The Family Pictures Podcast

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith examine how a single act of infidelity fractures the illusion of stability in an upper middle class family in Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith trace the transformation of Melanie Daniels in The Birds, as she moves from carefree socialite to something like a daughter, a mother, and finally a broken figure in a family that cannot hold.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith unpack how Hitchcock stages the collapse of respectability in a world where sex is visible but not yet accepted.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discuss how a vacationing American family stumbles into international intrigue in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, where a kidnapped son becomes less a portrait of family life than the perfect Hitchcock MacGuffin—revealing an uneasy marriage, a precocious child repeating the language of empire, and a mother whose voice ultimately saves the day.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith consider how the film’s famous “crisscross” murder plot mirrors a deeper structural collision between two families: the Mortons’ disciplined social order and the Antonys’ failure to contain their son.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith examine Hitchcock’s favorite film, where the myth of the average family becomes both shield and blindfold, and menace arrives not as a stranger but as a beloved relative.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith unpack Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums as a story about adult children trapped inside the myth of their own childhood genius and a father desperate to rewrite himself back into relevance, while asking whether Anderson’s ironic stylization deepens or dilutes the emotional stakes of estranged parents and adult children.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith take on caregiving, cold winters, and fluorescent-lit reckoning in Tamara Jenkins' The Savages, where estranged children are forced into proximity with each other and with a father they barely know.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore On Golden Pond (1981), a film about identity at the end of life, the persistence of childhood hurt, and the possibility of connection in the shadow of death.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith unpack Tokyo Story as a quiet reckoning with aging parents, drifting children, and the emotional cost of modern life moving too fast to look back.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discuss Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) and how ordinary decency, practicality, and exhaustion slowly erode responsibility toward aging parents.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith return to Weapons, correcting a rushed first recording and unpacking its abuse allegory, generational parasitism, and the dangerous desire for simple answers.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith recap the year with their first ever awards show.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith trace Jeremiah Johnson’s journey from escape into solitude, through an accidental gathering of strangers that becomes a real family, and how its loss traps him in a cycle of violence he never truly recovers from.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore how the quiet persistence of women’s work—and a single act of moral courage—reshapes a frontier story built on male bravado.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore how The New Land reveals the frontier not as mythic violence but as decades of labor, loss, and quiet perseverance.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith trace how Shane creates a double image of masculinity: the domestic father who builds a home, and the gunfighter who sacrifices himself so that home can exist.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith take a journey into the West’s darkest myth—where family, race, and vengeance shape the American imagination.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith dive into Paul Thomas Anderson’s absurdist epic One Battle After Another, tracing how a botched revolution, an absent mother, and a very tired dad collide into a father–daughter story about surviving the fallout of ideology.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith look at Children of Men as a story about the memory of family at the end of time—a world where nostalgia replaces birth, and the smallest spark of new life becomes a collective act of faith.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith trace the collapse of a patriarch’s paradise, where the dream of self-sufficiency turns into a theology of madness.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore Running on Empty as a portrait of the revolutionary 1960s ideals colliding with 1980s family life — a story about parents on the run from the past and a son who just wants a future.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore Hanna as a story of overprotection and isolation—a father so intent on keeping his daughter safe that he leaves her unprepared for everything that isn’t lethal.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith unpack Tamara Jenkins’s semi-autobiographical tale of a family chasing stability in the fringes of 90210.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith dig into Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm (1997), where suburban Connecticut families freeze under the pressures of shifting social mores, crumbling marriages, and one fatal ice storm.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discuss Todd Solondz’s 1996 indie darling Welcome to the Dollhouse. Dawn Wiener faces the brutality of junior high, the cruelty of family favoritism, and the faint promise of escape through music, fantasy, and misfit connection.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith frame a new lens on Kids (1995): how the real “kids” built a family in the absence of parents, and how that story was twisted by outsiders.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discuss Nai Nai’s proverbs to AIM slang, as Dìdi reveals how families and friends communicate expectations and escape them.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith talk Weapons as it confronts America’s cycle of denial — from Sandy Hook to generational rot — asking if the real horror is how much we want a scapegoat.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith dive into the house that bleeds, locks its doors, and bankrupts the Lutzes—turning the American Dream into an American Nightmare.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discuss snowsuits, pajamas, and psychoplasmics—Cronenberg’s rage babies embody the horror of childhood shaped by parental wounds.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discover when the American Dream breaks down, even the family dog learns to kill.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith dive into Jaws, the 1975 blockbuster that emptied beaches and flooded minds with nightmares. At the center is Chief Brody — not just hunting a shark, but navigating fatherhood, fear, and outsider status in a tight-knit town that doesn’t trust him.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith cover Hooper's nightmare of when the nuclear family collapses and the cannibal family takes its place.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith revist how John Hughes turned detention into confessional, capturing how teens both resent and crave their parents’ attention.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith look at the generational blind spots in Fast Times, where both parents and producers underestimated what teens could handle — and audiences noticed.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith unpack how Sixteen Candles balances teenage independence with the lingering need for parental affirmation.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smithrevisit The Wild Life, a film about kids chasing parties and independence, but always punching the clock to afford it.

It’s still you using me — and a father trying to steer a son’s life. JIm Groom and Michael Branson Smith dive into Some Kind of Wonderful's confrontations about control, expectation, and self-worth.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith unpack Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything…, examining the complicated ties between Diane, her father, and Lloyd — and what happens when loyalty, love, and trust collide.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith unpack Eric Rohmer’s sly and sun-drenched Pauline at the Beach, a film where love is a game, truth is optional, and every adult is chasing the freedom they only claim to understand.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith dive into Taken (2008), the ultimate dad fantasy: what if you had a very particular set of skills and would burn a country down to save your daughter.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith dig into the 1991 Sally Field vehicle Not Without My Daughter — a film that’s half thriller, half imperialist fever dream, and 100% propaganda.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith untangle the world of Texas cheerleading ambition, suburban pecking orders, and one mom’s deadly plan to climb the social ladder.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith unspool John Waters’ trash masterpiece, where delinquent desires, crumbling families, and gaudy kitsch rule.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith ride shotgun with Addie and Moze, tracing how necessity forges family in Paper Moon.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith trace the emotional hauntings of Vengeance is Mine the almost forgotten 1984 film directed by Michael Roemer.