New ep: The existential, eternal dread of IT ENDS reminded us of similar beats in Andrei Tarkovsky's SOLARIS. So we looked back at that movie's complicated, opaque symbolism, its misguided rep as "the anti-2001," and whether it really is "Tarkovsky's most accessible movie." omny.fm/shows/filmsp...

In part 2 of our double feature of END OF OAK STREET and Steven Spielberg's 2005 WAR OF THE WORLDS, we discuss how similar the central families are, right down to their sibling relationships and marital feuds. We also get into their remarkably similar finale copouts. omny.fm/shows/filmsp...

Over on the Patreon, we've got an exclusive episode for supporters, where we talk through Dolly Parton's biggest theatrical movies. Film was never her focus, but when she appeared in films, they were usually focused on her persona above anything else. www.patreon.com/NextPictureS...

New ep! THE END OF OAK STREET has us looking back at Steven Spielberg's 2005 take on WAR OF THE WORLDS, a similar story about a collapsing suburban family suddenly united when an outside threat wants to eat them. Featuring Tom Cruise as the Top Gun of New Jersey stevedores! omny.fm/shows/filmsp...

New ep: @mattsinger.bsky.social joins us for the second half of our MANDALORIAN AND GROGU / SHOGUN ASSASSIN pairing, as we look into why the latest Star Wars movie left us unsatisfied, and how many story moments this movie took directly from Kazuo Koike's Lone Wolf and Cub. omny.fm/shows/filmsp...

New ep! THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU is a perfect excuse to look back on the story it's reimagining: the LONE WOLF AND CUB manga and movies. This week we consider the strange history and cultural impact of SHOGUN ASSASSIN, with @mattsinger.bsky.social playing sidekick. open.spotify.com/episode/1CaF...

This week, PROJECT HAIL MARY took us back to a 1972 science fiction movie about a lone astronaut navigating ecological collapse, and finding his most human connection in non-human companions: SILENT RUNNING, starring Bruce Dern as an unlovable, unloved would-be hero. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

DEAD MAN'S WIRE takes some clear scene-for-scene inspiration from Sidney Lumet's DOG DAY AFTERNOON — but then, they're both based-on-a-true-crime thrillers about ordinary people taking hostages and winning unlikely fandoms. We compare and contrast this week: cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

#509: Captive Audiences, Pt. 2 — Dead Man's Wire by The Next Picture Show

Even without the Al Pacino connection, Gus Van Sant's new dramatization of a real-life 1970s hostage situation turned public spectacle was destined for comparisons to Dog Day Afternoon.

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New ep! Gus Van Sant's DEAD MAN'S WIRE has us looking back to a previous true-story crime drama about a hostage crisis set off by ordinary people. Sidney Lumet's tremendous DOG DAY AFTERNOON has a thousand moving parts, and we unpack them layer by layer. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

Timothée Chalamet in MARTY SUPREME: Lovable rascal? Irredeemable asshole? Just a twerp? We had different takes on the character, the film, and the UNCUT GEMS BUT WITH PING-PONG experience. Plus, we compare it to Robert Rossen's 1961 sports-brat movie THE HUSTLER. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

This week, we look at the underrated (and maybe too weird for the mainstream?) 2025 fantasy-comedy ETERNITY, and consider how its oppressive afterlife bureau, hard postmortem choices, and big emotions compare to the ones in Hirozaku Kore-eda's lyrical AFTER LIFE. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

This week, the new rom-com ETERNITY inspired a look back at a different film about an afterlife bureaucracy forcing people to make sense of their lives via difficult, personal choices after death: Hirozaku Kore-eda's dreamy, earnest 1998 movie AFTER LIFE. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

In our latest ep, Netflix's TRAIN DREAMS reminded us of Terrence Malick's 1978 movie DAYS OF HEAVEN, featuring a young Richard Gere as a man more in touch with the natural world than his own emotions. Let's discuss Linda Manz's voiceover and what it really means! cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

It's our 10th anniversary and 500th episode, so we celebrated by breaking format: This week, we discuss the movie we're named for, Peter Bogdanovich's forlorn, star-packed 1971 drama THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, then revive the ol' Barnyard Buzzers for an NPS trivia game. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

New ep! Radu Jude's latest wild provocation, DRACULA, inspired a look back at a previous surreal story about a filmmaker fumbling for ideas: Federico Fellini's startlingly meta 1963 movie 8 1/2, with a thinly veiled Fellini trying to define the movie as you watch it. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

The second episode of our FAIL-SAFE/A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE pairing, with special guest @jasondashbailey.com, is posted. Come celebrate 60 years of plausible, sleep-robbing nuclear scenarios with us! megaphone.link/FILM2925391917

#497: First Strikes, Pt. 2 — A House of Dynamite by The Next Picture Show

Is Kathryn Bigelow's hooky premise enough to support a successful movie?

