The Projector #28: Filmspotting at 15 (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

We don’t talk all that often about Filmspotting, the podcast without which we wouldn’t exist. Maybe that’s because we feel like we don’t have to. I don’t assume that everyone who listens to Filmspotting listens to The Next Picture Show — though that would be awesome — but I kind of assume most of those who listen to us also listen to Filmspotting. The show turns 15 this year, which is kind of hard to believe. I was a listener before I got to know Adam, Josh, and Sam (though I think I’d befriended Michael Phillips before he started guesting). Once we got to know them, the Filmspotting gang was always friendly and generous to me and others who traveled in Chicago film circles, and that generosity only grew over time. They were there for us when The Dissolve folded and threw us a lifeline when we suggested we might keep the spirit alive via some kind of podcast.

A short story about one of the saddest days of my life: Shortly after The Dissolve went to the great digital boneyard in the sky in 2015, Adam and Josh offered to have Scott and me on the show to talk about the experience. I said yes and we set a date. That same day, my beloved, elderly dog died. We knew she was ill but not how ill until I took her to the vet and was told she probably wouldn’t make it through the day. Because this was unexpected, my wife wasn’t with me, so in a stretch of a few hours I put my dog to sleep without her, picked up my 4-year-old daughter from preschool (located by what had until recently been my office), took her home and sat her down and, with my wife’s help, told her the ugly truth about pet ownership, then went downtown to talk about the collapse of my dream project. Listen to the episode and you’ll hear an almost-broken man. (Maybe that’s why they haven’t had me back since?)

Almost broken. Being able to launch The Next Picture Show with a lot of help and support from Filmspotting helped a lot. It let me feel like I was still in the film commentary game and, more importantly, it allowed me to keep working with Scott, Tasha, and Genevieve (and, initially, Rachel Handler), my favorite-ever co-workers and some of my favorite people in the world.

Filmpsotting was, of course, itself a huge inspiration for the show. Part of what I love about it is the way Adam and Josh treat film appreciation as a learning process. They don’t come from a place of having seen everything. They come into each week eager to treat each new film as an experience worthy of deep consideration (even if it’s, say, Suicide Squad.) Their marathons are often about educating themselves and they’re not afraid to admit to blindspots in a field when others seem to fear admitting not knowing something about film is tantamount to admitting they’re a phony. (Though if you reading this knew how few Fassbinder films I’ve seen, for instance, you might lose respect for me. It’s more than zero but less than three. Really have to get on that one of these days.)

So here’s to 15 more years. And 15 after that. Why not? It’s not like they’ll run out of movies.

A few related items:

Filmspotting now too has a reasonably priced Patreon that offers some enticing special features.

If you’re in Chicago, or can get to Chicago, you should come too the Music Box Theatre with weekend for the taping of Filmspotting’s 15th Anniversary Show, which comes accompanied by a 35mm screening of the great Rio Bravo. Plus: Scott, Tasha, and I will be there. (And that Michael Phillips guy, too.)

Other stuff: This week’s episode finds us talking about 1917 and 1917 as it relates to Gallipoli. Tasha and Genevieve are strong pro. Scott and I are soft pro. It gets ugly.

Want stuff to read? Well, allow us to recommend:

• The news about coronavirus has put seemingly everyone in mind of Steven Soderbergh’s terrific 2011 film Contagion. At Vulture, you can read Jason Bailey’s thoughts on the film’s ending. And at Vox, Alissa Wiklinson considers how it reflects the way rumors and false information spread in the digital age.

• At The Ringer, Scott Tobias makes an argument for why Scarlett Johansson should win a Best Actress Oscar for Marriage Story.

• Also at The Ringer, Keith Phipps looks at how the Oscars’ relationship with superhero movies has changed since The Dark Knight.

• At Fangoria, Keith Phipps looks at two semi-forgotten but intriguing Wes Craven films: Deadly Blessing and Deadly Friend. 

• It took a lot of work and imagination too make the house Parasite house, as a E. Alex Jung discovered for Vulture.

• For GQ, Iona Murray dug into the story of the gay Georgian romance And Then We Danced, a target of the far right in its country of origin.

• And, just because we can’t get enough Little Women talk, here’s Vox’s Alex Abad-Santos on Greta Gerwig’s treatment of Amy.