Showing posts with label Rob St. Mary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rob St. Mary. Show all posts

June 17, 2026

Episode 804: Dark City (1998)

Episode 804: Dark City (1998) Guest Co-Hosts: Rob St. Mary, Rob Spencer

Rob St. Mary and Rob Spencer join Mike to dig into Alex Proyas's Dark City (1998), the tale of John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), who wakes in a cheap hotel room with no memory, a dead body nearby, and a city that refuses to add up. Detective Bumstead (William Hurt) closes in while the pale, bald Strangers rearrange reality every time the clocks stop — building a world that is simultaneously a locked-room mystery, a Philip K. Dick nightmare, a Kafka story with a superhero ending, and a filmmaker's self-portrait: the Strangers as producers, Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) as the compromised writer, and Murdoch as the protagonist who tears through the painted backdrop and seizes the apparatus.

The conversation covers the film's three screenplay stages and two finished cuts, the studio-mandated voice-over that Proyas spent a decade trying to undo, and Roger Ebert's role as the mechanism of the film's survival. Mike and the Robs also place Dark City within the remarkable 1998–99 cluster of simulated-world films — The Truman Show, The Matrix, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor — and examine what it means that Murdoch's triumphant ending leaves the city still a construct, still running on hidden machinery, with only the god changed.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Dark City on Blu-Ray

Music:
"The Night Has A Thousand Eyes" - Bobby Vee

Watch:

May 12, 2026

Episode 799: The Toxic Avenger (2023)

Special Guests: Lloyd Kaufman, Andrew L. Miller
Guest Co-Host: Rob St. Mary

In 2025, New Jersey's favorite hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength returned — twice. Writer/director Macon Blair's big-budget reimagining, The Toxic Avenger (2023), finally received a wide theatrical release in August 2025. Peter Dinklage voices Winston, a terminally ill janitor at a corrupt pharmaceutical company who falls into a vat of toxic chemicals and emerges as Toxie — a mop-wielding mutant vigilante. Kevin Bacon stars as the company's scheming CEO and Elijah Wood as his security-minded brother, in a film that wraps its splatter comedy around themes of healthcare, corporate greed, and unlikely heroism.

Also in 2025, Troma's own Andrew L. Miller and Adam Peltier reconstructed The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989) and Part III (1989) into the single film they were always meant to be. Titled Mr. Melvin, the 127-minute cut restores the narrative logic Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz originally intended — following Toxie's post-heroic depression, a manipulated journey to Japan, and a Faustian deal with Apocalypse Inc. that turns him into a corporate sellout before the ultimate confrontation with the Devil himself.

Mike talks with Rob St. Mary about both films, and the episode includes interviews with Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman and Mr. Melvin co-producer and co-editor Andrew L. Miller.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to our original episode:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Mr. Melvin on Blu-Ray
Buy The Toxic Avenger (2023) on Blu-Ray

Music:
"Toxic Avenger" - Dickies
"Body Talk" - Sandy Farina

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April 29, 2026

Episode 798: Freddy Got Fingered (2001)

Episode 798: Freddy Got Fingered (2001) Special Guest: Lauren Lloyd
Guest Co-Hosts: Heather Drain, Rob St. Mary

Comedy Month wraps up as Mike talks with Rob St. Mary and Heather Drain about Tom Green's Freddy Got Fingered (2001) and Lauren Lloyd joins Mike for an interview about working on the film that was almost universally trashed on release.

Green wrote, directed, and stars as Gord Brody, an aspiring cartoonist who heads to Hollywood to sell his drawings as an animated series. After a catastrophic pitch meeting, Gord retreats to live with his parents—long-suffering father Jim (Rip Torn), mother Julie (Julie Hagerty), and younger brother Freddy (Eddie Kaye Thomas). Also along for the ride: Marisa Coughlan as Betty, a wheelchair-using rocket scientist.

Closer in spirit to Dadaist provocation than anything else at the multiplex in 2001. Mike, Rob, and Heather dig into Green's career, the film's reception, deleted material from the trailer and behind-the-scenes footage, and the question of what Freddy Got Fingered is actually trying to do.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Freddy Got Fingered on DVD
Watch This is Tom Green documentary
Buy Hollywood Causes Cancer: The Tom Green Story by Tom Green and Allen Rucker

Music:
"The Cutting Song" - Organized Rhyme
"My Bum Is On Ya Lips" - Tom Green

Watch:








March 31, 2026

Episode 794: Fucktoys (2025)

Episode 794: Fucktoys (2025) Special Guest: Annapurna Sriram
Guest Co-Hosts: Payton McCarty-Simas, Rob St. Mary

Mike is joined by Payton McCarty-Simas and Rob St. Mary to dig into Fucktoys , the 2025 SXSW Special Jury Award winner written, directed by, and starring Annapurna Sriram. Sriram plays AP, a sex worker adrift in Trashtown — a candy-colored dystopia of industrial decay and pastel skies — after a swamp-dwelling tarot reader tells her a curse can be lifted for a thousand dollars and the sacrifice of a baby lamb. What follows is a picaresque night of surreal encounters, escalating absurdity, and a collision of intimacy, exploitation, and class in a pre-millennium alternate universe.

