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PODCAST

The Next Picture Show

Looking at cinema"s present via its past. From the former editorial team of The Dissolve, The Next Picture Show examines how classic films inspire and inform modern movies. Episodes take a deep dive into a classic film and its legacy, then compare and contrast that film with a modern successor. Hosted and produced by Genevieve Koski, Keith Phipps, Tasha Robinson, and Scott Tobias.

tv & film film history

All Episodes

62:53

Trial By Media, Pt. 1 — Sweet Smell of Success

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/10/06

Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime paints problematic TV phenomenon To Catch a Predator — and especially its host, Chris Hansen — as an enterprise fueled by ambition, amorality, and a tenuous grasp of journalistic ethics. Those qualities put us in mind of the cursed collaboration between desperate press agent Sidney Falco and influential columnist J.J. Hunsecker in 1957’s Sweet Smell of Success, so this week we’re digging into the twisted loyalties and razor-sharp dialogue of

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77:27

Hazard Pay, Pt. 2 — The Weight

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/10/01

There’s a lot to enjoy aboutThe Weight: the tactile 1930s Oregon setting, strong performances from Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe, a premise that allows for multiple suspense sequences. But Padraic McKinley’s directorial debut is arguably lacking in thematic heft and visceral grit, particularly when compared to the other film in this pairing. So after considering how The Weight succeeds and struggles on its own terms, we bring William Friedkin’s 1977 cult classic Sorcerer back in to

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64:13

Hazard Pay, Pt. 1 — Sorcerer

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/09/22

Padraic McKinley’s The Weight isn’t a remake ofThe Wages of Fear, though it feels deeply indebted to the H.G. Clouzot classic in its thrilling depiction of a group of outlaws on a near-impossible mission across deadly terrain. William Friedkin’s 1977 cult favorite Sorcerer technically isn’t a Wages remake, either — Friedkin insisted it was his own adaptation of the original Georges Arnaud novel — though it’s similarly difficult to watch without thinking

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62:50

Existential Zones, Pt. 2 — It Ends

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/09/15

Alexander Ullom's It Ends is a daring little piece of microbudget drama about four friends at transition points in their lives, who find themselves in a place where life and death no longer hold any meaning. Whether it’s a film about despair, about the afterlife, about the human condition, or all of the above, is up for discussion this week, as well as how It Ends fits into this current moment in independent horror cinema. After that, we bring Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris back in for

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68:27

#539: Existential Zones, Pt. 1 — Solaris (1972)

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/09/08

Alexander Ullom’s feature debut,It Ends, has been billed as a horror movie, but it’s more of an existential exercise wrapped inside a genre premise. That same description could be applied toSolaris, though Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 science-fiction classic takes nearly twice as long to ponder the nature of life in a situation where death has no meaning anymore. So this week we’re discussing whetherSolaris’ deliberate pace and opaque symbolism work toward or against its

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61:57

The Family That’s Prey Together, Pt. 2 — The End of...

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/09/01

The Platt family is barely surviving, and that’s before their neighborhood is inexplicably dropped millions of years into the past and overrun by hungry dinosaurs.The End of Oak Streetisn’t nearly as concerned with explaining that premise or exploring its characters as it is with facilitating dino mayhem and nostalgia for the films of writer-director David Robert Mitchell’s youth. That can be to the film’s benefit and detriment, both of which we cover in this week’s

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65:01

The Family That's Prey Together, Pt. 1 — War of the...

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/08/25

David Robert Mitchell’sThe End of Oak Streetdrops an ordinary family into extraordinary circumstances, forcing them to focus all their energy on surviving— and maybe, just maybe, learning to understand each other along the way. That structure, combined withOak Street’s Spielbergian spectacle, pointed us toward 2005’sWar of the Worlds,which fuses H.G. Wells’ 1898 novel to images and emotions that draw on the attacks of 9/11. How that approach holds up a quarter-century

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78:28

Anyone Can Cook, Pt. 2 — Tony

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/08/18

Matt Johnson’s new biopicTonysidesteps the infamousWalk Hardtrap by narrowing its scope to a single summer that would end up shaping the rest of Anthony Bourdain’s life, but not necessarily defining it. Whether that approach is ultimately satisfying to fans of the late celebrity chef and author is up for debate this week, as we’re once again joined by Vulture critic Roxana Hadadi to discuss howTonyplays into and against our expectations of a Bourdain narrative. Then we

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75:17

#535: Anyone Can Cook, Pt. 1 — Ratatouille

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/08/11

Anthony Bourdain, whose early experience working in a restaurant kitchen is chronicled in the new biopicTony,once singled outRatatouilleas Hollywood’s best depiction of working in a restaurant kitchen, which is all the invitation we need to revisit Brad Bird’s 2007 Pixar classic. So this week, with the help of Vulture critic Roxana Hadadi, we consider howRatatouilletrusts its viewers to accept an audacious premise, and rewards them in emotional payoff; parse the nuances and

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74:05

Home Sweet Homer, Pt. 2 — The Odyssey

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/07/28

Christopher Nolan’sThe Odysseyapproaches Homer’s epic from a much more literal vantage point thanO Brother Where Art Thou,but that doesn’t mean it’s a dutiful, beat-by-beat adaptation. So this week we’re talking through the ways in which Nolan put his personal stamp on one of the most well-known stories in all of literature, from the film’s non-linear structure and preoccupation with time, to the physicality and humanity Nolan brings to this big-screen spectacle

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75:12

Home Sweet Homer, Pt. 1 — O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/07/21

ConsideringThe Odysseyis one of the most famous and influential stories of all time, there had been relatively few attempts to directly translate Homer’s epic poem to the big screen until Christopher Nolan came along to do it at a blockbuster scale. It’s been more common for filmmakers, such as Joel and Ethan Coen, to use it as the loose framework for a flawed hero’s journey home, such as the one undertaken by Ulysses Everett McGill inO Brother, Where Art Thou?,a Depression-era

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61:03

Lady Justice, Pt. 2 — Supergirl

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/07/14

A good chunk ofSupergirl’s DNA can be traced back toTrue Gritby way of the comics miniseries the film is adapting, which is why we paired it with Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2010 version of that story. But as our discussion of Craig Gillespie’s new entry in James Gunn’s revamped DC Universe details,Supergirloften feels less indebted to its space-western source material than to several other superhero films that preceded it, including some of Gunn’s. That makes it tough to

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67:39

Lady Justice, Pt. 1 — True Grit (2010)

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/07/07

The newSupergirlisn’t an outright adaptation of the comic-book miniseriesWoman of Tomorrow, but it retains enough of its shape that it evokes that comic’s own source of inspiration,True Grit. Either of the two film adaptations of Charles Portis’ 1968 Western novel about a young girl enlisting a reluctant, drunken hero to help her enact revenge would have provided plenty of connections toSupergirl, but we opted for Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2010 version starring Hailee Steinfeld

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57:33

Our Aliens, Ourselves Pt. 2 — Disclosure Day

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/06/30

Forty-four years after his science-fiction classic about the deep connection between a 10-year-old human boy and an alien visitor stranded on earth, Steven Spielberg is once again considering humanity’s capacity to accept and understand extraterrestrial life with his latest,Disclosure Day.So after sharing our reactions toDisclosure Day,including an ending that’s arguably effective despite — or maybe because of — its corniness, we bringE.T. the Extra-Terrestrialback in for

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56:06

Our Aliens, Ourselves Pt. 1 — E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/06/23

Disclosure Dayis not Steven Spielberg’s first film about the confirmation of alien life, nor is it the first such Spielberg film we’ve discussed on this podcast — that would beClose Encounters of the Third Kind, which we covered a decade ago. But Spielberg’s latest is specifically concerned with whether humanity possesses the empathy to process such a revelation, a question that led us directly to his 1982 classicE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,about the empathetic link between a

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71:51

Negative Spaces, Pt. 2 — Backrooms

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/06/16

Backrooms’ journey to the big screen — from anonymous 4chan post to viral creepypasta to mega-popular YouTube series to A24-backed box-office smash — is as unique and unexpected as the film itself. 20-year-old Kane Parsons’ liminal horror hit feels unlike everything else currently happening in the genre, which is partly what inspired us to pair it with the similarly expectation-defying 1979 cult hitPhantasm,but also makesBackrooms fascinating to discuss on its own. Which is

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59:32

Negative Spaces, Pt. 1 — Phantasm

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/06/09

20-year-old Kane Parsons is now the youngest director to ever hit No. 1 at the box office thanks to his A24-backed horror filmBackrooms,which made back its budget several times over in the first week of release and is already inviting talk of sequels. All of that offscreen context makes it a natural pairing with 1979’s series-spawning cult hitPhantasm, but it has plenty of onscreen connective tissue to Don Coscarelli’s super-indie horror adventure as well. So this week we do our best to

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78:12

Baby on Board, Pt. 2 — The Mandalorian and Grogu

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/06/02

The Mandalorian and Groguplays like a few stitched-together episodes ofThe Mandalorian, which makes it a particularly apt pairing with the 1980Lone Wolf and CubassemblageShogun Assassin— but whether the first new Star Wars feature film since 2019 manages to distinguish itself from its television counterpart is another question. We’re joined again by Filmspotting: SVU co-host Matt Singer to talk through a movie that aims to appeal to both a new generation of Star Wars fans and an older

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73:06

Baby on Board, Pt. 1 — Shogun Assassin (1980)

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/05/26

The Mandalorian and Grogugives the feature-film treatment to a streaming series whose premise — an outcast warrior lives by a code of honor while traveling in the company of an adorable small companion — owes no small debt to the Japanese multimedia franchiseLone Wolf and Cub. But rather than comb through the six installments comprising that film series for a good match, we’re looking at another attempt to translateLone Wolf and Cubto Western audiences via the 1980

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86:59

Burden of Hoof, Pt. 2 – The Sheep Detectives

The Next Picture Show ·

2026/05/19

Kyle Balda’s new family film The Sheep Detectivespulls off a move George Miller was dissuaded from including in his 1998 sequelBabe: Pig in the City —killing off its human farmer figure — but that premise-setting death aside, it’s generally a warmer and gentler take on talking animals venturing beyond their green pastures and into the big, scary human world.The Sheep Detectivesmay take the shape of a murder mystery, but as our discussion highlights, it taps into big ideas

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