The Projectors

Holiday Inn (1942)

IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR so naturally we gotta hit up some holiday classics. In this film talk we encounter our first bit of notorious controversy and it’s surprising it took this long to get to that but that’s how it goes when you go back to the song and dance movies of the first half of the 20th century. Maybe you guessed it but the reveal is within the episode. Today we discuss Mark Sandrich & Irving Berlin’s 1942 holiday musical “HOLIDAY INN” starring Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds. It’s the first appearance of the song “White Christmas” over a decade before the actual “White Christmas” movie. You can’t trust any ho or hombre in the entertainment world. One minute you’re quitting show business to be a farmer (for some reason) then your girl leaves you and you’re a farmer alone until you get the big idea to turn your farm into an entertainment hotel that is only open on holidays. Wait’ll you see what they do for Lincoln’s birthday! Poor Bing thinks things are great with this new gal at the Inn until villain himbo, Fred Astaire, shows back up and threatens to take another of his girls with his fancy legs. Some ups and downs but the dancing is nothing to sneeze at. We watched it in black and white but found a colorized version here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8hxeqt
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Jack Frost (1998)

It’s THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! That means Christmas holiday fare all month long and Angela picked for us a notorious wintery family film that definitely “cooled off” Michael Keaton’s career at the time. He eventually came back from the brutal box office blow which is impressive enough considering how trashed this movie is. We watched, for the very first time, Troy Miller’s 1998 film “JACK FROST” starring Michael Keaton, Kelly Preston & Henry Rollins. Not to be confused with two horror movies and a Rankin/Bass special. Dad’s who travel around Colorado playing the stankiest white blues are often well meaning, but absent, fathers. God punishes Jack Frost (yes that is his name and he fronts “The Jack Frost Band”) for changing his mind from a gig to go back home to his son for Christmas. Jack dies but cut to one year later and his son, Charlie Frost, gussies up a snowman and toots a magical harmonica that pulls Jack Frosts soul from Hell and into a snowman. Sure, it’s freaky when your dad is a snowman but don’t worry because we’re just getting started with the turnt up hijinks and “bazooka Joe” level comedy. Is this movie as bad as they say? Do you like your blues with a little extra stank? Well step up and watch this bizarre film and have your pathetic life changed forever. 
 
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Serendipity (2001)

It is once again time for THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! The climactic month of the holiday season that encompasses that yuletide feeling and Angela has picked (most) of the month’s selections once again and we kick it off with a rom-com starring the king of rom-coms for much of the 90s and early 2000s. In 2001 you could put out a random John Cusack movie and make $77 million. Oh, how the movie going scene has changed and Mr. Cusack has been through his own changes as well. This 2001 flick is left to the fates as a chance romantic, if ill-timed, encounter goes amazingly well but when it ends it’s left to the universe to decide if Jonathan and Sara are meant to be together. It takes a bit but the universe comes around. We’re talking the 2001 Christmas rom-com directed by Peter Chelsom called “SERENDIPITY” and Bob struggles a bit with that word. It also stars Kate Beckinsdale, Jeremy Piven, Molly Shannon and John Corbett. Do our hosts get swayed into some holiday charm? Are the hosts forever doomed to suffer under the weight of their “realness”? WTF is Louis Armstrong saying in that song? Do you remember that show “Northern Exposure”? Imagine getting oral from Santa. Just imagine it.
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The House That Jack Built (2018)

We’ve arrived at the end of our year long study of the films of Lars von Trier and we wish we could say that we hate seeing him go but it’s been a very, predictably, rough year. Today we discuss his last feature film that stars a pretty ageless Matt Dillon who is a serial killer. He recounts his life of horror to the poet Virgil in 5 distinct incidents that he shares. It’s “THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT” from 2018. A character study late in the career of the notorious director. The film also stars Uma Thurman, Bruno Ganz, Riley Keough and some other character actors we’ve seen all year long in von Trier films. What works about this study in psychopathy and what doesn’t? We also revisit our scores of Lars’s films over the past year and there have been some adjustments since our discussions. Join us as we say goodbye to Lars von Trier films (at least for a bit) and at the end of the episode we reveal who the director of 2025 will be that we will spend the entire year discussing their catalog. Next year’s director might even be more controversial than Lars! Hear us tell of it.
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Manderlay (2005)

We’re near the end of a terrible year made worse by watching a dozen Lars von Trier movies over the span of 2024. We follow up last month’s discussion of “Dogville” with a genuine sequel. Part two of an unfinished trilogy that Lars calls “U.S.A: The Land of Opportunity”. Grace returns except she is now played by Bryce Dallas Howard and her gangster father is now played by Willem Dafoe. Minimal sets and the theme of enslavement continue as Grace comes upon a small town where slavery still exists 70 years after it was supposedly abolished. The mam of the minimal plantation is dying and wants her slave book burned. Grace has more altruistic ideas to punish the previous white residents and educate the newly freed slaves but maybe you’ve heard  about what the road to hell is paved with. Things are going to be a lot harder than she bargained for which is an extreme understatement considering who wrote and directed this film. We’re talking “MANDERLAY” from 2005 and it also stars Danny Glover, Isaac de Bankolé, Lauren Bacall and more. It’s still narrated by John Hurt who most certainly never read a script like this. Hear us tell the strange ass tale. We have one last Lars film after this that will drop next week.
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The Ice Storm (1997)

