"Hal & Harper" is an American comedy drama television series created, written, and directed by Cooper Raiff and starring Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Betty Gilpin, and Mark Ruffalo. The series had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival where it received positive reviews for its writing, performances and decision to use the older actors to play their younger selves in flashbacks. Raiff was kind enough to spend some time speaking with us about his work and experience making the show, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the show, which is now available to stream on MUBI. Thank you, and enjoy!

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For Episode 462, Dan Bayer, Will Mavity, and I are here to preview the 2025 AFI Fest in Los Angeles, including the world premieres of "Song Sung Blue" and "The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants," and discuss the 2025 Critics' Choice Documentary Award (CCDA) nominations. For this week's poll, for the release of "Frankenstein" in theaters this weekend, we're asking, "Which Is Your Favorite Guillermo del Toro Film?" We also reveal the winner of last week's poll, where we asked "Which Is Your Favorite Luca Guadagnino Film?" for the release of "After The Hunt." We also share our reactions to the trailers for "Send Help," "The Secret Agent," "Rebuilding," "Keeper," answer your fan-submitted questions, and more! Thank you all for listening, supporting, subscribing, and voting. Enjoy!

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For this week's main podcast review, Katie Johnson, Dan Bayer, Lauren LaMagna, Giovanni Lago, and Joselyn Safadi join me to discuss the latest film from Luca Guadagnino, "After The Hunt," starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Chloë Sevigny. After having its world premiere out of competition at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, the psychological thriller (generous), written by Nora Garrett, has divided critics and audiences on its story about a college professor caught between a sexual abuse accusation involving one of her students and a colleague. What did we think of it? Please tune in as we discuss the performances, writing, direction, score, its awards season chances, and more in our SPOILER-FILLED review. Thank you for listening, and enjoy!

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"It Was Just An Accident" is a thriller film written and directed by legendary Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. The film is a co-production between Iran, Luxembourg, and France, the latter selecting it as the country's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. The film explores political repression in Iran and morality as a group of former political prisoners kidnap their torturer and decide what to do with him. Panahi, who is critical of the Iranian government and has been imprisoned several times, made the film without official filming permission from the Iranian authorities. The film had its world premiere at the main competition of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, where it received universal acclaim and won the prestigious Palme d'Or. Panahi and editor Amir Etminan were kind enough to spend some time speaking with us about their work and experience making the film, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which is now playing in theaters from NEON. Thank you, and enjoy!

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"After The Hunt" is a psychological thriller film directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Nora Garrett that premiered at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival out of competition and opened the 63rd New York Film Festival. Starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny, it contains a number of powerhouse performances from big and small names. In our first casting director interview for this awards season (brought on by the fact that there is now a new Oscar for Best Casting being bestowed at the 98th Academy Awards), Jessica Ronane was kind enough to spend some time speaking with us about the nature of her job, her experience working on the film, and more, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which is now playing in theaters from Amazon MGM Studios. Thank you, and enjoy!

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THIS IS A PREVIEW PODCAST. NOT THE FULL REVIEW. Please check out the full podcast review on our Patreon Page by subscribing over at - https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture

For this week's third podcast review, Nadia Dalimonte, Dan Bayer, Katie Johnson, and Giovanni Lago join me to review and discuss the latest film from Mary Bronstein, "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You," starring Rose Byrne, Conan O'Brien, Danielle Macdonald, Christian Slater, and ASAP Rocky. It is a psychological, nerve-wracking comedy-drama film that follows a mother desperately trying to navigate her daughter's mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist. The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it received positive reviews for Rose Byrne's performance, Bronstein's direction, the supporting performances of the rest of the cast, and the screenplay's confrontations with uncomfortable truths surrounding motherhood and parenting. Please tune in as we discuss these elements, its awards season chances, and more in our SPOILER-FILLED review. Thank you for listening, and enjoy!

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"Blue Moon" is an American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Richard Linklater and written by Robert Kaplow. The film follows songwriter Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) as he reflects on himself and his work on the opening night of "Oklahoma!," the iconic musical by his former colleague Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott). It also stars Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Jonah Lees. The film had its world premiere at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance for Scott and received positive reviews for Kaplow's writing, Linklater's focused direction, and Hawke's multi-layered performance, with many calling it one of the best of his career. Hawke was kind enough to spend some time speaking with us about his experience working on the film, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which will be released in theaters on October 17th from Sony Pictures Classics. Thank you, and enjoy!

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"The Smashing Machine" is a biographical sports drama film written, directed, produced, and edited by Benny Safdie. It stars Dwayne Johnson as former amateur wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr, alongside Emily Blunt as Kerr's girlfriend Dawn Staples, with Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, and Oleksandr Usyk in supporting roles. The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion and received positive reviews for the performances, notably Johnson's committed and transformational work and Safdie's re-creation of the world of MMA and the UFC during its early days. Filmmaker Safdie was kind enough to spend some time speaking with us about his experience working on the film, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which is now playing in theaters from A24. Thank you, and enjoy!

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"John Candy: I Like Me" is a celebrity biopic documentary film directed by Colin Hanks about Canadian actor John Candy. The documentary premiered as the opening night film of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received positive reviews. Hanks, who also produced the film, along with film participants and Co-Executive Producers Chris Candy & Jennifer Candy-Sullivan, were all kind enough to spend some time speaking with us about their work and experience on making the film, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. Thank you, and enjoy!

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THIS IS A PREVIEW PODCAST. NOT THE FULL REVIEW. Please check out the full podcast review on our Patreon Page by subscribing over at - https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture

For this week's second podcast review, Ema Sasic, Josh Parham, Lauren LaMagna, Dan Bayer, and Cody Dericks join me to review and discuss the latest film from Bill Condon, "Kiss Of The Spider Woman," starring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, and Jennifer Lopez. It is an American musical drama that is a film adaptation of the 1992 stage musical, itself based on the 1976 novel. It is the second film adaptation, following the Oscar-winning 1985 adaptation. It premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival to positive reviews for its performances, craftsmanship, and musical fantasy sequences. But what did we think of it? Please tune in as we discuss these elements, the themes, songs, its awards season chances, and more in our SPOILER-FILLED review. Thank you for listening, and enjoy!

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