The Big Picture

Sean and Amanda briefly tease next week’s mailbag episode and react to the Golden Globes adding a new category for Best Podcast (1:34). Then, they dive into their long-awaited Paul Newman episode, where they unpack who Newman was as a person (7:06), explore what made him such a special actor (16:13), and build his Hall of Fame by selecting the 10 most essential performances of his career (43:47). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Jack Sanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Sean and Amanda briefly react to the news that President Donald Trump wants to impose a 100 percent tariff on any films produced outside of the United States (1:46). Then, they react to the new trailer for Spike Lee’s film ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ and discuss ‘Another Simple Favor,’ the sequel to ‘A Simple Favor,’ starring Blake Lively (7:41). Later, they create their 2025 Movie Star Rankings, where they select and rank the 35 biggest movie stars over the age of 35 (21:11). Finally, Sean is joined by Nicolas Cage to talk about his new film, ‘The Surfer’; what attracts him to certain projects at this stage of his career; and the actors who have inspired him as a performer (1:51:17). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Nicolas Cage Producer: Jack Sanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Sean and Amanda are joined by their superhero correspondent, Mallory Rubin, to cover the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Jake Schreier’s, ‘Thunderbolts*’ (2:04). They praise the strong performances from Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan, and dive deep into some spoilers to project which key characters could play a critical part going forward (18:15). Lastly, they have a big-picture conversation about the MCU and debate whether this return to form is too late to course-correct the state of Marvel (1:17:09). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Mallory Rubin Producer: Jack Sanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Sean and Amanda return to continue their yearlong project of listing the 25 best movies of the 21st century so far. Today, they discuss their favorite installment of the beloved Tom Cruise action franchise with ‘Mission: Impossible—Fallout’, which features some of the greatest action filmmaking of all time. They explain why this concretized director Christopher McQuarrie as a legitimate star filmmaker, explore what this film means and represents about Cruise’s movie stardom persona, and share why they went with this film instead of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ as the official late-stage Cruise movie for the list. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Jack Sanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Sean and Amanda are joined by Chris Ryan to recap their trip to the mobile Criterion Closet before celebrating the big box-office weekend performances of ‘Sinners’ and ‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’ and explain why movies are so back (1:09). Then, they cover some recently released mediocre action films: ‘The Accountant 2’ (14:30), ‘Havoc’ (25:39), ‘A Working Man’ (36:33), and ‘The Amateur’ (44:41), and have a big-picture conversation on what these four films mean for the state of action movies (53:32). Finally, they discuss a handful of movie news headlines and share their excitement and concern for some upcoming releases (1:00:35). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Producer: Jack Sanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]