The Next Picture Show

Our pairing of devious doppelgängers arrives at Jordan Peele’s new US, which brings into 2019 some of the same themes of paranoia and dread seen in one of its many predecessors, Philip Kaufman’s INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. After comparing our reactions to US’s “messy by design” narrative and the conversations that have sprung up around it, we bring these two films together to compare how they reflect their respective eras, how each works as horror, and the weird character relationships that underscore the human drama behind the allegory. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, US, 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:

• Unpacking Reddit’s Wildest Theory About US, by Rebecca Alter (Vulture.com)

• What Was Hands Across America, and What Does It Have to Do With US?, by Keith Phipps (Slate.com)

Your Next Picture Show: 

• Scott: Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s AMERICAN FACTORY, Rachel Leads’ KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE, and Hassan Fazili’s MIDNIGHT TRAVELER

• Tasha: The IMMUNITIES podcast, and Terry Gilliam’s THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE

• Keith: Steve Mitchell’s KING COHEN, and Larry Cohen’s THE STUFF and GOD TOLD ME TO

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Jordan Peele’s new US extends a long history of horror stories that use doppelgängers to explore identity, one that includes as a cornerstone Philip Kaufman’s 1978 adaptation of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. This episode we delve into the film’s eerie version of San Francisco to talk about how its atmosphere of dread and late-‘70s malaise distinguishes it from other versions of this story, and amplifies the human drama within this classic alien-invasion narrative. Plus, some feedback inspired by our recent TOTAL RECALL episode and a broader question on the state of film criticism.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, US, or anything else film-related by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Outro music: Imogen Heap, “Bad Body Double”

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Our pairing of sci-fi action films with a side of meditation on memory and identity brings in the new CAPTAIN MARVEL to see how Carol Danvers’ journey of lost and reclaimed memories looks next to the very different (and much bloodier) journey taken by Douglas Quaid in Paul Verhoeven’s TOTAL RECALL. We share our reactions to CAPTAIN MARVEL and its choice to center its narrative on an amnesiac hero, then bring in TOTAL RECALL to compare the two films’ approaches to their central ideas about memory, how they function as science-fiction stories, how they treat their female characters, and more. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about TOTAL RECALL, CAPTAIN MARVEL, 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:• Captain Marvel’s Cat Wrangler Explains How Goose Became a Flerken Hero on Set, by April Wolfe (Vulture.com)

Your Next Picture Show: 

• Scott: Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s BIRDS OF PASSAGE, and Movie Premieres Unlimited (@NightOpening)

• Keith: Robert Aldrich’s VERA CRUZ

• Genevieve: Robbie Thompson and Niko Henrichon’s MEET THE SKRULLS comic, and FX’s WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

Outro Music: Smashing Pumpkins, “Today”

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The newest MCU entry CAPTAIN MARVEL is, among other things, an action-packed science-fiction film that’s also interested in the question of how memory relates to identity. That, plus the film’s 1990s setting, put us in mind of another cosmic blockbuster from that era with similar ideas crackling beneath its action-movie surface: Paul Verhoeven’s TOTAL RECALL. In this half of our pairing of brawny-yet-brainy blockbusters, we debate how much TOTAL RECALL is asking us to interrogate the bloody action in which it revels, whether casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as a would-be ordinary Joe contributes to or detracts from the film’s self-awareness, and if there’s any validity to the reading that Quaid’s memory trip is all just a dream. Plus, some feedback inspired by our recent pairings, and pairings that could have been.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about TOTAL RECALL, CAPTAIN MARVEL, or anything else film-related by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Outro music: Jerry Goldsmith, "The Big Jump"

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Like WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP, Steven Soderbergh’s new Netflix digital experiment HIGH FLYING BIRD looks at what it takes for talented basketball players to survive outside of the professional leagues, with a high-stakes corporate heist in place of that film’s street-level hustle. This week, we talk over our reactions to HIGH FLYING BIRD’s story, dialogue, and in particular its iPhone cinematography, before bringing these two films together to look at how they each depict baller life outside the NBA, and how their respective cinematic styles buck sports-movie conventions. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP, HIGH-FLYING BIRD, 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: 

• Keith: Dean DeBlois’ HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD

• Genevieve: Spike Lee’s PASSING STRANGE

• Scott: Christian Petzold’s TRANSIT

• Tasha: Christopher Caldwell and Zeke Earl’s PROSPECT and Lee Cronin’s THE HOLE IN THE GROUND

Outro Music: Lupe Fiasco & Evidence, “Catch Me I’m Ballin’”

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Steven Soderbergh’s new quick-and-dirty Netflix film HIGH FLYING BIRD follows a basketball agent’s bold attempt to work outside the dictates of a professional league, a hustle that calls to mind the Venice Beach street-ball scene of Ron Shelton’s 1992 comedy WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP. In this half of our look at freelance ballers and the games they play on and off the court, we talk about what WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP has to say about the game, friendship, race, and how they intersect, and dig into how and why Shelton has so reliably put his own unique spin on the sports movie. Plus, some feedback inspired by our VELVET BUZZSAW episode and the Academy’s newly crowned Best Picture.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP, HIGH FLYING BIRD, or anything else film-related by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.  

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Like Roger Corman’s A BUCKET OF BLOOD, the new Netflix release VELVET BUZZSAW, director Dan Gilroy’s follow-up to NIGHTCRAWLER, presents as an art-world satire wrapped around the bones of a horror movie, though it doesn’t deliver on the horror element until pretty deep into the film. We talk over whether that approach is a benefit or detriment to both sides of the horror-satire equation, and about whether Netflix’s current content model is a natural evolution of the “give ‘em what they want” strategy that guided Corman’s American International Pictures. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BUCKET OF BLOOD, VELVET BUZZSAW, 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:

• Scott: Steven Soderbergh’s HIGH FLYING BIRD

• Keith: Samuel Fuller’s 40 GUNS

• Tasha: Chiwetel Ejiofor’s THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND, and “At Netflix Who Wins

When It’s Hollywood Vs. The Algorithm?,” by Shalini Ramachandran and Joe Flint (wsj.com)

Outro Music: Talking Heads, “Artists Only”

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Inspired by Dan Gilroy’s new VELVET BUZZSAW — and a listener suggestion — we’re looking back this week at another darkly humorous tweaking of the destructive world of high art and those who inhabit it: Roger Corman’s 1959 low-budget horror-comedy A BUCKET OF BLOOD. In this half of the pairing we talk about how Corman and screenwriter Charles B. Griffith balance the film’s tricky tone, how its obvious cheapness reflects Corman’s storied ability to work within restrictions, and what it’s like to watch iconic character actor Dick Miller in one of his rare starring turns. Plus, some feedback on our recent episodes on UNBREAKABLE and WIDOWS.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about A BUCKET OF BLOOD, VELVET BUZZSAW, or anything else film-related by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.  

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Chris Smith’s new Netflix doc FYRE tells the story of huckster Billy McFarland and his doomed Fyre Festival as a compelling piece of meat-and-potatoes journalism that’s far from the verité of Smith’s portrait of Mark Borchardt in 1999’s AMERICAN MOVIE. But for all their surface differences, at heart FYRE is another movie about a charismatic leader who overpromises and under-delivers. After dissecting what FYRE shows us — and doesn’t show us — about McFarland’s history of scammy endeavors, we dig into what connects and separates Smith’s two protagonists in terms of their ambitions, their approaches, and their intent. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about AMERICAN MOVIE, FYRE, 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:

• Fyre Fest Fiasco GoFundMe (gofundme.com/exuma-point-fyre-fest-debt)

• Fyre Fight: The Inside Story of How We Got Two Warring Fyre Festival Documentaries in the Same Week, by Scott Tobias (TheRinger.com)

• Amateurs, Con Artists, and Vanishing Movie Stars: Inside the World of Chris Smith’s Documentaries, by Scott Tobias (TheRinger.com)

• The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars, by Keith Phipps (Vulture.com)

Your Next Picture Show: 

• Keith: George Hill’s THE BIG HOUSE

• Scott: Talal Derki’s OF FATHERS AND SONS

• Genevieve: Jason Reitman’s TULLY

Outro Music: Beth Ditto, “Fire”

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The new Netflix documentary FYRE: THE GREATEST PARTY THAT NEVER HAPPENEDfinds director Chris Smith returning to a character type that defined his 1999 Sundance breakout AMERICAN MOVIE: the charismatic dreamer who overpromises and under-delivers. In AMERICAN MOVIE, that dreamer is one Mark Borchardt, an independent filmmaker from Milwaukee whose moviemaking dreams are continually stymied by circumstance, both external and of his own making. In this half of our Smith pairing, we revisit AMERICAN MOVIE and Borchardt to see how our perceptions of both have been changed by time and distance, debate what we’re to make of the film’s curious relationships, and analyze how Smith constructs a compelling story around an ambitious eccentric. Plus, some feedback on recent episodes.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about AMERICAN MOVIE, FYRE, or anything else film-related by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.  

Outro Music: The Kinks, “Groovy Movies”

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