.

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Years for list films (2022; Happening 2021) are assumed from the year-end list framing and the Golden Lion 2021 remark; other films carry no year.
Olivier Assayas as creator of Irma Vep and Claire Denis as director of Beau Travail were added from memory; neither was named in the transcript.
Led Zeppelin as the Stairway to Heaven band; Daniel Day-Lewis appears with no film attached; the Led Zeppelin connection target is a song-band inference.

Films that came up

Claims (43)

career (career pattern): Crimes of the Future → Cosmopolis. Adam says critic Amy Taubin always votes the most recent Cronenberg into her Sight and Sound ballot, as Cosmopolis in 2012.
“no matter what Cronenberg movie has come last, always puts it on our list. So like in 2012, Cosmopolis made it.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:31:16 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Crimes of the Future → Barbarian. Adam has Crimes at five; Sean has Crimes in his top ten, with a strong case for best comedy of the year.
“strong case for best comedy of the year, though it may not feel that way.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:31:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
unmapped (second life): Barbarian → Confess, Fletch. Chris says both films moved straight into a second life of people rewatching and finding threads.
“this and Confess Fletch, actually, I would say, are movies that have like kind of immediately moved into their 2nd life”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:32:37 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Barbarian → Top Gun: Maverick. Chris says Barbarian was the most fun night of the year at the movies, barring Top Gun: Maverick, which is his number one.
“Also, just the most fun night. I think I had at the movie is barring maybe Top Gun Maverick all year.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:34:40 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
people (same director): The Eternal Daughter → The Souvenir. Amanda says the character is named Julian, linking it to Hogg's Souvenir project as a coda.
“this is a part of her souvenir, I guess, trilogy now, or like the project.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:36:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85 sure it was them)
people (same director): The Eternal Daughter → The Souvenir Part II. Sean thought The Souvenir Part II was an incredible statement and The Eternal Daughter an interregnum by comparison.
“I thought the souvenir part 2 was like an incredible statement.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:37:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
lineage (influence): The Eternal Daughter → Jack Cardiff. Sean felt the film downshifted into a Jack Cardiff style 1960s British ghost story he had seen before.
“this just kind of felt like a downshift to like making a, you know, Jack Cardiff, like 1960s British ghost story.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:37:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
theme (comparison): Babylon → Boogie Nights. Sean says the Boogie Nights comparison for Babylon is apt, though he thinks the characterization is weaker.
“The Boogie Nights comparison has been made frequently.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:42:10 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
career (career arc): Babylon → La La Land. Sean, who loved Whiplash and First Man but not La La Land, reads Babylon as Chazelle realizing La La Land was a mistake.
“This feels like him realizing that La La Land was a mistake, which I thought I think is like a magnificent thing.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:44:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Decision to Leave → Nope. Adam places two genre films at four and three, both praised as perfectly directed for what they are.
“for the kind of genre film they are, this is my number 3 film, they are perfectly directed.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:44:38 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
people (same director): Decision to Leave → The Handmaiden. Sean says The Handmaiden was the first Park movie he liked in a long time, then Decision to Leave was the next.
“It was like the 1st park movie I'd liked in a while.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:45:16 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
theme (comparison): Decision to Leave → Basic Instinct. Sean likens Decision to Leave to Park's version of Basic Instinct, a perfectly directed little romantic noir.
“I liked this one as like his basic instinct, you know, like, this is a perfectly directed little romantic noir.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:45:18 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
verdict (genre ranking): Speak No Evil → Barbarian. Chris notes his list is horror-centric, with Barbarian at five and Speak No Evil at four, calling Speak No Evil the most effective horror film of the year.
“it's probably the most effective horror movie I've seen this year.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:48:20 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Happening → Saint Omer. Amanda places Happening at four as a clear-eyed thriller structured week by week; Adam later places Saint Omer, another French film, at two.
“it almost like becomes a thriller of her trying to get the abortion and it goes like week by week”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:52:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Happening → Blonde. Amanda says Andrew Dominik should be made to rewatch Happening's abortion scene as penance for Blonde.
“I think that Andrew Dominic should be sentenced to rewatching the abortion scene in this movie for the rest of his life is penance for what he did in blonde”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:52:50 · Amanda Dobbins (0.90 sure it was them)
people (same director): All the Beauty and the Bloodshed → Laura Poitras. Sean says the film fits Poitras's past films about outsiders and how media is disseminated, while reimagining what matters to her.
“somehow in keeping with the films that she's made in the past about outsiders and the way that media is disseminated”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:55:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
people (same director): Nope → Us. Adam thought Peele could have gone either way after Us, and now rates Nope above his other two horror films.
“But I mean, this film, I think, is better than the other two.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:59:47 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Tár → Nope. Chris puts Tar at three and Banshees at two; Adam has Nope at three; the four lists overlap on Tar (Chris 3, Amanda 2, Sean 2) and on Nope (Adam 3, Sean 1).
“Number 3 is for me is tar.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:00:01 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
people (performance comparison): Tár → Daniel Day-Lewis. Chris says watching Blanchett is like watching a Daniel Day-Lewis movie, something you need front row seats for.
“This is like when you're watching a Daniel Day-Lewis movie.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:00:13 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): The Fabelmans → The Eternal Daughter. Amanda ranks The Eternal Daughter at five and The Fabelmans at three, noting a taste for directors making movies about themselves.
“But I like all of the director projects of let me just make a movie about myself.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:01:51 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): The Fabelmans → West Side Story. Adam says late Spielberg makes two movies at once; West Side Story had nothing inside the tour de force, while The Fabelmans has a petty, thorny movie inside.
“I like the other movie that's inside the Fablemans, which is like petty and thorny.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:05:03 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
theme (thematic): Top Gun: Maverick → Jackass Forever. Adam says he would give best actor to Cruise and Knoxville alike because the two films are both about passing the torch to a new generation while sticking around.
“I think they're kind of the same film. all about. like passing the torch to a new generation, but also sticking around.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:08:46 · Adam Nayman (0.80 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Saint Omer → Happening. Adam notes Saint Omer was France's Oscar submission over Happening, and says France did not make a bad call.
“So with all with all respect to happening, which is a really good movie.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:09:02 · Adam Nayman (0.80 sure it was them)
craft (style comparison): Saint Omer → Fred Wiseman. Adam compares the film's endless naturalistic courtroom testimony to a Fred Wiseman or Raymond Depardon movie.
“it's very much like a Fred Wiseman movie, except, or a Raymond Deppardon movie, except real.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:09:33 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Tár → Top Gun: Maverick. Sean says his number two Tar and number one Nope are close, as electric moviegoing experiences, while his number three is Top Gun: Maverick.
“This, my number 2 and my number one are just, I almost did one and one and then I didn't do it”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:13:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
theme (comparison): Tár → Lincoln. Chris contrasts Blanchett's level of performance with a Lincoln-style historically resonant part, as a box-office draw for older audiences.
“I guess it's not Lincoln where she's like doing this historically like sort of resonant part, but it's in that kind of level of performance”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:16:11 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (style comparison): Tár → Stanley Kubrick. Sean says Tar is perceived as having Kubrickian coldness, which makes it less inviting at the box office.
“it at least is perceived as having that Kubrickian coldness, which I think is not very inviting as a movie going experience.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:16:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
theme (comparison): Tár → Phantom Thread. Adam compares Tar to Phantom Thread as an unexpected discourse and meme movie driven by a naked, embarrassing performance.
“It is a meme monster movie. In a way that reminds me, in a way that reminds me actually more than anything, of something like Phantom Thread”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:19:08 · Adam Nayman (0.80 sure it was them)
theme (comparison): Tár → Phantom Thread. Sean agrees with Phantom Thread as a perfect comparison, since both are secretly comedies.
“Phantom Thread is a perfect comparison, Adam, because it's also that's also a crypto comedy”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:19:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
programming (pairing): Aftersun → The Fabelmans. Sean calls Aftersun an interesting pairing with The Fabelmans, both memory movies about childhood; Aftersun is told while the memory is fresher.
“Interesting pairing with the fablemans, this movie.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:23:37 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
industry (awards comparison): Aftersun → Moonlight. Sean says A24 could push Aftersun like Moonlight if they did not have Everything Everywhere All at Once.
“you could see them really pushing a kind of moonlight-esque campaign behind this film.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:24:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
lineage (sequel verdict): Top Gun: Maverick → Top Gun. Chris says the sequel delivered and is better than the first, and Amanda agrees.
“It's better than the 1st one”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:26:26 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
theme (analogy): Top Gun: Maverick → Led Zeppelin. Chris says the movie is what happens on the one in 137 listens when the second half of Stairway to Heaven hits.
“This movie is what happens when the 2nd half of Stairway to Heaven hits”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:29:20 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Top Gun: Maverick → Nope. Sean puts Nope at number one over his number three Top Gun, arguing Nope makes you think while Maverick deliberately does not; he says you can love one without knocking the other.
“It is like, I loved Top Gun Maverick, but it doesn't ask you to think about a single goddamn thing.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:30:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Nope → Hoyte van Hoytema. Sean praises Hoyte van Hoytema's cinematography on Nope as out of this world.
“Hoyt von Hoytzmo cinematography is out of this world.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:31:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
lineage (influence): Nope → Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Sean says Nope is as much a Spielberg movie as any he has seen in a long time, with Close Encounters the usual touchstone, and notes the shared theme of looking up and trying to see.
“nope is as much a Spielberg movie as any movie I've seen in a long, long time.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:31:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
programming (same-year pairing): Nope → The Fabelmans. Sean finds it fascinating that in one year Spielberg made a movie about why he makes movies and Peele made the most Spielbergian movie in ages.
“it's fascinating that this is a year in which Spielberg made a movie about how he figured out why he wanted to make movies”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:31:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
career (career comparison): Jordan Peele → M. Night Shyamalan. Adam says the next-Spielberg mantle thrust on Peele is what happened to Shyamalan, who has come out the other end better.
“It's what happened to Shamalan, who, by the way, has come out the other end to me better in M 90 year than, than ever”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:32:30 · Adam Nayman (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Nope → Eadweard Muybridge. Sean reads Nope as launching from the black jockey in Muybridge's original film strip, an invented family tied to a hundred years of film history.
“related to the black jockey that we see in the Edward Weybridge, you know, original film strip, and then use that as the launch point for 100 years of film history”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:33:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career comparison): Jordan Peele → Christopher Nolan. Sean says Peele and maybe Nolan are the only ones who get a huge check and use it to blow your mind.
“Like maybe Christopher Nolan is the only person you could say who's like, okay, you have a $100000000 check, blow my mind.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:34:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career fork): Nope → Phantom Thread. Sean wonders if Peele will go the Phantom Thread route, the Visit route, or keep making Inception-scale films, and hopes for a Spielbergian approach.
“in 10 or 15 years whether or not Jordan Peele is making his phantom thread.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:34:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Nope → Gowan. Adam says Gowan's Strange Animal on Nope's soundtrack is his favorite thing about the movie and asks Peele why 80s Canadian rock is on it.
“not just Corey Hart, but Gowan's strange animal, which is my favorite thing about the movie.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:35:17 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Nope → Corey Hart. Adam notes Corey Hart is among the 80s Canadian rock staples on Nope's soundtrack.
“not just Corey Hart, but Gowan's strange animal, which is my favorite thing about the movie.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:35:17 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)

Fun items (25)

fun, about Sight and Sound poll: Sean notes that the Sight and Sound poll ballots include a Looney Tune and a 14-minute film on Adam's list, which includes Duck Amuck and Meshes of the Afternoon.
“I mean, Adam had a had a had a looney tune and a 14 minute film on his list.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:20:41 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Barbarian: Chris says seeing it was like going to the movies in the 90s, knowing nothing and having your mind blown; Amanda has not seen it and threatens to call it mid.
“going to see movies in the 90s where you just don't know anything about it.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:32:20 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about The Eternal Daughter: Sean saw it at the New York Film Festival about five feet from Tilda Swinton and bumped it half a star for it. Amanda had slept on it because Sean did not respond to it at the festival.
“the movie was bumped up half a star for me by seeing it in the front row and then being less than 5 feet away from Tilda Swinton.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:38:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Sean's backstory: he left a holiday party at Amanda's, in a bad mood, to drive to Century City for a three-hour-eight-minute screening, and was blown away anyway. He relays a Letterboxd review asking if it's a love letter to cinema or a suicide note.
“Is this a love letter to cinema or a suicide note?”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:41:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Sean says Margot Robbie is one of the only truly fearless young stars, glorious and disgusting at times, and might deserve a best actress nod.
“She is one of the only truly fearless young stars we have.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:42:39 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about Decision to Leave: Amanda still thinks weekly about the sushi takeout shot.
“that shot, that sushi takeout. I just, I think about that once a week.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:47:12 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about Speak No Evil: Chris says it has one of the great horror endings of the century and could only be made now.
“one of the great endings of a horror movie in the century.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:48:34 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about Speak No Evil: A Danish couple visits a Dutch couple in the Netherlands. Chris calls it a what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you movie and a gut test for horror fans; Amanda says friends who took Sean's recommendation confronted her about it.
“This is the what the fuck is wrong with you, movie?”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:49:49 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Happening: Amanda tried not to pick it because of another year of abortion dramas in her top five, noting the timing alongside the overturning of Roe v. Wade; she calls it a week-by-week thriller.
“another year, another abortion drama in my top 5 list”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:50:48 · Amanda Dobbins (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about All the Beauty and the Bloodshed: Adam describes a moment where Nan Goldin realizes another reason she became a photographer; the film does not belabor it and he teared up.
“It made me tear up on the spot when she has this one little moment of self realization.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:58:28 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about Nope: Adam notes Peele's humility when told he's made three great horror movies in a row: he asks about John Carpenter.
“Peel's like, what about John Carpenter?”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:59:36 · Adam Nayman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about The Fabelmans: Amanda asks if she would trade having her son be as successful as Spielberg for the movie he'd make about her; Sean says to take the Jurassic Park money.
“But could you be sitting on Jurassic Park money?”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:03:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
fun, about Top Gun: Maverick: Sean on Cruise: the film is a beautifully designed vehicle and every viewing he slips into the passenger seat.
“every time I watch it, I slip right into the passenger seat and I let it take me on a ride.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:06:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Saint Omer: Adam describes it as a rigorous courtroom film that plays games with identification while never nudging, pushing, underlining or italicizing.
“it doesn't underline, it doesn't italicize.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:10:57 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about The Banshees of Inisherin: Chris calls it Martin McDonagh's treatise on friendship and a meaningful life; his wife was not convinced by the screener he brought upstairs.
“To me, it's like a Martin McDonough's treatise on friendship, and it's his treatise on what makes a meaningful life.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:12:33 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about Tár: Chris watched three times: frustrated by the ending first, a blast second, and by the third he called it one of the great ones. He notes it will make under five million dollars.
