The Big Picture: The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’

Published 2026-01-30; 1:53:53 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “The Big Picture (The Ringer)” and the episode “The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of 'Send Help'”.

Hosts: Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins. Guests: none.

Subject films: Send Help, Mercy.

On the transcript: Transcript has no speaker labels and ad reads are spliced in (about 0:00-1:20, 0:42:52-0:45:20, and after 1:55:12). Hosts alternate quickly, so Sean/Amanda attributions are guesses with confidence 0.4-0.7 except where a line names the speaker.

Films that came up

Claims (79)

people (people): The Invite → Olivia Wilde. Wilde directs The Invite, an adaptation of a Spanish film.
“Olivia Wilde, who is the director of this movie, which is an adaptation of a Spanish film”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:02:47 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
people (people): The Invite → Little Miss Sunshine. The Invite was originally to be made by the Little Miss Sunshine directors.
“Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris, who made Little Miss Sunshine, were going to make it.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:04:19 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
career (career): Harry Styles → Eternals. Styles' Eternals appearance was his favorite part and only seconds long.
“He was my favorite part of Eternals, I think.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:06:45 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Barry Keoghan → Eternals. Keoghan, now playing Ringo, is linked back through Eternals.
“speaking of Eternals and Barry Hogan of the Beatles guys?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:06:52 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): LaKeith Stanfield → Delroy Lindo. Lindo's Oscar nomination without precursors reminds the speaker of Stanfield's Judas nomination.
“But what it really reminds me of is LeHeath Stanfield.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:11:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Parallel Mothers → Penelope Cruz. Cruz's Oscar nomination for the Almodovar film with no precursors is compared to Lindo's.
“And then I also thought about Penelope Cruz getting nominated for Parallel Mothers, the Almedovar film”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:12:01 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Field of Dreams → Amy Madigan. Madigan's Field of Dreams may not carry weight with British BAFTA voters.
“does field of dreams matter to British people?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:13:30 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Mercy → Minority Report. Mercy's AI-as-justice-machine premise is an idea Minority Report explored earlier.
“Like minority report explores this idea of what if we use technology to better, like better control criminal activity in the world.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:20:46 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Mercy → Moneyball. The film's gut-instinct-versus-data argument is framed as Moneyball.
“It's it's straight up moneyball.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:22:45 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Mercy → Amazon MGM. Ring camera footage saves the hero, read as corporate cross-promotion by the studio's parent.
“And the ring camera footage is what ultimately helps save him and prove his innocence”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:24:54 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Mercy → Columbia / Coca-Cola. Corporate product placement in studio films has precedent, which makes Mercy's Ring placement unsurprising but ugly.
“Coca-Cola being a product placement when Colombia is owned by the broader corporation.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:25:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Mercy → Charles Bronson. They like January thrillers that are souped-up Bronson-style wrongly-accused movies; Mercy's problem is what underlies it.
“basically souped up Charles Bronson movies and Chris Pratt has a gun and is wrongly accused and needs to solve a crime.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:27:26 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Mercy → Alfred Hitchcock. Wrongly-accused-man plots are Hitchcock territory; the plot is not the objection.
“Alfred Hitchcock made tons of movies like this.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:27:35 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Mercy → Searching. Screen movies are hard to make compelling; Searching does it well, Mercy does not.
“I think searching does it very well.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:28:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Mercy → Unfriended. Unlike Searching or Unfriended, being on a computer is not the point of Mercy, which is mostly action seen through grainy cameras.
“Because the movie is not like searching or unfriended, where kind of like being on the computer is the point of the movie that like you need to be on the computer to solve the crime.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:29:29 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Mercy → Mission Impossible (franchise). Mercy's phone-and-drone-camera look is likened to a franchise opening stretched to feature length.
“It's like the opening 3 minutes of a Mission Impossible movie for 96 minutes.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:29:56 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Mercy → Michael Bay. A truck chase in Mercy would be a standout if it were shot by Michael Bay, but is undercut by the screens.
“if it were Michael Bay, it would be the coolest sequence of the year for action filmmaking.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:30:06 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Chris Pratt → Harrison Ford. Pratt was expected to use B-minus Harrison Ford franchise roles to fund more interesting work.
“he was going to take gigs as B minus Harrison Ford as Star Lord and the Guardians movies as the dinosaur tamer in Jurassic World.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:31:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Chris Pratt → Mike Schur. Sitcom pedigree under Mike Schur with Amy Poehler led them to expect an interesting film career.
“he was on a sitcom that was run by Mike Shur starring Amy Poehler.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:32:17 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Chris Pratt → James Gunn. Star-Lord was a good fit for James Gunn's writing style.
“He's a good fit for James Gunn's writing style.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:32:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Chris Pratt → Jason Statham. Pratt's persona has narrowed to a solemn gun-holding savior, like Statham without martial arts.
“only now wants to be like Jason Statham minus the martial arts.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:32:54 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Rebecca Ferguson → Mission Impossible (franchise). The Mission Impossible paycheck is gone because her character was killed off.
“I'm sympathetic to the fact that they killed her off in Mission Impossible.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:36:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Mercy → House of Dynamite. Rebecca Ferguson may have planned House of Dynamite for prestige and Mercy for a big start to 2026.
“okay, we'll do like House of Dynamite for Prestige and Mercy for...”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:36:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Mercy → Law & Order. Mercy's case would be better as a network procedural episode.
“And it's like, it's like wouldn't it be a good law and order episode?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:39:02 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Mercy → Back to the Future Part II. Mercy's hover jet skis prompt the speaker to say they want the hover tech Back to the Future II promised.
“I stand on hovering exactly where I stood when Back to the Future 2 came out, which is give it to me now.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:40:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Send Help → Bill Pope. Raimi reteams with longtime collaborators: cinematographer Pope, editor Murawski, composer Elfman.
“Bill Pope, the cinematographer, uh, Bob Moroski, the editor, Danny Elfman, the composer”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:47:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
people (people): Send Help → Danny Elfman. Elfman scores Send Help as one of Raimi's longtime collaborators.
“Danny Elfman, the composer, and it does star Rachel McAdams, and Dylan O'Brien”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:47:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
people (people): Send Help → Bob Murawski. Murawski is the editor among Raimi's longtime collaborators reunited on Send Help.
“it's kind of reteems a lot of his uh, longtime collaborators, Bill Pope, the cinematographer, uh, Bob Moroski, the editor, Danny Elfman, the composer”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:47:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Send Help → Swimming with Sharks. The office-revenge opening resembles Swimming with Sharks.
“it starts out as kind of swimming with sharks meets working girl.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:48:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Send Help → Working Girl. The office-revenge opening resembles Working Girl.
“it starts out as kind of swimming with sharks meets working girl.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:48:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Send Help → Cast Away. Send Help pivots into a desert-island survival story.
“and then it pivots pretty quickly to cast away meets a perfect getaway.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:48:47 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Send Help → A Perfect Getaway. Its island second half is likened to A Perfect Getaway.
“and then it pivots pretty quickly to cast away meets a perfect getaway.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:48:47 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Sam Raimi → Spider-Man (Raimi films). Even Raimi's winning-feeling films, like Spider-Man, are mean-spirited.
“Even the movies that have like a kind of winning feeling like the Spider-Man films”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:49:55 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Sam Raimi → Drag Me to Hell. Raimi's heroes are put through trying circumstances, from Ash to Alison Lohman.
“from ash and the evil dead movies all the way through.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:50:02 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Sam Raimi → A Simple Plan. Raimi repeatedly makes characters' own choices, not the system, the cause of their ruin, as in A Simple Plan.
“Like in a simple plan, he does this.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:55:16 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Rachel McAdams → Mean Girls. Her Send Help charisma echoes the Regina George mix of evil and charming.
“it's the Rachel McAdams Regina George thing where it is, it can be evil or it can be really charming”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:57:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Send Help → Triangle of Sadness. Triangle of Sadness touches the same idea of competing definitions of success and contentment.
“Although triangle of sadness does kind of touch this.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:58:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Send Help → Decision to Leave. The beautiful sushi platters in Send Help recall the sushi in Decision to Leave.
“Decision to leave and then now the sushi platters that are used in this, in this film, stay with me.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:03:42 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Rachel McAdams → Screwball comedians of the 1930s. Her comic energy recalls 30s screwball comedians who are both smartest and dumbest in the room.
“She reminds me a lot of 30s kind of screwball comedians”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:04:17 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Rachel McAdams → Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. McAdams was in a Raimi film but terribly underused in it.
“when we saw the trailer for Dr. Strange 2 directed by Sam Raimi, she was in flashback”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:06:37 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Rachel McAdams → Red Eye. Red Eye is a similar plane-set thriller to Send Help.
“number 10 is a similar kind of movie to send help, which is Red eye.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:07:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Red Eye → Wes Craven. Red Eye is a Wes Craven movie.
“Very good movie, Wes Craven movie.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:07:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Amanda Seyfried → Mean Girls. Seyfried, a Mean Girls costar, became the most visible and commercially viable of that cast.
“You got Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfrid.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:08:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Keira Knightley → Vanessa Redgrave. In the 2010s Knightley looked like the next Vanessa Redgrave or Charlotte Rampling.
“you might think this is the new Vanessa Redgrave, right?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:15:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Rachel McAdams → John Wick. McAdams has a unique skillset and can kill you many ways.
“She's kind of like John Wick.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:16:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): LaKeith Stanfield → Boots Riley. Stanfield led Sorry to Bother You and will be in Riley's next movie.
“Um, I know he's going to be in the next uh, Boots Riley movie.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:17:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): LaKeith Stanfield → Rachel McAdams. Stanfield is like McAdams: funny, but credible in superhero or serious drama.
“he's kind of similar to Rachel McAdams to me and that he's funny and can do comedy”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:19:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): James McAvoy → Chris Pratt. McAvoy got swole and drifted toward psychopath action, like Pratt.
“So he's another one where he's like Chris Pratt.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:19:56 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Angelina Jolie → Salt. Jolie's face alone on the poster of Wanted or Salt was the movie.
“You could put just her on the poster of wanted or salt, and then that's your movie.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:21:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Salt → Phillip Noyce. Salt was directed by Philip Noyce (transcribed Noise).
“A very well-known filmmaker, Philip Noise.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:22:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Salt → Robert Elswit. Salt was shot by Elswit and edited by John Gilroy.
“This film was shot by Robert Ellswitt and edited by John Gilroy.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:22:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Angelina Jolie → Maria. Jolie's recent awards-race film Maria was liked by the speaker and no one else.
“which is a movie that I liked and apparently nobody else did, the Pablo the Rain movie.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:23:37 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Angelina Jolie → George Clooney. Both are stars who keep trying and it keeps going wrong.
“she's sort of a Clooney as well.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:25:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Julia Roberts → Sam Esmail. Esmail keeps working with Roberts, which is credited as good news.
“our friend Sam Esmail has is definitely and is still working with her”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:27:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Julia Roberts → After the Hunt. Roberts was great in Guadagnino's After the Hunt despite its script.
“in Luca Guadalnino's after the hunt.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:27:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Julia Roberts → Wes Anderson. They wonder whether directors like Wes Anderson or Paul Thomas Anderson would cast her.
“does Wes Anderson want to work with Julia Roberts, you know?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:28:18 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Dev Patel → Lion. Lion, a Best Picture nominee, is called one of the most forgotten ever.
“he's in Lion, which gets nominated for Best Picture, which is like one of the most forgotten best picture nominees of all time.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:29:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Dev Patel → The Green Knight. The Green Knight, by David Lowery, is called fantastic but was missed in COVID.
“the Green Knight, which I think is fantastic, David Lowry's movie”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:29:54 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Dev Patel → Monkey Man. Patel directed himself in Monkey Man because nobody would cast him as an action star.
“one of the reasons why he says he's going to direct himself in it is because he's like, nobody will cast me as an action star.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:30:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Bradley Cooper → Guardians of the Galaxy. His Rocket Raccoon voice work is cited as good.
“I mean, you know, Rocky Raccoon, that was good.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:32:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Maestro → Bradley Cooper. Maestro is an amazing directing achievement but not a great Leonard Bernstein movie.
“Maestro is like an amazing achievement of directing.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:33:11 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Is This Thing On? → Maestro. Cooper's small character piece was meant as a pullback from Maestro's grandeur toward a James L. Brooks movie.
“so that I can get away from the grandeur of Maestro as a filmmaker and I can do my James L. Brooks movie, right?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:33:30 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Bradley Cooper → The Mule. The Mule is the last real movie-star part he has had.
“Is the last real movie star part he's had, which is in 2018.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:34:07 · Amanda Dobbins (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Bradley Cooper → Nightmare Alley. Nightmare Alley is a great performance about a possessed gross man, little beyond.
“it's a great performance about like a demon, like a possessed gross man and very little beyond that.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:34:18 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Amy Adams → Jake Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal gets a pass for fooling around in Nocturnal Animals while Adams gets criticized.
“Jake Gyllenhaal can have a little fun and fuck around in nocturnal animals and everyone's fine with it”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:36:18 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Clara and the Sun → Kazuo Ishiguro. Clara and the Sun is based on an Ishiguro novel.
“That's based on the Ishigar, that Kazoorish guro normal, right?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:37:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Regina Hall → Paul Thomas Anderson. PTA tapped capabilities in Regina Hall beyond comedy in One Battle After Another.
“who identified the capabilities of Regina Hall beyond being the funniest person in any room or on any Golden Globe stage”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:38:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Regina Hall → Girls Trip. Her emotional speech at the end of Girls Trip shows her ability to pull people in.
“I still remember the species she gives at the end of girls trip”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:38:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Judgment Day → Money Monster. The Stoller comedy has the same hostage-of-a-TV-host premise as Money Monster.
“That's kind of weird because that's also the premise of Money Monster.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:39:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Carousel → Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Carousel's kitchen-counter fight scene is compared to the best acting the speaker has seen.
“where it was like, Julia Butters in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I was like, that's the best acting I've ever seen in my life.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:40:48 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Chris Pine → Star Trek. His Kirk should not have worked and totally worked.
“He's a great Captain Kirk.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:41:27 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Chris Pine → Rachel Lambert. Pine chooses female filmmakers: Lambert (Carousel) and Cavalli.
“a male star in his mid 40s choosing to work with female filmmakers.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:42:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): Alpha Gang → Sasquatch Sunset. The Zellner Brothers made Alpha Gang and the Sasquatch movie with Jesse Eisenberg.
“They made the Sasquatch movie a couple years ago with Jesse Eisenberg.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:43:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement → Chris Pine. In Princess Diaries 2 Chris Pine is a pretender to the throne of Genovia.
“I think Chris Pine is like a pretender to the throne of Genovia.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:44:37 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Kirsten Dunst → Alex Garland. Dunst's Civil War part is cited as a good one from Garland.
“Alex Garland knew.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:49:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Kirsten Dunst → Paul Thomas Anderson. They propose Dunst would be great with PTA.
“she would be great with PTA.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:49:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Kirsten Dunst → Bugonia. Dunst's reel argues Plemons' Bugonia work was more complex than Chalamet's Marty Supreme.
“what Jesse Clemons did in Begonia was more complex than what Timothy Chalamet did in Marty Supreme.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:50:18 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Kirsten Dunst → Sofia Coppola. Coppola and Dunst have made The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette and The Beguiled together.
“Marie Antoinette and the beguiled.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:51:20 · Amanda Dobbins (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Javier Bardem → F1. Bardem is so good at F1 they want him used more, in a suit that fits.
“I also put Javier Bardem on here because he's so good at F1.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:52:04 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

Fun items (27)

fun, about Harry Styles: Styles was in St. Peter's Square when the new pope was announced.
“Harry Styles was in St. Peter's Square when the new pope was announced”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:05:26 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Beatles biopics: The four Beatles films release in April 2028, one per week, and only Keoghan and Quinn appear in the leaked photos.
“So, it's interesting that only Barry Kyogan and Joseph Quinn get the close-up on these”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:08:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Gandhi: Gandhi holds the BAFTA nomination record with 16, ahead of Sinners with 13.
“16 nominations for Gandhi.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:10:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Mercy: Mercy has an on-screen countdown clock of 90 minutes that nearly matches the 96-minute runtime, which the hosts call its one real innovation.
“This movie has a countdown clock.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:19:18 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Mercy: Reenacting the closing line: Pratt says we all make mistakes and learn, then the AI judge appears on a lobby screen and says yes, we do.
“Human or AI, we all make mistakes, and we learn.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:23:16 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Mercy: The hero is barefoot throughout, which prompts a run of jokes about why the man cannot have shoes.
“Why can't the man have shoes?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:29:01 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Mercy: The movie's chase footage shows the truck braking, with no A-team stunt drivers.
“And also like, you can just, like, you can see the truck breaking sometimes.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:30:49 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Billy Madison: Billy Madison apologizes to a man he bullied, Steve Buscemi, who accepts and then crosses Billy off a list of names.
“Bushemi pulls out a list of names and he crosses Billy Madison off the list.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:34:41 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Mercy: Verdict: it should be left to streaming and does not need the theater.
“Sometimes it's good to have just like an absolute dead fish.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:38:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Mercy: The wife's lover is a chef at the Loews Hollywood, and a rooftop fight on its helipad is called a big look for the hotel.
“And I just want to say that's a really big look for the low's Hollywood and congratulations.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:42:36 · Amanda Dobbins (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Send Help: Raimi shoots McAdams in gross close-up, including tuna fish at the corner of her mouth.
“you know, there's a whole bit about tuna fish”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:50:47 · Amanda Dobbins (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Send Help: The best choice: it never settles who the audience should root for, since both leads do awful things to each other.
“And the fact that the movie isn't really too worried about like, who were you rooting for here, because they both do awful things to each other?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:52:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Send Help: The film keeps seeming over and then turning again, at least five false endings.
“we thought we had gotten to the conclusion or I thought we had gotten to the conclusion, like, at least 5 times.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:58:04 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Send Help: The film moves from office revenge to survival, and Linda's survival skill comes from reading survival texts and loving Survivor.
“One of the reasons why she's so good at surviving on this island is because she has read survival texts and she loves the show Survivor”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:58:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Send Help: On the island, the hosts compare survival skills; the palm-leaf-into-coconut-shell water funnel was a revelation.
“Would you know to do the palm leaf into the coconut shell as like a water funnel situation?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 0:59:48 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Rachel McAdams: Wedding Crashers, fascinatingly, ranks only thirteenth among her most popular films on Letterboxd.
“Actually, Wedding Crashers, fascinatingly, is number 13.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:07:09 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Rachel McAdams: Letterboxd's most popular McAdams films: Mean Girls first, then The Notebook, Midnight in Paris sixth, Spotlight seventh, Game Night eighth, Sherlock Holmes ninth, Red Eye tenth.
“Number 7 is a movie that I always forget that she's in.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:07:27 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Rachel McAdams: Her generation list: 22 actresses, only about five (Hathaway, Johansson, Stone, Saldana, Blunt) truly emerged.
“So that's 22 stars.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:12:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Angelina Jolie: Salt was a $110 million movie that grossed $300 million, and nobody can name its director.
“If I paid you a million dollars, could you tell me who directed salt?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:22:06 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Angelina Jolie: One of the most famous people in the world makes zero good movies.
“How often? Those one of the most famous people in the world makes 0 good movies.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:26:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Julia Roberts: When she walked on stage at the Golden Globes, everyone stood and applauded, which they liken to unused nuclear power.
“Like, we're not using that is like nuclear power, you know?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:27:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Bradley Cooper: Cooper's roles this decade are cameos like a two-foot-tall Dungeons and Dragons appearance.
“at the scream when he shows up on Dungeons and Dragons, like 2 feet tall.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:31:38 · Amanda Dobbins (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Bradley Cooper: A joke about surviving Aloha and Joy: this guy survived them.
“This guy survived Aloha and joy.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:34:35 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Amy Adams: The pair argue over whether Amy Adams is to blame for her roles, with a roll call of Hillbilly Elegy, Justice League, Woman in the Window and Dear Evan Hansen.
“Hillbilly Elegy Justice League, woman in the window.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:36:43 · Amanda Dobbins (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Chris Pine: Pine is in Princess Diaries 2; the speaker insists he was formative for garbage teens of the mid-aughts.
“Garbage teens is a good idea for an episode.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:45:27 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Kirsten Dunst: Dunst reportedly shade-posted Timothée Chalamet's Marty Supreme performance against Jesse Plemons in Bugonia on Oscar day.
“she was just retweeting on the day of the Oscars”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:50:04 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Mel Brooks: Judd Apatow directed a four-hour HBO documentary about Mel Brooks, who turns 100 this year.
“Judd Apatado directed a new HBO documentary about Mel Brooks, who is turning 100 years old this year”
The Big Picture · The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’ · 1:54:19 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Sean Fennessey (host): Loves genre craft and auteur signatures: devoted to Sam Raimi, delighted by Send Help as exactly what he wants from any month, and fond of movie stars with range. Detests mean-spirited, incoherent studio product like Mercy, and likes making lists of underused stars. A sucker for Beatles, Chris Pine and scenes that feel like real fights.
Amanda Dobbins (host): Open to horror and gross-out more than she used to be, loves a lovely movie star and a tropical setting, and dislikes screen-movies and AI propaganda. She is skeptical of Chris Pratt, a defender of Amy Adams's ambition, and a Kirsten Dunst champion. A sucker for Beatles news, Harry Styles gossip and the Princess Diaries.

The show's recurring bits

Drafts: Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument.
Hall of Fame: A star's or director's best, ranked and argued.
Countdowns: Ranked lists, top five or top ten.

Names the transcriber got wrong

Sean Fantasy = Sean Fennessey
Amanda Dobbin = Amanda Dobbins
Beck Membatov / Teamer = Timur Bekmambetov (guess)
Baptist / BAF denominations = BAFTA / BAFTA nominations
Greg Iraqi = Gregg Araki (guess)
Barry Hogan / Keegan / Kyogan = Barry Keoghan
Paul Meskel = Paul Mescal
Delroy Linda / Dolroy = Delroy Lindo
LeHeath Stanfield = LaKeith Stanfield
Wagner Mora = Wagner Moura
Tiana Taylor = Teyana Taylor (guess)
Yogurgos Lonthemos = Yorgos Lanthimos
Chase Infinity = Chase Infiniti
Jason Infinity = possibly Jacob Elordi or similar (unclear)
Bob Moroski = Bob Murawski
Reuben Oslin = Ruben Ostlund
Mick Adams = McAdams
Philip Noise = Phillip Noyce
Robert Ellswitt = Robert Elswit
Pablo the Rain = Pablo Larrain
Alice Winnaker = Alice Winocour (guess)
Mark Foster = Marc Forster
Robert Schwenke = Robert Schwentke
Cornell Mondrusco = Kornel Mundruczo
Kazoorish guro = Kazuo Ishiguro
Taika YTV = Taika Waititi
Dime I Love = Die, My Love (guess from context)
Sheltering place (Kevin Costner) = unclear title (unresolved)
Jesse Clemons = Jesse Plemons
Begonia = Bugonia
Kirsten Nunz / Duntz = Kirsten Dunst
Sophia project = Sofia Coppola
Cape Blanchett = Cate Blanchett
Leah Sedu = Lea Seydoux
Adrian Arona = Adria Arjona
Duna Bay = unclear
Lord Dern = Laura Dern
Anna Ferris = Anna Faris
Trefaya / Tremfaya = Tremfya (ad)
Habeus Popamus = Habemus Papam
Steve Bushemi = Steve Buscemi
Senthal premiere = unclear (possibly Sentimental Value premiere)
Dave Batista = Dave Bautista
Catherine Heigel = Katherine Heigl
Rasheeda Jones = Rashida Jones
Paul Thomas Anderson as PTA is correct
Producer named Jack Sanders in the transcript (the brief lists Bobby Wagner)

The Big Picture: The 10 Most Misused Stars in Hollywood and the Gnarly Magic of ‘Send Help’

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

subject (2)

passing (135)

anecdote (4)

recommended (15)

compared (20)

dismissed (11)

Claims (79)

Fun items (27)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong