The Projector #69: What Looks Good About 2021 (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

Hi, and Happy New Year! Remember? We’re in a new year with new possibilities? No? Okay, this week sucked. There’s no need to rehash how and why here. In an attempt to stay positive, I asked my Next Picture Show co-hosts what they were looking forward to in 2021. Here’s what they sent:

Tasha Robinson: We've got advance word about a whole lot of exciting projects that are in some stage of production and might land in 2021, from Leos Carax’s first English-language film, Annette ("a musical set against the backdrop of Los Angeles, starring Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver," inspired and scored by Sparks) to George Miller's 3000 Years Of Longing, a fantasy-romance with Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. And then there's The Northman, a 10th-century Viking story from Robert Eggers, of The Witch and The Lighthouse. I'm intrigued by all of those — but also not counting on any of them for sure, given that they're all in "Maybe by 2021's fall film festivals, we hope?" status. Probably the thing I'm most looking forward to right now that does feel like a definite for 2021 is David Lowery’s The Green Knight, now scheduled for July 30 after a 2020 postponement. I haven't loved all of Lowery's films, but everything of his I've seen has at least been ambitious and intriguing, and his dark version of an Arthurian fable, starring Dev Patel, feels like it's going to be something new and different.

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Scott Tobias: Apparently, the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie, Soggy Bottom, wrapped up filming in November, so if it happens to find its way to theaters in 2021—and also happens to be about the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s, rather than a pastry disaster on The Great British Baking Show — that will definitely be my most anticipated film of the year. I also echo Tasha’s excitement over new ones by favorites like Leos Carax, George Miller, and Robert Eggers. But I’ll give a shout-out to Last Night in Soho, the new film by Edgar Wright. It pairs Wright with one of my favorite young stars, Anya Taylor-Joy, and it’s been described as a “time-traveling psychological fashion thriller” with possible musical elements, which sounds like the kind of mixing-and-matching of genres and influences that make Wright’s films so exciting. Mostly, though, I anticipate going to the movies in 2021. So any piece of shit will do.

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Genevieve Koski: In honor of the line between television and film growing blurrier than ever in 2020, I’m going to do a pair of TV-movie crossover picks. First up is Bob’s Burgers: The Movie, originally scheduled to come out last year but pushed because, well, you know why. I know I’m not the only one of us who loves the Fox animated comedy, which is still putting out great episodes in its 11th season on the air, but the appeal here goes beyond seeing the Belcher family and their seaside town blown up to big-screen proportions, a la the just-fine Simpsons movie. No, the real appeal/curiosity of the Bob’s Burgers movie lies in the fact that it’s being billed as a “musical comedy,” and as any fan of the show knows, Bob’s Burgers’ commitment to creating hilarious original songs is unparalleled. In terms of musical comedy payoff, I’m expecting something on the level of the great South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut, but in a much less acerbic vein.

Going in the other direction, I’m also going to shout out a movie-to-TV crossover (okay, TV-to-movie-back-to-TV crossover, if you want to get technical about it) that I’d be remiss not to mention: MacGruber, the long-promised sequel-turned-TV-series that will make its debut on Peacock sometime this year. Anyone who was around for The Dissolve’s Movie of the Week discussion of the MacGruber movie knows where I stand on that movie, and the involvement of the film’s creative team (specifically star/writer Will Forte and The Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone) bodes well for something that extends the film’s precarious balance of style and stupidity and goes well beyond the one-note premise of the original SNL sketch. Here’s hoping, ya friggin’ turds.

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As for me, I’m trying not to get too excited about anything because I suspect this year’s schedule will remain fluid, so who knows what we’ll see when. That said, I acted fast to buy a ticket to the (virtual) Sundance premiere of Prisoners of the Ghostland, the latest from Japanese director Sion Sono — and one of several 2021 films that will star Nicolas Cage. And, yes, I’ve got a book about Cage movies coming out (going to try to keep plugs of that to a minimum), but even if I didn’t, this looks like a weird, exciting movie. So, for that matter, does The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a meta-comedy in which Cage plays himself. The script is extremely clever. I hope the movie lives up to its possibilities. But mostly I’ve got to second Scott in saying I’m looking forward to going to a theater and watching virtually anything. I’d probably line up for a 20th anniversary revival of Tomcats, probably the worst movie I’ve seen on the job, at this point.

Okay, that should wrap up this installment. Funny thing: We received several suggestions that we pair the new Pixar movie Soul with A Matter of Life and Death. Good suggestion! (Though we’d already planned it that way.) Our A Matter of Life and Death installment is up now. Look for Soul next week. Also, we’ve got some fun bonus episodes coming your way, including a Best of TV roundtable. As always, thanks for your support in 2020 and we’ll try to earn it again in 2021.

Want something to read? Here are some picks for you:

• Speaking of Soul, our own Scott Tobias went deep on the career of director Pete Docter for The Ringer.

• Also from Scott: Is Nicholas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives actually pretty good? He argues “yes.”

• And speaking of our most recent episode, you can read guest host Robert Daniels’ work all over the place, including this Polygon piece about how Amazon has gone all-in on movies and series’ starring Black casts and made by Black creators.

• For Inverse, Ralph Jones dug into Terry Gilliam’s great 12 Monkeys via an oral history.

• White actors are stepping away from voicing Black characters in animation. But what does that mean for those who voice those characters abroad? Alex Dudok de Wit investigated for Vulture.

• Wonder Woman 1984 (also the subject of an upcoming bonus episode) is a throwback in many ways, including its Middle Eastern stereotypes, Roxana Hadadi argues in Slate.

• Why do Zoomers like The Sopranos? Luke Ottenhof looked into it for Vulture.

• Back in 1995, the film Johnny Mnemonic predicted more of 2021 than you might expect, Matt Singer discovers in a ScreenCrush piece.

• This has nothing to do with movies, but our pal and former co-host Rachel Handler performed an investigation into the pandemic’s bucatini shortage that’s a must-read.