“This is one of the great ones.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:15:29 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Tár: Sean says the opening Q&A scene with the New Yorker interviewer is how to use Blanchett: ten minutes of her talking about things she likes. A hosts' joke imagines a Todd Field and Adam Sandler pairing.
“that opening scene, as I wrote in the Ringer piece, where she's taking questions from Gopnik, from the New Yorkers, like, that is how you use Cape Blanchett.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:18:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.65 sure it was them)
fun, about Tár: Adam recommends Mr. Otterlake's Lydia Tar fan cam on Twitter; Sean notes many people think Lydia Tar is a real person.
“there's also the fact that so many people seem to think Lydia Tarr was a real person.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:19:34 · Adam Nayman (0.55 sure it was them)
fun, about Aftersun: Adam says it destroyed him, being about how kids look at unhappy parents, and that Paul Mescal might be a great actor based on it. Sean and Amanda were mixed; Amanda says she watches as a child of parents.
“The movie just absolutely killed me dead.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:22:07 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Top Gun: Maverick: Chris saw it twice in theaters, twice on planes, once with two ex-naval pilots doing YouTube commentary, plus clips, and says it still rocks. A guy in the audience shouted a line of praise to Jon Hamm at the end.
“I'm never going to forget like the screenings I saw this, especially the dude at the end of this movie who went, great job, John Hamm.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:26:34 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Top Gun: Maverick: Jennifer Connelly acts like she has been at the bar the whole time; the hosts joke that her Porsche is safe parked on the street in Miramar as an admiral's daughter.
“And the idea that she just acts like she's been there the whole time is the funniest thing.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:28:09 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Top Gun: Maverick: Chris says the Who training sequence is what the song is for, not car commercials, and that the film is the one-in-137 time Stairway to Heaven's second half hits.
“It's not for a fucking car commercial.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:29:18 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Nope: Sean admires the premise: an invented family that may be descended from the Black jockey in Muybridge's film strip, launching 100 years of film history and people whose names we don't know.
“that's a genius idea for a drama, let alone a UFO movie.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:33:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Nope: Adam wants Jordan Peele to explain the 80s Canadian rock on the soundtrack, especially Gowan's Strange Animal, his favorite thing about the movie, and wonders if Peele got trapped at a cottage on Canada Day.
“was he trapped at someone's cottage on Canada day?”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:35:30 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about Kingdom Exodus: Adam's best thing he saw all year, the funniest, though technically not a movie; he spoke to Lars von Trier for the New Yorker and says people will miss him when he's gone.
“King Kingdom Exodus, which is the funniest thing I saw all year.”
The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:37:20 · Adam Nayman (0.80 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Sean Fennessey (host): Loves ambitious, big swings and craft: Nope at number one, Babylon, Tar, and big engineered blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick. Responds to blunt, shocking horror (he has recommended Speak No Evil repeatedly) and is wary of Park Chan-wook and Chazelle's La La Land. Less taken with quiet interregnum films like The Eternal Daughter. Sucker for theater experiences and auteurs spending studio money on something personal.
Amanda Dobbins (host): Loves personal, formal films about women and families (The Eternal Daughter, Happening, The Fabelmans) and controlled star turns (Tar), plus big communal blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick. Not a horror enthusiast; less moved by Aftersun because she watches as a child of parents. A sucker for Joanna Hogg and for romantic comedies and Howard Hawks.
Chris Ryan (guest): Loves big-screen Hollywood entertainment and communal theatrical experiences, with a horror streak (Barbarian, Speak No Evil). Loves Cate Blanchett, Martin McDonagh and Top Gun: Maverick as his number one. Admits being a little embarrassed by how populist his list is.
Adam Nayman (guest): A critic with an auteurist, formal bent who admires rigor, craft and mastery, including genre films (Decision to Leave, Nope), Cronenberg and late-style work. Loves Aftersun deeply, is lukewarm on Tar, and skips big superhero tentpoles. A sucker for Canadian trivia and offbeat picks like a Looney Tune.

