We’re so back at the movies… with head of content at The Ringer and co-host of The Big Picture, Sean Fennessey!

At the top, Sam and Sean discuss Sean Wang’s Dìdi (8:52 ), the father-daughter story at the heart of M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap (15:52 ), and why the documentaries Brats (19:39 ) and Faye (22:35 ) make the perfect weekend watch.

Then, they talk about the real-life story behind A24’s Sing Sing (27:45 ), what Borderlands reveals about post-strike Hollywood (29:57 ), the anticipation building around Sean Baker’s triumphant upcoming feature Anora (32:13 ), Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night (33:17 ), Joshua Oppenheimer’s apocalyptic musical film The End (35:49 ), and James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown (37:17 ).

On the back-half, we dive into Sean’s childhood in Long Island (43:37 ), his early writing at Ithaca College (44:15 ), working at Complex Magazine in the mid-aughts (53:00 ), his pivot to Grantland (1:02:10 ), launching The Ringer (1:15:50 ), his on-mic personality on The Big Picture (1:11:50 ), the future of his podcast(s) (1:18:31 ), and why he remains optimistic about the film industry (1:27:09 ).

This conversation was recorded at Spotify Studios. Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.

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