Shows
The Next Picture ShowMen of Steel, Pt. 2 — Superman (2025)By skipping the origin story and dropping viewers right into the action, James Gunn’s SUPERMAN avoids feeling like the franchise reset it is, and allows the director to get to work creating the sort of busy, quick-paced onscreen universe at which he excels. We’re joined once again by writer, podcaster, and Superman aficionado Chris Klimek to break exactly down why it works so well, as well as a few places where it doesn’t, before returning to the film that helped facilitate this shorthand approach, 1978’s SUPERMAN, to see how these different iterations of the title character — not to men...2025-07-291h 13
The Next Picture ShowMen of Steel, Pt. 1 — Superman (1978)James Gunn’s new SUPERMAN begins from the assumption that audiences already have a working knowledge of the Man of Steel’s origin story, his super-skill set, and his romance with Lois Lane. Gunn’s film benefits greatly from being able to skip past the basics, but it wouldn’t have been possible without Richard Donner’s franchise-launching blockbuster SUPERMAN, which codified those basics for the big screen. So this week we’re spinning the planet backwards to 1978 and revisiting filmgoers’ first introduction to The Last Son Of Krypton — who we don’t properly meet until nearly an hour in because, as it...2025-07-221h 15
The Next Picture ShowKings of the Road, Pt. 2 — F1On the one hand, the IMAX-driven spectacle of F1 is undeniably satisfying to watch on the big screen; on the other hand, we all walked out of Joseph Kosinski’s second teamup with producer Jerry Bruckheimer unsure whether it qualifies as a movie and not just a sophisticated simulation thereof. Despite the star power of Brad Pitt and a plethora of familiar sports-movie tropes, there’s a human element missing from F1 that left us all slightly perplexed, and which is thrown into even sharper relief when placed against the character-driven comedy of the other film in this pairing, TALL...2025-07-151h 01
The Next Picture ShowKings of the Road, Pt. 1 — Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky BobbyThe new F1 brings even more attention to a sport/brand that’s becoming as popular in the U.S. as it is internationally, but its application of sports-movie tropes to the world of racing, in particular its focus on an intersquad rivalry, has big, booming echoes in the defiantly American world of NASCAR as depicted in TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY. The 2006 Adam McKay/Will Ferrell comedy isn’t even two decades old, but as discussed in this week’s revisitation, its loose, improv-driven approach already feels like a relic of the past, and to what degree...2025-07-081h 07
The Next Picture ShowFor Love or Money, Pt. 2 — MaterialistsCeline Song’s new MATERIALISTS feints at being a romcom, but it’s far too interested in the economic realities and calculated compromise of modern dating for the label to be a comfortable fit; its romantic leanings are more in line with the works of Jane Austen and several cinematic adaptations thereof, as laid out in the “movie syllabus” Song made for her film and which inspired this pairing. But MATERIALISTS is more of a riff on Austen than a flat-out homage, and Song’s spin on the material worked better for some than others on this panel. We get into tha...2025-07-011h 06The Next Picture ShowFor Love or Money, Pt. 1 — Pride & Prejudice (2005)Celine Song’s new not-quite-a-rom-com MATERIALISTS openly evokes Jane Austen in its focus on the rituals and codes of courtship, as well as its frankness about how one’s net worth can shape their romantic prospects. That could have led us to any number of Austen adaptations, but few as instantly beguiling as Joe Wright’s 2005 feature debut, PRIDE & PREJUDICE. So this week we’re discussing what makes Wright’s “muddy hem” take on the material stand out in a crowded field of Austen adaptations, whether the film’s lush style complements or drowns out its substance, and why that hand flex m...2025-06-2459 minThe Next Picture ShowMusical Not-obiography, Pt. 2 — PavementsLike I’M NOT THERE, Alex Ross Perry’s new docu-like feature PAVEMENTS takes a “print the legend” approach to its subject, blurring reality and fiction to convey the significance of defining ‘90s indie rock group Pavement from a few different semi-fabricated angles. Is that approach better suited to established fans, including our returning guest and longtime friend Noel Murray, than it is to newcomers less equipped to parse how the film skews the band’s history and creative output? Perhaps, and we get into that this week before placing PAVEMENTS’ slanted snapshot next to I’M NOT THERE’s fractured Bob Dy...2025-06-171h 06
The Next Picture ShowMusical Not-obiography, Pt. 1 — I'm Not ThereAlex Ross Perry’s new hybrid documentary PAVEMENTS rejects convention in a way that’s both in keeping with the spirit of the ’90s indie-rock band at its center, and reminiscent of Todd Haynes’ deconstructed Bob Dylan biopic I’M NOT THERE. And while you arguably don’t need to be well-versed in either act to appreciate the films about them, it certainly doesn’t hurt, which is why we’ve brought in our old friend Noel Murray to help us parse two films that are more concerned with conveying an artist’s essence than their biography, beginning this week with I’M NOT...2025-06-1055 minThe Next Picture ShowPain Pals, Pt. 2 — FriendshipWe were admittedly a bit dubious going into this pairing, which was spoken into existence by writer-director Andrew DeYoung invoking THE MASTER when describing his new Tim Robinson/Paul Rudd comedy FRIENDSHIP, but it’s not the stretch we thought it would be. In fact, Paul Thomas Anderson’s discomfiting psychological drama proves such an interesting lens through which to view FRIENDSHIP’s discomfiting absurdist comedy that we move into Connections early, to discuss how each of these two films about lonely men at odds with their own reality bucks convention, not only in terms of narrative and character, but in...2025-06-031h 00
The Next Picture ShowPain Pals, Pt. 1 — The MasterWe can’t say that it would have occurred to us to pair the new Tim Robinson/Paul Rudd comedy FRIENDSHIP with THE MASTER if writer-director Andrew DeYoung hadn’t specifically invoked Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2012 psychological drama, but the two films do wind up being unexpectedly complementary portraits of relationships between emotionally unstable men. Plus, we’re happy to have an excuse to revisit THE MASTER, a slippery film wherein nearly every scene has a claim to being the most important one. So this week we’re taking a closer look at a few of those scenes and the multip...2025-05-271h 08
The Next Picture ShowLess Than Hero, Pt. 2 — Thunderbolts*The new THUNDERBOLTS* assembles a group of leftovers from various MCU stories to face off against their personal failings in a way that’s broadly reminiscent of, yet tonally distinct from, the wannabe superheroes of 1999’s MYSTERY MEN. It’s also tonally distinct from most recent Marvel projects in a way that we all responded to, even if we differ on whether THUNDERBOLTS* is punching above its power class in the metaphor department. We debate that before bringing MYSTERY MEN back in to explore the various power differentials both between and within these two groups of superheroes with self-esteem issues...2025-05-201h 15
The Next Picture ShowLess Than Hero, Pt. 1 — Mystery MenThe new THUNDERBOLTS* assembles some leftovers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe who are tough to describe as superheroes but nonetheless step up to save the day when their city needs them, which reminded us of MYSTERY MEN and its negligibly powered not-so-superteam. A flop in 1999, the comedy is as chaotic and sloppy as its titular (with an asterisk) group, but that imperfect charm is arguably central to the cult appreciation it’s attained since. So this week we’re taking a closer look at MYSTERY MEN’s small-time wannabe crime-fighters to determine how they fit into the bigger picture of mod...2025-05-131h 02
The Next Picture ShowThe Dead of Night, Pt. 2 — SinnersIntro: 00:00:00-00:02:03
Sinners Discussion: 00:02:04-00:28:46
Connections: 00:28:47-1:02:37
Your Next Picture Show, next pairing, and goodbyes: 1:02-38-end
Director Ryan Coogler has been generous in sharing his many points of inspiration for SINNERS, including the other film in this pairing, but his exceptional new feature is refreshingly singular in both vision and execution. It makes for an admittedly lopsided comparison with FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, but also an illuminating one: examining Coogler’s vision through the lens of the 1996 Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino teamup sheds light on the added depth SINNERS brings to...2025-05-061h 15
The Next Picture ShowThe Dead of Night, Pt. 1 — From Dusk Till DawnComparing 1996's FROM DUSK TILL DAWN to the new SINNERS can feel a bit like, as Scott puts it, comparing “Chopsticks” to Beethoven’s Fifth. But Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s sleazy vampire flick was clearly on Ryan Coogler’s mind when crafting his own film about a pair of brothers who spend one fateful night defending a nightclub from an invading horde of the undead. Coogler’s film also has much more on its mind beyond that pulpy premise, which we’ll get into next week, but for now we’re digging as deep as we can into the shallow...2025-04-291h 08
The Next Picture ShowBody By Cronenberg, Pt. 2 — The ShroudsOver the decades, David Cronenberg has carved a distinctive and provocative filmography out of his interest in human decay and death, up to and including his new THE SHROUDS, a late-career entry in the writer-director’s body-horror canon. It’s a film that left some of us confounded in a way that our returning guest, critic Charles Bramesco, might argue is part of its Cronenbergian appeal; but placing it next to THE FLY in Connections clarifies how much it’s simply an evolution of the same pet themes Cronenberg has been circling since 1986 (and earlier), from overlapping obsessions with the mut...2025-04-221h 12
The Next Picture ShowBody By Cronenberg, Pt. 1 — The Fly (1986)The way David Cronenberg’s new THE SHROUDS splices together unsettling ideas about technology and bodily transformation made us think of… well, a lot of his filmography, but the film’s visceral interest in how the human body decays feels directly connected to the director’s unlikeliest hit, his remake of THE FLY. We’re joined this week by critic and our nascent “gross and scary” correspondent Charles Bramesco to teleport back to 1986 and examine what lies beneath the rotting flesh of THE FLY, from its tender central relationship to its oozing physical effects to its Howard Shore score, that makes it...2025-04-1559 min
The Next Picture ShowMr. and Mrs. Mystery, Pt. 2 — Black BagBLACK BAG, Steven Soderbergh’s latest 90-minute collaboration with writer David Koepp, is in theory a sprawling international spy thriller, but in practice it’s a more intimate study of how a marriage can thrive in an environment where trusting your spouse is considered a weakness. This week we talk about how that genre disconnect works for and against BLACK BAG, before bringing in this pairing’s companion film, 1934’s THE THIN MAN, to compare how Nick and Nora Charles’s bantering, crime-solving partnership compares to the cooler, less boozy charms of Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender’s married spies. Then...2025-04-081h 11
The Next Picture ShowMr. and Mrs. Mystery, Pt. 1 — The Thin ManSteven Soderbergh’s new BLACK BAG is a spy thriller, sure, but it’s also the story of a marriage, and watching its sophisticated central couple banter their way through a sprawling mystery, it’s hard not to be reminded of one of cinema’s most enduring and endearing crime-solving couples, Nick and Nora Charles. So this week we’re going back to their film debut, 1934’s THE THIN MAN, to see how W.S. Van Dyke’s (barely) pre-Code crime caper balances the effervescent charm of its hard-drinking stars against the plot mechanics of a murder mystery, and whether any of...2025-04-011h 09
The Next Picture ShowKill 'Em All, Pt. 2 — Mickey 17Bong Joon Ho’s new MICKEY 17 takes a lot of big swings, from star Robert Pattinson’s vocal affectation to a comedic fixation on “sauce,” all of it in service of big, bold, arguably blunt satire. It all makes for a somewhat messy but highly discussable film, both on its own and in conversation with Paul Verhoeven’s STARSHIP TROOPERS, another big swing of a sci-fi satire that aims to entertain as it undermines propagandistic societies where leaders rule by catchphrase, where citizenship is conditional, and where working-class lives are expendable. We dive into all of that, plus space bugs that...2025-03-251h 20
The Next Picture ShowKill 'Em All, Pt. 1 — Starship TroopersThis week’s pairing is brought to you by: space bugs! Specifically, space bugs as a metaphor for a fascistic society’s disregard for any perceived-to-be-lower life form, human or otherwise. Inspired by the clear satire of Bong Joon Ho’s new MICKEY 17, we’re revisiting Paul Verhoeven’s STARSHIP TROOPERS, whose satirical intent was less clear to some audiences when it hit theaters in 1997. Today, while we’re on the same page as far as what Verhoeven was going for with his propagandistic display of military might, opinions still differ among our panel as to how well he pulled it of...2025-03-181h 02
The Next Picture ShowLate Innings, Pt. 2 — EephusCarson Lund’s feature debut EEPHUS moves at the same deliberate pace as the trick pitch for which it’s named, leisurely unfolding over the course of a season-ending game between two small-town recreation leagues that’s also probably the last time many on the field will ever play. This week we’re joined again by film critic and baseball lover Tim Grierson to discuss how EEPHUS approaches that sense of finality with low-key humor and a subtle sense of nostalgia, before bringing Ron Shelton’s BULL DURHAM back on the field to compare these two films’ ideas about aging, mascu...2025-03-111h 13The Next Picture ShowLate Innings, Pt. 1 — Bull DurhamQuietly observing as a small-town recreation league plays out their last game of the season, and likely ever, the new EEPHUS is a feature-length subversion of “the big game,” simultaneously embracing and rejecting such baseball-movie cliches in a manner that reminded us of 1988’s BULL DURHAM. We’re joined this week by pinch-hitter Tim Grierson to discuss all the ways Ron Shelton’s classic, often cited as the best baseball movie ever, throws out the sports-movie playbook, from its multiple protagonists and rom-com structure to its acknowledgment that baseball, like life, has an expiration date. And in Feedback, a frequent c...2025-03-041h 03
The Next Picture ShowWar Bonds, Pt. 2 — No Other LandThe story of two journalists reporting on a common cause despite their vastly different backgrounds is what gives NO OTHER LAND its narrative shape — and is what inspired us to pair it with 1984’s THE KILLING FIELDS — but the Oscar-nominated documentary is at heart a story about activism, and the weight of maintaining hope amid a generations-spanning conflict with no resolution in sight. We’re joined again this week by Slate culture writer Sam Adams to discuss how NO OTHER LAND makes the political personal, then bring THE KILLING FIELDS back in to compare these two portrayals of journalism from ver...2025-02-251h 00The Next Picture ShowWar Bonds, Pt. 1 — The Killing FieldsIntro & Oscars Chitchat: 00:00:00-00:08:52Keynote: 00:08:53-00:13:50The Killing Fields Discussion: 00:13:51-44:37Feedback & Outro: 00:44:38-endSummary: The Oscar-nominated documentary NO OTHER LAND, a collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers whose common cause and eventual friendship does not change the stark contrast in their political status, brought to mind another story of two journalists from strikingly different backgrounds who bond in the midst of a geopolitical hotspot: 1984’s THE KILLING FIELDS. We’re joined this week by Slate writer and critic Sam Adams to revisit Roland Joffé’s dramatization of the relations...2025-02-1853 minThe Next Picture ShowHouse Haunters, Pt. 2 — PresenceSteven Soderbergh’s new PRESENCE flips the typical haunted house narrative inside out, but unlike the other film in this pairing, THE OTHERS, it makes its point of view clear from the opening frames. But that POV doesn’t slide fully into focus until PRESENCE’s final-act reveal, which left us with some questions, both critical and metaphysical, to dig into this week. Then we bring THE OTHERS back into the conversation to discuss how these two very different takes on the haunted house — one classical, one revisionist — each makes use of confined space, complex parent-child dynamics, and ambiguity about how...2025-02-111h 15The Next Picture ShowHouse Haunters, Pt. 1 — The OthersSteven Soderbergh’s new PRESENCE is an