The Next Best Picture Podcast

After a hiatus of over a decade, legendary indie filmmaker Gregg Araki is back in movie theaters with his latest piece of visual provocation, “I Want Your Sex.” The film made a splash at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, thanks to Araki’s trademark eye-tickling visuals and equally trademark envelope-pushing substance. Here, Gen Z is the target of Araki’s aim, with his film (and specifically Olivia Wilde’s sensational character, the avant-garde sex-obsessed artist Erika Tracy) skewering the prudishness of the latest batch of young adults. But as always with Araki, answers don’t come easy and messages aren’t neat and tidy. One of the masters of queer indie filmmaking, Araki was kind enough to spend some time speaking with us about his latest film, which you can listen to below. In our conversation, he touched on what he thinks of Gen Z’s tendency toward sex negativity, how a film centering around a male-female pairing can still touch on queer themes, and what it was like to debut his film at the final Sundance Film Festival hosted in Park City, Utah. Please be sure to check out the film, which will open in theaters on July 31st from Magnolia Pictures. Thank you, and enjoy!

https://youtu.be/z3kWcH5mqhM

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Following our 502nd episode of The Next Best Picture Podcast, we're back with a new episode of Mailbag Monday. Katie Johnson, Nadia Dalimonte, and Tom O’Brien join me in this new series dedicated entirely to answering your fan-submitted questions from the NBP Film Community. Covering everything from the latest movie news, awards season, and Oscar predictions to filmmaking, industry trends, and whatever else is on your mind, Mailbag Monday allows us to engage more directly with all of you every week. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions for this episode, whether on our X account or on our Discord (Patreon members get a private link to chat with other members of NBP and me). If you'd like to be featured on a future edition of Mailbag Monday, be sure to leave your questions in the comments or submit them through our social media channels every Sunday morning when prompted on our X account. We hope you'll join us every Monday as we continue the conversation beyond our weekly Sunday podcast. Thank you, as always, for listening, subscribing, and supporting Next Best Picture, and helping us build such an incredible film community. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/oQDMOnZ11-A

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For Episode 502 of the Next Best Picture Podcast, I am joined by Katie Johnson, Nadia Dalimonte, Lauren LaMagna, and Tom O'Brien. For this week's main topic, we're going over the official full lineup from the Venice Film Festival, the Special Presentations and Galas announcement from TIFF, and the NYFF Closing Night Film. For this week's NBP poll question, tying into the Venice lineup, we're asking everyone, "Which Films Are You Most Looking Forward To From The 2026 Venice Film Festival?" and we reveal the winner of last week's NBP poll, for the release of "The Odyssey," where we asked everyone, "Which Is Your Favorite Matt Damon Performance?" We also share our reactions to the trailers for "Avengers: Doomsday," "Other Mommy," "Clayface," "It Ends," "Misty Green," "Matchbox: The Movie," and "Ebenezor." We are still answering your fan-submitted questions, but our answers will now be released separately the day after, in a new show called Mailbag Monday! So stay tuned for that and many other updates from Next Best Picture as this year's awards season continues. Thank you all for listening, subscribing, and supporting us. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/NPmeyxQEhCs

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For this week's main podcast review, Josh Parham, Dan Bayer, Giovanni Lago, and Larry Fried join me to review and discuss the first feature film from Nicolas Winding Refn in a decade, "Her Private Hell," starring Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton, Havana Rose Liu, Kristine Froseth, Shioli Kutsuna, Aoi Yamada, Dougray Scott, Diego Calva, and Hidetoshi Nishijima. Premiering out of competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, the film caused more walkouts than any other film at the festival and has gained quite a divisive reaction from critics and audiences. What did we think of it? Please tune in either on video or audio only as we debate the merits of its convoluted story, its strange performances, the neon-lit cinematography, Pino Donaggio's gorgeous score, its awards season chances, and more in our SPOILER-FILLED review. Thank you for listening, and enjoy!

https://youtu.be/ILY8KuEJ_5Y

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"Her Private Hell" is a 2026 science fiction horror thriller film produced and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, from a story he wrote and a screenplay he co-wrote with Esti Giordani. It stars Sophie Thatcher as a troubled young woman who searches for her father as a mysterious mist engulfs a futuristic metropolis, unleashing a deadly and elusive entity. Her quest collides with an American G.I. (Charles Melton) who's on a harrowing odyssey to rescue his daughter from hell. The film also stars Havana Rose Liu, Kristine Froseth, Shioli Kutsuna, Aoi Yamada, Dougray Scott, Diego Calva, and Hidetoshi Nishijima. It had its world premiere out of competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it received mixed reviews, but its visuals, performances, and the score by legendary Italian composer Pino Donaggio were praised. Thatcher, Melton and Winding Refn were all kind enough to spend some time talking with us about their work and experiences making the film, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which will be released in theaters by NEON on July 24th. Thank you, and enjoy!

https://youtu.be/r4ENIJpyPLo

https://youtu.be/-52ywXkEti0

Check out more on NextBestPicture.com

Please subscribe on...

Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2

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YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw

And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture and listen to this podcast ad-free
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