Filmspotting

Can a movie really change your life?

Primetime is a far-from-straightforward take on a true story, using the mid-aughts TV phenomenon To Catch a Predator and especially its host, Chris Hansen, for a darkly comic exploration of the morally murky place where ambition and justice overlap. It’s a tonal high wire act that gets a lot of mileage out of Lance Oppenheim’s expressively stylized direction and strong performances from Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, and Skyler Gisondo, but whether that all adds up to a satisfying film is up for debate this week. Then we bring 1957’s Sweet Smell of Success back in for Connections to discuss how it and Primetime both navigate protagonists who punch down from their moral high ground, and the bygone media environments that enable them, all while maintaining a sense of humor. Then, for anyone looking for a fuller picture of To Catch a Predator’s rise and fall, we offer a Your Next Picture Show for David Osit’s 2025 documentary Predators. Please share your thoughts about Sweet Smell of Success, Primetime, 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: Aaron Sorkin's The Social Reckoning and David Fincher's The Social Network. This episode is presented by⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Regal Unlimited⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Flanagan’s limited series adaptation of the King classic.

Iñárritu and Cruise’s ambitious new film.

He'll be your wing man anytime.

Teenage sex and death in the suburbs.

How many drivers does a buggy have?

Avenge the fallen.

Truth in performance.

Get off the train with me.

William Friedkin’s 1977 cult favorite.

PV & FRANNY A girl with a glockenspiel. A boy with a guitar. A high school full of weirdos, mascots who may or may not be unhinged, and a mystery that isn’t what anyone thinks it is. A dead-serious love story… that refuses to behave like one. One flier turns into a band. One band turns into obsession. And before they ever play a real set, everything is already ridiculous. ACT TWO If Act One is about starting a band, Act Two is about what happens when everything immediately gets in the way. Franny does what any rational person would do. He writes a love song. Which would be fine… except for the rule. No romance. Ever. And PV means it. What follows is a series of perfectly logical decisions that somehow make everything worse. A love song that says too much. A date that shouldn’t exist. A plan to fix things that only complicates them further. Because if PV won’t date a bandmate, there’s only one solution: Make the competition part of the band. Which works. Until it doesn’t. As alliances shift, rules get enforced, and Franny finds himself deeper in a situation he cannot control, the band becomes something else entirely. Not just music. Not just friendship. Something closer to a test. Of loyalty. Of identity. Of whether you can separate what you create from how you feel. And in the middle of it all, the stakes quietly expand. A school competition that suddenly matters. A partnership that feels more intense than anything either of them expected. And a realization that success might not look the way they imagined it. Act Two is where the band takes shape, the lines get blurred, and the consequences of those rules start to land. Because sometimes the only thing more complicated than love… …is trying to avoid it. 🎭 CAST NARRATOR – Ty Burrell AJAY – Rahm Braslaw JUDY – Samantha Morelos MARIAN – Eileen Fogarty PV – Kensington Tallman RYUZO – O’Neill Monahan FRANNY – Liam Richardson GROUNDSKEEPER – Fred Armisen DALE – Ruben Ray TAP WATER BOTTLED WATER JINGLE – Chris Mann 🎬 PRODUCTION Written by Tommy Wallach Directed by Mark Knell & Jack Levy Executive Produced by Shaan Sharma, Jack Levy, and Mark Knell Table Read is a Manifest Media production. Find The Show: Table Read PodcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the girl.