377: 2022 Sifties (Part 1)

Live from a bunker in the heart of the Ozarks, a podcast where we promise we actually do know that television exists. It's Sif Pop. Welcome to Cif Pop Weekly streaming live. Most Fridays are available to download later in your podcast feed. Unless, of course, you're a patron. Patrons get perks. Patrons get those perks. Cif days. I'm your host, Aaron Dicer. And when he comes back as a Na'vi, he will be a totally separate character. It's Andrew Ormsby, ladies and gentlemen. Triggered. Oh, hey. And each week we will talk about movies, TV, and whatever else from the pop culture universe is on our minds. And please welcome them. They are the geniuses behind Cif Pop.com. It is Aaron Schweitzer and Robert Buffard. Thank you.

I was trying to whistle and it's too early in the morning for whistling, so I apologize. This is a fair point. You make a valid, valid point. Well, good morning to those watching live and welcome to those listening on the podcast. It is part one of the Sifties, an ongoing tradition here at Sift Pop towards the end of January.

to Rank Stuff, to take a look at the things we saw over the course of the year and talk about which we like the best. We very much go on a favorites system at CivPop. This is not any kind of qualification of what is best, better, or worst. This is a qualification of our own enjoyment and desire to enjoy pop culture. So the choices we make are about our favorites and not necessarily the best. We want to get that out there right off the bat. It was interesting at the Critics' Choice Awards, Cate Blanchett won for Best Actress, and during her speech...

went on a rant that I've heard other actors do about why do we do this thing? Why do we make this a horse race? And I always find it interesting when you do that as you're winning an award that you showed up to win. But that's neither here nor there. I actually appreciate it. I like when people kind of question why we do these kind of things. If I were to have a conversation with Kate and others who have said those kind of things, I think it doesn't have to be mutually exclusive to celebrate the pop culture that has happened over the year by talking about our favorite things and actually choosing our favorite things. That doesn't have to be exclusive to pitting movies or actors against each other in a competition. There is a slight distinction between sports and pop culture rankings.

And I think that distinction has to do with the art of it all. So the subjectivity will always make these conversations interesting and I think worthwhile having. And so I'm glad to have you guys on to do that again this year. So we will break it down and we will do a few categories for this show, kind of some of the superlative categories. We'll do our television rankings on this first episode. And then next week we will do our overall best movies, best performances in best movie moments, as well as the official.

sif pop ranking from all our sif pop contributors uh so looking forward to all of that before we get into it though i do want to check in with aaron and robert uh how are things going with like the website and aaron i know writers room podcast is kicking along so um robert tell us a little bit about sifpop.com kind of what's going on over there these days We have a lot of fun stuff going on at siftpop.com. Over the holidays and the beginning of the new year, we kind of took a break from doing the best ever challenges in favor of doing our own version of the sifties in which the 20, 30 or so writers, we all got together nominated for 10 different awards and you can check the website and find all those. We have more active writers than we've ever had. Last year, we had more page views, more reviews published, more everything published than we've ever had. Yeah, things at the site are popping. We got a lot of great people. We got a lot of good stuff like Aaron S is going to talk about with podcast. Got a great community going with a lot of great people and it's just a lot of fun. You could say things over at the site are sift popping.

There's sift popping. I just wanted to make sure that was clear. My soul started to die as soon as Aaron said, you could say. It's all you need. Just those trigger words. And it's like, oh boy, something's coming. Aaron, what about Writers Room Podcast? How's stuff going over there? The podcast is a forum for us to be able to give a voice to all the writers outside of their writing on the website. Doing things a little different this time because we're just kicking off movies from my watch list instead of the traditional format that we've had. And it's been a lot of fun so far. It's been good to kind of see.

films that kind of don't necessarily fit a bubble of something um but they're just kind of like any film like under the past format i really don't see any way that we would have talked about like wolf of wall street which we talked about a couple weeks ago um we did just do um our top five every writer that submitted me on their top five movies of the year that episode went live a week and a half ago so that's up on there um and just some um some fun things happening one of the other um things that's happening is robert is going to start doing a once a month episode on the first saturday of every month that'll be grabbing a writer and doing like four or five reviews for movies from the previous month so just kind of like a review roundup So I think that's the main thing. We're trucking along. It's a good time. We have writers from Australia, England, Scotland, all over the US. It's just a fun time. If you're interested, by the way, if you've ever thought I would like to give a shot at writing, those kind of things, we really do view the website as an opportunity.

to find your footing and how you feel about that. So if you're curious, just hit us up with an email. Aaron at Sifpop.com will work. Feedback at Sifpop.com will work. Whatever the case may be. Because it's been one of my favorite things about the website and what you guys are doing with it and the heart behind it.

is that this is a large group of people who are finding their voice on what it means to talk about pop culture, what it means to write about pop culture, what it means to do a podcast about pop culture and how that feels. And we know that makes it a little bit of a revolving door sometimes because people come in and they're like, you know, actually, I thought I would like doing this, but maybe I don't enjoy doing this or people who come in and really have a good time with it and move on to do their own thing or whatever the case may be. But sippop.com, it's been really fun to see what you guys are doing with it this year and have really enjoyed the content. So thank you. Thank you guys for doing that. And really, really appreciate it. Love doing it. All right. So let's get into it. Here are the categories for this first episode of The Sifties. We will start off. Each of us will choose our single best non-movie pop culture moment of the year for us personally.

This could be an episode of a TV show. It could be a song you love, a video game you love. It could be anything that would be included as pop culture, but is not a movie. So that will be the first category. And then we will go through our biggest letdowns, our biggest surprises. And then we will do overrated and underrated as well. Or as we like to say, not for me, not for them. You know, that idea. So and then, of course, we'll end with our TV countdown. So this first category, we just pick one. Non-movie pop culture moment. Robert, you're going to kick us off. What is your non-movie pop culture moment of 2022?

uh well i remember a couple years ago on this in this section someone did sports so i'm going with a sports moment and as a big boston sports fan i have to choose uh celtics versus heat game seven of the eastern conference finals um it went downhill from there after for the celtics but that was a huge moment for me um and very exciting um and for me pop culture is movies and sports um so yeah that's that's gotta be my number one that's amazing uh i i think it's it's interesting the boston sports thing has has changed so much in my lifetime Because, I mean, the Celtics have been good, you know, obviously with Larry Bird and whatnot. And that was like when I was a kid, kid. But like then to have the Patriots become a dynasty and, you know, the Red Sox actually start winning championships. Like, you know, it's just it's been this weird transition to for my Boston sports fans. So, yeah, anytime a Boston sports sports fan starts talking about sports right now, I get a little annoyed because, you know, as a Detroit sports fan, it's been a while. It's been a long, long while.

So, yeah, we had the Red Wings in the late 90s was the last time. Red Wings are still doing pretty good. No, not really. No, I mean, come on. I do need to correct myself. They've got the talent. I do need to correct myself. The Pistons won a title in 2004. They took out the Lakers that year, and that was really fun. We're on our test, took a lot of other things out that year, too. The Red Wings are on the later half of the rebuild, but they're like third or fourth to last in the league. Very nice. Good choice, Robert. Andrew, what do you got? Real quick, I want to say the Sifties, probably besides the Sposkers and the...

the most anticipated movies. This is my favorite podcast we do each year. I just want to say real quick, I love it so much. But my number one pick for my favorite non-movie pop culture moment goes to the music and the music video for Bring Back the Time, the hit single from a giant collaboration from New Kids on the Block, En Vogue, Rick Astley, and Salt-N-Pepa. All amazing, you know, 80s, 90s, you know, bands coming together to deliver a really, really good song. Probably my favorite. No, it definitely is my favorite song of the year. Nice. So if you haven't seen it or heard it, definitely check it out. It's crazy good. So Andrew's non-movie pop culture moment of the year is Nostalgia. Yes, that's exactly. In its purest form. No, that's a great choice. Great choice. I'll go next. I got a chance in Nashville this year.

to catch Mike Birbiglia as he was transitioning from Los Angeles to New York with his brand new show, The Old Man in the Pool, and just happened to be in Nashville when I was in Nashville and went with a group of people to see him do The Old Man in the Pool. And it was by far the funniest thing I've ever seen in person, like live stage. So is that the name of his new tour? Yeah, well, so interestingly enough, he did it in Los Angeles and just started selling out shows in L.A. and people were loving it.

And then Broadway was like, hey, can we get you on Broadway for a while? And so he was like, sure. So he signed a deal to do some shows in New York, which I think finished up this week or last week, but did like a three or four month run on Broadway. And in between, I think he just picked a couple spots where he could do shows. And one of them happened to be at the Grand Ole Opry. That's not true. It's where the Grand Ole Opry used to be in Nashville, downtown. So the Ryman, Ryman Auditorium.

It was the most uncomfortable I've ever been during a show because I don't know if you know this about the Ryman, but it's an old church and it's hardwood pews and they're not very far in front of each other. So like it's one of those situations where a man of my stature has no choice but to man spread. Otherwise, I have to stick both my knees through solid wood. And that's generally not possible. So apologies to people on both sides of me during the show. You got to get there earlier and get to the front pew. You know, it's kind of like the. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. But anyways, perfectly old man in the pool. I imagine.

I imagine this will be streaming at some point. I imagine he will put this on some sort of video. So when he does, check it out because it's absolutely amazing. I love that guy. He's so funny. Yeah, he is, in my opinion, the closest we will get to understanding what it must have been like to go see like Mark Twain.

Or somebody like that, where they're just like they're a humorist, but they're also like conversational. And he's just so good at telling stories. And that's what sets him apart, I think, from a lot of standups or a lot of comedians is that he's not telling jokes. He's not even doing topical humor. He's storytelling, but he does it so, so well. It's it's very cohesive, has a beginning, middle and end thematically is structured beautifully. It's just it's really great work. So, yeah, that was my my favorite non-movie pop culture moment. Aaron, what about you?

Yeah, I guess a little bit of shameless self-promotion here, but on the Writer's Room podcast, I got a chance to interview James Makowski, who is a film archivist for Francis Ford Coppola's company. And so he's worked on a lot of his films and most recently worked on the 4K transfer of The Godfather. And so it was just really cool because it's like one of those things where like... I'm not an industry person. Like, I don't get to go to the Critics' Choice Awards and take selfies with Weird Al, you know? So, like, anybody... I said, what selfie this year? One! Make it count, buddy. So, like, to me, it's anybody that really gets, like, is willing to give their time to this podcast. You know, that probably gets 30 views. I don't know. I don't actually know the view count, but just not, like, a really large podcast. It was just really good and a really interesting conversation if you're ever curious about what it looks like to restore old films to, like, to buff out scratches and about the integrity of it. I just... I thought it went really well and he's a really great guy and, yeah, check it out on the Writer's Room feed.

Very nice. Yeah, that's an interesting conversation. Yeah. Just thinking like, you know, you don't want to push it so far to where your restoration ends up taking away some of the, you know, the historical love for the old version, too. So take note, George Lucas. What if you haven't seen The Godfather Restoration on 4K? They're remarkably well done. By far the best it's ever looked. Very nice. All right. So they're our favorite non-movie pop culture performances. Let's move into the categories, the superlatives for this year.

This is how these will work. We basically will do nomination style. Each of us will get to nominate three things. So we'll go around round robin and nominate things. We may have picked more than three that we want to nominate because somebody else may nominate something we're thinking of. Once those 12 nominations have been chosen, the four of us will debate the winner for Cif Pop. So we will choose a winner in each category based on our nominations. All right. So.

Let's start with the biggest letdown of the year. This is the movie that you were expecting something of, and it fell way below those expectations. These categories are interesting because we all have different expectations of different movies, and so this one can kind of run the gamut. So let's kick it off. We will go the opposite direction we just did. Aaron, you'll start with the first nomination for biggest letdown.

Sure, I'll kick things off with Uncharted. Yes. Look, I'm not a huge fan of the video games, but the trailer got me really excited for it. And it's just a boring movie. And that's the worst thing an action adventure movie can be. Yeah.

Yep. I think also the Tom Holland of it all. I really enjoy him. I was looking forward to seeing what he could do outside of Spider-Man. And yeah, there were some moments where visually it was interesting, but for the most part, I was just bored as well. Definitely won. I might have nominated if you had not. So that is Uncharted, our first nomination. All right, I will go next and nominate.

For biggest letdown, Blonde will be my nomination. I was really expecting something amazing here. Anna D'Armas is an incredible actor, and for what it's worth, does good work here. It's just the work she's doing is in a terrible structure, something that doesn't make sense thematically, feels like it's lost its place, feels like self-parody for half the time you're watching it. It's exploitative in ways I was not expecting. Blonde is a big miss in my mind, and I was expecting much, much more. So Blonde is what I would nominate for my first nomination.

Andrew, how about you? I am going to nominate the movie that I think a couple years ago was like my most anticipated movie for 2022. And that was Nope. I was so excited for Nope. And the disappointment, like the level of excitement and disappointment, that was just such a huge drop down for me.

I didn't know what the movie was trying to tell me. And it wasn't until Aaron, you and I were talking about it and you were talking about some of the subliminal, not subliminal, but, you know, like the hidden messages and stuff like that, like about how this could possibly be about police brutality and stuff like that. And like, yeah, some of these metaphors and, you know. messages that kind of work, but you're once, once they're, um, uh, explained to you, but the movie doesn't make a good enough job of making the audience, like all the audience aware of what it's trying to say through the metaphors and stuff. So it was just a big, weird movie for me. I imagine Nope is going to come up in other court categories for the rest of us. Uh, but, uh, but yes, we will see it here in biggest letdown for Andrew. I will say, since you mentioned it, I, to this day.

Do not know that there's anyone else who sees the racial implications and police brutality. I haven't heard anybody else talk about it. And again, it's just something that just stood out to me. I watched it again recently and it just to me, it feels like that's what the movie is about. But that's kind of the beauty of art in some ways is what you layer on top of it. So I have heard somebody talk about it that way. And that person is Jordan Peele. Oh, really? I didn't know that. So Vanity Fair did a writer's roundtable with one of the Daniels and Ryan Johnson and Jordan Peele. And then I don't know their name. Sorry, but.

the writer of Till and the writer of The Fablemans, and got them all in a room together to talk about things. And both Jordan Peele and the writer of Till were talking about the importance of the camera for both movies, for Till and, no, and specifically Jordan Peele was mentioning about exactly what you were saying on the podcast. Oh, that makes me feel good. I feel like I'm not making it up then, because it feels like such a lively part of what that is saying about how... the the camera can exploit but it can also save and like the idea that the you know that capturing things that that you know capturing things on video uh is this double-edged sword uh and uh the way it relates to media and exploitation anyways well that makes me uh glad that that uh peel is kind of confirmed a little bit at least that that that is at least part of it obviously there's a lot going on uh in that movie or uh maybe not uh according to andrew but uh but uh we will we'll talk about that more uh in further categories uh robert what is your first nomination I'm somewhat surprised this one hasn't come up yet, but it's Thor, Love, and Thunder. It's perhaps the last time I'll expect anything out of an MCU movie. It was like, actually, Guardians of the Galaxy. But I was crossing my fingers for this one, hoping it would be good. It's the last time I'll expect anything, except for one of the next ones that's coming out. That's going to be the last one, I can tell you. Yeah, that'll be the last one. Next one will be the last one. But I love most of Tyka's movies. That's what all Adam say. Yeah.

I love most of Taika's movies, and I really liked Thor Ragnarok, and I was hoping that he could take some of what they were doing with Thor in Avengers Endgame and, you know, do it in a nuanced way, in a somewhat tender way, but instead it is literally all jokes and nothing thematic or emotional is happening, at least that I could see. So I thought it was very bad. I'm with you. I'm with you. It was quite a letdown for sure. Let's do the snake style. So Robert, why don't you go with another nomination? One of my favorite filmmakers working today is Alex Garland.

And I love Ex Machina. I loved devs a couple years ago on Hulu. I actually really liked this movie when I first saw it, but since then it's just kind of just plummeted in my thoughts and that's men. I don't really think it has any layers to what it's saying. It just is kind of right all there on the surface told in a like wacky absurdist way. Horror absurdist.

The performances are good, but I just expect so much more out of anything Alex Garland does besides just surface level observations about something that I think other people could probably talk about much, much better. Like I said, whenever I was talking to Aaron, when we first did the review for this movie, I'm like, can 15 minutes of a movie ruin the entire thing? Yes, because honestly, the ending of this movie is so like, you know. gross and shocking and, and just weird and psychedelic that it ruins everything else. Because I think that Rory Kinnear, like I would probably nominate him for like best supporting actor because he has to do so many spoilers for next week. Maybe. Yeah.

Yeah, I disagree with Andrew that the end ruins the movie. I don't I don't I don't I understand why people find it gross. I also think that it is intentional. But I think what Robert where I agree with you is that this movie plays so much thematically right on the surface in your face like that there's there's not a lot of nuance to what it's trying to say. I think what what it wants to do is to you know how like the the Kristen Schaal is a horse.

concept where you do something long enough it becomes funny and then it's not funny and then it's funny again and then it's even funnier like that whole idea I think he thinks he's doing that with the the themes right like where it's like oh it's so on the surface it's not good but then it's oh it's even more on the surface maybe it's amazing you know like he's trying to like you know really pound pound it in our face I just don't know that it all works and so now I understand how men would be disappointing because I too am a Garland fan wait Robert you watch this twice no well you said on the second viewing that it uh No, I said after sitting with it. I think about it longer and longer. I'm just thinking about re-watching this movie. I will re-watch it. I will probably re-watch this at some point because I do think Alex Garland is a smart filmmaker and there's parts of this movie that I think are really good. That echo in the tunnel. The creepiest and one of the most well sound balanced. The sound design is incredible.

Yeah, it's an incredible portion of that movie. And so there are things I do kind of want to revisit. But yeah. I'll put scenes on YouTube, but not rewatch the movie. There you go. Fair enough. Fair enough. Andrew, what is your second nomination? Have you ever had a movie that you know in your heart you're wrong about? Like your inability to understand it doesn't make it a bad movie because you know through everything that's going on screen. You're like, I just don't get this movie. For me, it was the menu.

While I was watching the movie, I was angry at myself. I was, like, yelling at my brain. Like, you understand primer. Like, you understand how, like, complex, you know, weird, not-on-the-surface movies work. Why aren't you getting this one? Because everything about it is screaming that I should love it, but I just, like, it just didn't work for me, and it's so frustrating because I want to love it.

It sounds like I mean, that's kind of what our quote unquote overrated category is, right, where it's like, you know, everybody else got this, but but, you know, I didn't seem to get it. But but this disappointed you because you had high expectations based on what other people were saying and those kind of things. Yeah, well, just I think it was the week before I saw it. You guys were talking about it from whenever you went down to Austin Fantastic Fest. Yeah. And you guys were like, oh, the menu. That's the number one movie. Like, if I come away from Fantastic Fest and I say, there's one movie I'm excited for everybody to see. And it's the menu. I was like, all right, I'm seeing that next week. And then I was like, it's not that there aren't great things. Like, it's funny. I did not expect it to be funny. The visuals, like the way it's shot is gorgeous. But like, what I was trying to say, that's where this movie lost me. And it's so frustrating because I wanted to love it.

My next biggest letdown is Black Adam will be my second nominee. And yes, I was expecting good things from Black Adam because I generally like The Rock. Even when other people don't like his movies, I have a really good time. And I just did not have a really good time. The good time I had in Black Adam, it was not around The Rock. It was around other characters. And the movie just, it was weird in that it felt like it was trying to do...

so many different things and just couldn't accomplish any of them uh there are a lot of things we now know in hindsight about what the rock was trying to do with you know uh re-establishing the dc around himself he was trying to take over so everybody knows the rock is and it's it's been kind of it's been kind of a bad look for him too kind of post uh black adam and I will say a bad look, but I also will say I get it. Like, I understand when you invest yourself in something creatively and people don't seem to get it or, you know, it doesn't do what you want it to do, that the instinct is to get defensive. And so I get the instinct. But it's just been, Black Adam has been a disappointing thing kind of all around it. So I had that in my most disappointing of the year. And the most vital and important post-credit scene of any movie. I mean, talk about laying the foundations, ladies and gentlemen.

Yeah. That's how you do it. Well, I mean, it was, he did, his plan was that that was laying the fat, like his plan was that there would, he was trying to create a universe where Black Adam, I guess, spoilers for the end of Black Adam, it's been long enough that I think we can talk about this in a year-end conversation. I haven't seen it and I don't care, so you're good. Okay, good to know, good to know. Henry Cavill comes back to Superman. So Henry Cavill shows up, you know, in the post-credits as Superman or whatever, and The Rock was trying to set up a series of Superman and Black Adam movies that would culminate in them battling each other. And it's like, the idea that he saw this character as the,

You know, A2, A1. You know, like, it's a really interesting psychological study on kind of what he was thinking. But yeah, anyhow, James Gunn's, I think, going a different direction. James Gunn took over in the hierarchy of power really different. Yes, it did. Yes, it did. All right, so Aaron, your second and third nominees. Well, I didn't have, or I did have Thor 11 Thunder on my list, Robert. So I'll say the other one that I think probably all of us have on our list. I'll say Lightyear. I actually didn't see it.

because so many people were saying how bad it was. I have low expectations. It's not terrible. It's not terrible. It's not that it's a bad movie. It's just okay. And for a Pixar movie to be okay, it's not okay. It's hard because I kind of like, it's fine. It's worth a watch. I bought The Steelbook when it came out because I have a problem. But I haven't seen it again since and I don't know the next time I will see it. I'm not recommending it, but it's also just hard to be like, yeah, you should really check that out. But I love the concept too. Ever since they announced it, I love the idea that this is the movie that Andy watched that made him fall in love with Buzz Lightyear. And it's like...

this is the movie I watched that made me fall in love with socks and that was about it. So, it's just, I said it about, no, I just said it was boring. It's just forgettable. On the Rise Room podcast, I said, this is the most forgettable movie of the year for me. I think five years from now, people are like, oh yeah, they did that, right? And it won't matter. Nobody will care.

And for my third pick, time to make some people mad, I'm going with Avatar The Way of Water. Hey! Oh, no. This is going to be attributed to my expectations were high. And here's the main reason why I put it in this category still, is because it's not just Jim Cameron writing on this one, but there is also Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, who were writers on Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which the Caesar trilogy is my favorite movie trilogy of all time. So I just expected more, like in terms of like the humanity and character development and all these things I'm sharing is like, it's right there. And I'm like, it just wasn't for me. I left Avatar The Way of Water thinking I...

Could not care if Avatar 3 ever came out. I just am so uninvested in this world and in these people. Look, when we're all excited to go to Avatar 5, I will take your apology then. When you're fully invested in these characters... Aaron, we won't be around when Avatar 5 comes out. We'll be dust. It's mostly the addition of Rick Joff and Amanda Silver and how I really felt like it didn't add anything. Oh, I disagree so much. But that's okay. That's not what we're here to do. However, I...

I will say one of the things that's been interesting for me to watch the reaction to Avatar is to go through my own human psychology of my own biases, right? Because I think we all approach things with biases, and that's something we're not shy about at Zip Hop. Like, that is part of the process, is understanding I want to like this thing more than I want to like this other thing. I'm invested in this thing succeeding because of how I feel about it, those kind of things. So it's been really interesting to...

kind of turn it on myself because what will happen is I'll see somebody's take on Avatar about it, you know, the character's not working or the story not working and I'll go, ah, that's just your bias because you think that about the first one and you're just carrying it over into this one and then I turn it on myself and I go, or are you carrying over your love for the first one into needing this one to be great? And so that self-examination is one of my favorite parts about film discourse is the ability to really look inside your own biases and know, A, it kind of doesn't matter. You're still having a great time whether it's because you're biased or not and that's, you know, beautiful but also because it allows for greater nuanced conversation when you're able to look inside yourself and go, look, I know that I want this to succeed. I know that there's something about me that loves the fact that it just crossed two billion dollars and that you know james cameron somehow has done it again uh that that's a fun narrative for me to buy into uh but at the same time where is the you know are my views backed up by cogent rational thinking and that's that's what i love about movie discourse is the ability to take our biases and and uh and to explain those to each other through uh rational discourse so yeah yeah I can't believe our biggest letdowns include Avatar, The Menu, and nope. Aaron, I'm proud of you for putting Avatar. Thanks, Andrew. Because now I get to put another movie on there. I am going for my final nomination in the biggest letdown category to nominate something probably nobody else would because nobody else expected anything out of it. But I've had a great time with the Jurassic movies, and I always want a Jurassic movie to be good, and Jurassic World Dominion just isn't good. That was a special kind of stupid.

It's really and especially coming into this when knowing we were getting the OGs in the movie just does not know how to use them at all. It just makes them like a side quest, you know, kind of addition to the movie instead of doing what like Top Gun Maverick does, where it builds the movie around the idea of the OG and lets that character evolve or change or see in a different way. This just uses those characters as kind of pieces in a nostalgia puzzle. And I just I'm I was really let down by Jurassic World Dominion. So that's my third nominee in this category.

Andrew, what about you? What's your number three? I think that this movie, even though it's not my number one pick, I think it has probably the highest chance to win this category, actually. And that's going to be Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness. Because that movie was not good. I mean, it really wasn't. Everything they did with the Illuminati was so infuriatingly bad. Because that was the thing I was most excited about in that movie going into. It was like, okay, we're going to get Black Adam. We're going to get Reed Richards. We're going to get all of these amazing characters that I've wanted to see for so long in the MCU. And the twist with the villain, it was just a big mess that didn't feel like it existed. And please forgive.

this but it didn't feel like it existed in the same universe as the rest of the mcu and that's i'm talking from a narrative standpoint not like a you know visual because visually it's a gorgeous gorgeous movie Yeah, I think there were some missteps there. I don't mind the movie. I enjoyed it fine. I had a good time with it. But they definitely took, I think some of the, I think it started to show some of the seams of the multiversal storytelling and that they may have bit off a little more than they can chew because, you know, I just don't think they consider the psychological impact of bringing characters that people have wanted to see forever just to have them taken away. Like, it's just, it's this really weird moment in that movie. It's a lack of respect. Yeah, yeah, there is. There's a weird, there's a weird admission that nothing means anything, right? Like, the movie is telling us not to care.

in some ways. Kind of related to that, actually really closely related to that. It's like they're saying that the characters we love and that we've waited for are worth nothing more than fodder. Like they're just canon fodder. Yes, exactly. I'm like, no, they're not. They mean a lot to me or, you know, give them the respect they deserve. Well, there you go. Robert, what is your final nomination?

I think it's going to be Empire of Light. Yeah, good call. I thought this was literally one of the worst movies of the entire year, but when it has Sam Mendes directing and starring Olivia Colman with Colin Firth and Toby Jones and the rest of the ensemble cast that it has, it should be so much better. It's just a jumbled mess of themes and ideas and images. I will say that the Trent Reznor Atticus Ross score is great.

And Roger Deakins does great cinematography, but those are about the only positive things I can say about it. And not exactly like, you know, breaking news either. Sure, right. And Deakins does good cinematography. Like, what? Stop the presses. Yeah. So, yeah, when it's Sam Mendes and his track record, you expect so much more than this, especially with 1917 as his most recent movie.

Yes, it was a great call. I agree with that wholeheartedly. Empire of Light was a big letdown. All right, so here are the nominees. Jurassic World Dominion, Uncharted, Blonde, Black Adam, Lightyear, Nope, Thor, Love and Thunder, Men, The Menu, Avatar, The Way of Water, Doctor Strange, Multiverse of Madness, and Empire of Light. Anybody want to start the campaigning for a choice?

Did any of you have high expectations for Thor? I was gonna say Thor, because Andrew said that he may do Multiverse of Madison, 100%, but Thor is more disappointing than Doctor Strange for me. I agree with that. I think Thor is more disappointing than Doctor Strange. Okay. I'm totally fine with that. Yeah, they both were kind of let down. I was expecting Doctor Strange to be okay, and I thought it was okay. I was expecting a lot, because everything that I'd been told up to at this point, this is what's going to kick off the multiverse, and this movie's going to be as big as Endgame, or bigger, because the ramifications and everything, that's going to take place. And it is probably less impactful and meaningful than the original Doctor Strange. They step down somehow.

I think it's Thor. I think that's where we're going to land. I do appreciate that men nomination. I haven't seen it, so I can't contribute to that. But in the same chat seems to be agreeing that Lightyear is up there. That's the other one I was going to mention was Lightyear. I did not have high expectations for it. I haven't seen it. I think Thor is a good choice because I think most people had big expectations for Thor and most people were let down by those expectations. So I think Thor is the right choice.

Andrew, you want to start a campaign for Avatar with me? Yeah, man. I don't think we'll get very far. The chair does not cede any time to the gentleman. I'll say this about Thor. For me personally, I liked it. I mean, everything, every single complaint that somebody has about Thor, I look at it and I go, yeah, you're right. Like, I know they're right, but like, yes, the movie is just comedy and it's all jokes and it doesn't mean anything. But you know what? I laughed. I laughed a lot. Every single time one of those goats started screaming, I was laughing. You know? I mean, I laughed too. Doesn't mean I thought it was good.

I laugh just as much as when I click on a goat screaming video on YouTube. That's my poll quote for the movie poster. So yeah, Thor Love and Thunder will be the Sif Pop choice for biggest letdown of the year. It joins last year's The Card Counter as our choice in this category. That movie is so unbelievably bad. There are people that love it. There are people that love that movie. All right, let's move on to biggest surprise. This is the movie that you weren't expecting a lot out of necessarily, but it overperformed your expectations quite a bit. So Andrew, why don't you kick us off in this category? I am going to go with Top Gun Maverick.

And simply for the fact that it was a Top Gun sequel. Don't get me wrong. I love the original Top Gun. It's a cheese movie. And this is kind of a cheese movie, too. But it's a cheese movie that says a lot and it does a lot. And the emotions are everywhere in this movie. The whole thing between Tom Cruise and what's his name? Somebody help me out here. Miles Teller. Miles Teller. Thank you. The chemistry. I mean, Miles Teller pretty much is Goose. I mean, he looks just like him. They got a time traveler. He's a booster, actually. Yeah. No, that's what I'm saying is he looks so much like Goose. Yeah. Yeah.

But yes, he is Rooster in the movie. Thank you. Just in case to clarify. Yeah. Either of those animals have a mustache. Or aviators. All right. Robert, why don't you go second? Michael Bay's Ambulance. I love this movie. I was not expecting anything out of it because it's Michael Bay's Ambulance. But I like it because it's Ambulance. Yes.

It's modern day speed. It's not as good as speed, but it's like modern day speed. I loved it so much. Every moment is high octane. I love the drone shots. The characters, especially Jake Gyllenhaal. Jake Gyllenhaal, man, just chewing the scenery. Yeah, it's just exciting, fun. I can see myself watching this so many times in the future. Like literally one of my favorite Michael Bay movies. Michael Bay's like, hey, what are these new drone things? Let's just do all that. And it was awesome. Yeah.

All right, Ambulance. Let's see. Aaron, next. Yeah, I'll go with Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. I thought this was just going to be like a run-of-the-mill, very, like, plain teenage horror film that was box office draw because it had Phil... Well, I mean, I guess Phil Davidson isn't a box office draw, but it's just going to be... Pete Davidson. Pete Davidson, sorry. No, no, Pete Davidson is a box office draw. Phil, not so much. Phil's the one with no tattoos. Yeah, I just thought, like...

I don't know, this is just a cash grab for young people that want to watch a generic murder mystery, and I really love Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. I was going to nominate if somebody else didn't. I think that's a good choice, Aaron. I was not expecting a lot out of it and loved it too. Alright, I'll pick a couple here. I'm going to start with...

The Chippendale movie. No, no, no, not that. Not that. That's a TV show. Wait, what? Oh, yeah. So the Chippendale Rescue Rangers movie is straight to it was straight to Disney Plus, right? I don't think it was really even in theaters. That was the big thing is like, why wasn't this movie in the theaters? It's really good. And.

And it's really funny. Now, I mean, when you start to look at who's behind it, that's not necessarily a surprise, but I was not expecting this to be a movie that I literally tried to nominate for Critics' Choice Best Comedy of the Year because it is really funny. The way they do the next level of, you know, the Roger Rabbit idea or, you know, the mixing of animation and live action and really kind of thinking through at least a little bit conceptually how that would work. It's really fun. Yes. So, yeah, Chip and Dale's a good choice there. The second one I will nominate for my second biggest surprise of the year.

is Marcel Deschel with shoes on. Came out of nowhere for me. Wasn't expecting a ton. I knew a little bit about the character through SNL and just one of those movies where you're watching and just smiling and feeling good things and then you're feeling bad things because it means something and then all of a sudden you're like, how is this movie making me feel all of these things? And yeah, so Marcel Deschel is my second choice. So there you go. Those are my two. Aaron, back to you for your second nomination.

I'll say Jackass Forever. Okay. Interesting. So the reason why this surprised me is because I wasn't sure how well Jackass was going to hold up in 2022. I wasn't sure if that was one of those things that I loved it in middle school and it's very middle school kind of thing. And then also just the nature of what they do. Both of the things that are crude and mean-spirited to each other. But I was red in the face the entire time in the theater just because I was laughing so hard. I think the new crew members worked really well as well. Just one of those that...

I was cautiously optimistic going into the theater and had a really good time. Very nice. I'm glad you clarified because I'm thinking, how does a jackass movie betray expectations either way? I know exactly what I'm getting when I push play on a jackass movie. But that makes sense what you're saying about, does this format even work this many years later? Does it work? I'm 27. Does it work for a 27 year? It works for a middle schooler every time. Does it work for an almost 30 year old? Robert, your next pick.

I have to preface this by saying that I enjoy romantic comedies, so this one kind of maybe bumped up by that. So I'm going to say Rosalind. I wasn't expecting much out of it just because, you know, I always expect kind of a baseline for rom-coms, but this kind of really surprised me for how funny it was. I guess I shouldn't be surprised because Caitlin Deaver is the lead. But by the end, the way that it even brings commentary on the love at first sight Romeo and Juliet story, by that point I was like, okay, I love this. Because that's something that always frustrates me in movies and stories in general is the love at first sight thing.

it comments on that and it's self-aware about it. And at the same time, it's just hilarious all the way through. So yeah. Interesting choice. Nice. I love these categories. Andrew, your second and third nomination. My second nomination is Prey. This is a, it's a Predator sequel, you know, like when was the last time we got a good Predator sequel? Trick question. We've never gotten a good Predator sequel until now. This movie is, it's.

shockingly good. I shouldn't be too surprised because the director is the same guy who did Tim Cloverfield Lane, which is an incredible movie. I mean, absolutely, just masterfully done. And Amber Midthunder, who is the main lead in this, her and the gentleman who play her brother, are just absolutely perfect. And this is another movie kind of like Chippendale, Rescue Rangers, where you're wondering why this movie didn't get a theatrical release. Why did it go straight to a streaming service? Because this movie was, yeah, just like Mike in the comments just said the exact same thing. It's another movie that should have gotten a theatrical release. The visuals, like the prosthetics in the movie are...

outstanding it's super well done i was not expecting much and i got a really really good movie that's pretty high up on my uh movie so 2022 when i was considering putting prey in this category the only thing that kept it out here for me is the the trackenberg uh part of it because because of that i was expecting it to be you know something more um and that's fair um but i totally understand that pick uh what's your next pick uh just okay hopefully this doesn't sound prejudicial but uh rr I wasn't expecting a lot from a Tollywood or Bollywood movie because I've never, you know, like that style of filmmaking has never really appealed to me. But this movie is so good. It's in my top. Well, we'll get there next week. But the visuals in this movie, you know, the.

Sorry if you can hear my dogs. The visual work with like fire and water, you know, these opposing elements, you know, and this epic bromance for the century, you know, the bromance that will last a thousand years. It's a it's a heartfelt movie. There's a lot of love and you can tell there is a lot of love and a lot of blood, sweat and tears put into this one. It's great movie.

Robert, what's your next nomination? I have a few here, but I think I'm just going to go with the one that I sent Phil last night, and that's After Sun, because I literally knew nothing about it going in. I had just seen a couple tweets saying how great it was, and I happened to be in New York City visiting a couple Sif Pop friends, actually, and I saw that it was playing, and I said, I better see it while I have a chance, and it turned out, again, no spoilers, but to be one of my favorite movies of the year. It's emotionally devastating, but I... like to be emotionally devastated by movies sometimes, especially when it's done well. Somehow Mike feels good in a place like that. I can still feel. The two lead performances are just incredible. Frankie Correo and Paul Meskel are just great. I could go on about it, but I'll save it for later, possibly. It's interesting with After Sun. It's 824, right? Was After Sun 824? So 824 always sends a box during awards season, and it's got weird and funny stuff in there, and there was this picture in the box. It was just a picture of the two main characters from After Sun, Paul Meskel and I forget her name. Frankie Correo.

yes yeah and it was just a regular picture frame just like a picture you would take from vacation and put in a frame or whatever and i'm like what like i hadn't seen the movie i like you know me i don't do any like you know research necessarily of movies before i see them i'm just like why did they just send me a vacation picture of a couple people like i don't understand what's going on here uh and then of course i watched the movie i was like oh that's what that picture was so um so yeah uh after sun is a decent choice aaron uh what is your next nomination i'm stuck between two i'm gonna go with scream five um score scream as it's called um Again, one of those, it's the fifth film in a franchise. The last sequel was ten years ago, and it wasn't very good. Nor was Screen 3. And this wound up being one of my favorite movies of the year. I guess spoilers, but... Yeah. A lot of it comes down to, we have a lot of the cast returning for a legacy sequel, and they did something... I want to say they did something original, but it's like they kind of also, like, the killers are kind of obvious.

I really like this movie. I promise. It's all you gotta say. It's all you gotta say, man. I'm with you, by the way. Don't feel like you're alone. I'm with you. I wasn't expecting a lot out of this. Chat's also been saying it, too. It's like, yeah, that is the right call. Because Screen 4 just wasn't any good. Isn't the point of it, though, that they didn't do something original? And that's a positive. That is part of the point. I mean, they did do something original by killing a legacy character. Yeah.

Good choice, good choice. My final choice is where I thought Robert might be going when he started talking about rom-coms. The way did I like Ticket to Paradise, and I was not expecting to like Ticket to Paradise. But you put George Clooney and Julia Roberts on screen, apparently good things can happen. Who knew? So I had a really fun time with this rom-com. It is a throwback. Man, is it a throwback movie. You'll feel like you were watching a movie made 20 years ago. And often that's a bad thing. In this case, I enjoyed it. So Ticket to Paradise would be my final nomination as we look at the biggest surprise category.

I didn't go to that one because I was excited to watch it. Yeah, okay, well, there you go. Yeah, okay, that's fair. But you enjoyed it too? Oh, yeah, for sure. Nice, nice. All right, so here are the nominations for Biggest Surprise of 2022. Marcel the Shell, Scream 2022, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, Ticket to Paradise, Chippendale, Top Gun Maverick, Ambulance, Jackass Forever, Rosalyn, Prey, and Aftersun. So who wants to start the campaigning for Biggest Surprise of the year? I like the Chippendales nomination.

Who was that? I forget. I'll go out there and say that I didn't like Chippendale. Okay, all right. I know it's unpopular, but... All right, all right. What else? Aaron, what do you think fits this category the best? Bodies, bodies, bodies. I mean... I don't like that movie at all. I know Aaron and Robert also love it. I wonder if we can find one that we all would think fit this category. Ambulance. Yeah, I haven't seen Ambulance. Did you guys have high expectations for Prey? I know, Aaron, you were talking about Draktenberg and stuff. Yeah, I did because of Draktenberg. I did, but only because I saw it in December, so... Fair, fair. Did anybody have high expectations for RRR?

Only because I'd heard so much about how great it was at that point. Top Gun Maverick fits this category. It really does. I mean, it's a sequel. Especially with how much the trailers were playing. I was kind of over it. Yeah, I think it might be Top Gun. And I know we'll talk about this movie more because we love it so much. But it really does fit the category. I don't know. How do you feel about that, Robert? How do you feel about the Top Gun-ness of it all? I love Top Gun Maverick as a movie. But that's another one. There were a lot of these that I was just excited to see in the first place. So the difference between how much I like it and how much I was expecting out of it isn't too vast. But if that's the best that we can do, I think that, you know.

I had it pretty high up there and I really liked it. So yeah. Well, it's just the movie is so much better than anybody expected it to be because we had a preconceived idea of what a Top Gun movie should be, but we didn't realize what it could be. Do we want to talk about Marcel? Did everybody see Marcel? Enjoy Marcel? I have not seen it. I liked it. Was expecting a lot of it. All right, let's go with Top Gun Maverick then. I think that's the right call here. It's weird. Usually we would not have such a front runner in this category, but I definitely think it fits. So the official biggest surprise of 2022.

For Sif Pop, and it sounds weird in hindsight, but you got to go back in time, is Top Gun Maverick. So that will be the winner. I will mark that down. It joins last year's winner, Barb and Star. Go to Vista Del Mar. All right. Let's move into the overrated and underrated. And we do talk about these categories as movies I didn't get, movies they didn't get, just as kind of playing into that favorites aspect. We're not talking about overall quality necessarily. We will start with the overrated or movies that I just didn't get. And let's see.

I guess we will start with Robert. I'm going to ruffle some feathers with all three of my picks. I'm going to start with see how they run, which is one that... I'm with you, Robert. Yeah, we both like murder mysteries, and both of us came out of it. My wife on the way home said, that's the most forgettable movie I've ever seen. I don't even remember anything about it. And we were about 10 minutes away from the theater in the car. This hurts my heart. And I feel exactly the same way. I love Sam Rockwell, but I think he's horribly miscast. He's doing a terrible accent. 100%. And he's just phoning it in the entire way through. I know the character's supposed to be like this, but it literally looks like he's sleeping through it.

I think the only redeeming quality of it is Saoirse, who is very funny. She's great. In general, this is the normal reaction to these nominations because if we're doing it right, the other three people should disagree. This is always an interesting category. Andrew, why don't you go next?

