The Big Picture · Review · Rankings · Interview
November 24, 2025/ 125 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda open on the Warner Bros. Discovery sale, take apart the Colleen Hoover hit 'Regretting You,' split hard over Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value,' rebuild the Best Picture top 10, and Sean talks to Trier.
17 films across 4 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.
‘Regretting You’
The Josh Boone / Colleen Hoover adaptation, tracking past $50 million. Allison Williams and Dave Franco are asked to play their own teenage selves and to grieve a car-crash affair, and both are stranded by material that gives them nothing funny to do. Amanda calls it insulting to its audience; Sean thinks it's a Rorschach for what's missing at the multiplex. The mother-daughter scenes with McKenna Grace are the only stretch either of them buys.
‘Sentimental Value’
Trier's Grand Prix winner, reuniting him with Renate Reinsve, plus Stellan Skarsgård as an estranged filmmaker father and Elle Fanning as the American star he tries to substitute for his daughter. Sean's favorite of the year; Amanda saw it twice and hands it the 'I'm dead inside' award: she admires the depression-as-inertia structure but never connected. Both love the house-as-narrator framing and read it against The Royal Tenenbaums.
Best Picture Power Rankingsas of late November
Still No. 1. Neither has been moved off it; the closest thing to a coronation the year has.
Holds at 2 on real heat, including a Spielberg-hosted screening, though it isn't out wide yet.
Steady at 3, propped up by a don't-you-dare-forget-it fanbase and Coogler's fresh Walk of Fame star.
Jumps to 4. Everyone who's seen it loves it and the Chalamet campaign is relentless; the knock is that Josh Safdie is too early in his career to top One Battle.
Slides to 5 as del Toro locks in and Jacob Elordi rises in Supporting Actor.
At 6. A festival wow with strong per-screen word of mouth, but the same are-we-sure hedges that dog Hamnet.
Back on at 7. The Palme d'Or winner, and Panahi is here campaigning, even if it hasn't drawn a crowd stateside.
New at 8, taking the one-big-blockbuster slot; they see it in early December and could still be swayed.
At 9, sliding into the Jay Kelly Netflix slot as that one falls off the board.
Debuts at 10. The Brazil contingent is strong and neither underestimates it, though Sean hasn't seen it yet.
In conversation
Trier on writing a difficult filmmaker father who turned out to mirror his own family, staging Gustav Borg's fake masterpiece as a one-take on a moving train, the actual Oslo house he shot in and rebuilt as a 1930s studio replica, and a soundtrack bookended by Terry Callier and Labi Siffre.
The prior Reinsve film whose reach (Academy nominations, a Hollywood dialogue) shaped the anxiety of following it.
His debut, bought by Miramax, which sent him on the studio-meeting circuit before he chose to keep working from Norway.
The film he made back home after deciding Hollywood wasn't where he'd feel most free.
His pick for the last great thing he's seen; he calls Paul Thomas Anderson the master of their filmmaking generation.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Colleen Hoover and the melodrama tradition It Ends with UsMaterialistsReminders of HimVerityThe NotebookA Walk to RememberMessage in a BottleDear JohnThe Last SongThe ChoiceGone with the WindThe Way We WereSteel Magnolias
On screen in 'Regretting You' CluelessPatriot GamesWitnessGet OutM3GAN
'Sentimental Value' in company Train DreamsAftersunThe Royal Tenenbaums
Also in the Best Picture chatter Wicked for GoodJay KellyBugoniaNo Other ChoiceWake Up Dead ManSpringsteen: Deliver Me from NowhereThe Testament of Ann LeeIs This Thing On?Song Sung BlueRental Family
Supporting Actor watch Blue MoonPredator: BadlandsPillionThe Hunger Games
The Warner Bros. sale SupermanA Minecraft MovieWeaponsThe BatmanBarbieTop Gun: MaverickThe IrishmanMarriage StoryRomaKnives OutKPop Demon Hunters
Trier's gifts and touchstones The Piano TeacherIrreversibleThis Is Not a Film
In passing Creed IILady BirdZootopiaZootopia 2
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV GirlsGrey's AnatomyStranger ThingsAndorTaskGame of Thrones
Books Making Movies (Sidney Lumet)