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Based on the 1983 book by Elfriede Jelinek, Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001) stars Isabelle Huppert as our titular pedagogue. She’s a woman trapped in a harrowing relationship with her mother. She is abused and belittled at home only to turn around and do the same to her students. Things change when she meets Walter Klemmer (Benoît Magimel) who is a bit obsessed with his prickly piano teacher, leading to a mutually dissatisfying relationship between the pair. Jared Bauer (Show Me The Meaning) and Chris Stachiw (The Kulturecast) join Mike to discuss this harrowing film.

Michael Campus’s The Mack (1973) stars Max Julien as Goldie, a man who was set up and goes to jail only to come out and fulfill his dream of becoming the baddest pimp in town. He’s got the mob, the cops, black nationalists, and fellow pimps to contend with… it’s a rags to fur and velvet story. Jon Cross (The After Movie Diner) and Moe Porne (No-Budget Nightmares) join Mike to discuss this classic blaxploitation film.

On this special episode, Mike talks to Gerald Peary about The Rabbi Goes West, a new documentary that Peary and his co-director Amy Geller are completing via funding with Kickstarter. Go to www.therabbigoeswest.com to learn more.

Jay Bauman and Terry Frost join Mike to look at the 1989 film from director Brian Yuzna, Society. The film stars Billy Warlock as Bill Whitney, a suburban teen who feels that things are amiss in his life.

Two terrorists — Daniel Kremer and Jonathan Marlow — break into The Projection Booth to discuss the 1981 Canadian thriller Kings and Desperate Men. Produced by, directed by, and starring Alexis Kanner, the movie is the story of an arrogant talk show host — played by Patrick McGoohan. He and his family are taken hostage by a handful of gun-wielding terrorists. The main terrorist — played by Kanner — goes on the air with McGoohan’s character and they engage in tense battle of words.

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Maitland McDonagh and Rob St. Mary return to discuss recent developments in the sordid history of Caligula (1979) via the documentary Mission Caligula (2018) and interviews with filmmaker Alexander Tuschinski and Penthouse CEO Kelly Holland.

Released in 1961, Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo was an international sensation and put jettisoned star Toshiro Mifune into the pantheon of cinematic badasses. It’s the story of merchants who manipulate two factions of gangsters in a small town. Our main character — a man with no name — comes to the town and after sizing things up decides that he’ll make a bit of money playing both sides against one another. Along the way we discover that perhaps he’s not the unscrupulous amoral bastard he pretends to be. Eric Cohen and Jordan Blossey join Mike to discuss Yojimbo, it’s sequel Sanjuro and a few other “Yojimbo movies” as well as Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest, Walter Hill’s Last Man Standing and a raft of other similar films.

On this special episode, director Travis Stevens and writer Bomani Story join Mike to discuss the 2018 film Rock Steady Row. This modern play on the Yojimbo / Fistful of Dollars story pits a freshman against two rival frats at Rock Steady University. Find out more at http://www.rocksteadyuniversity.com/

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks to writer/director Gabriel Judet-Weinshel and actor Edoardo Ballerini about the sci-fi film noir 7 Splinters in Time, a movie nine years in the making. Available via iTunes on July 13, 2018, keep up with the film at https://www.facebook.com/7SplintersinTime/

The crows are laughing at our episode about 1973’s Scarecrow. The film stars Al Pacino and Gene Hackman as two drifters who join forces to head to Pittsburgh by way of Detroit to start a car wash. Jamey Duvall (Movie Geeks United) and Bill Ackerman (Supporting Characters, From the Neighborhood) join Mike to discuss the film. Special guests include director Jerry Schatzberg and writer Garry Michael White (no relation).