‘A House of Dynamite’ Is Ready to Explode

The Big Picture

The Ringer

Tv & Film

4.3 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2025

⏱️ 101 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sean and Amanda start the show by covering the major box office success of ‘Chainsaw Man,’ reacting to the news that Cinemark is opening myriad new 70 mm IMAX screens across the country, and discussing what it represents for the future of moviegoing (2:00). Then, they deep dive into Kathryn Bigelow’s new film, ‘A House of Dynamite,’ starring Rebecca Ferguson. They unpack their very complicated feelings by highlighting what they found successful, including a titillating first act and some strong performances, and they address its major flaws, most notably a wild third act that features a deeply unsuccessful performance from Idris Elba (12:59). Finally, Adam Nayman joins the show to discuss Kelly Reichardt’s new film, ‘The Mastermind,’ starring Josh O’Connor as an outcast loner (1:07:46). They talk about Reichardt’s ability to identify this type of character and give credit to her and O’Connor for crafting such a wonderful performance. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Adam Nayman Producer: Jack Sanders Unlock an extra $250 at linkedin.com/thebigpicture Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Sean Fennacy.
0:10.7	I'm Amanda Dobbins.
0:11.7	And this is the Big Picture A Conversation show about nuclear deterrence, mutually
0:15.2	assured destruction, and asymmetric responses.
0:17.9	Today on the show, Amanda and I will discuss one of the biggest movies of the year.
0:21.2	Catherine Bigelow's long-awaited 11th feature film, A House of Dynamite, which is now streaming on Netflix.
0:27.2	It was a good joke that you, like, wrote because every podcast that we do is about that, but then you
0:32.1	just fed right through it. So I just wanted to let you know. Well, I wanted to deliver it in a
0:35.8	serious fashion that suggested the severity of this issue. It is factually accurate, but perhaps this podcast tagline is asymmetric responses. Well, we'll see about how we talk about this new film. This is a tense thriller about a potential nuclear attack on the United States of America. Amanda Duggett. I have some notes about this movie. We will take it to DefCon 1 very soon. I really, I didn't do enough DefCon 1 research.
0:58.9	Like DefCon System Research. This is a recurring thing at the movies. Yeah, maybe now is the time. I'm realizing right now that I should have Googled it. Maybe now is the time.
1:06.1	Later in this episode, our pal Adam Neiman is going to join us to talk about Kelly Reichart's new movie, The Mastermind,
1:12.0	one of my favorite movies of the year.
1:13.6	I'm very excited to talk about Kelly Reichart's new movie,
1:11.1	the Mastermind, one of my favorite movies of the year. I'm very excited to talk to Adam.
1:15.2	And we're also going to talk about the box office and some news. So we'll see you soon.
1:20.5	This episode is presented by LinkedIn Ads. Sometimes marketing gets wasted on the wrong people.
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1:38.2	skills. It's one of the reasons LinkedIn ads generates the highest B2B return on ad spend of all online ad networks. Seriously,
1:45.8	all of them. Try it out. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a free $250
1:53.1	credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com slash the big picture. Terms and conditions apply.
	...

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