I've prefaced this before, and Aaron, you have as well. Not really a horror fan, but whenever a movie comes out that's a horror film that says that it transcends classic horror and it's actually a really brilliant movie, I get excited. You think of It Follows or The Babadook, any of those, and that's kind of the vibe I was getting from Barbarian, but you know what? This is not a good movie. I think this movie is incredibly overrated. It tries to be three different movies and three jarring story arcs that just don't feel, even though narratively you can follow the set.

or the pieces where it actually makes sense, but it feels like three movies that just don't belong together. I was very disappointed with Barbarian. No, it doesn't work. I agree with Sandra on this one, as anybody who listened to the Sif Pop episode knows. I would have nominated it if he hadn't. I don't understand why people like this movie. Well, I'll take it back. I actually do, I think I understand. I think people are taking a couple key moments and translating into my surprise equals this was a good movie, but the moments between those key surprises.

Didn't do a lot for me. Anyway, so I understand that choice. My first nomination for overrated is going to be Bones and All. I don't understand how anybody likes this movie, and yet I'm finding it on people's top 10 lists. Robert's having a very hard time with our conversation right now. So Bones and All, I think I put in my Letterboxd review, and this is how I feel with movies like this, that it's one of those movies that you think is so bad that you're afraid to say so because you don't want to judge people who you know are going to like it. It's like I have to not think about this movie, or I start...

uh getting into some like real like elitism kind of thought processes uh so um yeah i sat in i sat in i sat in the perfect viewing environment for a movie like this a fantastic fest with a a crowded theater of people who were pardon the pun eating it up and it was i just was looking around like i was i was i was genuinely looking around just going what is wrong with you people like this this is terrible um but uh but yes uh i will try not to be so judgmental but bones and all is my first nomination uh aaron pick a couple Uh, yeah, um, look, I'll get my, the one that's gonna make you boo, um, out of the way first. The movie that was most not for me this year, um, was Weird, The Al Yankovic Story. Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, my beating heart! Oh, oh, it hurts! Oh, it hurts so bad! Yeah, sorry, um... I was gonna cry! That's all. It just didn't make me laugh, and, um, yeah.

Okay, now that's out of the way. I am curious. So it didn't work for you. Is this because you're not familiar with Weird Al? So you didn't know what kind of headspace to be in to see it? No, I'm familiar with Weird Al. Do you like UHF? Have you seen UHF? Yeah, don't. Because I don't want to hear your opinion on it. That makes more sense. To me, it was like...

I think the humor was a bit too exaggerated that it just never landed for me. I get that's the point, right? But like, I love exaggerated humor. Normally, I'm the only one laughing in that kind of situation. And then I think it just had that really weird balance of like, I genuinely was interested. I genuinely wanted to know more about Weird Al. And I feel like at the end of the movie, I knew not a single extra thing about him. Because the movie doesn't make itself seriously. I know, wait for a weird actual documentary. Look, this is why this category is titled, the movies that just weren't for me. I didn't want this movie. I wanted a version of this movie.

that had better humor and was a little bit more, either go completely 100% Spinal Tap, right? Or go like a more traditional biopic that was just actually fun. I don't think this is anything at all. I think it's more along the lines of Hot Fuzz or... loaded weapon or loaded gun you know any of those satirical movies i think part of the reason i love it is his sense of humor is so singular like you watch it feels a lot like uhf in that you watch that movie and just go oh this is weird al sense of humor and nobody else is you know finds this the funny in the same way he does except maybe me um and uh yeah so anyways good choice for you personally aaron great choice for you personally uh did you do i'll let you know right now i didn't win in this category So who's up next? I'll go with, for my other pick, The House. This was a Netflix one that came out in January. It was like three little mini short things. Did you guys see this one? I think so, but it's been a while. This is the Mia Goth.

I remember one of them was starring rats. One of them was knit puppets, crocheted puppets, and one of them was something else. But it was like three little mini-stories wrapped into one movie that just none of it connected to me. None of the mini-stories and the overall anything connected to me. I think it had generally favorable reviews from people that I follow on Letterboxd, and I felt nothing from it. I like stop motion.

All right, so I think it's time for my second nomination in the overrated category. It's my turn for everybody to hate me. Now it's my turn to be the hated one because I think that Batman is severely overrated. I do not think it's a great movie. We'll just leave it at that. I cede to Andrew for your second nomination. I am going to go with Avatar.

Okay, you know what? I take that back. I'm taking it back because I think... No, no, no. Hold up. Let me explain. No, keep it so I don't have to waste one of my picks. Oh, okay. No, because I think that for me, in the actual overrated category, this next one fits a little bit better. So that's Min. I think Min...

Like, everybody I talked to, you know, like, especially in the circle that we keep, I'm seeing a lot of love. I thought I was alone on kind of liking men. I didn't know anybody else even enjoyed it. I don't want to, you know, disparage and say that the people who love this movie are just Garland fanboys because that's not fair at all. But I do think that there are quite a few people who are just anything the guy puts out, you're going to automatically love. But I think that this movie fumbles its message and that ending is repulsive. That's where I was when I first saw it. I was like, it's Garland. It can't really be that bad, can it? And then it's just like, yeah, it can.

But I do, as opposed to Avatar, which I am getting a lot of mixed reviews from the general populace. A lot of people like it. A lot of people are let down by it. So I think that at least in the category or the group, maybe that's the problem. The circle that we keep are the people who go and see movies like men. And the other people who would probably hate a movie like men aren't the ones going to see a movie like men. So that's why I'm not hearing that other side of people who didn't like it.

All right, Robert, two choices. Oh, two choices, yeah. The first one I'll do is Clerks 3. I'm not a big fan of the View Askewniverse, if that's an Askewniverse, whatever it is. But I like the Clerks movies, the first two at least. But the last few movies in that whole series have just, Kevin Smith has seemed to abandon any sort of, I don't know, abandon anything other than lowbrow humor and references. Jay and Silent Bob reboot was especially bad at this. I think this one had a little bit of...

heart to it, especially with the character getting sick and everything. But besides that, I just didn't care for it at all. My second one, I know two people on this podcast loved, and that's 13 Lives. We were going to talk about that in the next category. And I think that's because I saw the documentary from 2021 called The Rescue, which tells the exact same story and does it much, much better. And it even has the emotion. It's a documentary, so it does it differently. It's always way more impactful. Sure. But because of the documentary, I knew all the beats and I knew all the stuff about the characters.

And when 13 Lives comes, 13 Lives felt like a well-done, dramatized Wikipedia entry. Interesting. In a different way than a biopic. But it was just like, all right, now they go into the cave this time. Oh, now this guy's dad is sick. And it's just like, all those things happened, but I didn't feel any of the payoff for any of it. It's Ron Howard, so it's well-made. But I don't think it was anything better than Mediocre. All right. I cannot wait to counter that in my underrated category. Well, clearly not, because you're already talking about it. Andrew, what do you got for your final nomination in this category?

You know what, Aaron, I'll save you. I am going to go ahead and say Avatar is overrated. Because, yeah, maybe I'm just so let down by this movie. And that's a different category, I know. But a lot of people like this movie, and I don't know if it's justified. I think the story is very, very lackluster. And I've heard a lot of people say that's their favorite thing about it. When really it should be the visuals, because the visuals are the best that have ever been done. But that story is so daytime soap opera.

I'll just ignore that and go into my final nomination for Overrated. And I have two choices. I think I'm going to go with the one that I more passionately despise and that a lot of people seem to love, and that is Fall. I do not get this movie, and I do not understand why people enjoy this movie. Well, you hate heights. It's not just the heights. It's not just the heights. This is a terrible film. The story is terrible. It's eye-rolling throughout. Nothing makes sense in this movie. How are you supposed to care about these characters? They're just dumb. They're just, like, why are they up there? That's just dumb. And so, like, all of this is terrible, and I don't understand why people enjoy this movie. No, no, you're 100% right, but I think that the one thing the movie does have going for it is if you are, like, an adrenaline junkie, this movie will give you vertigo, and it's...

The way that this movie is shot is perfect for the type of movie that they want to make. Yes. But other than that, yes, the story is garbage and these people are dumb. So you're saying it's overrated. It's not Hitchcockian. How dare you? All right, Aaron, what is your final nominee in overrated? Yeah, I have two of them, and I'm going to pick the one that more fits that wasn't for me, and that's Violent Night. I really wanted to see this one. I was really excited for it because it just looked like a lot of fun, and I had very little fun during it.

Everybody's telling me like, no, it was really fun. It was exactly what you're saying you wanted it to be. And I'm like, no, it took itself too seriously. And I thought there was like a Home Alone scene that was really fun. And I thought that the way that the bad guy is finally dispersed of is one of my favorite moments of the year. But not nominating that this year. I don't feel that highly about it. But yeah, I just didn't have fun with this. And it felt like John Leguizamo was in a different movie. And that was just a shame.

Violent Night, there you go. So here are the 12 nominees. Fall, Bones and All, Barbarian, The Batman, Violent Night, Weird the Al Yankovic Story, The House, See How They Run, Men, Clerks 3, 13 Lives, and Avatar, The Way of Water. I have no clue how we're picking one of these. Is there any of these movies that none of us love? It feels like one of us loves every movie that was listed on this list. Is that not true? I don't know how Andrew feels about Batman, but I just like Batman. I'm with Robert, but I know Andrew is super high-side. Yeah, he's the one that loves the Batman.

That would be a boring choice for this category. Almost 37 years of DNA embedded in me saying no matter what Batman does, you have to love him. Yeah, yeah. Anybody want to throw out another choice? So how many people like Barbarian? I really like Barbarian a lot. Schweitzer? I've not seen it, but I feel like I would really like it.

So what about this movie called Weird? I haven't seen this one. Just move on. I'm going to veto that one. See how they run. I don't like that movie. I think the errands are too much on that corner. So what else do we got? Clerks 3 is interesting. I haven't seen it. That's sometimes where we go with this category. It's with one that only a couple of us have seen. Is it overrated? Do people love that movie? I just haven't heard a lot of...

I think fanboys love it. Yeah, there are high audience scores and solid critic scores for it. But isn't it just because of the Kevin Smith of it all? Like, I don't know that that's unexpected. I didn't love it. I didn't even like it. It was just meh to me. I probably like it the most of the three of us, but that's not saying a ton. As a 3.2 letterboxd average.

Yeah, that was surprising to me. Yeah, yeah. But that's because, yeah, there's Kevin Smith fanboys that are going to give it five. It seems to middle around three. Robert, you love Bones and All, right? Yes, I love Bones and All. Andrew, you didn't love Fall, did you? No. What about you two, Robert and Aaron? How did you feel about that movie? I wanted to see it, and then I heard you and a bunch of other people say it wasn't good, and I just kind of decided to save my money. For a running theme of the show, I haven't seen it. Take a drink of water because it's 9.31.

Well, it sounds like it either needs to be Clerks 3 or Fall. I haven't seen Clerks 3, so I'd go with Fall. What do you guys, Aaron and Rob, are you comfortable with that even though you haven't seen it? I'm comfortable with Fall just because I saw a couple high ratings at the beginning and then just a barrage of low ratings and that was enough to dissuade me from even seeing it. So I think that kind of means it was initially overrated. So what you're saying is your expectations took a Fall? So what you're saying...

Okay, here's what we're going to do for 2002 Most Overrated Movie. One of the most difficult categories. We're going to go with Fall as the most overrated. All right, that joins last year's Come On, Come On. Okay, let's move into Underrated, shall we? I'll kick this one off. And I will nominate as Most Underrated. See how they run.

Actually, no, I won't. I just thought that would be funny to say. I instead will nominate Nope. I don't understand. This is a really interesting one, too. Because when you talk about underrated, obviously, Nope, like Jordan Peele movies, there's a different level of expectation. The fact that this isn't getting really any awards buzz or any awards love that many of the people I've talked to just don't like it, don't get it, it kind of surprises me. I was one of those who was very much...

in the Us is overrated camp. So it's not like I'm a Jordan Peele apologist. I don't think Us is a great film, but I think Nope is a great film. I really do. The more I think about it, the more I sit with it. So yeah. I think Us is underrated. So Nope would be my first nomination for underrated. Andrew, why don't you go next? I am going to go with the movie that I mentioned earlier, 13 Lives. I think this one might fall more into the underseen than underrated because I know it's kind of like one of those hidden gems on Amazon, but I really do think that obviously Aaron, you and I are not the only ones who thought that

this movie was, you know, incredible, but also, you know, we have Robert saying that it's a, was it, I don't know, did you say you were let down by it or was it just that the documentary was better? Both. Okay. So, yeah. So yeah, there are people on both sides about this one, but I think that this is a really good movie.

All right. I think that takes us to Robert. What is your first nomination for Underrated? So this one has very low audience scores, and the critics scores are pretty solid, but I'm going to go for it anyway, and that's Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul. Interesting choice, yeah. Both Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall are, I almost said Regina George, Regina Hall are incredible in this.

There are a lot of layers to it. There's a lot of layers both in just social commentary and there's commentary on religion, the business of megachurches, abuse of power, and even marriage too. The way that it blends your typical narrative film cinematography with a mockumentary style is something I've never seen done before. And it's really, really effective. And again, I just need to come back to how great Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown are. They absolutely carry the movie. Now I'm laughing because of Regina George. Regina George is great in this movie.

Yeah, I just really, really loved it. I didn't see it getting nearly as much love as I thought it should have. That's a solid choice. That's a solid choice. Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul. Aaron, give us a couple nominees in this category. Yeah, I gotta just kind of preface. I haven't seen a ton of bad movies this year because I've been late to the party all the time. So I haven't seen movies that people generally consider bad. But I have to kick it off with Babylon. I really love Babylon. And I'm surprised that it's not getting more attention. Like for the Sif Pop.

Writers Room episode. Only two of us had it in the top five of the year. And it's, to me, this is, it's not a perfect movie, but I like this significantly more than everybody else. It's a weird one to try to feel how it's actually being perceived right now, because I know a lot of people who have it, you know, really high on their list. It's certainly, like Critics' Choice had the second most nominations of any film. Like, you know, it's, people are, it is getting awards buzz. I strangely think it will not get nominated for Best Picture, but we'll see.

But you're right. There is a dismissal of the movie amongst a lot of circles as well. So I think it's polarizing. And when a movie is polarizing, it's harder to tell how it's being rated. But I don't mind it in this category. Yeah, it's that.

it's that weird like is it like people are really either really high or really mid on the movie i just feel like there's so many people including robert that are just really like mid or i don't even know where i land on it i think i think once it becomes available on a streaming service and people either get to re-watch it or finally sit down and watch a three-hour movie um that isn't called avatar around christmas time um that it'll be it'll be a hit i'm telling you the second watch for me solidified it um as a great filmmaking in my opinion so um so yeah i do think it's one that will uh reward multiple watches um what if that would be an interesting category best second watch uh movie of the year which I think I would award to Glass Onion this year. My second watch of Glass Onion blew my mind. I did like the movie so much more on a second viewing. Yeah, so anyhow. All right, and your second? None of these terribly fit the category, so let's go with Bullet Train. I think I just like this movie significantly more than everybody else. Again, it's generally well-received, right?

mid to high, right? But I love Bullet Train, unashamedly. This one definitely, kind of like the last one we're talking about, definitely went up on a second viewing for me, too. I was going to nominate it if nobody else did. I think it fits this category perfectly. I don't think nearly enough people are talking about how fun and interesting, and it's not just fun, interesting action. It's actually constructed really, really well, and it's ideas about chance and those kind of things.

are really interesting and plays with it throughout. And of course, that's a get out of jail free card for the movie, which is interesting. It kind of gave itself the freedom to have as much convenience as it wanted because that's the point of the movie. But it works for me. So yeah, I like that choice quite a bit. Robert, what's your next nominee? This one might also go into under scene, but also it has low audience scores and that's God's Country starring Tindue Newton. It's a very interesting commentary on who the country of America like actually quote unquote belongs to. It's about this woman who lives in like...

secluded montana and works at a university and uh a black woman who is there and people are like trespassing on her property and not taking her seriously and she teaches at a university and uh no one is taking her calls for diversity seriously um it it's just uh really well done um and it just flew under the radar all year for me i think um and newton is giving probably an honorable mention performance for me but um just all around i think it needs to be seen and talked about more nice uh this is the first movie i that we talked about that i haven't seen so um i'll have to check that one out uh god's country Andrew, what is your second nominee? So, you all know me. I have a love for Robert Eggers. So, my pick for underrated movie is going to be The Northman. I love absolutely everything about this movie. Yes, I understand I have pre-going-in biases for this movie. This movie was made for me. But I think that it is a visual masterpiece. That final fight scene with Skarsgård where they're in the volcano and it just looks like they're fighting in hell. It's such a... Visually, I don't care if you don't like the way...

Robert Eggers tells stories. I get that part, but I don't understand people who would say that this movie is not a visual masterpiece. It is absolutely gorgeous. The acting is great. Skarsgård continues to impress and make me mad because no one person should have this many things going for them in life. Being a good actor, being a male model, and looking like that, it's just not fair.

Is this movie more in the awards conversation if it's released in November instead of March? It might be. I think people generally like it. Yeah, I think this is a pretty liked movie. I think it's doing better being released earlier this year because I think that there's too many movies like this, arthousey, you know, in November and December and October around that time. So I think that it coming out earlier makes it more memorable. And it has left a lasting impression on me. There you go, The Northman. All right, now I've got two on the turn. For my final two nominees in this category, I am going first.

with The Sea Beast. I'm just not here. The fact that this movie isn't being nominated for Animation Awards is blowing my mind. I don't understand. I was glad to hear that they have ordered a sequel. I think this is a great universe to return to.

I believe it's done by the same guy that did Big Hero 6, which is another movie I love. Clearly understands action filmmaking, action animation. Some of the action scenes in the Sea Beast are phenomenal. Yes, it's how to train your kraken. I get that. It's not like something we haven't seen before, but it is still yet something we haven't seen before. And it's visually stunning. So yeah, I think Sea Beast needs to be in this category. And then finally, for this category, I'm going to go with Fresh.

a movie that came out earlier this year that I think is really, really good. And for somebody who rightfully gets taken to task for not liking a lot of horror, this is one I think that was constructed well, had something to say, and said it in a really interesting way. This is the movie, in my opinion, that does what men wanted to do so much better. The way that it handles gender dynamics and what it means to be a woman dating in the modern world is really, really... There's a scene...

where it's just a date scene. And I can't stop thinking about it because of how clearly it represents the kind of nonsense that women have to put up with from men. And it's fresh. I think it's really good. And I wish more people were talking about it. So I haven't underrated. Sorry, I'll black out for a second. You were talking about a cannibal movie with Bones and All, right? No, this movie is if men's and Bones and All were good movies, they would look like fresh. So yeah. Robert's about to log off. I'm done. Andrew, what's your final nominee? My final nominee is going to be the movie that honestly...

Out of every movie that's come out this year that I've come back to think and ponder about, that's Vengeance, the BJ Novak movie. I found myself coming back to the ending, especially, of that movie and what it represents, what it's trying to say, what the whole movie means about, you know... The life we live online and how once you separate yourself from that and you actually come back to the real world and you see what everything going around you is totally different than this amazing, perfect little bubble that you've built for yourself around. I think that Boyd Hallbrook is great. Ashton Kutcher coming in as this really kind of...

sleazy, creepy. He needs to be in more stuff. He really does. He's got a really great screen presence, and it was really good here. Yeah, XRP's not really going anywhere, Ashna, so you need to leave Ripple and start making more movies, you know? That's right. Yeah, I think that this is a great movie, and everybody that I've talked to lives in, like, Heartland, Texas, you know, they say, oh, yeah, this is a documentary. I know every single one of those people. Yeah. Yeah, Vengeance, good choice. Robert, what's your next nominee? White Noise. I think I might be the one person who liked White Noise, who loved White Noise. I actually talked about it at length on the Writers of the Review Roundup.

But I know Baumbach kind of went way out of his comfort zone from his typical grounded, very muted family dramas, but he's doing his Spielberg here, and he is portraying a worldview that I kind of resonate with. Even though I haven't read the book and a lot of people are saying like this is the story is kind of of its time It still worked for me now, especially the first two acts Kind of loses a little bit of steam at the end I was ready to put it like in my top five at that point But towards the end it kind of loses a bit of steam, but I still really liked it I think I'm driver I'm gonna go rig and especially the kids are all getting really great performances Yeah, it's just a lot of fun a lot of really dry humor. I think Yeah, like I said, I just really love this. I like this pick a lot. That's a really good pick. Especially because LCD sound system and the ending of this movie during the credits is like one of my favorite scenes in the entire year. So good. Yeah, I love the music video at the end. Just not a fan of the movie before it. Let's see. Aaron, what is your final choice for a nominee? Yeah, probably goes to the underseen category, but Jackass 4.5 was a Netflix release and got no marketing, no promotion, anything. And I had just as much fun as the full movie.

I would just put them comparable to me. Wait, they're different things? Yeah, they're different things. Because after 2, they did 2.5 and 3 was 3.5. And it's just all the stuff that they cut from the movie. There's some really interesting how they dealt with COVID restrictions and stuff like that. And shutting down due to COVID. And they do kind of explore the nature of having a female on the set a little bit. Not enough in my opinion. There's some really interesting articles to be written about gender dynamics as it relates to the Jackass idea. And that to me is the most interesting part of Jackass 4. Like on a nuance level. And I just haven't really heard anybody...

