The Big Picture · Discussion
September 22, 2025/ 100 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Back from their August break, Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins run a speed round through the movies they missed (Him, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, The Long Walk, Freakier Friday, Splitsville, Megadoc, The Thursday Murder Club, Eden, Honey Don't and the To Catch a Predator doc Predators) after a Robert Redford tribute, the new Mandalorian and Grogu trailer, and a soft September box office.
12 films across 2 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 newsRedford, a Star Wars trailer, and a soft September
The morning's new trailer, which Sean walks Amanda (a non-watcher) through. Jon Favreau directs; out Memorial Day 2026, Star Wars' first theatrical release in about seven years. Sean thinks it looks like an episode of the show and reads it as the final retreat to fan service after The Last Jedi cleaved the fandom. Amanda's contributions: Grogu is getting less cute with age, and the AT-ATs are CGI now where Empire's were handmade.
The catch-upthe movies they missed, newest first
The weekend's top new release and a disappointment. Justin Tipping directs (produced by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw, which confused people into thinking it was a Peele film); Marlon Wayans as an aging icon quarterback, Tyriek Withers as the prospect who trains at his compound, with Julia Fox and Tim Heidecker. Sean expected an Any Given Sunday-scale football movie and got a stylish, hollow 90-minute commercial: no real story, no football played, and a tone that swings from brutal horror to near-slapstick. Bad reviews cratered the opening. Julia Fox alone seemed tuned to the camp.
Dead on arrival, per both hosts, and the bigger heartbreak given Sean's love of Kogonada's Columbus and After Yang. Margot Robbie (first feature since Barbie) and Colin Farrell get set up at a wedding, then a magic rental car walks them through their pasts; no chemistry, a manic-pixie-nightmare construction, treacly in the What Dreams May Come vein. Not written or edited by Kogonada. Made about $4M and will lose a lot for a struggling Sony. A high-school-musical set piece and Farrell's brief How to Succeed number are the only lifts; the Burger King product placement is not.
The one TV-spinoff threequel the hosts adored: 'one of the most delightful movies of the year.' It's 1930, the Crawleys are downsizing and selling the London house, and Lady Mary's divorce (Matthew Goode's Henry written out) brings social scandal, with Alessandro Nivola whisking in and a horse running at a very CGI Ascot. Amanda's ranking, which Sean shares: two, three, one. Great if you liked the show; skip if you didn't.
Francis Lawrence adapts early Stephen King (written under the Richard Bachman name): teens walk above three miles an hour or get shot, last one standing wins. Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson are terrific (Sean wants them starring in movies for the next 40 years), and shooting in sequence shows. Gnarly and diverting until an ending Sean hated, a late-capitalism-metaphor cop-out that drew dead silence in his theater. Mark Hamill plays the Major.
The biggest movie released during the break, and a nice time. Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Mark Harmon and Chad Michael Murray return; Rosalind Chao, Julia Butters, Manny Jacinto and Sophia Hammonds join. Glossy Disney+-grade filmmaking shot on LA locations. Sean's sidebar: Manny Jacinto's character is inexplicably British, though the actor is Filipino-Canadian and the girl playing his daughter is from California. Lohan is as good as ever; Curtis may be Sean's favorite of her three 2025 turns.
Michelangelo Covino and Kyle Marvin's follow-up to The Climb: long-term relationships and failed masculinity, with Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona so far out of the guys' league it's distracting on purpose (Sean's Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice comparison). Feels like it ends five times and keeps going, to its credit. Tactile, very funny, well-observed. Recommended; on VOD the next day.
Mike Figgis's documentary on the making of Coppola's Megalopolis, and one Sean loved: a companion piece that made him feel better about not understanding the film. As raw a making-of as exists: a production designer quits over Coppola's insistence on in-camera effects, Shia LaBeouf locates and attacks the 80-year-old master's vulnerability, and Figgis turns the camera on himself. Glimpses of abandoned versions (Ryan Gosling and a James Franco pass in the LaBeouf role; Aubrey Plaza throughout).
Chris Columbus adapts Richard Osman's cozy-mystery bestseller, and Amanda, who's read every book, was disappointed. Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan (a touch too dashing as an ex-union-leader), Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie make a murderers' row, but the movie tilts toward solving the case and loses the four-friends chemistry, and it's all sets, no countryside. On Netflix.
Ron Howard's strange castaway drama, which premiered at TIFF and was ultimately dumped by Vertical despite Sydney Sweeney, Ana de Armas, Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby. Based on a true story of Europeans trying to restart society on a Galapagos island as fascism rises: a Lord of the Flies with a broom-versus-wild-dogs birth scene. Not bad, more or less negligible, and 'the weirdest movie I've seen in the longest time.'
Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke's second solo feature after Drive-Away Dolls, and a drag Sean bounced off: Margaret Qualley as a PI probing a church and its vivacious pastor (Chris Evans), with Aubrey Plaza and Charlie Day. Script doesn't work, tone doesn't work, performances are weird. Sean wants a Joel-and-Ethan reunion, and no more of this.
David Osit's Sundance documentary about the TV show To Catch a Predator (not the franchise) and what its sick glee said about the culture that celebrated it, down to the young actors cast as the decoys. Unusual, upsetting, very well done; Sean hopes it finds an audience.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Redford & the Star Wars trailer Three Days of the CondorAll the President's MenStar Wars: The Last JediStar Wars: The Rise of SkywalkerStar Wars: The Force AwakensThe Empire Strikes BackIndiana Jones and the Dial of DestinyThe Lion KingThe Jungle Book
At the September box office WeaponsThe Conjuring: Last RitesBeetlejuice BeetlejuiceItDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity CastleDog ManElioKPop Demon HuntersThe Lego Batman MovieToy StoryHowl's Moving CastleBring It OnSingin' in the RainApollo 13The Roses
Comparisons & callbacks SinnersAny Given SundayInfinity PoolI Know What You Did Last SummerThe Silence of the LambsWhat Dreams May ComeIt Ends with UsCarrieStrange DarlingRed SparrowConstantineAlien: RomulusThe ClimbBob & Carol & Ted & AliceMegalopolisDrive-Away DollsThe GodfatherHalf NelsonMurder by NumbersThe Last ShowgirlFreaky FridayThe War of the RosesFather of the BrideHow to Succeed in Business Without Really TryingBridget Jones's Diary
Ron Howard's filmography In the Heart of the SeaInfernoSolo: A Star Wars StoryHillbilly ElegyThirteen LivesJim Henson: Idea Man
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The MandalorianThe Gilded AgeDepartment QThe BearThe Good PlaceIndustryTo Catch a PredatorThe StudioBroadchurchThe LowdownJimmy Kimmel Live!
Video games FIFA World Cup (Netflix game)
Events Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl
Ads State FarmTremfyaFanDuelNetflixWhite ClawWolf Trap