The Last Thing I Saw

Ep. 368: Sundance 2026 – Tim Grierson on The Invite, The Weight, The Friend’s House Is Here, plus All About the Money

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2026 Sundance Film Festival is in progress, and I sat down in Park City with festival veteran Tim Grierson who is filing reviews for Screen Daily and is also a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. We spoke about a few highlights of the lineup so far, including The Invite (directed by Olivia Wilde, starring Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, Ed Norton, and Wilde), The Weight (directed by Padraic McKinley, starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe), The Friend’s House Is Here (directed by Maryam Ataei and Hossein Keshavarz), and a curious documentary I caught called All About the Money (Sinead O’Shead) about the communism-curious scion of a billionaire family fortune.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 367: Sundance 2026 – Sam Adams on Josephine, Wicker, The Moment, Kogonada’s Zi

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2026 Sundance Film Festival is in progress, and I sat down in Park City with festival veteran Sam Adams, Slate writer and senior editor, to talk about a few highlights of the lineup so far. Among the films discussed are The Moment (directed by Aidan Zamiri, starring Charli xcx), Josephine (Beth de Araujo, starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan), Wicker (Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård), and, briefly, Kogonada’s briefly titled new film, zi.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 366: Sundance 2026 - Amy Taubin on the festival, plus a preview of John Wilson's The History of Concrete

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Sundance Film Festival begins its 2026 edition, and to kick off its final, I took a look back with Amy Taubin, a Sundance veteran who has written about the festival’s films and evolution over decades. She shares her thoughts on Sundance, past and present, and we trade notes on titles in this edition whose premieres we have been anticipating, including the historic Once Upon a Time in Harlem. Finally, I talk about one festival highlight premiering on opening night, The History of Concrete, directed by John Wilson (of HBO’s “How to With John Wilson” fame), and Taubin reflects on the history of Sundance’s vaunted Main Street.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 365: Chicago Film Society’s Rebecca Lyon and Cameron Worden on The Unholy Three, Heather McAdams, Bob Balaban’s Parents, Proto-Beavis and Butthead, By the Bluest Sea

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Chicago Film Society screens wonderful seasons of features and shorts at Chicago theaters, carefully curated with printed program notes, all of which I’ve enjoyed from afar. I was delighted to kick off another new year of the podcast with two CFS members (and projectionists): Rebecca Lyon and Cameron Worden. Since the Chicago Film Society is between its Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 seasons, we talked about some past programming, including: The Unholy Three (the 1930 sound version), Parents (directed by Bob Balaban), ephemera collected by filmmaker Heather McAdams, home movies from the Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago, and Wes Archer’s extraordinary animated short that prefigured Beavis and Butt-head. Bonus: a sneak peek at a couple of events coming up at Chicago Film Society in the spring.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 364: Live at Metrograph! Mark Asch on Eight Hours of Terror, Marty Supreme, Ella McCay, The Housemaid, and more

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. On a recent wintry night, I was delighted to record a very special episode of the podcast at Metrograph in front of a living, breathing audience. Joining me for this adventure was critic Mark Asch, a friend of the pod and my editor many years ago. We first talked about the movie that the audience had just watched, Seijun Suzuki’s Eight Hours of Terror, a 1957 treat plucked from a previous conversation on The Last Thing I Saw. Our discussion first followed our Lower East Side setting by starting with Marty Supreme (directed by Josh Safdie) and then onto other December films, including The Housemaid (Paul Feig) and Ella McCay (James L. Brooks).

Thank you to Metrograph and their devoted team for all their assistance and hospitality in hosting this special recording of The Last Thing I Saw.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass