The Big Picture

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About the show

Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins review the movies you need to see. Plus: top fives, movie drafts, Oscar analysis, and more, featuring a rotating cast of Ringer colleagues like Chris Ryan, Van Lathan, and Bill Simmons.

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The Latest

Episode Breakdown

Sean and Amanda start the show with a quick recap of all the awards handed out at the Cannes Film Festival and wonder what this year’s ‘Anora’ could be. Then, they react to the biggest Memorial Day weekend box office in history and consider what it means for the industry going forward. Next, they discuss Disney’s newest live-action remake, ‘Lilo & Stitch,’ and explain why not only this specific movie but also this “genre” at large does not work for them.

Best of the Century: Our Top 25 Movies

It's Reckoning Time

Episode Breakdown

Sean and Amanda need you to trust them one last time as they unpack the highly anticipated Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning, starring Tom Cruise. Before diving into the film, they briefly recap all of the news headlines from the Cannes Film Festival by highlighting all of the heavy hitters, big surprises, and disappointments. Then, they unpack their complicated feelings on the newest Mission: Impossible movie and discuss its legendary set pieces that might be the greatest of the entire franchise, plus its very deep flaws. Finally, they update their Mission: Impossible rankings to see where this new installment fits among the rest of the series at large.

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Cruise Draft!

Episode Breakdown

Sean and Amanda are joined by Bill Simmons, Van Lathan, and Chris Ryan for a very special episode where they draft the best movies of Tom Cruise’s legendary career. They talk about their relationship to Cruise, introduce some new draft categories, and have a whole lot of fun.

Shorts
Hall of Fame

Episode Breakdown

Sean and Amanda dive into their long-awaited Paul Newman episode, where they unpack who Newman was as a person, explore what made him such a special actor, and build his Hall of Fame by selecting the 10 most essential performances of his career.

Mailbags!

35 Over 35

It’s Garbage Time

Summer Preview

Episode Breakdown

Sean and Amanda briefly react to some Oscars news, including new rules requirements and awards. Then, for the first time, they play the Summer Movie Preview Game, in which they predict the box office and Metacritic score for every major summer movie release in 2025. Later, Sean is joined by Adam Nayman to give a brief “state of the movies” before discussing David Cronenberg’s newest body horror film, ‘The Shrouds.’ Finally, Sean is joined by the great Cronenberg to discuss his film.

Collections

The 97th Academy Awards: And More Awards Season Takes

2025 Preview

Best of 2024

Narrative Pod

Episode Breakdown

‘The Hollywood Hack’ is a three-part narrative series chronicling the biggest Hollywood heist of all time: In the fall of 2014, a group of cyberterrorists hacked Sony Pictures, stealing hundreds of thousands of documents. The materials were eventually leaked online, causing an international incident that would change Hollywood forever. In Episode 1, thousands of Sony employees show up for work on November 24, 2014—only to discover a menacing message on their screens.

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