The Projection Booth

Jay Scott Smith and Patrick Bromley join Mike to discuss the 1990 film from writer director Reginald Hudlin, House Party. Starring Christopher Reid and Christopher Martin, AKA Kid N’ Play, the film is about a House Party and the wild shenanigans surrounding it. It’s also about a lot more than just that and we’ll be discussing the ins-and-outs of the film and the four other films it inspired. Learn...

Robert Mandel's F/X (1986) -- also sometimes known as FX: Murder by Illusion -- is the story of Rollie Taylor (Bryan Brown), a movie special effects man who is hired by two government agents (Cliff DeYoung & Mason Adams) to stage the public assassination of a mob boss (Jerry Orbach) who’s turned state's evidence. What better way to keep the mob off the tail than by “killing him”? But things do...

For the 400th episode of The Projection Booth, Maurice Bursztynski and Skizz Cyzyk join Mike to discuss the 1978 made-for-TV movie The Rutles: All You Need is Cash. Directed by Gary Weis and Eric Idle, this mockumentary tells the tale of the incredible smash hit band The Rutles, their meteoric rise to fame and incredible influence on the music business. The Rutles were the brainchild of writer/com...

We conclude our discussion about Ernst Lubitsch with a discussion of his 1942 film To Be or Not To Be, the story of Joseph and Maria Tura (Jack Benny and Carole Lombard), two actors in Poland who are in a current run of Shakespeare’s Hamlet though working on a new play called Gestapo. The new play never happens on stage but they’re able to act it out in real life after Poland falls to the Nazis. T...

The first of two episodes focusing on Ernst Lubitsch, this week we're discussing Trouble in Paradise (1932). The film stars Herbert Marshall as Gaston, a gentleman thief who initially connects with Lily (Miriam Hopkins), a highly skilled pickpocket, before the two begin the long con with Madame Mariette Colette (Kay Francis), the owner of a Parisian perfume company. Unfortunately for Gaston, and L...

John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China (1986) tells the story of Wang Chi (Dennis Dun), a restaurateur whose finance, Miao Lin (Suzee Pai), gets kidnapped by the nefarious forces of David Lo Pan (James Hong), a seemingly innocent old man who is actually the embodiment of the evil spirit of Lo Pan, a demon who needs a woman with green eyes in order to become corporeal again and begin his reig...

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks with writer/actor/director Bill Duke about his new memoir, Bill Duke: My 40-Year Career on Screen and behind the Camera, as well as some of his roles in films such as Car Wash, Commando, Predator, Payback, and more. Learn more at https://amzn.to/2CF2azM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of t...

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks with actor/producer Vernon Wells about some of his classic roles -- Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Commando, Circuitry Man, Fortress -- as well as his recent work in City of Gold and the upcoming SOS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-proje...

Based on a book by and adapted by Leonard Gardner, Fat City (1972) was directed by John Huston and stars Stacy Keach as Tully, an over the hill fighter who says he wants to pick himself up and revive his career after he meets Ernie, played by Jeff Bridges, a kid who seems to have a lot of promise in the boxing world. We see their stories parallel and contrast one another as we watch Fat City unfol...

Timon Singh of The Bristol Bad Film Club joins Mike to discuss the 2018 film from writer/director/actor/producer/etc. Douglas Burke,Surfer: Teen Confronts Fear. It's the story of Sage (Sage Burke), a teen who confronts his fear of the ocean with help from the astral projection/squid + electricity incarnation of his father. There's military intrigue, inspirational monologues, and lots and lots of s...

On this special episode, Mike talks to Alicia Malone about her book, The Female Gaze. Malone has curated an impressive list of films directed by female filmmakers over the first century of cinema. Buy it via Amazon at https://amzn.to/2LutD9V Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513...

Based on a novel from the early 19th century book by Jan Potocki, The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) tells the rather oblique tale of Alphonse Van Worden, a Walloon captain of the guard, and his circular adventures in the region of Zaragoza which is in modern day Spain. Rob St. Mary and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss Wojciech Has and the multilayered nature of The Saragossa Manuscript. Learn more...

