Intro & Oscars Chitchat: 00:00:00-00:08:52

Keynote: 00:08:53-00:13:50

The Killing Fields Discussion: 00:13:51-44:37

Feedback & Outro: 00:44:38-end

Summary: 

The Oscar-nominated documentary NO OTHER LAND, a collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers whose common cause and eventual friendship does not change the stark contrast in their political status, brought to mind another story of two journalists from strikingly different backgrounds who bond in the midst of a geopolitical hotspot: 1984’s THE KILLING FIELDS. We’re joined this week by Slate writer and critic Sam Adams to revisit Roland Joffé’s dramatization of the relationship between New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran, the Cambodian interpreter who worked alongside him as the country fell to the Khmer Rouge, to consider how THE KILLING FIELDS plays several decades removed from a conflict that would have been recent history for contemporary audiences. And in Feedback we share a listener’s explanation for one of our lingering questions from our recent discussion of THE OTHERS. 

Please share your thoughts about THE KILLING FIELDS, NO OTHER LAND, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

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Steven Soderbergh’s new PRESENCE flips the typical haunted house narrative inside out, but unlike the other film in this pairing, THE OTHERS, it makes its point of view clear from the opening frames. But that POV doesn’t slide fully into focus until PRESENCE’s final-act reveal, which left us with some questions, both critical and metaphysical, to dig into this week. Then we bring THE OTHERS back into the conversation to discuss how these two very different takes on the haunted house — one classical, one revisionist — each makes use of confined space, complex parent-child dynamics, and ambiguity about how time functions in an eternal afterlife. Then we keep the ghost stories coming in Your Next Picture Show, with some recommendations for films with an unusual or memorable perspective on domestic hauntings.

Intro: (00:00:00-00:01:58)

Presence review (spoiler-free): (00:01:590-00:20:10)

Presence review continued (spoilers): (00:20:11-00:27:56)

Connections: (00:27:57-00:56:14)

Your Next Picture Show: (00:56:15-01:06:50)

Next episode preview and credits: (01:06:51-01:11:05)

Please share your thoughts about THE OTHERS, PRESENCE, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Your Next Picture Show:

• David Lowery’s A GHOST STORY

• Guillermo del Toro’s CRIMSON PEAK

• Jack Clayton’s THE INNOCENTS

• Sidney J. Furie’s THE ENTITY

Next Pairing: NO OTHER LAND and THE KILLING FIELDS

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Steven Soderbergh’s new PRESENCE is an unconventional haunted house story with a twist that reminded us of 2001’s THE OTHERS, though to say exactly why risks spoiling how Alejandro Amenábar performs his own twist on a comparatively traditional haunted house story. That twist forms the foundation of our discussion this week, which freely roams spoiler territory as we consider how the ending revelation shapes our understanding of THE OTHERS' perspective on religion and the afterlife, and how the film’s abundant symbolism lines up with its narrative as a ghost story. Then in Feedback, we revisit our recent “Fanged Attraction” pairing with a couple of listeners offering their own interpretations of BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA and NOSFERATU.

Please share your thoughts about THE OTHERS, PRESENCE, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

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Given their shared source material, Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU and Francis Ford Coppola’s BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA understandably have a lot overlap in terms of plot and character, but the two films are miles apart in their interpretation of that source material, particularly as applied to its titular vampire. We’re of split opinions on Eggers’ bleak, monster-forward characterization of Orlock, especially how it plays against NOSFERATU’s ideas about female desire and sexuality, but agree it provides a fascinating counterpoint to Coppola’s florid spin on the Count as a tragic romantic antihero. We examine that contrast further in Connections alongside other character parallels — the Renfields, the Van Helsings, the maidens fair — as well as how the two films’ diverging styles each reinforce their filmmaker’s take on the title character. And in place of Your Next Picture Show, we offer some impromptu reflections on the life and work of David Lynch, who died the day this episode was recorded. 

Please share your thoughts about BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, NOSFERATU, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next Pairing: Steven Soderbergh’s PRESENCE and Alejandro Amenábar’s THE OTHERS

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The heightened gothic sensibility of Robert Eggers’ new NOSFERATU recalls — in its intensity if not its precise contours — BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, Francis Ford Coppola’s feverish 1992 horror-romance that follows the same story from a markedly different perspective. This led us to reconsider Coppola’s flawed but fascinating DRACULA as a film that, even if it arguably never achieves greatness, inarguably leaves an impression. Yes, Keanu Reeves’ accent is part of that impression, but so is the film’s grandiose art design, its recasting of Dracula as a tragic romantic antihero, and its overall commitment to cinematic maximalism, for better or worse.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, NOSFERATU, and anything else in the world of film by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

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Hey Next Picture Show listeners, sorry there’s no new episode in your feed today. Real life got in the way of podcast life and prevented us from recording our next pairing in time to release it this week. But we will be back next Tuesday with part one of our double feature comparing Robert Eggers’ new Nosferatu with Frances Ford Coppola’s own take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1992. If you’re playing along at home, the former is in theaters now, while Coppola’s Dracula is digitally rentable from the usual outlets, and available in an array of physical-media releases to purchase — or perhaps check out from your local library. We hope you’ll enjoy both movies, and join us next week as we sink our teeth into this pairing. 

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With the beginning of a new year comes our customary look back, as Keith, Scott, and Tasha gather once again to compare their personal lists of the best films of 2024. While there is some crossover among their picks — particularly when it comes to films that have been discussed in-depth on this podcast — there is much more variance, reflective of a movie year that was light on prestige-season heavyweights, and full of memorably idiosyncratic, personal projects that will stick with us long past year’s end. 

Please share your thoughts about, and your own picks for, the best movies of 2024, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next Pairing: Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU and Francis Ford Coppola’s BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA

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The moments in NICKEL BOYS that nod to 1958’s THE DEFIANT ONES are less direct citations than stylized invocations by director RaMell Ross, who incorporates a number of abstractions and flourishes into the film’s visual language. Chief among those stylistic gambits is the film’s use of first-person perspective, which kicks off our discussion of NICKEL BOYS’ uniquely textured take on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel. From there we consider the deeper meaning and intent behind NICKEL BOYS’ use of visuals and audio from THE DEFIANT ONES, and where the two films overlap in their ideas about racial justice in the Jim Crow South and clashing philosophies of idealism and realism. Then our returning guest co-host Noel Murray offers a Your Next Picture Show recommendation for another social-issue film from the team behind THE DEFIANT ONES.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE DEFIANT ONES, NICKEL BOYS, and anything else in the world of film by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

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Stanley Kramer’s 1958 feature THE DEFIANT ONES, a film very much of its time, makes multiple on-screen appearances in RaMell Ross’ new NICKEL BOYS, a film about the way the past haunts the present. Both movies take place in the Jim Crow-era South and engage with that setting’s lopsided ideas about justice, but THE DEFIANT ONES does so from a much more straightforward approach, operating as both a stylish thriller about two escaped prisoners, one black (Sidney Poitier) and one white (Tony Curtis), and an earnest allegory about interracial acceptance. That latter quality makes it easy to lump in with Kramer’s other “message movies,” which are often dismissed from a modern vantage point as stodgy and sanctimonious, so we’re revisiting THE DEFIANT ONES, with an assist from critic and pal Noel Murray, to see whether it earns or defies that reputation. And in Feedback we revisit our WIZARD OF OZ discussion with a reader suggestion of another child female protagonist who rivals Dorothy when it comes to teary helplessness.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE DEFIANT ONES, NICKEL BOYS, and anything else in the world of film by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

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The antagonist becomes the protagonist in Jon M. Chu’s WICKED, which adapts a stage musical — the first act, anyway — which adapts a novel that flipped the script on 1939’s THE WIZARD OF OZ (itself an adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s novel). So while there are plenty of narrative and character parallels between the two films, they often run perpendicular to each other in their respective notions of good and wicked. But the two films are certainly aligned in their aim to be big-screen spectacles of the highest order, though opinions differ among our hosts as to what degree WICKED achieves that goal in its heavily CGI-ed and halved form. Following that debate, we pit Dorothy and Elphaba against each other to see what each protagonist has to offer when it comes to fish-out-of-water pluck, character-defining“I Want” songs, and willingness to trust in that scoundrel the Wizard. And for Your Next Picture Show, Scott wheels out a recommendation for one of the weirder, but strangely enduring, cinematic visions of Oz.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE WIZARD OF OZ, WICKED, and anything else in the world of film by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next pairing: RaMell Ross’s NICKEL BOYS and Stanley Kramer’s THE DEFIANT ONES

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