I haven't heard them talking about it in detail. They kind of brush on it in 4.5, but not in a really meaningful way. Well, that's crazy. And there's just stunts that are worthy of being in the movie that for some reason got shoved to 4.5. So I liked it just as much as The Man. So just no marketing, so not a lot of people saw it, even though it was just straight to Netflix. Well, Aaron, you know what's wild is the fact that I thought this was the movie that was released in theaters. I thought that this was just like after it had its theater run, they just put it on Netflix. So there's an- No one Andrew's doing tomorrow. No, honestly, there's an entire Jackass movie, I guess, that I haven't seen. And it's full length. It's like an hour and a half. Okay. It is.

All right, so here are the nominees for Underrated of 2022, 13 Lives, Nope, Jackass, 4.5, Bullet Train, Seabees, Talk for Jesus, Save Your Soul, Babylon, God's Country, The Northmen, Fresh, Vengeance, and White Noise. There's several of these I'd be okay with. Anybody want to start off the debate? Either Northmen or Vengeance for me are the ones that I would be adamant about nominating. I really didn't like Vengeance. That's the point. I struggle with calling Northmen overrated. I think people that have seen it really love it. Underrated, you mean? Yeah, it's a little weird to call the Northmen underrated. The one that I think best fits.

that we might all like is bullet train. Um, because I do also think like, Nope is kind of properly rated. I see a lot of people really like it. Um, but I think bullet train is a great choice in my opinion. I was going to nominate it. Um, yeah, well, yeah, because I really liked the movie when it came out, I was like kind of teetering on loved it. Uh, the ending is where I have the biggest, you know, where Aaron, like you said, they fall fly the wrong way. And it just feels outside of us. Like most people are just like meh or even, yeah, I didn't really care for that. And I'm just like, I don't, I don't understand why it's not, you know, there's almost seven.

7.309 BB, 54 on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah, I think this works. No, it's a really good movie. I think this works. I think the 2002 movie for underrated is Bullet Train. Bullet Train came out in 2002? Sorry, 2022. Wait, it's the 20s? That's the slowest train ever. You missed a lot, Aaron. By the way, you're a grandpa. Oh, nice. That sounds amazing. I must be 60 years old. This joins last year's most underrated movie, M. Night Shyamalan's Old.

So there you go. I would be remiss real quick if I didn't say that Bullet Train does go off the rails by the end. But I still like it. No, you would not be remiss. You would be in exactly the right place to say that. All right. That brings us to our final category. This will operate just a little bit differently. We will do our top five TV shows. We'll each count them down number five to number one. We will do this quickly. And then we will pick a show of the year between the four of us. Is this Trump rules or no?

No, we don't usually do Trump rules on these countdowns. We let people just talk about it when they're ready to talk about it. So let's do television. Robert, you're going to kick us off with your number five. Severance. Good choice. I really love the concept for this. It's just a good hook and a good buy-in. And then from there, you have a great mystery, I think, with also a great cliffhanger for season two. Yeah. And most of all, I just love, love, love the cast so much, especially John Turturro, who I think is...

possibly my favorite TV performance of the year. Yeah, Severance is just really, really good. I didn't see too much TV this year. I saw maybe 10, 12 shows, but this is easily one of my favorites. We will definitely be talking about it later. How do you want us to, like, if we have it higher, do you want us to say we'll talk about it later too? No, you don't have to mention it until it's on your list. That way we kind of get to surprise each other. So Severance is your number five. I will also say, just because I don't think I clarified, our TV rules are just calendar year. If a new episode of the show aired in this calendar year,

It counts in the calendar year of 2022. It counts as a possible choice. So, Aaron, what's your number five? This is the year I discovered Letterkenny, which has two seasons a year. So new episodes came out in May and in December. Or maybe this was only one set because Shorzy came out this year. No, Shorzy is the one that came out earlier this year. There were new episodes of Letterkenny this year, and I've just fallen in love with this cast of this city. And every time there's new episodes, it manages to be continually original and makes me...

It just gives me a warm feeling inside while also laughing. It's the funny show on TV. It really is. All right. My number five, I'm going to go with The Bear for my number five. Really, really enjoy this. I'm glad it's coming back. I think this is a really great cast together. I think they work really well together. I also think the show did some really interesting things. There's a one take episode that doesn't use the one take as a gimmick. It really genuinely uses it as a way to tell the story better. And yeah, I found all of this very captivating and very interesting. So The Bear is my number five.

Andrew, what's your number five? What I like about the bear is that that first episode starts off and you're like, did I watch? Is this the pilot? Because it just drops you right in with no like exposition or anything. So, yeah, but it's really good show. My number five is Stranger Things. Stranger Things is back, baby. This last season was so good. The episode that I'm that obviously everybody loves the most is Dear Billy. It's so powerful. It's so emotionally draining in a good way. You just love I've loved these characters since they were kids. They're all young adults now. It's wild. But yeah, Stranger Things, especially this new season. Really, really good.

Nice. All right, Robert, your number four. This is one that I only caught up with fully in the last couple months, but it's Abbott Elementary. Nice. It wears its inspirations on its sleeve. It feels very much like Parks and Rec or The Office, but it's still unique in its own way. And speaking of casts, this is possibly my favorite cast on TV. Janelle James' principal is literally every line she says has me cracking up.

Yeah, it's consistently funny, and unlike a lot of sitcoms like this, mockumentary sitcoms, it found its tone and its voice right away. It knows exactly what it is from the beginning. Yeah, it's just hilarious, and I'm looking forward to this being in my life for the next, like, eight years. Nice. Good choice, good choice. Aaron, you're number four. This is where I have Stranger Things.

It's probably a little overrated for me, but this still is a great season. And not everything works. I think really anything that has to do with Hopper just doesn't work in the season, but everything else just does. So yeah, I'm excited for more Stranger Things. I'm excited for it to have an end point. It feels like we're kind of reaching that end game, and so that's exciting to me. Nice. My number four is Andor. Andor comes in at number four for me. Boy, it's nice to have great Star Wars material to watch. A show that understands that Star Wars is the universe. It doesn't have to be the everything.

Um, and just a talented team. Uh, the show probably contained one of the greatest, uh, heists I've ever seen in a television show. Um, and contained one of the greatest prison escapes I've ever seen in a television show. Like two of these things that we've seen done time and time again in the show, uh, just elevated them. A lot of interesting concepts, a lot of great performances. I am pumped to see how this finishes out. Um, and it just continually, the other part of it just continually makes the movie better. Um, and so that's, that's really, really fun. Um, so yeah, Andor is my number four.

Remember when this was announced and it was like, really? And then it was amazing. Andrew, what's your number four? I am going to go with something given to us by Taylor Sheridan. It's called 1883. Guys, I don't know if you know about this, but Taylor Sheridan, he writes good things. And lots of them. And lots of them. Yeah, he pretty much owns Paramount at this point. Every show on Paramount is a Taylor Sheridan project. But this is so good. It's Wild West. It's literally the story of the Oregon Trail.

If I were to tell you or somebody were to tell me at the beginning of this year that I think that Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are going to give awards worthy performances, I would have scoffed and laughed. But they're so good. And Isabel May, who is our main character in the show, is just absolutely stellar. And, of course, Sam Elliott. So, yeah, if you haven't seen it, you don't need to see all of you don't even need to see any of Yellowstone to enjoy this or 1923. All right, Robert, your number three. I'll be able to see 1883 if I didn't see one through 1882.

Yes. You're going to miss a couple good performances. My number three is one that I don't know how many people saw, let alone liked, and that's The Patient, the miniseries starring Steve Carell and Donald Leeson. Yeah, it's anchored by those two great performances because it's something like eight episodes and most of it is just the two of them sitting across from each other having conversations. But at any time, one of them could kill the other. So that's kind of where the tension comes from. There's a lot of really interesting stuff about fathers and parents and children and why we become the way that we are and whether and how we can overcome it. I hope this is just a miniseries. I don't know if it's going to get a second season. I hope not. But I really like the look at therapy and the tension that it builds in every single episode. When I was watching the first couple episodes, I was...

thinking it might work better as a movie, but the way that it's just very intentionally paced works really well for however many episodes it was. So, yeah. I think it would have been a great movie, though. I think it would have been a great movie. And these performances are astonishing. It's, yeah, there's nowhere near enough talk about this show. I think it might be the best I've ever seen Steve Carell if you kind of push a couple of his comedy things to the side. Yeah. It sounds like the sequel to My Dinner with Andre is intense.

Yes, got very, very intense. Aaron, what's your number three? My number three is the funniest show on TV, and that's What We Do in the Shadows. So good. Somehow the show just gets better every season, and that's remarkable because the first season was already perfect. But the introduction of baby Colin Robinson for this season was just a really fresh breath of life into the show, which you didn't need. But yeah, I love this show. I think this is a season, I watched three and four back-to-back this year. This is also the one with the genie, right? Yes.

Yes, the one that always tries to subvert your wish in some way. Yes. Yeah, and he gives Nandor, like, a hundred wishes or whatever, and he won't tell him when he's done. Yeah. Every part of the show just really worked. The scene where they, like, bring in the people to do the, like, House Hunters show was one of my favorites. Or the whole makeover edition, whatever. Incredible episode. I love it. I really love the show. I was just going to say that, Robert. The best line delivery of the year. New York City.

Very nice. Good choice. All right. Let's continue on. I will do my number three. This is where I have the rehearsal in at number three. Some shows I love because they're entertaining. Some shows I love because they make me laugh. Some shows I love because they blow my mind. The rehearsal blew my mind. I just think there is something so...

perverse about this show that is really fascinating to think deeper about and to go into the nuances of the ethics of it, the morals of it. If you haven't checked it out, it is, I think, worth a watch. Just the way the show starts as one thing and ends as another. And the way I still to this day don't know if that was the plan or if that's just what happened. All of that is to me a sign of a really well done production. And so Nathan Fielder.

certainly has his, his market cornered, uh, at this point for the type of thing he does. And, um, yeah, I, it was one of those shows was getting some buzz. So I watched the first few episodes. I'm just like, what is going on here? Watch the whole thing. It blew my mind. Then went back and watched every single episode of Nathan for you. Um, and what was interesting going in that order is you see the seeds of so much of what happens in the rehearsal in some of the Nathan for you episodes. Uh, and, um, especially in finding Francis finale. Yeah. Yeah. There were several, there's the one where they do, uh, the,

the bar scene, recreate the bar scene and do it over and over again for an audience that I saw a lot of the rehearsal in that one as well. But yeah, I just, I can't say enough good things about the rehearsal and, and taking some time to watch it. So it's, it's devastating in some ways too. So, so you'll like it, Robert. It's really, really devastating. So that's your back. All right. So Andrew, I have a good feeling. Yeah. Andrew, what is your number three? My number three is a Showtime show called Yellow Jackets.

