​By Beatrice Loayza ​

Memorial Day is in the past and summer movie season is upon us! While the blockbuster is the staple for the hot and humid school’s out season, some indie titles prove just as exciting. Here we take a look at a mix of movies big and small that will be on our radar over the coming months.

By Michael Schwartz 

The 2019 Tony Awards are on June 9th and here to give you a full breakdown of our predictions on who we think is going to win we have Nicole Ackman, Cody Dericks, Casey Lee Clark joining myself. Just like with out Tony Nomination predictions episode, there are no Patreon exclusives for the winners predictions episode and we will be back with one more full episode this season to give you our reactions to the show once the winners have been announced.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Theatre Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

​By Will Mavity 

​In a post “Bohemian Rhapsody” world, audiences suddenly find themselves on the edge of a deluge of musical biopics. We already had a Motley Crue biopic this year, and in the next few years, we have feature films coming for Journey, Judy Garland, Lynard Skynard, David Bowie, Celine Dion, Amy Winehouse, Aretha Franklin, Bee Gees, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye, Keith Moon, and more. And of course, this weekend, we have the Elton John biopic “Rocketman.” As "Bohemian Rhapsody" demonstrated, musical biopics have the capacity to clean up at the Oscars (even without stellar reviews). As we look towards another era of musician biopics, the question is, “how much does AMPAS really like music biopics?” and the answer is…"quite a bit." Over the years, more than 50 music biopics have been nominated for Oscars. 10 of them have been nominated for Best Picture (with two winning Best Picture) and 36 performers have been nominated for Oscars for starring in them (with 11 of them winning). They have snagged nominations in nearly every category across the board.

​By Daniel Howat 

​A few weeks ago, a debate started among the writers of Next Best Picture: Who is the best actress of the decade? As we near the end of the 2010s, there are dozens of valid choices. We could we choose Nicole Kidman, who has had an amazing resurgence both in film and TV. Or Amy Adams, no doubt of the best actresses working today, and one of the most overdue for an Oscar. Or Viola Davis, winning an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony in this decade. All incredible women to be sure, but after much deliberation and with the release of "Dark Phoenix" coming up, I’m here to submit my choice for the Actress of the Decade: Jennifer Lawrence.

By Tom O'Brien ​

As a member of the Next Best Picture team, I have tried to be open about my favorites, my prejudices and my love of watching movies over these oh-so-many years. But there is one side of my life that I haven't shared with you all, but, after much soul-searching, I have finally decided to come clean. I am....an Emmy voter.
 
OK, I can hear you reaching for your torches and pitchforks right now, but please hear me out. Yes, the Television Academy has voted for some boneheaded winners over the years, and I take full...no, I don't, because I'm a proud member of the Writers Branch, and all of our nominees are perfect...at least the ones I voted for.​

By Casey Lee Clark 

The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most well-known and prestigious film festivals in the world, with an emphasis on showcasing the greatest artistic achievements from around the world.  With such a rich history and beautiful setting, Cannes can come across as one big fancy event, with its lavish red carpets and massive press conferences. However, it's impossible to ignore the number of incredible films that come out of the festival every year, some of which would not be on people’s radars otherwise. From massive triumphs by well-known directors to smaller international films, the films that premiere at Cannes are always ones to take notice of and put towards the top of your eventual watchlist for the rest of the coming year. Based on critical buzz and the various awards that were given out, here are ten films that we are excited about from this year’s Cannes Film Festival!​

By Matt Neglia 

For this year's Oscar off-season, we are taking a look back on the 2015 film year which was right before Next Best Picture launched. We asked the NBP Film Community to vote on 5 films nominated for Best Picture and 5 films nominated for Oscars other than Best Picture from that year to be reviewed on the podcast, exclusively for our Patreon subscribers. We already reviewed "Brooklyn," "Sicario" and "Ex Machina," now, we are reviewing one of the most emotionally powerful films we've ever seen, "Room."

Starring Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen & William H. Macy, "Room" was a huge critical hit for studio A24, nabbing Brie Larson an Oscar for Best Actress and landing an additional 3 nominations including Best Picture. What does the team think of the film, its awards season run and more? Join DeAnn Knighton, Casey Lee Clark, Josh Parham, Patreon supporters Cheyne Nomura, Daniel Brilliant and myself as we take a look back on one of 2015's finest.
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This is a preview of the podcast, the full version of which is only available to those who subscribe to us on Patreon. For the small price of $1 a month, you can receive this review along with other exclusive podcast content, so be sure to subscribe here.
​
Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. ​​

By Cody Dericks 

​With this past weekend’s announcement of the awards for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, there were, of course, a good amount of people hoping that some of the winners would find similar success at the Oscars (Antonio Banderas, in particular, seemed to receive most of this talk). So I decided to do a quick little investigation into the track record of Cannes’s awards when it comes to predicting the Oscars. Are they a reliable bellwether, or should they be considered their own separate, but still prestigious, awards body?

By Matt Neglia 

For Episode 144, Will Mavity, Michael Schwartz, Casey Lee Clark, Tom O'Brien & myself discuss the winners from the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and what they mean for this year's awards race, the trailers for "Terminator: Dark Fate," "The Nightingale," the polls, answer your fan questions and more!

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 

For this week's main podcast review, Josh Parham and I discuss Guy Ritchie's 2019 live-action remake of Disney's "Aladdin" starring Will Smith, Mena Massoud & Naomi Scott. How does it compare to the original? How does Ritchie's distinct style fit in with the narrative? How are the actors, visual effects, songs, sets, etc.? We explore all of this and more in our review.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us onPatreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Celia Schelekewey 

​Full transparency, I did not watch “Superbad” until last year. There was something inherently off-putting to me about it, something about the types of men and boys around me who loved it a little bit too much and for the wrong reasons. When I finally did get around to watching it, I was pleasantly surprised by its perspective on masculinity and male friendships. Since then, I have been more and more often caught saying “it’s like ‘Superbad’ for women!” anytime I run into a young female-led comedy, which has become more plentiful in recent years. Finally, I thought, there are comedies out there that make girls feel like people and not just love interests.

By Nicole Ackman ​​
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Disney’s live-action remakes of their classic films have been controversial with reviewers. While some are praised for their performances, production values, and originality, others are seen as poor imitations of the animated classics and overly-obvious money-grabs. With “Aladdin” coming out this weekend, “The Lion King” following later in the summer (though, Disney is being careful to call it "photorealistic"), and a sequel to “Maleficent” appearing in the autumn, it felt like a good time to assess the Disney live-action films that have been released thus far.

For the purposes of this ranking, “102 Dalmatians” (2000), “Alice Through the Looking Glass” (2016), and “Christopher Robin” (2018) weren’t included as they are original stories and not a reproduction of a pre-existing film.

The Next Best Picture team definitely has some differing opinions on these films and some that appeared first on someone’s list was also last on someone else’s. However, here is our definitive ranking of the Disney live-action remakes.

By DeAnn Knighton 

With the upcoming theatrical release of the 2019 version of Disney's "Aladdin" and the recent trailer reveal for "Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil," I thought now would be a good time to revisit a film which has divided people since its release in 2014. Like many girls of the eighties and beyond, I learned quickly to aspire to Disney princess status. These animated characters were an early stage setter for my view of the world and a large part of my initial grasp on good and evil.  At the time I did not realize how much the themes were telling me about my own womanhood, but nevertheless, as I aged I quickly came to terms with the pitfalls of holding out for the "happy ending” as a solution for all.  However, there is a lesson I learned much later, specifically as I was in the theater viewing 2014 live-action story of “Maleficent”, that hit me by surprise and led to my adoration of this film. ​

By Matt Neglia 

After 6 weeks of spectacle, shocking twists, revelations, controversy, character turns, deaths, discourse, laughs and everything in between, HBO's cultural phenomenon known as "Game Of Thrones" has finally come to an end with the 73rd episode in the series titled "The Iron Throne." It's a bittersweet feeling to say goodbye to a show that has meant so much to so many people. Naturally, not everyone was fully satisfied with the ending but luckily Will Mavity, Celia Schelekewey, Josh Parham, Dan Bayer, Cody Dericks, Celia Schelekewey & myself are here to give your our honest opinions and discuss in great detail the conclusion of what has been an epic 8 year journey. Valar Morghulis everyone! We will never see its like again, for now our watch has ended.

