Today’s podcast is spurred by something Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish wrote in her dispatch from Cannes a few weeks ago: “the undeniable thrills and pleasures of Top Gun: Maverick … are not entirely separable from the American-exceptionalist fervor of its narrative or the military resources poured into its making. It isn’t “a good film but with bad politics”; it’s a good film in part because of its bad politics.” This thought was the catalyst for on ongoing conversation about the questions Tom Cruise’s world-dominating blockbuster raises—about nationalistic movies, star power, and the responsibilities of criticism and cinephilia. So this week, Devika and her fellow Co-Deputy Editor Clinton Krute invited two ideal interlocutors to join the conversation and help pick apart the Top Gun phenomenon: editor and critic Blair McClendon, and Ed Halter, whose brilliant review of the sequel appeared in 4Columns.