The Next Picture Show

Spike Lee’s new feature-length document of David Byrne’s stage show AMERICAN UTOPIA seemed like a prime opportunity to look back on the the iconoclastic alt-rocker’s own 1986 directorial effort TRUE STORIES, which also uses the framework of Talking Heads songs to muse about the state of America and how humans seek and find connections in the modern world. In the first half of our Byrne double feature, we consider TRUE STORIES’ vignette-based journey through the fictional Virgil, Texas, through the overlapping lenses of comedy, music, and Byrne himself. Plus, we respond to some feedback regarding our recent episode on DOGTOOTH.

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

Works Cited:

• “David Byrne’s American Triptych” by Keith Phipps (Slate.com)

Outro Music: Talking Heads ft. Annie McEnroe, “Dream Operator”

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Longtime listeners of The Next Picture Show likely have at least passing familiarity with THE FALL via the many, many mentions it’s received over the years from co-host Tasha Robinson, one of the foremost advocates of Tarsem Singh’s hard-to-find, cultishly adored 2008 film. Joining her in that small but mighty fandom is Elliott Kalan, Emmy-winning comedy writer and co-host of THE FLOP HOUSE podcast, where he has shared Tasha’s experience of singing THE FALL’s praises to his bemused co-hosts. So in honor of… well, nothing, really, other than a shared appreciation of an obscure and highly discussable film, Keith Phipps convened Elliott and Tasha to discuss this extremely weird masterpiece, how its highly unusual filming circumstances resulted in a singular film, and why it’s ultimately a movie that’s “more felt than thought.” 

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If you’ve ever wondered, “What if Miranda July made her own version of DOGTOOTH?”, her new film KAJILLIONAIRE would be a pretty good answer. In this half of our pairing of darkly comic films centered on cloistered, dysfunctional families, we parse our reactions to KAJILLIONAIRE before bringing in DOGTOOTH to consider the two films’ respective handling of parenting with an agenda, isolation and the threats of the outside world, and sexuality and romance. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your radar.

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

Your Next Picture Show:

• Tasha: Dave McCary’s BRIGSBY BEAR

• Genevieve: Todd Haynes’ MILDRED PIERCE and BIG MOUTH season 4

• Scott: Bob Bowen’s PHINEAS AND FERB THE MOVIE: CANDACE AGAINST THE UNIVERSE

• Keith: Matt Spicer’s INGRID GOES WEST and Alan Metter’s GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

Outro Music: Eurythmics, ‘Would I Lie to You’

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The cloistered familial bubble at the center of Miranda July’s new KAJILLIONAIRE felt reminiscent of the one in Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2009 breakthrough DOGTOOTH, and that was before the film’s introduction of an outsider who contaminates said bubble, a complication carried out to slightly more disturbing ends in DOGTOOTH. In this half of our pairing we dig into the nature of DOGTOOTH’s sadistic parental experiment, whether the film’s highly symbolic premise overwhelms its story, and our respective interpretations of the film’s ambiguous ending. Plus, we respond to some recent listener feedback about parental viewing suggestions and podcast pairing regrets.

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

Works Cited:

• The Movies’ 50 Greatest Pop Music Moments, thedissolve.com

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Kirsten Johnson’s new DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD is a rumination on memory, death, and movie illusion, one that brings the veteran “cameraperson” in front of the lens, alongside her titular father. In that, it’s reminiscent of an earlier essay film with a strongly autobiographical bent, and a similar fixation on what remains after we’re gone: Orson Welles’ F FOR FAKE. In this half of our pairing of the two films, we debate how — or whether — Johnson’s film successfully skirts exploitation of its central subject, before diving into how these two films each tackle matters of authenticity, illusion, and making art in the face of death. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your radar

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about F FOR FAKE, DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

**Show Notes**

Works Cited:

•”’We Think the Audience is Smarter Than Us’: Kirsten Johnson on Making Another Personal and Original Film With ‘Dick Johnson Is Dead,’ by Matt Prigge (filmmakermagazine.com)

