As summer begins in earnest, we're looking back at a 2022 highlight—Charlotte Wells’s staggering debut feature Aftersun—and revisiting one of our most popular episodes ever: a conversation with 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.

You can find all 130+ issues of Bright Wall/Dark Room, including our most recent, Breaking Point, at ⁠brightwalldarkroom.com⁠.

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This episode is sponsored by Galerie, a new kind of film club. Bright Wall/Dark Room listeners can sign up using this special link to get two months of free access to Galerie's essays, live conversations, and streaming catalogue!

This episode originally aired in January 2023.