The Projector 4: Time to Fight! (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

First of all, a quick apology: If you’re a longtime listener, you’re used to getting an episode at the same time every week. That hasn’t been the case the past couple of weeks. We took a planned week off because of summer vacation schedules but then complications set in when one of our own took ill. You can read all about Tasha’s hospital adventures on her Twitter feed. The good news: 

We recorded two new episodes last night. 

Tasha seems fine now. 

Tasha will soon be moving to a germ-free controlled environment that will keep her away from any possible illness this doesn’t happen again. Do you remember Wrenwood, the retreat Julianne Moore ends up at at the end of Safe? It’s a lot like that.

The next two episodes should be exciting, too, since they’re filled with men doing violence. In fact, men doing violence is pretty much the central subject of both Fight Club and The Art of Self Defense, and watching them side-by-side is pretty revelatory. That’s sort of the central premise of The Next Picture Show, of course, but the Jesse Eisenberg-starring, Riley Stearns-directed The Art of Self Defense plays like it’s trying to have a direct conversation with Fincher’s film, agreeing with some of its points while remaining wary of its seductive power and openness to misinterpretation. (Also, spoiler warning, not everyone makes it out of the episode alive.)

Speaking of fighting, the discussion around Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood has been fun, hasn’t it? I don’t mean that sarcastically. There have been some extreme reactions both defending and attacking the film that go beyond polite discourse. But, ignoring those, it’s been a lively discussion of a film that gives viewers a lot to ponder. As our own Scott Tobias put it on Twitter: “The discourse over the Tarantino may be frustrating to people across the entire spectrum of opinion, but it's still really nice to have a studio movie that provokes rather than anesthetizes. This summer would have next to nothing to talk about otherwise.” (Presumably Scott means “nothing to talk about apart from Crawl.)

We’ll be talking about Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood (and another movie) in our next two episodes, once we’re done duking it out over this week’s pairing. Until then, here’s some pieces, from us and from others.

At Vulture, Bilge Ebiri both lamented the scourge of motion-smoothing and made an impassioned plea for the return of traditional hand-drawn animation.

For MEL Magazine Keith Phipps wrote about the many movie and TV incarnations of Charles Manson, and how different creators have depicted him over the decades. Keith ended up writing about Once Upon at Time in… Hollywood in a couple of different places, including a review in The Verge and some some context for that Bruce Lee scene at Polygon. 

The film’s inspiring a lot of fine writing, including Justin Chang’s L.A. Times review and a personal reflection from Walter Chaw at Film Freak Central.

At Indiewire, Kate Erbland interviewed Sarah Polley about Stories We Tell as part of the site’s best-of-the-decade package.

At NPR, Linda Holmes offered an appreciation of the Muppet Movie soundtrack on its 40th anniversary.

Also at NPR, Scott Tobias reviewed the new doc Mike Wallace is Here.

See you next week...