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Griffin and David welcome back Todd VanDerWerff ([Vox](https://www.vox.com/authors/todd-vanderwerff)) to discuss 2010's CGI fantasy Alice in Wonderland! Together they examine Burton's greatest failure. This episode is sponsored by [MUBI](https://mubi.com/check), [Hello Fresh](https://www.hellofresh.com/check80) CODE: CHECK80 and [Noom](http://noom.com/check).
Cultural critics and married couple Libby Hill (Los Angeles Times) and Todd VanDerWerff (Vox) join us to discuss Rob Reiner’s 1999 comedy about a couple going through a crisis that might lead to divorce. Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer play the couple. It takes place in LA. It utilizes flashback. Im sorry, are we being too vague? Vaguer than the damn title The Story of Us???? Just listen. It’s a good one.
Nick and Mark welcome critic Todd VanDerWerff (Vox) to the podcast to discuss The Care Bears Movie and how his upbringing led him to develop a childhood fear of the supernatural.
Nick and Mark welcome critic Todd VanDerWerff (Vox) to the podcast to discuss The Care Bears Movie and how his upbringing led him to develop a childhood fear of the supernatural.
Steven Lisberger’s groundbreaking live-action Disney film TRON is one of the few 1980s properties that doesn’t get explicitly referenced in Steven Spielberg’s new adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel READY PLAYER ONE, but the earlier film makes up a significant portion of RP1’s source code. After discussing our reactions to READY PLAYER ONE, and hashing out what made Cline’s novel become so strangely controversial, we look at what connects and distinguishes these two films about life inside a video game, from their attitudes about human/computer relationships to how they approach the idea of corporate control. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about TRON, READY PLAYER ONE, or both by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. Your Next Picture Show: • Genevieve: Anders Walter’s I KILL GIANTS• Scott: Andrew Haigh’s LEAN ON PETE• Tasha: Rich Moore’s WRECK-IT RALPH SHOW NOTES: Works Cited:• “The Ready Player One Backlash, Explained” by Constance Grady (Vox.com)• “Ready Player One is a truly awful book. I’m really looking forward to the movie” by Todd VanDerWerff (Vox.com)• “Ernest Cline: Ready Player One” (review) by Kevin McFarland (AVClub.com)• Ernest Cline’s “Ultraman is Airwolf” (ErnestCline.com)• “Here are all the references in Ready Player One” by Abraham Riesman (Vulture.com)• “I Kill Giants director Anders Walter on making a likable fantasy with a hateful protagonist” by Tasha Robinson (TheVerge.com)• “Our film critic and the director of a movie he hated sat down and tried to work out their differences” by David Ehrlich (Indiewire.com) Outro Music: Rush, “2112 (The Temples of Syrnix)” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Todd VanDerWerff (Vox) joins Griffin and David this week to discuss 2005’s Israeli espionage thriller, Munich. But is this movie’s lasting legacy being a reference in Knocked Up? What does it mean when Jeffrey Wells leaves behind his hat? What was with those sex scenes? Together, they go on the record with Oscar picks, examine Eric Bana’s career trajectory, ponder when Spielberg lost his virginity and go off on a tangent about the film Crash.