Welcome back to Projections, the movie newsletter that prides itself on always digging, if not always Digger.
We are ringing the opening bell of a glorious and stacked month at the movies. In October, we typically see several big studio gambles from renowned auteurs, a huge helping of horror ahead of Halloween, the requisite counterprogramming for the spooky-resistent, and the incursion of festival titles finally making their way to the masses. Every single week this month there are somewhere between three and five notable new releases. I absolutely love this time of year.
As many of you know, my incurable disease is trying to see everything. That includes indies, documentaries, experimental works, concert films, and foreign language imports. There’s no way to conquer it all. I’m barely scraping the top layer of cream. But I see a lot, more than most. It’s a challenge to myself and also a scouting mission. What deserves time? What should we explore? What is the utility of the commercially viable vs. the artistically meaningful? One of the challenges of programming The Big Picture is finding an appropriate way to discuss smaller releases. Most arthouse titles play in fewer than 100 theaters nationwide, their VOD availability is typically poorly marketed, and their long-term streaming homes are often tied to services with more modest bases. There is rarely a collective experience—and as movie culture slowly assumes its latest form, it remains defined by events. And if a movie isn’t widely seen it’s difficult to have a long conversation about it on a podcast, a medium defined by familiarity.
