No. 1
The Player 1992
Chris's No. 1. Altman's Hollywood satire, written by Michael Tolkin, stars Tim Robbins as a studio exec who thinks he's more important than he is, a delusion Chris says "runs through the veins of so many people in this city."
The Big Picture · Top Five · Interview
Top Five L.A. Movies, Plus Karyn Kusama on ‘Destroyer’ | Interview (Ep. 116)
January 11, 2019/ 75 min/ Sean Fennessy · Chris Ryan
Sean Fennessy and Chris Ryan each count down their five favorite L.A. movies since Chinatown, then Karyn Kusama joins to talk Destroyer, the East Side geography she and her husband built it around, and directing Nicole Kidman.
17 films across 3 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.
Chris Ryan's Top Five L.A. Moviessince Chinatown
No. 2
Drive 2011
Paired with Speed as his driving movies. Chris moved to L.A. right before it came out and admits none of the neon, Johnny Jewel soundtrack, or Carey Mulligan picnics by the L.A. River panned out in real life.
No. 3
Speed 1994
Came out right when Chris got his license. He calls it "a 12 Angry Men update," a bus full of strangers thrown together by geography and a bomb.
No. 4
Repo Man 1984
Chris's gateway to punk rock and independent film, discovered on VHS. Released the same year as Beverly Hills Cop. The two form his opening pair.
No. 5
Beverly Hills Cop 1984
The first movie that made Chris ask "what is Los Angeles?" Eddie Murphy as a stranger dropped into a Maserati-and-plastic-surgery version of the city.
Sean Fennessy's Top Five L.A. Moviessince Chinatown
No. 1
Afternoon Delight 2013
Sean's No. 1, though he says he ordered his five "chronologically" rather than by favorite. Kathryn Hahn as a woman filling an empty, well-off L.A. life by taking in Juno Temple's stripper as her family's nanny.
No. 2
Swingers 1996
Paired with The Player as two sides of the same coin: trying to make it in L.A. versus what happens once you do. Doug Liman directed; Jon Favreau wrote and starred.
No. 3
Magnolia 1999
PTA's tapestry of a hundred lonely Angelenos, anchored by Philip Seymour Hoffman's Phil Parma. Sean calls it the rare L.A. movie that "feels like it's made by an Angeleno."
No. 4
The Big Lebowski 1998
A nod to noir without doing noir. The Dude's supposedly-rich foil shows how illusory L.A. money can be, down to who actually owns the house.
No. 5
White Men Can't Jump 1992
Sean's No. 5, and, per Chris, "the Green Book of its time," a hustler's tour of Venice Beach courts and the alleys behind L.A. apartment buildings.
In conversation
Karyn Kusama on
Destroyer 2018
Kusama's noir, led by Nicole Kidman as a burned-out detective revisiting an old undercover case. Shot on the East Side and in Frogtown rather than the Beverly Hills version of L.A. the film deliberately avoids.
Karyn Kusama on
Taxi Driver 1976
Kusama's touchstone for keeping an audience with a broken character, what she calls "a portrait of mental illness" that's thrillingly entertaining despite itself.
Karyn Kusama on
In a Lonely Place 1950
Sean's comparison for Nicole Kidman's Erin Bell, a wounded, ruthless Bogart-style investigator.
Karyn Kusama on
The Invitation 2016
Kusama's dinner-party horror movie, written by her husband Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. It's the project that reunited the three after Æon Flux.
Karyn Kusama on
Æon Flux 2005
Kusama's second feature. A creatively difficult shoot that still forged the working relationship with Hay and Manfredi that led to The Invitation and Destroyer.
Karyn Kusama on
Jennifer's Body 2009
Kusama's film, marketed in a way she says she couldn't fully stand behind. She credits its "five-year bounce," the later reassessment once it was seen apart from that original campaign.
Karyn Kusama on
Mandy 2018
Kusama's answer to the show's closing question. She drove her husband to see it in a theater and calls it "a version of feminism I can get behind in a kind of macho exploitation flick."
Also mentioned raised along the way
Honorable mentions ChinatownLos Angeles Plays ItselfMulholland DriveTo Live and Die in L.A.The LimeyCollateralHeatEnd of WatchL.A. ConfidentialMenace II SocietyBoyz n the HoodFridayWho Framed Roger RabbitJackie BrownNightcrawlerSleep with MeAlpha DogCluelessLess Than ZeroGreenberg
In passing Green BookRudyYoung GunsThe Breakfast Club3:10 to YumaBlade RunnerTerminator 2: Judgment DayPulp FictionReservoir DogsOnly God ForgivesBoogie NightsFirst ReformedAndrei RublevEcho Park
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV True DetectiveHalt and Catch FireBillionsHow I Met Your MotherEscape at Dannemora
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