The Big Picture · Review · Discussion
April 7, 2025/ 90 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean argues that a bad Minecraft movie is the best news cinema has had all year, then walks Amanda through the first quarter's actual highlights.
13 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
‘A Minecraft Movie’ and the State of Cinemathe important, not good, movie
Jared Hess directs Jack Black and Jason Momoa; $301M opening weekend. Sean calls it borderline bad but essential: a chicken-jockey phenomenon that got kids losing their minds in theaters again. The peg for a long talk about kids' movies, the death of the middle, and TV briefly beating film.
The Best Movies of the Year So Fara grim Q1, salvaged
Soderbergh's spy-marriage puzzle; Sean's easy pointer for the year's best. Loves the lie-detector set piece, cools on the final five minutes and Regé-Jean Page's tell.
Alain Guiraudie's French drama about a drifter who returns home and starts killing. Sean calls it a movie for the sickos: closer to real murder than movie murder.
Tim Key and Tom Basden wrote and star; Carey Mulligan supports. A superfan flies a folk musician to a deserted island. Sweeter than the creepy setup suggests.
Soft sci-fi with Alicia Vikander playing a fertility assessor who acts like a toddler in Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel's home. Sean, a parent of a three-year-old, was floored by Vikander's performance.
Atom Egoyan reunites with Amanda Seyfried, here a theater director. Mixed, but Sean recommends it for Seyfried.
Rungano Nyoni's Zambian film about a woman who finds her uncle's body in the road; absurdist streaks under the grief. Saw it with a packed Vidiots house.
Lawrence Lamont directs SZA (film debut) and Keke Palmer; Issa Rae produces. Sean's pick for second-best studio movie of the year, in a Friday lineage.
Soderbergh's second on the list, shot entirely from the ghost's POV, with Soderbergh himself on camera in grippy socks.
Elric Kane's directorial debut, on Shudder. A dating-app parable dressed as an ambient anxiety thriller.
James Ashcroft's retirement-home horror with John Lithgow terrorizing a bedridden Geoffrey Rush via a possessed doll. Lithgow in full monster mode, with a dance number.
Bong Joon Ho's sci-fi comedy. Not his best, buried under Warner Bros. release-delay angst, but Sean liked it. Robert Pattinson forever.
Amy Schumer's Netflix comedy. She steals a fake bump and fakes a pregnancy. Better than expected; all the bits land.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In the Minecraft conversation BarbieThe Super Mario Bros. MovieSonic the HedgehogNapoleon DynamiteNacho LibreMinions: The Rise of GruTeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesFast XFree GuyCasablancaThe Last StarfighterJawsStar WarsAvatarJurassic WorldNe Zha 2Inside Out 2Snow WhiteMufasa: The Lion KingThe Greatest ShowmanAssassin's CreedOnce Upon a Time in HollywoodThe Great EscapeThe Alto Knights
The 'movies are back' evidence SinnersOne Battle After AnotherChallengersDune: Part TwoCivil WarGodzilla x Kong: The New EmpireEverything Everywhere All at OnceOppenheimerNosferatuA Complete Unknown
Jack Black's kids-movie run High FidelityThe School of RockKung Fu PandaJumanji: Welcome to the JungleGoosebumpsIce AgeShark Tale
In the best-of rundown The Good GermanHow to Train Your DragonStranger by the LakeHis Three DaughtersNightbitchChloeExoticaThe Sweet HereafterFridayBridesmaidsWarfareHavocThe HousemaidIt Ends with UsDrop
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The White LotusSeveranceAdolescenceThe StudioThe PitLandmanBig Little LiesThe Last of UsGabby's DollhouseBlue's Clues
Reality TV Love Is BlindThe Traitors
Video games MinecraftFortnite
In development Fortnite (movie)The Beatles films
Ads TremfyaWhole FoodsClinic Kids