The Next Picture Show

Already the biggest blockbuster of the year so far, Project Hail Mary has proven itself about as audience-friendly as a story about looming worldwide ecological collapse can be. That makes it an interesting point of contrast with 1972’s Silent Running, which approaches many of the same basic narrative beats — a man in space on a solo mission that threatens his sanity, who finds his most human connection in a non-human companion — with a melancholic tone and deeply unpleasant protagonist. So this week we’re looking back at one of just two movies made by pioneering special-effects artist Douglas Trumbull to consider how Silent Running functions today as both an environmental parable and a counterculture story about fighting The Man, how it tests our sympathies for its supposed hero, and whether that supposed hero knows anything about growing plants, in space or otherwise. Then in Feedback, a listener prompt inspires us to revisit some of our most memorable interruptions to the theatrical experience. 

Please share your thoughts about Silent Running, Project Hail Mary, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

This episode is presented by⁠ ⁠⁠Regal Unlimited⁠⁠⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.
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The Bride! is already a certified box-office flop, but does Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ambitious but deeply flawed sophomore feature as a writer-director have potential for a second life as a cult film? We consider that possibility as we run through the highs and lows, both intentional and unintentional, of a movie that, if nothing else, offers a lot to talk about. It also offers the opportunity to revisit an unambiguous classic via Gyllenhaal’s stated inspiration point of 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, which we bring back in for Connections to consider how The Bride! stacks up, in both conception and execution, in its ideas about lovers on the lam, outlaw media sensations, and empowered women empowering women. Then for Your Next Picture Show, we offer a recommendation for another film about coupled-up criminals that predates Bonnie and Clyde, the 1950 noir Gun Crazy. 

Please share your thoughts about Bonnie and Clyde, The Bride!, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next pairing: Phil Lord & Chris Miller's Project Hail Mary and Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running.

This episode is presented by⁠ ⁠Regal Unlimited⁠⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The obvious point of comparison for The Bride! is apparent in the title, but Maggie Gyllenhaal’s new revivification of The Bride of Frankenstein finds its animating spirit in a different film, with her protagonist couple spending a good portion of the movie on the run from the law in the 1930s in scenes that openly evoke Bonnie and Clyde. Whether The Bride! manages to rise anywhere close to the level of its inspiration is a question for next week’s episode; this week, we’re revisiting Arthur Penn’s "lovers on the lam" classic to consider why it hit the way it did in 1967 and what remains striking about it to this day. Then in Feedback, we tackle a couple of listener questions concerning our recent discussions of Send Help and Wuthering Heights.

Please share your thoughts about Bonnie and Clyde, The Bride!, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

This episode is presented by⁠ ⁠Regal Unlimited⁠⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the 98th Academy Awards around the corner, we are breaking format this week to register the Next Picture Show's recommendations to the Academy of who should take home Oscar gold. Join us as three critics with competing tastes attempt to find consensus for this podcast's official endorsement for a single winner in all the major categories.

Please share your thoughts about this year's Oscar nominees, winners, ceremony, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next Pairing: Maggie Gyllenhaal's THE BRIDE! and Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE

This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emerald Fennell’s new Wuthering Heights is full of stylistic provocations — skin walls, bed eggs, and light BDSM among them — but whether they are in service of, or distractions from, a bigger idea about the source material is up for debate this week. The divided reactions to Fennell’s contemporized take on an oft-adapted classic are reminiscent of the love-it-or-hate it response that greeted Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet back in 1996, which we bring back in for Connections to examine the core romantic notions driving these two tales of doomed (and frequently soaking wet) love and/or lust. And in Your Next Picture Show we continue the Wuthering Heights adaptation discussion with a couple of recommendations that illustrate some of the different tonal directions this material can take.

Please share your thoughts about Romeo + Juliet, Wuthering Heights, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices