Don't Worry Darling 2022
Sean calls it one of the dumbest movies he's seen in a while and rates it a 4; Amanda agrees the satire never lands, though both liked the first 20 minutes and the production design.
The Big Picture · Review · Discussion · Interview
The ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Fiasco
September 23, 2022/ 92 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda review Don't Worry Darling, argue about whether its offscreen chaos is doing the movie a favor, then Brett Morgen stops by to talk his David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream.
37 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.
Don't Worry Darlingspoiler-free, then spoilers
What it's trying to be
Metropolitan 1990
Sean's comp for the movie's opening stretch of cocktails and clever young people.
Get Out 2017
The comparison everyone's making — and, they argue, the wrong one; Get Out earns its reveal, this doesn't.
The Stepford Wives 1975
The Truman Show 1998
The Matrix 1999
Olivia Wilde cited it as an inspiration.
Inception 2010
Also cited by Wilde as an inspiration.
Rosemary's Baby 1968
Tim Simons' character gets the Dr. Sapirstein role.
The cast, compared
Fighting With My Family 2019
An earlier Florence Pugh lead, produced by The Rock.
Lady Macbeth 2016
Little Women 2019
The French Lieutenant's Woman 1981
Amanda's comp for the kind of old-school star vehicle this is meant to be.
Booksmart 2019
Olivia Wilde's directorial debut, also written by Katie Silberman.
My Policeman 2022
Harry Styles' other fall release; he reportedly got better notices for it.
Barbarian 2022
Amanda accidentally sat through the first several minutes of this before realizing she was in the wrong theater.
Is this a fiasco, and which kind?the taxonomy of troubled productions
Waterworld 1995
The true-disaster template: wildly expensive, injuries on set, then it flops.
Fitzcarraldo 1982
The arduous-shoot-becomes-legend template.
Burden of Dreams 1982
The documentary about that shoot.
Titanic 1997
The press-predicts-disaster-then-it's-a-hit template.
Apocalypse Now 1979
Mr. & Mrs. Smith 2005
The tabloid-drama-overshadows-the-movie template.
Eyes Wide Shut 1999
Same template, better movie, per Sean.
Baby Boom 1987
Amanda's comp for a movie that reads as reductive feminism in the moment and ages into something else.
The Sandlot 1993
Sean's example of a movie that improves with nostalgia.
In conversation
Brett Morgen on
Moonage Daydream 2022
Morgen's David Bowie film, built from a scrapped 40-minute IMAX concert-experience concept rather than a biography.
Brett Morgen on
The Kid Stays in the Picture 2002
Morgen's earlier documentary; opened with the highest per-screen average in documentary history at the time.
Brett Morgen on
Bowling for Columbine 2002
Cited as the film that broke that per-screen record and kicked off the documentary boom.
Brett Morgen on
Fahrenheit 9/11 2004
Brett Morgen on
This Is It 2009
Brett Morgen on
March of the Penguins 2005
Brett Morgen on
Super Size Me 2004
Brett Morgen on
Bohemian Rhapsody 2018
Morgen credits its Live Aid mix, by sound engineer Paul Massey, as the reason he brought Massey onto Moonage Daydream.
Brett Morgen on
Speak No Evil 2022
Brett's pick for the last great thing he's seen — he warns not to read anything about it going in.
Brett Morgen on
Causeway 2022
Brett Morgen on
Triangle of Sadness 2022
Brett Morgen on
Fire of Love 2022
Cited alongside Herzog's own documentary on the same volcanologist couple.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Up next week Blonde
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