The Big Picture
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins review the movies you need to see. Plus: Top 5s, Movie Drafts, Oscars analysis, and more, featuring a rotating cast of Ringer colleagues like Chris Ryan, Van Lathan, and Bill Simmons.
Episodes
April 30, 2025 • 47 mins
Sean and Amanda return to continue their yearlong project of listing the 25 best movies of the 21st century so far. Today, they discuss their favorite installment of the beloved Tom Cruise action franchise with ‘Mission: Impossible—Fallout’, which features some of the greatest action filmmaking of all time. They explain why this concretized director Christopher McQuarrie as a legitimate star filmmaker, explore what this film means ...
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Sean and Amanda are joined by Chris Ryan to recap their trip to the mobile Criterion Closet before celebrating the big box-office weekend performances of ‘Sinners’ and ‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’ and explain why movies are so back (1:09). Then, they cover some recently released mediocre action films: ‘The Accountant 2’ (14:30), ‘Havoc’ (25:39), ‘A Working Man’ (36:33), and ‘The Amateur’ (44:41), and have a big-pi...
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April 25, 2025 • 162 mins
Sean and Amanda briefly react to some Oscars news, including a rule requiring Academy members to watch the movies and the details surrounding the new Casting and Achievement in Stunt Design award (1:34). Then, for the first time, they play the Summer Movie Preview Game, in which they predict the box office and Metacritic score for every major summer movie release in 2025 (16:27). Later, Sean is joined by Adam Nayman to give a brief...
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April 23, 2025 • 100 mins
Sean is joined by Chris Ryan to honor the late Val Kilmer by creating his Hall of Fame. Before creating the list, Chris shares his thoughts on why Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ worked so well, sort through the box office controversy, and consider what kind of award chances the film has (4:18). Then, they build the Val Kilmer Hall of Fame by selecting the 10 most essential performances of his career (34:13).
Host: Sean Fennessey
Guest: ...
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April 21, 2025 • 47 mins
Sean and Amanda return to continue their yearlong project of listing the 25 best movies of the 21st century so far. Today, they discuss Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Children of Men,’ a deeply upsetting 2006 apocalyptic thriller starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore, which features some of the most emotionally moving image-making of all time. They explore how this film altered the trajectory of Cuarón’s “shapeshifter” filmmaking career, celeb...
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April 17, 2025 • 103 mins
Sean and Amanda are joined by Van Lathan to unpack Ryan Coogler’s highly anticipated vampire horror film, ‘Sinners.’ They applaud the film for its originality and authenticity, debate whether or not this is Michael B. Jordan’s best performance of his career, and unpack one of the film’s most controversial and daring scenes by hypothesizing about whether its boldness will be well received (2:28). Then, Sean is joined by Ryan Coogler...
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April 15, 2025 • 104 mins
We are drafting again! Before their draft, Sean and Amanda are joined by Chris Ryan to briefly discuss Matt Damon’s shredded appearance for Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ and the new trailer for Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’ (1:03). Then, they talk about who they were in 1990 and draft the best movies from the year (10:37).
Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins
Guests: Chris Ryan and Bobby Wagner
Producer: Jack Sanders
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Sean and Amanda begin the episode with their instant reactions to the official announcement of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival lineup. They share their overall mixed feelings about the slate, attempt to figure out why some notable films missed the cut, and debate whether or not Sean would be capable of taking a three-month movie sabbatical (1:45). Then, Chris Ryan joins the show to cover Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s new combat dram...
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April 9, 2025 • 48 mins
Sean and Amanda return to continue their yearlong project of listing the 25 best movies of the 21st century so far. They discuss Nancy Meyers’s ‘Something’s Gotta Give,’ the 2003 romantic comedy starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, which featured some of the most realized and developed characters of the century. They highlight and celebrate Meyers’s auteurist vision, argue why it’s the last great studio romantic comedy, and re...
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Sean and Amanda cover the absolute box office phenomenon ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ a video game adaptation starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa. They explore the event film of the year and discuss why the theatergoing experience of the film is such a great thing for the industry at large (1:08). Then, they give a Movie State of the Union, where they work through the troubling slate of early 2025 movies and consider whether television is ...
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April 4, 2025 • 97 mins
Sean and Amanda recap their recent trip to Las Vegas for CinemaCon and catch up on the latest news from around the industry, including some exclusive insight on the ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ sort-of sequel, which will reportedly be directed by David Fincher (0:45). Then, they are joined by Puck’s Matt Belloni to talk about their 15 most anticipated movies from CinemaCon (28:43).
Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins
Gu...
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April 1, 2025 • 89 mins
Amanda is joined by The Ringer’s very own Jomi Adeniran, Jade Whaley, and Jack Sanders to convey the first (and possibly last) Gen Z Movie Focus Group! They discuss how they watched movies growing up versus today, debate what is the most important movie to Gen Z, and assess whether movies are “so back” or “so over.”Host: Amanda Dobbins
Guests: Jomi Adeniran, Jade Whaley, and Jack Sanders
Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner
Video Produce...
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March 28, 2025 • 96 mins
Amanda is joined by Yasi Salek to create a new mini-genre called "Garbage Women," a list of mediocre to bad streaming movies starring the greatest actresses of our generation. Before officially forming the canon, they cover some recent releases that fit into the genre, ‘Holland’ (2:54) and ‘Kinda Pregnant’ (20:44). Then, they get into the list, working through the official criteria, discussing what they love and hate about these ty...
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March 26, 2025 • 42 mins
Sean and Amanda return to continue their year-long project of listing the 25 best movies of the 21st century so far with a discussion of Park Chan-wook’s ‘The Handmaiden,’ the 2016 erotic thriller period piece starring Kim Tae-ri and featuring some of the best camera work and production design of the century. They talk about Park Chan-wook’s incredible ability to complicate simple stories with depth of design, how it portrays the c...
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March 24, 2025 • 89 mins
Sean and Amanda are joined by Chris Ryan to react to some trailer and release calendar news about ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘Materialists,’ ‘F1,’ ‘Together,’ and ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ (2:41). Then, they discuss Barry Levinson’s new gangster movie ‘The Alto Nights,’ written by Nicholas Pileggi and starring Robert De Niro (18:58). Finally, they sketch out a new mini-genre, “Garbage Scorsese,” a list of films that are deeply indeb...
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March 21, 2025 • 137 mins
We’re drafting again! Sean, Amanda, and Chris are joined by the resident physical-media king of 'The Big Picture,' Tracy Letts, to draft movies from 1982 and take stock of the biggest ways the film world has changed in the past 40 years.
Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins
Guests: Tracy Letts and Chris Ryan
Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner
Video Producer: Jack Sanders
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March 19, 2025 • 42 mins
Sean and Amanda kick off their year-long project of listing the 25 best movies of the 21st century so far with a discussion of Tony Gilroy’s ‘Michael Clayton,’ the 2007 legal thriller starring George Clooney and featuring one of the best scripts of the century. They talk about how tightly wound the movie is, some sliding doors in its production, and what it means for the list to start with such a beloved movie for both Sean and Ama...
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March 17, 2025 • 137 mins
Sean and Amanda are joined by Chris Ryan to discuss the latest Netflix mega-budget action movie, ‘The Electric State,’ one of the worst movies of the decade so far (1:00). They discuss the state of Netflix’s influence on the movie industry and the series of disastrous movies made by the Russo brothers since they left Marvel. Then, they run through a list of other movies they’ve missed on the show, including ‘The Gorge’ (47:00), ‘La...
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March 14, 2025 • 109 mins
Sean and Amanda discuss their upcoming trip to Las Vegas for CinemaCon (1:00) before taking stock of Steven Soderbergh’s 36th feature film, ‘Black Bag,’ starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender (8:30). Then, they build a Hall of Fame for Blanchett by selecting the 10 most important performances by the two-time Oscar winner (27:00).
Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins
Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner
Video Producers: John R...
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March 10, 2025 • 81 mins
After a brief discussion of the A24-inflected ‘Thunderbolts*’ trailer that dropped over the weekend (0:45), Sean and Amanda dive into Bong Joon-ho’s eighth feature film, ‘Mickey 17’ (4:15). They discuss its often uneven tone, how the film fits into Bong Joon-ho’s body of work, Robert Pattinson’s incredible performance and lack of movie star persona, and some of their favorite scenes. Then, they rank all eight of Bong Joon-ho’s feat...
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