The Next Reel Film Podcast

It’s easy to compare “City of God” to “GoodFellas” — they both have a frenetic filmmaking style, they both revolve around youth growing up in a world of violence, and they both take that violence to awful places. Plus, they’re both brilliant films. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — this week on The Next Reel as we finish our Foreign Language series with a true highlight — Fernando Mereilles’ and Katia Lund’s 2002 film “City of God.”

Even though Edward Yang’s final film, “Yi Yi, A One and a Two,” was critically acclaimed, it is a long film and requires patience, the right frame of mind when watching, or something similar to really connect with the film. At just shy of three hours and exploring pretty much every aspect of life in one Taipei family over the course of a year, it’s certainly something that can tax some viewers, but for those who click with it, it’s a masterful, powerful, poignant film. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we continue our Foreign Language film series with this Taiwanese entry from 2000.

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo broke onto the international scene with “28 Weeks Later,” the sequel to Danny Boyle’s film, and has been tied to a number of high-profile Hollywood projects since, including the just-announced “Pet Sematary” remake. But it’s his feature film debut, 2002’s “Intacto,” that one only need look at to understand why this writer/director is in such hot demand. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we begin our Foreign Language series with a show about this fascinating movie from Spain about people who gamble not to win money, but to win luck.

David Mamet’s always one to put cons in his films, even when the film is a fight film taking place in the world of mixed martial arts. His 2008 film, “Redbelt,” feels like a mash-up of genres — a con film, a fight film, a film noir, a samurai film, an intimate character portrait. It’s a bit of all of these, and probably because it’s hard to pin it down, it couldn’t find its audience when it was released. Despite that, we wanted to include it in our David Mamet Directs series.

David Mamet has made a name for himself as a playwright, as a screenwriter, as an author, and as a writer/director. His fifth film that he wrote and directed, “The Spanish Prisoner,” didn’t make many waves when it came out in 1998, but it seemed to impress the critics and it ended up in the black. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we begin a short David Mamet Directs series by talking about this film.

In 1989, Cameron Crowe made his directorial debut with what many consider to be one of his best films, “Say Anything…” It wasn’t one of the top films at the box office that year, but it certainly found its audience since then and is still hailed by many to be one of the great romantic films out there. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we talk about Crowe’s first film.

While romantic comedies may be dead in our current day and age, they were alive and well 20 years ago when Norah Ephron’s “Sleepless in Seattle” came out. And what sort of hurdle did they put between the couple to keep them apart until the end of the film? Why, they had them on opposite sides of the country and never actually had them meet until the very end of the film! It’s genius! Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we talk about this fantastic 1993 film, the latest in our romantic comedy series.