Below is my review for a new documentary, which happens to feature clips from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. I was the only one to cheer when that came on the screen!

The 2026 documentary The Last Picture Shows follows the trek of filmmaker Rustin Thompson, who traveled 10,825 miles to visit 123 theaters in various American western states. Among the many theaters featured is the still-operating first movie theater in Washington State.

While being entertaining and informative, the film is also moody and atmospheric. It makes brilliant use of film clips from the 1971 classic The Last Picture Show and other movie scenes featuring theaters. Shots of windswept abandoned places are interspersed with footage of people working hard to restore historic theaters and interviews with theater managers. These include how the Covid pandemic affected theatergoing and how converting to digital challenged and even ended some theaters. In some cases former sites of theaters are shown, with buildings repurposed, in ruins, or gone completely.

There is information about how many movie theaters and drive-ins used to exist and how many still do, the numbers of which are shocking. I personally recall when our local drive-in died when a subscription movie channel called Showtime started getting movies at the same time as the drive-in. As for our walk-in theater, we simply didn’t have one for around thirty years. Some movie theaters survive and even thrive by doing live theater and musical events. At least one drive-in is featured, the Milton-Freewater Drive-In Theater in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, which has been in the same family from 1961 to the present day. Yes, I have been to this drive-in.

Our own small local theater is featured and the film was screened there to great acclaim. I can’t recommend this wonderful film highly enough. It should be on PBS and everywhere that fine documentaries are shown.