Amy Taubin on Oppenheimer, Barbie, Soderbergh's Command-Z

Barbenheimer-Z-mania is sweeping the nation!

Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,

Now that Oppenheimer and Barbie are in theaters attracting millions of moviegoers, it’s time to share the latest episode of The Last Thing I Saw: a chat with Amy Taubin. How successful is each movie at its particular balancing act? And what is Control-Z? We answer all these questions and possibly reveal the meaning of cinema itself - the only way to find out is to listen.

Thanks as always to all my supporters, who have made The Last Thing I Saw the shining global beacon of filmic freedom that it is today!

Yours,

Nic

THE PODCAST

Amy Taubin on Oppenheimer, Barbie, Command-Z (Ep. 191)

Amy Taubin will discuss Donnie Darko with director Richard Kelly on July 26 following a screening at the Roxy Cinema.

Episodes of The Last Thing I Saw are also available at other podcast places such as Spotify.

For more information on the podcast’s opening and closing music by The Minarets (gratefully used with permission), follow the band on Instagram:

@theminaretsmusic

RECENT WORK

For The Financial Times, I profiled the funny and altogether delightful directors of new horror film Talk to Me, Danny and Michael Philippou. The Australian twins rose to fame making raucous YouTube videos under the name RackaRacka, but, as they explain, they’d been making videos since they were kids. The above link is just for The Last Thing I Saw subscribers – ordinarily it’s paywalled.

For Air Mail, I reviewed a new book about The Exorcist that meticulously chronicles its making, its alternate versions, its sequels, and its sequels’ alternate versions. This was fun to write...

And don’t forget that at the Roxy Cinema on August 11-13, I’ll be presenting another New Essentials screening: Headless Woman, directed by Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (Zama) and starring the late Maria Onetto. This is a movie you should see on the big screen. Get your tickets now and tell them I sent you.

THIS CRITIC’S PICKS

A.I. (Criterion) Back in the news

The Grand Bizarre (Metrograph)

’71 (MUBI)

The Virgin Suicides (Amazon)

Hell Drivers (Criterion)

THE END

Here I may end with a song.

ABOUT ME

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw! I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold.

Besides hosting the podcast, I’m a writer and an editor. My features, interviews, festival reports, and reviews are published in The New York Times, Screen Slate, Sight & Sound, Filmmaker, Air Mail, and W Magazine. (Plus dearly departed publications such as The Village Voice, Stop Smiling, The New York Sun, and The L Magazine.) For notes on past programming, drop me a line.

On the editorial side, I worked as editor-in-chief of Film Comment magazine, where I was in editorial for 15 years in all. There I assigned and edited both web and print, hosted The Film Comment Podcast and Talks, curated and hosted Film Comment Selects screenings, learned from brilliant writers, and wrote a lot, including interviews with Spike Lee, Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Pedro Costa, and Frederick Wiseman. Film Comment received the Film Heritage Award from the National Society of Film Critics.

Feel free to get in touch re: writing, editing, moderating, programming, podcasting, etc.

nicolas.rapold@gmail.com