The Big Picture · Review · Discussion · Interview
December 17, 2021/ 106 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins · Mallory Rubin
A three-way, eventually-spoiler-filled review of the Spider-Man multiverse crossover, then Sean talks to Tommy Oliver about his Juice WRLD documentary.
18 films across 5 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.
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, and Mallory Rubin
All three loved it. Mallory did a full rewatch of every prior Spider-Man film to prepare; Amanda, no fan of comic-book movies generally, calls it “completely delightful”; Sean says it's one of his best theater experiences in five years. Aunt May dies, and Peter ends the movie having every person in his life forget he's Spider-Man, including MJ and Ned.
How It Fits the Trilogy
The John Watts-directed start of the Tom Holland run — lighter, John Hughes-ish, set mostly in a Queens high school.
Sean argues it's heavier than it gets credit for: the Infinity Saga's coda, dealing with the fallout of Tony Stark's death and Peter handing off Edith to Mysterio.
Tom Holland's Peter Parker made his MCU debut here, before his own standalone film.
No Way Home picks up in the instant Far From Home ends, itself downstream of Endgame.
Where Phase Four Standsthe MCU mumbo-jumbo problem
Amanda's comparison point for MCU mythology that didn't land for her — a new cast, fake Greek mythology, and a robot she couldn't buy into.
A good movie, per Sean, let down by a noisy, messy CGI ending.
Sean says he still doesn't totally understand the last 30 minutes.
The other MCU “convergence” event, raised as a contrast to how much smaller-scale this movie's universe-opening actually is.
Three Spider-Men, the Villains, and What's Next
Ben Affleck's version, which Sean calls “deeply not good.” Comes up because Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock cameo confirms the Netflix Daredevil now exists inside the MCU proper.
The cautionary tale for too many villains crowding one movie — a trap this one avoids despite juggling five.
Sean's one defense of the Garfield era — he likes this one, not the sequel.
The other too-many-villains cautionary tale, and part of why Garfield only got two films before the franchise was rebooted again.
Raised in the Miles Morales conversation — the animated franchise everyone agrees is great, with two more entries expected before Miles shows up in live action.
The trailer that plays after the credits, directed by Sam Raimi, with a look at Wanda, America Chavez, and Shuma-Gorath.
Tommy Oliver on ‘Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss’
HBO's final Music Box documentary. Built from a dumped hard drive of 8,000 clips and roughly 250 hours of footage, told almost entirely through Juice WRLD's own freestyles and archival tape, with sit-down interviews limited to people who were actually in his life at the time.
Oliver's prior documentary, which premiered at Toronto and is what led to the Ringer/HBO pitch for this project.
Oliver's pick for the last great thing he's seen — he praises its ambition and an ending built on one-on-one stakes rather than MCU-scale spectacle.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing VenomVenom: Let There Be CarnageWest Side StoryF9Little WomenThor: Love and ThunderBeing the RicardosNightmare AlleyRed Rocket
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV LokiWhat If...?WandaVisionHawkeyeThe Falcon and the Winter SoldierDaredevil (Netflix series)
Ads FanDuelBoar's HeadNOS EnergyWhole FoodsTalkAboutPD.com