The Big Picture

Episode: F---, Marry, Kill at the Movies: ‘The Housemaid,’ ‘Song Sung Blue,’ and ‘Anaconda’
Date: December 29, 2025
Hosts: Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins
Special Guest: Craig Brewer (director of ‘Song Sung Blue’)

Episode Overview

Sean and Amanda tackle a "Fuck, Marry, Kill" themed episode for three buzzy late-2025 wide releases—all movies that riff on familiar Hollywood genres but push in bent or meta directions:

• The soapy, erotic thriller The Housemaid
• The meta-creature action comedy Anaconda
• The musical, heartfelt biopic Song Sung Blue

The hosts dissect each film’s merits and flaws, debate the state of movies “for women,” reflect on the current IP obsession in Hollywood, and close with an in-depth interview with ‘Song Sung Blue’ director Craig Brewer.

Major Discussion Points & Insights

Opening & Pop Culture Banter

(02:12–09:09)

• Sean and Amanda riff on The Odyssey trailer (the new Nolan epic starring Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway), the glut of 2026 blockbusters, and trailer fatigue.
  • Amanda: “I thought Anne Hathaway looked very pretty.” (02:20)
• They roast the endless cycle of Marvel teasers and reflect on seeing Zootopia 2 with kids.
• Amanda’s story of napping during Zootopia 2:

  “I had what I thought was like maybe the apex of my parenting when after I took a quick nap, my almost four year old son said, 'what's happening?' And I like startled awake. And what I said as I was half awake was, 'I don't know, but everyone's okay.' And that reassured him.” (06:00)

• Musings on kids’ reaction to “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and the inevitability of blockbuster culture.

Review 1: The Housemaid

(09:36–39:05)
Tagline: Steamy, campy, trashy—soapy melodrama with a twist

Summary/Plot

• Sydney Sweeney plays a housemaid with a troubled past who is hired by Amanda Seyfried's character, and—amidst a sea of beige interiors—sex, violence, and deceit unravel.
• Co-produced/directed by Paul Feig; adapted from Frieda McFadden’s 2022 novel.
• Movie’s twist (spoilers!) and wild shifts in tone are dissected at length.

Notable Points

• Hosts use “fuck, marry, kill” to rank the trio of movies; this is the “fuck”—an imperfect, indulgent, horny thrill ride.

  Sean: “The housemaid is the obvious fuck, right? Because it’s like, you got to at least give this one shot.” (10:22)

• Amanda on genre cravings:

  “I want more of this. I want more good versions of this… I like that we're trying to make the Gone Girls of the world. You know, this doesn’t live up to it… the reveal itself is, like, fairly disappointing.” (11:37)

• Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried discussed at length:
  • Sweeney “miscast,” not given enough to do. “She is very beautiful. And yeah, they use that on purpose throughout.” (18:51)
  • Seyfried praised as “one of my favorites… a really interesting performer,” but this isn’t her best work. (16:11)
  • Brandon Sklennar: “He’s being marketed as your new guy… he’s always been a bit blurry faced.” (22:04)
• The hosts skewer the beige, soulless production design (“We have to talk about interior design in this country.” 12:30), killer color commentary.
• The twist is panned as drawn out and messy.

  “We spend a lot of time being like, why are they like that? And not a lot of clarity. And then this rush to give it all away in the final stages of the movie I think makes the movie feel pretty incoherent.” (30:25)

• Gender, trauma, and feminine-targeted thrillers:
  • Amanda: “There is a real strain in women's entertainment… very dark situations are sort of resolved and the woman in question finds some sort of peace. But it’s not really a happy ending. It’s like the work is marinating and enjoying the abuse or the dark aspects more than you would want.” (32:11)
• Ends with laughs about soundtrack choices (“Since You’ve Been Gone,” “Blue Bayou”, Barry Lyndon drop, Taylor Swift over credits—36:25), and a rundown of how movies “for women” are either IP romcoms, Colleen Hoover adaptations, or streaming dross.

