‘The Batman’ and Batman Movie Rankings

‘The Batman’Van Lathan and Rob Mahoney join to talk Matt Reeves's grounded, noir take

The Batman 2022

Reeves's year-two Batman: bolted to the ground rather than merely grounded, no superpowers, barely any gadgets beyond a journal and some contact lenses. Both guests call it maybe the best-written Batman script yet, and dig into Robert Pattinson's performance (Rob's favorite live-action Batman, over Keaton), Zoe Kravitz's Catwoman, Paul Dano's terminally-online Riddler, and the mass-shooting set piece Van found genuinely hard to sit through. The mid-movie Joker reveal (Barry Keoghan) is the one point of real agreement between them: a cheap trick that deflates the ending.

Se7en 1995

Van's comp for the movie's shape: essentially Se7en with Batman as the detective protagonist.

Bullitt 1968

The reference point for the practical, no-CGI car chase, described as a 1970s muscle-car chase transplanted into a Batman movie.

Drive 2011

Cited alongside Bullitt as the modern equivalent of that chase's aesthetic.

The Batman Movie Rankingsall 14 live-action and animated films, best to worst

No. 1

The Dark Knight 2008

No. 1 - the movie every other entry gets measured against, including by Van, who isn't otherwise a Nolan fan.

No. 2

Batman 1989

No. 2 - Van and Sean's pick over Rob's active campaign for Batman Returns; the case for it is really the case for Jack Nicholson's Joker.

No. 3

Batman Returns 1992

No. 3 - Rob argued it should beat the 1989 film outright; Van and Sean wouldn't budge, but call it close.

No. 4

The Batman 2022

No. 4 - ranked high off one viewing but deliberately kept behind the older films, to guard against recency bias before a rewatch.

No. 5

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 1993

No. 5 - the group's animated pick; they like that it tells a full Batman story in 76 lean minutes.

No. 6

Batman Begins 2005

No. 6 - Van and Rob just don't respond to the Nolan trilogy's bookends the way Sean does.

No. 7

The Dark Knight Rises 2012

No. 7 - the weakest of the remaining live-action films for this group.

No. 8

Batman Forever 1995

No. 8 - Van's nostalgia pick, Happy Meal cup and all, dinged hard for Chris O'Donnell.

No. 9

The Lego Batman Movie 2017

No. 9 - Sean's veto pick; he clocks the joke hit rate at 5 to 7 percent for him.

No. 10

Batman: The Movie 1966

No. 10 - the Adam West version, fun for its first 30 minutes and unbeatable for the porpoise-saves-Batman gag.

No. 11

Zack Snyder's Justice League 2021

No. 11 - the four-hour Snyder Cut, watched specifically for this ranking since the theatrical Batman v Superman cut wasn't on HBO Max; a secondary Batman appearance either way.

No. 12

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016

No. 12 - ranked by the Ultimate Edition; even the Ben Affleck truthers on the panel call the movie itself loathsome.

No. 13

Justice League 2017

No. 13 - the Joss Whedon theatrical cut, nearly tied with Batman and Robin for last.

No. 14

Batman & Robin 1997

No. 14 - unanimous worst pick, though Sean argues it's historically important as the flop that convinced studios to lock down franchise filmmaking.

Kogonada on ‘After Yang’

Kogonada on

After Yang 2022

Kogonada's second feature, freshly in select theaters; Sean's favorite movie out of Sundance, an intimate sci-fi about a family and their malfunctioning android.

Kogonada on

Columbus 2017

His 2017 debut, shot in 18 days; discussed as the small-scale predecessor to After Yang's larger canvas.

Kogonada on

Drive My Car 2021

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's film, the one that sent Kogonada down a rabbit hole into the director's earlier work.

Kogonada on

Touching the Skin of Eeriness 2013

An early, under-an-hour Hamaguchi work a friend sent him a link to; he says he's still trying to figure it out.

Kogonada on

Arrival 2016

Cited as evidence Denis Villeneuve is the kind of craftsman Kogonada admires.

Kogonada on

Dune 2021

Villeneuve's adaptation, which he says washed over him watching it in a great theater with his son.

Kogonada on

In Bruges 2008

Where Kogonada says he fell for Colin Farrell as a man more than as an actor.

Kogonada on

Early Summer 1951

The Ozu film he cites for its family-in-sync-before-it-dissolves rhythm, an influence on After Yang's opening dance sequence.

Kogonada on

Kid with the Golden Arm 1979

The Shaw Brothers film whose suspended, color-background title sequence he says directly inspired After Yang's own title sequence.

Also mentioned raised along the way

Named in passing After EarthStar Wars: Episode I - The Phantom MenaceThe Matrix ResurrectionsInceptionThe Prestige

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV DaredevilDemon Slayer

Theatre The Lehman Trilogy

Comics Gotham Central

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