The Last Thing I Saw

Ep. 430: Jessica Green on American Regionalism at BAM: Giant, When I Get Home, Brigham City, The Delta, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Run Tecato Run, Shakedown

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. A new series at BAM in Brooklyn explores American Regionalism in film, showing the different ways the tapestry of American cultures and identities appear in movies. It’s curated by Jessica Green, a programmer whose work I’ve followed for many years, and who now also works in development at She Spun Films. Among the films discussed are the Texas rancher epic Giant (directed by George Stevens, starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean), the visual album When I Get Home (Solange Knowles), Virginia-set The Delta (Ira Sachs), Mormon police procedural Brigham City (Richard Dutcher), Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper), addiction drama Run Tecato Run (Efrain Gutiérrez), Pacific Northwest thriller Paydirt (Penny Allen), Montana-set Bitterroot (Vera Brunner-Sung), Corpus: A Home Movie About Selena (Lourdes Portillo), Grey Gardens (Albert and David Maysles), and Los Angeles black-lesbian nightclub documentary Shakedown (Leilah Weinraub).

The series “Area Coded: American Regionalism in Film” runs October 23 to 29 at BAM and was programmed by Jessica Green.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 429: Alissa Wilkinson on Artificial, Digger, You Can See Everything, One in a Million, 14th, The Social Reckoning

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the fall air turns crisp and cool, Big Movies now stalk the land, and to talk about some of them, I chatted with Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times. Which is to say, we recorded an episode, and among the films we discussed are: Artificial (directed by Luca Guadagnino, starring Andrew Garfield, Yura Borisov, Monica Barbaro), Digger (directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, starring Tom Cruise, Sandra Hüller), the new documentary One in a Million (directed by Itab Azzam and Jack Macinnes), 14th (directed by Ava DuVernay), and The Social Reckoning (directed by Aaron Sorkin, starring Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong). We also share a few initial thoughts on the newly released You Can See Everything, from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 428: Jon Dieringer of Screen Slate on Screaming Mad George series, New Resident Evil, plus Notes on Chronicling Repertory Culture

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Founded by mastermind Jon Dieringer, Screen Slate remains a delightful guiding light for film-lovers of all stripes to read listings and criticism spanning the wild array of movies and moving-image culture generally. I had a wonderful time hearing from Dieringer about a few matters that are currently top of mind: his forthcoming 35mm series honoring the great special effects artist Screaming Mad George (R.I.P.) at the Roxy Cinema in New York, with special attention to his best-known work in Society (1989, directed by Brian Yuzna); the new Resident Evil movie (2026, Zach Cregger) and its related game universe; and the role of Screen Slate in chronicling the vibrant world of repertory film culture—especially in a new era of AI-powered appropriation of things we like.

The 35mm series “Psycho-Fiction: The Surreal Nightmares of Screaming Mad George”, programmed by Jon Dieringer, screens at the Roxy Cinema starting October 23.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 427: Amy Taubin on Arthur Jafa, NYFF: La Gradiva, Rose, Naza, Everything Else Is Noise, I Deserve a Lover, The Unknown, The Dreamed Adventure, plus Godard

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the fall film season begins in New York, I sat down once again with Amy Taubin to make sense of it all. We talked about The New York Film Festival 2026, but first Taubin singles out two other notable events: the career-spanning Arthur Jafa exhibition at the New Museum (“I Am Tony”), and the uniquely assembled series “Jean-Luc Godard: Unmade and Abandoned” at L'Alliance New York. Then it’s on to a slew of selections in NYFF: Naza (directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor), La Gradiva (Marine Atlan), Rose (Markus Schleinzer, starring Sandra Hüller), Everything Else Is Noise (Nicolas Pereda), The Dreamed Adventure (Valeska Grisebach), The Unknown (Arthur Harari, starring Léa Seydoux), All of a Sudden (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto), My Undesirable Friends: Part II—Exile (Julia Loktev), Paper Tiger (James Gray, starring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Miles Teller), and I Deserve a Lover Whose Every Rise Sets Fiery Dooms Raging Across the Skies (Mani Haghighi).

Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony is on display at the New Museum through January 3. Jean-Luc Godard: Unmade and Abandoned screens through October 15 at L’Alliance New York. The 64th New York Film Festival runs through October 12 at Lincoln Center. Several NYFF selections discussed also open in theaters in October, November, and December.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 426: Julia Loktev on My Undesirable Friends: Part II—Exile

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Julia Loktev’s continuing chronicle of Russian independent journalists My Undesirable Friends: Part II—Exile had its world premiere at the Venice film. I sat down with Loktev in Venice to talk about her equally stirring and urgent Part II. We delved into the trust involved in accomplishing this up-close-and-personal filmmaking as well as capturing all the complex tones (dramatic and even some humor) among these journalists, who boldly continue their work chronicling Russia abroad even as their home country declares them persona non grata.

My Undesirable Friends: Part II—Exiles opens October 9 at Film Forum after screening in the New York Film Festival.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass