Trolls World Tour 2020
The PVOD test case ($19.99 to rent) that the pair used the prior week to argue the release model is changing.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Top Five · Interview
'Extraction' and the 10 Best Movies Released During Quarantine
May 8, 2020/ 96 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Fifty-eight days into lockdown, Sean and Amanda count down the 10 best movies released since quarantine began, a field split between Netflix and HBO docs and indies scrounged off VOD. Then Sean talks to Extraction director Sam Hargrave about stunt work, the 13-minute oner, and going from doubling Captain America to a Netflix debut.
32 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 VOD Revolutionhow movies are being released two months into lockdown
Da 5 Bloods 2020
Spike Lee's Vietnam film, landing on Netflix June 12. Sean calls it the most significant new Oscar movie of the year, dropped into a pileup with two other releases.
The King of Staten Island 2020
Judd Apatow's Pete Davidson film, one of the June-12 home releases Sean gripes about being bunched together.
Scoob! 2020
Cited among the studio movies coming straight to homes in May and June.
Artemis Fowl 2020
Also on the June-12 pileup of straight-to-home releases.
The High Note 2020
Focus Features' Dakota Johnson / Tracee Ellis Ross film going straight to VOD in late May, which Sean calls the clearest signal of where specialty studios are headed.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2019
The example for how summer movies tend to fade by Oscar season despite strong openings.
Tigertail 2020
Alan Yang's Netflix film, raised as a counterpoint that streaming lets filmmakers who don't usually get to make Hollywood movies tell their stories.
Crip Camp 2020
The Netflix doc on the disability-rights movement; both agree it's one of the year's best so far, but they've covered it twice already so it's kept off the list.
Bacurau 2019
A nether-zone title they'd already discussed, watched via virtual screening. Not on the list, but Sean says go see it.
The 10 Best Movies Released During Quarantinecounted down 10 to 1; their No. 10 was the series The Last Dance
No. 1
Beastie Boys Story 2020
No. 1 (Amanda's): the Spike Jonze-directed live document. Amanda idolizes the band and reads it as a study in image management: three men deciding exactly what they'll let you know, off the cuff but from a script.
No. 2
Extraction 2020
No. 2 (Sean's): Sam Hargrave's Netflix action debut, which the two had been mildly dismissive of on an earlier show. Sean recanted after a second watch of the 13-minute oner and the bridge shootout, and after interviewing Hargrave.
No. 3
Driveways 2019
No. 3: Andrew Ahn's quiet film about a mother and son cleaning out a dead relative's house in upstate New York, befriending a widowed vet played by Brian Dennehy in one of his last roles. Wrecked both of them; Sean singles out the child actor and the final six minutes.
No. 4
Arkansas 2020
No. 4: Clark Duke's country-noir directorial debut from a John Brandon novel, with Liam Hemsworth, John Malkovich and Vince Vaughn. Sean thinks it's good, not amazing, but wants a whole episode on what Vaughn is doing lately.
No. 5
Bad Education 2019
No. 5 (Sean's): Cory Finley's HBO film about a Long Island school-embezzlement scandal, from a New York Magazine article, with Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney and Ray Romano. Sean, whose family is deep in Long Island public schools, loved stage-actor Hugh Jackman going for it; Amanda wanted more of the teen journalist.
No. 6
The Half of It 2020
No. 6 (Amanda's): Alice Wu's queer-Cyrano teen comedy for Netflix, with Leah Lewis as Ellie Chu ghost-writing love letters for the jock to the girl they both like. Amanda rates it above the usual Netflix teen fare; Wu's first film in about 15 years.
No. 7
Blood Quantum 2019
No. 7 (Sean's): Jeff Barnaby's gory, inventive zombie movie told from the perspective of the Mi'kmaq, with an all-First-Nations cast and crew. In the Romero lineage; on Shudder. A late add Sean was floored by.
No. 8
Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind 2020
No. 8 (Amanda's): Laurent Bouzereau's HBO doc made with the family's direct involvement, narrated and half-interviewed by daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner. Not objective and not trying to be; both find the leading-question segment with Robert Wagner about Wood's death riveting.
No. 9
Spaceship Earth 2020
No. 9 (Sean's): Matt Wolf's doc on the Biosphere 2 crew who sealed themselves in a biodome in the early '90s. Sean calls it the perfect quarantine movie; Amanda couldn't stand the hippies and thought using natural sun was cheating.
Sam Hargrave on Extractionstunt performer turned coordinator turned director
Sam Hargrave on
Extraction 2020
His directorial debut, projected by Netflix to reach 90 million viewers. Scouted in India and Bangladesh between Infinity War and Endgame; references were Bullitt and Ronin. The trust-on-the-roof beat mid-oner was improvised on the day; a sequel is officially in the works with Joe Russo writing.
Sam Hargrave on
The Avengers 2012
Where he first doubled Captain America, under Joss Whedon, the start of the arc he calls a Cinderella story.
Sam Hargrave on
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 2006
His first big set, one of over a hundred stunt performers, proving himself among 30-year legends.
Sam Hargrave on
Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2014
Where he met the Russos as Cap's stunt double and helped design fights.
Sam Hargrave on
Captain America: Civil War 2016
The Russos' call to make him stunt coordinator: his jump from double to coordinating on a Marvel scale.
Sam Hargrave on
Avengers: Infinity War 2018
Given extra second-unit days under Alexander Witt; the Russos started handing him his own footage.
Sam Hargrave on
Avengers: Endgame 2019
He directed beloved-character death scenes solo, and came out of retirement to suit up as Cap for the Cap-versus-Cap fight, fighting his own younger brother on camera.
Sam Hargrave on
The Hunger Games 2012
Among the hundred-million-dollar movies he'd coordinated before Civil War.
Sam Hargrave on
1917 2019
The other big-oner movie. He says the crew smacked their heads seeing its featurettes, but it's different enough not to feel derivative.
Sam Hargrave on
The Raid 2011
One of the touchstones for the feeling he chases in an action sequence.
Sam Hargrave on
John Wick 2014
Chad Stahelski and David Leitch's world, the bar he says he's always trying to keep up with, having been on their teams.
Sam Hargrave on
The Mask of Zorro 1998
His last-great-thing pick, Martin Campbell's film, rewatched for structure while writing a script. He calls it nearly perfect: everything driven by character.
Sam Hargrave on
Casino Royale 2006
Cited alongside Zorro as why his appreciation for Martin Campbell has soared.
Also mentioned raised along the way
The nether zone (late-Feb to mid-March releases) The HuntThe Invisible ManNever Rarely Sometimes AlwaysEmma
VOD and streaming, in passing Knives OutPlus OnePride & PrejudiceThe WretchedBecoming
Name-checked around the list To All the Boys I've Loved BeforeThoroughbredsBlockersHot Tub Time MachineSwingersPsychoClay PigeonsWedding CrashersDownsizingInherent ViceSpa NightGet OutThe ExorcistNight of the Living DeadJFK
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The Last Dance30 for 30ShogunGame of ThronesCurb Your EnthusiasmDr. PhilForeverNormal PeopleHercules: The Legendary JourneysXena: Warrior Princess
Web series NBA Desktop
Ads World Central KitchenMasterClass