While DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS is technically the first narrative feature for which Ethan Coen has taken a solo directing credit, in practice the new comedy is as much a collaboration, here with his wife and co-screenwriter Tricia Cooke, as the films he made with brother Joel before their current hiatus. So in honor of Coen’s commitment to collaborative comedy, we’re revisiting 1987’s RAISING ARIZONA, the film that established the brothers’ comedic voice following their neo-noir debut BLOOD SIMPLE, and whose madcap escapades and MacGuffin-chasing foreshadow Coen’s latest cinematic caper. And in feedback, a returning favorite offers up a connection we missed in our recent pairing of THE LAST DETAIL and THE HOLDOVERS.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about RAISING ARIZONA, DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#415: Ethan Coen Co-Capers, Pt. 1 — Raising Arizona

Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature HOW TO HAVE SEX takes place more than six decades after 1960’s WHERE THE BOYS ARE, but as our discussion of the two films illuminates, frustratingly little has changed in that time when it comes to the blurred lines around consent, particularly in situations involving teenagers, alcohol, and social pressure around sex. We’re joined once again by Marya E. Gates to discuss HOW TO HAVE SEX’s deft navigation of that context before bringing WHERE THE BOYS ARE back in to discuss what has and hasn’t changed about the desires and dangers of being a student on unchaperoned holiday. And in Your Next Picture Show, we offer up a film that could form a triple feature with this week’s pairing, Céline Sciama’s GIRLHOOD.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about WHERE THE BOYS ARE, HOW TO HAVE SEX,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Ethan Coen’s DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS and the Coen Brothers’ RAISING ARIZONA
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#414: Beach Bummers, Pt. 2 — How to Have Sex

The new British coming-of-age film HOW TO HAVE SEX follows a group of girlfriends on a post-exam holiday into an environment where peer pressure, alcohol, and coercion can erode the boundaries of consent. But these problems aren’t unique to the film’s contemporary setting, as we’ll see in this week’s companion film, the seemingly frivolous 1960 spring break romp WHERE THE BOYS ARE. Special guest Marya Gates brings us some historical context about the film’s place in the continuum of “beach party” movies, and the degree to which audiences still a few years out from the sexual revolution would be receptive to the film’s relative frankness about sex. And in Feedback we continue the debate about the usefulness of film ratings, and respond to the charge that a recent pairing was our worst-ever choice of new film.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about WHERE THE BOYS ARE, HOW TO HAVE SEX,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#413: Beach Bummers, Pt. 1 — Where the Boys Are (1960)

A road trip through a chilly New England winter represents only one section of Alexander Payne’s THE HOLDOVERS, but the film’s overlap with Hal Ashby’s THE LAST DETAIL goes beyond that narrative echo. As in Ashby’s 1973 film, one of the examples of 1970s cinema Payne drew on for the look and feel of THE HOLDOVERS, a central triumvirate of two adults and their younger charge have a funny but imperfect bonding experience that avoids simplistic found-family conclusions. We talk through the ways THE HOLDOVERS finds nuance in its different permutations of that trio before turning back to THE LAST DETAIL to compare these films’ versions of “showing the kid a good time” in spite of bitter cold and absent parents. And in Your Next Picture Show we stick up for LAST FLAG FLYING, Richard Linklater’s little-loved “spiritual sequel” to THE LAST DETAIL.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE LAST DETAIL, THE HOLDOVERS,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Molly Manning Walker’s HOW TO HAVE SEX and Henry Levin’s WHERE THE BOYS ARE
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#412: Road Trip Trios, Pt. 1 — The Holdovers

Alexander Payne has cited Hal Ashby’s THE LAST DETAIL as one of several 1970s movies informing the look and feel of THE HOLDOVERS, but there’s narrative resonance there as well, particularly in the films’ central threesomes: two disaffected older adults and their troubled teenage charge, each navigating a chilly East Coast winter, a road trip, and a series of disappointments and discoveries. We begin this week by focusing on THE LAST DETAIL’s trio of military-prison-bound sailors: what defines and distinguishes each of them, how their relationships change over the course of the movie, and whether the lack of resolution the film provides them is a feature or a bug. And in Feedback we respond to some alternate readings of a couple of our other favorite films of last year, BARBIE and MAY DECEMBER.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE LAST DETAIL, THE HOLDOVERS,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#411: Road Trip Trios, Pt. 1 — The Last Detail