unconventional haunted house story with a twist that reminded us of 2001’s THE OTHERS, though to say exactly why risks spoiling how Alejandro Amenábar performs his own twist on a comparatively traditional haunted house story. That twist forms the foundation of our discussion this week, which freely roams spoiler territory as we consider how the ending revelation shapes our understanding of THE OTHERS' perspective on religion and the afterlife, and how the film’s abundant symbolism lines up with its narrative as a ghost story. Then in Feedback, we revisit our recent...2025-02-041h 07The Next Picture ShowFanged Attraction Pt. 2 — Nosferatu (2024)Given their shared source material, Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU and Francis Ford Coppola’s BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA understandably have a lot overlap in terms of plot and character, but the two films are miles apart in their interpretation of that source material, particularly as applied to its titular vampire. We’re of split opinions on Eggers’ bleak, monster-forward characterization of Orlock, especially how it plays against NOSFERATU’s ideas about female desire and sexuality, but agree it provides a fascinating counterpoint to Coppola’s florid spin on the Count as a tragic romantic antihero. We examine that contrast further in Connections...2025-01-281h 19The Next Picture ShowFanged Attraction, Pt. 1 — Bram Stoker's DraculaThe heightened gothic sensibility of Robert Eggers’ new NOSFERATU recalls — in its intensity if not its precise contours — BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, Francis Ford Coppola’s feverish 1992 horror-romance that follows the same story from a markedly different perspective. This led us to reconsider Coppola’s flawed but fascinating DRACULA as a film that, even if it arguably never achieves greatness, inarguably leaves an impression. Yes, Keanu Reeves’ accent is part of that impression, but so is the film’s grandiose art design, its recasting of Dracula as a tragic romantic antihero, and its overall commitment to cinematic maximalism, for better or worse...2025-01-211h 02The Next Picture ShowA Brief Interruption in ServiceHey Next Picture Show listeners, sorry there’s no new episode in your feed today. Real life got in the way of podcast life and prevented us from recording our next pairing in time to release it this week. But we will be back next Tuesday with part one of our double feature comparing Robert Eggers’ new Nosferatu with Frances Ford Coppola’s own take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1992. If you’re playing along at home, the former is in theaters now, while Coppola’s Dracula is digitally rentable from the usual outlets, and available in an array of phy...2025-01-1400 minThe Next Picture ShowOur Top Films of 2024With the beginning of a new year comes our customary look back, as Keith, Scott, and Tasha gather once again to compare their personal lists of the best films of 2024. While there is some crossover among their picks — particularly when it comes to films that have been discussed in-depth on this podcast — there is much more variance, reflective of a movie year that was light on prestige-season heavyweights, and full of memorably idiosyncratic, personal projects that will stick with us long past year’s end. Please share your thoughts about, and your own picks for, the best movies...2025-01-071h 06
The Next Picture ShowLong Gone, Pt. 2 — Nickel BoysThe moments in NICKEL BOYS that nod to 1958’s THE DEFIANT ONES are less direct citations than stylized invocations by director RaMell Ross, who incorporates a number of abstractions and flourishes into the film’s visual language. Chief among those stylistic gambits is the film’s use of first-person perspective, which kicks off our discussion of NICKEL BOYS’ uniquely textured take on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel. From there we consider the deeper meaning and intent behind NICKEL BOYS’ use of visuals and audio from THE DEFIANT ONES, and where the two films overlap in their ideas about racial justice in t...2024-12-241h 04The Next Picture ShowLong Gone, Pt. 1 — The Defiant OnesStanley Kramer’s 1958 feature THE DEFIANT ONES, a film very much of its time, makes multiple on-screen appearances in RaMell Ross’ new NICKEL BOYS, a film about the way the past haunts the present. Both movies take place in the Jim Crow-era South and engage with that setting’s lopsided ideas about justice, but THE DEFIANT ONES does so from a much more straightforward approach, operating as both a stylish thriller about two escaped prisoners, one black (Sidney Poitier) and one white (Tony Curtis), and an earnest allegory about interracial acceptance. That latter quality makes it easy to lump in wit...2024-12-171h 13The Next Picture ShowThe Witch Is Back, Pt. 2 — WickedThe antagonist becomes the protagonist in Jon M. Chu’s WICKED, which adapts a stage musical — the first act, anyway — which adapts a novel that flipped the script on 1939’s THE WIZARD OF OZ (itself an adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s novel). So while there are plenty of narrative and character parallels between the two films, they often run perpendicular to each other in their respective notions of good and wicked. But the two films are certainly aligned in their aim to be big-screen spectacles of the highest order, though opinions differ among our hosts as to what degree WIC...2024-12-101h 24
The Next Picture ShowThe Witch Is Back, Pt. 1 — The Wizard of OzThe new movie musical WICKED, along with the Broadway show and novel that preceded it, is specifically out to subvert the version of the magical land of Oz that was codified in 1939’s THE WIZARD OF OZ, making it the perfect time to consider what made that film a phenomenon to be subverted in the first place. So this week we wade into the vast, varied legacy of THE WIZARD OF OZ to discuss why it overcame its initial box-office failure to become a perennial family classic; which of the film’s enduring elements feel most of their time; and...2024-12-031h 13The Next Picture ShowCinde-F***ing-Rella, Pt. 2 — AnoraSean Baker’s ANORA takes the fairy-tale premise of 1990’s PRETTY WOMAN as its starting point, but ends up on a very different route to a very different sort of happy ending. It’s also a best-of-the year contender for most of us, so we spend some time discussing what makes it so before bringing its romcom predecessor back in to consider how these two films about sex workers falling for their wealthy clients are in conversation when it comes to classicism and social hierarchies, conspicuous consumption, and what happens when a transactional relationship evolves into something more. And in You...2024-11-261h 19
The Next Picture ShowCinde-F***ing-Rella, Pt. 1 — Pretty WomanSean Baker’s new ANORA takes its initial cues from 1990’s PRETTY WOMAN, but its story of a sex worker who develops romantic feelings for a client in spite of class difference and social stigma soon peels off in a vastly different direction. So this week we’re focusing on that shared starting point to determine what makes PRETTY WOMAN both a deeply weird depiction of sex work and a resoundingly successful romcom — and no, it’s not just Julia Roberts, though it’s hard to imagine us discussing PRETTY WOMAN as a classic film today without that star-making performance...2024-11-191h 09The Next Picture ShowBallot Wounds, Pt. 2 — ConclaveEdward Berger’s new CONCLAVE is a low-key, intimate political thriller full of unexpected reveals, but fundamentally about power, purity, belief, compromise, perception, and committee decisions. This week we share our thoughts on CONCLAVE’s insular focus and messaging around religion and politics before considering how its power brokers and kingmakers compare to those found in the 1964 presidential-candidate drama THE BEST MAN, and the two films’ overlapping ideas about whether politics demands hypocrisy. And for Your Next Picture Show, we offer a recommendation for THE DEATH OF STALIN, a radically different movie about the vacuum left when a powerful man die...2024-11-121h 06The Next Picture ShowBallot Wounds, Pt. 1 — The Best ManWhile the new CONCLAVE concerns the election of a new pope, its intrigue, backstabbing, and backroom deals have many echoes in secular politics, in particular those found in 1964’s THE BEST MAN. Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and written by Gore Vidal adapting his own stage play, the film’s depiction of the behind-the-scenes machinations involved to secure an unnamed party’s nomination for the presidency is relevant both to its era and our current political moment, albeit in different ways. But how deep does its cynicism about the system of elections, and those who manage to make that system...2024-11-051h 07
The Next Picture ShowOne Night Only, Pt. 2 — Saturday NightIn its attempt to capture the chaotic comedic alchemy leading up to the first-ever SNL broadcast, Jason Reitman’s SATURDAY NIGHT is carrying the weight of the show’s nearly 50-year legacy and its personification in protagonist Lorne Michaels. Whether it manages to get off the ground despite that is up for debate in the first half of this week’s discussion, before we bring in another tense evening in ’70s New York to see how ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM: COMPANY compares in its depiction of a late-night highwire act and the pressure to pull off a performance with many moving p...2024-10-291h 12
The Next Picture ShowOne Night Only, Pt. 1 — Original Cast Album: CompanyCapturing the tense hours leading to a pivotal moment in live TV history, the new SATURDAY NIGHT is defined by a looming deadline that reminded us of another New York-based all-nighter captured on film: D.A. Pennebaker’s 1970 TV pilot turned documentary film ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM: COMPANY. Despite being less than an hour long, the fly-on-the-wall document of Stephen Sondheim and company recording the definitive version of their Broadway hit in a single night provides no shortage of nuance to dig into like we’re Sondheim parsing an F sharp that’s drifted to A. And in Feedback we bring...2024-10-221h 02
The Next Picture ShowMachine Learning, Pt. 2 — The Wild RobotThe new Dreamworks animated feature THE WILD ROBOT is partially about the struggles of parenthood, partially about the joys of community, and the larger idea bridging those two parts — that of being more than you were “programmed” to be — is also what links it most directly to Brad Bird’s THE IRON GIANT. But there’s a lot more going on in THE WILD ROBOT besides that, arguably too much, which forms the central debate of the first half of this week’s discussion. Then we bring THE IRON GIANT back in to compare these films’ shared big ideas about selfhood...2024-10-151h 20
The Next Picture ShowMachine Learning, Pt. 1 — The Iron GiantIt’s understandable that new Dreamworks feature THE WILD ROBOT pulls some of its source code from THE IRON GIANT, considering the latter’s towering reputation as one of the greatest animated films ever, robot protagonist or otherwise. But the enduring legacy of Brad Bird’s debut feature was far from assured when it blipped through theaters back in 1999, so this week we’re examining what’s behind the film’s upgrade from box-office flop to stone-cold classic, one known for its ability to reduce viewers to tears with a single word of dialogue. And in Feedback, a listener offers a dif...2024-10-081h 06
The Next Picture ShowHeir Grievances Pt. 2 — His Three DaughtersAzazel Jacobs’ HIS THREE DAUGHTERS is, like Tamara Jenkins’ THE SAVAGES, a film about the heartbreaking experience of caring for an aging parent, but even more so it is, also like the other film in the pairing, about adult siblings reuniting and renegotiating their relationships under those fraught conditions. We’re decidedly more mixed on Jacobs’ film, however, which often plays like a stage adaptation — at times that works, at others it doesn’t, and we talk through both in the first half of this discussion. Then we bring THE SAVAGES back in to consider how each film is shaped by it...2024-10-0159 min
The Next Picture ShowHeir Grievances Pt. 1 — The SavagesCaring for an elderly or infirm parent is a common experience that is less commonly depicted on screen, particularly with a comedic bent, which is why Azazal Jacobs’ new HIS THREE DAUGHTERS inspired us to revisit the 2007 dramedy THE SAVAGES, which writer-director Tamara Jenkins drew from her own experiences dealing with a father with dementia. Much of the film’s success lies with the performances of Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman as siblings whose estranged father’s deteriorating condition serves as catalyst for their own midlife crises, and a script that trusts in their performances to convey the situat...2024-09-241h 04The Next Picture ShowFuzz Busters, Pt. 2 — Rebel RidgeJeremy Saulnier’s REBEL RIDGE puts a distinctly 2020s spin on the one-man army formula established in the era-defining ‘80s action hit FIRST BLOOD, resulting in a film with more nuance, less firepower, and equal amounts of ass-kicking. We parse that equation a bit more in-depth in our spoiler-light discussion of REBEL RIDGE, before bringing back FIRST BLOOD to see how the decades between the two films shape their respective ideas about escalation of force, small-town policing, and genre politics. And for Your Next Picture Show, we offer a quick-hit ranking of Saulnier’s filmography to date.Please...2024-09-171h 11
The Next Picture ShowFuzz Busters, Pt. 1 — First BloodGenre specialist Jeremy Saulnier’s latest banger, REBEL RIDGE, owes an obvious debt to the film that kicked off Sylvester Stallone’s second long-running franchise, 1982’s FIRST BLOOD, but the two films are of very different eras with very different core concerns about policing in America. So this week we’re focusing on the shadow of Vietnam that falls over the Pacific Northwest in the form of John Rambo, digging into the deeper themes that lie beneath the proverbial pissing contest between FIRST BLOOD’s ticking time bomb of a protagonist and the antagonistic police chief who foolishly sets him off. A...2024-09-101h 03
The Next Picture ShowThey Mostly Come at Night, Pt. 2 — Alien: RomulusFede Álvarez’s ALIEN: ROMULUS is at its core an act of homage to the larger franchise, but is that a feature, a bug, or both? That’s a question we attempt to reconcile in our discussion of Álvarez’s acid-blood-soaked film, before comparing how this late-stage sequel compares with the franchise’s original sequel, James Cameron’s ALIENS, in iterating on the corporate meddling of Weyland-Yutani, the evolving nature of artificial humans, and comedy as characterization. And for Your Next Picture Show, we pivot hard away from this franchise-driven pairing for a recommendation of Spanish filmmaker Víctor Erice’s first...2024-09-031h 16
The Next Picture ShowThey Mostly Come at Night, Pt. 1 — AliensFede Álverez’s ALIEN: ROMULUS is so reference-packed that an argument could be made for pairing it with just about any ALIEN film, but since we’ve already discussed the 1979 original, and because the Next Picture Show bylaws state that if an opportunity to discuss ALIENS arises we must take it, we’re digging into the first of the many sequels this franchise has spawned. Thanks to writer-director James Cameron’s economy of storytelling, there are so many iconic moments, characters, and lines to discuss that we barely scratch the surface this week, though, rest assured, ROMULUS will provide us with m...2024-08-271h 11
The Next Picture ShowDial 'M' For Manhunt, Pt. 2 — TrapIs it a bit unfair to compare M. Night Shyamalan’s new grip-it-and-rip-it thriller TRAP to Fritz Lang’s 1931 cinematic landmark M? Sure, but that’s the name of the game here on The Next Picture Show, and for all of TRAP’s faults — which we try not to take too much glee in enumerating in this discussion — it does work, however awkwardly, as an extrapolation of the ideas and narrative techniques first established in Lang’s film. From its interest in exploring the mind of a serial killer to its depiction of law-enforcement overreach, there’s plenty in TRAP that feels l...2024-08-201h 04
The Next Picture ShowDial 'M' For Manhunt, Pt. 1 — M (1931)The new TRAP, like so many M. Night Shyamalan movies, openly courts comparisons to the work of Alfred Hitchcock, but its focus on the large-scale manhunt for a serial killer combined with its psychological interest in said killer has roots even further back in film history. So this week we reach all the way back to Fritz Lang’s first talkie, 1931’s M, to see how it frames the search for a compulsive child murderer decades before the term “serial killer” existed, and sort through the film’s many distinctive and influential elements, from its pessimistic view of law and order...2024-08-131h 02
The Next Picture ShowAnnouncement: Next PairingNo show this week, but NPS co-host Genevieve Koski announces the next pairing, inspired by M. Night Shyamalan's "Trap." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices2024-08-0601 min
The Next Picture ShowKiller Instincts, Pt. 2 — LonglegsOsgood Perkins’ new LONGLEGS shares some clear narrative and thematic DNA with THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, but it’s much more bizarre and divisive in its approach to horror-adjacent serial killer storytelling than Jonathan Demme’s crowd-pleasing, Oscar-sweeping hit. We’re joined again this week by critic and author Charles Bramesco to talk through the varying degrees to which we vibed with Perkins’ style and Nicolas Cage’s central performance, before bringing LONGLEGS’ predecessor back into the conversation to compare the points of overlap and distinction between these two films about newbie female FBI agents, unconventional serial killers, and the trauma...2024-07-301h 13
The Next Picture ShowKiller Instincts, Pt. 1 — The Silence of the LambsThere’s no doubt that director Osgood Perkins had Jonathan Demme’s THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in mind when he made the new LONGLEGS, but there are as many fascinating contrasts as there are comparisons between these two films about inexperienced female FBI agents and seasoned serial killers. But before getting into those next episode, this week we’re joined by critic and author Charles Bramesco for an in-depth revisitation of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS that digs into how the “Demme Touch” elevated a potentially lurid procedural to an Oscar-sweeping sensation, why its artful exploration of trauma inspired a legion o...2024-07-231h 04
The Next Picture ShowFull House, Pt. 2 — Janet PlanetPulitzer-winning playwright Annie Baker’s filmmaking debut JANET PLANET is sort of a dual coming-of-age story, centering a young girl’s fascination with her single mother who is still figuring out her own place in the world. But it also resists broad statements and neat conclusions, giving us space to unpack our own interpretations of the emotional depths that lie beneath the film’s quiet exterior. Then we bring Lukas Moodysson’s TOGETHER back into the discussion to compare its non-judgmental eye toward low-impact parenting, especially in the face of adult drama, and greater interest in the human drive for conn...2024-07-1659 min
The Next Picture ShowFull House, Pt. 1 — Together (2000)The new JANET PLANET follows a young girl who comes to see the world differently thanks to a succession of people her hippyish single mother brings into their lives, and more specifically into the home they share. Its sense of the fraught sense of intimacy that accompanies cohabitation by family members and lovers brought to mind Lukas Moodysson’s TOGETHER, another film that’s interested in how its characters’ progressive politics overlap and even interfere with their family dynamics. This week we talk through how TOGETHER shows affection for the residents of its titular commune in spite of, or perhap...2024-07-0959 min
The Next Picture ShowPixar's Girl Story, Pt. 2 — Inside Out 2When thinking of a film to pair with INSIDE OUT 2, we purposefully avoided the new Pixar sequel’s 2015 original because the two are so of a piece, delving into the contrasts between them seemed too much like nitpicking. Still, we attempt to make fruitful discussion out of those nitpicks in this week’s conversation about the new film, and perhaps even change one panelist’s opinion of it in the process. Then we bring in the film we actually chose for this pairing, 2012’s BRAVE, which we all agree isn’t as much of a Pixar all-timer as the original I...2024-07-021h 17
The Next Picture ShowPixar's Girl Story, Pt. 1 — BraveINSIDE OUT 2 is quite literally built around the emotional experience of being a young girl, but it wasn’t too long ago that this was uncharted territory for Pixar. That’s why rather than comparing the animation studio’s latest sequel to the original, we’re reaching a little further back in the filmography to revisit its first attempt to tell a story about a teenager trying to define her own identity: 2012's BRAVE. Representing some big firsts for Pixar, BRAVE had a fair amount of baggage and expectations when it hit theaters, all of which still linger in our conv...2024-06-251h 11
The Next Picture ShowRoad Warriors, Pt. 2: FuriosaThe new FURIOSA functions as both a prequel and a sequel within the larger mythology of the MAD MAX franchise, and we’re looking at it from both of those angles this week. First, we talk over why George Miller’s latest might have flopped at the box office (prequel fatigue) and why it feels poised to overcome that reputation in due time (it is the rare good prequel). Then we zoom out to bring 1979’s original MAX MAX back into the picture and consider this franchise’s ongoing interest in themes of hope, despair, grief, and revenge, and how those...2024-06-181h 03
The Next Picture ShowRoad Warriors, Pt. 1: Mad Max (1979)There’s a lot of narrative road between 1979’s MAD MAX and the new FURIOSA, but in pursuing George Miller’s decades-spanning franchise back to its starting line, we uncover a lot about what fuels this saga beyond the big, loud cars. For example, there are also big, loud motorcycles. But more importantly, there’s a healthy skepticism toward revenge as motivation, an interest in messianic leaders and hyper-verbal antagonists, and an efficient approach to world-building that prizes the visceral feel of a crumbling society over the logistical details thereof. All of that, plus the symbolic richness of this bleak mo...2024-06-111h 01The Next Picture ShowTeenage Dreams, Pt. 2 — I Saw the TV GlowJane Schoenburn’s I SAW THE TV GLOW is a film whose cultural reference points tend to take the form of vibes more than direct nods. But the writer-director's stated inspiration point in DONNIE DARKO can be seen on both the surface — the recent-past suburban setting, the teenage outcasts struggling to relate to the world around them — and on a deeper level in the protagonists’ slippery grips on reality and their own identity. In the case of I SAW THE TV GLOW, that takes the shape of a trans narrative, the apparentness and relatability of which we discuss with the help of...2024-06-041h 11
The Next Picture ShowTeenage Dreams, Pt. 1 — Donnie DarkoThe horror-inflected suburban setting of the new I SAW THE TV GLOW — not to mention writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s own comments on their inspiration — put us in mind of Richard Kelly’s 2001 cult classic DONNIE DARKO, which also follows a teen protagonist struggling to maintain their grip on reality. We’re joined once again by writer, critic, and friend of the show Emily St. James to discuss how our relationships to both that teen protagonist and the movie named for him have shifted over the years, the film’s prescient religious and political undertones and the intentionality thereof, and why so many...2024-05-281h 19
The Next Picture ShowPlaying the Hits, Pt. 2 — The Fall GuyLike the first film in this pairing, Richard Rush’s 1980 oddity THE STUNT MAN, David Leitch’s new THE FALL GUY utilizes the chaos of a film set as the cover for a crime, not to mention the inspiration for both romance and comedy. THE FALL GUY is a bit more straightforward in its crowd-pleasing intentions, though, to both its benefit and detriment, which we talk through in sharing our reactions to the new film. Then we bring THE STUNT MAN back in to compare its overlapping but distinct ideas about stunt performers who inspire their directors, get romantically invol...2024-05-211h 14
The Next Picture ShowPlaying the Hits, Pt. 1 — The Stunt ManWhile there are countless movies featuring the work of stunt performers, movies that center the experiences of those performers are much more rare, which is part of what motivated former stunt performer David Leitch to make the new THE FALL GUY. One of the standouts on that short list is Richard Rush’s 1980 genre oddity THE STUNT MAN, which uses the experience of its accidental-stuntie protagonist to blur the lines between post-Vietnam reality and moviemaking fantasy in fascinating, sometimes confounding ways. We talk through our interpretations of what it means and whether it works, and come to the conclusion th...2024-05-141h 09
