The Big Picture · Discussion · Review
January 26, 2024/ 119 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda open on the Barbie Oscar-snub discourse — an all-time Amanda Hillary Clinton rant included — then run a long nominations mailbag with producer Bobby Wagner, detour into the greatest Best Picture lineups ever, file a Sundance dispatch, and close with a spoiler-heavy talk about The Zone of Interest.
141 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 ‘Barbie’ Freak-Outthe snub discourse, after the nominations
Eight nominations, but Gerwig missed director and Robbie missed actress — the snub that drove the week's discourse. Amanda's No. 2 of the year; she reads it as a Dark Knight-style moment where a beloved movie gets left out and the Academy eventually changes its rules.
The comp: a big movie's Best Picture snub that reshaped how the Academy nominates. Poetic, they note, that this is the year Nolan finally gets his makeup call.
The presumptive front-runner — 'Oppenheimer all the way down,' the way Succession swept TV.
Sean's No. 2 of the year and a movie he had in his own Best Picture slate; an achievement he sees but doesn't respond to the way Amanda responds to Barbie.
Justine Triet nominated for director — a historic, contemporary, in-your-face film that's become the modern Academy's taste. The Sandra Hüller fancams, Amanda jokes, were all made by her.
A movie they admire with complicated feelings, now getting dinged harder than it deserves. Sean still rates the molar scene one of the year's best.
The kind of nominee people now reserve January and February to catch up on.
The Oscar Nominations Mailbaglistener questions, with producer Bobby Wagner
The last genuinely shocking win — Bong's director upset, then Best Picture. Also the crux of the international-feature question: if it can win both, why does the category still exist?
The other memorable surprise, over La La Land — and a small company (A24) that changed Hollywood.
The behemoth that got upset — the template for a surprise that sticks.
The most-asked question in the bag: how did it get zero nominations? Sean's answer — a mid-December release, no festival premiere, and A24 betting on Past Lives and Zone of Interest instead. A 'middle movie' that never got the Rain Man path through the system.
The middle movie that became a blockbuster because the industry celebrated it — the arc Iron Claw never got to take.
France picked it over Anatomy of a Fall for international feature on a 4–3 vote — an old-guard, classically composed choice, the subject of a Variety piece Amanda cites.
Cited as Obama's 'snub' — one song nomination for the Jon Batiste documentary.
The reference point for the stately, elegant tradition The Taste of Things belongs to.
The Academy-ratio question's exhibit A — Kevin Porter's two-star review comparing 1.37:1 to early-2000s TV shooting widescreen to look important. Also, they argue, boxier framing that plays better on Instagram.
Named in the Academy-ratio-aissance question.
The post-Budapest trend: Academy ratio as a signal a movie is 'not like the other girls.'
Sean's counter-argument — a small, confined film the boxy format actually serves.
Another case where the ratio fits a smaller, more intimate story.
Gus Van Sant's school-shooting film — the kind of confined subject that earns the format.
The Netflix-campaigning question — Annette Bening's nod as evidence of a very good awards team, not of an easier-to-stream advantage.
The stunts-recognition question — Sean only just learned the franchise had never been nominated, not even in sound. A launchpad for a long tangent about the NFL and NBA rules committees.
Amanda's route to a Bradley Cooper Oscar: bring back Rocket Raccoon. Then remembers Gunn is at DC now.
The animated Best Picture precedent, and the kind of undeniable classic that could crack a Big Five category again.
Sean liked it, but not the animated feature that will finally break through to the big categories.
The Greatest Best Picture LineupsGrace's question, answered at length
Sean's 1975 ceremony (films of 1974) — the run he argues has to come first.
The 1976 ceremony (films of 1975) — 'this is the one everyone points to.' Sean's teenage proof the Oscars were cool.
The 1977 ceremony — Rocky over the rest, back when it was only five nominees.
The 1968 ceremony — the year of Pictures at a Revolution.
The 'why not' of the bunch.
The 1995 ceremony — the 'weak one,' though only in hindsight; Sean's about to do a live Forrest Gump Rewatchables.
Amanda calls it a forever movie; Sean is not so sure.
A forever movie, no argument.
The one that's fallen away — a pre-Sorkin 'humans talking in rooms' movie Sean always liked.
The other forever movie of the year.
Winner of 1939, which Sean calls arguably the single best movie year ever — only the 12th time they gave out the awards.
The Bette Davis film — 'an excellent movie.'
'Which is okay.'
Leo McCarey's 'phenomenal film.'
Lewis Milestone's adaptation — 'really good.'
Introduced the world to John Wayne via John Ford.
William Wyler's film.
The 1942 ceremony — famously beat Citizen Kane.
Nominated, and defeated.
Alfred Hitchcock's film.
The 1992 ceremony — the last big sweep of the top categories.
'Weird movie. I like it.' Sean's Warren Beatty era.
'Masterful.'
Sean's underrated pick — the Pat Conroy novel; Conroy was a family friend who wrote it in their shared Atlanta garage.
The 1994 lineup Sean rates just under the Pulp Fiction year.
The 1996 winner — not Sean's favorite year, but Amanda defends Sense and Sensibility as a masterpiece.
'Which everyone loves.'
'Not so much.'
Amanda's hill to die on.
The 2008 lineup — 'very, very good.'
Amanda loves it; Sean thinks it a noble effort at an impossible adaptation.
Sean's holdout — insists it doesn't hold up; Bobby, born-adjacent to its release, disagrees.
The 2018 winner — 'a great year.'
Bobby's grievance — glossed over in the 2019 talk despite Sean's two hours in James Mangold's office.
The dent in an otherwise strong 2019.
Sean likes it, but isn't sure it had to be a Best Picture nominee.
The Debut, Breakthrough, and Swap Ballotshypothetical categories, and one acting nominee swapped per category
Both hosts' No. 1 debut — Celine Song. Also the source of a breakthrough (Teo Yoo) and a should-have-been nominee (Greta Lee).
The Philippou brothers on Amanda's debut ballot.
Juel Taylor — Amanda's 'good one.'
Raine Allen-Miller — on both debut ballots.
Michael B. Jordan's directing debut — released too early and, after the Jonathan Majors story, near memory-holed; Sean thought Jordan a better director than performer here.
Cord Jefferson's debut — five nominations, and a face Sean would love to see at the podium.
Savannah Leaf — on the long list.
Chloe Domont's debut.
Marshawn Lynch as a breakthrough.
Abby Ryder Fortson as a breakthrough.
Dredged up to test whether Cailee Spaeny counts as a 'debut' — she doesn't break through here.
The original, for the record.
Amanda's swap: Teyana Taylor in for Annette Bening — one of her favorite movies of the year.
Glenn Howerton for supporting actor — a bigness both hosts would take over Mark Ruffalo in Poor Things.
Amanda's supporting swap — Jamie Bell in Ruffalo's place.
The Colman Domingo debate — a by-the-numbers biopic role, though his nomination is historic; Sean would swap Andrew Scott in.
Sean's supporting-actress swap — Rachel McAdams over Emily Blunt; and a shame about what happened to the film's awards run.
Lily Gladstone's actress campaign hangs over the swap talk; Sean would put Julianne Moore in over America Ferrera.
What Emily Blunt should have been nominated for, per Amanda.
Blunt was 'actually very good in that,' they decide.
Sundance 2024 DispatchSean's virtual-festival picks
Steven Soderbergh's ghost story told from the perspective of the spectral being — sold to Neon. Sean will watch anything Soderbergh releases.
Jane Schoenbrunn's follow-up, about trans identity and the culture we consume — seemingly the most acclaimed film of the festival.
Schoenbrunn's earlier film, a huge hit, the reason to be excited for the new one.
Saoirse Ronan; pundits telling people to 'lock in' Best Actress on January 25th, which Sean finds funny.
The Will Ferrell documentary — a cross-country trip with his friend Harper, who came out as trans. A long, loud standing ovation.
Unacquired, but 'what it says on the label' — a Ringer colleague found it powerful.
Sean's favorite — slow-cinema horror following a resurrected slasher through the woods, with amazing kills. He watched it Sunday at noon, crushing a bag of pretzels. Likely a Shudder release.
Chris Smith's documentary on the band.
The inversion of Boys State — young women building a mock government.
The Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine documentary this one answers to.
Benjamin Ree's documentary about a Dutch boy with a degenerative disease who lived a full second life inside World of Warcraft — reconstructed from the game's chat logs. Sean: 'I've never seen anything like this.' Netflix, later this year.
India Donaldson's film — a 17-year-old on an annual hike with her father and his best friend; all very normal until a quiet, powerful turn.
Jesse Eisenberg's second directorial feature — two cousins (Kieran Culkin, Eisenberg) on a heritage trip to Poland. Sean pitches it as a strange double feature with The Zone of Interest.
‘The Zone of Interest’spoiler-heavy — saved for the end
Jonathan Glazer's Auschwitz commandant film, from the Martin Amis novel, with Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller — a Big Brother-style surveillance grid of the Höss family's happy home, the horror always just over the wall in sound and smoke. Sean's Parasite-style inflection point for what the Academy is now; both agree it wins international feature and should win sound. A hard movie to love, astonishing to watch.
The Glazer film Sean and Amanda light up over — 'so, so good' — hoping his rumored next project lives up to it.
The coda comparison — Scorsese tries to portray the horror until he can't; Glazer doesn't even try, cutting instead to present-day Auschwitz as a cleaned, glass-cased museum.
The unexpected match — Sean had just seen its cage of shoes at Sundance, the same museumified image Zone ends on.
The warning to newcomers dutifully checking off a nominee: 'This is not Seabiscuit.'
The anti-comp — 'there's no thrill ride to this devastation'; the film is fixed cameras and dread, not a war spectacle.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Knox's movie education (the opening chatter) Singin' in the RainBabylonWonkaMary Poppins
Name-checked in passing The CreatorThe Holdovers
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV SuccessionBig BrotherERThe West WingFull CircleMonsieur SpadeNuremberg
Books RodhamPictures at a RevolutionSophie's ChoiceMother Night
Video games World of Warcraft
Ads TremfyaStick the Landing