Because all movies are more interesting in context. More at patreon.com/NextPictureShow. Next up, dark fantasies, gender conflict, and class warfare between couples stranded on desert islands in Lina Wertmuller's SWEPT AWAY and Sam Raimi's SEND HELP.https://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3miehog4etk2hThis 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM564041227931 Mar 2026 15:13 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3miehog4etk2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3mdlwnwokzk2nDEAD 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: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM285882936829 Jan 2026 23:24 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mdlwnwokzk2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3mcxmvgyql22jNew 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM613788112221 Jan 2026 21:36 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mcxmvgyql22jhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3mbrnus3jos2jTimothée 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM682505751906 Jan 2026 19:12 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mbrnus3jos2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3maeh4borl224This 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM564474784619 Dec 2025 19:41 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3maeh4borl224https://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3m7lf4iljus2vThis 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM297266504009 Dec 2025 20:29 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7lf4iljus2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3m6wzvicbgs2zIn 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! https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM505250144201 Dec 2025 18:15 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3m6wzvicbgs2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3m63tqqx3us2hIt'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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM913123712120 Nov 2025 22:43 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3m63tqqx3us2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3m4tbvxatdk2fNew 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM485376160104 Nov 2025 19:37 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4tbvxatdk2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3m4bebprezk2rThe 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 https://megaphone.link/FILM292539191728 Oct 2025 16:32 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4bebprezk2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lzevjfimbs2gThis 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM750967980621 Sep 2025 22:03 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lzevjfimbs2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lyghmjlwpc2rNew 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM227258731109 Sep 2025 19:34 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lyghmjlwpc2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lwf7gijcfs25This 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM216326787314 Aug 2025 20:45 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lwf7gijcfs25https://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3luli5qen722yNew 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? https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM177887821722 Jul 2025 21:46 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3luli5qen722yhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lrglend6pk27New 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM733714427312 Jun 2025 18:45 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lrglend6pk27https://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lqsavba6ys2lThis 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM601911106704 Jun 2025 16:44 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lqsavba6ys2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lq6pad47xs2oThis 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: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM835889388727 May 2025 22:08 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lq6pad47xs2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lppnkcaj422uLast 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM559240672421 May 2025 22:27 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lppnkcaj422uhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lp7r4cnuic2vLet'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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM939660313915 May 2025 14:49 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lp7r4cnuic2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lmudziyhis2eThis 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." https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM630856877715 Apr 2025 15:05 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmudziyhis2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3llrvlgaae22lThis 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM670918507601 Apr 2025 22:16 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3llrvlgaae22lhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3llfdi7pj7226Last 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. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM990799028327 Mar 2025 22:20 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3llfdi7pj7226https://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lkthqwl3a22mWe'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: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM466365191020 Mar 2025 19:48 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lkthqwl3a22mhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3ljolyay5ps2mThis 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: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM469646291606 Mar 2025 03:56 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3ljolyay5ps2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lf67uw4fxk2iThis week, we're breaking from the usual pairing format to discuss our top 10 movies of 2024. Some of these picks won't be a surprise if you've followed along with the show. Others… well, we all ended this recording with some new catch-ups added to our watch lists. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM911111299207 Jan 2025 17:56 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lf67uw4fxk2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3leajxrj2n22yThis week: We explore NICKEL BOYS, RaMell Ross’s adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel, and compare it with THE DEFIANT ONES (which Ross draws footage from) in terms of themes, perspective, and how to unpack those two pregnant, haunting endings. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237504700926 Dec 2024 22:36 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3leajxrj2n22yhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3ldlt7x65g22pThis week: NICKEL BOYS' use of footage from Stanley Kramer's 1958 race-relations thriller THE DEFIANT ONES made us curious, so we checked it out to see how the two connect. Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis are tremendous in this message movie about convicts on the run: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM349804922518 Dec 2024 16:56 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldlt7x65g22phttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3ld74d36kuc2sThis week, we talk WICKED: PART I: the material added to the stage show, the odd treatment of the songs, the audacious approach, the believability of the Elphaba/Glinda friendship. Then we compare it with WIZARD OF OZ's heroic journey, resolutions, and more. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM524856973813 Dec 2024 15:34 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3ld74d36kuc2shttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lcg622nmd22lThis week, WICKED takes us back to the original WIZARD OF OZ, for a clear-eyed adult look at this classic's strengths, flaws, and oddities — particularly its troubled history, how it got its Kansas framing device, and how it all plays for a deeply familiar audience. https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM742741308803 Dec 2024 17:28 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lcg622nmd22lhttps://bsky.app/profile/thenextpictureshow.bsky.social/post/3lbval4vr6c2lThis week: Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner ANORA has drawn widespread fascination and acclaim with its portrait of a Manhattan sex worker whose quickie romance with a rich Russian kid complicates both their lives. It pairs perfectly with PRETTY WOMAN on many levels: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM2375047009?selected=FILM898686933026 Nov 2024 23:59 +0000at://did:plc:nncictsue4o7bqoosrxaxbtj/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbval4vr6c2l