The show's recurring bits

Drafts: Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument.
Hall of Fame: A star's or director's best, ranked and argued.
Countdowns: Ranked lists, top five or top ten.

Names the transcriber got wrong

Sean Fantasy → Sean Fennessey
Amanda Davin → Amanda Dobbins
Adam Naaman → Adam Nayman
John Deelman / Jean Dielman → Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Nicholas Rogue → Nicolas Roeg
Botra Vai / Bo Trevai → Beau Travail
a legité → L'Avventura
Mahal and drive → Mulholland Drive
Zha-Jan-Cur, Hosha Shen → Jia Zhangke, Hou Hsiao-hsien (guess)
Clayo from 5 to 7 → Cleo from 5 to 7
Gianlu Gadar → Jean-Luc Godard
Cape Blanchett / Cape Blanchard → Cate Blanchett
Hoyt von Hoytzmo → Hoyte van Hoytema
Zach Kreger → Zach Cregger
Bill Scarsgard → Bill Skarsgard
Audrey Duan → Audrey Diwan
any or no → Annie Ernaux
Anna Marie of Bartolemae → Anamaria Vartolomei
Laura Poitrus → Laura Poitras
Andrew Dominic → Andrew Dominik
Martin McDonough → Martin McDonagh
Barry Keegan → Barry Keoghan
Take it to Paradise → Minions: Rise of Gru song Take Me to Paradise (guess)
Amy Talbin → Amy Taubin
Janice distribution → Janus Films / Criterion (guess)
Joseph Kazinski → Joseph Kosinski
Shamalan → M. Night Shyamalan
Mr. Otterlake's Lydia Tar fan cam → Twitter user name unclear
Man at number three → likely Amanda, at number three
Edward Weybridge → Eadweard Muybridge
Gopnik → Adam Gopnik (the film's New Yorker interviewer)

The Big Picture: The Top Five Movies of 2022

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Films that came up

anecdote (24)

recommended (22)

compared (11)

passing (19)

dismissed (2)

Claims (43)

Fun items (25)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong