Don't Trust Rotten Tomatoes, Trust Obama's 2022 Movie List
Barack Obama's movie recommendations are almost as cool as his dance moves.
Unlike many other political leaders, Barak Obama keeps his hand on the pulse of pop culture.
He shared his Favorite Books of 2022 and his Favorite Summer Jams of 2022 before, and now it is time for his Favorite Movies of 2022, the list of which he posted on Instagram.
Besides Top Gun: Maverick, that list included Gina Prince-Bythewood's The Woman King, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's Everything Everywhere All at Once, John Patton Ford's Emily the Criminal, Steven Spielberg 's The Fabelmans, and others.
Obama posted such lists before, so this one caused no big surprise, but still produced some lively Internet discussion, including thousands of comments on Instagram. The common opinion outside of said comments seems to be that the list, like his previous movie lists seems to include well-reviewed movies, mostly from US, with a few from outside, with a mix of blockbusters and artsy films, and no big surprises or out-of-the-left-field picks.
As one Redditor said, "I swear Obama always has the most Letterboxd taste in movies to the point where I'd be shocked if he didn't have a secret account on there."
Letterboxd, if you're not aware, is a social network for movie lovers, dedicated solely to sharing opinions about movies. So the idea which strikes people upon reading Obama's list is clear: it is a selection of what cinema fans liked most loudly this year.
This might mean that Barack Obama carefully picks movies to watch, based on what is currently praised by a certain, relatively refined (compared to an average movie-goer on Internet, who might be leaving user scores on Rotten Tomatoes or IMDb) section of audience, which is not improbable for a man who is still probably pretty busy, even if his President days are behind him. Or that this is an artificially produced list, based primarily on what gets good reviews and meant to underline his supposed good taste.
In any case, the list is a decent guide for those who want to check good movies of 2022, though it may be missing some movies released late in the year. Or perhaps Obama just genuinely did not like either Black Panther 2 or Avatar 2 much – though it must be said that absence of both of them makes his list look more natural.