Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes 2024
Sean's example on the AMC Stubs question: he's seeing it in IMAX that night, reckoning his subscription down to about two dollars a ticket.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
An Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag, and ‘I Saw the TV Glow,’ with Jane Schoenbrun
May 10, 2024/ 157 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
An ask-us-anything mailbag (AMC Stubs and what box office even measures, Survivor ruined by therapy, the diss-movie canon, one-actor filmographies, YouTube clips), then a double-header on Jane Schoenbrun's 'I Saw the TV Glow': Sean and Adam Nayman on the film, then Sean and Schoenbrun on making it.
34 films across 3 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.
The MailbagSean and Amanda, with Bobby Wagner reading listener questions
Barbie 2023
Amanda's favorite billion-dollar grosser, which she'll take over Titanic despite not having lived with it as long.
Titanic 1997
The other billion-dollar reference point; Sean prefers it, Amanda isn't so sure.
Dune: Part Two 2024
Sean's rebuttal to the wish for smaller films: the biggest movie of the year, proof studios will keep eventizing rather than make more $18 million movies.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts 2023
Recapped as a bit (1990s New York, a heist, a Cybertron detour, Anthony Ramos) and pronounced 'super, super good and normal.'
Transformers One 2024
The animated prequel due that September, with Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry on voices.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace 1999
Did well in its 25th-anniversary re-release, which Sean saw in 4DX; he calls it pretty bad and pretty good at once.
Charlie Wilson's War 2007
Sean's go-to YouTube clip: the Philip Seymour Hoffman rant that helped land PSH in the show's Hall of Fame.
Zodiac 2007
Amanda's clip: the Vallejo House of Pancakes monologue, hair standing up on the arms.
The Social Network 2010
Offered as another clip reel that stands alone, from the opening breakup on down.
A Few Good Men 1992
The 'you can't handle the truth' VHS-rewind scene all three name in their top four.
The Big Short 2015
Bobby's pick: Ryan Gosling chucking the Jenga blocks, after which, he says, he needs nothing else from the movie.
The Sound of Music 1965
Sean's childhood VHS-rewind ritual, and the movie Amanda admits she doesn't much like.
Deconstructing Harry 1997
Cited as a diss movie: Woody Allen aimed at Philip Roth, nasty and dyspeptic.
Irreconcilable Differences 1984
The lost Charles Shyer/Nancy Meyers movie read as a Bogdanovich-Platt diss, with a Sharon Stone turn.
While We're Young 2014
Baumbach's Adam Driver character taken as a Joe Swanberg diss.
Bergman Island 2021
Floated as a gentle diss at Olivier Assayas.
Barton Fink 1991
The Coens' Clifford Odets diss.
The Martian 2015
Sean's evidence for his 'Wiig blindness': he can't place what Kristen Wiig is doing in it.
Jack and Jill 2011
Al Pacino's Dunkaccino, offered without irony as great comedic acting by a dramatic actor.
Uncut Gems 2019
Exhibit A for Adam Sandler going serious and nailing it.
Punch-Drunk Love 2002
The other Sandler-goes-serious that works.
Spaceman 2024
The Sandler swing that didn't, per Sean, but credit for trying.
Fast X 2023
Sean's model of a movie that treats him like an asshole: the kind he'll always stand against.
Free Guy 2021
Same complaint, different film.
Last Stop in Yuma County 2024
Sean's pleasant-surprise pick: Francis Galluppi's diner-set neo-Western with Jim Cummings.
Hundreds of Beavers 2024
The silent slapstick one (a man battling grown men in beaver costumes, Buster Keaton by way of Duck Hunt) that Sean keeps recommending.
Evil Does Not Exist 2023
Hamaguchi's Drive My Car follow-up, which Sean wants a month to sit with before discussing the ending.
The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999
Sean's first time seeing it projected, at the Aero: the room cracking up at Philip Seymour Hoffman's entrance.
Fight Club 1999
The long-rumored PTA-Fincher feud, and whether PTA minded the cancer material.
The Fall Guy 2024
Its 'you need glucose for cognitive function' line becomes Amanda's running note to a lunch-skipping Sean.
‘I Saw the TV Glow,’ with Adam NaymanSean and Ringer critic Adam Nayman on the film
I Saw the TV Glow 2024
Schoenbrun's second feature: a teenager and a classmate bond over a Buffy-adjacent, late-Nickelodeon-ish show called The Pink Opaque. Nayman reads it as horror, Sean as coming-of-age; both land on Cronenberg and Lynch, the Fred Durst casting coup, and a last fifteen minutes they call harrowing.
Jane Schoenbrun on ‘I Saw the TV Glow’the writer-director in conversation with Sean
Jane Schoenbrun on
I Saw the TV Glow 2024
Schoenbrun on building the film tone-first (shoegaze, Snick, the glow of a '90s screen), then finding character and plot on top, junking the story six times to get there, and on Fred Durst as a spice only Fred Durst could add.
Jane Schoenbrun on
We're All Going to the World's Fair 2021
Their first feature, a webcam-diary internet-horror movie made with twelve people in the woods: the small canvas TV Glow steps up from.
Also mentioned raised along the way
If you could only watch one filmography: Harrison Ford WitnessWorking GirlMorning GloryPresumed InnocentThe FugitiveReturn of the JediRandom HeartsApocalypse NowRegarding HenrySabrinaClear and Present Danger
M. Emmet Walsh, three minutes at a time Blade RunnerA Time to KillCatch Me If You CanFletchThe JerkSlap ShotMikey and NickyRomeo + Juliet
Matt Damon, cameo edition InterstellarEuroTripJay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Around the mailbag WALL·EBefore SunsetDeath ProofHarry Potter and the Prisoner of AzkabanAmerican GraffitiDrive-InAliensAlmost FamousScarfaceGone with the WindStar WarsThe GodfatherThe ConversationGodzilla vs. KongDuneWild HogsDrive My CarThe Truman ShowThe MajesticMan on the MoonAmbulanceHeartburnThe Lord of the Rings: The War of the RohirrimAvengers: EndgameGuardians of the GalaxyJerry Maguire
Around ‘I Saw the TV Glow’ A Self-Induced HallucinationRoom 237Slender ManBeware the SlendermanBeau Is AfraidUnfriendedPulseScott Pilgrim vs. the WorldTake This WaltzLady BirdSynecdoche, New YorkI'm Thinking of Ending ThingsThe FacultyScreamThe Fanatic
Jane Schoenbrun's touchstones MementoRequiem for a DreamCrasheXistenZMulholland DriveLost HighwayA.I. Artificial IntelligenceLast DaysNeon Genesis Evangelion: The End of EvangelionThe Passion of Joan of ArcThe Spirit of the BeehiveDonnie DarkoOver the EdgeThe Wild OneRock 'n' Roll High SchoolDazed and ConfusedParis, TexasThe Shawshank RedemptionHard CandyVideodromeRoboCopExoticaShowgirlsThe Tenant
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Buffy the Vampire SlayerAre You Afraid of the Dark?Twin PeaksThe X-FilesThe Secret World of Alex MackClarissa Explains It AllDarkwing DuckCurb Your EnthusiasmSurvivorJeopardy!GirlsClippedBlueyThe SimpsonsThe Pink Opaque (fictional show in the film)RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop (documentary mini-series)
Games Duck Hunt
Podcasts The TownThe RewatchablesStick the LandingMacro Boys
Promos Ringer Movies