The Next Picture ShowMixed Doubles, Pt. 2 — ChallengersJustin Kuritzkes, who wrote the screenplay for Luca Guadagnino’s new CHALLENGERS, cites Alfonso Cuarón's coming-of-age classic Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN as a longtime favorite, so it’s unsurprising to see that film’s DNA in this one. CHALLENGERS is far from a remake, though, operating in a very different milieu with very different narrative priorities, both which we discuss along with our generally-positive-to-rapturous reactions to it. Then in Connections we press these two movies’ faces together and make them kiss for our own gratification, and come away from the experience surprised by just how much they share witho...2024-05-071h 02
The Next Picture ShowMixed Doubles, Pt. 1 — Y Tu Mamá TambiénThe new CHALLENGERS is a sports drama the same way Alfonso Cuarón’s Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN is a road movie: secondarily, as both films tend to be associated first with their respective sexy love triangles, each with a woman at its center. That shared character dynamic results in a lot of connections between the two films, which we’ll cover in the next episode, but this week we’re focusing on all the other elements that distinguish Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN, from the way its narration forces us to consider the bigger picture that’s ignored by our y...2024-04-301h 03
The Next Picture ShowAlex Garland's Catastrophic Visions, Pt. 2 — Civil WarThe strain of cynicism that characterizes so much of Alex Garland’s filmography is at its most pronounced in his latest, CIVIL WAR. But paired with Garland’s 2002 debut as a screenwriter, Danny Boyle’s 28 DAYS LATER, an interesting counterpoint emerges in their shared acknowledgement, even hope, that humanity could perhaps find a path forward through catastrophe. So after spending some time wallowing in the muck of CIVIL WAR’s muddy politics and unsettling violence, we examine that mutual glimmer of hope in Connections, as well as the similar back-and-forth rhythms and character parallels of these two road movies. And in Y...2024-04-231h 04
The Next Picture ShowAlex Garland's Catastrophic Visions, Pt. 1 — 28 Days LaterThe new CIVIL WAR is the latest in a line of speculative scenarios that Alex Garland has pondered over the course of his career as a novelist-turned-filmmaker, but its journey through a country transformed by violent catastrophe is most reminiscent of his first project as a screenwriter, Danny Boyle’s zombie-adjacent horror film 28 DAYS LATER. So before digging into Garland’s vision of an apocalyptic near-future United States, we’re revisiting his vision of the apocalyptic England of 2002 to consider the challenges of carving an ending (happy or otherwise) out of such a grim “what if,” and how our collective...2024-04-1654 minThe Next Picture ShowFinal Cuts, Pt. 2 — Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the WorldWhat does a powerless gofer in 2020s Romania have in common with a powerful studio executive in 1990s Hollywood? Radu Jude’s new DO NOT EXPECT TO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD may concern a very different type of moviemaking than that in Robert Altman’s satire THE PLAYER, but it takes a similarly cynical — and humorous — stance on the compromises involved in commercialized art. That’s the main connection that inspired returning guest Katie Rife to suggest this pairing to us, but there’s much more about Jude’s film to get into first, from its focus on quoti...2024-04-091h 17
The Next Picture ShowFinal Cuts, Pt. 1 — The PlayerRomanian director Radu Jude’s new DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD is set in Bucharest, not Hollywood, but its cynicism about the act of capturing something on film nonetheless put us in mind of Robert Altman’s 1992 industry satire THE PLAYER. We’re joined by returning guest Katie Rife to discuss these two very different yet complementary movies about moviemaking, beginning with THE PLAYER’s caustically meta take on the Hollywood grind during a transitional moment for studio filmmaking. And we stay on theme moving into Feedback, bringing the film’s cynical outlook on Hollywo...2024-04-021h 07
The Next Picture ShowCrimes of Passion, Pt. 2 — Love Lies BleedingLike the Wachowskis’ BOUND before it, Rose Glass’ new lesbian crime thriller LOVE LIES BLEEDING is playing with the tropes of noir and pulp, but it is also very much a love story between women who are trapped by their pasts and see in each other a way out. This week we’re joined once again by writer and friend of the show Emily St. James to talk through the unique, memorable way in which LOVE LIES BLEEDING balances those elements and tones, before bringing BOUND back into the discussion to consider the parallels between these two narratives’ respective interest...2024-03-261h 00
The Next Picture ShowCrimes of Passion, Pt. 1 — BoundRose Glass’ new lesbian crime thriller LOVE LIES BLEEDING takes the neo-noir in a bold and unexpected direction, one that the Wachowskis first pointed the genre toward in 1996 with BOUND. While the sisters’ stylish debut first premiered amid a wave of “sexy thrillers,” it exists today in a significantly different context. We get into that shift this week with the help of returning guest Emily St. James, to discuss how BOUND subverts, even transcends, viewer expectations of noir, gender roles, and hot lesbian sex. And then we take a break from Feedback to continue the conversation about revisiting classics in a con...2024-03-1958 min
The Next Picture ShowEthan Coen Co-Capers, Pt. 2 — Drive-Away DollsIs box-office disappointment DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS destined for the sort of belated appreciation eventually received by the Coen Brothers’ sophomore feature, 1987’s RAISING ARIZONA? That’s up for debate in our discussion of Ethan Coen’s latest comedy collaboration, this time with his wife Tricia Cooke, a crime caper in theory that acts more like a sex romp in practice. Nonetheless, we consider how certain Coen crime signatures — ill-considered schemes executed by duos who are the opposite of pros, one of whom is comedically verbose — play out in both films, as well as how the films’ respective MacGuffins function as comedic object...2024-03-1251 min
The Next Picture ShowEthan Coen Co-Capers, Pt. 1 — Raising ArizonaWhile DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS is technically the first narrative feature for which Ethan Coen has taken a solo directing credit, in practice the new comedy is as much a collaboration, here with his wife and co-screenwriter Tricia Cooke, as the films he made with brother Joel before their current hiatus. So in honor of Coen’s commitment to collaborative comedy, we’re revisiting 1987’s RAISING ARIZONA, the film that established the brothers’ comedic voice following their neo-noir debut BLOOD SIMPLE, and whose madcap escapades and MacGuffin-chasing foreshadow Coen’s latest cinematic caper. And in feedback, a returning favorite offers up a connectio...2024-03-0546 min
The Next Picture ShowBeach Bummers, Pt. 2 — How to Have SexMolly Manning Walker’s debut feature HOW TO HAVE SEX takes place more than six decades after 1960’s WHERE THE BOYS ARE, but as our discussion of the two films illuminates, frustratingly little has changed in that time when it comes to the blurred lines around consent, particularly in situations involving teenagers, alcohol, and social pressure around sex. We’re joined once again by Marya E. Gates to discuss HOW TO HAVE SEX’s deft navigation of that context before bringing WHERE THE BOYS ARE back in to discuss what has and hasn’t changed about the desires and dangers of...2024-02-271h 12
The Next Picture ShowBeach Bummers, Pt. 1 — Where the Boys Are (1960)The new British coming-of-age film HOW TO HAVE SEX follows a group of girlfriends on a post-exam holiday into an environment where peer pressure, alcohol, and coercion can erode the boundaries of consent. But these problems aren’t unique to the film’s contemporary setting, as we’ll see in this week’s companion film, the seemingly frivolous 1960 spring break romp WHERE THE BOYS ARE. Special guest Marya Gates brings us some historical context about the film’s place in the continuum of “beach party” movies, and the degree to which audiences still a few years out from the sexual revolut...2024-02-201h 05
The Next Picture ShowRoad Trip Trios, Pt. 1 — The HoldoversA road trip through a chilly New England winter represents only one section of Alexander Payne’s THE HOLDOVERS, but the film’s overlap with Hal Ashby’s THE LAST DETAIL goes beyond that narrative echo. As in Ashby’s 1973 film, one of the examples of 1970s cinema Payne drew on for the look and feel of THE HOLDOVERS, a central triumvirate of two adults and their younger charge have a funny but imperfect bonding experience that avoids simplistic found-family conclusions. We talk through the ways THE HOLDOVERS finds nuance in its different permutations of that trio before turning back to...2024-02-131h 08The Next Picture ShowRoad Trip Trios, Pt. 1 — The Last DetailAlexander Payne has cited Hal Ashby’s THE LAST DETAIL as one of several 1970s movies informing the look and feel of THE HOLDOVERS, but there’s narrative resonance there as well, particularly in the films’ central threesomes: two disaffected older adults and their troubled teenage charge, each navigating a chilly East Coast winter, a road trip, and a series of disappointments and discoveries. We begin this week by focusing on THE LAST DETAIL’s trio of military-prison-bound sailors: what defines and distinguishes each of them, how their relationships change over the course of the movie, and whether the lack of...2024-02-061h 02
The Next Picture ShowHunting Games, Pt. 2 — Self RelianceWe return to the arena of comedic deathsport via Jake Johnson’s new debut as a writer-director, SELF RELIANCE. Despite a high-concept premise, it’s a film that seems most comfortable in the realm of hangout-slash-romantic comedy, but is that a satisfying approach when dealing with an ostensible story of life and death? That’s up for debate in our discussion of the film, which extends into Connections when we bring Elio Petri’s 1965 cult oddity THE 10TH VICTIM back into the conversation to compare these two films’ bloodless approach to gamified murder. And in Your Next Picture Show we offer u...2024-01-301h 04
The Next Picture ShowHunting Games, Pt. 1 — The 10th VictimJake Johnson’s new directorial debut SELF RELIANCE draws from a deep well of “Most Dangerous Game” storytelling, but its interest in murder-for-sport as televised entertainment combined with its rom-com underpinnings put us most in mind of 1965 cult oddity THE 10TH VICTIM. Elio Petri’s film functions as a piece of pop art first, a satire second, and a romance a distant third, and this week we’re attempting to parse it on all three levels, when we’re not getting sidetracked by the many incidental details comprising this inconsistent, perhaps incoherent, but always interesting film. And in Feedback, a listener p...2024-01-2359 min
The Next Picture ShowSuccession, Pt. 2 — The Iron ClawTHE IRON CLAW is about a wrestling dynasty, not an organized-crime one, but Sean Durkin’s new biopic makes the family business seem just as dangerous as the one at the heart of Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER. We’re joined once again by guest and wrestling aficionado Siddhant Adlakha to talk through THE IRON CLAW’s approach to said family business and the trauma it inflicts on both its characters and viewers. Then we bring THE GODFATHER back into the conversation to compare how these two family businesses and their respective succession drama are shaped by the American...2024-01-161h 03
The Next Picture ShowSuccession, Pt. 1 — The GodfatherA dangerous family business, an imposing, aging patriarch, and a group of brothers with varying aptitudes vying to succeed him: Sean Durkin’s wrestling-family biopic THE IRON CLAW and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 mafia epic THE GODFATHER chart a very similar narrative within two very different worlds. Will THE IRON CLAW also shape how we talk and think about other wrestling films for decades to come? That remains to be seen, but this week we’re joined by freelance film critic Siddhant Adlakha to mull THE GODFATHER’s impact on the gangster movie as we know it, consider which set piec...2024-01-0957 min
The Next Picture ShowOur Top 10 Films of 20232023 was an idiosyncratic yet satisfying year for movies and the audiences who watch them, as reflected in the combination of across-the-board crowd-pleasers and one-off favorites comprising our Top 10 lists of the year’s best films. As per tradition, Tasha, Scott, and Keith convened to compare their respective lists and examine the points where they converge and diverge, and celebrate the high points of another year that supports the idea that every year is a good one for movies. Please share your thoughts about and own picks for the best movies of 2023, or anything else in the world of f...2024-01-021h 07
The Next Picture ShowShe's Alive! Pt. 2 — Poor ThingsYorgos Lanthimos’ POOR THINGS is many things, among them a whimsical retelling of the story of Frankenstein’s monster as codified in James Whale’s iconic 1930s classics FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. But there’s a lot of other stuff animating POOR THINGS’ surface pleasures and just-below-the-surface ideas, which we parse before moving into Connections to compare these three films’ depictions of playing God and twisted parent-child relationships; mad science and the mad scientists who practice it; and stylized, unnatural versions of reality as perceived by stylized, unnatural creatures. And in Your Next Picture Show we give a brief nod to...2023-12-271h 13
The Next Picture ShowShe's Alive! Pt. 1 — Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935)Yorgos Lanthimos’s POOR THINGS is so open in its allusions to Frankenstein — both scientist and monster — that it inspired us to stitch together our first dual pairing, of James Whale’s 1931 classic, which established the on-screen language of Mary Shelley’s monster, and his 1935 follow-up THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, which set up nearly a century of expectations for sequels in Hollywood. But despite many commonalities, chief among them a literally iconic Boris Karloff performance, these films are two distinct creatures, so we’re dissecting them both to talk through their different tones, relationships to their source material, and legacies. 2023-12-1958 minThe Next Picture ShowMiyazaki in Wonderland, Pt. 2 — The Boy and the HeronLike Chihiro in SPIRITED AWAY, the protagonist of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, THE BOY AND THE HERON, is drawn into a fantastical world populated by strange creatures that help usher him through a coming-of-age journey — but Mahito is a very different protagonist, and his journey unfolds in a very different way. We’re joined once again by Vulture editor and animation expert Eric Vilas-Boas to unpack the imagery and ideas populating Miyazaki’s latest wonderland, and debate the animation auteur’s feelings about birds, before bringing SPIRITED AWAY back in to compare these films’ depictions of children and parents, vil...2023-12-121h 08
The Next Picture ShowMiyazaki in Wonderland, Pt. 1 — Spirited AwayStudio Ghibli's latest, THE BOY AND THE HERON, is unmistakably a Hayao Miyazaki creation, drawing multiple specific elements from the animator’s life and past work — most conspicuously 2001’s SPIRITED AWAY, another film in which a sad young person is whisked away to a wondrous-slash-terrifying realm filled with memorable creatures and its own dream logic. Before we venture into Miyazaki’s latest idiosyncratic, shifting world, we’re joined by Vulture editor and animation reporter Eric Vilas-Boas for a look back at what makes Miyazaki’s earlier adventures in the spirit realm simultaneously sticky and slippery, and what primed SPIRITED AWAY for cro...2023-12-0559 min
The Next Picture ShowCoppola's Queens, Pt. 2 — PriscillaAs biopics go, the new PRISCILLA is decidedly less rambunctious than the 2006 provocation MARIE ANTOINETTE, but each of these intimate, sympathetic portraits of a woman who lived in a man’s shadow and under his control are unmistakable as the work of Sofia Coppola. This week we get into how our reactions to PRISCILLA — both positive and negative — were affected, even shaped, by its place in Coppola’s filmography, and whether the film’s compressed third act is a feature or a bug. Then we head into Connections, which is stacked with comparison points between the two films’ ideas about power...2023-11-211h 20
The Next Picture ShowCoppola's Queens, Pt. 1 — Marie AntoinetteMight the response that greeted MARIE ANTOINETTE in 2006 have been warmer if audiences at the time had the context of Sofia Coppola’s latest, PRISCILLA, which takes a similarly unconventional narrative and musical approach to a famous marriage? Both films are biopic-shaped containers for Coppola’s now-well-established thematic obsessions, with little interest in the details of history that fall outside that purview, making for one of the more direct one-to-one pairings we’ve done in some time. We kick it off this week with a discussion of the ways time has been kind to MARIE ANTOINETTE’s elision of history...2023-11-151h 06
The Next Picture ShowTrue West, Pt. 2 — Killers of the Flower MoonMartin Scorsese’s new KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and the 1950 Delmar Daves Western BROKEN ARROW are both films made by non-Native filmmakers seeking to confront stereotypes about Native Americans, but they are reflective of two distinct cultural moments separated by decades of change when it comes to representation in Hollywood storytelling. This week we spend some time wrestling with the characters, contradictions, and compartmentalization in FLOWER MOON before bringing BROKEN ARROW back in to see how attitudes have progressed when it comes to correcting the historical record and shaking viewers out of their assumptions, how the two films in...2023-11-071h 06The Next Picture ShowTrue West, Pt. 1 — Broken ArrowMartin Scorsese’s new Killers of the Flower Moon, based on David Grann’s horrifying non-fiction true-crime book, tracks systematic murder in a 1920s Osage tribe by a group of white men looking to secure the tribe’s profitable oil rights. Among the players are a couple, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone, who appear to truly love each other while not entirely realizing they’re also in a predator-prey relationship. The interracial romance, racial tension, and struggle for survival pairs well with the 1950 Western Broken Arrow, also based on real historical events and real figures, and centering on a diffe...2023-10-3154 min
The Next Picture ShowOutback Outsiders, Pt. 2 — Royal HotelKitty Green’s new ROYAL HOTEL takes the rural Australian bar-culture setting of 1971’s WAKE IN FRIGHT and explores how placing two young women in the role of outsider changes the threat level. We start this week by parsing the film’s micro- and mega-aggressions, and whether those inflicting them are capital-B Bad men, or just regular men wrapped up in bad power dynamics. Then we bring WAKE IN FRIGHT back in to consider how both films are on some level about the intertwined desires for identity and acceptance, as well as alcohol’s deleterious effect on both.Please...2023-10-2457 min
The Next Picture ShowOutback Outsiders, Pt. 1 — Wake In FrightKitty Green’s new THE ROYAL HOTEL follows two women stranded amid the oppressive masculinity of a rough-and-tumble Australian mining town, a purposeful gender subversion of Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 Australian cult classic WAKE IN FRIGHT. We begin our two-week journey through the fringes of civilization with a trip to WAKE IN FRIGHT’s “the Yabba” to discuss how the film’s more harrowing elements, including its infamous kangaroo hunt, play in a context of sheer lawlessness, debate whether it feels like a representative Australian film, and try to decipher the strange allure of “two up.” And in Feedback, we consider a coupl...2023-10-171h 01
The Next Picture ShowAlien Nation Pt. 2 — No One Will Save YouIt’s perhaps a bit unfair to compare the new NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU to UNDER THE SKIN, a film widely considered (by us) to be one of the best science-fiction films of the last 20 years, but at least one of our co-hosts was taken by Brian Duffield’s virtually dialogue-free story of a solitary woman fending off extraterrestrials. In the first half of this week’s episode, they get into it with the rest of our panel — joined once again by comedian Joe Kwaczala (“Funny Songs and Sketches”) — over the film and whether its divisive ending is a subversively...2023-10-101h 02The Next Picture ShowAlien Nation, Pt. 1 — Under the SkinThe new NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU follows a lonely, socially isolated woman through an alien invasion, a narrative it shares with UNDER THE SKIN, though in Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 instant classic, said woman also happens to be the invading alien. Both protagonists are enigmatic in their own way, and the films around them follow suit, with heightened tones and minimal dialogue providing two distinct takes on human nature through alien eyes. This week we plunge into the eerie depths of UNDER THE SKIN with the help of comedian and film fan Joe Kwaczala (@joekjoek), to talk through the dy...2023-10-031h 07
The Next Picture ShowLarrain's Pinochet Pt. 2 — El CondePablo Larraín has approached the legacy of Augusto Pinochet from several angles over the course of his filmography, but never quite as directly as in his latest, EL CONDE. And yet even when casting the Chilean dictator as his protagonist, Larraín seems less interested in the real man — who, as far as we know, is not an undying vampire — than what he represents about power, manipulation, and history’s ongoing cycle thereof. We talk through our thoughts about how that plays out in EL CONDE, before bringing back Larraín’s NO, a film that approaches Pinochet with more h...2023-09-261h 10
The Next Picture ShowLarraín's Pinochet Pt. 1 — No (2012)Augusto Pinochet ruled Chile as a dictator for nearly 20 years and left behind a complicated legacy, one Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín has approached sideways in various ways over the course of his career. His new EL CONDE, which renders Pinochet a literal vampire, is a more fantastical expression of that approach than 2012’s NO, a behind-the-scenes dramatization of the marketing campaign that helped end Pinochet’s rule, but both films are rich with complications of trust, hope, and public opinion. We unpack some of those complications in this week’s dive into NO, as well as how the film’s...2023-09-191h 06
The Next Picture ShowClique, Clique, Boom Pt. 2 — BottomsHEATHERS is just one of many reference points at work in Emma Seligman’s new BOTTOMS, but the two films taken together illustrate just how differently the “dark comedy” designation can be applied to high-school movies. So after searching for meaning in BOTTOMS, and coming to terms with the idea that meaninglessness may actually be its point, we compare how these two expressions of high-school hierarchies under attack function as dark comedy, how they put familiar tropes about cliques and clueless adults to different ends, and how one of them defuses a bomb the other is willing to set off. A...2023-09-0559 min
The Next Picture ShowClique, Clique, Boom Pt. 1 — HeathersAlmost immediately after BOTTOMS premiered at this year’s SXSW, the heightened mix of satire and violence in Emma Seligman’s new film drew comparisons to Michael Lehmann’s HEATHERS, which in 1989 set a new high-water mark for upending the high-school movie tropes of the day through a darkly comedic lens. How does a movie that turns teenage suicide (don’t do it) into a punchline fare by today’s standards? That’s up for discussion in this half of our pairing, along with how HEATHERS executes its tricky tonal balance, its characterization of the high school experience and the parents...2023-08-291h 04
The Next Picture ShowThroupling, Pt. 2 — PassagesIra Sachs’ new PASSAGES centers on a relationship broadly similar to the one at the center of SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, but approaches it with a different level of intimacy and intensity (one that earned it an NC-17 rating before the filmmakers opted to release it unrated). We’re joined once again by freelance critic and friend of the show Noel Murray to talk through the different points of characterization and performance on PASSAGES’ love triangle, before looking at how the two films compare and contrast in their critiques of hetero-monogamous normativity, their ideas about suppressed jealousy and art, and their...2023-08-221h 17
The Debatable PodcastEpisode 75 - Double Lap Dissolve with Tasha RobinsonTASHA ROBINSON, film critic at The Dissolve, and formerly of The A.V. Club, joins me to talk about the road that led to her becoming one of the best in the industry. During our talk, we also touch on Bob Hoskins' passing, the Star Wars Episode 7 casting announcement, Tasha's VHS film education, the odd jobs she had just out of college, publication editing, aggregate scoring with Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, misogyny and trolling on comment boards (with focus on Anita Sarkeesian and "Feminist Frequency"), the state of women in film, Paul Greengrass' "Captain Phillips," what is wrong (and...2014-05-061h 37