The Top 10 Underseen and Overlooked Movies of 2025. Plus: ‘Is This Thing On?,’ ‘Ella McCay,’ and Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.

December 22, 2025

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

The Format: This breezy host-led podcast dives into 2025's oddball releases and overlooked gems through sharp critique and playful banter, blending trailer reactions, deep-dive reviews, and personal asides on cinema's quirks. Casual chat packed with cinephile dissection.
The Key Players: Just hosts Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins, whose snappy, affectionate chemistry shines in their mutual eye-rolling at flawed films, shared divorce-kid lore, and teasing jabs that keep the energy electric amid movie takedowns.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

The episode skewers two prestige flops while hyping under-the-radar indies, unpacking why big directors sometimes swing and miss in a franchise-dominated landscape.

Topic 1: Tom Cruise's Digger Teaser – Hosts react to Alejandro G. Iñárritu's comedy trailer starring Cruise as a dancing everyman, debating its Tropic Thunder-lite vibes, Saul Bass-inspired poster, stacked cast (Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, John Goodman), and festival buzz potential amid Cruise's franchise escape.
Topic 2: Bradley Cooper's Is This Thing On? – A panned divorce dramedy where finance bro Will Arnett takes up stand-up post-split; hosts blast its "loser behavior," unfunny comedy bits, volleyball subplot (Laura Dern as ex-pro?), Peyton Manning cameo, and soft resolutions, contrasting it with Cooper's

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What you'll learn

1 **(00:14) Episode Teaser: New Releases & Underseen Films**
2 **(01:12) Tom Cruise's *Digger* Teaser (dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu)**
3 **(04:19) Bradley Cooper's *Is This Thing On?* (dir./co-write: Cooper; stars Will Arnett, Laura Dern)**
4 **(23:46) James L. Brooks' *Ella McKay* (first film in 15 years; stars Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis)**
5 **(46:37) Top 5 Underseen/Overlooked 2025 Films**
6 **(72:39) Year-End Wrap-Up**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Sean and Amanda kick off the show by reacting to the brief teaser released for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s ‘Digger’ starring Tom Cruise (1:08). They then cover two new releases that they found absolutely baffling in Bradley Cooper’s ‘Is This Thing On?’ (4:17) and James L. Brooks’ ‘Ella McCay’ (23:17). Finally, they share their top ten most underseen and overlooked movies of the year (45:01).

Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins

Producers: Jack Sanders and Jacob Cornett

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