The Last Picture Shows is a 2026 American documentary film about movie theaters in small west American towns, including abandoned theaters, ones that are struggling to survive, and ones that are doing well. Clips from Peter Bogdanovich's film The Last Picture Show (1971) are interspersed in the documentary. It is edited, shot, produced, written, and directed by Rustin Thompson. It premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 9, 2026.
Production The film was shot during two lengthy road trips Thompson took in the summers of 2023 and 2024. He said, "In some cases, I reached out to the owners before I got to the towns, but a lot of times it was hard to get in touch, so I would just show up. I would walk in, and usually the owner was there serving concessions, and I just started talking to them and said, 'Hey, do you want to be in this film I'm making?' And right on the spot, they would say yes, and I'd do an interview, no hassles with corporations or PR people."
Additional cinematography was provided by Thompson's son, Nick Thompson, the director of the film Skagit.
Reception
Donald Liebenson of RogerEbert.com gave the film three and a half out of four stars and wrote that it's "a cautionary tale and a love letter to an era before it becomes bygone." In a positive review, Glenn Kenny of The New York Times wrote, "[T]he movie's lyrical and elegiac tone makes it truly resonant." Leonard Maltin also gave it a positive review, writing, "The Last Picture Shows is a moving and poetic slice of Americana."
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