Review 2: Anaconda

(39:06–49:03)
Tagline: Meta-IP comedy—Jack Black & Paul Rudd remake their childhood favorite (and get hunted for real).

Summary/Plot

• Two lifelong friends (Jack Black, Paul Rudd) hit their midlife “crisis” and decide to remake Anaconda in the real Amazon, only to face an actual anaconda.
• Satirical, heavily meta, and self-aware about IP.

Notable Points

• Sean and Amanda saw it together; agreed it’s occasionally funny, but mostly “a cynical, depressing exercise in IP reinvention.” (40:09)
  • Sean: “I also laughed pretty hard about three or four times—which is a pretty good hit ratio for comedies for me in the 2020s.” (40:32)
• The casting is too old to sell the “midlife” premise—Paul Rudd and Jack Black are 56, not 42:

  “Why does this movie not star two people in their early 40s?” (42:47)

• Amanda: “Jack Black is black licorice to me.” (40:44)
• The “one-joke” premise wears thin quickly:

  “It’s kind of clever for two seconds. And then it’s supposed to be a feature-length film with one joke.” (44:45)

• Supporting cast wasted (Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton), failed attempts at action, and a setting that’s “insulting in its lack of depth.” (46:54)
• Verdict: This is their kill—“not a complete waste of time, but… disappointing” (47:11).

Memorable Cheesecake Factory Tangent

(47:41–48:10)

• Debate on best solo bar order after a bad movie (“Louisiana Chicken Pasta.” “Thai lettuce wraps.”).

Review 3: Song Sung Blue

(52:07–62:39, and extended interview)
Tagline: Sincere, musical, working-class drama about obsession, marriage, and survival

Summary/Plot

• Biopic (adapted from a documentary) about a Milwaukee Neil Diamond tribute band couple—Mike (“Lightning”, Hugh Jackman) and Claire (“Thunder”, Kate Hudson)—who fall for each other, form a band, and weather devastating tragedy (Claire’s amputation) and addiction.
• Directed by Craig Brewer; not literally a Neil Diamond biopic, but a story “about what music does for people.”

Notable Points

• By default, “the marry pick”—charming, scrappy, and sincere, though not without problems.
  • Sean: “There is something so fantastic about seeing the way his music is affecting other people and that they're using it to transform their lives.” (76:31)
• The first hour—joyful and lightly meta (“I liked it in the way that The Housemaid is a movie that is only about opulence… This is really a movie about being lower middle class in the middle of the country...” 56:50), the second jaw-droppingly tragic ("amputation!”).
• Hugh Jackman praised for his charm and sincerity:

  “God, he’s really giving it his all. I just love how much he cares.” (53:00)

• Kate Hudson: "She's a good star... This is her trying to go to a second level. Sometimes she gets there." (59:45)
• Thoughtful attention to class, community, and the economics of “ordinary” performers.
• Conversation on why biopics feel formulaic; Amanda prefers this “inventive” spin that’s not about the actual artist, but about their impact.
• Fun tangent: Best Pearl Jam album? (“Phytology.” “No Code.”) (61:02)

Interview: Craig Brewer (‘Song Sung Blue’ Director)

(63:37–116:39 MM:SS)

Key Insights

• Brewer’s origin story (64:13): “I just learned filmmaking really from books… my father passed away… gave me an inheritance, and I went out and got a digital camera from a pawn shop… made [my first] movie… That was the movie Stephanie Elaine and John Singleton saw… I was in an ampersand time in my life—there was Poor and Hungry, and this one was called Hustle and Flow.”
• Music as identity:

  “A lot of the plays that I was really into… always had kind of like a little bit of a… audacity to it… I found a rhythm with it… There was a time where all I did was buy books on Memphis music… and I learned everything I could about B.B. King, Sam Phillips… It informed how I direct.” (68:02–70:53) “There’s something about growing up a teen in the 80s—MTV had just started… movies had a music component…” (68:02)

• Why a story about a Neil Diamond cover band?

  “I made the movie for you. That’s what I wanted to hear. It got me actually interested in an artist I don’t have a relationship to.” (71:31) “He’s kind of that New York, you know, intellectual, but also a feeling artist that was really dealing with a lot of isolation and really dealing with loneliness…” (71:46)

• Subverting biopic conventions:

  “The point is, I’m hoping you don’t know anything about them… Is it okay to be artistically fulfilled just by staying in your community?... The power is not in becoming a supernova…” (77:16–78:47)

• On tonal balance:

  “If I could just get to the halfway point and then punch everybody in the gut, hopefully they would have invested enough time in falling in love with [these characters]..." (82:19)

• Casting Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson:

  “I needed two things. I needed Neil Diamond to sign off on the music, and I needed Hugh Jackman… He’s an entertainer… an unshakeable certainty in his earnestness… As someone who just went to Milwaukee with him—he really does care…” (85:52)

  • Hudson: “She’s good at comedy, but she’s not being considered for dramatic roles... I always tell people… give her a role.” (91:53)
• On filmmaking “middle class”/regionalism:

  “I prefer to stay in this space… the kind of content I'm attracted to exists better in this space… Are we kind of killing ourselves a little bit in the industry because we're making these assumptions of what the globe wants...?” (94:56–99:14)

• Personal note: On being the grandson of Mets great “Marvelous Marv” Throneberry. Some premium baseball nostalgia, heartbreak, and blue-collar metaphors. (99:14–112:08)

  “My favorite story about Marv is that they had like a couch store that put a bullseye on the left side… Marv hits it the most, but he earns a boat that he can't take home and has to pay taxes on." (109:16)

Memorable Quotes

• Sean on ‘The Housemaid’:

  "The housemaid is the obvious fuck, right?... Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried in a steamy, campy erotic thriller. For all the straight boys at home. Sheesh.” (10:22)

• Amanda on genre expectations:

  “There is a real strain in women's entertainment and women's fiction right now... very dark situations that are sort of resolved and the woman in question is in danger and then finds some sort of peace or resolution or freedom." (32:11)

• Sean, about IP cynicism:

  “It's a metatextual joke… Hollywood is only interested in IP… The movie knows this. It's making fun of that idea but also participating in that idea and trying to have its cake and eat it too…” (40:52–41:44)

• Sean, on working/middle class in 'Song Sung Blue':

  “This is really a movie about being lower middle class in the middle of the country… If something like this happens to you, what are you going to do?” (56:50)

• Craig Brewer on regionalism & Neil Diamond:

  “Is it okay to be artistically fulfilled just by staying in your community and almost like, singing and performing for your community?” (77:52)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Odyssey/Blockbuster chatter: 02:12–08:44
• The Housemaid review: 09:36–39:05
• Anaconda review: 39:06–49:03
• Song Sung Blue review: 52:07–62:39
• Craig Brewer interview: 63:37–116:39

Tone & Takeaways

• Conversational, irreverently intellectual, witty, occasionally cynical (especially on IP and streaming trends).
• The hosts continually ground discussion in personal experience (parenting, moviegoing, pop culture nostalgia).
• Each film is given both criticism and the benefit of their generous, genre-literate frames.
• The Craig Brewer interview is earnest, passionate, and full of filmmaking wisdom and personal storytelling about music, movies, and blue-collar life.

For Listeners Who Didn’t Tune In

You’ll finish with an up-to-date sense of what’s happening at the movies this holiday, a sharp look at genre and “movies for women,” and a lovely, in-depth conversation about the emotional power of music and the importance of films about everyday people.

If you want hot takes:

• Fuck: The Housemaid—soapy, trashy, something to experience once
• Kill: Anaconda—one-joke meta-IP comedy that doesn’t deliver
• Marry: Song Sung Blue—sometimes corny, but sincere, surprising, and deeply felt

And, as always, plenty of Cheesecake Factory ordering strategy and New York Mets pain.