The Next Picture Show

In part two of our comparison of two part twos, we dig into the meta magic that animates both GREMLINS 2 and DEADPOOL 2 (and get a little meta ourselves in the process). After discussing what works and doesn’t in DEADPOOL 2, a film with a lot that works and a lot that doesn’t, we look at how these two studio sequels tap into similar but different veins of self-aware and reference-based humor, how they play with the restrictions and perks of studio filmmaking, and how to break the fourth wall without losing the audience. 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 GREMLINS 2, DEADPOOL 2, or both by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Your Next Picture Show: • Tasha: Taika Waititi’s HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE and John Cameron Mitchell’s HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES• Genevieve: Agnes Varda and JR’s FACES PLACES• Keith: Christopher Nolan’s “unrestored” 70mm 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and Jennifer Fox’s THE TALE• Scott: Joe Dante’s HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, James Schamus’s INDIGNATION, and John Boorman’s QUEEN & COUNTRY

Outro Music: Celine Dion f/Deadpool, “Ashes”

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The new DEADPOOL 2 shares a self-aware sensibility and anarchic spirit with Joe Dante’s GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH, which saw the director returning reluctantly to the franchise and wreaking havoc on everything that had made it a hit, up to and including the much-loved (by everyone but Dante) mogwai Gizmo. That approach works far better for some of us that others, and so we spend much of the first half of this pairing debating whether GREMLINS 2 is a funny movie, a good movie, both — or neither. Plus, feedback on our recent episodes pairing X2 and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about GREMLINS 2, DEADPOOL 2, or both by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Outro music: “New York, New York,” by Tony Randall

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AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR is the culmination of a decade of Marvel moviemaking, but much of the mechanics of this massive superteam machine can be traced back further, to what was once the biggest teamup of the modern superhero era, 2002’s X2: X-MEN UNITED. After we spend some time helping Scott work out his emotions surrounding INFINITY WAR, we dive into the connections between these two films, including their mass-extinction plots, their lazily conceived romantic pairings, and their respective fealty to their comics source material. 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 X2, AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, or both by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Your Next Picture Show: • Genevieve: Paul King’s PADDINGTON 2• Scott: Tony Zierra’s FILMWORKER• Tasha: Julia Hart’s FAST COLOR• Keith: Mike Flanagan’s HUSH

Outro Music: Infinity War Cast, “The Marvel Bunch” (via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon)

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The Russo Brothers’ new, massive AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR may exist in a different cinematic universe than Bryan Singer’s 2003 sequel X2: X-MEN UNITED, but the two films use a lot of the same tricks to bring Marvel's four-color heroes to a live-action setting, and both function as middle chapters in a bigger ongoing saga. In this half of the pairing, we consider how X2’s superteam dynamics look after 15 years of subsequent superhero-movie evolution, dig into the malleability of the mutant metaphor, and wonder whether the morality of mutant freedom is as cut-and-dry as that metaphor suggests. Plus, feedback on some recent episodes and a discussion of our thought process around superhero-movie pairings.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about X2, AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, or both by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Outro music: “X-Men Opening Theme” by Ron Wasserman

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Chloe Zhao’s THE RIDER’s naturalistic synthesis of documentary and narrative has some roots in Abbas Kiarostami’s 1990 Iranian classic CLOSE-UP, but with a very different story to tell, about a very different part of the world. After discussing what made The Rider one of our favorite films of the year so far, we look at how these two films both dance on the line separating fact and fiction, through their use of non-actors, their respective sense of place, and their preoccupation with identity. 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 CLOSE-UP, THE RIDER, or both by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Your Next Picture Show: 

• Genevieve: Kay Cannon’s BLOCKERS

• Scott: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s THE ENDLESS

• Keith: Francois Truffaut’s TWO ENGLISH GIRLS and MISSISSIPPI MERMAID

Outro Music: Woody Guthrie, “Gamblin’ Man”

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Chloe Zhao’s new THE RIDER lives in the space between the real world and a fictional world that was memorably carved out by Abbas Kiarostami’s 1990 classic CLOSE-UP, which blends documentary and narrative to find a third approach that draws on the strengths of both while committing to neither. In this half of the comparison, we dig into what makes CLOSE-UP tick, where it fits into a Western understanding of Iranian cinema, and how Kiarostami calls attention to the artificiality of filmmaking. Plus, feedback on our recent episodes on CHICKEN RUN and ISLE OF DOGS.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about CLOSE-UP, THE RIDER, or both by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

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We continue our examination of stop-motion animals conspiring to escape captivity by bringing in ISLE OF DOGS, Wes Anderson’s new Japan-set homage/provocation, to see how it stacks up against Aardman Animations’ 2000 feature CHICKEN RUN. After weighing the controversy that’s arisen around ISLE OF DOGS against our own reactions to the film, we dig into what unites these two tonally distinct features, from their deployment of cinematic reference points to their ideas about human/animal interaction to their respective death machines. 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 CHICKEN RUN, ISLE OF DOGS, or both by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. Your Next Picture Show: • Tasha: Sergio G. Sanchez’s MARROWBONE• Keith: Plane viewing via the Starz app• Genevieve: Jeff Baena’s THE LITTLE HOURS• Scott: Christian Nemescu’s CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’

SHOW NOTES:

Works Cited:• “Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’ is often captivating, but cultural sensitivity gets lost in translation” by Justin Chang (latimes.com)• “Orientalism Is Alive And Well In American Cinema” by Allison Willmore (buzzfeed.com)• “Unpacking the Akira Kurosawa References in Isle of Dogs” by Charles Bramesco (vulture.com)• “Wes Anderson Explains Hayao Miyazaki’s Influence on ‘Isle of Dogs’” by Zack Sharf (indiewire.com)• “Stream These 12 Great Films From Romania” by Scott Tobias (nytimes.com)

Outro Music: Cat Stevens, “I Love My Dog”

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Is there such a thing as “auteurist animation”? That’s a question that unites this week’s pairing, which looks at two highly collaborative stop-motion animated films that nonetheless bear the fingerprints of a singular filmmaking presence: Wes Anderson’s new ISLE OF DOGS and Aardman Animations’ 2000 feature CHICKEN RUN, co-directed by Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park. In this half of the pairing we focus on CHICKEN RUN, digging into what exactly gives it that “Aardman Touch,” whether its storyline reflects its status as a US-Britain co-production, and the advantages of silicone over plasticine when it comes to chicken puppets. Plus, feedback on our recent episodes on TRON and READY PLAYER ONE.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about CHICKEN RUN, ISLE OF DOGS, or both by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

SHOW NOTES:

Works Cited: “Home is a reminder that DreamWorks Animation needs an actual identity” by Tasha Robinson (thedissolve.com)

Outro music: “Flip, Flop, and Fly” by Ellis Hall

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Steven Lisberger’s groundbreaking live-action Disney film TRON is one of the few 1980s properties that doesn’t get explicitly referenced in Steven Spielberg’s new adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel READY PLAYER ONE, but the earlier film makes up a significant portion of RP1’s source code. After discussing our reactions to READY PLAYER ONE, and hashing out what made Cline’s novel become so strangely controversial, we look at what connects and distinguishes these two films about life inside a video game, from their attitudes about human/computer relationships to how they approach the idea of corporate control. 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 TRON, READY PLAYER ONE, or both by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. Your Next Picture Show: • Genevieve: Anders Walter’s I KILL GIANTS• Scott: Andrew Haigh’s LEAN ON PETE• Tasha: Rich Moore’s WRECK-IT RALPH

SHOW NOTES:

Works Cited:• “The Ready Player One Backlash, Explained” by Constance Grady (Vox.com)• “Ready Player One is a truly awful book. I’m really looking forward to the movie” by Todd VanDerWerff (Vox.com)• “Ernest Cline: Ready Player One” (review) by Kevin McFarland (AVClub.com)• Ernest Cline’s “Ultraman is Airwolf” (ErnestCline.com)• “Here are all the references in Ready Player One” by Abraham Riesman (Vulture.com)• “I Kill Giants director Anders Walter on making a likable fantasy with a hateful protagonist” by Tasha Robinson (TheVerge.com)• “Our film critic and the director of a movie he hated sat down and tried to work out their differences” by David Ehrlich (Indiewire.com)

Outro Music: Rush, “2112 (The Temples of Syrnix)”

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Steven Spielberg’s new READY PLAYER ONE turns videogaming into both a fantasy adventure and a meta-narrative about adventure fantasies, a premise that feels directly inspired — and given Ernest Cline’s source novel, almost certainly is — by Steven Lisberger’s 1982 Disney oddity TRON. Before digging into what connects the two films, we dive into TRON’s glow-y, rudimentarily CGI-ed mainframe to consider the bits and bytes that drive this fascinatingly flawed film, from its confusing religious undertones (overtones?) to its strange real world/virtual world disconnect. Plus, we continue to wade through the ocean of feedback on our episodes pairing STALKER and ANNIHILATION.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about TRON, READY PLAYER ONE, or both by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Outro music: “Only Solutions” by Journey (TRON OST)

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