Answering questions, thanking patrons, giving updates, and talking smack.... it's Ego Fest VII just in time to wrap up 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support . Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

We are discussing Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho. The film stars Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, an unmarried woman who’s in love with Sam Loomis (John Gavin), a man under the debt of his deceased father and living ex-wife. In a move of desperation, she sees an opportunity to change her circumstances and takes it in the form of 40,000 dollars. Christine Makepeace (The Feminine Critique) joins Mi...

Co-written by Chuck Vincent and Rick Marx, Roommates (1981) tells the tale of a trio of women trying to make their way in New York City. The film stars Samantha Fox as Billie, a former prostitute trying to make it in the straight world, Kelly Nichols as Sherry, a model from California with a drug problem, and Veronika Hart, as Joan, an aspiring actress from the Midwest. Heather Drain and Ashley We...

Mike talks with director Rüdiger Suchsland about his two documentaries; From Caligari to Hitler and Hitler's Hollywood. The films trace the decline of Weimar cinema and the rise of propaganda as the national cinema of Germany during WWII. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239...

We wrap up #Noirvember and our Philip Marlowe journey for the year with Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973). Adapted by Leigh Brackett, one of the two main writers from Howard Hawks’s The Big Sleep, the film stars Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe, a man now out of time with the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www....

We continue our #Noirvember coverage with a discussion of The Big Sleep. The first proper Philip Marlowe book by Raymond Chandler, it was the second appearance of Marlowe on screen, this time portrayed by Humphrey Bogart. Terry Frost and Eric Cohen join Mike to discuss the pre-release version of Howard Hawks's film, how Bogart portrayed Marlowe, and the 1978 re-interpretation of the source materia...

Local boy Michael Kallio packed up and moved to the big city, Los Angeles, and made good with feature films, shorts, music videos, and more. Hear him talk about his career from being a hand double for John Saxon to working with Bruce Campbell to remastering his early features such as Hatred of a Minute to an upcoming documentary about Gunnar Hansen, My Dinner With Leatherface. Learn more about you...

We continue our #Noirvember2018 coverage with the first in a trio of Raymond Chandler adaptations -- Edward Dymytrk’s Murder My Sweet. Based on the second of Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels, Farewell My Lovely, the film stars Dick Powell "as you've never seen him before." Terry Frost and Eric Cohen join Mike to discuss the 1944 film and the 1976 adaptation. Tom Williams, the author of A Mysteriou...

#Noirvember2018 kicks off with the 1972 film from director Sam Peckinpah, The Getaway. Based on the novel by Jim Thompson and adapted by Walter Hill, the film stars Steve McQueen as Doc McCoy and Ali MacGraw as Carol McCoy, two young lovers with nothing better to do than rob a bank with the duplicitous Rudy Butler and the barely-a-character Jack Dodson. Let’s just say that things don’t go as well...

Directed by Brad Anderson and co-written by Anderson and Stephen Gevedon, Session 9 was released in 2001 and stars Peter Mullen as the head of a team of guys who are taking out the asbestos from a psychiatric institution. As the story unfolds we learn more about Gordon as well as one of the patients of the asylum whose story mirrors his. Axel Kohagen and Jedidiah Ayres join Mike to discuss the fil...

Winner of the "Spirit of CUFF" award at the 2018 Chicago Underground Film Fest, Samira Elagoz's Craigslist Allstars is a documentary in which the filmmaker meets with fifteen different strangers and allows their stories to unfold. Filmmaker Haley McCormick (D A N C E R) and writer Carol Borden (The Cultural Gutter) join Mike to discuss the film and the strange rituals in which men and women engage...

Released in 1985, the original Mr. Vampire was directed by Ricky Lau and stars Lam Ching-Ying as a Taoist priest who battles the forces of evil along with his two inept students. This became a blueprint for dozens of other films -- some of them under the Mr. Vampire moniker and others not. We discuss the “official” Mr. Vampire movies as well as the unofficial entries, some copycat films, and many...

We are discussing E. Elias Merhige’s Begotten. Released in 1990, the film is an experimental narrative. It’s about… well, I’m not sure what it’s really all about but I hope we come to some sort of consensus by the end of the episode, Heather Drain and Ben Buckingham join Mike to discuss experimental films, music videos, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...