This probably the show gripped me more than any other show this year. I just could not wait for the next episode. I was hooked. It's kind of like if Stephen King wrote Lord of the Flies. Yeah, it's it's so good. I think all the performances by the the younger girls and the older women, everybody is like matched up perfectly with their older younger self. It's just great, great casting. I love Christina Ricci, Julia Lewis. I cannot wait for season two. All right. Let's let's yellow jackets. Let's get into our number twos. Robert, what do you got? Number two.

This is where I have Barry season three. Barry is one for me that's just gotten better every season and it started off at like a nine out of 10. So it's one of my maybe three favorite shows on TV currently. And I really, really like how it's evolved to be so much more mature. Not that it was immature to start, but it's just like gotten so dark and heavy and almost abandons the comedy completely. In some episodes, I think the last episode doesn't have any laughs and it works perfectly. I just, at this point, I hope that it ends after next season or a couple more at the most because.

I don't know what else you can do because of how specific of an arc Bill Hader's taken Barry on. But yeah, great season. I agree. Aaron, what's your number two? I also have Barry here. It really feels like Barry season four is going to be the last, just with the way that season three kind of goes. But yeah, Bill Hader is giving an excellent performance. And so is Henry Winkler. I think it's easy to overlook him because Bill Hader is so good. And Bill Hader is also doing some really great directing work here. I think he did three or four of the episodes this season. And he did the one that is like the technical highlight of the...

of the season. The one with the barista? Yeah. I think it's called Lion, but it's spelled with numbers and stuff. I couldn't tell you, but I will take your word for it. I think Henry Winkler got some love. Oh, he's cleaning up this year. Either way, he's just easy to overlook because Bill Hader is so good. I can't wait. The season finale really feels like a horror movie, so I can't wait until Bill Hader decides to dive into horror. Similar to other known comedians in the past. Man, Barry is so close to being the best show on TV.

Very nice. Barian at number two. My number two is Better Call Saul. There's a lot said about how hard it is to finish a TV series. And I think this show finishes so, so well. It's also interesting in a show like this where they...

The more you know about how they do it, the more amazing it becomes that it's good because they write themselves into corners on this show. You would watch this show and go, oh, clearly they had a six season plan. I think it was six seasons. I could be wrong about that. Maybe five. They had a plan over the course of these seasons to get to this place. And nope, when they created that first.

you know, a sequel scene, black and white at the Cinnabon in the very first season of Better Call Saul. They had no clue how they were going to get there or what it would mean. They just wanted to set up something for themselves. So that's really interesting to me. I think this movie walks a really beautiful line between playing on the nostalgia of a known property and finding its own thing. So yeah, Better Call Saul is just beyond everything I just said is just incredible filmmaking. Just a lot of the shot selection and the way they're choosing to shoot this stuff is really, really cool. So really dig Better Call Saul. It's my number two.

Andrew, what's your number two? My number two is Demon Slayer, the anime. This last district season that they did pushed the definitions or pushed the boundaries of what an anime could do. I talked last year, whenever the movie came out, because the way that the show works is they do a season, then a movie, then a season, then a movie. But this last season pushed cinematically what an anime could be.

Not even hyperbole, there's an episode in this season that I would consider putting in the top 10 best episodes of a show I've ever seen. It's absolutely remarkable. The story and the cinematic master work that is going on right here. So if you haven't picked it up, I cannot recommend it enough. That is Demon Slayer. And at number two, all right, time for our number ones. Robert, what is your number one television show that had an episode in 2022? It's the rehearsal. Oh, I knew it. It's easily my favorite TV to come out by far. Nathan Fielder, he is just, he's just something else. He has like a beautifully twisted, but scary mind. And there are so many ways to look at what's happening in the show and just trying to make sense of it all. Like you said, like what is real? What was planned? Who's an actor? Who's not? Am I an actor?

Like what is going on? Am I in this show? Am I in this show? By the end, like the very last shot of the season, it's almost making fun of you for looking at the ethics and what's going on. And that just adds to a whole other layer where it's just like, does he care about what he's doing? Does he, is he interested in reckoning with it or is he just going to keep going? I've never watched a TV show where every week, like this was the thing that I've looked forward to the most. I was just mind blown each and every week, especially the week where his teenage son comes, like where the son is a teenager.

That was the best episode of TV I saw this year. My wife liked to watch the episodes with me, but she didn't like to stay up late when they premiered at 11. So I was just like watching each of them twice and then maybe a couple more times during the week. That episode was just absolutely blowing my mind just with each new development that happened. Yeah, I could go on about the rehearsal for a long time because it was easily my favorite thing. So did you watch them a few times before with your wife to try to practice like how you would react to certain scenes? I kind of did in some ways, yes. Amazing, amazing. All right, Aaron, what is your number one television show of 2022?

My favorite show of 2022 is Under the Banner of Heaven. This is... All right, so I love the show so much because it starts off, you kind of think it's going to be another murder mystery movie, show, rather. It's a miniseries, so if I say movie, fine. So I was really expecting kind of like season one of True Detective, but it does base around people who identify with the Latter-day Saints church. And I just thought it was going to be a season of True Detective, so it's going to be a really good detective show, and it winds up being something more. And I wrote the Civ Pop review for it, so I don't really want to just repeat myself, but I think what the show winds up actually accomplishing is...

Andrew Garfield's character, who's given an incredible performance, by the way, trying to reconcile with being associated with people who take radical ideas of Christianity. Because there's essentially this thought in the show where they say, well, first they say, hey, well, we shouldn't have to pay taxes because of our religiosity. And then eventually that evolves into, well, we should be able to marry multiple people because of this that we can justify through scripture. And then eventually, how far does that go before they can justify murder, blood atonement? And yeah, the show just really kind of hammers that home to just show how...

People can take religiosity to an extreme and in not great ways. But then how do you still reconcile with being associated with those people? Which is kind of exactly how I felt the last couple years with all everything going on in the world. So I love the show. I think one of my favorite things about the show is that it is that it really, in my mind, at the same time as it's painting the things that religion can do.

that it's also showing a respect for people of faith and people who are deconstructing their faith, who are really thinking about, you know, what they believe and where it comes from and what it means. And the show, I think, handled that really, really well. Like, there was a real respect for, in this case, the Mormon church. Right? I believe it was a Mormon sect that the show deals with. It was a true story.

um yes yes but it does take some liberties uh if my research is correct um so i did appreciate that about the show that it was willing to be nuanced uh like that so yeah it manages to criticize religion in a pretty heavy way but also yeah still be respectful still be Of the people who believe. I don't know if hopeful is the right word. Right? Like being able to draw that line. It's not saying don't believe things because, you know. Yeah. Anyway. Very nice. My number one show for the first time in SIF pop history. I will have the same show at number one two years in a row because it aired over December and January of last year. So I can count it in both. Ladies and gentlemen, Station Eleven is one of the best TV shows ever made. I did have new episodes in January this year. So I'm glad that I get to sing its praises once again. It is astonishing.

filmmaking uh in a tv show format uh this this show blows me away so it is my number one again this year um andrew finishes off what's your number one my number one has already been mentioned before i think it was robert's number five and that's severance It's severance, man. I mean, the core group of people that we deal with, like Adam Scott and Britt Lauer, Trammell Tillman, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro. I mean, everybody in the show is perfect for their role. It's such a unique and clever story. I have watched the first season multiple times now. And every single time I do, there's something new to treasure about it. It's just...

You can tell that they were patient and they took the time to make sure that this world makes sense and that the story we're following doesn't have any plot holes or anything. It's a very well-told story that I cannot wait to see more of. So Severance is easily my number one of the year. Very nice. Well, there you go. There are choices before we get into the debate to pick our number one.

I will take a little bit of creator's privilege here on the podcast to shout out a few other shows. Blackbird, Strange New Worlds, Mythic Quest, Players, Welcome to Wrexham, Fleischman's in Trouble, and The Power of the Ring are all great shows. The Power of the Ring, I saw you try to slip that one in. Also Moon Knight. I was surprised nobody had Moon Knight on their list. So, yeah. It's been a really incredible year on TV. Too incredible, in fact, if you listen to a lot of people. Too much to watch. All right. So, I think a good place to start is there were no shows where more than two people had them in their top five. There were four shows where two people had them in their top five. Stranger Things had a five and a four. Severance had a five and a one. Barry had a two and a two. And The Rehearsal had a three and a one. So, of those, I think is a good place to kind of narrow us down and kind of go from that list. Sounds like I see The Rehearsal or Barry based on those numbers.

I have only seen the first episode of the rehearsal, but I loved it. So I would not begrudge that pick at all. If I would have seen all six, it probably would have made. Have you seen all of the last season of Barry? Yeah, that was my number two. Okay. I like Barry as a pick because I'm not really Nathan Fielder fan. Okay. I also wouldn't be mad at Barry. Here's my final pitch for the rehearsal. And Andrew, I will leave it up to you whether we go with Barry the rehearsal. My final pitch for the rehearsal is that it kind of stands above.

The other shows as something completely unique and different from 2022, which is, you know, kind of fun for me to put it on the list for that way. But I am not opposed to Barry. So, Andrew, what is the number one TV show for Sif Pop for 2022? The number one pick coming in at number two and number two on somebody else on two people's list is Barry. Barry is the Sif Pop show of the year. I am fine with that. Because we all four have seen it and we all four really loved it. So, yeah, I think that's great. Last year's winner, by the way, was Ted Lasso.

in case you were curious what won the show last year. Well, there you go. We did it, guys. It took us what? Like, you know, two hours or so to get through it all. But we did the part one. So congratulations to all.

Thank you so much for joining us today for Sif Pop. It is part of the Studio DNA Podcast Network. You can find out more about other shows on the network at studiodna.media or by searching Studio DNA in your podcast player. Huge thanks to Andrew for hanging out today. Thank you, buddy. Thank you to producer Phil for producing the show. Thanks, man. Thanks to Aaron and Robert for coming in and doing the annual Sifties with us. You guys want to give one last shout out to anything as we close out this episode?

Go to Sifpop.com. Listen to the Writers Room podcast. There we go. Very nicely done. Hey, if you want to send us any feedback, do that at feedback at Sifpop.com. If you want to support what goes on here at Sifpop and at Sifpop.com, you can do that through the Patreon, patreon.com slash Sifpop, where it starts at three bucks a month. And finally, if you're having a good time, your movie-loving friends will probably like it too, so let them know about it and that listening is much easier than thinking Avatar's a bad movie. We will be back next week with the next part, the next part of the Sifties, so we will see you then. Bye. Bye.