So much happened culturally in 2022 that we needed three L.A. Times reporters to explain just some of it. Bad Bunny? Rihanna? Dave Chappelle? We talk about that, and more.
This year, Beyonce blessed fans with her album, “Renaissance,” the Daniels — Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — released the surreal trip of a movie “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and Bad Bunny released banger after banger after banger.
And those were just some of the brightest cultural moments that we couldn’t stop talking about. 2022 had its dark side, too — who could forget Will Smith’s slap or the racist rants of Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West?
Today, we review both the highs and lows of Hollywood, music, culture and more. Read the full transcript here.
Host: Gustavo Arellano
Guests: L.A. Times pop music critic Mikael Wood, film and television critic Glenn Whipp, music reporter Suzy Exposito
and film business reporter Ryan Faughnder
More reading:
For global phenomenon Bad Bunny, Puerto Rico remains his playground, battleground and muse
The top 10 Hollywood fiascoes that defined 2022 for the entertainment business
Review: Beyoncé's ‘Renaissance’ is a landmark expression of Black joy (and you can dance to it)
What happens to ‘Emancipation’ after the slap?
Gustavo Arellano: We've made it. It's the last episode of 2022. What a year.
And today we're gonna have some fun and look back on just some of the cultural moments that we couldn't stop talking about. To use a phrase that I'm hearing the kids say a lot nowadays, 2022 is coming in hot.
Gustavo: I'm Gustavo Arellano. You're listening to The Times, essential News from the L.A. Times. It's Friday, Dec. 30, 2022. Today, the highs and lows of Hollywood, music, culture, and so much more.
Gustavo: We are stacked for this round table. Hitting the movie scene is film business reporter Ryan Faughnder. Ryan, welcome to The Times.
Ryan Faughnder: Hey, Gustavo.
Gustavo: Also with us today is Glenn Whipp, who covers film and television as well as award season. Hey, Glenn.
Glenn Whipp: Gustavo…
Gustavo: Love it …. (Intros Mikael Wood and Suzy Exposito)
Mikael Wood: Good to be here, Gustavo. Thanks.
Suzy: Hey, Gustavo
Gustavo: Thank you all for being here today, so much to talk about. So little time culture, of course. Calendar, the second-biggest part of the Los Angeles Times. So let's talk a little bit about it. We're gonna start with the good, or at least the stories that stuck with all of you in a good way. Ryan, you're up first. What do you got?
Ryan: So the country is divided, you know, Gustavo. So my pick for my favorite thing is something that brought us all together. And because I'm feeling good around the holidays, this is just something that made me happy and I'm talking about the twin box office successes of two movies that could not be more different, and those would be ”Top Gun Maverick” …
Ryan: And ”Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Ryan: Now with “Top Gun,” this is a movie that just brought people back to the movies who hadn't been in literally years, like older people, younger people, men, women, folks in the middle of the country, Republicans, Democrats, people of all kinds want to see this. And it gave us a lot of good moments. It gave us Miles Teller's mustache. It gave us that weird intro video of Tom Cruise literally thanking us for coming back to the big screen. I mean, what a great time. And then on the complete opposite end of the film spectrum, we had “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which was this kind of weird indie take on the multiverse and kung fu artistry from this filmmaking duo known as Daniels, because they're both named Daniel, um, featuring the story of a Chinese immigrant family, Michelle Yeoh as the mom.
Gustavo: Oh, she’s great.
Ryan: She is. And, uh, the guy who played Short Round in that “Indiana Jones” movie, coming back in a big way as sort of the sad-sack beta male dad. It gave us hotdog finger, universe.
Ryan: I mean, just wonderful stuff at a time when people were really questioning whether movies were ever going to really matter.
Gustavo: OK. I am obviously out of it because the last time I was in the movie theaters was to see “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” and that was way back in 2019. I know, I'm …
Ryan: Nooo, Gustavo! What are you talking about?
Gustavo: What am I missing by not going to the theater?
Ryan: Oh, first of all, Gustavo, we're gonna have to have a discussion after class, uh, 2019. That's just way too long. Um, I mean, it's one of the things that I miss most, uh, during all the COVID-19 shutdowns and restrictions was going to see movies on the big screen. No distractions in the place where they literally might yell at me for picking up my phone. This is what I need in my life. You know, I'm a new dad, so I really treasure the time I have alone with friends that I can really focus on something. And my favorite filmgoing experience of the year was going to see ”Barbarian,” which is this totally demented horror movie from Zach Cregger.
Ryan: And it’s one of those films that you just wanna see in a theater because if you wait too long, it'll get spoiled on the internet. So was it, was it “Citizen Kane”? Hell no, but I had a great time for two hours. We should, we should go, we should go together. We’'ll get like an AMC Stubs Pass or something.
Gustavo: Oh, gosh, I remember those. Maybe I'll go back for “Avatar Part 2” ’cause I like the original “Avatar.” Mikael, what music story got you? Happy this year?
Mikael: Gotta go with Beyonce, her album ”Renaissance,” and just the sort of whole vibe around “Renaissance.”
Mikael: You know the record as people, if they've heard it, they know it's sort of a full body immersion into dance music in all of its various stripes. The music's about pleasure and desire and satisfaction, but Beyonce sort of also makes it about history in this kind of beautiful way, specifically Black and queer history, and about some of the pioneers of dance music and their stories that maybe have been marginalized in the overall sort of arc of musical history. And the sort of beautiful thing about Beyonce is that she's showing the work. I mean, this is an album where the liner notes, literally the liner notes were a thrill to read. You're going through and you're seeing, she's naming everything. She's naming all of the references, she's naming, where she's pulling from. She's sort of nodding in this explicit way to all the music that she's building on, whether it's Robin S and her song “Show Me Love,” which kind of forms the basis of her big song, “Break My Soul.” Or Donna Summer, Grace Jones, some of the great ballroom performers. The band Chic. You know, the song “Cuff It,” which is one of the highlights on “Renaissance.”
Mikael: You've got Nile Rodgers from Chic on guitar. You've got Raphael Saadiq on bass, you've got Sheila E. on percussion, like an incredible, just like dream team of funk and soul and R&B, OGs kind of backing up Beyonce. People might remember too that she did this like remix of “Break My Soul.” That was kind of a mash-up with Madonna's “Vogue.” But instead of shouting out women of old Hollywood, Beyonce kind of like outlines a pantheon of Black women who've been so pivotal in the history of music.
Mikael: It's just so funny and so joyful and so amazingly sequenced, like just some gorgeous transitions on “Renaissance.” And, you know, it also, like it wasn't the only album to sort of like function as like a deep dive into musical history this year. Rosalia's album “Motomami” was also steeped in history.
Mikael: Tons of proper nouns. She's sort of naming her predecessors and Bad Bunny, his record “Un Verrano Sin Ti.” You know, Suzy and I saw Bad Bunny at SoFi a couple months ago, and there was this moment where he brought out Ivy Queen, the kind of reggaeton pioneer.
Mikael: And it was just so beautiful to like see this like continuum of musical history on stage.
Gustavo: What about some smaller releases that you like? You know, the old indie songs.
Mikael: There's a woman named Angel Olsen, who's kind of a country soulish singer. She put out this great record, that’s about coming out to her parents.
Mikael: And then shortly after that they both died, which is obviously like, kind of just an amazing amount of personal, sort of, you know, uh, event. It's just full of event. And yet the way she kind of like ponders these life changes. Incredible record. Really, really beautiful.
Gustavo: Cool. Suzy, what about your Happy 2022 music story?
Suzy: I mean, this is probably cliche at this point because he is everywhere, but Bad Bunny was phenomenal this year. He did a phenomenal job this year. Every Bad Bunny record, it's like a love letter to Puerto Rico, right?
Suzy: His latest record, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” it's like a love letter to Caribbean Island people at large. You know, in songs like “Tití Me Preguntó,” which is a really hilarious debo about the meddlesome aunties of the family.
Suzy: And “Después de la Playa,” which crescendos into this merengue bonanza.
Suzy: We get this. Totally Buck Wild Tour of the Caribbean, you know, from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic, which Bad Bunny credits as a major inspiration for this album. And then we cruise over to Colombia in the song “Ojitos Lindos.”
Suzy: His collaboration with Bomba Estéreo. It's like a really rich tapestry of sound. And in lieu of a normal music video for the song “El Apagón,” which means “the blackout” in Spanish, Bad Bunny took the opportunity to work with a journalist — her name is Bianca Graulau — to create a documentary outlining the aggressive privatization of Puerto Rico's resources, their public utilities, the buying of land by rich outsiders and all the debts imposed by the United States. All of these things are threatening Puerto Rico's demise by capitalism.
Suzy: And that's the point that Bad Bunny wants to make. And I think he would agree that it's a, you know, “ El Apagón,” it was kind of a call to solidarity between a lot of island people, you know, who are fighting the residual effects of colonization. This is also happening to other islands. Like think about Hawaii. Think about Guam. And so “El Apagón,” it's such a powerful statement. But it's also a sick club track, like, it’s such a good dance song. Period.
Gustavo: Suzy, you're gonna think I'm so basic, but my only knowledge of Bad Bunny is the Cheetos commercial. And when he came out on “Saturday Night Live,” that's how basic I am.
Suzy: Oh, my God.
Gustavo: So you're saying I should listen to Bad Bunny?
Suzy: You need to get into it, Gustavo. Where have you been?
Gustavo: I'm still in the world of feathering font and Héctor Lavoe at least. It's still good music, you know? What about you, Glenn? What was awesome for you in 2022?
Glenn Whipp: Man, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that you haven't been to a movie since “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” I mean, don't you wanna replicate that feeling, that communal feeling that went up in that theater when Leonardo DiCaprio took the flame thrower and toasted the hippies? I mean, don't you want to feel that again?
Gustavo: I do, I do. I will. OK. That's gonna be my New Year's resolution 2023, but we're getting a little ahead of ourselves.
Glenn: Our work is done then. My moment, I mean, maybe I'm, I'm inspired by the presence of my music colleagues here, but I, I went with the music story too. I went with Joni Mitchell's stunning surprise return to this stage.
Glenn: I mean, performing for the first time since her 2015 brain aneurysm. I mean, you know, the last couple of years I am looking for stories, I'm craving stories of resilience and seeing her perform. She had to kind of rediscover her voice. She had to relearn how to play the guitar, and she's up on stage and it's just this legend again. And we had no idea it was coming, and that was just such a balm to my soul.
Glenn: And maybe you saw ”CODA,” maybe you didn't – movie that won best picture this year?
Gustavo: No, I didn't.
It used Joni Mitchell's ”Both Sides Now” just as this like song that's going to reduce people to tears and it, and it just destroyed people in the movie.
Glenn: She performed that on the stage. And in this 2022 version, it's just this transformed into a song about the serendipities that come with just being a survivor.
Glenn: Being 78 years old on this planet, still on stage, still performing, and she's singing something's lost, but something's gained in living every day. And I listen to that. Must have been a hundred times, and just amen. Joni. Amen.
Gustavo: No, Joni is absolute legend status, so great to see her back. Coming up after the break are not so favorite moments of the year.
Gustavo: All right. Now let's share our picks for the least favorite stories of the year. Suzy, let's start with you. This time. What? What did you just not like about 2023? What story?
Suzy: Listen, the Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard trial was the most radioactive story in entertainment this year.
Suzy: To try and sum it up briefly, Johnny Depp successfully sued his ex-wife Amber Heard for more than 10 million in a defamation case. After in 2018, she wrote a personal essay in the Washington Post attesting to her experience after coming forward as a survivor of domestic violence. The title of the story was “I Spoke Up Against Sexual Violence and Faced Our Culture's Breath. That has to change.” The story did not once mention Depp by name, but this summer a jury determined that three statements from the op-ed were false and made with malice against Depp. So without like trying to re-litigate what might have happened between them, without trying to decide who's really the liar and who's the perfect angel baby, I feel like this was a really dark moment for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse who logged onto the internet or went to work or went to school only to be subjected to a litany of ugly bad faith assumptions and regressive attitudes about abuse using Amber Heard as an avatar for the hatred. Now there was an antiviolence movement long before the Me Too movement was a thing, long before Amber Heard was even born. But I really feel for all the survivors who, if they weren't already intimidated into silence, are now even more scared to come forward about their experiences for fear of the deluge of public shame and mockery. So I, you know, leaving this year, it's like, I just think about how it's so important to be extra careful, how you talk about domestic abuse, how you talk about survivors or you know, someone even just saying that they had this kind of experience, if only out of respect for someone close to you who you may not even know has gone through it or is going through it.
Gustavo: Yeah, that was a really low moment in American celebrity trials and that's saying something, sadly. What about you, Glenn? What was a story that you just, you know, you did not like at all?
Glenn: Low moments. Gustavo. You have some pull with people at The Times, right? I mean you with the powers that be?
Gustavo: No more so than any of us, but sure go on.
Glenn: Can you make some kind of promise that this is going to be the last time I have to talk about Will Smith going up on stage and slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars? Can we, can we just put, I'm just gonna put that out there right now and, and really kind hope.
Gustavo: I think that's good advice.
Glenn: I mean, truly unfortunate incident for a hundred reasons. I mean, most obviously just ruining what should have the best night in his professional life. Maybe the hundredth reason it was unfortunate is that I'm covering the Oscars live, so we're, we're doing a live blog and we're trying to figure out, what just happened on stage? Because that had to be a bit, right? I mean, there's no way that wasn't a bit, and then we hear from reporters in the room. No, no, definitely not a bit. You know? And then, I mean, we're wondering why hasn't he been escorted from the theater? And then mostly you spend the next hour wondering, well, what's he gonna say when he wins the Oscar? As everyone was expecting to happen. So you spent the next hour wondering about that and, meanwhile, everything that was happening at the Oscars, everyone else's big moments, do we remember any of them? No, because we were waiting for Will Smith to take the stage and see how could he possibly explain what he just did an hour before? Um, Chris Rock was amazing on stage, the presence he had, and he kind of said, well, you know, that was the greatest night in the history of television. That's kind of how he ended this bit there. And I mean, it kind of was, but for all the wrong reasons.
Gustavo: Yeah, no, Chris Rock, one of my favorite comedians of all time, and I remember seeing that. I'm like, and there were all these conspiracy theories, like did he lean into it? Was it actually a bit? And then when you realize it's not a bit, and of course now Will Smith, of course, is going on his apology.
Glenn: He is, and, and I wish he had done that before, kind of going out and promoting a movie about slavery. He should have made the apology six months before this and then just gone out and promoted the film and talked, had a substantial conversation about the themes of the film rather than kind of tying the whole thing together.
Gustavo: Yeah. Mikael, what in music in 2022 was your least favorite story?
Mikael: Well, if you thought you were sick of hearing about the slap. How about Kanye?
Mikael: I mean, just to watch, to bear terrible witness to his dissent, you know, from a guy with some pretty wild views to just a full-on hate monger. Just as grim as it gets, and it's so manifold in its grimness, right? There's like the idea that maybe he's being used. This sort of useful idiot thing being used by even more nefarious figures, the sort of queasy bromance with Elon Musk and this obsession with free speech and the nonexistent threats to it. He's obsessed with the idea that he's not allowed to say what he wants, and yet he's just saying so much all the time. And we, of course, can't stop listening to it, which just makes it doubly depressing because of kind of what it says about our inability to resist giving more oxygen to him and his ideas. Our inadequacy in talking about mental health and how that intersects with celebrity. You know, when he was on Alex Jones' “Infowars” show a couple of, um, weeks ago.
Gustavo: That alone, Kanye and Alex Jones, that alone.
Mikael: The fact that we're even saying that phrase. Yeah. And then you're watching him and like Alex Jones every five, 10 minutes is like, he's emphasizing the fact that how many people are watching this show? Right? It's like this is the most popular show in the world right now. So like in an attention economy, like the attention of course is an end unto itself. But at whatever cost, at whatever collateral damage to other people, it's just really, really grim.
Gustavo: Yeah. Especially people who loved his music in the past. You're just looking and thinking it's just so sad, sad and you're disgusted, but yet, you can't turn away. Ryan, what about you? What was the story that you didn't like in 2022?
Ryan: Yeah, so I feel like we're all just kind of going through grievances about stories that we've had to cover ad nauseam. And so, here's mine, the, uh, cultural war earlier this year between the Walt Disney Co. and the state of Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis over the so-called “don't say gay” law. Just bummed me out. But just to remind everyone, Disney's then-CEO Bob Chapek didn't wanna speak out about this bill, which was, you know, pretty explicitly meant to limit discussion of, gay and trans issues in Florida schools. Disney employees were upset clearly because they saw it as a homophobic attack. Chapek ended up apologizing to staff after some protests. He said the company's goal was, in fact, to have the law repealed. After all this stuff took place, and then that kicked off even more chaos. The right started calling Disney's employees groomers. They started accusing Disney of trying to sexualize children. And so it was all just a little depressing and infuriating because it felt like everything had reverted back to the left, right culture battles of the 1990s over gay rights when Disney was taking heat over Ellen DeGeneres and gay days at the parks and all of that. So it really felt like a blast from the past in in the worst.
Gustavo: Yeah, Disney's at the center of both My favorite story of the year. And then my least favorite, which is Latinos in Hollywood. So I haven't been in the theaters, but I am somewhat caught up on, uh, you know, cool things. So I saw “Andor” over the Thanksgiving holiday and it was amazing. It was, and I'm not even a “Star Wars” person. I thought the last trilogy was trash, but “Andor” was so awesome. And you had Diego Luna playing the hero, the antihero. Unapologetically. He had his, you know, his Mexican accent and he did it. And you know, he's not the only Latino being a superhero. “The Mandalorian,” the guy who saved Grogu of course, Pedro Pascal, he's Chilean American, and you have Rosario Dawson coming in. She's gonna have her own series. So we have all these Latinos in heroic roles like never before, but it's all in the fantasy world. Meanwhile, Hollywood keeps canceling shows with real-life Latinos like “Gordita Chronicles,” like “Gentefied,” “Vida.” So it's like, it's very bittersweet for me. Uh, 2022.
Ryan Faughnder: Yeah. Yeah. I, I hear that. And, there has been this sort of turn in the streaming business and in and TV where these companies are facing. Recession, uh, slow down on advertising. Wall Street has totally turned on the streaming business as like its favorite way to make money. It's a stock market, pump and dump scheme. Dejour, and that has led to a lot of companies pulling back on content and, and productions, and a lot of that is getting felt by initiatives that studios started a couple years ago to boost their diversity and have more inclusion, in front of the camera and behind it. And a lot of that is what you're seeing get canceled and, and left on the cutting room floor. And again, it's a bummer.
Gustavo: I think, uh, Suzy Bad Bunny needs his own, uh, drama.
Suzy: I am here for it. I mean, he's supposed to be in the upcoming Marvel movie is it?
Ryan: Yeah, It's a Sony Pictures produced Marvel movie about El Muerto. I believe this is the name of the superhero who's been in maybe two Marvel comics throughout the history of the franchise, so that'll be interesting. I think that Bunny was also in Bullet Train, if I'm not mistaken.
Gustavo: Bad Bunny. That's what Hollywood needs overall. I give him a television show as well, and maybe one day I'll listen to his music. More after the break.
Gustavo: Before we leave, we gotta look ahead to 2023. So one line prediction time. Suzy, who's going to win the best album at the Grammys in February.
Suzy: I mean on that Bad Bunny tip, man, we just cannot get enough of him. I would really love for him to win album of the year, it would be the first Latin album to win since Santana in 2000. But I don't think it's gonna happen because honestly, this recording Academy is so risk-averse. I would say it'll most likely be Adele.
Gustavo: Good old Adele.
Suzy: Perhaps to, perhaps to Beyonce. She put out a fantastic dance record. But I do believe it'll probably be Adele.
Gustavo: Glenn, what film's gonna win the Oscar for best picture?
Glenn: “Everything Everywhere Alll at Once.” Unless the Academy takes a really big swing and goes “Avatar: The Way of Water” or “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Gustavo: Oh, my god.
Glenn: The magic of movies. That will get you back in the theater, man,
Gustavo: “Avatar.” I'm telling you, maybe I'll go to “Avatar” in 3d. I loved it the first time around. But Ryan, you also cover streamers. So how's the streaming wars going to look next year?
Ryan: Consolidation's gonna be in full swing. We're already seeing a little bit of it. There's all these big players that are going to assert their dominance. So your Disney pluses, your Netflixes, and the rest of them are gonna have to decide whether they actually think that this is a good way of making money, or they are gonna go back to just putting movies in theaters and trying to get you to pay first cable again.
Gustavo: And then lastly, but not least-ly: Mikael, is 2023 going to be the year that Rihanna finally brings out her album that everyone's anticipating and has been anticipating for, gosh, I don't even know how many years at this point.
Mikael: I think like 27 years. Uh, it's a good question. I do not have the answer. But what I can say is that if she doesn't release it after having played or before playing the Super Bowl in February, which is the largest promotional opportunity in pop music. If she doesn't drop the album after the Super Bowl, then she just may like, literally never make another album and just sell, you know, cosmetics and lingerie for the rest of her life.
Gustavo: She’s already a multi multimillionaire on that.
Gustavo: But we're waiting for you, Rihanna. Please, please, please. And that's it, folks, for your 2022 in culture with a little bit of 2023. Mikael, Suzy, Glenn, Ryan, thank you so much for all the work that you do, and thank you so much for this conversation.
Mikael: Thank you.
Glenn: Thanks.
Ryan: Good to be here.
Glenn: Thanks, Gustavo.
Gustavo: That's it for this episode at The Times Essential News from the L.A. Times. David Toledo was the Jefa on this episode, Heba Elorbany was the editor and Mike Heflin mixed and mastered it. Our show's produced by Denise Guerra, Kasia Broussalian, David Toledo and Ashlea Brown and Helen Li.
Our editorial assistants are Roberto Reyes and Nicolas Perez. Our engineers are Mario Diaz, Mark Nieto, Mike Heflin. Our fellow is Helen Li. Our editor is Kinsee Morlan. Our executive producers are Jazmin Aguilera, Shani Hilton and Heba Elorbany and our theme music Is by Andrew Eapen.
I’m Gustavo Arellano, we’ll be back after the new year with all the news in DeMare. See you next year.