The Big Picture · Discussion · Roundtable · Review · Interview
November 1, 2024/ 128 min/ Sean Fennessey · Chris Ryan
Sean and Chris Ryan open on the rumor that Christopher Nolan's next film is a Blue Thunder remake, which spins into Chris's game: VHS-store classics to hand our current auteurs. Then Anna Kendrick's Woman of the Hour, and a long dig into Conclave, the papal-election thriller they both loved and Sean cooled on. Sean closes with documentarian Matt Turnauer on his James Carville film.
15 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.
Christopher Nolan’s Next Movie
The rumor Chris floated a week earlier and turned out to be right: Nolan's next, with Matt Damon and Tom Holland at Universal for summer 2026, is a take on John Badham's 1983 helicopter-cop movie with Roy Scheider and Daniel Stern. Sean's case for it: Nolan hasn't been in the skies since Dunkirk, and 'let a great director iterate on thin pulpy material' is how the golden age worked. Over/under a billion? Chris says under.
VHS Classics for Our Auteurs to Remake Chris Ryan's game: one director per video-store cover
Rutger Hauer and C. Thomas Howell in a serial-killer cat-and-mouse; the VHS cover of eyes in the rearview is basically a West shot. Do it as a period piece or find whatever's left of hitchhiking in 2024.
Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal racing to lose their virginity: sexy and a little predatory, but weirdly sincere, written by two women. Fresh meat for the director of The Substance and Revenge.
The disastrous Tom Hanks / Shelley Long house comedy, part War of the Roses, part acid look at American consumerism. Sean wants to see Baumbach's dark heart and Gerwig's optimism collide on a couple losing all their money. Driver and Johansson to star.
Guy Hamilton's American-spy oddity with Fred Ward; hasn't aged well (Joel Grey plays a Korean man). Give it to Refn and Gosling and stretch it to eight or sixteen episodes.
Chris's favorite BMX movie ever. Karate Kid meets Breaking Away on freestyle bikes, restored to 4K. His pitch: Chung scales back down from Twisters to a small-town drama about a kid who rides.
Geoff Murphy's New Zealand last-man-alive film with Bruno Lawrence, all sand and empty municipal buildings: 'Dune if everyone died.' Desolation is one of Villeneuve's key themes.
Chris admits this is the one everyone's precious about, but the Santa Cruz boardwalk and teen-vampire clique feel ready-made for the director he's high on after The First Omen.
Phil Joanou's high-school riff on High Noon: a movie about stress and time slipping away, so who better than the Safdies. The illustrated cover of the guy hanging off a giant clock is stuck in Chris's head.
Helen Slater and Christian Slater as working-class Corpus Christi kids who become Texas folk heroes, a Bonnie and Clyde with an early viral-fame streak. Maybe too low-stakes for a fresh Oscar winner, unless Billie Jean's a sex worker.
The Wes Craven allegory about a Black family and a murderous white couple, a clear precursor to Get Out. Sean doesn't think the original works, but calls the structure pure Peele.
Dennis Hopper's Texas noir with Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, and Jennifer Connelly, close to pornography in the best way. Flip the genders: Austin Butler comes to town, Sydney Sweeney's the gal. 'Let's print money.'
‘Woman of the Hour’
Anna Kendrick's directorial debut, which she also stars in: a 70s-LA serial-killer thriller sharded across several potential victims. Based on the true case of a killer who went on The Dating Game. Both liked it: propulsive, savvy about true-crime mania without exploiting it, and with real ideas about the male gaze. Daniel Zovatto is punishing as the killer; Tony Hale plays the smarmy host. Played TIFF 2023, now a Netflix hit.
‘Conclave’full spoilers, including the ending
Edward Berger's papal-election thriller from a Robert Harris novel (screenplay Peter Straughan, score Volker Bertelmann). Ralph Fiennes anchors it as Cardinal Lawrence, the story's detective and moral conscience; Stanley Tucci (Bellini), John Lithgow (Tremblay), Sergio Castellitto (a scene-stealing, vape-hitting Tedesco), and Isabella Rossellini in essentially one good scene. Both were entertained by a pulpy, Agatha Christie-plotted crowd-pleaser dressed as a prestige drama: 12 Angry Men crossed with an airport novel. Carlos Diehz's Benitez wins and is revealed to be intersex; Sean's jaw dropped the first time, then he cooled to the twist on a second viewing, finding it a cheap, Pollyanna-ish shock. A real three-and-a-half-out-of-five, sitting in the Best Picture race mostly on cast and pedigree.
Matt Turnauer on ‘Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid’
Turnauer's mostly-verité portrait of James Carville, the self-described hack who sees politics as selling. The film started as a retrospective and transformed when Carville inserted himself into the 2024 race over Biden's fitness. Turnauer talks getting Bill Clinton on camera, and finally landing Mary Matalin for a six-hour, no-tripod porch interview; his through-line of films that wander into a marriage (the Reagans, Scotty Bowers, Roy Cohn); and his theory that documentary has filled the void left by the vanished serious mid-length drama.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Turnauer's filmography Valentino: The Last EmperorScotty and the Secret History of HollywoodCitizen Jane: Battle for the CityWhere's My Roy Cohn?The War Room
In the Conclave conversation MonsignorThe Godfather Part IIIGreen BookRomaThe BrutalistEmilia PérezAnoraSing SingQueerThe WhaleShakespeare in LoveNetworkThe Silence of the LambsSuper/Man: The Christopher Reeve StoryThe FirmGladiator IIWickedTop Gun: MaverickAvatar: The Way of WaterAll Quiet on the Western FrontDune: Part Two
Around the Nolan and VHS talk Red RiverAn Officer and a GentlemanDunkirkOppenheimerThe Dark KnightThe Dark Knight RisesInceptionZodiacNight of the CometThe Omega ManI Am LegendClassThe War of the RosesGet OutThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th DimensionTwistersTwisterMinariThe Karate KidBreaking AwayJoker: Folie à DeuxDuneBonnie and ClydeThe Grand Budapest Hotel
Turnauer's last-great-thing detour All the President's MenKiss Me DeadlyWhat Ever Happened to Baby Jane?Hush… Hush, Sweet CharlotteThe Legend of Lylah ClareGreen for Danger49th Parallel
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Station ElevenThe ReagansPaul T. GoldmanThe ComebackRuPaul's Drag RaceGirlsMeet the Press
Ads Off GuardTremfayaState FarmFIFA World Cup Launch EditionMint MobileWolf Trap