F1 2025
The Apple/Brad Pitt racing movie, originally titled Apex. The trailer used Queen's 'We Will Rock You'; Amanda pledged to learn nothing about the sport before release.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
Brad Pitt’s ‘F1’ Trailer Hype, Mia Goth’s ‘MaXXXine’ Madness, and ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’
July 8, 2024/ 95 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins · Van Lathan
Sean and Amanda open on the F1 trailer and the Skydance-Paramount deal, then argue over MaXXXine and the whole Ty West trilogy. Van Lathan joins for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Sean reports back on Despicable Me 4, and Ty West closes it out in conversation.
68 films across 5 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 weekend in movie newstrailers and deals
Moneyball 2011
Amanda's read on the F1 trailer: it opens on a Brad Pitt/Kerry Condon exchange that plays like a Billy Beane scene with the bite taken out for a Top Gun crowd.
Top Gun: Maverick 2022
Sean's benchmark for how much he wants to know about F1 going in: none. 'Tom Cruise must be really pissed.'
The Beekeeper 2024
First up on Amanda's husband's flight, before he cut to Moneyball with an hour left.
Casablanca 1942
Hugh Grant marked the French election by posting the film's 'La Marseillaise' scene.
‘MaXXXine’ and the Ty West trilogySean and Amanda
MaXXXine 2024
Third in the trilogy, set amid the Night Stalker summer of 1985 L.A. Sean's least favorite of the three but a success on its own terms; a dense stew of references that Amanda found harder to enjoy without placing every one. Both felt the third act loses steam and mutes Mia Goth.
X 2022
The 1970s Texas original about strippers and filmmakers shooting a porno at a cabin. Sean: Pearl is part of why X grew into a cult classic.
Pearl 2022
The Technicolor prequel about X's killer as a young woman in 1918. Amanda's favorite of the three, for the Wizard of Oz nods; Sean calls the held final smile a big, weird stroke.
A Cure for Wellness 2016
Sean's example of Mia Goth going bonkers, a Gore Verbinski movie.
Body Double 1984
The De Palma touchstone Amanda has seen, so the direct references landed for her.
Psycho 1960
An overt part of the stew; Amanda's breaking point was the golf-cart 'this is where Psycho was filmed' beat with the Bates Motel sign filling the screen.
Hardcore 1979
A major reference point once Maxine sets out to remake hardcore in 1980s L.A.
Pretty Woman 1990
Amanda's comfort-zone comparison for the L.A.-striver material.
Sunset Boulevard 1950
The Hollywood-climber lineage Amanda is drawn to over the video-store slashers.
All About Eve 1950
Sean's frame for the Debicki/Goth pairing that never quite arrives, two generations of women.
Boogie Nights 1997
Part of the 'people trying to climb' canon Sean says the film replicates well.
The Player 1992
Named alongside All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard as movies-about-Hollywood the film draws on.
Vice Squad 1982
One of the sleazy 1980s L.A. B-movies Sean says you have to watch under the right circumstances.
Angel 1984
Sean's litmus test: fire up Angel cold and 'this kind of sucks' unless you're along for the ride. Amanda won't be firing up Tubi for it.
Fade to Black 1980
Named with Hardcore in Sean's list of the sub-genre a viewer needs to like for MaXXXine to fully work.
Tenebre 1982
Cited with Hardcore and Fade to Black as the kind of movie you need affection for going in.
Death Proof 2007
Sean's Tarantino example of the effortless steal, versus West pointing a flashing red sign at his references. He asked Tarantino about a lifted line; 'I didn't borrow it, I stole it.'
Telefon 1977
The Charles Bronson / Don Siegel movie Tarantino stole a Death Proof line from, which Sean never would have caught.
Two Weeks Notice 2002
Sean's needle at Amanda over B-movies with A ideas; she still hasn't seen it.
A Family Affair 2024
Amanda's counter for a B-rom-com she'll defend, also a movie about making movies.
Longlegs 2024
Out the following week from Oz Perkins, Anthony Perkins's son, arriving right after a movie so overtly about his father's legacy.
The Wizard of Oz 1939
Among the old Technicolor musicals Pearl pastiches.
‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’with Van Lathan
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F 2024
The Netflix legacy sequel, Eddie Murphy's first in 30 years, directed by Mark Molloy. Van compares it to Big3 basketball: enjoyable if you let it be. Everyone returns; the daughter (Taylour Paige) exists to get Axel back to Beverly Hills. Muted, but a good time; Murphy never fully lets himself out of the cage.
Beverly Hills Cop 1984
The Simpson/Bruckheimer template, high stakes that are actually low, Van's 'Joe Johnson on the Nets' original.
Beverly Hills Cop II 1987
Van's a Beverly Hills Cop II guy; the second film everyone still counts.
Beverly Hills Cop III 1994
The PG-13 one without the Axel F score that the house doesn't acknowledge.
Coming to America 1988
The Murphy role Van and Sean discussed on an earlier show.
Coming 2 America 2021
Van: just not good, smaller and less important; Axel F at least still feels like a Beverly Hills Cop movie.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008
The Shia LaBeouf hand-off that didn't take; audiences wanted Harrison Ford.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 2023
The Phoebe Waller-Bridge attempt to pass the torch, same result.
Dirty Harry 1971
Sean's counterexample: Eastwood never came back 40 years later to play the hits.
The Terminator 1984
Part of Van's ongoing full-series rewatch and the T-800-returns-no-matter-what pattern.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991
The scary T-1000, Robert Patrick.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines 2003
Kristanna Loken's T-X, the one Van blanks on the number for.
Terminator Salvation 2009
The Christian Bale entry, the only one without Arnold, though the T-800 still shows up.
Terminator: Dark Fate 2019
Van's favorite of the recent ones, Mackenzie Davis and a returning Sarah Connor; he'd watch another tomorrow.
Conan the Barbarian 1982
Van floats a possible new Arnold Conan; not sure it's real.
The Virgin Suicides 1999
Amanda's dream legacy sequel per Van, 'what happened the next day.'
A Few Good Men 1992
Van's pick, though Sean's wary of Aaron Sorkin writing Caffee running for governor of Michigan right now.
Molly's Game 2017
The Sorkin movie Amanda kept out of the Kevin Costner Hall of Fame.
WarGames 1983
Van's real legacy-sequel pitch: bring back Matthew Broderick, a young hacker sent to pull him out of the government. One problem, they just lost Dabney Coleman.
Harlem Nights 1989
Sean's alternate ask: have Eddie come back to it.
Cloak & Dagger 1984
Van's favorite Dabney Coleman, seen for the first time recently.
Nine to Five 1980
Floated as the maybe-title while Sean tried to place a Dabney Coleman comedy.
Short Time 1990
The Dabney Coleman movie Sean was actually reaching for, where he thinks he has 24 hours to live.
‘Despicable Me 4’Sean's solo mall report
Despicable Me 4 2024
Sean saw it alone at the Americana at 10 p.m. and walked out feeling life is meaningless. Not for three-year-olds; he'll recap the plot at the live show. $230M worldwide over the weekend.
Despicable Me 2010
The one Amanda has actually seen; she argues the Despicable Me films, unlike Minions, don't work silent.
Minions 2015
Amanda has seen it, but without sound, and still got the comedy, which is the point of the franchise.
Minions: The Rise of Gru 2022
The other Minions entry Amanda has caught.
Inside Out 2 2024
$1.3B and counting; Sean's evidence the box office is basically fine, down just 17% on the year.
Ty West on ‘MaXXXine’closing out the trilogy
Ty West on
MaXXXine 2024
West on scaling up for 1980s L.A. after two farm-set movies, keeping the ending secret, and packing in dense subtle Easter eggs (the cocaine in a goose, the nurse outfit) more than the obvious Body Double nods. He set it in the Night Stalker/PMRC summer of 1985 for the maximum real-and-narrative threat, and left the door open to more.
Ty West on
X 2022
West wanted Maxine to not repeat X or Pearl; early drafts leaned on callbacks and fell flat fast.
Ty West on
Pearl 2022
Born of pandemic circumstance in New Zealand; its big committed visual swing (paint it that red) freed West up going forward. He pitched A24 all three at once, half-joking about X / XX / XXX.
Ty West on
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1974
The comparison West couldn't avoid on X, people in a van at a farm, even though the movies share little story.
Ty West on
Body Double 1984
The kind of overt reference people fixate on; West says far more effort went into the subtle stuff.
Ty West on
Vice Squad 1982
A movie West would point an actor to for the feel of 1980s Hollywood; he'd love it to be a gateway film.
Ty West on
Angel 1984
West's example of a forgotten, hard-to-find movie that shouldn't just vanish, '500 doesn't get you an El Dorado.'
Ty West on
The Player 1992
The kind of movie-business commentary West wanted to thread with 80s action.
Ty West on
Bram Stoker's Dracula 1992
One of the vampire movies West lists when riffing on how a sub-genre's watchable titles thin out fast, the seed of a maybe-someday idea.
Ty West on
The Lost Boys 1987
Another on the short list of great vampire movies before the well runs dry.
Ty West on
Interview with the Vampire 1994
Rounds out West's vampire example; Sean teases him into 'announcing' a vampire movie he insists he doesn't have.
Ty West on
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 2024
West's confession, still hasn't seen it: 'I'm part of the problem.'
Also mentioned raised along the way
Franchises name-dropped Mission: ImpossibleOcean's ElevenA Good Day to Die Hard
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV House of the DragonDrive to SurviveBaby ReindeerRipleyBeverly Hills Cop (TV series)The Decalogue
Podcasts Talk the ThronesHouse of RThe Midnight BoysThe WatchTrial by Content
Games Dungeons & Dragons
Ads Wells FargoTremfayaState FarmAmazon PrimeWhole FoodsMint Mobile