The Next Picture Show

James Gray’s new jungle adventure THE LOST CITY OF Z inspired us to take another trip to the Amazon via Les Blank’s BURDEN OF DREAMS, the 1982 documentary chronicling the notoriously difficult filming of Werner Herzog’s Amazonian epic FITZCARRALDO. In this half, we talk about Herzog — both the director and the pop-culture character we’ve come to know — and the borderline-mania that seems to drive...

In this half of our discussion of the “weird conceptual sandwich” that is THE MATRIX and GHOST IN THE SHELL, we puzzle over why the latter hyper-stylish, cerebral film fails where the former succeeds. The two films ultimately have different aims, but their approaches are surprisingly similar — though it’s how they differ that’s most telling. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent film...

The poorly received new live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL draws inspiration from a lot of different sources — including one that was itself inspired by the original GHOST IN THE SHELL anime: The Wachowskis’ 1999 future-thriller THE MATRIX, which turns on a similar form of science-fiction dysmorphia. In this half of the discussion, we focus in on tiny miracle that is THE MATRIX, a studio-backed, creat...

The new LIFE has come in for some pointed comparisons to Ridley Scott’s ALIEN, which seems like as good an excuse as any to revisit the unimpeachable 1979 space thriller. In this half of the conversation, we marvel at how a film so narratively economical can be so deliberately paced, and still manage to induce scares after multiple viewings. Plus, some feedback from our recent episodes on KONG: SK...

We return to Skull Island to puzzle over the stylish curiosity that is Jordan Vogt-Roberts’s new take on the classic film monster, KONG: SKULL ISLAND. Why is this movie aping APOCALYPSE NOW? Have we reached our limit of giant CGI creatures pummeling each other? And, most pertinent of all, how does this bigger, bolder vision of Kong reflect and react to the legacy of its legendary cinematic ancesto...

Does every generation get the Kong it deserves? That’s the question on our minds with the release of Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ new take on the great ape, KONG: SKULL ISLAND, which inspired us to go all the way back to the source: 1933’s medium-defining KING KONG. In this half of the discussion, we attempt to separate the movie from the cinema myth, grapple with some less savory aspects of the film’s le...

Jordan Peele’s writing-directing debut GET OUT translates the satirical horror of Wes Craven’s THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS from the Reagan era to the Obama era, to very different — and highly entertaining — effect. In this half of our discussion of the two films, we rave for a bit about GET OUT’s willingness to make us uncomfortable, then discuss the two films’ respective horror-to-satire ratios,...

Inspired by Jordan Peele’s excellent new writing-directing debut GET OUT, we’re looking at another horror film that openly addresses race, inequality, and its era: the 1991 Wes Craven oddity THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS. In this half, we debate how the earlier film’s central metaphor holds up divorced from the Reagan era that inspired it, how it reflects and fits into Craven’s directorial viewpoint...

Tim Burton’s BATMAN kick-started the cinematic and pop-culture proliferation of the now-ubiquitous Batman, who today can not only sustain multiple movies at once, but also provides ample fodder for the reference-happy new THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE. In this half of our discussion of all things Batmen, we talk about all the ways LEGO BATMAN draws on — and benefits from — the character’s long history, an...

We turn our attention now to Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's cringe-inducing 2016 behind-the-scenes campaign documentary WEINER, which plays in many ways like a natural extension of 1993’s THE WAR ROOM. After discussing how WEINER plays today — after its star, disgraced Congressman and mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, arguably had a hand in sinking Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes — we ta...

This week’s pairing tracks the rise and fall of Clintonism in America via two behind-the-scenes documentaries following dramatic Democratic campaigns: 1993’s THE WAR ROOM and 2016’s WEINER. In this deep-dive discussion of the earlier film, we talk over the advantages and limitations of Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker's fly-on-the-wall documentary style, compare the yin-yang personalities of star...

In lieu of our regularly scheduled episode — postponed two weeks due to the collision of illness and the Sundance Film Festival — we bring you a recording of our recent live episode, recorded at the Chicago Podcast Festival in November 2016. Inspired by the selection process that goes into each Next Picture Show pairing, with each host pitches a future episode inspired by a 2016 film (and letting...

