Sub Titles

After dutifully attending to the “Why is this movie number 1 on IMDB?” conversation, Tim and Matt consider how communities are established in terrible situations. Prison obviously falls into that category. Tim also guides us through the society of survival among Antarctic scientists in The Thing and the “this is what we got” vibes of McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Two podcast favorites in Carpenter and Altman, see which one goes on!

Automatic for the People is sort of notoriously R.E.M.’s death album, the one in the throes of existential wonder. While death does appear throughout the album, it’s more an extended contemplation of mortality and what, if anything, lies beyond this life. “Find the River” suggests nothing. Matt plumbs into The Antler’s gorgeously heart-rending Hospice and the howling pain of Touché Amoré’s Stage Four to see what those have to say about death, mortality, memory, and the Great Beyond.

We got paid in Part 1, and now we owe. Tim and Matt consider the importance of Butch and Sundance before Tim offers two other movies with exacting forces looking for recompense. Terrence Malick Appreciation Month continues with his Days of Heaven up for consideration against Delbert Mann’s Separate Tables. Can Malick keep the perfect game alive? Will a meta argument sway Matt? Can anyone be happy in these movies? Why does Tim like Robert Redford on a bicycle so much?

Teenage angst hasn’t paid Matt well in any literal way, but he does maintain a soft spot for many of the rock bands it has. Cobain made that the first line on the prickly follow-up to Nevermind, In Utero, and immediately cast it as a rejection of fame and Nevermind itself. In this episode, Matt offers albums by two other artists who teenage angst paid off well and who seem hell-bent on getting beyond that past, just like Nirvana. Listen in for talk of Foxing’s Nearer My God and, finally, the My Chemical Romance episode you’ve all probably been expecting from Matt (though not the album you might expect!).

The Silence of the Lambs seemingly gets only more popular and influential with time, which is genuinely impressive for what could easily be seen as a (good) genre film. We talk about genre films, about the cinematic legacy of The Silence of the Lambs (especially to a genre we don’t like as much which I’ve now decided is called Nu-Horror), and why we can’t seem to get enough of murderous psychopaths murdering psychopathically. Hitchcock makes his first Sub Titles appearance with Shadow of a Doubt, while the unintentional-yet-delightful run of Terrence Malick begins with Badlands as we discuss the disconcerting magnetism, romantically or otherwise, of some serial killers.

“Juicy” is one of the greatest rags-to-riches songs ever put to tape. A humorous and detailed story of coming from “sardines for dinner” to “Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.” The sensation of “making it” runs through Ready to Die, and in this episode Matt presents two other albums from artists wrestling with their fame, status, and wealth in Watch the Throne, by Jay-Z and Kanye in their imperial phase, and The Eminem Show, by Eminem in peak scaring white parents phase. Buckle up, this one’s a journey.

Everyone’s favorite region of the U.S., as Matt teases in part 1. Maybe not, but it could be the most mythologized (though not represented). Beyond being the origin of a Lion King joke none of us got as kids, In the Heat of the Night leaves front-and-center the matter from which Southern identity can never escape: race. Tim talks Daughters of the Dust, a hyper-specific look at the Gullah of the lowlands, and The Member of the Wedding, a broader encapsulation of Southern identity, as replacements for understanding this complex and proud region.

Our theme this week comes from Robert Christgau, who can turn a phrase better than any other music critic. (The) Dismemberment Plan’s Emergency & I is all nervy energy, jittery mood swings, and mid-20s panic. It’s also an album Matt and Tim like quite a lot. For replacements, Matt offers two albums even closer to his heart in Motion City Soundtrack’s I Am the Movie and Los Campesinos! No Blues. We talk ennui and existentialism and freaking the f*** out, then Tim does some fun math to make a choice.

Matt and especially Tim are never far from railing on Forrest Gump, that famed jaunt through the 20th century with terrible disability politics and Tom Hanks doing a funny voice. We’re constitutionally unable to let that go, but Tim does try to steer us to the theme of History Class with two films inhabiting specific places and eras in Meek’s Cutoff and Zodiac. We like those films much more and good discussion of historicism and representation follows.

Courtney Love’s acerbic lyricism breathed precious fresh air into a male-dominated genre. In the spirit of Hole’s Live Through This, Matt looks to two groups fronted and run by women with strong musical chops and even stronger voices confronting the, often stupid, men around them in love and their scenes. Justine Frischmann of Elastica and Brody Dalle of The Distillers bring fire and wit to Brit-pop and punk, respectively. Listen to hear which lands the heaviest knockout punch to the Patriarchy.