• “Documentarian Kirsten Johnson on Fake-Killing Her Own Dad (Over and Over) in Dick Johnson Is Dead,” by Rachel Handler (vulture.com)

Your Next Picture Show:

• Genevieve: Banksy’s EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP

• Scott: Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats, and Jacques Perrin’s WINGED MIGRATION

• Keith: The Tobolowsky Files podcast

• Tasha: Walt Dohrn’s TROLLS WORLD TOUR

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Kirsten Johnson’s new film DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD is an unconventional documentary perhaps more at home under the nebulous subgenre known as the personal essay film, a form that was, if not popularized, then at least institutionalized by Orson Welles with 1973’s F FOR FAKE. In preparation for discussing Johnson’s film next week, we spend this week working through how Welles made a highly personal film using someone else’s cinematic scraps, and whether watching the final product is, as one of us puts it, “like picking up a handful of water,” or, as another calls it, simply “miraculous.” Maybe it’s both. Plus, we respond to some recent listener feedback inspired by our episodes on BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about F FOR FAKE, DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

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Dear NPS listeners — we’ve been forced to make some changes to our schedule, which means our previously announced pairing of DOGTOOTH and KAJILLIONAIRE has been postponed a few weeks, and we’ll be back next week with the first part of our pairing of DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD and F IS FOR FAKE. In the meantime, though, we’re offering you a sneak peek behind the Patreon paywall, a bonus episode of our quick-reaction post-viewing series The Lobby, wherein noted Disney live-action skeptics Genevieve Koski and Scott Tobias talk over Disney’s new take on MULAN. Enjoy, and if you like what you hear, consider becoming a $5-a-month Patreon supporter, which will net you regular access to all of our bonus episodes, at patreon.com/NextPictureShow.

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I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS plays into some of Charlie Kaufman’s favorite preoccupations — surrealism, questions of identity and self, quietly desperate men, and the breakdown of order — which makes it not only an ideal pairing with Kaufman’s film screenwriting debut BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, but also an illustration of how those preoccupations have deepened in the years since Kaufman's breakout. It works better for some than others on our panel — which this week once again includes Screencrush editor and Filmspotting Family member Matt Singer — and we get into precisely why before bringing in MALKOVICH to discuss Kaufman’s history of sad, delusional men, his fixation on interiority and the life of the mind, and how it all plays into a broader interest in identity and how it shifts. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your radar

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Your Next Picture Show:

• Tasha: Charlie Kaufman’s SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK

• Scott: Martin Ritt’s HUD

• Matt: Dean Parisot’s BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC

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With 1999’s BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman kicked off a two-decade run of dizzying audiences by playing around with identity and surrealism, and channeling and expressing anxiety, a mode he’s continued right on through to his latest, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS, which he also directs. Before we dig into his latest next week, we’re going back to the beginning to examine the mind of Charlie Kaufman via his “big swing debut” BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, with some help from Matt Singer, our former compatriot at The Dissolve, now editor and critic for Screencrush, and late of Filmspotting: SVU. Plus, we respond to some recent listener feedback inspired by our recent episodes on LORD OF THE FLIES and EUROVISION SONG CONTEST.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

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The school-age boys at the center of Amanda McMaine and Jesse Moss’s new documentary BOYS STATE may not be facing the sort of life-and-death circumstances that frame Peter Brook’s film of LORD OF THE FLIES, but the two films undoubtedly echo each other in their portrayal of humanity’s tribalist instinct run amok. After discussing BOYS STATE and whether the kids are indeed all right, we look for connections between the two films and find many, not just in the aforementioned portrayal of tribalism, but also the films’ respective depictions of self-governance, maturity vs. immaturity, and the “adults in the room.” Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your radar

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

Your Next Picture Show:

• Tasha: Masaaki Yuasa’s LU OVER THE WALL and Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber’s FULL BATTLE RATTLE

• Scott: Michael Ritchie’s THE CANDIDATE

• Keith: Agnès Varda’s LE BONHEUR, part of Criterion’s Varda box set

• Genevieve: Kris Rey’s I USED TO GO HERE

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