Jim Jarmusch’s new PATERSON is one of 2016’s best films, and plays like a natural mirror to his breakthrough, STRANGER THAN PARADISE. After waxing rhapsodic about PATERSON for a while, we talk about how the two movies are connected, through their observational approaches, their quirky relationships with time, and their appreciation for the small things in life. We also try in vain to determine whe...

Our melancholy-musical double feature heads from Cherbourg, France, to Los Angeles USA, to see how Damien Chazelle’s new “modern-throwback” musical LA LA LAND stacks up against Jacques Demy’s UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG. We talk over LA LA LAND’s nostalgic appeal and speculate about its staying power, then compare how the two films utilize their settings, love stories, and singing to different but comp...

Damian Chazelle’s new big-screen musical LA LA LAND takes its cues from various singing-and-dancing cinematic predecessors, but its melancholy tone is directly descended from Jacques Demy’s classic 1964 musical THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG — a Next Picture Show favorite that we dig into in this first half. We talk over the effects of the film’s sung-through style and working-class setting, and try t...

Disney Feature Animation had some ups and downs—both artistic and commercial—in the years between MULAN and MOANA, and we chart them in the second half of our comparison of the two films. After taking a moment for a big collective squee over the great MOANA, we get into the evolution of the Disney female heroine (and her sidekicks) and discuss how music features in these films—perhaps with some si...

MOANA is a successful new entry in Disney Feature Animation’s ongoing experimentation with non-Western stories and non-white characters, an experiment that was still in its nascent stages around the time of 1998’s MULAN. Inspired by an ancient Chinese poem about a female warrior who disguises herself as a man, the film is an odd mishmash of comedy and war movie, of ancient and modern reference poi...

Our conversation about movies about talking to aliens moves to the present with Denis Villeneuve’s new ARRIVAL, which hits many of the same narrative points as CONTACT, but points them in a different emotional direction. We talk about our reactions to the newer film, and how its ideas about science, communication, and emotion compare with CONTACT’s. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share rec...

This week, we look to the skies to consider two films about the difficulty of communication between worlds, and the inward journeys involved in looking to the stars. Inspired by Denis Villeneuve’s new ARRIVAL, we begin with an in-depth discussion of an earlier film with which it shares many thematic and narrative elements: Robert Zemeckis' 1997 Carl Sagan adaptation CONTACT. We consider the film’s...

Our discussion of lyrical portraits of unrequited love turns its attention to Barry Jenkins’ MOONLIGHT, the look and feel of which—the final third in particular—recalls the bittersweet tone of Wong Kar-Wai’s IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. We share our reactions to MOONLIGHT, and consider the two films’ shared qualities, including their use of unusual framing and the thematic importance placed on food. Plus...

Inspired by one of the year’s biggest indie sensations, Barry Jenkins’ MOONLIGHT, we’re looking at another highly romanticized tale of unrequited love: Wong Kar-wai’s beautiful 2000 film IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. In this half, we talk about how affecting LOVE’s central non-love-story is - and why - and consider how the film reflects Wong’s improvisational methods and his desire to create a dreamlike r...

This week’s regular episode has been postponed a week, but in the meantime, Tasha and Genevieve get together to chat a little about why we’re postponing, and how we’re collectively figuring out how to care about movies again when so much else is going on in the world.  Check back in two weeks for our regular episodes on IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and MOONLIGHT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit me...

This week, we’ve all come to look for America, and we’re looking for it in a pair of road movies about underprivileged outsiders and the dreams that keep them hustling from place to place. Inspired by Andrea Arnold's sprawling new AMERICAN HONEY, we look back at Gus Van Sant's 1991 indie-punk-surrealist-fantasy-coming-of-age mishmash MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO. In this half, we attempt to wrangle IDAHO'...

We return to WESTWORLD in the second half of our double-feature, this time venturing into the wilds of television to discuss HBO's high-profile new series, which uses the concept of Michael Crichton's 1973 film as a jumping off point for a sprawling meditation on humanity, AI, evil, and where they intersect. We talk about how the series extends some of the ideas of the original film, and talk abou...

This week, we take two trips to Westworld—one via hovercraft, in Michael Crichton's 1973 film of the same name, and one via underground train, in the new HBO series that blows out the film's premise to a serialized-television scale. In this half we focus on Crichton's film, questioning whether it's a political film or just a sci-fi lark, how WESTWORLD plays into its creator's ongoing fixations (ah...