The Next Picture Show

Augusto Pinochet ruled Chile as a dictator for nearly 20 years and left behind a complicated legacy, one Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín has approached sideways in various ways over the course of his career. His new EL CONDE, which renders Pinochet a literal vampire, is a more fantastical expression of that approach than 2012’s NO, a behind-the-scenes dramatization of the marketing campaign that helped end Pinochet’s rule, but both films are rich with complications of trust, hope, and public opinion. We unpack some of those complications in this week’s dive into NO, as well as how the film’s 1980s-broadcast-news visual aesthetic and thinly characterized protagonist work for and against its primary focus, and where it ultimately falls on the cynicism-to-optimism spectrum. And in Feedback, a listener attempts to make sense of the MCU’s vision of the afterlife, only to leave us even more confused. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about NO, EL CONDE, 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

HEATHERS is just one of many reference points at work in Emma Seligman’s new BOTTOMS, but the two films taken together illustrate just how differently the “dark comedy” designation can be applied to high-school movies. So after searching for meaning in BOTTOMS, and coming to terms with the idea that meaninglessness may actually be its point, we compare how these two expressions of high-school hierarchies under attack function as dark comedy, how they put familiar tropes about cliques and clueless adults to different ends, and how one of them defuses a bomb the other is willing to set off. And in Your Next Picture Show, we add a third explosive high-school rebellion to the mix, with a recommendation for 1979’s ROCK ’N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about HEATHERS, BOTTOMS, 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 (dropping 9/19/23 and 9/26/23) Pablo Larraín’s EL CONDE and NO Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Almost immediately after BOTTOMS premiered at this year’s SXSW, the heightened mix of satire and violence in Emma Seligman’s new film drew comparisons to Michael Lehmann’s HEATHERS, which in 1989 set a new high-water mark for upending the high-school movie tropes of the day through a darkly comedic lens. How does a movie that turns teenage suicide (don’t do it) into a punchline fare by today’s standards? That’s up for discussion in this half of our pairing, along with how HEATHERS executes its tricky tonal balance, its characterization of the high school experience and the parents and teachers who just don’t understand, and an ending that’s either a cop-out or the complete opposite, depending on who you ask and when. And in a Feedback letter inspired by our recent episode on ENCHANTED, a listener challenges us to name some recent films that could become “flawed pioneers,” without the benefit of hindsight.Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about HEATHERS, BOTTOMS, 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ira Sachs’ new PASSAGES centers on a relationship broadly similar to the one at the center of SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, but approaches it with a different level of intimacy and intensity (one that earned it an NC-17 rating before the filmmakers opted to release it unrated). We’re joined once again by freelance critic and friend of the show Noel Murray to talk through the different points of characterization and performance on PASSAGES’ love triangle, before looking at how the two films compare and contrast in their critiques of hetero-monogamous normativity, their ideas about suppressed jealousy and art, and their frank, arguably “graphic” depictions of homosexual desire. And in Your Next Picture Show, we offer a mini-revisitation of another John Schlesinger film that is impossible to avoid when considering this pairing. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, PASSAGES, 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: Emma Seligman’s BOTTOMS and Michael Lehmann’s HEATHERS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ira Sachs’ new PASSAGES is treading ground that was broken in part by John Schlesinger’s 1971 British drama SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, which also concerns the tortured intimacies of an MMF love triangle, albeit with a bit more reserve. We’re joined by freelance critic and friend of the show Noel Murray to talk over our responses to that reserved approach in relation to SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY as a product of its era and as a counterpoint to Schlesinger’s previous film, MIDNIGHT COWBOY; how this portrayal of a love triangle balances desperation and dignity; and whether this movie actively hates kids, or if the Hodson children serve a greater thematic purpose. Then we reopen the BARBIE discussion with the help of a couple of listener comments in Feedback.Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, PASSAGES, 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did ENCHANTED walk so that BARBIE could fly? Or is Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster, which has us wondering if it might actually change the world, operating on a satiric level the 2007 Disney-princess pastiche could only dream of? Our panel, joined once again by Vulture/New York Magazine critic Jen Chaney, is divided on that point, but in agreement that BARBIE gives us much more to discuss in its nuanced, subversive gender critique. After talking through our responses to the world and worldviews of Barbie, Ken, and most importantly Allan, we bring ENCHANTED back into the discussion to see how it stacks up to its successor in its big musical production numbers, fish-out-of-water comedy, and ability to create an “authentically artificial” world. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about ENCHANTED, BARBIE, 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: Ira Sachs’ PASSAGES with John Schlesinger’s SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greta Gerwig’s mega-hit BARBIE is both a satirical sendup of and a loving tribute to the titular fashion doll, which is a not-unheard-of storytelling approach, though few stories attempting to strike the balance have done so with such direct involvement of the corporate entity responsible for their existence. That element of Mattel’s BARBIE is what led us to Disney’s ENCHANTED, Kevin Lima’s 2007 live-action fractured fairy tale that prods at Disney Princess tropes without quite upending them. This week we’re joined by Vulture critic Jen Chaney to consider what’s made the comparatively slight ENCHANTED such a touchstone for some viewers, the areas where its gentle subversion works and where it falters, whether there’s anything redeeming in the film’s messy final act, and, naturally, what Abel Ferrara’s ENCHANTED might look like. And we continue the trope talk in Feedback, inspired by a listener’s response to a certain GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 gag.Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about ENCHANTED, BARBIE, 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like its obvious predecessor WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, the new THEATER CAMP is an improv-heavy mockumentary about a cash-strapped theatrical operation — but in this case at least there’s real talent in the mix, thanks to the many gifted child actors populating the AdirondACTS summer program for aspiring young performers. This leaves THEATER CAMP’s adult cast, some of them former child actors themselves, free to lean into self-satirizing buffoonery while maintaining a degree of sincere admiration for theatrical weirdos everywhere. We dig into the ups and downs of that tonal balance in THEATER CAMP before comparing it to GUFFMAN’s own blend of affection and condescension toward amateur theater, the people who make it, and the audiences who respond to it, as well as how the mockumentary style has evolved in the years separating the two films. And in Your Next Picture Show, we use the presence of Molly Gordon and Ayo Edebiri in THEATER CAMP as an excuse for a mini bonus episode on a recent season of TV that also features both: THE BEAR. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, THEATER CAMP, 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: Greta Gerwig’s BARBIE with Kevin Lima’s ENCHANTED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new Sundance favorite THEATER CAMP, which uses the mockumentary format to lovingly skewer amateurs pursuing their theatrical dreams, is clear in its homage to WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, a comedy whose own skewering of wannabe actor types is somewhat less loving. Our revisitation of Christopher Guest’s 1996 film considers GUFFMAN’s tricky tonal balance of satire and sincerity, along with the benefits and limitations of both its mockumentary format and improvisation-based filming style, and whether we should read condescension or admiration into Guest’s portrayal of Corky St. Clair and the small town that adores him. And in Feedback we tackle a reading of ASTEROID CITY that we hadn’t considered, courtesy of an astute listener. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, THEATER CAMP, 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Celine Song’s new slow-burn drama PAST LIVES is an unrequited-love story in the same way John Carney’s slow-burn musical drama ONCE is — that is, just on the surface. But each film’s central would-be romance is a delivery device for deeper ideas about the weight of carrying nostalgia for past relationships and always wondering “what if?”. We’re joined once again by David Chen of DecodingEverthing.com to talk through PAST LIVES and how it functions as a different kind of immigration narrative, and the way it connects to ONCE in its depiction of sublimated longing, creative pursuits, and the language barriers that both unite and divide. And in Your Next Picture Show we take a brief look back through the many, many unrequited-love stories we’ve covered on this podcast over the years. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about ONCE, PAST LIVES, 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 Gordon and Nick Lieberman’s THEATER CAMP and Christopher Guest’s WAITING FOR GUFFMAN.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices