Sinners 2025
The only Best Picture contender they think is currently in play.
The Big Picture · Discussion
The Summer Movie Mailbag
August 5, 2025/ 114 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
The last Sean-and-Amanda episode of the summer is a listener mailbag that mostly skips the summer that just happened. It wanders through July 4th traditions, the movies that taught them to swear, summertime-sadness double bills, cocktail pairings, a fall-slate traffic jam, and a long detour explaining Fortnite.
222 films across 21 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.
Taking stock of the summerbefore the mailbag
Materialists 2025
The Celine Song movie people went to see and got mad about, Sean's favorite discourse of the year.
Eddington 2025
28 Years Later 2025
One Battle After Another 2025
The PTA movie hanging over the whole fall; at least three episodes promised.
Michael Clayton 2007
A 25-for-25 screening Sean is presenting at the Aero while Amanda's in Venice.
Your summer movie MVPTyler — catch: can't be a movie
Materialists 2025
Zootopia 2016
Celine Song's desert-island pick, to her own bemusement.
Weapons 2025
Sean hasn't seen it at record time; sold by old-school analog marketing.
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning 2025
Didn't love it, but the biplanes were 20 minutes of cinema.
Smurfs 2025
The only Smurfs content anyone absorbed: Rihanna's kids in Baby Dior at the premiere.
4th of July viewing traditionsMatt
Independence Day 1996
The obvious answer.
Jaws 1975
The house tradition, and genuinely scary for how deep it runs in American culture.
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story 2025
This year's making-of doc took the place of the annual Jaws screening.
Lincoln 2012
An American Tail 1986
Russian Jewish immigrant mice: basically The Godfather, but for mice.
The Godfather 1972
Blow Out 1981
De Palma; the climax plays out in front of fireworks.
Nashville 1975
Altman will come up again in the near future.
The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999
Amanda's summer answer: Americans abroad in Keds betraying each other.
The Parent Trap 1998
Underdiscussed Nancy Meyers; they meet at camp.
Kicking and Screaming 1995
Baumbach's back-to-school movie, an all-timer for Sean.
Formative in your swearing educationMatthew
WarGames 1983
Clerks 1994
Mallrats 1995
Bad Santa 2003
Glengarry Glen Ross 1992
Pulp Fiction 1994
Reservoir Dogs 1992
Casino 1995
Once held the record for F-bombs; they say it like poetry.
Four Weddings and a Funeral 1994
Amanda at 10, when the Brits treated cursing as poetry.
The Parent Trap 1998
Clueless 1995
No real curses, but hugely formative for how to talk.
Summertime sadness filmsMackenzie
The Green Ray 1986
Rohmer; Mackenzie can only rewatch it so many times.
Adventureland 2009
Archetypal, and it nails summer as a time of longing.
Crooklyn 1994
Spike Lee's memory movie, based on his sister's summer down south.
La Collectionneuse 1967
Another Rohmer summer movie Sean recommends.
Call Me by Your Name 2017
Unrelated 2007
Early Joanna Hogg vacation movie.
Archipelago 2010
Melancholia 2011
Wedding season, short sleeves on the golf course: summer-coded.
A Brighter Summer Day 1991
Edward Yang; summer in the title if not literally a summer movie.
Adult, steamy, sun-soaked summer moviesStephanie
True Lies 1994
A Bigger Splash 2015
Body Heat 1981
William Hurt sweating through cotton poplin in Florida.
The Thomas Crown Affair 1999
Sex on a marble staircase; a remake being remade again with Michael B. Jordan.
The Thomas Crown Affair 1968
The Steve McQueen original.
Y Tu Mamá También 2001
I Am Love 2009
Slept-on Guadagnino; sex scenes in a field with bees.
Bones and All 2022
Sean's overlap pick for Mackenzie and Stephanie: sexy and sweaty.
Sense and Sensibility 1995
Being remade as a movie; the one Amanda feels protective of.
Habits shaped by the people in your lifeBrent
Sinners 2025
Brent's girlfriend broke her no-horror rule on Amanda's word and now loves it.
What's Your Number? 2011
Amanda met her husband outside a screening of it.
Top Gun: Maverick 2022
Zach saw it a year before Amanda, who was newly pregnant and denied a ticket.
Diner 1982
Sean's dad showed him every Barry Levinson film; the one-to-one to working at The Ringer.
Scream 2022
Amanda has liked every Scream movie as her horror door opens.
I Know What You Did Last Summer 2025
Didn't like the reboot but went for the pop-cultural event.
Top 5 to prep for the fall slateBen
Decision to Leave 2022
Rewatch ahead of Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice.
No Other Choice 2025
Putney Swope 1969
Robert Downey Sr. satire, hugely influential on PTA, prep for One Battle After Another.
Oslo, August 31st 2011
Trier, with Anders Danielsen Lie, ahead of Sentimental Value.
This Is Not a Film 2011
Jafar Panahi on what it means to make something.
Frankenstein 1931
The original, ahead of del Toro's version.
Inside Llewyn Davis 2013
Under-the-radar not-quite-biopic; the 25-for-25 pick people were mad about.
Marriage Story 2019
Any Baumbach, to get ready for Bob Baumbach.
Where's the Daniel Day-Lewis hype?Tim
Anemone 2025
DDL's first film since 2017, directed by his son Ronan; a Hall of Fame is being built around it.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being 1988
A big DDL film that's fallen out of fashion.
The Bounty 1984
The Mutiny on the Bounty remake with Gibson and Hopkins.
Gangs of New York 2002
Bill the Butcher, he rocks.
Nanou 1986
One of the obscure mid-'80s DDL films Sean wants to fill in.
Stars and Bars 1988
Another obscure DDL film on his catch-up list.
Do we have too many movies in Q4?Will
Sinners 2025
Proof you don't need fall to make a year-round impact.
Get Out 2017
Anemone 2025
After the Hunt 2025
Roofman 2025
Tron: Ares 2025
Black Phone 2 2025
Blue Moon 2025
Linklater; just got a trailer.
The Mastermind 2025
Good Fortune 2025
Aziz Ansari's directorial debut.
Project Hail Mary 2026
The big-budget March slot after the Oscars.
The Bride! 2026
Also March, Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Wuthering Heights 2026
Emerald Fennell, February, with Margot Robbie.
Mickey 17 2025
Sean's cautionary tale: a Bong blockbuster nobody went to see.
Michael 2026
The Michael Jackson biopic, redated to April.
Travel destinations and the movies to pairLiam, honeymooning across France
Before Sunset 2004
From Liam's own honeymoon list.
Marie Antoinette 2006
From Liam's list, and a permanent shout out to Marie Antoinette.
Midnight in Paris 2011
From Liam's list.
Ratatouille 2007
From Liam's list.
Cléo from 5 to 7 1962
From Liam's list.
Charade 1963
Paris double header with Funny Face.
Funny Face 1957
Roman Holiday 1953
Roman Holiday but in France, more or less.
2 Days in Paris 2007
Julie Delpy with her real parents; then things devolve.
Evil Under the Sun 1982
Agatha Christie on a Mediterranean island.
Death on the Nile 1978
Filmed in Egypt; galloping to the pyramids.
Breathless 1960
Prep for Nouvelle Vague.
Nouvelle Vague 2025
Linklater's film about the making of Breathless, shot on the streets of Paris.
The Red Balloon 1956
For teaching kids about Paris.
Lost in Translation 2003
Japan; Sean wants the Park Hyatt and the Hyatt points.
The best year for summer moviesNancy — nominated 1997
Men in Black 1997
Air Bud 1997
Good Burger 1997
The Lion King 1994
Sean's 1994, seen four-plus times; a genuine phenomenon at the time.
Forrest Gump 1994
True Lies 1994
Speed 1994
The Mask 1994
Dumb and Dumber 1994
Clear and Present Danger 1994
The superior of the two Harrison Ford Jack Ryan films.
Maverick 1994
Forgotten, in part because we're slowly deleting Mel Gibson.
The Client 1994
Braveheart 1995
Amanda's 1995, pervasive enough that everyone did the speech.
Casper 1995
Batman Forever 1995
Hot trash, but you're 11 and it's Val Kilmer.
Batman & Robin 1997
Apollo 13 1995
Clueless 1995
Amanda's life changed forever 30 years ago at Lenox Mall.
Babe 1995
Free Willy 1993
Kids 1995
Moonrise Kingdom 2012
Jack's Technicolor moment; the Gen Z-episode pick.
A cocktail paired with your summer rewatchableElizabeth
Stand by Me 1986
A Coors Banquet, what the kids would've drunk.
Kids 1995
Stoli and Gatorade; first seen on a VHS on an unchaperoned ski-trip bus.
Licorice Pizza 2021
A gin martini, Plymouth, Aviator if it's on offer.
20th Century Women 2016
A Golden State Margarita: Don Julio 1942, passion fruit liqueur, lime.
The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999
Amanda: a Negroni. Campari only.
Call Me by Your Name 2017
Also a Negroni.
A Bigger Splash 2015
Also a Negroni.
Movies more than worth a reappraisalDrew
Smiley Face 2007
Drew's example: Gregg Araki.
Birth 2004
Drew's example: Jonathan Glazer.
Rush 2013
Very Ringer-coded; talked about here, not elsewhere.
Night Moves 2013
Reichardt that gets shouted out less than her masterworks.
Only God Forgives 2013
A big deal at the time, then Refn stopped.
CODA 2021
Sean's prediction that the Best Picture win ages badly in a stack.
Oppenheimer 2023
The Worst Person in the World 2021
Modest at release, now clearly one of the most influential of its year.
Isle of Dogs 2018
Coming to Criterion; Sean's only seen it once.
The French Dispatch 2021
Every Wes Anderson film since gets praised, then drops out of the conversation.
Fantastic Mr. Fox 2009
A hit in the house with Knox.
The Phoenician Scheme 2025
Zach was randomly rewatching it; now streaming.
Happy Gilmore 2 2025
Chi-Raq 2015
Overlooked Spike Lee; the best Nick Cannon performance in movie history.
Making friends at the rep theaterChiarise
Heat 1995
The Letterboxd top-four thirst trap: one Heat, one Kurosawa, one PTA, one Michael Mann.
Margaret 2011
Zach took Amanda on their second date: the best move in the whole segment.
The Philadelphia Story 1940
Zach put it on to nurse her through a bad oyster; she accepted.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps 2025
The film you don't log if you're not looking for that guy.
Best alternative summer viewing experienceJamie
Jaws 1975
Jamie saw it at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil.
Point Break 1991
On the Cinespia August lineup.
The Lost Boys 1987
Zoolander 2001
Psycho 1960
Aliens 1986
Sean and CR in tears at Hollywood Forever, saying 'we did it, this is America.'
Clueless 1995
Sean's first gummy; lost control of his mind.
Bring It On 2000
Participatory but not annoying.
The Virgin Suicides 1999
A little tough in that setting.
Minions: The Rise of Gru 2022
Jack saw it in his childhood theater among the kids in suits.
Despicable Me 4 2024
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2019
Sean considering getting his son out of bed to see the sequel's cranes.
Favorite performances so far this yearNathan
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning 2025
Tramell Tillman's 'you must be out of your mind' is where the movie shifts.
Black Bag 2025
Tom Burke.
Sinners 2025
Miles Caton a revelation; Delroy Lindo a personal favorite.
The Phoenician Scheme 2025
Benicio del Toro.
Eddington 2025
Deirdre O'Connell as Emma Stone's mother, a little overlooked.
Sorry, Baby 2025
Ava Victor, plus a comfortable Lucas Hedges and Naomi Ackie.
Best last-great-thing answersBill (the Joan question was about a GQ shirt)
The Bullfighter and the Lady 1951
James Gray's recommendation that Sean hadn't heard of and eventually saw.
The director game, five years laterJoe — who's leading the 2020s?
Nope 2022
Just seen on 70mm at the Aero; Peele holds up.
Memento 2000
The Nolan they'd have drafted, if it counts as 2000.
Hereditary 2018
Ari Aster's debut; Sean flirts with taking him over Peele.
Midsommar 2019
Beau Is Afraid 2023
Eddington 2025
Aftersun 2022
Charlotte Wells.
Past Lives 2023
Amanda's pick, Celine Song, which she calls revelatory.
Materialists 2025
Nickel Boys 2024
RaMell Ross, discounted for the Hale County doc.
We're All Going to the World's Fair 2021
Jane Schoenbrun.
American Fiction 2023
Cord Jefferson.
Promising Young Woman 2020
Emerald Fennell, not getting picked.
A Thousand and One 2023
A.V. Rockwell; one of Sean's favorites of 2022.
Dìdi 2024
Sean Wang.
The Lost Daughter 2021
Maggie Gyllenhaal.
The Bride! 2026
All We Imagine as Light 2024
Payal Kapadia.
Shiva Baby 2020
Emma Seligman, on Amanda's shortlist.
Bottoms 2023
Sound of Metal 2019
Darius Marder.
tick, tick... BOOM! 2021
Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Talk to Me 2022
The Philippou brothers, on Sean's shortlist.
Bring Her Back 2025
Barbarian 2022
Zach Cregger, Sean's pick for the 2020s.
Creed III 2023
Michael B. Jordan.
Weapons 2025
36 hours from seeing it; might change his mind on Cregger.
Does watching this much numb the joy?Brendan
Center Stage 2000
The dance-movies homework Amanda's grinding through, nine movies deep.
Predictions for next summerNate
The Odyssey 2026
Nolan; Sean won't buy 70mm tickets a year out and objects to the eventizing.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 2026
Dated May 1; Amanda already bought boots off The RealReal from a paparazzi photo.
Masters of the Universe 2026
Travis Knight, Nicholas Galitzine; Sean's He-Man religion revisited.
Bumblebee 2018
Knight's not-bad Transformers movie.
Toy Story 5 2026
The iPad is the villain.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day 2026
The Tom Holland one, not a drawn one.
Supergirl 2026
Milly Alcock and Krypto.
Evil Dead Burn 2026
Sébastien Vaniček, who made Infested.
Evil Dead II 1987
Eileen kept asking Sean to turn it off, then to turn it back on.
Infested 2023
Flowervale Street 2026
David Robert Mitchell, Anne Hathaway, reportedly dinosaurs: too much to process.
Colossal 2016
The Anne Hathaway monster movie that didn't work for Sean.
Les Misérables 2012
Amanda never saw it; Sean thinks it's terrible.
Oppenheimer 2023
Sean saw it twice in 70mm and was glad he did.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing A Minecraft Movie
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Pride and Prejudice (upcoming series)Masters of the Universe (Netflix series)He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983 series)She-RaIronheart
Video games FortniteResident Evil
Ads Netflix / T-Mobile Home Run DerbyMint MobileState Farm