The gang explores the film's John Waters–adjacent sensibility and its candy-coated production design, debating whether the aggressive tonal shifts and theatrical performances sharpen the film's satirical edge or tip into pure indulgence. They also dig into what the curse might actually represent, how Sriram's central performance holds the chaos together, and where Fucktoys fits within a lineage of underground feminist and transgressive cinema.

Also featured is an interview with writer/director/star Annapurna Sriram.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Find out where Fucktoys is playing near you
Listen to the Fucktoys Spotify Playlist

Music:
"Demolicion" - Los Saicos
"Je pars" - Dalida

Watch:

January 21, 2026

Episode 783: Entertaining Mr. Sloane (1970)

Guest Co-Hosts: Jonathan Owen Rob St. Mary

The Projection Booth turns its attention to Entertaining Mr. Sloane (1970), the adaptation of ’s infamous stage play, directed by Douglas Hickox. Jonathan Owen and Rob St. Mary join Mike to dig into Orton’s razor-sharp wit, corrosive humor, and enduring legacy as one of Britain’s most provocative voices. The hosts unpack how the film confronts taboo subjects—sexuality, class resentment, violence—without softening Orton’s contempt for social respectability or his glee in watching social structures collapse.

At the center of the film is Mr. Sloane, a charming, amoral drifter and occasional rentboy played with unnerving poise by Peter McEnery. When Sloane encounters the aggressively lonely Kath (Beryl Reid) and her domineering, closeted brother Ed (Harry Andrews), he quickly embeds himself into their lives—sexually, psychologically, and economically.

The group also broadens the discussion to Orton’s screen legacy, touching on the other 1970 adaptation Loot, as well as the biopics Prick Up Your Ears and Joe Orton Laid Bare. Together, they consider how Orton’s work—and his life—continue to challenge audiences, remaining as abrasive, funny, and unsettling now as they were more than half a century ago.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Entertaining Mr. Sloane on Blu-Ray
Buy Up Against It: A Screenplay For The Beatles by Joe Orton
Listen to Up Against It
Buy Prick Up Your Ears by John Lahr
Buy The Orton Diaries edited by John Lahr
Buy The Complete Play by Joe Orton
Buy Loot on Blu-Ray
Buy Prick Up Your Ears on Blu-Ray

Music:
"A Well-Respected Man" - The Kinks

Watch:




December 26, 2025

Episode 779: Megalopolis (2024)

Episode 779: Megalopolis (2024) Guest Co-Hosts: Mike Thompson, Rob St. Mary

Mike Thompson and Rob St. Mary join Mike to step into the rubble, rhetoric, and Roman cosplay of Megalopolis (2024), Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed, forty-years-in-the-making cinematic fever dream. A film obsessed with power, legacy, architecture, and Great Men Thinking Great Thoughts, Megalopolis feels less like a movie than a manifesto—one that demands to be taken seriously while daring you to laugh at it. Cesar Catalina, the troubled genius nobody appreciates (write what you know, Francis), strides through a New Rome built on vibes, speeches, and a miracle substance called Megalon.

The episode also explores Megadoc, Mike Figgis’s fly-on-the-wall documentary which attempts to chronicle the chaos, conviction, and sheer force of will behind Coppola’s production. Seen together, the film and the documentary form a portrait of an artist betting everything—money, reputation, legacy—on a single idea. Love it, hate it, or remain profoundly confused by it, Megalopolis refuses to be ignored. And once it gets into your head, it doesn’t leave.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Megalopolis on Blu-Ray
Buy Megalopolis the Graphic Novel

Music:
"Megalopolis" - U.K. Subs

Watch:










December 24, 2025

Episode 778: The Book of Revelation (2006)

Episode 778: The Book of Revelation (2006) Special Guest: Ana Kokkinos
Guest Co-Hosts: Spencer Parsons, Rob St. Mary

Spencer Parsons and Rob St. Mary join Mike to unpack Ana Kokkinos’s unflinching 2006 adaptation of ’s novel, The Book of Revelation, a film that refuses easy provocation, using intimacy, trauma, and performance as tools for something far more unsettling.

