Before we start the podcast, a brief note.

We recorded this week's episodes before sexual harassment allegations against Dustin Hoffman came to light.

We're dismayed to hear these allegations and believe the woman who has come forward,

but they don't alter our assessment of either film under discussion this week.

With that, on with the show.

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 true with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome back to the Next Picture Show, a movie The Week podcast devoted to a classic film

and the way it shaped our thoughts on a recent release. I'm Keith Phipps here again with... Tosh Robinson. Genevieve Kosky. Scott Tobias. On the first half of this episode, we discussed the enduring 60s classic The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman. Now we're going to bring in the Meyerwit Stories, new and selected. Hoffman's latest in a film with some strong connections to a star making role.

The Meyerowitz stories, new and selected. Hoffman's latest, in a film with some

strong connections to a star making role. The Meyerowitz stories, which premiered on it can

currently be seen on Netflix, is a new film from writer-director Noah Baumbach. Like previous

efforts from the director, it's populated by hyperliterate, emotionally stunning characters

who find themselves haunted by the past as they consider what lies ahead.

Hoffman plays Harold Meyerowitz, a sculptor and college professor who won some attention and acclaim for his work, but never became a star.

Now retired from teaching, he has more time to take his disappointment out on his children, Danny, Matthew, and Gene.

In the film's opening segment, Danny, a stay-at-home dad played by Adam Sandler, comes to stay with Harold and his alcoholic, fourth wife, Maureen, played by Emma Thompson, after Danny's marriage falls apart and he sends his daughter, Eliza off to college. While hanging out with his father, Danny attempts to come to terms with how Harold's needs and insecurities dominate his life, both when Harold was in the picture and after he stopped paying attention to Danny and his sister Gene, played by Elizabeth Marvel, after leaving their mother.

Then the film's focus shifts to Matthew, played by Ben Stiller, a successful business advisor

who's clearly his father's favorite. But we soon learn that comes with a different sort of burden,

a fact made even clearer when Harold's health brings the whole family together

late in the film. We'll be back to discuss the film and how its depictions of generations trying

...