The Next Picture Show

Hey Next Picture Show listeners, sorry there’s no new episode in your feed today. Real life got in the way of podcast life and prevented us from recording our next pairing in time to release it this week. But we will be back next Tuesday with part one of our double feature comparing Robert Eggers’ new Nosferatu with Frances Ford Coppola’s own take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1992. If you’re playing along at home, the former is in theaters now, while Coppola’s Dracula is digitally rentable from the usual outlets, and available in an array of physical-media releases to purchase — or perhaps check out from your local library. We hope you’ll enjoy both movies, and join us next week as we sink our teeth into this pairing.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the beginning of a new year comes our customary look back, as Keith, Scott, and Tasha gather once again to compare their personal lists of the best films of 2024. While there is some crossover among their picks — particularly when it comes to films that have been discussed in-depth on this podcast — there is much more variance, reflective of a movie year that was light on prestige-season heavyweights, and full of memorably idiosyncratic, personal projects that will stick with us long past year’s end.  Please share your thoughts about, and your own picks for, the best movies of 2024, 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: Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU and Francis Ford Coppola’s BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The moments in NICKEL BOYS that nod to 1958’s THE DEFIANT ONES are less direct citations than stylized invocations by director RaMell Ross, who incorporates a number of abstractions and flourishes into the film’s visual language. Chief among those stylistic gambits is the film’s use of first-person perspective, which kicks off our discussion of NICKEL BOYS’ uniquely textured take on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel. From there we consider the deeper meaning and intent behind NICKEL BOYS’ use of visuals and audio from THE DEFIANT ONES, and where the two films overlap in their ideas about racial justice in the Jim Crow South and clashing philosophies of idealism and realism. Then our returning guest co-host Noel Murray offers a Your Next Picture Show recommendation for another social-issue film from the team behind THE DEFIANT ONES. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE DEFIANT ONES, NICKEL BOYS, and 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

Stanley Kramer’s 1958 feature THE DEFIANT ONES, a film very much of its time, makes multiple on-screen appearances in RaMell Ross’ new NICKEL BOYS, a film about the way the past haunts the present. Both movies take place in the Jim Crow-era South and engage with that setting’s lopsided ideas about justice, but THE DEFIANT ONES does so from a much more straightforward approach, operating as both a stylish thriller about two escaped prisoners, one black (Sidney Poitier) and one white (Tony Curtis), and an earnest allegory about interracial acceptance. That latter quality makes it easy to lump in with Kramer’s other “message movies,” which are often dismissed from a modern vantage point as stodgy and sanctimonious, so we’re revisiting THE DEFIANT ONES, with an assist from critic and pal Noel Murray, to see whether it earns or defies that reputation. And in Feedback we revisit our WIZARD OF OZ discussion with a reader suggestion of another child female protagonist who rivals Dorothy when it comes to teary helplessness. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE DEFIANT ONES, NICKEL BOYS, and 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