The Best Movies of the Year … So Far. Plus: 15 We Missed!

March 30, 2026·2 hr 43 min·5 clips

Why Avengers Doomsday might blink first in a showdown over IMAX screens this Christmas.

It starts with a quick setup. Sean lays out the hour: favorite movies of the year so far, missed releases from the awards season pileup, and a later conversation with Ben David Grabinski. The pace is quick and reactive. A movie clicks, disappoints, or gets sent off with a blunt little report card. One pair earns a qualified pass. The reaction is not mean, just direct: they wanted more, though one felt bigger and more like a movie. Samara becomes the livelier detour. Her screen presence gives them more to talk about than the gory horror titles on the table. Then Midwinter Break moves things into a different lane. Amanda has not seen it, so Sean explains the older couple in Amsterdam, the buried revelations, and the goats that make the premise stranger. What hits harder is the movie's fixation on Irish Catholic guilt, especially through Leslie Manville's character. Amanda catches the joke right away, and the bit turns into a dry riff about women having everything now, guilt included. Their taste is personal but sharp. They are watching for blocking, psychology, performance texture, and whether a premise has anything under it. The back half changes tone. Ben David Grabinski talks about making Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice after pouring himself into ideas. His answer is plain in a way that sticks. He does not really know how to think any other way, because making things is the only thing he has ever wanted to do. Under the ranking and catch-up talk, the episode is really about why some movies stay with you, and why some people keep making them anyway.

As heard by us

A brisk, opinionated midyear movie check-in with sharp detours and a cinephile filmmaker interview.

The Big Picture checks in on the movie year so far, with Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbin naming favorites before turning to releases that slipped through the awards-season crush.

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Why you'd press play

Midyear movie picks, a sweep through overlooked 2026 releases, and an interview with the writer-director of a fun new action comedy.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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