The Projector #65: Homework (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

Here’s a little inside history (which is touched on in our latest episode): back in our days at The A.V. Club and later at The Dissolve, Scott Tobias would come up with a checklist of the year's essential film viewing. It was always exciting, and a little intimidating, to get the list. I’d spend much of the year feeling like, yeah, I’m on top of stuff. I may need to catch a couple of late-arriving movies, but I’m doing okay. Then I’d look at the list and realize I had a lot of catching up to do.

Scott’s kept up the habit, so we thought we’d share it with you. Consider this part one, covering most of the year. There are still a bunch of films that we — even Scott — haven’t seen yet, so we’ll drop the complete list at some point in the future. And from my own list of films I’ve seen that, wow, I guess Scott hasn’t yet, I’d add Possessor and (especially) Relic. Until then, enjoy his list, as shared in audio format on this week's episode, divided into a few categories:

AS FEATURED ON THE NEXT PICTURE SHOW:

The Invisible Man (HBO Max)

The Assistant (Hulu)

Da 5 Bloods (Netflix only)

Hamilton (Disney + only)

Palm Springs (Hulu only)

First Cow

Boys State (Apple + only)

I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix only)

Dick Johnson is Dead (Netflix only)

Shirley (Hulu)

Kajillionaire

David Byrne’s American Utopia (HBO Max only)

The Nest

Mank! (Netflix only)

ESSENTIAL

Small Axe: Five films consisting of Mangrove/Lovers Rock/Red, White & Blue / Alex Wheatle / Education (Amazon Prime only)

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (HBO Max)

Bacurau

Beanpole

Collective

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

The Vast of Night (Amazon Prime only)

COMING SOON

Nomadland

Soul (Disney + only)

Wolfwalkers (Apple + only)

The Truffle Hunters

One Night in Miami

Promising Young Woman

Tenet

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix only)

OTHERS

The Old Guard (Netflix only)

On the Rocks (Apple + only)

Time (Amazon Prime only)

The Painter and the Thief

Martin Eden

Black is King (Disney + only)

Athlete A (Netflix only)

Driveways

Sound of Metal (Amazon Prime only)

She Dies Tomorrow

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix only)

Emma (HBO Max)

So, there you have it. And, to clarify, some of the shows we selected for the podcast would probably fall under the “Essentials” banner. And some might fall under “Others.” To clarify, you’ll have to ask Scott.

Until you get those answers, however, enjoy our virtually Scott-free episodes on Citizen Kane and Mank. And enjoy a few pieces we like and/or wrote.

• On the Mank beat, Keith Phipps dug into the long tug of war about who deserves credit for Citizen Kane.

• And here’s Matthew Dessem to help you sort Mank fact from Mank fiction for Slate.

• Also, here’s Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri about how Citizen Kane came to be regarded as the greatest movie ever made.

• Flashing back a bit to last week's episode, here’s Alison Willmore on The Nest’s extremely awkward dinner scene, also for Vulture.

• At Vulture, Scott Tobias and our pal Noel Murray rank every single HBO miniseries.

• Did you watch The Undoing? Lousy ending, right? But the acting, that’s another story, including Hugh Grant’s continuation of a heel turn years in the making, which Keith Phipps wrote about for GQ.

• And for Polygon, here’s Noel Murray on Small Axe and its cautious attitude toward the idea of social progress.

• For Vulture, John Maher writes about a strangely prescient Animaniacs song.

• Over at Letterboxd, animator Don Hertzfeldt has compiled an annotated list of the films that influenced his World of Tomorrow movies.

• Wade into the Hillbilly Elegy discourse, if you dare, with a pair of pieces, one from Vulture and one from Polygon.

• At Town and Country, Amy Nicholson reunites Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal to talk about fifty years of Love Story.

• At Vox, Constance Grady talks about how depictions of department stores shaped our desires.

• At Rolling Stone, Alan Sepinwall talked to the great Glynn Turman about his long, storied career.

• At Polygon, Tim Brinkhof talked the the creators of The Liberator about their new approach to animation.