The Big Picture · Discussion · Review · Interview
November 14, 2025/ 129 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins · Van Lathan
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins, with Van Lathan, diagnose a flat fall at the movies, review 'The Running Man' and 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't,' then Sean sits down with 'Running Man' director Edgar Wright.
16 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.
The juiceless fall movie seasonwith Van Lathan
Sydney Sweeney as boxer Christy Martin, and the group's central case study for the fall. They read it less as a movie than a referendum on Sweeney herself, and question the choice to open a small biopic with an unproven-as-draw star on ~2,500 screens rather than platforming it.
Benny Safdie's Mark Kerr drama with Dwayne Johnson. Sean argues it's a real success for Johnson as an actor and will look better in five years; Amanda notes A24 dressed a big-budget movie in indie clothing and hoped for a Rock-sized opening it didn't get.
Channing Tatum in goofy glasses, sold entirely on his face. Van likes it as 'a cool movie'; the hosts use it to argue stars no longer open theatrical films. People just wait four weeks to stream them.
Cited repeatedly as the year's proof that box office matters less than the performance, and grouped with the fall's movies about control, media, and the nation-state lulling people to sleep.
The Josh Safdie table-tennis movie with Timothée Chalamet, flagged as the ultimate test of new stardom: the one young actor people are uniquely interested in, but with zero non-IP hits to his name. Van has seen it and calls it great.
Noah Baumbach's Netflix film with George Clooney. Sean and Van saw it early (Venice; a screening at George's house); both liked it a lot, but cite it as another prestige title arriving with muted anticipation.
Van's most-anticipated of the December slate. Amanda didn't like the first film and dreads the desaturated CGI, but will rewatch before recording a good-faith conversation with Juliette Lipman.
Three hours and 15 minutes of James Cameron. Van is all-in ('never count out Big Jim'); Amanda prefers the water palette to fire and isn't looking forward to the runtime.
Named as a near-certain December hit alongside Wicked and Avatar, the kind of IP the group agrees will be fine no matter the state of the fall.
The 2024 first installment, which Amanda disliked, 'Defying Gravity' aside, over its desaturated look and end-of-film CGI. Van cries every time at the number.
‘The Running Man’with Van Lathan
Edgar Wright's adaptation of the Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) novel, with Glenn Powell as Ben Richards, plus Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, and Emilia Jones. Amanda found it rickety and tonally inconsistent but was entertained; Van is the most positive, praising the practical action; Sean thinks it's tonally all over the place and messy in the third act, softens the book's plane-into-the-network-building ending, and argues Powell is miscast in an angry-proletariat role that cuts against his fast-talking charm. Unlike the 1987 Schwarzenegger film, which used only the game-show framework, this is a big, expansive, city-to-city version. All three praise Domingo taking over the Richard Dawson host role and Brolin (and his distracting veneers).
‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’Sean and Amanda, once Van heads out
Ruben Fleischer directs the third film, returning the Four Horsemen (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher) plus Lizzy Caplan and Morgan Freeman, and adding Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt, and Justice Smith for a diamond heist against Rosamund Pike's South-African-accented crime heiress. Sean and Amanda both had a loose, wine-in-hand good time; Pike's Bond-villain turn is the highlight. They note the original cast (bar Eisenberg) seem to be on set only briefly: the opening reveals the Horsemen as holograms.
The 2013 original, which Amanda barely remembers and Sean recalls being disappointed by. A Letterboxd lightning rod, five stars to zero, that's a bad magic movie and a bad heist movie, yet a reliable property they expect to outperform The Running Man.
The 2016 sequel, which Sean rates the weakest of the three; Isla Fisher sat it out, making her return here a small event.
Oz Perkins's new horror film with Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland, which Sean sets aside to discuss later because its worth hinges on a plot turn he won't spoil.
In conversation
Wright, on the show in person for the first time, frames it as a new adaptation rather than a remake of the 1987 film: the King/Bachman book, set in 2025 and written in 1972, was never really adapted. He kept the whole story in Ben Richards's point of view, shot 165 locations in one breakneck year (two months' prep, filming wrapped end of March), and built the action on real locations expanded with ILM's Andrew Whitehurst, borrowing a technique from Gareth Edwards. He cast Powell as the only name on the studio list who hadn't already played a superhero or a trained killer. Stephen King had cast approval and signed off after watching Hit Man. Powell texted 'consider this my audition tape,' then a promise no actor would work harder.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Franchises the fall grandfathered in Predator: BadlandsThe Conjuring: Last RitesBlack Phone 2
The fall's original-movie misses After the HuntA House of DynamiteGood FortuneShelby OaksNuremberg
The year's genre momentum SinnersWeapons
Elsewhere in the Oscar race HamnetSentimental Value
Sandler's serious turn Punch-Drunk LoveBilly MadisonLittle Nicky
Old-Hollywood stardom, invoked Joe Versus the VolcanoThe Bonfire of the VanitiesSeduced and AbandonedSpy GameThree Days of the CondorEnemy of the StateMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Coming attractions The Devil Wears Prada 2Avengers: Doomsday
Tatum's breakout years 21 Jump StreetMagic Mike
Glenn Powell's climb TwistersAnyone but YouHit ManTop Gun: Maverick
The 'First Knight' casting tangent First KnightA Knight's TaleBlack KnightExcalibur
Action-star touchstones The BeekeeperSicarioSaving Private RyanFight ClubAirplane!Top Secret!
Another King dystopia The Long Walk
Van's send-off riffs CompanionBooty CallWooDie My LoveCODA
The Now You See Me cast, elsewhere The HoldoversBarbieBorderlandsConfessions of a ShopaholicWedding CrashersDog ManBridget Jones: Mad About the BoyPlaydate
Edgar Wright's filmography Hot FuzzBaby DriverLast Night in SohoShaun of the DeadScott Pilgrim vs. the WorldThe World's End
Dystopias and remakes Edgar cites The Fly2001: A Space OdysseyEscape from New YorkBlade RunnerBlade Runner 2049THX 1138RollerballBrazilThe Creator
Edgar's recent favorites No Other ChoiceThe AxPillionF1
Also invoked The Bourne IdentityDie HardBugoniaEddington
Next week's Linklater double Nouvelle VagueBlue Moon
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV TaskHard KnocksThe MentalistGhostwriterMoonlightingFamily FeudMerlinThe Mists of AvalonSpacedThe WireThe SopranosMad MenSex and the City
Ads TremfyaWells Fargo Autograph JourneyAmazon PrimeAccentureWhole Foods