The Next Picture Show

Park Chan-wook’s new DECISION TO LEAVE openly takes inspiration from David Lean’s 1945 classic BRIEF ENCOUNTER (along with VERTIGO, which we also considered for this pairing), but the extramarital affair at the center of Park’s film is much more complicated than that of its inspiration — a murder mystery will do that, after all. We do our best to unpack the pileup of telling details informing Park’s slow-burn romance, before bringing Lean’s film back into the discussion to explore how these two stories connect in their respective studies of forbidden love and judgmental societies, the romanticism of stolen moments, and the metaphorical power of fog. Plus, we nod to an episode that almost was in Your Next Picture Show, sharing our brief reactions to Ruben Östlund’s TRIANGLE OF SADNESS and some of the films we considered pairing it with.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BRIEF ENCOUNTER, DECISION TO LEAVE, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], leaving a short voicemail at 773-234-9730, or commenting on our Patreon (patreon.com/NextPictureShow), where you can also find bonus episodes and more. 

Works cited:

“‘Decision to Leave’ brings back dark obsessions for ‘Oldboy’ director Park Chan-work,” by Tasha Robinson (polygon.com)

Outro music: Jung Hoon Hee w/ Song Chang-sik, “Mist”

Next Pairing: Stephen Frears’ DANGEROUS LIAISONS and Todd Field’s TAR

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Park Chan-wook’s quiet thriller DECISION TO LEAVE is about an affair of the heart between two people who have to hide what they’re feeling from the world, a dynamic drawn directly from David Lean’s 1945 melodrama BRIEF ENCOUNTER, which Park cites as one of his inspirations for the new film. So this week we’re returning to the station and rekindling our affair with BRIEF ENCOUNTER, to discuss what makes this intimate Noël Coward adaptation such an enduring cinematic reference point, and how its unbalanced point of view colors our perception of and reaction to the story’s central love affair. Plus, some late-breaking feedback on NOPE prompts us to consider our own personal limits of implausibility in film.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BRIEF ENCOUNTER, DECISION TO LEAVE, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Outro music: “Lover Please” by Clyde McPhatter

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Greg Mottola’s new CONFESS, FLETCH has so far flown under the radar in a modern-day moviegoing landscape to which it is not particularly suited, but we were won over by Jon Hamm’s take on the character first portrayed by Chevy Chase, who here takes on a slacker-detective persona more reminiscent of the protagonist of Robert Altman’s THE LONG GOODBYE. We’re joined once again by longtime friend of the show and longer-time FLETCH quoter Noel Murray to dissect what makes this new iteration tick, before bringing Altman’s film back into the picture to consider what these protagonists share, and what distinguishes them, in their ability to enter spaces uninvited, their propensity for comedic asides meant for an audience of themselves, and the supporting cast of quirky characters who surround them. Plus, Keith offers some follow-up viewing with his Your Next Picture Show pick, Robert Benton’s THE LATE SHOW.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE LONG GOODBYE, CONFESS, FLETCH, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], leaving a short voicemail at 773-234-9730, or commenting on our Patreon (patreon.com/NextPictureShow), where you can also find bonus episodes and more. 

Outro music: Hank Mobley, “This I Dig of You”

Next Pairing: David Lean’s BRIEF ENCOUNTER and Park Chan-wook’s DECISION TO LEAVE

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Greg Motolla’s new CONFESS FLETCH revives the character of Irwin Fletcher, popularized by Chevy Chase in the mid-‘80s, but its low-key, shaggy-dog quality is less reminiscent of those films than Robert Altman’s 1973 comic neo-noir THE LONG GOODBYE. So we brought longtime friend of the show and Altman aficionado Noel Murray in to join us in revisiting the director’s hazy, distinctly ’70s Los Angeles take on Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould), a chain-smoking detective who’s like a magnet for trouble — but that’s okay with him. Plus, we address an oversight from our recent discussion of THE THIEF OF BAGDAD.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE LONG GOODBYE, CONFESS FLETCH, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Outro music: “The Long Goodbye,” by John Williams, performed by Jack Sheldon

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Adapting the appendices of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth saga for a streaming series slated to run for 40 episodes is a much different exercise than paring down the writer’s most celebrated work to feature-length, which is one reason, among many, that Prime Video’s new THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER feels like a different beast than director Peter Jackson’s celebrated film trilogy that kicked off with 2001’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. But the two projects are naturally in conversation with each other by virtue of their source material and the expectations that come with it, which we attempt to parse as we share our early reactions to RINGS OF POWER’s first three episodes with help from our returning special guest, Vulture critic Roxana Hadadi. Then we bring FELLOWSHIP back into the equation to consider how the two tales converge and diverge around Tolkien’s mythology, how each handles this saga’s big themes of good vs. evil, friendship, and cooperation, and how well their respective large-scale fantasy worlds function on both a narrative and visual level. Plus, Keith and Roxana dig briefly into the extended cuts of Jackson’s films for Your Next Picture Show.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, RINGS OF POWER, or anything else in the world of Tolkien, film, or Tolkien on film, by sending an email to [email protected], leaving a short voicemail at 773-234-9730, or commenting on our Patreon (patreon.com/NextPictureShow), where you can also find bonus episodes and more. 

Works cited:

• “The Rings of Power Looks on the Bright Side” by Roxana Hadadi (vulture.com)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episodic recaps by Keith Phipps (vulture.com)

Outro music: My Chemical Romance, “Kiss the Ring”

Next Pairing: Robert Altman’s THE LONG GOODBYE and Greg Mottola’s CONFESS, FLETCH

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The new streaming series THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER is not technically a prequel to Peter Jackson’s early-aughts film trilogy, nor is Jackson involved with the series, but it’s hard to imagine it existing in a world where Jackson’s films hadn’t already provided a best-case scenario for large-scale screen adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth saga. So before delving into the crown jewel of Prime Video’s streaming lineup, we’re revisiting 2001’s THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, with some help from special guest Roxana Hadadi, to see what it taught us about Tolkien on screen, and how it helped shape a generation of fantasy filmmaking. Plus, we begin digging into the mountain of feedback we received regarding Jordan Peele’s NOPE and our discussion thereof.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE RINGS OF POWER, or anything else in the world of film and/or Tolkien, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Outro music: “Frodo, Don’t Wear the Ring” by Flight of the Conchords

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George Miller’s new fantasy-romance THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING may not have made a splash in theaters, but your Next Picture Show cohort agrees it’s the sort of odd-duck movie that tends to age well, in part because it fits nicely into the sturdy category of “stories about storytelling.” Even more so than its central djinn character, that interest in storytelling is what links this film to 1940’s THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, and so after unpacking our reactions to Miller’s film, we bring THIEF back into the discussion to compare two fantastical tales, one sincere and one self-aware, about how desire and love can shape the nature of beings both mythic and mortal.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], leaving a short voicemail at 773-234-9730, or commenting on our Patreon (patreon.com/NextPictureShow), where you can also find bonus episodes and more. 

Works cited:

• “Every George Miller Movie is a Mad Max movie,” by Joshua Rivera (polygon.com)

Outro music: Sophie B. Hawkins, “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover”

Next Pairing: LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING and LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER

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George Miller’s new 3000 YEARS OF LONGING is a story about storytelling that’s full of color and pageantry, which makes it a nice match for producer Alexander Korda’s 1940 fantasy THE THIEF OF BAGDAD — and that’s before the films’ respective djinns even enter the equation. One of the most technically ambitious films ever made, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD’s influence is all over cinema, but this week we’re imagining what it would have been like to experience it in 1940, before considering how its effects, acting styles, fairy-tale love story, and Western-centric understanding of the East holds up to modern standards. Plus, we respond to some feedback on our interpretation of perhaps the pivotal scene in Werner Herzog’s GRIZZLY MAN.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, 3000 YEARS OF LONGING, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Outro music: “The Gin Song,” The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing

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Tasha announces plans for the next pairing: 'Three Thousand Years Of Longing" and 1940's "Thief of Bagdad."

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In terms of narrative, there’s not that much connecting NOPE’s flying-saucer story with that of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, but Jordan Peele’s latest is as likely to someday serve as a document of this particular moment as its 1953 predecessor. A thematically dense and bracingly cinematic film, NOPE is uninterested in providing its viewers with neat answers, but we do our best to (begin to) untangle Peele’s web of ideas before bringing his film into conversation with THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, to consider the alien motivations and human responses that connect these two invasions across the decades.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about WAR OF THE WORLDS, NOPE, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], leaving a short voicemail at 773-234-9730, or commenting on our Patreon (patreon.com/NextPictureShow), where you can also find bonus episodes and more. 

Outro music: Michael Wincott, “Flying Purple People Eater”

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