The Big Picture · Review · Top Five
April 5, 2024/ 74 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Dev Patel's 'Monkey Man' opens, and Sean and Amanda each rank their five best directorial debuts of the century, in between a lot of doomer-Sean Mets-and-Dodgers venting.
11 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.
‘Monkey Man’Dev Patel's directorial debut
Patel's Hanuman-inflected revenge beatdown, greenlit at Netflix as a $30M film and moved to Universal for a theatrical release once Jordan Peele came on as a producer. Both hosts read the fast cutting and dropped threads as a long script cut down, but rate the highs (the wallet-heist sequence, the tabla training montage) very high, and admire the caste-and-Modi politics under the fists.
Sean's Top Five 21st Century Directorial Debutscounted down 5 to 1
Tony Gilroy's debut, and Sean's platonic ideal of the rumpled-guy-in-a-suit movie. He wants Gilroy to put down the lightsabers and come back to it.
Jordan Peele's announcement: a generational talent whose movies are still events every time out.
Alex Garland on AI and toxic masculinity; a five-star classic Sean can only rank third.
Jennifer Kent's grief-horror, early in the arthouse-horror wave alongside Get Out and Hereditary.
Todd Field's first film: Wilkinson, Spacek, and Tomei in a grief drama Sean calls singular and impossible to make now.
Amanda's Top Five 21st Century Directorial Debutscounted down 5 to 1
Sofia Coppola's debut. Amanda flags that its 2000 U.S. release makes it 21st-century eligible and off-limits for the upcoming 1999 movie draft.
Bradley Cooper: the one Amanda says they were right about first and the rest caught up to.
Max Barbakow's time-loop rom-com: the one every imitator since has failed to match.
Also mentioned raised along the way
‘Monkey Man' touchstones John WickExtractionThe RaidDreddDie HardThe BeekeeperThe Green KnightDistrict 9
The vent hour The Truth vs. Alex JonesThe First OmenGodzilla x Kong: The New EmpireDune: Part TwoFast XLogan
Ben Affleck's ledger ArgoAirLive by NightManchester by the Sea
Debut honorable mentions Garden StateBooksmartMolly's GameDon't Worry DarlingAmerican BeautyBring It OnThe NightingaleMaestroA Single ManNocturnal AnimalsWildlifePride & PrejudiceSexy BeastThe Zone of InterestIn BrugesShaun of the DeadHereditaryDonnie DarkoSawSaw X
'90s debuts and old classics Reservoir DogsKicking and ScreamingSex, Lies, and VideotapeThat Thing You Do!The Insider12 Angry MenDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombThe CanyonsThe Parent Trap
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV AndorShogunSurvivorTop ChefCurb Your EnthusiasmX-Men '97Manhunt3 Body ProblemRipleyThe SympathizerMr. & Mrs. Smith
Ads Every Single Album (podcast promo)