Imagine a breakfast wrap.

You know the one, because there really is only one.

Sausage, egg, cheese, bacon and a potato rusty all wrapped together.

Yep, there it is.

I think my work here is done.

Served until 11 a.m.

It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.

You believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?

We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome to The Next Picture Show, a movie of the week podcast devoted to a classic film and how it's shaped our thoughts on a recent release.

I'm Tasha Robinson here with Scott Tobias, Keith Phipps, and stepping out from behind the production board while Rachel Handler's out of town.

Genevieve Kosky.

We all firmly believe that no film exists in a vacuum and that all culture is more interesting in context. So every other week, we get together to talk over a classic film and consider how it relates to a current release. This week, we have a capital pictures double feature as we look at two Cohen Brothers movies made 25 years apart, both about aspects of filmmaking at the same fictional studio. So, Genevieve, you want to lay out the roadmap for the life of the mind?

That's a trick question. There is no roadmap for the life of the mind, and exploring it can be

painful. But we're going to try. Back in 1991, filmmakers Joel and Ethan Cohen had a reputation

as dilettantes who tried out a series of genres, but hadn't developed a distinct identity

yet. Their fourth film, Barton Fink, feels like an answer to the questions critics were asking at the time. It certainly has a strong identity, and it defines who the Coens have always been. It's the story of a screenwriter with writer's block, fighting to get words onto paper in a hotel that's disintegrating as fast as his sanity. He's working for a studio called Capital, the same studio at the center of the Cohen's latest film, Hale Caesar. Both movies are about life in the industry and the difficulties of making art. But Barton Fink is a bleak, dark comedy about a single man who's losing his mind. And Hale Caesar is a brisk, light ensemble comedy about an industry where everyone seems like they're on the brink. Come on, Tasha, two movies about making movies. What do you need? A roadmap? Man, there's a lot of road mapping in Barton Fick. Okay, I'll try to draw you one. In the first half of this week's episode, we'll look at Barton Fink in the Coen brothers history and we'll share some feedback related to recent episodes. In the second half of the discussion, later in the week, we'll bring Hale Caesar into the mix and discuss how the coens have changed over the past 25 years

and how these two films suggest their perspective on Hollywood has changed. And finally,

we'll offer up some recommendations on our closing segment, Your Next Picture Show. But first,

let's all remind ourselves, we create, we create. I'm a writer.

Celebrating the completion of something good.

Do you understand that, Taylor?

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