The Next Picture Show

It’s understandable that new Dreamworks feature THE WILD ROBOT pulls some of its source code from THE IRON GIANT, considering the latter’s towering reputation as one of the greatest animated films ever, robot protagonist or otherwise. But the enduring legacy of Brad Bird’s debut feature was far from assured when it blipped through theaters back in 1999, so this week we’re examining what’s behind the film’s upgrade from box-office flop to stone-cold classic, one known for its ability to reduce viewers to tears with a single word of dialogue. And in Feedback, a listener offers a different interpretation of a character moment from our discussion of THE SAVAGES.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE IRON GIANT, THE WILD ROBOT, 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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Azazel Jacobs’ HIS THREE DAUGHTERS is, like Tamara Jenkins’ THE SAVAGES, a film about the heartbreaking experience of caring for an aging parent, but even more so it is, also like the other film in the pairing, about adult siblings reuniting and renegotiating their relationships under those fraught conditions. We’re decidedly more mixed on Jacobs’ film, however, which often plays like a stage adaptation — at times that works, at others it doesn’t, and we talk through both in the first half of this discussion. Then we bring THE SAVAGES back in to consider how each film is shaped by its relative proximity to the end of life, their overlapping perspectives on professional caretakers and those who deal with death for a living, and the realism and usefulness of their pop-cultural reference points. And in Your Next Picture Show we take a brief tour of Tamara Jenkins’s short but mighty feature filmography to date. 

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE SAVAGES, HIS THREE DAUGHTERS, 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: Chris Sanders’ THE WILD ROBOT and Brad Bird’s THE IRON GIANT

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Caring for an elderly or infirm parent is a common experience that is less commonly depicted on screen, particularly with a comedic bent, which is why Azazal Jacobs’ new HIS THREE DAUGHTERS inspired us to revisit the 2007 dramedy THE SAVAGES, which writer-director Tamara Jenkins drew from her own experiences dealing with a father with dementia. Much of the film’s success lies with the performances of Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman as siblings whose estranged father’s deteriorating condition serves as catalyst for their own midlife crises, and a script that trusts in their performances to convey the situation’s unexpected yet accurate mingling of tragedy and comedy. Then in Feedback we get negative, with one listener writing in about why a recent film we covered “broke” them, and another inviting us to share the beloved films that we just can’t help but dislike.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE SAVAGES, HIS THREE DAUGHTERS, 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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Jeremy Saulnier’s REBEL RIDGE puts a distinctly 2020s spin on the one-man army formula established in the era-defining ‘80s action hit FIRST BLOOD, resulting in a film with more nuance, less firepower, and equal amounts of ass-kicking. We parse that equation a bit more in-depth in our spoiler-light discussion of REBEL RIDGE, before bringing back FIRST BLOOD to see how the decades between the two films shape their respective ideas about escalation of force, small-town policing, and genre politics. And for Your Next Picture Show, we offer a quick-hit ranking of Saulnier’s filmography to date.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about FIRST BLOOD, REBEL RIDGE, 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: Azazel Jacobs’ HIS THREE DAUGHTERS and Tamara Jenkins’ THE SAVAGES 

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Genre specialist Jeremy Saulnier’s latest banger, REBEL RIDGE, owes an obvious debt to the film that kicked off Sylvester Stallone’s second long-running franchise, 1982’s FIRST BLOOD, but the two films are of very different eras with very different core concerns about policing in America. So this week we’re focusing on the shadow of Vietnam that falls over the Pacific Northwest in the form of John Rambo, digging into the deeper themes that lie beneath the proverbial pissing contest between FIRST BLOOD’s ticking time bomb of a protagonist and the antagonistic police chief who foolishly sets him off. And in Feedback we revisit our ALIENS discussion with a deep reference and some head-cannon fodder from our listeners.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about FIRST BLOOD, REBEL RIDGE, 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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Fede Álvarez’s ALIEN: ROMULUS is at its core an act of homage to the larger franchise, but is that a feature, a bug, or both? That’s a question we attempt to reconcile in our discussion of Álvarez’s acid-blood-soaked film, before comparing how this late-stage sequel compares with the franchise’s original sequel, James Cameron’s ALIENS, in iterating on the corporate meddling of Weyland-Yutani, the evolving nature of artificial humans, and comedy as characterization. And for Your Next Picture Show, we pivot hard away from this franchise-driven pairing for a recommendation of Spanish filmmaker Víctor Erice’s first feature in over three decades, CLOSE YOUR EYES.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about ALIENS, ALIEN: ROMULUS, and anything else in the world of film and/or xenomorphs, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next Pairing: Jeremy Saulnier’s REBEL RIDGE and Ted Kotcheff’s FIRST BLOOD

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Fede Álverez’s ALIEN: ROMULUS is so reference-packed that an argument could be made for pairing it with just about any ALIEN film, but since we’ve already discussed the 1979 original, and because the Next Picture Show bylaws state that if an opportunity to discuss ALIENS arises we must take it, we’re digging into the first of the many sequels this franchise has spawned. Thanks to writer-director James Cameron’s economy of storytelling, there are so many iconic moments, characters, and lines to discuss that we barely scratch the surface this week, though, rest assured, ROMULUS will provide us with many more avenues into the film’s greater legacy and mythology next week. And then we keep the franchise fever going in Feedback with a listener prompt about the feeling of being “done” with a once-beloved film series. 

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about ALIENS, ALIEN: ROMULUS, and anything else in the world of film and/or xenomorphs, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

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Is it a bit unfair to compare M. Night Shyamalan’s new grip-it-and-rip-it thriller TRAP to Fritz Lang’s 1931 cinematic landmark M? Sure, but that’s the name of the game here on The Next Picture Show, and for all of TRAP’s faults — which we try not to take too much glee in enumerating in this discussion — it does work, however awkwardly, as an extrapolation of the ideas and narrative techniques first established in Lang’s film. From its interest in exploring the mind of a serial killer to its depiction of law-enforcement overreach, there’s plenty in TRAP that feels like it’s echoing M, though whether Shyamalan does so with enough purpose to suggest a larger thematic statement like M’s is another question entirely.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about M, TRAP, 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: Fede Álvarez’s ALIEN: ROMULUS and James Cameron’s ALIENS.

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The new TRAP, like so many M. Night Shyamalan movies, openly courts comparisons to the work of Alfred Hitchcock, but its focus on the large-scale manhunt for a serial killer combined with its psychological interest in said killer has roots even further back in film history. So this week we reach all the way back to Fritz Lang’s first talkie, 1931’s M, to see how it frames the search for a compulsive child murderer decades before the term “serial killer” existed, and sort through the film’s many distinctive and influential elements, from its pessimistic view of law and order to its iconic whistling motif. Then in Feedback, a listener prompt gets us feeling nostalgic for some of our favorite and/or formative theatrical experiences.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about M, TRAP, 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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No show this week, but NPS co-host Genevieve Koski announces the next pairing, inspired by M. Night Shyamalan's "Trap."

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