We return to the arena of comedic deathsport via Jake Johnson’s new debut as a writer-director, SELF RELIANCE. Despite a high-concept premise, it’s a film that seems most comfortable in the realm of hangout-slash-romantic comedy, but is that a satisfying approach when dealing with an ostensible story of life and death? That’s up for debate in our discussion of the film, which extends into Connections when we bring Elio Petri’s 1965 cult oddity THE 10TH VICTIM back into the conversation to compare these two films’ bloodless approach to gamified murder. And in Your Next Picture Show we offer up a recommendation for a real-life televised murder game in which no blood gets spilled and Alan Cumming is having the time of his life.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE 10TH VICTIM, SELF RELIANCE,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Alexander Payne’s THE HOLDOVERS and Hal Ashby’s THE LAST DETAIL. 
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#410: Hunting Games, Pt. 2 — Self Reliance

Jake Johnson’s new directorial debut SELF RELIANCE draws from a deep well of “Most Dangerous Game” storytelling, but its interest in murder-for-sport as televised entertainment combined with its rom-com underpinnings put us most in mind of 1965 cult oddity THE 10TH VICTIM. Elio Petri’s film functions as a piece of pop art first, a satire second, and a romance a distant third, and this week we’re attempting to parse it on all three levels, when we’re not getting sidetracked by the many incidental details comprising this inconsistent, perhaps incoherent, but always interesting film. And in Feedback, a listener prompt about whether movie ratings are a net negative for film culture inspires us to do a little self-reflection, and institute a new (temporary) NPS ratings system. 
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE 10TH VICTIM, SELF RELIANCE,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#409: Hunting Games, Pt. 1 — The 10th Victim

THE IRON CLAW is about a wrestling dynasty, not an organized-crime one, but Sean Durkin’s new biopic makes the family business seem just as dangerous as the one at the heart of Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER. We’re joined once again by guest and wrestling aficionado Siddhant Adlakha to talk through THE IRON CLAW’s approach to said family business and the trauma it inflicts on both its characters and viewers. Then we bring THE GODFATHER back into the conversation to compare how these two family businesses and their respective succession drama are shaped by the American Dream, toxic masculinity, and the women on the sidelines. And then we keep it in the ring with some Your Next Picture Show suggestions for some complementary IRON CLAW viewing. 
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE GODFATHER, THE IRON CLAW, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Elio Petri’s THE 10TH VICTIM and Jake Johnson’s SELF RELIANCE
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#408: Succession, Pt. 2 — The Iron Claw

A dangerous family business, an imposing, aging patriarch, and a group of brothers with varying aptitudes vying to succeed him: Sean Durkin’s wrestling-family biopic THE IRON CLAW and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 mafia epic THE GODFATHER chart a very similar narrative within two very different worlds. Will THE IRON CLAW also shape how we talk and think about other wrestling films for decades to come? That remains to be seen, but this week we’re joined by freelance film critic Siddhant Adlakha to mull THE GODFATHER’s impact on the gangster movie as we know it, consider which set pieces and characters take on new shading in repeat viewings, and unpack the Corleone family dynamics that lie at the heart of this pairing. Plus, we’re keeping the 2023 film conversation going with a listener recommendation for an underseen favorite from last year.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE GODFATHER, THE IRON CLAW,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#407: Succession, Pt. 1 — The Godfather

2023 was an idiosyncratic yet satisfying year for movies and the audiences who watch them, as reflected in the combination of across-the-board crowd-pleasers and one-off favorites comprising our Top 10 lists of the year’s best films. As per tradition, Tasha, Scott, and Keith convened to compare their respective lists and examine the points where they converge and diverge, and celebrate the high points of another year that supports the idea that every year is a good one for movies. 
 Please share your thoughts about and own picks for the best movies of 2023, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next pairing: Sean Durkin’s THE IRON CLAW and Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER
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#406: Our Top 10 Films of 2023

Yorgos Lanthimos’ POOR THINGS is many things, among them a whimsical retelling of the story of Frankenstein’s monster as codified in James Whale’s iconic 1930s classics FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. But there’s a lot of other stuff animating POOR THINGS’ surface pleasures and just-below-the-surface ideas, which we parse before moving into Connections to compare these three films’ depictions of playing God and twisted parent-child relationships; mad science and the mad scientists who practice it; and stylized, unnatural versions of reality as perceived by stylized, unnatural creatures. And in Your Next Picture Show we give a brief nod to two other POOR THINGS pairing possibilities, Francois Truffaut’s THE WILD CHILD and Werner Herzog’s THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER. 
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about FRANKENSTEIN, BRIDE OF, POOR THINGS or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#405: She's Alive! Pt. 2 — Poor Things

Yorgos Lanthimos’s POOR THINGS is so open in its allusions to Frankenstein — both scientist and monster — that it inspired us to stitch together our first dual pairing, of James Whale’s 1931 classic, which established the on-screen language of Mary Shelley’s monster, and his 1935 follow-up THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, which set up nearly a century of expectations for sequels in Hollywood. But despite many commonalities, chief among them a literally iconic Boris Karloff performance, these films are two distinct creatures, so we’re dissecting them both to talk through their different tones, relationships to their source material, and legacies. 
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about FRANKENSTEIN, BRIDE OF, POOR THINGS or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#404: She's Alive! Pt. 1 — Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Like Chihiro in SPIRITED AWAY, the protagonist of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, THE BOY AND THE HERON, is drawn into a fantastical world populated by strange creatures that help usher him through a coming-of-age journey — but Mahito is a very different protagonist, and his journey unfolds in a very different way. We’re joined once again by Vulture editor and animation expert Eric Vilas-Boas to unpack the imagery and ideas populating Miyazaki’s latest wonderland, and debate the animation auteur’s feelings about birds, before bringing SPIRITED AWAY back in to compare these films’ depictions of children and parents, villains and allies, and “weird little guys.” And in Your Next Picture Show, Eric offers a recommendation for another film that joins BOY AND THE HERON on his list of the year’s best animation for Vulture.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about SPIRITED AWAY, THE BOY AND THE HERON, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Yorgos Lanthimos’s POOR THINGS and James Whale’s FRANKENSTEIN & BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
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#403: Miyazaki in Wonderland, Pt. 2 — The Boy and the Heron

Studio Ghibli's latest, THE BOY AND THE HERON, is unmistakably a Hayao Miyazaki creation, drawing multiple specific elements from the animator’s life and past work — most conspicuously 2001’s SPIRITED AWAY, another film in which a sad young person is whisked away to a wondrous-slash-terrifying realm filled with memorable creatures and its own dream logic. Before we venture into Miyazaki’s latest idiosyncratic, shifting world, we’re joined by Vulture editor and animation reporter Eric Vilas-Boas for a look back at what makes Miyazaki’s earlier adventures in the spirit realm simultaneously sticky and slippery, and what primed SPIRITED AWAY for crossover success. And in Feedback, we continue the discussion of how we’re meant to read KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON’s ambiguous ending. 
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about SPIRITED AWAY, THE BOY AND THE HERON, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#402: Miyazaki in Wonderland, Pt. 1 — Spirited Away

As biopics go, the new PRISCILLA is decidedly less rambunctious than the 2006 provocation MARIE ANTOINETTE, but each of these intimate, sympathetic portraits of a woman who lived in a man’s shadow and under his control are unmistakable as the work of Sofia Coppola. This week we get into how our reactions to PRISCILLA — both positive and negative — were affected, even shaped, by its place in Coppola’s filmography, and whether the film’s compressed third act is a feature or a bug. Then we head into Connections, which is stacked with comparison points between the two films’ ideas about power and identity as expressed through fashion, sex, physical vulnerability, and inappropriate puppies. And in Your Next Picture Show, we give the spotlight to another film that’s currently in theaters and was in contention for this week’s pairing: Alexander Payne’s THE HOLDOVERS.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about MARIE ANTOINETTE, PRISCILLA, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#401: Coppola's Queens, Pt. 2 — Priscilla

Might the response that greeted MARIE ANTOINETTE in 2006 have been warmer if audiences at the time had the context of Sofia Coppola’s latest, PRISCILLA, which takes a similarly unconventional narrative and musical approach to a famous marriage? Both films are biopic-shaped containers for Coppola’s now-well-established thematic obsessions, with little interest in the details of history that fall outside that purview, making for one of the more direct one-to-one pairings we’ve done in some time. We kick it off this week with a discussion of the ways time has been kind to MARIE ANTOINETTE’s elision of history and narrowness of focus, how the anachronistic music and performances express the film’s rebellious spirit, and what exactly we’re meant to make of these bumbling teen royals. And in Feedback, a reader broaches another recent film for inclusion on our informal list of the best science-fiction of the 21st century, and in the process reopens our discussion of the many thematic nuances in AFTER YANG.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about MARIE ANTOINETTE, PRISCILLA, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#400: Coppola's Queens, Pt. 1 — Marie Antoinette

Martin Scorsese’s new KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and the 1950 Delmar Daves Western BROKEN ARROW are both films made by non-Native filmmakers seeking to confront stereotypes about Native Americans, but they are reflective of two distinct cultural moments separated by decades of change when it comes to representation in Hollywood storytelling. This week we spend some time wrestling with the characters, contradictions, and compartmentalization in FLOWER MOON before bringing BROKEN ARROW back in to see how attitudes have progressed when it comes to correcting the historical record and shaking viewers out of their assumptions, how the two films intersect and diverge in their depictions of white outsiders and cross-cultural marriages, and to what degree each embodies the limitations of Indigenous stories told from a non-Indigenous perspective. And for Your Next Picture Show we take a brief look at Michael Apted’s 1992 Sundance sensation INCIDENT AT OGLALA, another film we considered for this pairing that takes a documentary approach to a different true-life story of crime and culture clash on a Native American reservation. 
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BROKEN ARROW, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Sophia Coppola’s PRISCILLA and MARIE ANTOINETTE
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#399: True West, Pt. 2 — Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese’s new Killers of the Flower Moon, based on David Grann’s horrifying non-fiction true-crime book, tracks systematic murder in a 1920s Osage tribe by a group of white men looking to secure the tribe’s profitable oil rights. Among the players are a couple, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone, who appear to truly love each other while not entirely realizing they’re also in a predator-prey relationship. The interracial romance, racial tension, and struggle for survival pairs well with the 1950 Western Broken Arrow, also based on real historical events and real figures, and centering on a different interracial couple — Jimmy Stewart as a weary fortysomething veteran who begins brokering a peace between Arizona settlers and an Apache tribe, and Debra Paget in redface as a member of that tribe. This week we start our Western wandering with a look at Broken Arrow’s spot in history, as a first step toward Hollywood depicting Native Americans as multifaceted people instead of stock Western villains. We sort through the film’s pros and cons, including the specter of clumsy, careful message movies trying to counteract decades of stereotypes. And we discuss how stiff execution and the 25-year age difference between Stewart and Paget hinders what’s supposed to be a romance for the ages. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about Broken Arrow, Killers of the Flower Moon, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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#398: True West, Pt. 1 — Broken Arrow

Kitty Green’s new ROYAL HOTEL takes the rural Australian bar-culture setting of 1971’s WAKE IN FRIGHT and explores how placing two young women in the role of outsider changes the threat level. We start this week by parsing the film’s micro- and mega-aggressions, and whether those inflicting them are capital-B Bad men, or just regular men wrapped up in bad power dynamics. Then we bring WAKE IN FRIGHT back in to consider how both films are on some level about the intertwined desires for identity and acceptance, as well as alcohol’s deleterious effect on both.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about WAKE IN FRIGHT, ROYAL HOTEL, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Martin Scorsese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and Delmer Daves’ BROKEN ARROW
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#397: Outback Outsiders, Pt. 2 — Royal Hotel

Kitty Green’s new THE ROYAL HOTEL follows two women stranded amid the oppressive masculinity of a rough-and-tumble Australian mining town, a purposeful gender subversion of Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 Australian cult classic WAKE IN FRIGHT. We begin our two-week journey through the fringes of civilization with a trip to WAKE IN FRIGHT’s “the Yabba” to discuss how the film’s more harrowing elements, including its infamous kangaroo hunt, play in a context of sheer lawlessness, debate whether it feels like a representative Australian film, and try to decipher the strange allure of “two up.” And in Feedback, we consider a couple of listener-submitted contenders for our informal and always-expanding list of the greatest sci-fi of the 21st century.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about WAKE IN FRIGHT, THE ROYAL HOTEL, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
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