Episode 428: The Apocalypse Series (1998-2001)

Mike welcomes Emirati filmmaker Majid Al Ansari to discuss The Vile (2025), his long-awaited return to the director’s chair after nearly a decade. Known as Hoba in Arabic, the film is a psychological horror story about Amani, a wife and mother whose world collapses when her husband brings home a second wife with seemingly supernatural powers. Drawing on myths and superstitions surrounding polygamy, Al Ansari literalizes whispered fears into a chilling tale of possession, betrayal, and domestic dread. Mike and Majid talk about his journey from his acclaimed debut Zinzana to producing and directing for television, his cinephile passions, and how The Vile takes folklore and turns it into unnerving, cinematic horror.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

20 Sep 27min

Czechtember gallops forward with Oldřich Lipský’s madcap musical parody Lemonade Joe (1964). Adapted from Jiří Brdečka’s novel and play, the film stars Karel Fiala as the squeaky-clean pitchman of Kolalok Cola who rides into town to clean up the Wild West. Standing in his way is Miloš Kopecký as the dastardly Horác Badman—better known as Hogofogo. With tinted black-and-white visuals, slapstick invention, and a send-up of both Hollywood westerns and consumer culture, this is pure Lipský—irreverent, dazzling, and completely unforgettable. Mike is joined by Jonathan Owen and Alistair Pitts to unpack this fizzy Czech classic.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

17 Sep 2h 4min

Blue hearts, high school dreams, and one unforgettable rock anthem — we’re diving into Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda Linda Linda (2005). The film follows a group of teenage girls in a Japanese high school who form a last-minute band to play the Blue Hearts’ classic “Linda Linda” at their school festival, with a quiet Korean exchange student unexpectedly stepping in as their lead singer.Mike White is joined by Chance Huskey of GKIDS to talk about the film’s enduring charm, its place in the coming-of-age canon, and GKIDS’s North American release. From Yamashita’s understated style to Doona Bae’s breakout performance, this conversation riffs on the film’s infectious energy, youthful vulnerability, and what makes it resonate almost twenty years later.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

15 Sep 21min

Czechtember 2025 kicks off with Cosy Dens (AKA Pelíšky), Jan Hřebejk’s bittersweet 1999 coming-of-age dramedy adapted from Petr Šabach’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.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

10 Sep 1h 12min

Buonopalooza wraps up with Howard Morris’s caper comedy Who’s Minding the Mint? (1967). Jim Hutton stars as Harry Lucas, a hapless Treasury worker who accidentally swipes $50,000 and scrambles to replace it before he’s caught. To pull off the fix, he enlists a motley crew of oddballs, including Dorothy Provine’s Verna Baxter, who’s more interested in perfecting her brownies than in breaking and entering. The ensemble bursts with familiar faces—Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Walter Brennan, Jack Gilford, and of course, Victor Buono.Mike White, Otto Bruno, and Tim Madigan close out the Buono-palooza celebration with this breezy, big-cast caper.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

3 Sep 1h 27min

Mike talks with writer Katharine Coldiron about her new book, Out There in the Dark (Autofocus Books). Blending film criticism, memoir, fiction, and experimental forms, the collection uses movies as prisms to explore truth, kindness, the female body, the American West, war, and more. From The Sound of Music to Apocalypse Now, Coldiron examines how cinema shapes memory and myth. Praised as “thoughtful, trenchant, and keenly observed,” her essays prove that sometimes the best way to understand life is through the flicker of film.Find out more at https://autofocusbooks.com/store/p/out-there-in-the-darkBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

29 Aug 24min

Buonopalooza rolls on with Robert Aldrich’s Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). Following the massive success of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Aldrich re-teamed with Bette Davis for another Southern Gothic nightmare. This time, Davis plays Charlotte Hollis, a reclusive woman haunted by whispers of murder and locked in a decaying Louisiana mansion where secrets fester and madness simmers. The film co-stars Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, and—of course—Victor Buono in a pivotal role. Mike White is joined by Tim Madigan and Otto Bruno to dig into the history, the production troubles, and the legacy of one of the juiciest entries in the “Psycho-Biddy” cycle.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

27 Aug 1h 41min

Buonopalooza rages on with Victor Buono front and center in The Strangler (1964). One of his rare leading roles, Buono embodies Leo Kroll, a smothered man-child whose repressed rage against women spills into murder. Loosely modeled on the Boston police department’s profile of the Boston Strangler—and hitting theaters mere months after Albert DeSalvo’s confession—the film walks a fine line between crime drama and exploitation, delivering Buono at his creepiest. Mike is joined once again by Otto Bruno and Tim Madigan to dig into this twisted artifact of ‘60s true-crime cinema.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

20 Aug 1h 26min