No Sudden Move 2021
Sean's counterexample to the bloat: Soderbergh's new one runs an hour fifty, closes every loop in the plot, and gets in and out.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview · Roundtable
Top Five Movies Time Forgot. Plus: Why the Beatles Movie Is No Longer a Movie.
June 18, 2021/ 92 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary gets demoted from a theatrical release to a Disney Plus miniseries, which turns into a conversation about movies refusing to end. Then Alex Ross Perry joins to dig up the films that vanished from availability entirely.
22 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.
Get Back Becomes a TV ShowSean and Amanda on movies that won't end
Cruella 2021
Cited as a recent example of a movie stretched to two hours and twenty minutes for no reason anyone can defend.
The Tomorrow War 2021
Same complaint: no reason a movie like this needs to run two hours and twenty minutes.
Iron Man 2008
Sean pinpoints this as the moment he should've clocked that studios were done telling standalone stories and started building worlds instead.
The Movies Time Forgothard-to-find classics and misunderstood flops, oldest to newest
Alex Ross Perry on
Wind Across the Everglades 1958
Nicholas Ray's Florida conservationist drama, written by Budd Schulberg and starring Christopher Plummer. Alex caught it at a Film Forum Ray series around 2006 and it hasn't screened since; never got a tape release, DVD, Blu-ray, or streaming spot.
Alex Ross Perry on
Health 1980
Robert Altman's satire of self-care culture, remembered mostly for Ronald Reagan calling it the world's worst movie. No disc or streaming release; only surfaces at retrospectives.
Alex Ross Perry on
Brewster McCloud 1970
Another Altman that vanished, this one for years despite being a lot of people's favorite of his; only became available again a few years before this taping.
Alex Ross Perry on
Donovan's Reef 1963
John Ford and John Wayne, with Lee Marvin as his drinking-and-fighting foil. The one non-canonical entry in an otherwise undisputed run of Ford/Wayne collaborations, and currently inaccessible.
Alex Ross Perry on
Patty Hearst 1988
Paul Schrader's docudrama, one of the two Schrader films Alex hadn't seen before finally watching a pristine print at the Harvard Film Archive. Briefly on the Criterion Channel, then pulled; the Twilight Time Blu-ray is now out of print since that label folded.
Alex Ross Perry on
The Touch 1971
Ingmar Bergman's English-language film with Elliott Gould, who reportedly still owns the rights. Alex calls it a four-star Bergman on par with The Virgin Spring and Cries and Whispers, buried by the assumption you'd need to work through 40 other Bergmans first.
Alex Ross Perry on
M Butterfly 1993
David Cronenberg's adaptation of the play, with Jeremy Irons, John Lone, and Ian Richardson. Alex, a Cronenberg completist, says it was only ever on tape and is virtually impossible to see now.
Alex Ross Perry on
Fast Company 1979
Cronenberg's drag-racing movie, the one Alex held off on for years because renting the tape meant taking home two other movies instead. He finally saw it at a festival in Slovenia in 2011.
Alex Ross Perry on
One from the Heart 1982
Coppola's impressionistic musical, the movie that nearly bankrupted him. Both hosts consider it the best thing he's made, buried under a bomb reputation it never fully earned.
Alex Ross Perry on
Daisy Miller 1974
Peter Bogdanovich and Cybill Shepherd's Henry James adaptation. Alex has watched it four or five times and still thinks it's where Bogdanovich went south.
Alex Ross Perry on
Irreconcilable Differences 1984
Nancy Meyers's directing-couple satire, with Sharon Stone doing a deliberately terrible Cybill Shepherd impression. Watching it gave Sean more sympathy for Shepherd's Daisy Miller performance.
Alex Ross Perry on
The Ghost Writer 2010
Polanski's Nantucket-set thriller with Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, and Olivia Williams. Sean tells Alex he once told McGregor to his face that it's a masterpiece, and McGregor said no one had ever said that to him before.
Alex Ross Perry on
Bye Bye Braverman 1968
Sidney Lumet's comedy with George Segal and Jessica Walter, made around the same time as The Group and The Pawnbroker. Sean says he's never met anyone who's seen it.
Alex's Quick List five more, rattled off at the end
Picked by Alex Ross Perry
The Road to Glory 1936
One of Alex's favorite Howard Hawks films, with, he says, a devastating final shot. Currently has no availability whatsoever.
Picked by Alex Ross Perry
Whity 1971
One leg of a Fassbinder triptych Alex ranks below the other two.
Picked by Alex Ross Perry
Jailbait 1973
Fassbinder's made-for-TV film about a teenage girl and the older man she's involved with; caused a stir when it screened at MoMA and hasn't been restored since.
Picked by Alex Ross Perry
Lili Marleen 1981
A big-budget Fassbinder war film Alex compares to Verhoeven's Black Book.
Picked by Alex Ross Perry
King Lear 1987
Godard's version, with Molly Ringwald and a brief Woody Allen appearance. Every other Cannon Films release is available; this one isn't.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing A Star Is BornPavarottiThe Irishman
Also mentioned The Serpent's EggWhat?1941Night Falls on ManhattanFour Flies on Grey VelvetInland EmpireWorld on a WireWandaKiller of SheepThe ExilesLos Angeles Plays ItselfCome and SeeWhite DogThe Straight StoryThe Trial
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The Beatles: Get BackStarstruckThe Beatles AnthologyLoki