The Last Thing I Saw

Ep. 417: Mark Asch on No Picnic, Late Fame, Half-Cocked, Welcome II the Terrordome, Wet Hot American Summer, One Night Only

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This August I welcomed back Mark Asch for another summertime episode extravaganza. This time we talk about some of his recent viewing from the past—No Picnic (directed by Philip Hartman), Half-Cocked (Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky), and Wet Hot American Summer (David Wain)—as well as a two recent releases, Late Fame (Kent Jones) and One Night Only (Will Gluck). We also discuss the newly restored 1994 film Welcome II the Terrordome, the Afrofuturist debut feature of Ngozi Onwurah.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 416: Keva York on Locarno 2026: Nowhere to Lay My Eyes, I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming, 16 Moments in My Life, Donkey Princess, Asphalt Guerrilla

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 79th Locarno Film Festival is wrapping up and joining me for a chat about some of the highlights is returning guest Keva York, a critic who’s also working away as an editor for the festival’s daily. Among the films discussed are I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming (directed by Isabelle Stever), Albert Serra’s concert documentary on Ingrid Caven (16 Moments in My Life), Donkey Princess (Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña), Asphalt Guerrilla (Edgar Pêra) and last but not least, the latest Hong Sangsoo film (Nowhere to Lay My Eyes). York also shares notes on an interview she conducted with Rick Baker.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 415: R. Emmet Sweeney on Wings of Dread, MoMA Silent Movie Week, Oh Darling Yeh Hai India, Blades of the Guardians, Driver’s Ed

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I always look forward to my regular check-in with R. Emmet Sweeney, who oversees physical media production at Kino Lorber and writes on film and jazz at his substack Old New. This time we trade notes on this year’s Silent Movie Week at the Museum of Modern Art, from Raoul Walsh (What Price Glory) to John Ford (3 Bad Men) to Chaplin (Shoulder Arms), and he shares his viewing in current Chinese action cinema, including Wings of Dread (Qin Pengfei & Ashton Chen) and Blades of the Guardians (Yuen Woo-ping); an outstanding 1995 Bollywood pick, the comedically and politically vibrant Oh Darling Yeh Hai India (Ketan Mehta); and a Farrelly Brother joint, Driver’s Ed.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 414: Alissa Wilkinson on Jackass, The Odyssey, Ross McElwee’s Remake and Sherman’s March, Recent Viewing

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. After a summer break avoiding the flocks of the Sun God, I was delighted to welcome back to the show Alissa Wilkinson, a movie critic at The New York Times and author of We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine. Among the movies discussed are The Odyssey (directed by Christopher Nolan), the Jackass series and the larger stories they tell, Ross McElwee’s new essay documentary Remake and his classic feature-length debut Sherman’s March, and some recent viewing. My Fourth of July holiday watch is also revealed, in response to the (nonexistent) demand to know this fact. Stay tuned for more climate-controlled summertime episodes of The Last Thing I Saw!

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 413: Jourdain Searles and Maxwell Paparella on Backrooms, Maddie’s Secret, I Love Boosters, Rose of Nevada, Disclosure Day

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the summer settles in, I thought it was high time to catch up with a few theatrical releases of note. I had a wonderful time with my two guests who’ve each previously been on the show but not together: Jourdain Searles, critic and programmer, and Maxwell Paparella, deputy editor of Filmmaker magazine. We wove a thread or two through several titles that hopefully by now listeners have had a chance to see: Backrooms (directed by Kane Parsons), Maddie’s Secret (John Early), I Love Boosters (Boots Riley), Rose of Nevada (Mark Jenkin), and Disclosure Day (Steven Spielberg).

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass