The Big Picture · Discussion
October 5, 2025/ 74 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
A conversation that started as a Smashing Machine taping and turned into its own thing. Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins sit with Van Lathan on 'One Battle After Another': the money PTA got to make it, who else gets that kind of shot, and Van's argument that the film's portrayal of Perfidia Beverly Hills fails Black women.
1 films across 1 segment.
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.
‘One Battle After Another’: A Second OpinionSean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins with Van Lathan
Van reveres the movie and still calls it 'some fuck shit': he doesn't get the gasps, ranks Lockjaw (Sean Penn) as the meatiest character, and argues the writing of Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) as a selfish rat plays into tropes that fail Black women. Sean, four viewings in, reads her as a study in coercion and the film as a two-generation argument about revolution; Amanda keeps asking whether one tweak would have made it land.
Also mentioned raised along the way
The rest of PTA The MasterThere Will Be BloodPunch-Drunk LoveInherent ViceBoogie NightsPhantom Thread
The budget-and-box-office argument SinnersThe Smashing Machine
Spike Lee, invoked Highest 2 LowestMalcolm XDo the Right ThingBamboozledMo' Better Blues
Nia DaCosta's run CandymanThe MarvelsHedda28 Years Later28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Portraying Black lives on screen Jackie Brown12 Years a SlaveGreen BookMoonlightMonster's Ball
Van's touchstones FreshMi Vida LocaThe DreamersParasiteThe Battle of AlgiersTerminator 2: Judgment Day
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
Podcasts The Midnight BoysThe Wesley Morris podcast
Music Kingdom Come4:44
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