This is a preview of the podcast, the full version of which is only available to those who subscribe to us on Patreon. For the small price of $1 a month, you can receive this review along with other exclusive podcast content, so be sure to subscribe here.
​
Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. ​​

By Matt Neglia 

For Episode 143, Michael Schwartz, Nicole Ackman, Josh Parham, Dan Bayer, Casey Lee Clark & myself discuss the films which have been screened at Cannes so far, the trailer for "Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil," the polls, the latest news in Hollywood, answer your fan questions and more!

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 

Tomorrow, the biggest television show of our lives will come to an end. The untitled series finale of HBO's cultural phenomenon "Game Of Thrones" will bring about the close of 73 episodes of epic storytelling (sometimes great, sometimes good and sometimes not so good...but we don't like to dwell on that) and also the end of an era for the communal viewing experience for some. At least, for me, it will be the end. I'm sure there will be other television shows in the future which will unite us around our HD television screens in large numbers with eager anticipation, waiting to see what happens on the latest episode. But for now, this is it for me. I don't normally tell personal stories here but this was one I felt I needed to get off my chest. In order to come to grips with the end of "Game Of Thrones" (I still haven't fully processed that this is the end), I thought it would be best to tell my story with the show, the book series and what it has all meant to me over the last near decade.

By Matt Neglia 

For this week's main podcast review, I am joined by Tom O'Brien and together, we take a deep dive back into the assassin underworld of "John Wick" with the third and latest installment "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" starring Keanu Reeves. What do we think of it and how does it compare to the first two films? Tune in below to find out.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Dan Bayer 

On Monday, September 13, the world lost one of the last remaining legends of Hollywood’s Golden Age: Doris Day. The former Doris Mary Kappelhoff was America’s reigning sweetheart throughout the twenty years she spent in the movies, her apple-cheeked beauty and appealing screen presence making her one of the top box office earners of all time. She was a multiple Golden Globe nominee and was honored by the HFPA with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1989, but received only one Oscar nomination, for 1959’s romantic comedy “Pillow Talk”.

By Danilo Castro 

Keanu Reeves is a Hollywood anomaly. He doesn’t have much range as an actor. He never really transforms to play a character, and as anyone who’s seen “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” can tell you, he’s not exactly a pro when it comes to accents. He has cons that would derail most of his peers, and yet, they only serve to strengthen his universal appeal. That’s because Reeves is one of the cinema’s true underdogs. Over the course of his career, few actors have proven more adept at playing ordinary men who rise to face extraordinary circumstances.

By Matt Neglia 

For this year's Oscar off-season, we are taking a look back on the 2015 film year which was right before Next Best Picture launched. We asked the NBP Film Community to vote on 5 films nominated for Best Picture and 5 films nominated for Oscars other than Best Picture from that year to be reviewed on the podcast, exclusively for our Patreon subscribers. We already reviewed "Brooklyn" & "Sicario" and now we are looking at Alex Garland's directorial debut "Ex Machina."

Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander & Oscar Isaac, Garland's sci-fi film is dense, well acted, scripted and has a lot to unpack for the NBP team. For this retrospective review, I am joined by Josh Parham, Danilo Castro & Patreon supporter Steven Keller.
​
This is a preview of the podcast, the full version of which is only available to those who subscribe to us on Patreon. For the small price of $1 a month, you can receive this review along with other exclusive podcast content, so be sure to subscribe here.
​
Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. ​​