The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
September 20, 2022/ 88 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Gina Prince-Bythewood's all-female-warrior epic opens the fall movie season. Ten more movies worth catching this week, and Adam Nayman calls in from TIFF with The Fabelmans, Women Talking, Glass Onion and the rest of the festival.
21 films across 3 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 Woman Kingand Gina Prince-Bythewood's career
Viola Davis leads the Agoji, the all-female warriors of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in a historical epic both hosts call straight-down-the-middle mainstream entertainment in the best sense, recalling Braveheart and Gladiator, with a thrilling opening-night crowd reaction. They also flag the film's softened take on Dahomey's role in the slave trade, pointing listeners to Julian Lucas's New Yorker piece on the history.
Prince-Bythewood's Charlize Theron vehicle for Netflix, discussed as the training-wheels version of The Woman King: half a Prince-Bythewood movie, half a bland Netflix action flick, but proof she could handle the budget.
10 movies to see now
Netflix teen comedy with Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke, watched without much intention but with real charm, mostly because Hawke plays it as a dead ringer for her mother, Uma Thurman.
Brett Morgen's sound-and-image David Bowie documentary, seen in Dolby. It skips narrative biography for an immersive, archival-footage experience Sean calls one of the best things he's seen all year.
Ti West's X prequel, shot back to back with X in New Zealand. Mia Goth plays a farm girl with movie-star delusions and a murderous streak; a John Waters-style camp horror turn Amanda calls the best use yet of Goth's unsettling register.
Christian Tafdrup's Danish horror film about a vacation friendship gone very wrong, compared to Bryan Bertino's The Strangers for pure dread. Streaming on Shudder; described as a dare more than a recommendation.
Jon Hamm's low-key mystery comedy, undersold by its studio and well-liked once people found it on VOD: loose plotting, strong supporting cast (Marcia Gay Harden, Kyle MacLachlan, Annie Mumolo, John Slattery).
Sierra Pettengill's archival documentary built from the fake towns law enforcement built to train for riot control in the 1960s. Premiered at Sundance.
Agatha Christie parody with Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan and Adrien Brody, set around a stage adaptation of The Mousetrap. Both hosts found it too jokey and self-aware to land, unlike Knives Out.
Thandiwe Newton stars as a woman confronting encroachment on her property in a desolate Montana town, a naturalistic thriller Sean calls really well done, out of Sundance via IFC.
Ricky D'Ambrose's autobiographical, novelistic account of a fractured Long Island family, narrated in close third person with a strong Robert Bresson influence. Streaming on Mubi.
Robert Zemeckis's Disney+ live-action remake with Tom Hanks and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, called out as unnecessary and poorly rendered, part of a run of Disney remakes neither host can name a good one from.
The best and worst of TIFF
Steven Spielberg's autobiographical drama won TIFF's audience award, notable partly because Spielberg hadn't brought a film to a festival since The Sugarland Express at Cannes in 1974.
Harry Styles won a TIFF ensemble acting prize for this closeted-1950s-England drama. Nayman thought Styles held his own but was let down by the actor playing his older self.
Charlotte Wells's father-daughter drama, with Paul Mescal as a dad on vacation with his preteen daughter in Turkey, the one film Nayman calls an early lock for his year-end list.
Elegance Bratton's autobiographical drama about a closeted Marine recruit, which Nayman found underwhelming despite its personal stakes. He compares it to Full Metal Jacket on shuffle.
Darren Aronofsky's awards-season conversation piece; Nayman didn't like it but singles out Brendan Fraser's performance, for which Fraser also picked up a TIFF award.
Mark Mylod's eat-the-rich satire, which Nayman calls much more literal about its theme than Glass Onion and simply not very good, despite Mylod's pedigree directing Succession.
Sarah Polley's adaptation of Miriam Toews's novel, based on real assaults in a Mennonite colony. Strong reception out of Venice cooled somewhat in Toronto; Nayman calls it a rhetorical thought experiment that flatters its audience and eventually lost him, despite a striking desaturated look and a strong Jessie Buckley performance.
Rian Johnson's follow-up, which got rapturous reviews Nayman felt were a bit much: well-crafted and better than The Menu, but he found its eat-the-rich messaging in tension with its Netflix-funded scale.
Daniel Goldhaber's dramatization of Andreas Malm's book, a heist-thriller about climate activists that Nayman calls unequivocal rather than ambivalent about its subject, a deliberately provocative film he expects to be a lightning rod, picked up by Neon.
Also mentioned raised along the way
The Woman King's touchstones BraveheartGladiatorTop Gun: Maverick
Gina Prince-Bythewood's earlier films Love & BasketballBeyond the Lights
David Bowie on screen CluelessFrances HaZoolanderTwin Peaks: Fire Walk with MeThe Man Who Fell to EarthMerry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
Ty West's X universe XA Cure for Wellness
Speak No Evil's dread lineage The StrangersBarbarian
See How They Run's better company Knives OutNoises OffDeath on the Nile
Zemeckis's reanimation era, and other Disney remakes BeowulfThe Polar ExpressA Christmas CarolThe Jungle BookPete's DragonAladdinCinderellaDumboPonyo
Spielberg's festival and awards history LincolnBridge of SpiesReady Player One
Also premiering at TIFF Empire of LightBARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of TruthsArmageddon TimeNopeWeird: The Al Yankovic StoryThe Banshees of InisherinNomadlandPacifiction
Canadian cinema at TIFF The MaidenConcrete ValleyI Like MoviesI've Heard the Mermaids Singing
How to Blow Up a Pipeline's company SorcererNight Moves
Michelle Yeoh's TIFF tribute Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonEverything Everywhere All at Once
Also mentioned Bohemian RhapsodyFull Metal JacketLogan LuckyClerks III
Coming up on the show Don't Worry DarlingBlondeTárBros
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The Kingdom ExodusStranger ThingsRiverdaleSuccessionThe Week the Women WentThe Decalogue
Ads Boar's HeadNetflix FIFA World Cup Launch EditionStarbucks RefreshersBotoxGamblers (Ringer podcast promo)