Happy Thanksgiving! We like Thanksgiving around here. It’s the only time we eat all that shit and I know it sucks when your family can’t do the turkey proper but maybe we’re just lucky. Hopefully your family are cool and prioritize the right things on this holiday. Like food and chilling out and maybe watching a football game and not stressing about shit. Bob loves Thanksgiving. He’ll be the first to tell ya. When it comes to films, there aren’t a lot of Thanksgiving specific movies. Sometimes movies that feature Thanksgiving will pass time into Christmas as well. But pure Thanksgiving movies? Not many but with the few hat we can come up with, Thanksgiving movies might have the highest track record for quality holiday movies across the board. Last year we discussed what we dubbed the ultimate Thanksgiving movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”, this year we get even deeper into the drama of family life. It’s Thanksgiving break in New Canaan, Connecticut in 1973 and the stale remnants of the sexual revolution has led to a general dissatisfaction and existential confusion amongst some marriages and two families in particular, the Hoods and the Carvers. They’re neighbors and their kids are of that age of confusion and exploration and while the parents seek a variety of ways to diminish that stagnant feeling in their lives, they’re no less awkward than their children amidst their own sexual lives. A quality movie that maybe fell under the radar, Ang Lee’s “THE ICE STORM” from 1997 is a compelling character driven film and a quality adult selection for Thanksgiving material. It stars a nice ensemble of Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood. A beautifully shot movie as well so let us tell you about it. What Thanksgiving options are left? We got “Dutch”, “Son in Law”, “Hannah and her Sisters”, “The Last Waltz”… Can you think of any more?
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Cats (2019)

Today we bid farewell to a musicals month where we RAISED THE CURTAIN & BELTED THE CHORUS and we might as well end it with another, infamous, Andrew Lloyd Webber selection. The stage show of “Cats” has always been the bizarre butt of jokes. Openly hated and yet consistently attended, it ran on broadway for a very long time. Today’s discussion of the Tom Hooper directed version of “CATS” from 2019 might have expanded the hatred of “Cats” to a wider audience. Post production was manic with the visual effects supposedly being tweaked up to the day it premiered in the theaters. A $75 million box office would be a solid outing for many movies but not when the budget clears $80 million. It stars a plethora of folks such as Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Jason Derulo, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Francesca Hayward, James Corden and Rebel Wilson. At the very least this movie is strange as hell but is it as bad as they say? What works and what doesn’t? Is the singing good? Is it as obnoxious as many say that “Cats” has always been? We’ll set you straight. Sure, everybody’s wrung this rag already but now it’s our turn to see the Werecats off to the Heaviside Layer. Maybe we’ll join them.
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A Chorus Line (1985)

We’re nearing the end of musicals month and we’re hitting up some Marvin Hamlisch for an adaptation of a beloved stage classic about the journeys and desperations of the musical stage life. An “inside baseball” musical about musicals. For the sickos. It didn’t quite hit at the box office in its day but Richard Attenborough’s 1985 adaptation of “A CHORUS LINE” has held up over the years by all those sickos that would become inspired. This stars Michael Douglas, Alyson Reed, Terrence Mann, Sharon Brown & many many more. More dancing than you can shake a cigarette at and it ain’t no slouch in the “terrible wig” department either. A masterfully horrible wig in this movie you got to see to believe. I’d love to be in a chorus line someday but I’m dance: 2 looks: 5 so there’s no chance. 
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My Fair Lady (1964)

We’re in the home stretch of Musicals Month before the film holiday hits us hard and we go back to the classics with a crowd pleasing adaptation of a George Bernard Shaw novel for the musical stage. I do believe this is our first discussion of an Audrey Hepburn film. Hollywood was all about the turn of the century English doing song and dance back in the 60s. Between this,  Mary Poppins and Oliver! It’s no wonder that generations of Americans thought of the English as dirty cockney that say “Garn” all obnoxious-like. There are much worse stereotypes for the English, I suppose. We’re talking George Cukor’s nicely crafted adaptation of “MY FAIR LADY” from 1964 starring Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison and several more. Can Professor Higgins win his bet and make some dirty street urchin presentable to royalty? When you get past the screeching there are some laughs and some fun characters. Also, some fantastic staging and costumes. Check it out: https://archive.org/details/my-fair-lady_202401
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Once (2007)

Musicals are on the docket all November long but not every film is an adaptation and this one popped off as a movie before the stage show. An easy adaptation as you have two singing leads and only a handful of actors needed. While this modern musical had its pre-production ups and downs, this very budget tight Irish film that cost only $150k performed surprisingly well at the box office and received an award winning reputation. We’re talking about the John Carney film from 2007 called “ONCE” with the leads being Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglova of the music group “Swell Season”. A passionate love story of a musician and an immigrant girl in Dublin who motivate each other but can their circumstance allow for them to be together? A story in which life came to imitate in a way and Angela, our MOVIEHUMPERS Gossip and celebrity reporter, spills all the tea with some ball scorching behind the scenes information that is sure to make you stay in your seat and calmly take in. Does ONCE rank among the musical film greats? What is the secret behind the scenes? Did he just tell her to “shut up”? Giiiiiirrrrrrrrlllllll….
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