Sean Fennessey

81 sketches, 1,576 claims, and 559 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

Showing 81–81 of 81 sketches.

Blank Check — Patreon: Dr. Strangelove... with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) (guest)

Reveres Strangelove as the most singular Kubrick and a document that still applies. Loves Frankenheimer, Malick, and deep trivia of movie years. Dislikes recent McKay satire but is gentle about it.

Stances

  • Strangelove still applies to how government and masculinity work
  • Kubrick competed with himself to take on a new genre each time
  • Seven Days in May and Frankenheimer's run belongs next to Kubrick's

Humor: Dry, generous and self-effacing, tossing off asides in a calm voice.

In their words

  • “And I love Dr. Strangelove, and I love Stanley Kubrick and everything else that you're doing.” (0:10:35)
  • “this is exactly how government works.” (1:39:54)
  • “this movie comes in the middle of the most underrated five-year run in any American filmmaker's history, which is John Frankenheimer from 1962 to 1966” (2:02:41)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

The Big Picture

The Rewatchables

Their claims

Showing 1,501–1,576 of 1,576 claims.

  1. people (people): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Harrison Ford. Ford's nerd-professor-turned-hero is called the best action hero star performance ever.
    “And it is the best action hero star performance.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:09:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (lineage): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Chris Pratt. The wrong lessons from Indiana Jones were taken by later action heroes like Pratt.
    “the lessons that we took from that character that like Chris Pratt took maybe from that character are not the ones that I think we should have been taking”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:09:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  3. craft (craft): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Jurassic Park. Both are told perfectly and are tighter than people remember.
    “I think also just it's very similar to Jurassic Park in so far as it's told perfectly.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:09:51 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  4. lineage (lineage): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Soderbergh's silent Raiders remix. Soderbergh re-cut Raiders silent, black and white, over The Social Network score.
    “It's basically his silent film remix of Raiders, black and white film with the social network score playing over it”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:10:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  5. verdict (verdict): Saving Private Ryan → Saving Private Ryan. The film is two films: a landing that changed war movies and a baggy, ending-too-often second half.
    “it ends 3 or 4 times.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:12:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  6. contrast (contrast): Saving Private Ryan → Schindler's List. Schindler's List is the other side of the coin and does what Ryan's back half wanted to do: reckon with the other side of the conflict.
    “My number 4 Schindler's list, which is kind of the other side of the coin on Saving Private Ryan.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:12:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  7. what-if (what-if): Schindler's List → Billy Wilder. Wilder reportedly asked Spielberg to let him make Schindler's List as his last film, and Spielberg said no.
    “Billy Wilder learned that Steven Spielberg acquired the rights to Schindler's list, and he came to Steven before he made the movie.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:13:16 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  8. lineage (lineage): Schindler's List → Schindler's List. It set the standard for the prestige historical drama, so it can feel cliche now.
    “set a kind of prestige, historical drama standard”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:13:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  9. contrast (contrast): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → Schindler's List. Both are important, but Close Encounters in a different way.
    “Close encounters, I think, is also important in a different way.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:19:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  10. theme (theme): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Close Encounters sets a template for science fiction and for stories about families and divorce.
    “It sets a different kind of template for science fiction storytelling, for stories about families, for stories about obsession, for stories about divorce”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:19:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  11. verdict (verdict): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → War of the Worlds. Sean loves War of the Worlds but nothing in it beats Close Encounters, which did the work first.
    “But the truth is, is there's nothing in War of the Worlds that is better than close encounters.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:19:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  12. people (people): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → Francois Truffaut. A filmmaker, Truffaut, is cast as an actor and gives a great performance.
    “Francois Truffau, who gives a great performance in this movie.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:20:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  13. industry (industry): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Close Encounters was overshadowed by Star Wars, released four months earlier.
    “But I feel like close encounters sort of got overshadowed by Star Wars a little bit.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:20:48 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  14. contrast (contrast): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → There Will Be Blood. Spielberg heroes are usually morally upright, unlike Daniel Plainview.
    “There's not a lot of Daniel Plainviews in there.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:21:14 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  15. people (people): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Denholm Elliott. Elliott is a great character actor in Raiders.
    “I feel like Denholm Elliott, your dad would dig dig his work.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:24:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  16. industry (industry): Jurassic Park → Jurassic Park. Its popularity on release is likened to a Michael Jackson-level approval rating.
    “But the approval rating of Jurassic Park is hard to overstate.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:25:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  17. craft (craft): Jurassic Park → Stan Winston. Jurassic Park fuses a new standard of CGI with incredible practical effects.
    “it set a new standard for what computer generated graphics could be in a film, and it also has incredible practical special effects.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:25:30 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  18. contrast (contrast): Minority Report → Ready Player One. Ready Player One treats earnestly what Minority Report satirizes (personalized ads).
    “Some people have noted that the things that that movie satirizes are actually treated in a very straightforward manner in Ready Player one.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:26:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  19. people (people): Hook → Robin Williams. Williams's antic performance comes out of the peak of his movie stardom.
    “this was really in the heyday of Robin Williams's movie stardom.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:31:14 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  20. lineage (lineage): Hook → Christopher Robin. Hook foreshadowed reboot culture; Christopher Robin is basically Hook again.
    “Like, we're actually literally getting a version of Hook this year with Christopher Robin, the new Winnie the Pooh movie”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:31:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  21. verdict (verdict): Jaws → Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Jaws has the same iconic, burned-in familiarity as Star Wars.
    “I mean, what other movies have that kind of power? I mean, Star Wars is a movie like that?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:37:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  22. career (career): Jurassic Park → Schindler's List. Spielberg released both in the same year.
    “he released Jurassic Park and Schindler's list in the same year.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:40:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  23. theme (theme): Catch Me If You Can → Lincoln. Both movies are built around one hugely charismatic person wriggling in and out of trouble.
    “The movie is built around this one deeply charismatic person and their ability to wriggle in and out of trouble.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:42:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  24. people (people): Lincoln → Daniel Day-Lewis. Day-Lewis is commanding alongside Kushner's dialogue and Spielberg's framing.
    “there is something so commanding and perfect about Kushner's dialogue, Spielberg's framing and DDL, just crushing the light.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:42:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  25. craft (craft): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Raiders of the Lost Ark. Raiders invented a whole kind of movie.
    “It's just like it invented a whole kind of movie.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:44:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  26. career (career): Steven Spielberg → Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is the best popcorn movie director ever.
    “So yeah, he's probably the best popcorn movie director ever.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:44:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  27. industry (industry): Jaws → Jaws. Jaws basically created summer movies.
    “It basically created summer movies.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:46:17 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  28. programming (programming): Munich → Miami Vice. Mann was busy making Miami Vice, 'maybe that was part of the problem'.
    “I'm pretty sure Michael Mann was making your beloved Miami Vice when... Maybe that was part of the problem.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:50:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  29. industry (industry): Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope → Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Star Wars (June 77) and Close Encounters (November 77) are both movies that will live for 100 years.
    “Those are movies that are probably going to live for 100 years.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:01:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  30. people (people): Tom Hanks → Jimmy Stewart. Spielberg makes Hanks his everyman, a Jimmy Stewart.
    “Yeah, he says Jimmy Stewart.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:01:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  31. career (career): Sarah Greenwood → Joe Wright. The host notes Wright's production-design and costume collaborators have been nominated for awards while Wright has not.
    “Particularly your team, Sarah Greenwood, Jacqueline Duran, who both worked on this film, have been nominated.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:20:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  32. career (career): Jacqueline Durran → Joe Wright. The host notes Wright's production-design and costume collaborators have been nominated for awards while Wright has not.
    “Particularly your team, Sarah Greenwood, Jacqueline Duran, who both worked on this film, have been nominated.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:20:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  33. industry (industry): Blade → Iron Man. Blade came ten years before Iron Man, the first Marvel property to follow.
    “And this is 10 full years before Iron Man.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:02:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  34. craft (craft): Watchmen → Zack Snyder. Snyder's Watchmen was his favorite of his superhero efforts, helped by being faithful to a single finite graphic novel.
    “that's my favorite Zack Snyder superhero endeavor for sure.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:06:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  35. industry (industry): Batman Begins → The Avengers. DC's Nolan-started universe began five years before Marvel's shared universe; had DC known, they would have jumped on it.
    “if DC had any inkling of what Marvel was to create 5 years later that they would have jumped on this shared universe IP right away.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:07:14 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  36. programming (programming): The Avengers → Thor. Thor was treated as a loss leader, a stepping stone to the Avengers.
    “Thor was treated as a loss leader, essentially.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:13:42 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  37. industry (industry): Guardians of the Galaxy → Thor: Ragnarok. Guardians is among Marvel's most beloved and its success, like Ragnarok's, shows the brand outrunning the character's profile.
    “I think in some ways that is among their most beloved movies too”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:17:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  38. people (people): Wonder Woman → Patty Jenkins. Jenkins choosing to make Wonder Woman is the Marvel blueprint of finding the right filmmaker, unlike Snyder.
    “Patty Jenkins has chosen to make that movie.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:22:51 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  39. people (people): Justice League → Joss Whedon. Whedon finished Justice League after Snyder left, inserting snappy Marvel-style dialogue into a grim DC.
    “Justice League was finished by Joss Whedon, who was the writer director of the Avengers film”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:23:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  40. contrast (contrast): Wonder Woman → Suicide Squad. Wonder Woman does not react to anything else; Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman do.
    “Wonder Woman is the 1st DCU movie that doesn't feel reactionary to something else that has happened.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:29:18 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  41. programming (programming): Justice League → Thor. Justice League must make Cyborg, Aquaman, and the Flash into linchpins the way Thor and Captain America are.
    “They have to be the Thor, they have to be the Captain America.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:33:16 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  42. what-if (what-if): The Dark Knight → Heath Ledger. Ledger's death took the Batman/Joker relationship off the board; what might Nolan's plans have been?
    “what would have happened if Heath Ledger lived, what could their plans have been?”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:38:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  43. people (people): Jared Leto → Suicide Squad. Leto's Joker reads as gritty but his star level is a Marvel-style move.
    “the level of star feels like a Marvel move also.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:39:19 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  44. lineage (lineage): Logan → Deadpool. Deadpool started the shift to telling the best story true to one character, which Logan continued.
    “this started with Deadpool, the Ryan Reynolds standalone Deadpool movie”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:43:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  45. theme (theme): Blade → The New Mutants. The New Mutants being a horror movie recalls Blade's feeling of a pure genre film wearing superhero clothes.
    “hearkens back to that blade feeling where it's just a genre movie.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:43:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  46. career (career): Black Panther → Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates' comic run made new interest in Black Panther.
    “when Tahasi Coates took on the character and created a whole new level of interest in him.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:48:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  47. industry (industry): Iron Man → Avengers: Infinity War. Superhero movies as a genre are compared to 1940s-50s musicals: most vulnerable when strongest.
    “are never more vulnerable than when they seem strongest.”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:55:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  48. programming (programming): Avengers: Infinity War → Ant-Man and the Wasp. Whether Ant-Man and the Wasp matters as much as Infinity War is a test of Marvel overexposure.
    “At what point does Ant-man and the Wasp not matter as much as Infinity War?”
    The Big Picture · The Past, Present, and Future of Superhero Movies | The Big Picture (Ep. 35) · 0:57:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  49. theme (theme): Juneteenth (Atlanta episode) → Lemon. Sean calls Juneteenth a sister to Lemon because both explore awkward encounters between privilege and non-privilege.
    “it really makes Juneteenth a sister of some kind to lemon and that movie explores it as well.”
    The Big Picture · Janicza Bravo and Brett Gelman Channel Rejection and Anxiety to Make ‘Lemon’ | The Big Picture (Ep. 22) · 0:04:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  50. craft (craft): Janicza Bravo → Donald Glover. Sean says Bravo applied her point of view to a world Glover and his writers built.
    “Genixa applying her point of view on a pre-established world that Donald has created with his writer's room and with his filmmakers.”
    The Big Picture · Janicza Bravo and Brett Gelman Channel Rejection and Anxiety to Make ‘Lemon’ | The Big Picture (Ep. 22) · 0:08:14 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  51. craft (craft): Juneteenth (Atlanta episode) → Lemon. Sean says the tone of awkward comedy with high tension links the episode to the film.
    “Lemon, though, is really, like I said, kind of related to it”
    The Big Picture · Janicza Bravo and Brett Gelman Channel Rejection and Anxiety to Make ‘Lemon’ | The Big Picture (Ep. 22) · 0:08:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  52. lineage (lineage): Juneteenth (Atlanta episode) → Curb Your Enthusiasm. Sean ties the episode and Lemon's awkward comedy to Larry David's Curb.
    “I was thinking of curb your enthusiasm and the way that Larry David would throw people into social situations that make you want to tear your skin off.”
    The Big Picture · Janicza Bravo and Brett Gelman Channel Rejection and Anxiety to Make ‘Lemon’ | The Big Picture (Ep. 22) · 0:08:37 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  53. career (career): Gregor Goboom (short) → Lemon. Sean asks whether Lemon is more confident because the collapse and the Gregor Goboom detour happened; Bravo says yes, the delay was her incubation.
    “Do you think that Lemon would not have been, I don't know, maybe as accomplished or as like confident, if that hadn't happened”
    The Big Picture · Janicza Bravo and Brett Gelman Channel Rejection and Anxiety to Make ‘Lemon’ | The Big Picture (Ep. 22) · 0:23:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  54. theme (theme): Lemon → Twin Peaks. Sean sees a commonality of tone between Lemon and Twin Peaks; the guests take it as a compliment.
    “There is a little bit of a commonality between Lemon and Twin Peaks.”
    The Big Picture · Janicza Bravo and Brett Gelman Channel Rejection and Anxiety to Make ‘Lemon’ | The Big Picture (Ep. 22) · 0:38:56 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  55. career (career): The Lost City of Z → James Gray. Sean says the film resembles Gray's earlier work yet differs from it.
    “This is a beautiful movie that is very similar to some of your movies, but also very different.”
    The Big Picture · ‘The Lost City of Z’ Director James Gray | The Big Picture (Ep. 9) · 0:00:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  56. craft (craft): Fitzcarraldo → Burden of Dreams. A documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo, which Sean names.
    “Yeah, Bird of Dream, sure.”
    The Big Picture · ‘The Lost City of Z’ Director James Gray | The Big Picture (Ep. 9) · 0:07:04 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  57. industry (industry): Francis Ford Coppola → Apocalypse Now. Coppola could not escape monsoons and Martin Sheen's heart attack on the long shoot.
    “there was monsoons and Martin Sheen had a heart attack”
    The Big Picture · ‘The Lost City of Z’ Director James Gray | The Big Picture (Ep. 9) · 0:11:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  58. career (career): Vertigo → James Gray. Sean links Vertigo's rocky first reception to Gray's own uneven reviews.
    “It's a notable parallel, something like vertigo.”
    The Big Picture · ‘The Lost City of Z’ Director James Gray | The Big Picture (Ep. 9) · 0:15:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  59. industry (industry): The Lost City of Z → Amazon. Sean raises Amazon releasing the film as a sign of the changing industry.
    “I'm curious that you've partnered with Amazon to release the movie.”
    The Big Picture · ‘The Lost City of Z’ Director James Gray | The Big Picture (Ep. 9) · 0:26:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  60. unmapped (heir): Alfred Hitchcock → David Fincher. Sean says Fincher has been a reasonable heir to Hitchcock, so a Hitchcock remake bores him.
    “he's been doing a great job of being a reasonable heir to Hitchcock”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 0:26:18 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  61. unmapped (adapting lived experience): Herman Mankiewicz → Citizen Kane. Sean says Citizen Kane is Welles adapting an experience Herman Mankiewicz had inside the Hearst circle.
    “so in a way, this is him adapting an experience that Herman Mankowitz had”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 0:41:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  62. what-if (what-if): Orson Welles → Heart of Darkness (Welles, unmade). Welles was going to do Heart of Darkness instead of Kane.
    “he was going to do Hearts of Darkness, Heart of Darkness, instead of Kane”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 0:41:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  63. unmapped (rebuttal): Pauline Kael → Robert Carringer. Carringer's book is recommended as the definitive text debunking Kael's Raising Kane.
    “That's the book that is like the definitive text that debunks Kale's book”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 0:42:09 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  64. unmapped (Orson Welles portrayals): Vincent D'Onofrio → Ed Wood. D'Onofrio's Welles in Ed Wood is called the best Orson Welles.
    “I mean, to me, like, Vincent DiNofrio in Ed Wood with Pinky and the Brain Boys is the best Orson Wells.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 0:43:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  65. craft (tone): Citizen Kane → Mank. Like Citizen Kane, Mank has a complicated relationship to its lead; Mank mirrors the attitude of the man himself.
    “Yeah, as much as Citizen Kane, the movie has a very complicated relationship to its lead character.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 1:10:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  66. people (Mank casting parallels): RKO 281 → Mank. Malkovich plays Mank in RKO 281, Schreiber Welles, Cromwell Hearst; Oldman, Burke, Dance in the Fincher film.
    “Cromwell plays him in the RKO movie.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 1:34:09 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  67. unmapped (self-portrait): The Curious Case of Benjamin Button → Mank. The speaker reads Fincher as both the scumbag who made Seven and the sincere artist who made Benjamin Button, which is Mank.
    “he made Ben Benjamin Button, you know, like that he is, he's Mank”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 1:45:17 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  68. unmapped (Netflix as MGM): Mank → David Fincher. Fincher thinks of Netflix as rebels throwing stones at the old castle, then peak MGM; Mayer's line about selling what we own fits.
    “And he thinks that Netflix are like the rebels throwing stones at the old castle, and then within 10 years, it's like, oh, Netflix is now peak MGM.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 1:50:19 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  69. craft (visual echo): The Lost Weekend → Mank. The election-night drunk sequence in Mank is called self-consciously reminiscent of The Lost Weekend.
    “almost self-consciously reminiscent of the last the lost weekend”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 2:03:48 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  70. unmapped (professional drunk): The Way Back → Mank. The Way Back is praised for the business of getting drunk, like Mank; called a 1970s Robert Duvall-style movie.
    “I think it's excellent and also like way too traditional to have made sense in 2020 to anybody.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 2:05:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  71. theme (thematic comparison): Dr. Strangelove → Tootsie. Speaker says Strangelove and Tootsie are both extremely funny but feel important to the industry.
    “Well, this movie and Totsie have a lot in common, right?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Dr. Strangelove... with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 0:29:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)
  72. unmapped (advocacy): Quentin Tarantino → The Killing. Tarantino championed The Killing in the 90s, drawing more people to it.
    “I think Tarantino was like really, really advocating for that movie in the 90s, and so a lot more people got onto it that are more our age.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Dr. Strangelove... with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 0:45:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)
  73. industry (rival same-premise film): Dr. Strangelove → Fail-Safe. Kubrick was offered the novel Fail-Safe; a lawsuit during Strangelove's production meant Fail-Safe had to come out after it, though Columbia released both.
    “there was some kind of lawsuit filed during the production of Dr. Strangelove, uh, that meant that Failsafe had to come out after Dr. Strangelove.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Dr. Strangelove... with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 0:50:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  74. what-if (what-if swap): Sidney Lumet → Stanley Kubrick. Speaker finds it fascinating to imagine Lumet directing Strangelove and Kubrick directing Fail-Safe.
    “it's really, really fascinating to imagine a world in which these 2 guys like flipped these movies.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Dr. Strangelove... with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 0:51:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  75. people (casting persona): Dr. Strangelove → The Long Goodbye. Speaker says Strangelove was the first time Hayden's personal struggles were put on screen, and later filmmakers used that persona going forward (Godfather, Long Goodbye).
    “This is the 1st time when like his personal struggles, like were actualized in a movie, and then I felt like filmmakers only used this in movies going forward”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Dr. Strangelove... with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 1:55:14 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  76. career (career parallel): John Frankenheimer → Stanley Kubrick. Frankenheimer's 1962 to 1966 run is compared to Kubrick trying a different genre each time.
    “this movie comes in the middle of the most underrated five-year run in any American filmmaker's history, which is John Frankenheimer from 1962 to 1966”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Dr. Strangelove... with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 2:02:41 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 401–500 of 559 fun items.

  1. fun, about Sean Fennessey: Sean keeps a Netflix DVD queue and a 1000-plus film list across every streaming service.
    “I'm a member of every significant streaming service.”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 0:21:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Sean Fennessey: Sean's hair routine: lavender Japanese teak wax, learned from a John Mayer People page in a dentist's office.
    “John Mayer compelled me, went to Amazon, ordered a couple of sticks of this lavender teak.”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 0:29:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.95 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Napoleon (unmade Kubrick film): The book 'Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon' is Sean's heaviest book, with phone-book pages holding thousands of pages of documents.
    “The book is so big that the pages are almost like telephone book pages.”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 0:44:39 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about William Castle: Gimmicks to lure audiences go back to William Castle: smell-o-vision and people in bug costumes in the aisles.
    “having people dressed up in bug costumes run down the alleyway”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 0:49:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Movie Pass: Amanda calls MoviePass a debt-ridden Ponzi scheme that eroded loyalty by teaching people to expect cheap tickets.
    “Movie Pass was a Ponzi scheme.”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 0:52:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Last Night in Soho: Edgar Wright's horror movie slated for September is now pushed to 2021; Sean wants instant classics.
    “I need more instant classics and I trust him to make something like that”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 0:59:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Last Action Hero: Sean's 'bad movies' show would rescue reputations: Last Action Hero was on Andrew Gruttadaro's Ringer list.
    “my version of a bad movies podcast is not me reveling in the badness”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 1:08:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about A Cure for Wellness: Rotten Tomatoes guess: 42 percent. Sean once told Amanda not to see it.
    “It was 42%.”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 1:10:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Marvel: A famous Hollywood guest argued Marvel movies are comedies and displaced studio comedies.
    “Marvel movies are comedies.”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 1:18:41 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about The Office: The Office was the worst thing to happen to Friends: it reset sitcom tone to awkward and deadpan.
    “The worst thing that ever happened to friends was the office”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 1:21:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about NBA support group video: Ringer video where staffers share love for NBA players who never became stars; Jeff Green was Ryan Russillo's.
    “He can't quit Jeff Green.”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 1:30:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Letterboxd: Sean likes Letterboxd because it gathers people as obsessed as he is; Amanda asks for more women there.
    “one of the reasons why I like Letterbox as a platform, is you have a lot of people that are as obsessed with this space”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 1:35:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Peter Weir: 1997 versus now: Sean could find two Peter Weir films then; the Criterion Channel has all of them.
    “On the Criterion Channel, you could watch all of them.”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 1:37:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about Tenet: Box office reality check: $20 million opening with NYC and LA theaters closed and 25 to 50 percent capacity elsewhere.
    “So Tennant made $20 million at the American box office, the North American box office this weekend, which is fine, I suppose it's not a wow number.”
    The Big Picture · Did Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Experiment Work? A Binge Mode Investigation · 0:01:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Tenet: Sean and Amanda drove about 130 miles round trip to a San Diego drive-in to see Tenet in a heat wave, parked side by side. Amanda left claiming she understood the whole film; they will try to explain it on the pod next week.
    “The movie ended and she said, I get it. I know everything that happened.”
    The Big Picture · Did Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Experiment Work? A Binge Mode Investigation · 0:04:30 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Chadwick Boseman: Sean rewatched Black Panther the night before, saying it lived up to unprecedented anticipation, which never happens in mainstream culture.
    “I rewatched Black Panther last night.”
    The Big Picture · Did Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Experiment Work? A Binge Mode Investigation · 0:09:52 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Mulan: Sean on Donnie Yen and Jet Li: one training segment and half a fight for Yen, with Li held captive for the whole film.
    “where Donny and Jelly is basically held captive throughout the movie. So it's a very unusual use of of 2 incredible performers.”
    The Big Picture · Did Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Experiment Work? A Binge Mode Investigation · 0:34:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  18. fun, about Mulan: Controversy: filmed in Xinjiang, where Muslims are held in mass internment camps; lead Yifei Liu's Hong Kong police tweet triggered #BoycottMulan.
    “was filmed in uh, Jinjiang, the region in China, where uh, Muslims have been detained in mass internment camps.”
    The Big Picture · Did Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Experiment Work? A Binge Mode Investigation · 0:56:01 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  19. fun, about Cruella: Sean reads the logline: a 1970s London fashion designer obsessed with dogskins, especially Dalmatians; Amanda and Jason react with horror.
    “young fashion designer Cruella DeVille becomes obsessed with dogs skins, especially Dalmatians, until she eventually becomes a ruthless and terrifying legend.”
    The Big Picture · Did Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Experiment Work? A Binge Mode Investigation · 1:04:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  20. fun, about The Little Mermaid (upcoming live action remake): Casting rundown: Halle Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, plus voices Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina and Jacob Tremblay; King Triton is described as xenophobic toward humans.
    “Ariel's overprotective father and the king of Atlantica, who is xenophobic towards humans.”
    The Big Picture · Did Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Experiment Work? A Binge Mode Investigation · 1:11:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  21. fun, about Mulan: Closing joke: a proposed episode recorded as a musical, where they start singing the outline mid-section.
    “We do the outline and then just in the middle of one of the sections. We just start singing what's written down on the outline.”
    The Big Picture · Did Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Experiment Work? A Binge Mode Investigation · 1:14:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  22. fun, about 12 Angry Men: Left off the list; expecting angry reply guys.
    “we may have 12 angry reply guys”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:11:52 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  23. fun, about Courtroom drama checklist: The opposing lawyer's 'I don't know what kind of courtroom you're running here'.
    “I don't know what kind of courtroom you're running here”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:20:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)
  24. fun, about Billy Wilder: A staggering decade: Sunset Boulevard through The Apartment.
    “that's just obscene on how many great films that is”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:39:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  25. fun, about A Man for All Seasons: Sean saw its old-school trailer before The Hot Rock.
    “the film that every living human is talking about of 1966”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:03:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  26. fun, about The Verdict: Sean tweeted about the judge and Bill Simmons texted back instantly; it is one of Bill's favorites.
    “I got a text message from Bill Simmons instantaneously”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:07:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  27. fun, about JFK: John Williams wrote six pieces without seeing a frame; Stone cut to the music.
    “he composed 6 separate pieces for the movie without having seen a frame”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:19:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
  28. fun, about My Cousin Vinny: The two utes line is a family refrain.
    “the 2 Utes line being like a common refrain in my household”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:22:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  29. fun, about A Few Good Men: Cruise wins the scene by going toe to toe with Nicholson.
    “Cruz is thundering his way through the cross-examination”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:26:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)
  30. fun, about Compulsion: Welles shows up with 30 minutes left and takes over.
    “he doesn't show up until there's 30 minutes left in the movie”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:33:16 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  31. fun, about Trolls World Tour: Parents reportedly rented the 48-hour 19.99 title three weekends running; the hosts bless parents and hope kids learned respect for country as well as rock and pop.
    “I had people anecdotally tell me that they rented the movie 3 weekends in a row.”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:20:47 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  32. fun, about Spencer Confidential: At least 85 million people started this Netflix movie; one host will never get over it.
    “85000000 people at least started Spencer confidential. I'll never get over that.”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:25:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  33. fun, about The Great Moment: Host watched Preston Sturges's late biopic about William Morton, inventor of ether, during a pandemic film-history bender.
    “I watched Preston Sturgis's The Great Moment last night about William Morton, the inventor of ether, who revolutionized dentistry.”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:34:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  34. fun, about Law Abiding Citizen: Same host's quarantine ping-pong viewing includes this 2009 Foxx/Butler thriller, called terrible.
    “I watched law abiding citizen, the terrible 2009 Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler film.”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:34:39 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  35. fun, about David Fincher: Netflix is betting on a black-and-white, no-movie-star historical drama because studios have not funded Fincher in 7 or 8 years.
    “studios haven't been giving David Fincher money to make movies for the last 7 or 8 years for a reason.”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:38:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  36. fun, about Netflix and the Egyptian Theatre: Netflix bought the Egyptian and was refurbishing the Paris Theater; a host reads the moves as overtures to older Academy members.
    “those overtures were made to ingratiate themselves to the older members of the academy”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:43:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.45 sure it was them)
  37. fun, about Alamo Drafthouse: A six-hour evening: movie, whiskey cocktail, fries, rent a video from the same filmmaker at their video store, beer and trivia, which AMC does not offer.
    “And that is a 6 hour evening in a movie palace that AMC is not offering.”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:45:42 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  38. fun, about Academy Awards: From 24 awards to 23 by merging sound; one host wants 75 awards and a five-day festival; another wants best first feature and best breakthrough.
    “There should be 75 awards. This should be a 5 day festival of handing out awards.”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:50:42 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  39. fun, about Stunt Oscar: A host zags on the stunt category: everyone demands it without knowing why, while still wanting to honor stunt work with an honorary award; joke pitch: Zoom Stunt Oscars with DVDs held up.
    “Everybody needs to just settle down with pretending that they really like stunts in movies.”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:51:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.45 sure it was them)
  40. fun, about Twilight Zone: The Movie: An episode of the Shudder series Cursed covers the 1982 set death of Vic Morrow and two children in a helicopter stunt; Landis was acquitted.
    “A helicopter crashed during a stunt and Vic Morrow, Jennifer Jason Lee's father, was killed along with 2 children during the making of this movie”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:53:35 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  41. fun, about Incredible Hulk / Iron Man: Trivia win: the two characters in the first two MCU films, Hulk and Iron Man, earned the team points after a host sprinted out of frame.
    “It's the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man, you fools.”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 1:05:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  42. fun, about Postponed films: Sean tracks 18 postponed undated films that could drop when theaters reopen, listing New Mutants, Promising Young Woman, Bad Trip, The High Note, Run, Military Wives, Greyhound and Malignant.
    “there have been 18 movies that have been postponed and are undated at the moment.”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 1:08:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)
  43. fun, about Uncut Gems: Julia Fox gets a mock-solemn pro-Julia Fox podcast declaration, and Jonathan Majors wins breakthrough.
    “Great. This is a pro Julia Fox podcast through and through.”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 0:21:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  44. fun, about Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese: Sharon Stone's completely invented segment where she and her mother join Dylan's tour at 17 and she is converted from Kiss to Dylan. Sean wins best cameo with it.
    “I love the myth making of Bob Dylan, and the idea that maybe the best myth made about him is coming from Sharon Stone.”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 0:26:42 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  45. fun, about Always Be My Maybe: Keanu Reeves wins best cameo, but the complaint is he's in the movie for about 11.5 minutes.
    “He's in like 11.5 minutes of the movie and it actually goes on.”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 0:27:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  46. fun, about Alita: Battle Angel: Sean watches strangers watch Alita on planes and tracks the actors he recognizes; the 15-minute motorball fight keeps breaking for exposition and restarting.
    “I watched people watch it on the plane and then at some point I just took kept track of like the actors I could recognize.”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 0:38:54 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  47. fun, about John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum: The dog-fight sequence took six months to design and train, and director Chad Stahelski told this podcast it was the hardest thing he had done. Wins best action sequence.
    “I took 6 months to design and train the dogs to execute this fight.”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 0:40:37 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  48. fun, about Spider-Man: Far From Home: Sean argues the post-credits scene (J.K. Simmons outing Peter Parker on a Times Square screen) is the best ending of 2019 because the theater erupted; Amanda calls it a teaser, not an ending.
    “That was the loudest vocal reaction I had heard to a movie in 2019.”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 0:43:21 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  49. fun, about Midsommar: Sean defends the ending by asking whether anyone has been sewn inside a bear skin and lit on fire in a giant triangle; Midsommar also wins best meme inspiration and Halloween costumes.
    “Have you ever been sewn inside of a bear skin and lit on fire in a giant triangle.”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 0:45:39 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  50. fun, about The Lighthouse: Sean is so devoted he'll launch a minute-by-minute Lighthouse podcast alone in a lighthouse; Amanda calls him an A24-merch-bro Reddit nerd and says Eggers shows his work too much.
    “what you are is a Reddit nerd, bro, and you hate this. I believe what I said was A24 merch, bro.”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 0:53:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  51. fun, about Richard Jewell: Paul Walter Hauser was a guest and recited A Few Good Men past the code red, continuing through the officer on deck; Sean says he can do it too.
    “He started doing like this, the extended a few good men recitation, like we had done, the normal code red stuff, and then he just kept going”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 1:14:04 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  52. fun, about Richard Jewell: Hauser's home scene with Kathy Bates sells the age of the relationship with comfort alone, and the film cooks whenever Jewell, Rockwell and Bates share a room.
    “these 3 people are amazingly comfortable with each other.”
    The Big Picture · Our Alternative Academy Awards | The Oscars Show · 1:16:37 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  53. fun, about Academy: The Academy is old and weird.
    “There's only 8000 people in this group and a lot of them are old and weird.”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:08:42 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  54. fun, about Academy: Nominees diet: donut with sour milk in the frosting.
    “it's a donut with a little bit of sour milk in the frosting.”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:10:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  55. fun, about Honeyland: First film nominated in both international feature and documentary.
    “This is the 1st time that a movie has been nominated in both international feature and best documentary.”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:17:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  56. fun, about Diane Warren: 11th nomination, fifth in six years.
    “This is Diane Warren's 11th Oscar nomination, and this is the 5th in the past 6 years.”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:18:21 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  57. fun, about Scarlett Johansson: Joins a short list of double nominees in one year.
    “there's only been 10 people in the history of the Oscars who have been nominated twice”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:19:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  58. fun, about Toy Story 4: Amanda refuses to schedule it; Sean pushes back.
    “This podcast is not called Amanda's Planner.”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:26:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  59. fun, about Hark: Sean pitches a public play-in vote for a tenth nominee, like March Madness.
    “The Oscars needs a playing game.”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:35:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  60. fun, about Thanos: Sean's counter-proposal for tenth nominee.
    “And I say Thanos.”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:38:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  61. fun, about Joker: Fans may tune in angry, which fits the film's theme.
    “The movie is about a kind of discontent, a kind of isolation and not getting what you want feeling.”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:42:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  62. fun, about Julia Butters: Tarantino made her accept the trophy for him.
    “Quentin made me come up here and say thank you.”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:45:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.45 sure it was them)
  63. fun, about Critics Choice Awards: Tie for best director.
    “Let's have a runoff then.”
    The Big Picture · The Snubs and Surprises of the 92nd Academy Award Nominations | The Oscars Show · 0:51:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  64. fun, about Blair Witch (The Woods): Sean praises the attempted surprise release: the film was announced as Wingard's haunted-forest movie The Woods.
    “this is one of my favorite little wrinkles of the last decade is the attempted surprise release.”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:19:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  65. fun, about Blair Witch (The Woods): Sean says its last 30 minutes are the most scared he has ever been in a theater, though he doesn't think the film is good.
    “the last 30 minutes of Blair Witch is the most scared I think I may have ever been in a movie theater”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:19:51 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  66. fun, about The Exorcist III: A pitch for an Exorcist III episode: George C. Scott plays it big in a fascinating sequel.
    “George C. Scott just playing with house money.”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:20:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  67. fun, about Green Room: They propose recategorizing Green Room and The Invitation as terror, and note the Ringer's Slack channel called terror.
    “At the ringer, we have a slack channel called hashtag terror.”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:33:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  68. fun, about What We Do in the Shadows: iTunes files it under thriller; Sean blames Apple and jokes about summoning Tim Cook.
    “Shall we call Tim Cook here on the big picture?”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:34:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  69. fun, about Breck Eisner: The hosts read out Eisner's credits live, from Sahara to The Last Witch Hunter to a TBA Karate Kid 2.
    “And it says here that he's got a TBA for the karate kid 2.”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:36:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  70. fun, about Sean Fennessey: Sean wrote 'The Horror Oscars' last year, a prize for the best horror film across 40 years.
    “Last year, I wrote a piece called The Horror Oscars, in which I gave for across 40 years, the best horror movie a prize.”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:38:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  71. fun, about The Witch: The goat, Black Philip, went viral.
    “That goat went viral.”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:43:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  72. fun, about Don't Breathe: Sean asks if Chris has used a turkey baster since the film; Chris says he's off turkey.
    “Have you ever have you used a turkey-baster since seeing that film?”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:46:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  73. fun, about Get Out: Sean calls it the best horror film of the decade and cites the sunken place as a shared reference.
    “One of the cool things about get out was it becoming a conversation topic”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:46:54 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  74. fun, about Soul / Inside Out: Sean can only remember Inside Out as a drawing and confuses its Sadness creature with Tina Fey's Soul; Amanda saw it in a theater.
    “No, I saw that in a movie theater. Really? Yeah, I just couldn't remember anything about it because it's a drawing.”
    The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:13:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  75. fun, about Paul Thomas Anderson / Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Sean riffs on the DGA podcast, where PTA gushed about Brad Pitt, and impersonates him on the Moana bit.
    “Because Paul Thomas Anderson is being like, Quentin, fucking Brad. In this movie.”
    The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:21:39 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  76. fun, about Rocketman: Sean went to Rocket Man night at a Dodgers game and nothing Rocket Man related was given away.
    “I went to a Dodgers game yesterday and it was quote unquote rocket man night, which didn't mean anything.”
    The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:28:01 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  77. fun, about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Favorite scene is the out-of-time montage, with Cliff driving Leo home as LA changes in real time.
    “just the out of time montage in Once upon a time in Hollywood, which is my favorite part of that movie now”
    The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:30:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  78. fun, about The Art of Self-Defense: Sean watched it in an Airbnb kitchen at South by Southwest and it was still effective.
    “I watched that movie in a kitchen of an Airbnb at South by Southwest.”
    The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:48:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  79. fun, about Fleabag / Succession vs Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Sean says that's why the show is The Big Picture and not The Watch: he would take one great movie over Fleabag.
    “And that's why this is the big picture and not the watch.”
    The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:52:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  80. fun, about Homecoming: Beyonce embedded the year's criticism of her Coachella set into the film itself, a self-reflexive analysis.
    “And so she essentially embedded all that into the documentary itself.”
    The Big Picture · The Oscars Schedule Changes, and Andrew Garfield On ‘Under the Silver Lake’ | Interview · 0:04:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  81. fun, about Guava Island: Glover seems to have only two dance moves, repeated from This Is America.
    “it makes me think that he only has like 2 dance moves.”
    The Big Picture · The Oscars Schedule Changes, and Andrew Garfield On ‘Under the Silver Lake’ | Interview · 0:10:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  82. fun, about Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope: Sean casts Amanda as Rey of the podcast and himself as Kylo.
    “I will say I have often thought of you as the ray of this podcast in me as the Kylo.”
    The Big Picture · The Oscars Schedule Changes, and Andrew Garfield On ‘Under the Silver Lake’ | Interview · 0:32:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  83. fun, about Andrew Garfield: Sean and Garfield are both Leos born in 1983.
    “We are the same age. We're the same, 1983 guys.”
    The Big Picture · The Oscars Schedule Changes, and Andrew Garfield On ‘Under the Silver Lake’ | Interview · 1:06:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  84. fun, about The Trench: Sarcastic hype for the planned Aquaman Trench spinoff.
    “Can't wait for the trench.”
    The Big Picture · 'Shazam!’ and the Future of the DCEU With David F. Sandberg | Interview · 0:07:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  85. fun, about Captain Marvel: The 90s signaling: a never-worn Guns N' Roses T-shirt, and Carol stealing a Nine Inch Nails shirt off a mannequin as a metaphor for the film.
    “steals a 9 inch nails t-shirt and a leather jacket off of a mannequin outside of a boutique.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:19:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
  86. fun, about Captain Marvel: The big fight scene is set to No Doubt's Just a Girl while she punches Jude Law, which Sean finds cute and clever but ham-handed.
    “certainly the chorus of that song makes it fit when she's punching Jude Law on the face repeatedly.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:20:01 · Sean Fennessey (0.65 sure it was them)
  87. fun, about Captain Marvel: The film's 90s is the BuzzFeed list version, a pile of references like the Blockbuster and grunge.
    “this is the BuzzFeed article version of the BuzzFeed list version of the 90s.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:20:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  88. fun, about The Ringer office: A Ringer Slack prompt for the most 90s song stopped work for an hour; Dan Devine said Smells Like Teen Spirit immediately.
    “Dan Devine gave immediately, which was smells like teen spirit.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:27:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  89. fun, about Green Book: Sean needles Amanda about Green Book; she calls it rude.
    “just release green book, though.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:29:41 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  90. fun, about Captain Marvel: Closing credits song is Hole's Celebrity Skin, and Courtney Love controls the Nirvana estate, which Sean calls synergy.
    “one of the controllers of the Nirvana estate is Courtney Love.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:31:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
  91. fun, about Brie Larson: Sean's tolerance for her running: she is more jogging, but one full sprint shot impressed him.
    “Did not strike me as a natural athlete.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:34:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  92. fun, about Ben Mendelsohn: Sean calls Mendelsohn one of his favorite living people and loves his charmed lisp.
    “he is one of my favorite living people.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:35:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  93. fun, about Talos: Sean would watch a Talos movie; the villain-turned-comic-relief-turned-emotional-center arc in face paint.
    “I would watch a Talos movie.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:38:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  94. fun, about Guardians of the Galaxy: Amanda knows Guardians only as the raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper, and Sean suggests she go by Amanda the Accuser.
    “perhaps you should go by Amanda the accuser in future podcasts.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:43:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  95. fun, about Captain Marvel: Nick Fury's pager at the end of Infinity War is the same two-way pager from this film.
    “the two-way pager at the end of Avengers Infinity War is the same one that he's using in this film.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:49:04 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  96. fun, about Captain Marvel: Opening weekend benchmark: less than $150 million would be called a disappointment, even though few can open a movie on name alone.
    “less than $150000000 in the opening weekend would be considered a relative disappointment for a Marvel movie like this”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 0:52:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
  97. fun, about Kingdom Come: Sean explains the Alex Ross series, set 50 or 60 years later with an older Batman in a wheelchair and gray-streaked Wonder Woman, calling it very melodramatic.
    “Batman was 58 and confined to a wheelchair.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a ’90s Nostalgia Play. Did It Work? | Exit Survey · 1:02:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
  98. fun, about Green Book: Both hosts picked Roma but felt wrong by the end of the week; one predicted Bohemian Rhapsody and the other Green Book.
    “I thought it was going to be Bohemian Rhapsody, and you thought it was going to be Green Book.”
    The Big Picture · Oscars 2019: Instant Reactions to ‘Green Book’ and the Two Warring Academies | The Oscars Show (Ep. 131) · 0:01:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  99. fun, about Green Book: On the Oscars: tradition of best picture getting it wrong is part of the fun of watching and complaining.
    “There's like a tradition of best picture getting it wrong, right?”
    The Big Picture · Oscars 2019: Instant Reactions to ‘Green Book’ and the Two Warring Academies | The Oscars Show (Ep. 131) · 0:05:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  100. fun, about Julia Roberts: Reading the words 'Green Book' with a 1000-watt smile that the speaker reads as 'why is it me?'
    “Sure, but, you know, her smile has many tones, and I know that tone.”
    The Big Picture · Oscars 2019: Instant Reactions to ‘Green Book’ and the Two Warring Academies | The Oscars Show (Ep. 131) · 0:11:35 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)