The story follows Daniel (Tom Long), a dancer who vanishes during a mundane errand for his girlfriend Bridget (Anna Torv). What initially plays as a mystery gradually reveals itself as a confrontation with sexual violence, shame, and the long aftermath of violation—rendered without sensationalism and without moral shortcuts.

Mike also sits down with director Ana Kokkinos to discuss the making of the film, her approach to depicting male sexual assault, and her insistence on pushing past eroticism toward emotional truth. The conversation explores how The Book of Revelation challenges audience expectations, destabilizes gendered narratives of victimhood, and stands as one of the most difficult--and necessary--Australian films of its era.

This episode wrestles with discomfort, representation, and empathy, asking what it really means when cinema turns its gaze on trauma.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Visit RAINN
Visit Males Survivor
Visit 1 in 6
Buy The Book of Revelation by Rupert THomas
Buy The Book of Revelation on DVD

Music:
"The Secret Garden" - Vassilis Tsabropoulos
"Abbaon Fat Tracks" - Tricky

Watch:


September 10, 2025

Episode 761: Pelísky (1999)

Guest Co-Hosts: Philip Marinello, Rob St. Mary

Czechtember 2025 kicks off with Cosy Dens (AKA Pelíšky), Jan Hřebejk’s bittersweet 1999 coming-of-age dramedy adapted from ’s novel Hovno Hoří (Shit on Fire). Written by Petr Jarchovský, the film unfolds between Christmas 1967 and the Prague Spring of 1968, chronicling the warmth, absurdity, and heartbreak of two neighboring families caught between tradition, rebellion, and history itself.

Rob St. Mary and Philip Marinello join Mike to unpack this Czech classic’s mix of humor and melancholy, its cultural specificity, and its universal resonance.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Visit the Museum of Communism Buy Cosy Dens on DVD

Music:
"Sluneèný hrob" - The Blue Effect

Watch:






June 18, 2025

Episode 748: The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Episode 748:  The Exterminating Angel (1962) Guest Co-Hosts: Rob St. Mary, Miguel Llanso

What happens when a lavish dinner party refuses to end? Mike is joined by filmmaker Miguel Llansó (Crumbs, Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway) and critic Rob St. Mary to unpack the surreal social satire of Luis Buñuel's The Exterminating Ange (1962). In this sharp and strange masterwork, a group of upper-crust guests find themselves mysteriously unable to leave a post-opera gathering—days pass, civility erodes, and Buñuel’s absurdist lens skewers class, ritual, and the thin veneer of order.

From sheep in the parlor to the creeping dread of inaction, we discuss the film’s dream logic, religious and political interpretations, and its place in Buñuel’s legendary career. Whether you’re trapped by tradition, status, or just polite company, The Exterminating Angel remains one of cinema’s most biting allegories—and we’re not letting you leave until we’ve talked it through.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy The Exterminating Angel on Blu-Ray

Music:
"Exterminating Angel" - The Creatures

Watch:

March 5, 2025

Episode 732: Death of a Bureaucrat (1966)

Episode 732: Death of a Bureaucrat (1966) Guest Co-Hosts: Cullen Gallagher, Rob St. Mary

Mike kicks off a fresh month of Patreon picks alongside Cullen Gallagher and Rob St. Mary to unpack the satirical brilliance of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's 1966 gem, Death of a Bureaucrat. When a revered Cuban sculptor invents a revolutionary bust-making machine only to meet his untimely demise at its mechanical hands, bureaucratic absurdity kicks into high gear. Buried proudly with his labor card, the sculptor inadvertently sparks a Kafkaesque quest as his widow and nephew wrestle hilariously with red tape, relentless officials, and ridiculous obstacles—all in pursuit of the one document standing between them and survival. Special thanks to Patreon supporter John Redford for this sharp, comedic dive into the madness of bureaucracy.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth

Music:
"Roldán: Danza Del Diablito" - Leo Brouwer

Watch:

February 19, 2025

Episode 731: Fatal Beauty (1987)

Episode 731: Fatal Beauty (1987) Special Guests: Bill Svanoe, Tom Holland
Guest Co-Hosts: Kevin Lehane, Rob St. Mary

#Whoopbruary keeps the action rolling with Fatal Beauty (1987), a hard-hitting crime thriller starring Whoopi Goldberg as tough-talking detective Rita Rizzoli. Directed by Tom Holland and based on a script by Bill Svanoe, the film follows Rizzoli as she battles to keep a deadly designer drug off the streets. Co-hosts Rob St. Mary and Kevin Lehane join the discussion, and we’ve got exclusive interviews with writer and director Tom Holland to break down the film’s mix of action, comedy, and social commentary.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me by Whoopi Goldberg
Buy Fatal Beauty on Blu-Ray

Music:
"Criminal (Theme From Fatal Beauty)" - Shannon
"Sin City" - War

Watch:

January 31, 2025

Episode 728: Weekend (1967)

Episode 728: Weekend (1967) Guest Co-Hosts: Andrei Idu, Rob St. Mary

Buckle up for a journey through the absurd, anarchic, and audacious as The Projection Booth takes on Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend (1967). Hosts Mike White, Rob St. Mary, and Andrei Idu (who requested the episode via Patreon) dive headfirst into Godard's biting critique of consumerism, class, and chaos, dissecting the film's surreal narrative, infamous tracking shots, and unapologetically subversive tone. From the traffic jam to the revolutionaries, they explore how this incendiary masterpiece continues to provoke and puzzle audiences decades later.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Weekend on Blu-Ray

Music:
"Friday on my Mind" - The Easybeats

Watch:


September 11, 2024

Episode 705: Diamonds in the Night (1964)

Episode 705: Diamonds in the Night (1964) Guest Co-Hosts: Heather Drain, Rob St. Mary

We’re kicking off #Czechtember2024 with a classic of the Czech New Wave, Jan Nemec's Diamonds of the Night. Released in 1964, the film was a groundbreaking piece of cinema. Based on 's semi-autobiographical novel Darkness Casts No Shadow, the film is about the escape of two boys from a train carrying them to a death camp.

Heather Drain and Rob St. Mary join Mike to discuss this harrowing film.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Diamonds of the Night on Blu-Ray
Learn more about The National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror Museum
Find out more about the Museum of Communism in Prague

Music:
"Diamonds of the Night" - Forgotten Silence

Watch:




August 19, 2024

Episode 700: Caligula - The Ultimate Cut (2023)

Episode 703: Caligula - The Ultimate Cut (2023) Special Guests: Caroline Kirkendoll, Alexander Tuschinski
Guest Co-Hosts: Heather Drain, Rob St. Mary

We're celebrating our 700th episode of The Projection Booth with what may be the first time we've discussed a movie for a third time as we continue to document the troubled history of the 1980 film Caligula.

We first spoke about the film almost 10 years ago where we were joined by Maitland McDonagh to discuss the movie while Ranjit Sandhu gave us the sordid history behind the production and talked about his book 200 Degrees of Failure and filmmaker Alexander Tuschinski discussed the career of Tinto Brass and the original intentions Brass had for the finished film. Listen Now.

We came back together in 2018 to discuss the re-discovery of the original footage of Caligula and the plans Penthouse and Alexander had to restore the film to Tinto Brass's original vision. Listen Now.

Now Rob and Mike are joined by Heather Drain to talk about the version of Caligula that played at Cannes in 2023. Once referred to as Caligula MMXX, it’s now called Caligula: The Ultimate Cut and it was produced by a person named Thomas Negovan.

We'll be discussing The Ultimate Cut as well as what’s happened to this project over the last six years along with President of Penthouse Global Licensing, Caroline Kirkendoll, and director of Mission: Caligula, Alexander Tuschinski

This episode includes clips from episodes of the Century Guild Salon and the Team Human podcast. No rights are implied or given.

Listen/Download Now:

McDowell on Caligula on WTF:

Listen to the Caligula episode:

Listen to the Mission: Caligula episode:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Subcribe to Maitland McDonagh's substack
Get your Tino Brass fix at Cult Epics
Read Alexander Tuschinski's analysis of Caligula
Buy Caligula: The Ultimate Cut on Blu-Ray -- Features commentary from Heather Drain!

Music:
"Caligula" - Edu Yattah
"Caligula Themed Music" - Lee Bannon
"Caligula Syndrome" - Soft Cell

Watch:












IsTintoBrass from Cult Epics on Vimeo.

May 1, 2024

Episode 683: Bowfinger (1999)

Episode 683: Bowfinger (1999) Guest Co-Hosts: Kevin Lehane, Rob St. Mary

We’re kicking off a month discussing comedy films with a look at Frank Oz's Bowfinger. Released in 1999, the film was written by and stars as the titular Bowfinger, a struggling filmmaker who, along with his group of misfit artists, makes a movie around the unknowing presence of unstable superstar Kit Ramsey, played by Eddie Murphy.

Kevin Lehane and Rob St. Mary join Mike to keep it together.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Bowfinger on Blu-Ray

Music:
"The Magic Store" - Paul Williams
"Chocolate Rain" - Tay Zonday

Watch:

February 14, 2024

Episode 671: 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

Special Guests: C. Courtney Joyner, Gregg Sutter
Guest Co-Hosts: Rob St. Mary, Jedidiah Ayres

Western Month continues with a look at Delmer Daves's 3:10 to Yuma. Released in 1957, the film tells the tale of two men, outlaw Ben Wade (Glenn Ford) and innocent bystander Dan Evans (Van Heflin). Their fates are intertwined after Dan witnesses Ben and his outfit robbing a stagecoach.

Jedidiah Ayres and Rob St. Mary join Mike to discuss the 1957 film and 2007 remake which are both based on a short story by Elmore "Dutch" Leonard. Mike spoke with filmmaker and author C. Courtney Joyner and Leonard's long-time researcher Gregg Sutter about the dozens of other films based on Leonard's work.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy 3:10 to Yuma (1957) on Blu-Ray
Buy 3:10 to Yuma (2007) on Blu-Ray
Buy 3:10 to Yuma by Elmore Leonard

Music:
"Chinese Democracy" - Marco Beltrami
"The 3:10 to Yuma" - Frankie Lane

Watch:


November 1, 2023

Episode 653: Pound (1970)

Episode 653: Pound (1970) Guest Co-Hosts: Spencer Parsons, Rob St. Mary

A request from Patreon donor Vaughn Collmyer, we're discussing Robert Downey’s 1970 film Pound, an ensemble piece wherein a group of 18 actors play different breeds of dog... and one lonely, lost penguin… all awaiting their fate in a dog pound.

Spencer Parsons, Rob St. Mary, and Mike discuss Downey's film as well as Robert Downey Jr.'s documentary Sr. about his relationship with his father and his father's career.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Watch Pound on Archive.org

Music:
Soundtrack by Charley Cuva

Watch:

October 11, 2023

Episode 650: Man Bites Dog (1992)

Guest Co-Host: Rob St. Mary

Rob St. Mary joins Mike to look at the 1992 Belgian film, Man Bites Dog. Directed by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoît Poelvoorde, the film is a mockumentary about a serial killer, Ben, played by co-director Benoît Poelvoorde, who’s being followed around by a camera crew who capture some of his more outrageous adventures but also his thoughts about life, beer, and more.

Mike and Rob discuss mockumentary films, serial killer films, and the confluence of the two in works like John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and J.T. Petty's S&man.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Man Bites Dog on DVD

Music:
"Excitable Boy" - Warren Zevon

Watch:

July 19, 2023

Episode 637: Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Episode 637: Blade Runner 2049 (2017) Guest Co-Hosts: Rob St. Mary, Chris Stachiw

Sci-Fi July continues with a look at Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 (2017). It’s the story of K (Ryan Gosling). He’s a replicant experiencing memories where he thinks he’s the chosen one, a product of a replicant and human pairing. Of course, that Replicant is Rachel (Sean Young) and the human is Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) which, I guess settles the whole thing about Deckard being a human or replicant... or does it?

Rob St. Mary and Chris Stachiw join Mike to discuss this ponderous sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 original.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to the Blade Runner episode:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Blade Runner 2049 on Blu-Ray
Buy The Art and Soul of Blade Runner 2049 by Tonya Lapointe
Buy Blade Runner 2049: A Philosophical Exploration edited by Timothy Shanahan & Paul Smart

Music:
"Hijack" - Hans Zimmer

Watch:








May 31, 2023

Episode 630: Raising Arizona (1987)

Episode 630: Raising Arizona (1987) Special Guest: Joseph McBride
Guest Co-Hosts: Keith Gordon, Rob St. Mary

We wrap up a month of discussion around comedic film with one of the best, The Coen Brothers's second film, Raising Arizona (1987). It's the story of repeat offender H.I. McDunnough (Nicolas Cage) and his wife Ed (Holly Hunter ), a childless couple who steal one of the quintuplets from Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson) and, hell, you know who he is.

Rob St. Mary and Keith Gordon join Mike to talk about the film while Professor Joseph McBride discusses his book, The Whole Durn Human Comedy: Life According to the Coen Brothers.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Raising Arizona on Blu-Ray

Music:
All Music by Carter Burwell

Watch: