The Big Picture
Hosted by Amanda Dobbins, Chris Ryan & Sean Fantasy · 20 decoded episodes · newest Oct 6, 2026
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins review the movies you need to see. Plus: Top 5s, Movie Drafts, Oscars analysis, and more. Subscribe to Sean's newsletter, Projections, here.
Episodes 20
- Oct 6, 2026 · 1h 39mHollywood’s merger era tests ambition against safer betsThe episode connects a studio leadership upheaval and a box-office failure to a larger fight over what mainstream filmmaking should be.
- Oct 2, 2026 · 1h 56mTom Cruise turns vulnerability into Digger’s biggest gambleThe discussion tests whether Cruise’s most exposed dramatic performance can redeem a divisive film about art, ego, and ecological collapse.
- Sep 30, 2026 · 1h 45mBaseball movies turn a long season into myth and memoryThe draft reveals why baseball remains unusually fertile cinematic material, even as analytics, changing media habits, and modern baseball complicate its cultural reach.
- Sep 28, 2026 · 2h 24mEndgame Encore tests Hollywood’s appetite for theatrical nostalgiaThe episode uses one weekend’s releases to examine whether eventized rereleases can compete with new films and reshape theatrical economics.
- Sep 25, 2026 · 1h 54mPrimetime turns media spectacle into a moral nightmareThe episode examines how Primetime transforms To Catch a Predator and its culture of humiliation into a warning about entertainment’s moral blind spots.
- Sep 23, 2026 · 1h 47mA cinematic disaster becomes a test of auteur mythologyThe discussion uses John Boorman’s failed Exorcist sequel to examine creative authority, New Hollywood’s collapse, and how artists should be judged.
- Sep 22, 2026 · 2h 15mCregger’s Resident Evil gambles on spectacle with a personal edgeThe episode connects a volatile awards season and TIFF’s shifting influence with a filmmaker testing how far ambitious genre cinema can go.
- Sep 17, 2026 · 1h 43mResident Evil revives unapologetic horror comedyThe discussion makes a case for Zach Cregger’s film as both a sharp video-game adaptation and a corrective to overly solemn modern horror.
- Sep 15, 2026 · 1h 36mOasis reunites while Sandra Bullock weighs her next actThe episode connects nostalgia’s limits, from a hollow legacy sequel to a reunion documentary that makes fandom feel newly alive.
- Sep 11, 2026 · 3h 2mSummer movies reclaim cultural ground as franchises lose their gripThe episode tests whether theatrical moviegoing is broadly recovering or merely being carried by a few familiar properties, then applies the same scrutiny to Abel Ferrara’s unruly career.
- Sep 8, 2026 · 1h 53mFestival films turn awards buzz into a high-wire actSean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins show how Telluride and Venice transform films, performances, and documentaries into competing Oscar narratives.
- Sep 4, 2026 · 1h 57mOnslaught revives the black-and-chrome action movieThe episode examines why a once-common strain of gritty, militaristic genre filmmaking has faded—and whether Onslaught can restore its cult appeal.