The Projector #30: Controversy! (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

How long has it been since we’ve had a full-blown movie controversy? And what would it take to start one? I’ve written about Scorsese lately, and we’re covering Thelma & Louise in an upcoming episode, so this topic has been on my mind. I’d honestly hate to see another incident like the Last Temptation of Christ protests that surrounded Scorsese’s film in 1988. They turned extremely ugly and brought out the worst elements the ’80s culture war, pitting religious extremists agains… well, art, essentially. It made taboo an earnest exploration into the meaning of faith — one that spoke to me at the time in a way that the Southern Baptist church I was then attending never could. But as stupid as the conversation around Thelma & Louise sometimes got in 1991, it was also a conversation, one that turned the movie into a shorthand for pushing back against the perpetuation of patriarchal system.

But what have we had lately? Richard Jewell? As much as that film has going for it, it’s tough to argue that it does not do right by Kathy Scruggs. The Hunt? That one’s controversial mostly because it didn’t get released as planned. Even Joker, which seemed design to upset people, didn’t really cause much of a stir in terms of the issues it raised about mental illness and gun violence, however carelessly it raised them. Does depiction equal endorsement? Because it sure romanticizes a lot of what it depicts. (Of course, looping back, so does its obvious inspiration, Taxi Driver, but surely there’s a debate to be had about whether one, both, or neither are responsible in the ways they aestheticize bloodshed and despair.) Whatever objections it might have inspired fizzled out some time after it picked up the top prize at Venice. Instead, it picked up a Best Picture nomination and turned some steps in Queens into a tourist destination.

So what would it take? Is the uncomfortable answer that movies just aren’t enough of a shared cultural experience anymore to cause that kind of controversy? That most movies that do qualify as a shared cultural experience have been safety-tested to avoid controversy? I don’t have an answer. But I wouldn’t mind the return of movies that double as really provocative questions making some trouble.

Want some items to read? Some of them related to this week’s episode about Portrait of a Lady on Fire? Here’s a few for you:

• For The Ringer, Scott Tobias wrote about the career of Portrait of a Lady on Fire filmmaker Céline Sciamma.

• Also for The Ringer, Keith Phipps wrote about Will Ferrell’s too-often untapped dramatic potential.

At The Guardian, Xan Brooks talked to a reflective John Boorman.

At Slate, Sam Adams reflected on the Holy Trinity of John Cusack movies.

For Mel, Noel Murray examined the weirdest installments of Fantasy Island.

At Vulture, Jen Chaney assembled an oral history of Bojack Horseman’s penultimate episode.