For our annual fashionably late “Best Of” issue, we’re looking at a 2022 highlight: Charlotte Wells’s staggering debut feature Aftersun, featuring film critic, author, and educator Adam Nayman. Adam shares special insights from his conversation with Wells about the film, plus the case for cinematic mystery, Paul Mescal crying, analog devices and the technology of memory, good karaoke scenes, fatherhood feelings, and why 2022 stinker The Whale stumbles precisely where Aftersun soars.

For more on Aftersun, check out producer Barry Jenkins’s conversation with director Wells for the Directors UK podcast, Filmmaker’s profile, and Wells’s own letter to audiences for A24. The Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast is co-hosted by Veronica Fitzpatrick and Chad Perman and produced and edited by Eli Sands. Our theme music is composed by Chad.

Find all 100+ issues of Bright Wall/Dark Room, including January’s paeans to last year’s best, at brightwalldarkroom.com. Please subscribe, rate, and flatter us with a review. We’re on Twitter @TheBWDRPodcast and @BWDR and you’re welcome to show support via our Patreon. We welcome listener feedback and sponsorship inquiries at [email protected]. Happy new year.