The Big Picture · Discussion · Review · Hall of Fame

The Daniel Day-Lewis Hall of Fame

October 10, 2025/ 129 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins · David Sims

Anemone brings Daniel Day-Lewis out of retirement, so Sean, Amanda, and Blank Check's David Sims take stock of the fall slate, then grade every film he's made and vote ten of them into a Hall of Fame.

50 films across 4 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.

Flop fall and the 2025 slatestate of the year

One Battle After Another 2025

The totem of the year and the exception to 'flop fall'; David's No. 2 of 2025.

Sinners 2025

The one big movie that stuck with all three; likely to matter in a season short on catching fall titles.

Weapons 2025

Part of the quartet of bigger movies David couldn't stop thinking about.

28 Years Later 2025

David's pick for the underrated one of the four.

Jay Kelly 2025

Baumbach's Clooney film; stuff to like, not his best, and, per David, sent to Venice when it wanted Toronto.

The Smashing Machine 2025

Another noble swing that doesn't quite grasp everything it reaches for.

Highest 2 Lowest 2025

Grouped with Jay Kelly and Smashing Machine as interesting efforts short of their makers' best.

Sentimental Value 2025

One of the Cannes titles Amanda rates above the fall festival crop.

It Was Just an Accident 2025

Panahi's Cannes winner, cited alongside Sentimental Value as the best of the year's festivals.

No Other Choice 2025

Park Chan-wook; Amanda loved it and expects it near the top of her list.

The Testament of Ann Lee 2025

Amanda's near-lock for high on her list; David watched older Italian audiences walk out.

Eddington 2025

A movie David liked; he argues it belonged at Venice, not Cannes.

Jurassic World Rebirth 2025

David is angry about it; Alex Ross Perry's defense that it's everything good about the movies gets a laugh, not a co-sign.

Wicked: For Good 2025

One of the big titles that could reshape a bigger-movie awards race.

Avatar: Fire and Ash 2025

Slight worry it lands smaller than Way of Water; fatigue, not quality.

Avatar: The Way of Water 2022

The re-release that met a shrug this time; the 'does anyone care about Avatar' bit again.

Hamnet 2025

Named as fall prestige David still hadn't seen.

Marty Supreme 2025

Another fall title left unseen at recording.

‘Anemone’

Anemone 2025

The film that ended Day-Lewis's eight-year retirement, directed by his son Ronan and co-written by Day-Lewis, his first writing credit. Beautiful (Northern England, great moss) but unsuccessful: abstract until it stops and explains itself, and a first-time filmmaker's movie. The 20-minute poop monologue is the most arresting thing in it. Everyone agrees it does not go in.

Every Daniel Day-Lewis moviegreen = in, yellow = maybe, red = out

Sunday Bloody Sunday 1971

A walk-on in John Schlesinger's film; his first screen appearance, years before he trained. Out.

Gandhi 1982

One scene as Colin, a racist thug who insults Gandhi. Memorable two minutes, too small to count. Out.

The Bounty 1984

The third Mutiny on the Bounty remake, with Hopkins and Gibson; he's John Fryer, fine in support. Out.

My Beautiful Laundrette 1985

Stephen Frears; the breakthrough. Charming and punky, near-supporting but the one that made him. In.

A Room with a View 1985

Merchant Ivory; he's the priggish Cecil, comes in 45 minutes deep. A great movie, but not his. Yellow, then cut.

Nanou 1986

An obscure French-set romantic drama with Imogen Stubbs; a barely-there part that vanished from his history. Out.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being poster

The Unbearable Lightness of Being 1988

Philip Kaufman's Kundera adaptation; his first real lead and his one turn as a pure heartthrob. In, on the strength of holding a 2h45 epic.

Stars and Bars 1988

Pat O'Connor fish-out-of-water comedy with a stacked cast; the rare film where he's genuinely bad. Out.

My Left Foot 1989

Jim Sheridan; Christy Brown and his first Oscar. The showy, natural transformation that became shorthand for the whole method mystique. In.

Eversmile, New Jersey 1989

Carlos Sorin; an Irish-American dentist evangelizing tooth care across Patagonia. Bad and charming, mostly forgotten. Out.

The Last of the Mohicans 1992

Michael Mann; peak marquee-idol Day-Lewis and a credible action star. Made $150M and announced him. Auto-green.

The Age of Innocence 1993

First Scorsese; a movie whose reputation arrived late. Restraint and repression; the one film where the hosts admit another actor might have worked. In.

In the Name of the Father 1993

Second Sheridan; Gerry Conlon and the Guildford Four. A great, sober Troubles film and a rare regular-guy role, undervalued now. In.

The Crucible 1996

Nicholas Hytner; John Proctor, adapted by Arthur Miller, whose daughter Rebecca he met on set. All righteous intensity, no person underneath. 'Straight to homework.' Out.

The Boxer 1997

Third and final Sheridan; an ex-IRA man going straight. He learned to box; the film is fine, lesser than In the Name of the Father, and the repeat card that got cut.

Gangs of New York 2002

Scorsese again after a five-year retirement; Bill the Butcher, the over-enunciated voice everyone imitated, and a should-have-been-third Oscar that went to Adrien Brody. In.

The Ballad of Jack and Rose 2005

Directed by his wife Rebecca Miller; an off-the-grid father, an Irish Mosquito Coast. Divisive and largely forgotten. Out.

There Will Be Blood 2007

PTA; Daniel Plainview, the calling card, a true spiral. A front-runner for best performance of the century. In.

Nine 2009

Rob Marshall's musical of 8½; he's Guido Contini, a late replacement for Javier Bardem. His singing isn't the problem. Marshall is. Out.

Lincoln 2012

Spielberg; the reverse-culty banger, funnier than it's remembered. Also his first acting Oscar out of a Spielberg film. In.

Phantom Thread 2017

PTA; Reynolds Woodcock. The film that finally let him be funny by playing the uptight British version of himself, and supposedly the one that broke him. In.

The Daniel Day-Lewis Hall of Famethe ten inductees