The Projection Booth

Twenty-five years ago, a group of idiots convinced MTV to let them hurt themselves on television. Now, Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass crew are back one last time — older, creakier, and somehow still willing to do things that no sane human being would consider.

Mike White and Chris Stachiw of The Kulturecast pay their respects to Jackass: Best and Last, the fifth and final installment in the franchise, directed by Jeff Tremaine and produced with Spike Jonze. The film blends never-before-seen new stunts — tailored, inevitably, to a cast now well into their fifties — with archival footage and greatest hits from across the franchise's history, featuring the full returning roster: Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jason "Wee Man" Acuña, Dave England, Preston Lacy, and Danger Ehren, alongside newer members Rachel Wolfson, Zach Holmes, Jasper Dolphin, and Poopies. Mike and Chris reckon with what Jackass meant, what it spawned, and whether this farewell sticks the landing.

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Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver inspired millions with her celebrations of nature, attention, and the examined life — yet she remained one of American literature's most intensely private figures. Filmmaker Sasha Waters spent years building an intimate portrait of Oliver from the inside out: sifting through thirty to forty boxes of correspondence, notebooks, and personal photographs before they entered the Library of Congress, and tracking down a long-lost video recording that captures Oliver speaking publicly for the first time about surviving childhood abuse.

Mike talks with Waters about the making of Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World (2026) — her path into documentary filmmaking through the school of Barbara Kopple, the subjects that have chosen her over the years, the creative problem-solving demanded by a subject who rarely allowed herself to be filmed, and what it felt like to introduce the film to a sold-out crowd of 1,100 at the Missouri Theatre during its world premiere at True/False. Waters also reflects on her parallel career as an experimental filmmaker and educator at VCU School of the Arts, and the pleasures of a good pie shake.

Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World opens theatrically July 3, 2026, and airs on PBS American Masters on August 25, 2026. Find Sasha Waters online at pieshake.com and on Instagram @pieshakepictures.

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Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Fifty years on, The Rocky Horror Picture Show remains the longest-running theatrical release in cinema history — and it shows no signs of stopping. Linus O'Brien, son of creator Richard O'Brien, joins Mike to discuss Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, his feature documentary tracing Rocky's unlikely journey from a Royal Court Theatre upstairs production to a global midnight-screening phenomenon.

Linus talks about growing up in the house Rocky built — guitar songs in the kitchen, shadow casts at the Beacon Theater, and a father who always expressed himself through music. He discusses the editorial partnership with editor Avner Shiloah, the structural decision to let the songs carry the film, and why celebrities like Jack Black and Trixie Mattel were included only when they had something specific to say. He also teases the case for a Shock Treatment documentary and his next project, Almost Normal, on neurodivergence and its impact on society.

Strange Journey is now available on digital platforms and Blu-ray.

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Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Sci-fi month concludes with one of the great cinematic boondoggles of the '90s. Kevin Costner directs and stars in The Postman (1997), playing a wandering drifter who stumbles into a postal uniform and accidentally becomes the savior of a shattered America, restoring hope and democracy one undelivered letter at a time. Standing in his way: General Bethlehem (Will Patton), a Shakespeare-quoting warlord leading a militia of survivalist zealots called the Holnists. Mike talks with Emily Intravia and Carol Borden about the film's tangled politics, its baffling sense of time, its surprisingly thin violence for an R rating, and why a nearly three-hour epic about restoring the mail somehow still feels unfinished scene to scene.

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Few bands burned brighter—or more colorfully—than Culture Club, and director Alison Ellwood joins Mike to unpack the making of her acclaimed documentary Boy George & Culture Club. From the group's improbable formation and meteoric rise to the personal relationships, creative tensions, and heartbreak that shaped their music, Ellwood reveals how she crafted an intimate portrait using the voices of Boy George, Jon Moss, Mikey Craig, and Roy Hay.

The conversation explores the joy and challenge of building music documentaries, why some stories are best told by the artists themselves, and how editing ultimately discovers a film's true shape. Ellwood also discusses Culture Club's unforgettable MTV presence, Boy George's groundbreaking public persona, the band's deep catalog beyond the hits, and the electric response to the documentary's Tribeca premiere. It's a lively look at the magic of collaboration, the power of pop music, and the enduring legacy of one of the 1980s' most iconic bands.

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Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth