The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
August 21, 2020/ 84 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda talk through whether it's safe or even worth it to go back to theaters as Unhinged and the New Mutants reopen 43 states and Tenet looms, then look ahead to a fall slate mostly headed for streaming. Plus: RZA on directing Cutthroat City.
39 films across 2 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.
Movie theaters are reopening. Is America ready?the weekend of August 21st, and the fall slate behind it
The Russell Crowe road-rage thriller Solstice picked to reopen theaters. Sean saw it at home and found it a perfectly adequate exploitation picture that already feels like VOD; the choice is a savvy attention-grab if not a public-health one.
Nolan's, dated September 3rd with no major releases behind it for a month, a deliberate buffer to see how reopening goes. Sean and Amanda, both in California, can't see it and dread being left out of the conversation.
Josh Boone's long-delayed haunted-institution X-Men spinoff, opening August 28th. Orphaned by the Fox-Disney merger and contractually owed a theatrical release; Sean is morbidly fascinated by a franchise relaunch that can never go anywhere.
The third Bill & Ted, also August 28th, in theaters and on PVOD. Sean already spoke to Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter and calls it a fun one for fans.
Going straight to Disney+ for a $29.99 premium on September 4th, the cheaper-and-safer home alternative in the streaming-vs-theater math.
One of the three big Labor Day releases, headed to Netflix rather than theaters.
The recent example of a movie that built a community without theaters: everyone Sean knew liked it and it worked as a balm, doing the talk-theory and the calm-down thing at once.
Amanda's stand-in for the have-to-see event she'd happily skip if the monoculture shrinks.
Pulled out of theaters entirely by Lionsgate and sent to premium VOD.
The Kingsman prequel then holding a September 18th theatrical date Sean doubts will stick.
Then dated October 2nd; Amanda's favorite of the superhero blockbusters and the start of her stacked October.
Sofia Coppola's Bill Murray / Rashida Jones father-daughter movie for Apple TV+; Amanda's most anticipated, and she's been sitting on a bottle of Sofia rose to prove it.
Kenneth Branagh's Poirot follow-up, shot on a soundstage rather than on location. Amanda has continuity concerns; Sean, having liked the original, isn't sure he needs it.
The Ustinov version Sean started during quarantine and fell asleep in, despite a cast that includes Angela Lansbury, David Niven, Mia Farrow, Bette Davis. He means to finish it before Branagh's.
Branagh's first Poirot; Sean and Amanda saw it in Pasadena with the over-80 crowd. Praised for the Irwin Allen approach of stacking the cast with stars.
Sorkin, acquired by Netflix off Paramount; a cornerstone of Amanda's October.
Fincher's, coming to Netflix by year's end, undated but promised for October. Sean's most anticipated: he figures it's for one million very excited people rather than the usual audience of 100 million.
Ben Wheatley's remake of the Hitchcock, also headed to Netflix.
Antonio Campos's, coming straight to Netflix, part of the stack that might carry the mass-cultural moment theaters can't.
RZA on 'Cutthroat City'
RZA's New Orleans heist thriller, set in the Ninth Ward after Katrina, one-third shot on location among houses that still bore FEMA X's. He reframed the core as aspiration turning to desperation, rewrote a lead cop as a woman for Eiza Gonzalez, and got heat-check turns from Ethan Hawke and Rob Morgan alongside Shameik Moore, Demetrius Shipp Jr., Wesley Snipes, T.I. and Terrence Howard.
His directorial debut, where he learned to hire the production designer and scouting team first to build the world.
The movie he took to prove his storytelling range beyond kung fu, after Taraji P. Henson assumed he only did martial-arts pictures.
The hundred-million-dollar tier he knew he wasn't competing with, which pushed him to keep the stakes at a $100K score.
His example of a criminal you love anyway, the trick being to make the audience care about men with no other options.
Where he first saw Eiza Gonzalez as a stunner and then pitched her the un-glamorous cop role.
A martial-arts staple his son grew up seeing in the background as RZA rewatched it.
The Hitchcock with Paul Newman and Julie Andrews that blew his mind during quarantine after he'd kept setting it aside.
The other Hitchcock he'd been putting off and finally watched, to the same effect.
The Willem Dafoe Van Gogh film he'd seen two nights prior, from Dafoe's Oscar run.
Also mentioned raised along the way
The big-screen era Ben-HurThe Ten CommandmentsTitanicAvatar
Unhinged's lineage DuelThe HitcherBreakdownBrokedown Palace
In passing InceptionKill Bill: Vol. 1Ip Man
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
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