The Projector #14: Firestorm! (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

It’s not always fun caring about movies. Sometimes it means watching discussions spin out of control and end up in some pretty stupid places. This past week has seen that a lot. I don’t want to use this newsletter to relive the past week’s Joker discourse. We have an upcoming episode about that and while some of the reactions to the film have been off base, it’s also yielded quite a bit of thoughtful commentary. I don’t even really want to revisit this past weekend’s Martin Scorsese “controversy” but it seems a little unavoidable. Because, come on.

It all started when Scorsese’s comments about Marvel movies in an issue of Empire got picked up by the internet at large. Specifically, Scorsese said:

I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.

That’s an opinion. It doesn’t happen to be my opinion. I like the Marvel movies and like a big-tent idea of what constitutes cinema. But it’s certainly a perfectly valid point of view especially from the greatest living American movie director who also happens to be a walking, talking encyclopedia of film. But apparently that doesn’t qualify him to express an opinion that goes against prevailing popular sentiment. And so it became “a thing,” remaining a Twitter trending topic all weekend and prompting response after response, many of them capturing some combination of their authors' superficial familiarity with Scorsese's films or seeming inability to understand them.

The most puzzling probably belongs to Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, who tweeted: “Martin Scorsese is one of my 5 favorite living filmmakers. I was outraged when people picketed The Last Temptation of Christ without having seen the film. I’m saddened that he’s now judging my films in the same way." There’s so much wrong with this, starting with likening one person’s distaste for a type of film to what the coordinated attack on freedom of expression that greeted The Last Temptation of Christ in the ’80s. Gunn clearly sees his movies as acts of personal expression that happen to be part of huge franchises utilizing pre-existing IP. And, hey, I do too. I like those movies! But, come on. I mean. Seriously. Come on.

What’s been most distressing about the affair has been the sense expressed by many that Scorsese isn’t just wrong but that he’s not allowed to be wrong. That the money these movies have made makes this an inexpressible opinion. (At least one headline referred to it as a “smear.”) It's a dumb topic about which to argue. These movies will be fine whether or not Scorsese likes them. And so will everyone else.

Anyway, no episode this week. Sorry! We had some scheduling difficulties but our The Dark Knight / Joker pairing will hopefully be worth the wait. In the meantime, enjoy our bonus episodes, including Scott and Genevieve talking about Superstore (great show) and The Good Place (also a great show).

And, while you wait, here’s some reading for you:

• Speaking of Scorsese, here’s a long interview he did with none other than Quentin Tarantino for the DGA.

• Scott Tobias is on the anniversaries beat for The Guardian, with reassessments of Three Kings and part podcast subject Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

• For Nicholas Wending Refn’s streaming site / film magazine byNWR, Keith Phipps dug into the low-budget punk Christmas obscurity Emerald Cities, and talked to its director.

• Want Joker talk? Our pal Noel Murray summed up the character’s history for Mel Magazine. And, for The Ringer, Keith Phipps explained how it fit into Todd Phillips’ long career making movies about men who consider themselves oppressed outcasts. Meanwhile, at GQ, Kyle Turner tried to figure out why stand-up doesn’t work in movies. And at Vox, Alissa Wilkinson considered how a film’s toxic fandom affects how we look at it.

• Also at Mel Magazine: Keith Phipps looks at Memory: The Origins of Alien, why we love making-of stories, and why they don’t ruin movies for us.

• And at Decider, Walter Chaw looks back at the complexities of Angel Heart.