The Projector: The Next Big Thing You Might Never See (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

Last night, Tasha and I recorded a bonus episode about this year’s Sundance that’s coming soon to this Patreon feed. Today I find myself thinking about one particular part of the discussion. It was about Cha Cha Real Smooth, one of my favorites at this year’s fest. The second film from Cooper Raiff (who previously directed Shithouse), it’s a charming and sneakily complex indie drama that won over seemingly everyone who saw it. You may never see it.

That’s not to say that it won’t be available. But like Coda, a breakout at last year’s fest, it was purchased for a lot of money by Apple TV+, and Apple TV+ seems to be where movies go to die.

I subscribe to Apple TV+. And I like Apple TV+, home to Ted Lasso and Foundation (two shows I enjoy) and other shows I’ve been meaning to check out. (I will get to For All Mankind someday.) But it also has a way of making its movies disappear. Wolfwalkers, a great movie we covered on the show, debuted on Apple TV+, but how many people know about it? Tom Hanks has had two (two!) movies debut on Apple TV+ that no one ever talks about. (Sure, they’re not his best movies, but the point still stands).

This isn’t to pick on Apple TV+, which is fine. It’s more to illustrate the way in which movies disappear into streaming silos. And siloed movies have a hard time becoming a part of the cultural conversation, which is increasingly dominated by a handful of ultra-big films. If you don’t subscribe to and regularly check in with each streaming service, you might not even know what’s available. And don’t expect that to change. Rebecca Rubin has an article in Variety about how Sundance is increasingly becoming a marketplace for streaming services.

What to do? I don’t have a solution, but I think this is part of what makes quality pop-culture coverage so important. As the landscape gets more confusing, we need more and better guides, not fewer. And, yeah, there’s a bit of a sub-diss in there about G/O Media’s treatment of the employees at our old home at The A.V. Club, but it would still be true without that nonsense. We need pop-culture writing (and podcasting) dedicated to illuminating the hidden valleys of that landscape. We hope we’re a small part of that, both here and in our writing elsewhere.

Also, we hope you’re enjoying our current double feature on Beauty and the Beast and Belle. And we hope you’ll check out the feedback and bonus episodes in this Patreon feed. As always, thanks for the support.