The Next Picture Show Filmspotting Network

There’s no doubt that director Osgood Perkins had Jonathan Demme’s THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in mind when he made the new LONGLEGS, but there are as many fascinating contrasts as there are comparisons between these two films about inexperienced female FBI agents and seasoned serial killers. But before getting into those next episode, this week we’re joined by critic and author Charles Bramesco for an in-depth revisitation of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS that digs into how the “Demme Touch” elevated a potentially lurid procedural to an Oscar-sweeping sensation, why its artful exploration of trauma inspired a legion of imitators, and how its sidestepping of trans identity plays in an era that’s much more attuned to that conversation. And in Feedback, a listener deconstructs a couple of our recent pairings and reconstructs them as inversions of the same story. 
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, LONGLEGS,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pulitzer-winning playwright Annie Baker’s filmmaking debut JANET PLANET is sort of a dual coming-of-age story, centering a young girl’s fascination with her single mother who is still figuring out her own place in the world. But it also resists broad statements and neat conclusions, giving us space to unpack our own interpretations of the emotional depths that lie beneath the film’s quiet exterior. Then we bring Lukas Moodysson’s TOGETHER back into the discussion to compare its non-judgmental eye toward low-impact parenting, especially in the face of adult drama, and greater interest in the human drive for connection to those of JANET PLANET. And in Your Next Picture Show we share our runner-up contender for this week’s pairing. 
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about TOGETHER, JANET PLANET,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Oz Perkins’ LONGLEGS and Jonathan Demme’s SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new JANET PLANET follows a young girl who comes to see the world differently thanks to a succession of people her hippyish single mother brings into their lives, and more specifically into the home they share. Its sense of the fraught sense of intimacy that accompanies cohabitation by family members and lovers brought to mind Lukas Moodysson’s TOGETHER, another film that’s interested in how its characters’ progressive politics overlap and even interfere with their family dynamics. This week we talk through how TOGETHER shows affection for the residents of its titular commune in spite of, or perhaps because of, their foibles, what the film’s unresolved ending leaves up to interpretation, and how a parent’s journey of self-realization can really do a number on their parenting instincts. And in Feedback, a very thoughtful letter about the underappreciated value of Disney Princess culture leads to an unexpected conclusion. 

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about TOGETHER, JANET PLANET,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When thinking of a film to pair with INSIDE OUT 2, we purposefully avoided the new Pixar sequel’s 2015 original because the two are so of a piece, delving into the contrasts between them seemed too much like nitpicking. Still, we attempt to make fruitful discussion out of those nitpicks in this week’s conversation about the new film, and perhaps even change one panelist’s opinion of it in the process. Then we bring in the film we actually chose for this pairing, 2012’s BRAVE, which we all agree isn’t as much of a Pixar all-timer as the original INSIDE OUT, but provides some thought-provoking echoes and contrasts with its sequel in terms of adolescent emotions and the outward embodiments thereof, journeys of self discovery — for a teenage protagonist as well as the nurturing presence who cares for them — and the symbolic potential of pretty glowing things. Then we make a hard pivot for Your Next Picture Show to discuss the appeal of Richard Linklater’s new HIT MAN and how it translates between the big and small screens.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BRAVE, INSIDE OUT 2,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next Pairing: Annie Baker’s JANET PLANET and Lukas Moodysson’s TOGETHER
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

INSIDE OUT 2 is quite literally built around the emotional experience of being a young girl, but it wasn’t too long ago that this was uncharted territory for Pixar. That’s why rather than comparing the animation studio’s latest sequel to the original, we’re reaching a little further back in the filmography to revisit its first attempt to tell a story about a teenager trying to define her own identity: 2012's BRAVE. Representing some big firsts for Pixar, BRAVE had a fair amount of baggage and expectations when it hit theaters, all of which still linger in our conversation about a film we enjoy, with no shortage of qualities to recommend it, that nonetheless still feels like it’s struggling to reach its full potential.  
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BRAVE, INSIDE OUT 2, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new FURIOSA functions as both a prequel and a sequel within the larger mythology of the MAD MAX franchise, and we’re looking at it from both of those angles this week. First, we talk over why George Miller’s latest might have flopped at the box office (prequel fatigue) and why it feels poised to overcome that reputation in due time (it is the rare good prequel). Then we zoom out to bring 1979’s original MAX MAX back into the picture and consider this franchise’s ongoing interest in themes of hope, despair, grief, and revenge, and how those themes shift when presented through a feminine perspective versus a masculine one. And in Your Next Picture Show, we use this opportunity to sing the praises of a lesser-known Miller work with much less vehicular mayhem and a much more overt presentation of hope in the face of despair.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about MAD MAX, FURIOSA,  or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Pixar’s INSIDE OUT 2 and BRAVE
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices