The Projectors

January’s theme of PORTRAITS OF THE ARTISTS has us examining some of the works of two major black leading men in film and our Monday classic selections revolve around a man that would be ahead of his time at any time, Paul Robeson. We’ve seen him silent and now it’s time for the talkies as Paul Robeson plays the lead character of Brutus Jones in Dudley Murphy’s 1933 adaptation of the Eugene O’Neil...

We end week two of our PORTRAITS OF THE ARTISTS theme with a rare romance in the Denzel Washington oeuvre. Is it getting hot in here or is it just this muggy Mississippi atmosphere because I am totally chubbing out. We discussed Mira Nair’s hidden gem of ethnic culture clash from 1991, “MISSISSIPPI MASALA” starring Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury, Roshan Seth & Charles S. Dutton. Not only...

This month’s theme of PORTRAITS OF THE ARTISTS has us examining two distinct black leading men from across the history of film but you can also just call it DENZEL MONTH because most of what we are discussing stars Denzel Washington and we can’t do a Denzel month without a Spike Lee project so why not go with his ambitious and engrossing 1992 biopic “Malcolm X”. Denzel plays the iconic historical...

“WOOF” that’s what we said after we watched 2021’s “Clifford the Big Red Dog” directed by Walt Becker. “OOF” is the feeling of trying to discuss it. That’s the risk you take when you decide to randomly generate movie titles for specific content. Yes, two months ago “Clifford” came up in a random generator and here it is wedged between Paul Robeson and Denzel Washington movies. Nobody is making us...

This month’s theme is “PORTRAITS OF THE ARTISTS” where we analyze selections from the careers of two, distinct, leading black men from film history. Our classic selections are devoted to the one and only PAUL ROBESON. We delve into another silent film from 1930 with strong modernist influence that was made in Switzerland. Paul acts alongside his wife, Eslanda, whose character had an affair with a...

January’s theme is “PORTRAITS OF THE ARTISTS” where we analyze the works of two major black leading men and a lot of this month is devoted to DENZEL WASHINGTON. Today’s discussion is a bit of casting and franchising genius as Denzel gets to essentially be a superhero without the costume and green screen. Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington plucked a deep cut TV series and turned it into a box offi...

ACCIDENTALLY CALLED CARL FRANKLIN "Carl Perkins" A FEW TIMES. OOPS. January’s theme is “PORTRAITS OF THE ARTISTS” and we’re discussing some of the roles of two historically significant black leading men in film. Most of the month will be films starring DENZEL WASHINGTON. We’re starting it off mighty hot with a very solid noir adapted from a Walter Mosley book by director Carl Franklin. The Denzel...

This month we’re excited to analyze the films in our January theme of PORTRAITS OF THE ARTISTS. In this theme we will be discussing the films of two major black leading men in film. For our Monday classics we will be exploring the films of Paul Robeson, an actor and activist who would be an outlier in any era of film. The title of our theme is inspired from the Criterion Collection’s Paul Robeson...

It’s been 20 years since Richard Curtis dropped “LOVE ACTUALLY” on our chestnuts and this holiday romantic comedy remains prolific. As lauded as it is critiqued. It seems like this UK ensemble movie may never leave the zeitgeist of Holiday hits. It’s here to stay. A tangential web of romance and sad attempts at romance. It has its ups and downs. “Love, Actually” is like a pie but you see that all...

(PRETTY SPOILERY EPISODE ABOUT A TRUE STORY) December is always a good month for the movie theaters and we’ve been scouting the release of today’s discussion for a while now. As pro wrestling fans, we’re pretty much in the bag for this tale of wrasslin’ and tragedy but the family turmoil presented here can still hit home for a lot of people. We’re discussing Sean Durkin’s cinematic adaptation of t...

MERRY CHRISTMAS! It’s that one and only day. Seems like people are mad as hell leading up to this day and can’t drive for shit but once the day gets here then it all feels all right. We culminate in our theme of THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR with this ultimate Christmas Classic. Some might say that having this movie as your favorite Christmas movie is perhaps typical. Cliche. But it’s much m...

It’s THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR and for the tail end of the loaded week we’re presenting you a special episode for our last episode before Christmas. You didn’t really think we would go through this month without hitting up some HALLMARK CHRISTMAS SELECTIONS did you? When we come for Hallmark we gotta go to the queen. Nah, fam. We ain’t talking about that uptight Candice Cameron Bure. No...

It’s THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! Get out that eggnog, stoke the fire, put on that cozy sweater because we’re all going to watch a movie that will bring the whole family together. Of course we’re talking about the 1999 Stanley Kubrick Christmas Classic “EYES WIDE SHUT” starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. This “erotic” thriller didn’t really chub us out. Beautiful but cold. A jealous col...

There are some good looking movies coming out at the end of this year and they’re not disappointing. We knew long ago that we were going to be watching Yorgos Lanthimos’s newest surreal comedy “Poor Things” starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef & Jerrod Carmichael. We got a little bit of Frankenstein, some philosophical feminine and a “coming of life” story. Also, it’s...

It’s THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR and we’re putting some extra movies in your stocking this week leading up to Christmas and we’re discussing a modern Christmas comedy hit that’s a pretty good movie to watch if you’re not really a big fan of Christmas. There’s, maybe, only one truly good person in this movie and his name is Thurman Merman. Everybody else from the derelict Santa and the homi...

Going through some bonafide Christmas Classics every Monday and todays discussion is about a movie that might be slightly lesser known than the other vintage choices we discuss but no less full of seasonal joy. We’re talking about Roy Del Ruth’s Christmas comedy classic “It Happened on 5th Avenue” starring Victor Moore, Don DeFore & Gale Storm. Bonafide Hobo King, Aloysius T. McKeever, lives i...

In contrast with our Classic Christmas Monday episodes, we’re tackling THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR with some off-kilter selections so let’s go to Finland for the strange tale of a boy, his Reindeer farming father and the ancient punishment god, SANTA CLAUS, who happens to have been buried alive under a mountain right next them. A unique take on the Santa mythology in Jalmari Helander’s “RA...

(VERY MILD SPOILERS) Some good stuff to see at the movie theater this Holiday season and it’s unfortunate that we can’t get to them all.  We had to go watch what many are advertising, perhaps falsely, as Hayao Miyazaki’s last movie. He’s retired at least once already but much like that veteran pro wrestler who just can’t let it go, Miyazaki perhaps doesn’t know what else to do with his time. As of...

It’s THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR and we’re continuing down the line of obvious vintage holiday classics and you know this one was coming. Kris Kringle? 100% Real and he will definitely Santa-splain your decorations to you. He happens to come into the life of a single mother and her little girl and quickly begins healing the emotional wounds of the mother who has been intensely psychologica...

It’s THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR and we’re dropping some offbeat fare for Christmas and today’s discussion is much more influential to certain films you might be more likely to watch around Halloween. “Billy” the phone creep might not be as prolific as Freddy, Jason or Michael Myers but he certainly stands out and he’s very creative even if you have no idea who he is. It’s a Christmastime...

(MILDLY SPOILER-FREE, NO SIGNIFICANT DETAILS) IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR and I think it’s obvious what this month’s overarching theme will be and it might get a little offbeat but on Wednesdays (at least) we will be going to the movies for our picks and it looks like there is a lot of good looking flicks to be seen. Although…”Wonka”??? Not sure if we want to contribute to the “Fantas...

It’s what they call THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR and for our vintage Monday picks we’re going straight for the Christmas Classic Heavy Hitters and no better place to start than with a little Irving Berlin. Bing Crosby stops beating his son long enough to star in the Michael Curtiz holiday musical “WHITE CHRISTMAS” from 1954. It also stars Danny Kaye, the enjoyable Rosemary Clooney and the t...

It’s THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! At least that’s what they tell me. We’ve coasted out of COMFORT FOOD and now we’re full blown into the Christmas season and why not get it started with…MURDER! It’s a bloody scene one Christmas Day. We see a Christmas tree. A decorated table. We hear screams. We see stabbing in the shadows. A knife falls to the floor. A children’s feet step into frame. Wha...

Just before we get into the meat of the Christmas season we’re gifting you early with a movie talk every day this week and let’s close out a very COMFORT FOOD theme November with one of the most well regarded films about a small town that ever was. In Anarene, nothing really changes and we’ve all know plenty of Jacys and Duanes and Sonnys so some of the ups and downs in the 1971 film “The Last Pic...

For November’s theme of COMFORT FOOD we’re revisiting movies of our youth and analyzing inspirational features featuring actors portraying characters with intellectual disabilities and it all culminates into this particular discussion which covers both bases quite nicely. The 1994 Robert Zemeckis film “Forrest Gump” starring Tom Hanks was a huge hit that landed a best picture Academy Award. It’s a...