The Big Picture · Discussion · Rankings · Roundtable · Interview
September 29, 2025/ 141 min/ Sean Fennessy · Amanda Dobbins
A listener mailbag on 'One Battle After Another' and Paul Thomas Anderson, updated rankings of all ten of his films, a viewing syllabus, and visits from Adam Nayman and Andy Greenwald.
84 films across 7 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 ‘One Battle After Another’ box officeopening rant
$22.4M domestic, $48.5M global, easily PTA's biggest opening. Sean argues the box-office scolds should relax: the movie is an anomaly born of Mike DeLuca and the TCM-Zaslav détente, and a movie like this becomes valuable over decades, not one weekend.
PTA's prior high-water mark at $77M; Sean expects One Battle to sail past it.
The recent example of studio money on original work paying off big.
Van Lathan's grievance: called a 'failure' in a way superhero flops never are.
Sean's 'deadstock' contrast: a billion-dollar hit that curdles in value as DC resets, versus a movie that lasts.
The 4K on sale that got Sean thinking about a 'forever movie' the studio still monetizes 70 years on.
'This is not like Black Adam failed.' A different circumstance entirely.
Collateral damage in the disc-hoarding bit; Sean owns it but rates it good, not great.
The mailbagPTA questions from 500-plus emails
The through-line of the whole bag: favorite gags (Benicio's dance, 'semen demon,' 'Life, man'), VistaVision vs. IMAX vs. 70mm (Sean's Vista print snapped 40 minutes in), Halloween-costume potential, the hawk-to-Black-Hawk cut, the Steely Dan karate scene, and the closing letter montage.
Olivia's question (what makes a PTA movie a PTA movie) pivots on how the same guy made this and One Battle: socially obtuse men, a screamer on the other end of the phone, John Brion's big-and-nervy score.
The most-asked comparison. Sean's read: Eddington is about being on your phone and has no hope; One Battle is about being in the world and lets itself believe in some. Mirror images: one comic and devastating, one sincere and funny.
Peter's question and Leo's own observation: revolutionaries betrayed by the chosen one, a child told a lie about a dead parent.
Came up with Leo re: how hard it is to be an aging, grouchy revolutionary, Mark Hamill in the Rian Johnson film.
The convenience-store wig-blown-off shot, widely noted as very Scorsese.
The great moviegoing eventsJohn's question — when did a movie last feel this monumental
One of Sean's 1994 trio (with Forrest Gump and The Lion King) that felt huge to three different audiences at once.
The parents' pick of that year; 'boomer crap or not,' it was massive.
The kids' engine of the '94 everything-at-once moment.
Sean's clearest precedent: declared a disaster pre-release, then the biggest thing in movies for years, Swifties energy for a historical drama, and for Leo.
Out-of-nowhere game-changer, though Sean isn't sure anyone called it an instant all-timer at the time.
The trilogy as a massive event for movie fans; Amanda keeps hearing about it.
A genuine event; Sean rates it bigger than Inception.
The Nolan follow-up event, noted as 'its own thing.'
Cameron doing spectacle-as-event again.
'Witness me' entered the vocabulary; peers located it as something special.
Confirmed a classic within six months, its phrases and ideas got into the culture fast.
Part of the big-event Marvel run John invokes.
People filming the screen and losing their minds: the last theater-mania event before Barbenheimer.
Half of Barbenheimer: 300 people in pink in the room.
The other half; a billion-dollar Oscar steamroller that, unlike One Battle, drew more early detractors.
Jack's grown-up example: 'holy shit, what just happened' at an Ithaca film-school screening.
The ArcLight Dome screening in the Tarantino event vein; also the Leo pointing-at-the-screen meme.
Sean's Tarantino moment: the palpable tension of the opening farmhouse scene.
A huge one for Amanda personally, if not on the Oppenheimer scale.
Another personal-scale event for Amanda.
The updated PTA movie rankingsSean's order; Amanda's noted per film
Sean's No. 1, unmoved for five years: 'I felt my soul leave my body.' Amanda has it 4th.
Sean's No. 2. Amanda's No. 3, and the film she still can't fully explain her feelings about.
Sean's No. 3 ('too soon to know'); Amanda's No. 2. Both concede it may still climb.
Sean's No. 4, 'a great film about marriage.' Amanda's No. 1, the shared top of neither list but hers.
No. 6 for both, the lowest Sean's ever ranked it, and he admits he hasn't rewatched it since the Rewatchables episode.
Sean's No. 7 (he'd argue as high as 4); Amanda's dead-last 10th: 'it's just not for me.'
The ‘One Battle After Another’ syllabus cited by Paul and Leo, plus Sean's double features
The film the ending consciously rhymes with: a father who may not recognize his own child.
Part of the official pre-release syllabus: activists living in hiding.
Named in the syllabus and glimpsed in the film: Bob's couch viewing.
Leo cited it for the phone acting, all of Pacino's calls.
No plot connection; PTA sent Leo to it as 'the best acting you'll ever see.'
The Sean Penn rising shot, and PTA's Charlie Rose film-school anecdote.
Jungle Pussy's bank-robbery line is literally 'this is some Set It Off shit.'
Melvin Van Peebles' first film, on an interracial relationship.
Another American Girl needle drop, and Sean Penn.
Documentary on the '60s activists, still hardline in 2002 interviews.
Redford's last directing job, modeled on Weather Underground fugitives.
The only recent studio film Sean can name that stages revolutionary acts.
For the car chases; its Dodge Challenger echoes Avanti Q's car.
Where Regina Hall and Shayna McHale (Jungle Pussy) first shared a cast.
American Girl needle drop and deep-focus close-ups; Demme.
Adam Nayman on ‘One Battle After Another’the Mean Pod Guy, Ringer critic
Nayman worries a consensus that can't be challenged is a bad sign, then admits he was exhilarated. On PTA's gender politics and female absence, Teyana Taylor's Perfidia, Benicio del Toro's 'play defense' MVP turn, the Searchers rhyme, and the DiCaprio-Lockjaw visual echo. Favorite is still The Master; this one is more pleasing but earned.
The Bong Joon-ho 'make your money back' narrative that ended less happily than Sinners'.
The gut-check comp: One Battle's opening was smaller than this, 'a movie no human being has seen.'
Andy Greenwald on ‘The Master’co-host of The Watch
The 2012 Ziegfeld premiere where Sean got a positive pregnancy test, a death, and Harvey Weinstein introducing Amy Adams inside 90 seconds: his origin as a girl dad. Andy has come to love it but keeps it out of his top five.
Andy's top three, seen once at the Vista in VistaVision (bad seat); watching an artist intuit the present moment got to him, and the last two lines destroyed him.
The screening where Andy first met Amanda, dating Zach at the time.
One Battle's last scene is Andy's new 'have a catch': the movie that undoes him.
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Presumed InnocentChad PowersMy Super Sweet 16
Books VinelandPaul Thomas Anderson Masterworks
Stage Hamilton
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