The Big Picture · Discussion · Review
July 23, 2024/ 89 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Amanda's back from vacation and the two catch up on the Twisters box-office win and the Deadpool & Wolverine landing next weekend, pan Fly Me to the Moon, then open a mega-mailbag: 70mm road trips, theater etiquette, underused actors, a Wes-or-PTA Bond, pandemic castaways, and the film books worth reading.
69 films across 7 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 summer box officeTwisters, Longlegs, and the Deadpool & Wolverine looming next weekend
$80.5M domestic opening, the biggest ever for a natural-disaster movie; Sean called it movie of the summer. Talking points: Glenn Powell's arrival as a poster-driving star, the kiss that was shot and cut, and the rain-soaked white-tee shot the editors fought to put back in for Lee Isaac Chung.
The original, invoked for Helen Hunt's outdoor costuming, which Daisy Edgar Jones's look echoes.
The prior natural-disaster opening record at $68M, proof it's a small box-office sub-genre.
The glacier-vs-iceberg correction, and a lesson in respecting nature.
The summer's billion-dollar movie, which takes the pressure off Deadpool & Wolverine.
The summer's indie hit.
Neon's horror hit, already near $45M and closing on Parasite as the label's biggest ever. Directed by Oz Perkins, once the guy from Legally Blonde.
Out next weekend, and the two are seeing it that night. The Hugh Jackman suit reportedly had grown men crying on set.
Sean's verdict: okay. Fast-forward material.
Sean's verdict: legit good. Amanda's assigned homework.
Where Oz Perkins acted before the strange pivot to horror directing.
The implied-consummation defense: the light goes down and you understand what happens, no hardcore scene required.
Joe Wright's version, whose purer cut withholds the final kiss and works anyway.
Laura Dern's outdoor style, cited alongside Helen Hunt's as the Twisters look.
Aaron Sorkin's late periodPrompted by his New York Times op-ed pitching a Biden exit and a Mitt Romney nomination
Sean likes it a lot, but marks it the beginning of the end: Sorkin's point of view stops clicking with the world here.
The second of the three he directed.
The last of the three; none of them quite work.
'Fly Me to the Moon'
Scarlett Johansson as a marketing whiz brought in to sell the Apollo program to a skeptical public, Channing Tatum as the launch director she falls for, Woody Harrelson as the spook who wants a faked backup moon landing ready in case the real one fails. Directed by Greg Berlanti from Rose Gilroy's first produced script; originally set for Jason Bateman and Chris Evans. Both find it baffling and over-long at 132 minutes, a movie idea with TV pacing and no stakes, charming in patches but not connected. It got pummeled at the box office by Longlegs.
Ron Howard's film that Sean loves deeply; Tatum's Apollo 1 trauma keeps brushing up against it.
The Ron Howard Netflix No. 1 he seems to be backing away from, calling it 'absolutely reprehensible.'
Mailbag: cinema's future and a dream Cruise auteurJose asks whether a bad 2025 kills cinema; Luke asks for Tom Cruise's dream director
Cited in the mix of good and disappointing to come.
Cruise notably skipped the F1 grid; the theory is that only one movie star (Brad Pitt) could own the space to launch the film.
Cruise as more of a NASCAR guy than an F1 guy.
The Florence Pugh Marvel movie. 'I hope Florence Pugh got a lot of money.'
New-dad Robert Pattinson; Amanda hopes to be back from leave by then.
Dated December 19, 2025. Sean's skeptical it holds, and producer Jon Landau's death may affect the release.
Alfonso Cuarón proving he can put a movie star in space; Sean's dream is a Cuarón-Cruise film, or better, a Cruise-Tarantino one.
Sean likes Cuarón in both mainstream and this mode.
Amanda's pick is Fincher directing Cruise, two obsessive types in that vein.
Mailbag: the theater experience70mm road trips, phone etiquette, the worst snack, and the ideal seat
The 2024 film most worth driving to a true IMAX for.
Shot for 70mm IMAX; Sean's whole experience of it changed for the better going from Dolby to IMAX.
No 70mm print, but the kind of big, loud movie you'd want as large as possible.
Seen on 70mm at the Egyptian: the only Coppola movie that plays like a dream, in a theater where nobody would dare pull out a phone.
A 70mm date-night at the Egyptian during the American Cinematheque festival.
Sean saw it alone on a Sunday night, ideal for taking notes on his phone.
Charles Holmes's story of Alamo patrons stomping around for popcorn refills.
Seen in ScreenX, occasion of the ill-fated sweet-tart-ropes purchase.
The snack-bag-rustling offense; a movie you'd want zero people near you for.
The aisle-seat mix-up, and, per Amanda, 'fucking sick.'
The movie Sean was coming from when the Beekeeper seats got scrambled.
Part of the 'beekeeper-zone of interest guy' running bit.
A movie for children; you won't find a phones-down crowd there.
Mailbag: underused actors, a Wes-or-PTA Bond, and pandemic castawaysEric on talent that hasn't broken out, Chris on a Wes-or-PTA Bond, Evan on straight-to-streaming misses
Taylor Russell, who's shown flashes but hasn't gotten the mainstream vehicle.
More Taylor Russell in the auteur lane.
Myha'la doing interesting character work, but not yet a star-making performance.
Myha'la again; Amanda wants a movie built around her.
Brian Tyree Henry's supporting-nominated turn opposite Jennifer Lawrence.
Brian Tyree Henry gets 15 minutes of screen time and owns the movie.
Cited as proof Brian Tyree Henry is great in everything, running the Philip Seymour Hoffman playbook.
Kit Harington as the surprise Black Knight, Harry Styles's cameo, Brian Tyree Henry as the Oppenheimer of the group: a disaster, fondly recalled.
The prestige-Bond precedent that makes PTA the safer, and Wes the more meaningful, choice.
Jack O'Connell's 30 good seconds, floated among the interchangeable next-Bond contenders.
The PTA-in-70mm pick; Sean has tickets for August 4, home by 2am.
The obvious No. 1 pandemic castaway: the most divisive Nolan, and Sean thinks it would've been much bigger seen together in theaters. Robert Pattinson forever.
The $500M worldwide benchmark Tenet fell short of, pandemic notwithstanding.
Tenet was Nolan's lowest-grossing movie since this one.
The Nolan story-and-producer credit; Kevin Costner as Superman's dad, and it goes bad.
A Disney/Pixar movie that would have done better in normal times.
The pandemic Disney movie Sean thinks would have been a much bigger deal, later confirmed by a 3-year-old's themed birthday party.
James Wan's horror swing, dumped day-and-date on Max under Project Popcorn.
A Sundance hit that made money on Hulu but could have been a theater good time.
Mailbag: grown-up movies, baby names, and film booksScott on why adults love kids' movies, CJ on names ruined by characters, Busboom on becoming film-literate
Sean's thesis: a generation raised on this stuff grew up, got the power, and turned every childhood fascination into a movie.
One of the well-made adult movies to push friends toward, alongside Challengers and Longlegs.
Why Amanda can't name a kid Dickie: the fate of Dickie Greenleaf. Time for the annual rewatch.
Where Sean insists Blake Lively played a character with anxiety, in the great is-she-brat debate.
The Blake Lively movie tangled up with the 'A Simple Kind of Life' No Doubt song.
Blake Lively's Colleen Hoover adaptation this summer, to be covered around the Sing Sing episode.
The upcoming Movies We Missed slot where It Ends With Us may land.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing SupermanLawrence of ArabiaStagecoachThe SearchersBram Stoker's DraculaWorking GirlTrue RomanceThe Fault in Our Stars
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Presumed InnocentCitadelThe NewsroomThe West WingGame of ThronesHouse of the DragonIndustryGossip GirlThe Simple Life
Ads Ringer Fantasy Football ShowGoogle AI Professional CertificateWorkdayPanda Express