The Big Picture · Discussion · Review · Roundtable
May 28, 2025/ 85 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins run down the Cannes prizes and a record Memorial Day box office, review the live-action 'Lilo & Stitch' and Tim Robinson's 'Friendship,' then each rank five favorite movie friendships.
26 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 Cannes prizesread from afar; they saw none of the films
Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or winner, Neon's sixth straight. Sean notes Neon bought it rather than funding Panahi, and reads jury president Juliette Binoche as a longtime Panahi backer. He was welcomed back to Iran as a hero after years of house arrest, which makes any Oscar campaign geopolitically loaded.
Joachim Trier's Grand Prix winner. Renate Reinsve plus Stellan Skarsgard and Dakota Fanning; Sean floats a career-recognition Skarsgard supporting campaign.
Oliver Laxe's jury-prize winner. Sean saw only the trailer: a father searching for his daughter amid an EDM festival in the desert.
Shared the jury prize.
Kleber Mendonca Filho's film took Best Director and Best Actor (Wagner Moura), an unusual double at Cannes. Neon again; Sean expects a long Oscar conversation and a moment for Brazil.
Nadia Melliti won Best Actress.
The Dardenne brothers won Best Screenplay.
Bi Gan's special-award winner, picked up by Janus; likely a New York Film Festival play late in the year.
Richard Linklater's film about the making of Godard's 'Breathless,' bought by Netflix. Their third straight Linklater acquisition after 'Hit Man' and 'Apollo 10 1/2.' Netflix and Janus were the only non-Neon, non-Mubi buyers at the festival.
A record Memorial Day box officepeople went to the movies again
$77 million, roughly the franchise average and technically its biggest three-day opening (IMAX, an unusual Memorial Day slot). Sean thinks the merely-fine result settles nothing about whether it's the last one.
$95 million in 11 days, off a modest guess. Originally slated as an HBO Max title; the lesson, again, is to put horror in theaters.
Still running at over $260 million domestic, $300 million-plus internationally, pre-PVOD.
Headed toward roughly $190 million; a report pegged a possible $100 million loss. Sean ties its fate, and Marvel's centrality, to 'The Fantastic Four.'
Angel Studios release starring, and co-written by, Neal McDonough; about $7.5 million.
‘Lilo & Stitch’
Dean Fleischer Camp's live-action remake of the 2002 film, with Maia Kealoha and a returning Tia Carrere, Amy Hill, and Jason Scott Lee. It opened to $183 million, a record Memorial Day weekend, powered by young-millennial nostalgia. Amanda was offended by plot changes that make the adults crueler; both were mixed while noting it's clearly landing hardest with 9- and 10-year-olds. Sean's daughter was engaged in the theater but said nothing about it afterward. The new ending, sending Nani off to college rather than keeping the family together, has upset original fans; Amanda's fine with it. Billy Magnussen's Pleakley drew the most praise.
‘Friendship’
Andrew DeYoung's A24 comedy, picked up out of TIFF, starring Tim Robinson as a marketing guy whose bond with a charismatic weatherman neighbor (Paul Rudd) curdles into obsession. Both found it a durational but very good stretch of a sketch premise, closer to Robinson's discomfiting 'I Think You Should Leave' register than to a broad buddy comedy; Sean invokes 'Taxi Driver.' Highlights: the a cappella hip-hop scene, Connor O'Malley in the garage, and Kate Mara playing it dead straight. Sean expects instant cult status once it hits Max.
The Top Five Movie Friends two lists, five apiece; counted down 5 to 1
No. 1. Elliott and E.T.: a lonely boy who builds his whole emotional life around the friend who shows up. Sean's pick as the template these creature-friend movies, 'Lilo & Stitch' included, are chasing.
No. 2. Julio and Tenoch, Cuaron's road movie: two homies who think they've said everything to each other, then find out otherwise across the trip.
No. 3. Cassavetes with Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk as old friends crashing out after a fourth friend dies. Sean calls it a kind of prequel to 'Friendship.'
No. 4. Enid and Rebecca (Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson) drifting apart as they age; a sophisticated portrait of a friendship that gently loosens without a blowup.
No. 5, and a semi-joke: McLovin and the cops (Bill Hader, Seth Rogen), who bond for real and are genuinely hurt when the lie comes out.
No. 1. Will and Chuckie; Affleck's 'best part of my day' speech as the clearest statement of wanting the best for a friend, even if it means losing him.
No. 2. Vada and Thomas (Anna Chlumsky, Macaulay Culkin), a friendship at that tricky age; the ending gutted both hosts as kids. Amanda's mainstream counterweight to Sean's art picks.
No. 3. Frances and Sophie, close friends and roommates growing apart in their late 20s; the hurt and love portrayed without melodrama. Amanda loves Mickey Sumner's performance.
No. 4. Danny and Rusty, the wordless-shorthand ideal; Amanda likens it to Sean and Chris Ryan. Thirty years of trust, and they do crimes.
No. 5. The Flossy Posse; Amanda's group-of-women pick, both funnier than expected and moving (Regina Hall's closing speech). 'Sex and the City' ruled out as TV-first.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Around the Cannes talk No BearsBreathlessHit ManApollo 10 1/2Emilia PérezThe SubstanceAnora
Box-office context Furiosa: A Mad Max SagaInside Out 2Evil Dead RiseSmileA Minecraft MoviePirates of the Caribbean: At World's EndFast & Furious 6Men in Black 3
Around ‘Lilo & Stitch’ The Wild RobotMarcel the Shell with Shoes OnHow to Train Your DragonThe Lion KingBeauty and the BeastThe Florida ProjectThe Black StallionMac and MeGremlinsSnow WhiteAtlantis: The Lost EmpireTreasure PlanetBrother BearHome on the RangeToy StoryMoana 2Mufasa: The Lion KingElioFreakier FridayTron: AresZootopia 2ZootopiaChinatownPeter RabbitA Star Is BornAnimal FriendsAfter the HuntBarbieMary PoppinsWayne's World
Around ‘Friendship’ The HangoverThe 40-Year-Old VirginStep BrothersJoker: Folie à DeuxGodzilla vs. KongRomeo + JulietFountain of Youth
In the movie-friends talk Steel MagnoliasNow and ThenThe Sisterhood of the Traveling PantsThe First Wives ClubThe Horse WhispererChildren of MenLethal WeaponButch Cassidy and the Sundance KidThelma & LouiseHome AloneThe Good Dinosaur
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV I Think You Should LeaveDetroitersSaturday Night LiveThe RehearsalThe Last of UsAnd Just Like ThatSex and the CityAndor
Podcasts 60 Songs That Explain the '90sGood Hang with Amy PoehlerThe WatchThe Rewatchables