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The 900th-Episode Mega-Voicemailbag!

April 21, 2026/ 177 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins

The 900th episode is an all-voicemail mailbag (spoiler revenge, red-flag favorites, underrated rom-coms, a casting game), then reviews of You, Me, and Tuscany, The Christophers, and Blue Heron, plus Sean's interview with Sophy Romvari.

43 films across 6 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 mega-voicemailbagan all-voicemail 900th episode, Jack Sanders reading

Witness 1985

The Tracy Letts / Blank Check debate: Sean's 4-star COVID rewatch, but he pushes back on it as a Harrison Ford 'masterpiece,' calling it a very good adult crime drama, not Kurosawa.

A Few Good Men 1992

'Way up high,' and, contra Letts, not equal to Pelican Brief.

The Pelican Brief 1993

'A legal thriller with Denzel and Julia Roberts,' long and a little weird, but Sean likes it.

Congo 1995

Sean's non-21st-century #16 most-rewatchable: 'one of the worst movies ever made that is very important to me.' Rewatched it this year.

Two Weeks Notice 2002

Amanda's #16: Bullock and Grant save a community center; she'd edit out the Trump cameo.

Deadpool 2016

Sean's least-reputable favorite: he loathes Reynolds' screen persona and thinks he's the perfect Deadpool anyway.

Salt 2010

Amanda's #16 in progress: hasn't rewatched it enough times yet.

Nacho Libre 2006

Jack's pick, rented from the library 'almost every single weekend.'

Tomorrow 1972

The Duvall movie Sean caught on Kanopy, prepping next month's Robert Duvall Hall of Fame.

Sense and Sensibility 1995

The movie-swap Sean credits with the show becoming 'sentient': Amanda's costume drama for him.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse poster

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2018

Sean's half of that swap; each liked the other's allergy genre.

The Strangers 2008

Sean's horror handoff that started converting Amanda.

Midsommar 2019

Amanda straight-up thinks it's great, the Ari Aster breakthrough for her.

Marie Antoinette 2006

Amanda got it onto '25 for 25' over Lost in Translation; Sean was gracious about it.

Hotel Transylvania 2012

Griffin's running demand for a Hotel Transylvania Hall of Fame (the fourth film 'not canon,' no Sandler).

Avatar 2009

Sean's 2009 Lincoln Plaza 3D screening, 'the dawn of a new age.' Avatar Man's trade offer: he won't give it up for anything.

Avatar: The Way of Water 2022

The other 'huge creative accomplishment' Sean keeps.

Avatar: Fire and Ash 2025

The third one both found redundant and overlong, the one Sean would swap for a different Cameron film.

The Social Reckoning 2026

Jeremy Strong as Zuckerberg, Sorkin directing; Sean expects a predictable docudrama with a Supporting-Actor-bait performance inside it.

The Apprentice 2024

Sean's comp for it: an unsuccessful film around a fascinating Strong turn as Roy Cohn.

Molly's Game 2017

Strong's second Sorkin credit: 'it's his guy.'

The Trial of the Chicago 7 2020

The third Strong/Sorkin; Sean's seen it twice.

Materialists 2025

Cited as maybe breaking up the theatrical rom-com drought, even if it wasn't sold as one.

Amanda's underrated rom-coms Ben from D.C.'s ask: great, less-remembered ones

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

The Philadelphia Story 1940

Her go-to bad-oyster recovery movie; the pre-When Harry Met Sally exception to her 'modern' list.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

The Cutting Edge 1992

The figure-skating rom-com, written by Tony Gilroy.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

The American President 1995

Sorkin; Douglas and Bening. She saw it four times in theaters with her dad.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Dave 1993

'Dave is wonderful.'

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Morning Glory 2010

Aline Brosh McKenna's newsroom rom-com, with McAdams, Wilson, Keaton, and Ford.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Enough Said 2013

Holofcener's, 'a really, really beautiful movie,' a little left-field for the genre.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Set It Up 2018

Glen Powell; the one that'll remind you of a certain media company.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Long Shot 2019

Theron and Rogen: 'no one saw this movie and we all really liked it.'

You, Me, and TuscanyAmanda saw it; Sean skipped it

You, Me, and Tuscany 2026

Kat Coiro; Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page in a fake-engagement-in-Tuscany rom-com. Amanda: shot in Tuscany but 'otherwise really is a Hallmark movie,' with no chemistry or imagination and a filmed-for-TV look. A streaming movie put in theaters.

The Christophersthe new Soderbergh

The Christophers 2026

Ian McKellen as an aging artist, Michaela Coel as the forger his estranged kids hire to finish his paintings. Ed Solomon script. Amanda's art-caper wheelhouse; Sean muter: 'a little iterative,' the latest trapped-in-a-house Soderbergh.

Blue HeronSean's favorite movie of 2026 so far

Blue Heron 2026

Sophy Romvari's autobiographical debut on Vancouver Island, an 8-year-old's-eye family drama that takes a structural swing at the midpoint. Sean's favorite of 2026 so far; Amanda 'quite moved,' still thinking about it in her own life.

Sophy Romvari on Blue Heronthe writer-director on her debut

Sophy Romvari on

Blue Heron 2026

The feature: naturalism via a long zoom lens shot from a distance, a phone-to-phone cut that jumps 20 years forward, and a brother, Jeremy, deliberately unlike her own.