The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
April 21, 2023/ 94 min/ Sean Fennessey · Adam Nayman
Sean Fennessey and Adam Nayman work through Ari Aster's three-hour anxiety picaresque, then Aster joins to talk gag machines, Joaquin Phoenix, and the shot he never expected to get.
3 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The most debated movie of the yearSean Fennessey and Adam Nayman
Ari Aster's 179-minute Odyssey-shaped picaresque, Joaquin Phoenix's Beau dodging his way home to his mother. Nayman reads it as a parade of alienation effects that gets it from both sides; Fennessey found it his funniest and most imperfect Aster film, held back only by the CGI-heavy finale.
In conversation
Aster grew it from a 2011 apartment-shoot idea into an intuitively built world he calls a gag machine turned up on the dial, and says it feels more like him than anything he's made.
Aster's last-great pick is Jafar Panahi's film, which he calls magnificent and haunting and says has been nagging at him since December.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Aster's first two features HereditaryMidsommar
Joaquin Phoenix on screen The MasterJokerI'm Still HereTwo LoversHerTo Die ForThe ImmigrantNapoleon
Comparisons and influences The WarriorsThe Boss BabyBarton FinkA Serious ManHeaven's GateBabylonPossessionDogvilleShowgirlsUnder the Silver Lakemother!The Empty ManEraserheadE.T. the Extra-TerrestrialThe Discreet Charm of the BourgeoisieViridianaL'Age d'OrDefending Your LifeLost in AmericaThe King of ComedyAfter HoursPlaytimeThe Wolf House
Also on the horizon The NorthmanBarbieBlack Panther: Wakanda ForeverBlackberryOppenheimer
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV BarryThe Underground RailroadParty DownPrestige TV podcast
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