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This week we're comparing Akira Kurosawa's HIGH AND LOW with Spike Lee's reimagining HIGHEST 2 LOWEST. The new film tells the same story, plus a lot of modern wrinkles and familiar Lee touches, and a battle-rap the original is notably missing. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

New ep! Spike Lee's HIGHEST 2 LOWEST, now on Apple TV Plus, prompted us to look back at the original adaptation of Ed McBain's KING'S RANSOM: Akira Kurosawa's stunning morality play, police procedural, and class drama HIGH AND LOW, still an absolute stunner. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

This week: In honor of the 2025 NAKED GUN, we look back at the 1988 OG movie, talking about what distinguishes ZAZ comedies from Mel Brooks or more modern SCARY MOVIE-type send-ups, and breaking down what makes some gags timeless, while others age like dead fish. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

New ep! Chris Klimek (ctklimek.bsky.social) joins us to talk Superman, this week starting with our favorite on-screen Supersmen, then taking a deep dive into Richard Donner's 1978 movie, with its classic choices and its extreme ones. Can you read our miiinds? cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

New ep! Inspired by PAVEMENTS, we're talking about movies that prioritize conveying a musician's essence over covering biographical fact. @noelmu.bsky.social joins us this week as we start with Todd Haynes' freewheelin’ approach to Bob Dylan in I'M NOT THERE. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

This week, we consider the terrifying worlds Tim Robinson characters create just by existing. And we consider how the writhing discomfort comedy of FRIENDSHIP works as a double feature with PT Anderson's THE MASTER, also about a squirmy mentorship/friendship. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

This week, inspired by the thorny tragicomic Tim Robinson/Paul Rudd mentorship in FRIENDSHIP, we worked on unpacking the fraught, complicated, endlessly mysterious Joaquin Phoenix/Philip Seymour Hoffman mentorship in Paul Thomas Anderson's THE MASTER: cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

Last week, we revisited 1999's MYSTERY MEN, about a group of inept amateur superheroes operating in the shadow of a more popular, powerful hero. This week, we turn to Marvel's THUNDERBOLTS*. These films have a lot more specific, surprising parallels than we expected. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

Let's get furious! This week, inspired by THUNDERBOLTS*, we look back at MYSTERY MEN, another third-string-superheros movie about an awkward group of street-level types with self-esteem issues and family problems, living in the shadow of a much shinier hero. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

This week, David Cronenberg's THE SHROUDS inspired a look back at his most mainstream movie (and, as we discuss, his last horror film?), 1986's THE FLY. These movies have so many parallels, from terrible possessive exes to obsessions with decay — and "the flesh." cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

This week, Steven Soderbergh's BLACK BAG prompted a look back at another couple solving a mystery via fancy dinner party, in 1934's THE THIN MAN. This franchise-launcher is notable for many things, but especially Nick & Nora's casual, breezy loyalty and chemistry. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

Last week: Paul Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS mocks fascism. This week: Bong Joon-ho's MICKEY 17 mocks capitalism. Both do it via doofuses at war with space bugs, and via exaggerated, over-the-top satirical rancor. We dig into how they line up and how they diverge. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

We're back! This week, Bong Joon-ho's MICKEY 17 has us looking back at Paul Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS, another book adaptation where "idiots needlessly go to war with space bugs." We argue about his intended satire of fascism, and whether it lands as intended: cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...

This week: Inspired by EEPHUS's feature-length subversion of “the big game,” we're joined by pinch-hitter @timgrierson.bsky.social to look back at 1988’s BULL DURHAM and see how what's often cited as one of the best baseball movies ever lives up to that reputation: cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2...