The “Should I See It in a Movie Theater?” Test: ‘Tron: Ares,’ ‘Roofman,’ and ‘After the Hunt.’ Plus, the Magic of ‘Mr. Scorsese.’

Remembering Diane Keatonshe died at 79

Reds 1981

Sean's pick for her greatest performance: a complicated part opposite Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, the two alphas of the era, whom he says she blows off the screen.

The First Wives Club 1996

Amanda's angle on the other Keaton, the one outside Letterboxd: the 'You Don't Own Me' scene with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler that every woman she knows reposted, Keaton at the center of it.

Baby Boom 1987

Nancy Meyers co-wrote and produced it. Amanda keeps returning to a story Meyers told about the airport scene, where Keaton, off-script, tucks the inherited baby under her arm like a football, a daffy choice that sums up the character.

Something's Gotta Give 2003

Just celebrated on the show's 25-for-25 list. Emblem of the late-career run that made her a box-office star in her 50s, a rare third act after the ingenue and the industry-taste-leader phases.

What do people want at the movie theater?the box office and the test

Black Phone 2 2025

One of the coming weekend's tests Sean flags: the sequel to the Ethan Hawke Blumhouse movie.

Good Fortune 2025

The other test: Aziz Ansari's comedy with Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen, two men familiar with theatrical success, which nobody seems to be talking about.

‘Tron: Ares’the wow/FOMO, communal, and at-home test

Tron: Ares 2025

Joachim Rønning's third Tron, the first since Legacy 15 years ago, with a Nine Inch Nails score Sean and Amanda agree is the best thing in it. Jared Leto (who has never opened a movie, and whom Sean watched get a shrug from his own fan screening) plays a nice-guy AI, an inverted Terminator arriving as every creative person is warning about AI. Amanda took a 10-minute nap and left to call her heating technician; Sean makes a narrow case for it high, in 3D or Dolby, for the light-cycle sequences. It made $33 million. Both no. Includes a Science Corner on the AI orange tree.

‘Roofman’the movie they want to lift up

Roofman 2025

Derek Cianfrance's first film they can discuss on the show, written with Kirt Gunn, based on the true story of Jeffrey Manchester, an army vet turned McDonald's robber who escapes prison and hides out in a Toys R Us. Channing Tatum in a loose, 70s-style character study; a deep bench of Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Uzo Aduba. Sean was grooving for an hour and loves the fuck-up-you-still-root-for strain (Catch Me If You Can, Dog Day Afternoon). Amanda bumped hard on the ending, arguing Tatum's easy charm never bridges to whatever compulsion drives the character. Both recommend it; a sold-out Tuesday matinee suggests it's finding people.

‘After the Hunt’Luca, and the script that isn't there

After the Hunt 2025

Luca Guadagnino's campus-politics movie, written by Nora Garrett, scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, shot by Malik Hassan Sayeed (his first feature in 27 years, after Belly). Julia Roberts as a Yale philosophy professor up for tenure whose colleague (Andrew Garfield) is accused of assault by her TA (Ayo Edebiri). Both loved the first hour (beautiful, wry, Woody-Allen-font knowing) and think Roberts is genuinely great. Then it slams on the brakes and turns deathly serious, and neither can say what the script is trying to say; the baffling ending and epilogue lost them. Debts to Crimes and Misdemeanors and Tár run all over it.

Rebecca Miller on ‘Mr. Scorsese’the five-hour portrait on Apple TV

Rebecca Miller on

Goodfellas 1990

The first Scorsese film Miller ever saw. She came to him late, as a painter drawn to other kinds of movies, then went back through the earlier work.

Rebecca Miller on

Raging Bull 1980

Named alongside The Age of Innocence as one of the films that opened the door for her once she started watching him again and again.

Rebecca Miller on

The Age of Innocence 1993

A really important film for her in the conversion, cited with Raging Bull and Goodfellas.

Rebecca Miller on

Taxi Driver 1976

Brian De Palma's warning to her that the feature-length plan was doomed: 'you're gonna get to Taxi Driver, you cannot do the whole thing.' He was right; it grew to five hours.

Rebecca Miller on

The Last Waltz 1978

Sean's favorite sequence in the doc, built around one of Robbie Robertson's last interviews before his death: the purity of the impulse, and Scorsese unable to stop shooting even mid-studio-picture.

Rebecca Miller on

Shutter Island 2010

Miller's example of how the doc weights films by how much life bled into them: it becomes important as the hinge around a semi-breakdown, part of the tango between the life and the art.

Rebecca Miller on

Personal Velocity 2002

Miller's own voiceover-heavy film, which started the relationship: nervous about it, she asked Scorsese for reference points and he sent her 1940s English films, then gave notes. That became how they knew each other.

Rebecca Miller on

Marty Supreme 2025

Miller's last-great-thing. She loved its energy and its message about masculinity, and felt the maker deep inside it.

Also mentioned raised along the way

Diane Keaton's career The GodfatherAnnie HallLove and DeathInteriorsManhattan Murder MysteryLooking for Mr. GoodbarThe Little Drummer GirlMrs. SoffelMorning GloryThe Family StoneBook ClubBook Club: The Next Chapter

The state of the box office Jurassic World RebirthThe Smashing MachineA Big Bold Beautiful JourneyGabby's Dollhouse: The MovieOne Battle After AnotherTop Gun: Maverick

Around ‘Tron: Ares’ TronTron: LegacyMorbiusSuicide SquadThe Terminator

Around ‘Roofman’ Catch Me If You CanDog Day AfternoonBlue ValentineThe Place Beyond the PinesThe Light Between OceansGood OneThe Informant!

Around ‘After the Hunt’ Crimes and MisdemeanorsChallengersQueerTár

Around the Scorsese conversation Gangs of New YorkNew York, New YorkAlice Doesn't Live Here AnymoreWoodstockDe PalmaArthur Miller: Writer

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV Mr. Scorsese

Music videos Formation

Podcasts The RewatchablesThe RingerverseHigher Learning

Ads LinkedIn AdsAutograph JourneyTremfayaWhole Foods