Filmspotting

For our Noirvember edition, Chris Klimek convenes a showdown between two noir classics featuring unforgettable Orson Welles villains: Carol Reed's The Third Man and Welles's own Touch of Evil.
One is a postwar mystery set amid the shattered streets and shadows of occupied Vienna, featuring Welles as the charmingly monstrous Harry Lime. The other is a feverish border-town nightmare with the filmmaker buried beneath prosthetics as corrupt police captain Hank Quinlan.
Arguing for The Third Man is Matt Gourley (Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, With Gourley and Rust, James Bonding), who contends that Reed's masterpiece transcends noir, combining unforgettable atmosphere, moral ambiguity, and one of cinema's greatest endings. Representing Touch of Evil is Anne Thompson (IndieWire, Screen Talk), who makes the case that Welles's final Hollywood film is a singular feat of visual storytelling and one of the boldest achievements ever produced within the studio system.
Which Welles villain casts the longer shadow, and which film deserves to survive? Choose your winner at moviedeathmatch.com.
(Times will not be precise with ads.)
Intro / Meet the Advocates (00:00:00-00:12:01)
Rd. 1 – The Movies in Their Time (00:12:02-00:24:14)
Rd. 2 – The Movies in Our Time (00:24:15-00:46:49)
Rd. 3 – The Movies for All Time (00:46:50-01:05:33)
The Verdict / Credits (01:05:34-01:13:04)
More From Anne:
-IndieWire
https://www.indiewire.com/author/anne-thompson/
-Sight & Sound: Who voted for Touch of Evil?
https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/829f71c1-8c9d-5294-b77d-93de81913c9d/touch-of-evil
-The $11 Billion Year: From Sundance to the Oscars…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062218018
More From Matt:
-“Normal Like Me”
https://deathbed.ghost.io/normal-like-me/
-Superego
https://www.gosuperego.com/
Follow Chris:
-Instagram | Bluesky | X
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Adam and Travis welcome Samantha N. Sheppard, PhD, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at Cornell University, to discuss Steve James's landmark 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams.
Drawing on research from her new book, The Basketball Film: A Cultural and Transmedia History, Sheppard explains why Hoop Dreams stands as the defining work of the basketball film genre. The conversation explores the film's complicated relationship to competition, bell hooks' famous critique, and why the stories of Arthur Agee and William Gates continue to resonate more than three decades later.
Along the way, Sheppard reflects on her own path to becoming one of the leading scholars of sports cinema and shares some personal favorites from the basketball movie canon.
Next Episode:
–The Hurricane with Grant Wiedenfeld, Ph.D., MFA (University of Toronto)
Links:
–Email the show at fos@filmspotting.net.
-Sporting Blackness: Race, Embodiment, and Critical Muscle Memory on Screen
Theme Music:
–King of the Corpse Flowers by Oxykitten | Spotify
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For Halloween week, Adam and Josh revisit the movie that reanimated the slasher, Wes Craven’s 1996 meta-horror classic Scream. Plus, highlights from the 5th annual Refocus Film Festival and Massacre Theatre.
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 FILMSPOT26 to take 15% off.
(Timecodes will not be precise with ads.)
Intro (00:00:00-00:01:55)
Scream at 30 (00:01:56-00:30:43)
Filmspotting Family (00:30:44-00:34:56)
Scream cont. (00:34:57-00:1:03:28)
Refocus Film Festival (00:1:03:29-01:15:07)
Massacre Theatre (01:15:08-01:22:23)
Credits / New Releases (01:22:24-01:26:47)
Notes:
-Refocus Film Festival
https://refocusfilmfestival.org/
Feedback:
-Email us at feedback@filmspotting.net⁠⁠
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A few weeks out from The Social Reckoning’’s tepid theatrical debut, it’s safe to say Aaron Sorkin’s “spiritual sequel” to 2010’s The Social Network won’t match its successor’s box-office success, nor is it likely to be as fondly remembered in 16 years’ time. There are many ways in which the newer film goes astray, which we cover in our opening discussion of Reckoning, before bringing Network back in for Connections to consider how much of each film’s vision of Mark Zuckerberg’s social-media empire can be attributed to/blamed on Sorkin specifically. Then in a Zuck-inspired Your Next Picture Show, we briefly review a very long documentary about another tech billionaire whose name has become something of a four-letter word over the years: Alex Gibney’s Musk.
Please share your thoughts about The Social Network, The Social Reckoning, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s You Can See Everything and Albert Brooks’ Real Life.
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.

For Halloween week, we're going deep into the Archive for Adam and Josh's 2013 Sacred Cow review of William Friedkin's The Exorcist.
Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you ⁠join the Filmspotting Family⁠.
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