The Projection Booth Podcast

Todd Solondz's disowned debut finally gets its day in court. Fear, Anxiety & Depression (1989) follows Ira Ellis, a bespectacled, self-deluding playwright adrift in the last gasp of the East Village art scene — too busy pining after a performance artist named Junk to notice the woman who actually loves him.

Mike Sullivan and David Rodgers join Mike to dig into the film Solondz famously begged a friend not to rent, examining what makes it both a fascinating time capsule of downtown New York bohemia and an unmistakable preview of the tragicomic sensibility that would eventually produce Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse. They also make the case for why this orphaned debut — unavailable on any legitimate platform since its 1990 VHS release — deserves a proper restoration and re-release.

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Paul Gallico's 1970 novel Matilda told of a male boxing kangaroo who becomes an unlikely heavyweight contender, upending the worlds of sports promotion and organized crime. Producer Albert S. Ruddy, fresh from his Oscar-winning triumph with The Godfather, acquired the rights and brought the story to the screen in 1978, co-writing with Timothy Galfas. 

The resulting G-rated family comedy stars Elliott Gould as Bernie Bonnelli, a small-time talent agent who discovers the boxing kangaroo and sees his ticket out of obscurity. Clive Revill plays Billy Baker, Matilda's devoted owner and former British boxer, while Robert Mitchum turns up as Duke Parkhurst, a manipulative sportswriter, and Harry Guardino heads the mob contingent scheming to control the outcome of Matilda's fights. The kangaroo himself was portrayed by Gary Morgan in a Rick Baker $30,000 suit.

Mike talks with co-hosts Cullen Gallagher and Mike Sullivan about the film, then brings in interviews with actors Gary Morgan and Elliott Gould along with two posthumously-released interviews with producer Albert S. Ruddy and screenwriter Timothy Galfas, 

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Mike talks with director Marcie Hume about making Corey Feldman vs. the World, the ethics of documentary filmmaking, and what it means to capture a subject in freefall.

Hume has said the film was never intended as a hit piece, and the documentary bears that out. It presents testimony from Feldman, the Angels, his then-wife Courtney Anne Mitchell, and fans who attended the shows, letting events speak for themselves. What emerges is a portrait of a deeply damaged person caught in cycles he can't seem to break — part tour film, part cautionary tale, and part document of Hollywood's long history of failing the children it exploits.

Learn more at https://www.coreyfilm.com/

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When a bank robbery goes sideways, two strangers find themselves bound together on the road — Billie (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson), whose desperation brought her to the bank in the first place, and Franny (Grace Van Dien), a pregnant teenager with nothing left to lose. What begins as a hostage situation slowly reshapes into something stranger and more human: an unlikely alliance, an argument across the American heartland, and the gradual discovery that these two women need each other more than either is willing to admit.

Silver Star reunites French filmmakers Ruben Amar and Lola Bessis behind the camera for the first time since Swim Little Fish Swim, their debut feature that broke through at SXSW in 2013. The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Deauville American Film Festival and went on to screen at Les Arcs, Denver, Glasgow, and the Love International Film Festival in Mons, where it won Best Screenplay. Indican Pictures acquired North American rights and released the film theatrically on January 30, 2026.

Mike talks with stars Grace Van Dien and Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson about bringing Silver Star to life.

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John Singleton was twenty-three when he wrote Boyz N the Hood and twenty-four when it made him the first Black filmmaker and youngest person ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Released in 1991, the film drew from Singleton's own upbringing in South Central Los Angeles to deliver an unflinching portrait of Black life there, launched the careers of Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, and Nia Long, and established Singleton as one of the most important voices in American cinema. Over the next three decades he directed Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, Shaft, and Four Brothers, and served as a producer on Hustle & Flow and the FX series Snowfall, which was still in production when he died of a stroke in 2019 at age fifty-one.

The Life of Singleton: From Boyz N the Hood to Snowfall by journalist Thomas Golianopoulos draws on nearly 400 original interviews to document Singleton's full arc — his years as a driven film student at USC, his rapid ascent in Hollywood, his complicated personal life, and his final years. Published by Andscape Books in 2025, the biography traces how Singleton's commitment to putting authentic Black stories on screen shaped an industry and inspired generations of filmmakers. Mike talks with Golianopoulos about his four years reporting the book and the life of Hollywood's first self-proclaimed hip-hop director.

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