The Last Thing I Saw

Ep. 295: Amy Taubin on BLKNWS, Ricky, Sorry Baby, Alabama Solution, The Things You Kill Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. There are still great movies to catch up with from Sundance 2025, and once again I was fortunate to talk with the one and only Amy Taubin about her highlights. Films we discussed included stand-outs and prize-winners from this year's edition: BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (directed by Kahlil Joseph), Ricky (Rashad Frett), The Things You Kill (Alireza Khatami), The Alabama Solution (Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman), and of course Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor). Plus a few words from me about Train Dreams (Clint Bentley). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 294: Manohla Dargis on Sorry Baby, Atropia, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, BLKNWS, Omaha Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest Sundance 2025 podcast, I was fortunate again to discuss the festival and its movies with Manohla Dargis, chief film critic of The New York Times. In addition to reflecting on Sundance’s planned move and the backdrop to the festival, we talked about a whole selection of films from this year’s edition: Sorry, Baby (directed by Eva Victor), If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein), Atropia (Hailey Gates), BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (Kahlil Joseph), Omaha (Cole Webley), The Alabama Solution (Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman), The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Blichfeldt), Rebuilding (Max Walker-Silverman), and more. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 293: Eric Hynes on Mad Bills to Pay, The Perfect Neighbor, Rebuilding, Seeds Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest Sundance 2025 podcast, I spoke with Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image, with whom I kicked off this edition's podcasts. This time we talked about a mix of films, both fiction and documentary, prize-winners and not: Rebuilding (directed by Max Walker-Silverman and starring Josh O'Connor), The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta Gandbhir), Mad Bills to Pay (Joel Alfonso Vargas), and Seeds (Brittany Shyne). Stay tuned for more! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 292: Alissa Wilkinson on Sundance 2025: Predators, Zodiac Killer Project, Life After, Middletown Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest Sundance 2025 podcast, I spoke with New York Times movie critic Alissa Wilkinson about some highlights in this year’s edition. We ended up talking about key documentaries: Predators (directed by David Osit), Middletown (Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine), Life After (Reid Davenport), and Zodiac Killer Project (Charlie Shackleton). We also chat about the current climate for documentaries and how they go out into the world. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 291: Bilge Ebiri on Sundance 2025: Peter Hujar’s Day, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sly Lives!, The Ugly Stepsister, The Thing... Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. In chilly Park City—but indoors—I sat down for another Sundance episode, this time with Bilge Ebiri of Vulture / New York magazine. Sorting through the movies we’ve seen, we talk about the new Ira Sachs movie, Peter Hujar’s Day, and the new Kiss of the Spider Woman adaptation (directed by Bill Condon), plus the documentary Sly Lives! The Burden of Black Genius (Ahmir Questlove Thompson), and two genre films: The Thing with Feathers (Dylan Southern), The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Blichfeldt), and Together (Michael Shanks). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 290: Steven Soderbergh on Presence, shooting in the first-person, and recent viewing Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Steven Soderbergh’s first-person ghost thriller Presence opens today in theaters—almost exactly one year after its premiere screening at Sundance, where I first saw it. I sat down with Soderbergh and asked him about directing and shooting the film, which entailed essentially embodying the character of the haunting presence as we move through a house of family and view their goings-on from a supernatural POV. He also shared his mother’s crucial influence on the film; how he built up both suspense and a grounded family drama; and an early change during filming that affected how he would film the presence. Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, and Callina Liang co-star; Soderbergh re-teams with screenwriter David Koepp. Finally, we talk about some of his recent viewing—which the director famously chronicles on his website. Here he explains, among other things, why he’s watching so much Star Wars, and also pays tribute to the dearly departed David Lynch. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 289: Eric Hynes on Sundance 2025: Preview and 2000 Meters to Andriivka Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival has begun, and I kick things off with curator Eric Hynes of the Museum of the Moving Image. We talk about where Sundance’s evolving plans for the future, we trade a few titles we’re anticipating in the lineup, and finally we talk about a film that premiered on the first night. That would be 2,000 Meters to Andriivka, the bold new documentary from Mstyslav Chernov, whose 20 Days in Mariupol won an Academy Award (and who has been a guest on this podcast). Much more is to come, so don’t be a stranger! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 288: Mark Asch on David Lynch RIP, Best of Spectacle, Wicked, La Commune (Paris, 1871) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. In memory of David Lynch (1946-2025), I rang up critic Mark Asch to commiserate and reflect on his work, both movies and other art. We were also originally going to talk about the world of noted Brooklyn microcinema Spectacle Theater, where Asch volunteers, so we do that as well, covering rarely shown works from Logistics to Hamburger Dad. We also address Wicked, which revisits the world of The Wizard of Oz in rather different ways from Lynch. Finally, Asch shares his experience of watching Peter Watkins’s La Commune (Paris, 1871) at Anthology Film Archives. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 287: Payal Kapadia on All We Imagine as Light Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light keeps gaining new admirers and garnering more honors (since winning the Grand Prix at Cannes last spring). I had a wonderful conversation with Kapadia about the myriad directorial decisions that went into creating her nuanced portrait of three women in Mumbai—two roommates, Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), who work at a hospital, and their older widowed friend, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a cook who’s in danger of losing her home. She goes into detail on inspirations for the characters, the details of Mumbai she strove to capture, her choices about composition and color and sound, the influence of her mother on her work, and much, much more—including, of course, recent favorites from her moviegoing. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 286: Dave Kehr on To Save and Project 2025: 7th Heaven, A Circle in the Fire, Maria Candelaria, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. To kick off the new year, I welcomed back Dave Kehr, curator in the department of film at the Museum of Modern Art, to talk about a perennial favorite starting now: To Save and Project, the festival of preservation and restoration, which received a Film Heritage award this year from the National Society of Film Critics as well as one from the New York Film Critics Circle. Kehr takes us on a tour of several titles in the 21st edition, including: 7th Heaven (directed by Frank Borzage), A Circle in the Fire (Victor Nunez), Maria Candelaria (Emilio Fernández), Rosaura at 10 O’Clock (Mario Soffici), Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene), Mia Luang (Vichit Kounavudhi), and Shoulder Arms, a Chaplin mid-length being seen in its proper full form for the first time in over a century. To Save and Project runs through January 30 at the Museum of Modern Art. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass