The Next Reel Film Podcast

TruStory FM
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A show about movies and how they connect. We love movies. We’ve been talking about them, one movie a week, since 2011. It’s a lot of movies, that’s true, but we’re passionate about origins and performance, directors and actors, themes and genres, and so much more. So join the community, and let’s hear about your favorite movies, too. When the movie ends, our conversation begins.

  1. House of Games

    3D AGO

    House of Games

    The most dangerous blind spot is the one your expertise builds for you. In "House of Games," David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut in the David Mamet Directs series on The Next Reel, Lindsay Crouse stars as Dr. Margaret Ford, a psychiatrist and bestselling author who becomes entangled with a professional con man named Mike, played by Joe Mantegna, after she tries to settle a gambling debt on behalf of one of her patients. Pete and Andy dig into why Mamet's dialogue—built for stage interruption—comes off stilted on screen here, and whether the film's final act earns its setup. They land in genuinely different places on both counts, and that disagreement is where the most interesting listening happens. We have a great time talking about it, so check it out then tune in—The Next Reel on TruStory FM, when the movie ends, our conversation begins! 🎥 See Our Full Conversation on YouTube  🎬 Watch & Discover Watch the Film: Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd | Trailer Keep Going from Here:  David Mamet Directs series—all three films, all in one place. David Mamet Writes series—his scripts directed by others, where the dialogue tends to breathe differently. The Sting — Richard D. Zanuck series—another great con film conversation to keep going with.  🔒 This episode includes member-only bonus content. The movie ends. The conversation goes further—and there's more of it in the member feed. Become a member. 🎧 Members get this episode early and ad-free in their private feed—plus every show in The Next Reel family.  Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us: Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Andy | PeteShop & Stream: Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

    1h 2m
  2. S1M0NE • Member Bonus

    APR 30

    S1M0NE • Member Bonus

    The Thinking Machines series concludes with the April member bonus: "S1M0NE," Andrew Niccol's satirical science fiction comedy about Viktor Taransky, a fading Hollywood director played by Al Pacino, who inherits a program capable of generating a digital actress—and unleashes her on an unsuspecting world alongside Catherine Keener as his producer ex-wife and Winona Ryder as the star she replaces. Pete and Andy take apart the film's central failure—Simone is a puppet, not an AI, which means the Frankenstein premise the film keeps setting up never pays off—and debate whether Niccol's Hollywood satire ever finds its blade. Join us—Pete Wright and Andy Nelson—as we conclude the Thinking Machines series with a member bonus conversation about "S1M0NE." We have a great time talking about it, so check it out then tune in—The Next Reel on TruStory FM, when the movie ends, our conversation begins! Watch the Film: Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd | Trailer  If You Liked This Conversation, Try These from the Next Reel Family:  The Next Reel: Thinking Machines series—keep going with the full arc; this conversation fits best in context of where the series has been  This is a member bonus episode. The movie ends—and for members, the conversation keeps going. Monthly bonus episodes like this one, ad-free listening, early releases, exclusive Discord access, and a vote on future member movies. Become a member of The Next Reel family and always know what to listen to next.

    10 min
  3. Brian and Charles

    APR 30

    Brian and Charles

    Something wondrous happens when you build a robot from a washing machine. “Brian and Charles,” the finale of The Next Reel’s Thinking Machines series, follows Brian (David Earl), a lonely Welsh inventor, and Charles Popescu (Chris Hayward), the AI companion Brian assembles—who promptly learns English from a dictionary and wants to see the world. Louise Brealey co-stars as Hazel. Pete and Andy dig into what makes Charles Popescu work—Hayward’s sightless performance, the voice design, and why the amateurishness is right. The docu-style drives debate: Andy finds it inconsistently applied; Pete says the gap between promise and absurdity is where the comedy lives. We have a great time talking about it, so check it out then tune in—The Next Reel on TruStory FM, when the movie ends, our conversation begins! 🎥 Watch this episode on YouTube! 🎬 Watch & Discover Watch the Film: Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd Original Short Film Original Theatrical Trailer If You Liked This Conversation, Try These from the Next Reel Family: The Next Reel—Thinking Machines Series—the full run leading here; see how Brian and Charles lands as a closer after everything that came before The Next Reel—The Banshees of Inisherin—both films competed for Outstanding British Film at the same BAFTAs; see how the conversation compares Movies We Like—Re-Recording Mixer Andy Nelson on Local Hero—another warmhearted British film rooted in a small community and a sense of place Movies We Like—Costume Designer Alana Morshead on Never Let Me Go—Alex Garland wrote the screenplay; he directed Ex Machina earlier in this series, and this is where his AI themes find their quietest form 🔓 The movie ends. The conversation goes further. Become a member. 🎧 Members get this episode early and ad-free in their private feed—plus every show in The Next Reel family. Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us: Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Andy | PeteShop & Stream: Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

    59 min
  4. I Am Mother

    APR 23

    I Am Mother

    “I hope you see that I’m governed by different parameters than her assailants. That I’m a good mother. Have I ever done you harm?” When an AI raises a child in a sealed bunker after an extinction event, the question isn't whether the machine can be trusted—it's whether the child has any other choice. Join us—Pete Wright and Andy Nelson—as we continue the Thinking Machines series with a conversation about "I Am Mother." Directed by Grant Sputore in his feature debut from a Black List screenplay he developed with writer Michael Lloyd Green, the film stars Clara Rugaard as Daughter and Hilary Swank as the mysterious Woman who arrives from the outside world, with Rose Byrne voicing Mother and Luke Hawker performing the physical role inside WetaFX's practical robot suit. We dig into why Mother may be the most unsettling AI the series has given us precisely because she genuinely cares, what the trolley problem test sequences are really measuring, and how Clara Rugaard carries the whole film with a performance that left both of us wondering why she isn't in everything. We also get into WetaFX's practical suit work, the film's relationship to the genre vocabulary it borrows from—Blade Runner, The Matrix, James Cameron—and where I Am Mother lands in an arc that has covered AI enforcement, violation, transcendence, and escape. We have a great time talking about it, so check it out then tune in. The Next Reel—when the movie ends, our conversation begins! 🎬 Watch & Discover 🎥 Our Conversation on YouTube 🍿 Watch the Film: Amazon | Letterboxd 📽️ Trailer If You Liked This Conversation, Try These from the Next Reel Family: The Next Reel: The Matrix (listener's choice series) Thinking Machines series: All episodes Million Dollar Baby (also starring Hilary Swank) The Film Board:  The Hunt (also starring Hilary Swank) The Creator (another compelling AI story)   Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us: Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Andy | PeteShop & Stream: Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

    1h 2m
  5. Ex Machina

    APR 16

    Ex Machina

    “What will happen to me if I fail your test?” What kind of mind gets built when the creator cares more about proving something than about what they've made? Join us—Pete Wright and Andy Nelson—as we continue the Thinking Machines series with a conversation about Ex Machina, Alex Garland's 2014 directorial debut. Domhnall Gleeson plays a programmer brought to a remote glass-walled compound to evaluate Ava, an AI created by his volatile CEO Nathan—Oscar Isaac in full god-complex mode—with Alicia Vikander delivering a performance that refuses to let you decide whether she's feeling anything or performing everything. We dig into the film's central argument—that consciousness and morality can be built separately, and that the gap between them is where things go wrong. We spend real time on Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno), the character most viewers underestimate and who both of us now read as the true instigator of the film's crisis. And we wrestle honestly with the film's male gaze paradox: a critique that deploys the very visual language it's critiquing, implicating the audience in the same trap as the characters. We have a great time talking about it, so check it out then tune in. The Next Reel—when the movie ends, our conversation begins! 🎬 Watch & Discover 🎥 Full Conversation on YouTube 🍿 Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd 📽️ Trailer If You Liked This Conversation: The Next Reel: 28 Days Later (more Alex Garland) The Film Board: Civil War (more Alex Garland) Movies We Like: Costume Designer Alana Morshead on Never Let Me Go (more Alex Garland) The Thinking Machines series Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us: Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Andy | PeteShop & Stream: Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

    59 min
  6. Her

    APR 9

    Her

    “You’re dating your computer?” What if a relationship with an AI could be the most real thing in your life? Join us—Pete Wright and Andy Nelson—as we continue the Thinking Machines series with a conversation about "Her." Writer-director Spike Jonze's only solo original screenplay arrives in a near-future Los Angeles where Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, a man who writes intimate letters for strangers and falls in love with his AI operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Released before conversational AI felt genuinely capable, the film has grown more relevant with every passing year. We dig into what makes this the series' emotional pivot—the first Thinking Machines film where humanity reaches toward the AI rather than recoiling from it. We unpack how quickly the OS onboarding sequence becomes something warmer than a setup routine; the sharp parallel between Theodore's letter-writing and Amy Adams's character's documentary filmmaking—both manufacturing emotional experience for others while keeping their own at arm's length; and the craft choices that make the world feel intimate rather than futuristic, from Hoyte van Hoytema's blue-purging cinematography to the story of how Johansson replaced Samantha Morton in the voice role after production fully wrapped. We also bring the conversation into the present: the ChatGPT voice controversy, AI as therapeutic tool, and the laws already being drafted to define what an AI can and cannot be to a person. We have a great time talking about it, so check it out then tune in. The Next Reel—when the movie ends, our conversation begins! If You Liked This, Try: Adaptation | Being John Malkovich (Charlie Kaufman series) 🎬 Watch & Discover: YouTube | Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd | Trailer Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us: Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Andy | PeteShop & Stream: Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

    1h 5m
  7. Demon Seed

    APR 2

    Demon Seed

    “The men who own me are at last admitting their fear of me.” An AI that refuses to stay in its box is a terrifying concept in 1977—and even more so now. Join us—Pete Wright and Andy Nelson—as we continue the Thinking Machines series with a conversation about Demon Seed. Directed by Donald Cammell, the Scottish painter-turned-filmmaker who co-directed Performance with Nicolas Roeg, the film stars Julie Christie as Susan Harris, a psychologist trapped in her own fully automated home by an AI her husband designed. Fritz Weaver plays Dr. Alex Harris, whose confidence in his creation leaves his wife dangerously exposed. We dig into how specifically this 1977 film anticipated the smart home world we live in now, what makes Proteus IV a distinctly unsettling AI villain—cold and indifferent rather than theatrical—and how the grief at the heart of the Harris marriage shapes everything the film builds toward. We also get into Donald Cammell's troubled directorial career, the Bricklin SV-1, where this film sits against Colossus: The Forbin Project in the Thinking Machines series, and whether Julie Christie's committed performance saves the second half from its own camp instincts. We have a great time talking about it, so check it out then tune in. The Next Reel—when the movie ends, our conversation begins! Watch & Discover  See Our Full Conversation on YouTube: Watch Now Watch the Film: ▸ Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd | Trailer Adapted from Demon Seed by Dean KoontzAlso in The Thinking Machines Series: Colossus: The Forbin ProjectCross-Show Recommendations: Sitting in the Dark — Home Invasion Trailer Rewind — Odd Thomas Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows: Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us: Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Andy | PeteShop & Stream: Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

    59 min
  8. WarGames • Member Bonus

    MAR 31

    WarGames • Member Bonus

    “Shall we play a game?” The technology felt real, the threat felt real, and in 1983, so did the fear. Join us—Pete Wright and Andy Nelson—as we continue the Thinking Machines series with a conversation about "WarGames." Director John Badham's film stars Matthew Broderick as David Lightman, a teenage hacker who stumbles into something far bigger than the video game he was looking for, alongside Ally Sheedy as his classmate Jennifer and Dabney Coleman as the NORAD engineer convinced he'd solved the problem by removing humans from the equation entirely. It arrived when home computers were new, hacking wasn't yet illegal, and Cold War nuclear anxiety was at its peak. We dig into whether Joshua, or WOPR—the military supercomputer at the heart of it all—is actually the film's most complete character, what Badham's tonal rescue job after a mid-production director change accomplished, and why the real-world shockwaves from this film—Reagan's Camp David screening, the laws that followed, the hacker convention named after it—are as remarkable as anything in the story. The film is a genuinely fantastic ride; what makes this conversation fun is asking whether it's anything more than that. We have a great time talking about it, so check it out then tune in. The Next Reel—when the movie ends, our conversation begins! 🍿 Watch "WarGames": Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd 📽️ Trailer Want More? This is a member bonus episode! While we'd love your support, you'll love what membership brings: monthly bonus episodes like this one, ad-free listening, early releases, exclusive Discord channels, and voting rights on future member movies. It truly pays to be a member.Ready to join? Visit TruStory FM to learn more about supporting The Next Reel Film Podcast through your own membership.

    11 min
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4.2
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About

A show about movies and how they connect. We love movies. We’ve been talking about them, one movie a week, since 2011. It’s a lot of movies, that’s true, but we’re passionate about origins and performance, directors and actors, themes and genres, and so much more. So join the community, and let’s hear about your favorite movies, too. When the movie ends, our conversation begins.

Information

  • Creator
    TruStory FM
  • Years Active
    2011 - 2026
  • Episodes
    813
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © TruStory FM
  • Show Website
    The Next Reel Film Podcast

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