What Would You Put in the American Canon from 2022

 

A few years ago, I attempted lists of the 10 most consequential books, movies, music, and TV shows from the past 30 years. By "consequential" I don't necessarily mean best quality or most entertaining or most popular. I think of it this way: if you had to create an "American cultural canon" over that time period, what items would you have to include?

Most people would be pretty picky about this. Think of the all-time great movies over the decades, and some obvious "must-see" titles come to mind: Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, Goonies. (OK, the last one is just an all-time favorite of mine, nothing to do with "consequential.") Add it all up and maybe you end up with 30 or 40 total, or roughly a handful per decade. And you could do the same with songs, books, and TV. And maybe you'd be right: a select few stand the test of history and are necessary contributions to understanding the genre or the time period.

And yet let me ask the question differently. This year, 2022, how many movies should you watch, if you wanted to create a time capsule of the year from the perspective of movies as a platform for conveying cultural commentary and artistic expression? Again, it's not which flicks you liked the most, or thought were the most creative, or had the highest box office numbers. It's, what set of movies captured 2022, such that if you wanted to be a student of American pop culture circa this year and only had movies at your disposal, how many and which flicks would it be? Here, rather than less than one a year, you might say 10 or even 20, and same with songs, books, and TV.

As I noted in my original posts, I am speaking from a wildly uninformed place, so apologies if this feels imposterish or mansplainy. It does seem like history is unkind to pop culture content: something that feels "must see" in the moment can become forgotten just a few years later, so maybe you think it's 10-20 in the moment but over the years it ends up being closer to 1 or 2. And, it also seems like for some reason (I don't claim to understand the economics of how movies are produced, marketed, and consumed), the movie field has become less creatively fertile and politically provocative (is everything a Marvel sequel or derivative?), whereas other genres have proliferated in volume and in pushing the envelope over the years.

At any rate, I am curious to know what you would put in the American canon in 2022. Whether you are really picky or really expansive, I welcome your list. After all, I desire to be a student of American pop culture, and I'm eager to consume that which people think to be consequential.