Sub Titles

Years from now, when historians and cultural anthropologists analyze the vital impact of Sub Titles, they’ll look to this episode for the self-evident truth of Tim’s proselytizing for Nashville as well as the origins of our then world famous band Musie and the Beef. It’s all business as usual, I guess I’m saying, to the point that here comes the lit crit terminology too as Tim discusses Diegetic Musicals. The Faustian insanity of Brian de Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise runs into the muted melancholy (and John Goodman) of the Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis.

Have you, too, been wondering why Matt isn’t talking about more 90s Grocery Store Rock canon bands? Lucky for you he’s got just the stuff you need this episode! After talking M.I.A.’s Kala, how it holds up almost 15 years later, and the inescapability of “Paper Planes,” Matt moves to talk about two bands with some equally pervasive hits with famous movie connections. That’s right, it’s time for Dave Matthews Band and Goo Goo Dolls.

Part 1 of this episode is sad and heavy. Part 2 is funny and, ahem, zany. Matt and Tim talk the brilliant irreverence of the Marx Bros and Duck Soup  (as with all screwballs, thorough discussion of favorite gags ensues). Tim introduces two romance screwballs in The Palm Beach Story and What’s Up, Doc?, both of which pay homage to and, fittingly, muck up the typical genre formula with some heady filmmaking.

Matt has teased with the philosophy before but this episode is all-in with a somehow not too literal reading of the title of Elliott Smith’s heartbreaking 1997 album, Either/Or. After giving a quick foundation for Kierkegaardian analysis - out of care for your intro to philosophy course as well - Matt traces the legacy of Smith and the presence of Kierkegaard’s existentialism through two (massive) personal favorites: The National’s High Violet and Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight. Kierkegaard often guides us to consider anxiety and Matt definitely felt some while Tim was choosing the winner…

We’re all about pivotal years in this set. After Matt covered 2000 and hip-hop, Tim looked to 1941 and some of that year’s pivotal, most accomplished films. 1941 is a precipice year historically and cinematically, and Tim talks us through Sullivan’s Travels before considering the historical, cultural, and technical significance of The Devil and Daniel Webster and The Little Foxes.

We’re back to sing the praises of Outkast. After the smooth perfection of Aquemini, Andre and Big Boi dropped the at once massively accessible and obtusely futuristic Stankonia. You know “Ms. Jackson,” “B.O.B.,” and “So Fresh, So Clean,” all of which her major hits in 2000 (and far beyond). You know who else was huge in 2000? Ludacris and Nelly. Like, absurdly so. Matt talks those three artists and what their 2000 releases say about the present and future of hip-hop, then Tim decides which one is truly the Hot Shit.

Matt and Tim are up to their old shenanigans with a bracket and a alternate history choose your own adventure game in this bonus episode of Sub Titles. On the music side, Matt is running his way through a bracket of some choice 80s metal tunes, as inspired by the Master of Puppets episode. And over in movies, Tim is imagining how things could have gone differently for George Lucas after American Graffiti, which, depending on how the die rolls, may or may not include dalliances with Star Wars, the MCU, and Apocalypse Now. 

After looking at 2000 in Part 1, Tim shoots us back to 1941 for Part 2. We begin with Sullivan's Travels, a satire of trying to make it in Hollywood and trying to be socially relevant. It's a movie, to some degree, about breaking type, as are The Devil and Daniel Webster and The Little Foxes. Tim takes us through matters of pie stealing, Bette Davis, murderous intent, and old Mr. Scratch in our journey to determine which movie most reflects the momentous year that was 1941. 

"Ms. Jackson," "So Fresh, So Clean," "B.O.B." You know Stankonia. There's a great chance you started humming one of those songs upon reading the title. There's also a great chance you start humming Nelly's "Country Grammar" and/or Ludacris' "Southern Hospitality" when I write those. What binds all of those together? The year 2000, an absolute monster year for hip-hop crossover hits and artists. Eminem has the monolith of the year, but we'll get to him in a later episode. For know Matt and Tim talk the goodness, sensuality, and strangeness of Stankonia, before considering Nelly's Country Grammar and Ludacris' Back for the First Time as both monuments to 2000 and sneaky influential albums on their own. Let's remember some tunes. 

You might think that if Tim and Matt, those cynics, are talking about Nostalgia then you’re in for a pretty negative episode. But we really like American Graffiti! So no hate here, just good vibes and directors looking back on when they were younger and maybe less sad. Tim talks a couple big shots in Raoul Walsh and Orson Welles with The Roaring Twenties and The Magnificent Ambersons, respectively. See if the past is all it’s cracked up to be for either director.