The Next Picture Show

It took decades in development hell for an adaptation of Stephen King’s THE LONG WALK to trudge its way into theaters, and now that it has, we’re of split opinions on how Francis Lawrence’s film goes about distinguishing itself from its source material, particularly in its graphic depiction of violence. There’s also the matter of the film’s very different ending, which we dig into once we move int...

It took decades for THE LONG WALK to make it to the big screen, in part because the Stephen King novel on which it’s based is so unrelentingly grim — but as we discovered this week, it may actually be less so than the other half of this pairing, THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY. Set during the Great Depression and featuring a protagonist who is greatly depressed, Sydney Pollack’s 1969 drama about a m...

Spike Lee’s HIGHEST 2 LOWEST is built on the rock-solid narrative foundation of HIGH AND LOW, but the “interpretation” of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime-thriller classic he builds atop it can be shaky at times. We’re all in agreement that HIGHEST 2 LOWEST has flaws, but whether those flaws add up to ruin or simply provide texture to a singular filmmaker’s singular film is up for discussion in the fir...

The new HIGHEST 2 LOWEST includes an onscreen credit for “the master” Akira Kurosawa as inspiration for a film that has the same basic shape and mistaken-identity kidnapping premise of 1963’s HIGH AND LOW, but is still unmistakably a Spike Lee joint. So in order to better evaluate Lee’s modernization of a crime classic, we’re returning to the master’s version to see how Kurosawa himself reshaped H...

Zach Cregger’s WEAPONS overlaps with Atom Egoyan’s THE SWEET HEREAFTER in both its broad narrative setup — a town grapples with the sudden disappearance of a group of children — and its non-traditional structure, but diverges considerably in its tone. Then again, WEAPONS diverges considerably from its own tone as it goes on, artfully shifting gears as it makes its way through a story that prioriti...

As a story about a community shattered by the disappearance of its children, Zach Cregger’s WEAPONS lured us, Pied Piper-like, toward Atom Egoyan’s 1997 film THE SWEET HEREAFTER, which doesn’t have quite as many jump scares as Cregger’s film, but makes up for it in enveloping sadness as it explores the far-reaching effects of a school bus crash on a small Canadian town. So this week we’re revisiti...

Akiva Schaffer’s new take on THE NAKED GUN sends up both the cop-story cliches that inspired the 1988 Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker original and the modern action tropes littering the filmography of star Liam Neeson, but at heart it’s less a genre parody than a spoof of nostalgia reboots like, well, this one. That meta layer is a major distinction between Schaffer’s film and the original, but it’s not th...

While technically a sequel, Akiva Schaffer’s new THE NAKED GUN is more accurately a reboot of the 1988 Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker cop-show spoof, which was itself a sequel-slash-reboot of their TV series POLICE SQUAD and would go on to spawn two sequels of its own. As circuitous as this IP has become over the years, though, THE NAKED GUN remains simple in both its approach and its appeal, which are es...

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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 fe...

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 bi...

On 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 elemen...

The 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 come...

Celine 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. B...

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...

Like 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 newco...

Alex 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 ou...

We 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 discomfit...

We 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 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 powe...

The 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 c...

Intro: 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 adm...

Comparing 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...

Over 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 plac...

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 Char...