The 10 Best Movies of 2026 … So Far
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Who introduces the episode and what’s the half‑year format for 'best movies so far'?
I'm Sean Fennessey.
I'm Amanda Dobbins.
And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the best movies of the year so far. Today on the show, we are joined by eight ringer friends who share their favorite movies of 2026, unless Rob Mahoney has stolen their pick, in which case they'll roll with their number two choices. Later in this episode, I'll be joined by John Early, who is the writer-director of Maddie's Secret, one of the films picked for this episode. John is a hilarious comedian, actor, and writer, and it turns out, a damn good director too. His feature debut manages to blend Douglas Sirk, David Wayne, and Lifetime movies into an elegant, heartbreaking, quasi-camp stew. John is a great guest, super smart guy, most definitely stick around for this conversation.
But first, let's go to our favorite movies of the year so far, and first up, who else? CR, Chris Ryan. Okay, Ciara's here. I am. What's up, man? Not much. You okay?
Are we doing the best movies of 2026 so far now to get it in under the Odyssey wire because you feel like that's where the movie year turns?
No, he has a very complex scheduling regimen that's, you know, he consults the holy tablets, you know, and the positions of the planets.
The Quran. And then...
And then he puts it together before we do the movie auction. It just happens that they scheduled the Odyssey for the beginning of, I guess it would be Q2. What are we calling? Q3.
Q3.
Sure. But what if it's just the halves? What is that in business parlance?
On the second half of the year, I think.
Okay, well, they need a catchier jargon.
So this is our hydration break, in a way. It is, and we do do this every year at roughly the July 1st mark. And it's interesting because July seems like it's going to be pretty action-packed, but The movies have been popping, as you know, CR. Yeah. But you chose a film that came early.
Very early, yeah. What'd you pick? 28 Years Later, The Bone Temple, Nia DaCosta's follow-up to Danny Boyle's reimagining or reboot of the 28 Days Later franchise. And I wanted to bounce a little theory off of you that I've been working on. Was 28 Years Later... The little kernel of an idea of where we are now with, like, obsession and backrooms of that, like, wild, breathtaking creativity. I know it wasn't, like, a massive, huge success. It did well enough to get a second movie out there. But I kind of feel like the way that those movies made me feel of, like, feeling like... this director's really taking me into their own personal world and that this is an idiosyncratic, enigmatic way of telling these stories, even if there are things that we've seen before.
Certainly that's the case for these two movies, for the two 28 Years Later movies. But I wonder if that, like, we'll go back and we'll look at that as a little... a little signal that something new was coming down the line. I have no idea. I can speak to this film's specific qualities if you want, which is, Nita Costa had a really, really tough assignment, which was to follow up this franchise's originator's return to the franchise. And he did an amazing job. Your number one movie of 2025. 28 years later. And she... just very wisely chose to do something different. It's a much more static film. It's not as kinetic.
Why is 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Chris Ryan’s top pick and what makes Nia DaCosta’s approach different?
I mean, there's certainly really incredible action sequences in it, but it's much more of a two-hander, really, between Ralph Fiennes' character and Jack O'Connell's character as these two poles of how you would deal with such a... a tragic apocalypse and, you know, what happens to the human soul when it's put in this situation. But it's also about grieving and it's also about loss, which the first one's about too. And, you know, I just thought it was just such an electrifying way to start the movie year. I thought it would be a good movie to highlight.
really see like I didn't draw any of the conclusions the connections that you're doing around horror movies things maybe like a little bit of a longer period of time but this movie is I thought was shockingly great and I loved the transition the stylistic transition from what Boyle was doing to what Nia DaCosta was doing huge look for Duran Duran yeah quality needle drops obviously we were
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who introduces the episode and what’s the half‑year format for 'best movies so far'?
0:15–3:26
2
Why is 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Chris Ryan’s top pick and what makes Nia DaCosta’s approach different?
3:26–20:03
3
What makes Project Hail Mary a theatrical and awards contender despite losing some early shine?
20:03–1:09:47
4
How does Yassi describe the cultural impact and lore behind Backrooms?
1:09:47–1:15:33
5
Why do critics debate Backrooms’ use of post‑language and visual storytelling?
1:15:33–1:24:35
6
What makes the drama (Zendaya/Pattinson film) a provocative take on forgiveness and thought‑crime?
1:24:35–1:47:23
7
How did John Early turn Maddie’s Secret from satire into a deeply personal film?
1:47:23–2:39:23
Speakers
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