The Projector 8: In Praise of August (Before It’s Over) (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

Hang around Scott Tobias long enough and you’re sure to learn a few things, like his thoughts on burritos and lettuce (anti), his opinion of even the least-liked De Palma movies (they have something going for them), and his thoughts on August movies. Specifically, Scott’s extremely pro August movies and with good reason: August tends to be filled with surprises, be they sleepers a studio suspects might be able to find an audience after the crush of early-summer blockbusters, weirdo projects studios can’t imagine releasing any time of year, or first-out-of-the-gate horror movies trying to get ahead of the Halloween season. (I had the pleasure of seeing a film that more or less checks all those boxes with Scott last night. Listen for it in as part of an upcoming pairing to be announced with this week’s episode.)

It really is a month when anything could happen. Last week I saw Angel Has Fallen, the third entry in a series that began with Olympus Has Fallen and continued with London Has Fallen. I despised the two previous entries for their dour tone, thin characters, awful dialogue, and troglodyte politics. (The first at least had Antoine Fuqua as a director.) So it was much to my shock that I found myself enjoying the third — which lets star Gerard Butler do more than grunt and features a fun guest performance from Nick Nolte — quite a bit. Who saw that coming? Not me!

I think the first time the potential for August surprises occurred to me came in 1990. August 24th saw the release of Darkman, Sam Raimi’s offbeat horror/superhero/action film starring Liam Neeson as a scientist gifted and cursed with extraordinary abilities after an accident. It was Raimi’s first attempt at a true mainstream hit and featured both an untested star and an unknown character. The brilliant marketing decision: make a virtue of all that. The film arrived trailing an ad campaign that asked “Who Is Darkman?” By the end of August, enough people wanted to know to make the film a hit.

Releasing strategies have changed a lot since then, but intrigue remains the best way to draw in August audiences. I haven’t seen Good Boys yet, but the film’s funny trailer (and, of course, good reviews) shored up interest created by the “You Must Be This Tall To See This Movie” tagline. Why must you? Well, see the movie and find out. This August had sharks, Bruce Springsteen songs, a Richard Linklater film that got bad reviews but whose reputation started to turn around while it was still in theaters, and a clever live-action Dora the Explorer movie featuring Benicio del Toro as Swiper. I haven’t seen all of them, but I want to see all of them and I can’t imagine them arriving in any other month. Soon we'll be in a season of prestige films followed by the January dregs and so on. But as the seasons cycle predictably through once again, I hope more movies carry the spirit of August throughout the year.

This past week in August also brought plenty to read. Here are some pieces we liked (including some we wrote):

A few from your newsletter author. I wrote about Jupiter Ascending’s second life as a streaming-era cult movie for Decider, a review of Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (likely soon to be the subject of a bonus episode) for TV Guide, and the Olympus Has Fallen series and cockroach franchises for Mel.

For the New York Times, our friend Amy Nicholson wrote about sex, lies and videotape at 30 how it changed independent film.

Is Succession a comedy? Kathryn VanArendonk asked the question at Vulture.

At The Ringer, Manuela Lazic reflected on the odd, mournful Adrian Lyne film Jacob’s Ladder.

Want to know more about the creepy song the Manson girls sing in Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood? Are you sure? Zach Schonfield has the answer at Stereogum.

Finally, if you’re thinking about Mindhunter, you’ve got two great options. You can read our Scott Tobias’ recaps at Vulture and in a few days you can hear Scott talk about it with me on a patrons-only bonus episode of The Next Picture Show. Thanks again for supporting us.