The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
July 14, 2020/ 97 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins go full-spoiler on Andy Samberg's time-loop comedy, then Cristin Milioti and Max Barbakow explain how a Palm Springs weekend became a movie, and Shea Serrano and Jason Concepcion preview their new podcast about movies that rhyme with each other.
38 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.
Palm Springsfull spoilers
Andy Samberg wakes up on a wedding day that keeps repeating; when Cristin Milioti's Sarah wanders into the same cave, she gets pulled into the loop too. Sean and Amanda call the multi-person twist the thing that separates it from every other version of this premise, and dig into the guilt, isolation, and long-term-relationship metaphor buried under the hand-job jokes.
The template everyone measures this against. Amanda points out the difference: Phil Connors is alone in his loop and spends the whole movie trying to get out, where Niles has made peace with his and has to be talked into wanting to leave.
Cited as the loop movie built around memory loss rather than a repeating day.
The version that replays the same eight-minute stretch over and over.
The Zoey Deutch version, built around a car accident replaying.
The slasher take on the same premise.
The other loop movie the hosts covered on The Rewatchables.
One of two Samberg vehicles Amanda calls genuine cult classics despite flopping on release.
The other one, a smarter parody than its box office suggested.
Where Sean pegs most people know Cristin Milioti, as Leo's first wife.
Peter Gallagher's other credential, per Sean: the go-to TV dad also playing a rom-com dirtbag here.
In conversation
Barbakow and Andy Siara wrote it after a Palm Springs bachelor weekend; Milioti describes cutting a two-page black-hole monologue she'd memorized once the cast trusted the emotional logic over the scientific one.
Barbakow's shorthand for how the small, cheap idea he and Siara dreamed up in film school eventually ballooned into a real production.
Milioti's quarantine pick, the Netflix documentary on trans representation on screen.
Milioti's 12th-rewatch favorite; she argues Elizabeth Berkley's performance is genuinely avant-garde and that the movie unfairly tanked her career.
Barbakow's Hal Ashby-kick pick, with Peter Sellers.
From Barbakow's Michael Keaton kick. He admits the cloning logic gets about twenty seconds of explanation and nobody minds.
Introducing The Connecta new Ringer podcast where each week they bring a movie apiece on a shared theme
Jason's pick for the debut theme, workplace friends.
Filed under their recurring theme, Matthew McConaughey doesn't understand outer space.
The source of Jason's cafeteria-table pick, Tom Wilkinson's bread-obsessed Arthur, a choice Shea still argues against.
Shea's counter-pick for the same table: Lee and Carter.
Jason's go-to example of a movie he wanted to rewatch immediately: the opening diner scene where nothing happens.
One of the John Woo titles Jason wants to bring to the show.
The Jean-Pierre Melville film Jason name-checks in the same breath.
Shea's running campaign to get more Mexican-American cinema on the show.
Jason's underrated-80s-teen-comedy pick, brought up as an example of just texting a friend about a movie.
Jason's example of how far back their robot's-my-friend theme goes.
Jason's example of a movie you watch out of critical obligation, not appetite.
One of the Rewatchables episodes Sean cites as evidence of their taste.
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Russian DollLast Man on EarthHow I Met Your MotherSearch PartyBrooklyn Nine-NineNormal People90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days
Podcasts The Cam Chronicles
Ads Blue Moon