Twenty years ago on Christmas Day, Wes Anderson released his fourth feature film into the world. The star-studded Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was not as an immediate hit as some of Anderson's other films but it's one that has aged incredibly well. Bill Murray leads a cast of phenomenal actors such as Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, and many others as the titular Steve Zissou on a quest for both revenge against the rare (and possibly fictional) shark that killed his partner and best friend, and his long lost dignity and relevance as an oceanographer and documentarian. As funny as it is, the movie also is about a man struggling against his mortality and seeking to repair his legacy. It's charming, exciting, funny, and deeply heartfelt. Whether you revisit this as an old favorite or are coming to it for the first time, we hope you enjoy!

We are also thrilled to welcome Dan McCoy (The Flop House podcast, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) to discuss the film with us. Dan is a veteran writer, comedian, podcaster, and movie watcher and it was a wonderful time having him on to talk about one of his favorite films.

Follow/Listen to The Flop House

Substantive Cinema Episode List

Shoutouts:

The Burial

Continental Drifter by Kathy MacLeod

The Last Stop in Yuma County

Hundreds of Beavers

Dan:

Letterboxd

BlueSky

Website

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Hey there, and Merry almost Christmas! This week we've got a wonderful conversation about faith and art that covers the width and breadth of global, historical Christianity as well as the importance of one's personal spiritual practices. Our guest today is Rev. Ben Lansing who is a professional comic strip artist by vocation as well as running the Our Church Speaks Instagram account. Ben's passion for art, history, and his faith were very encouraging to me, especially as he seems to approach it all with curiosity and humility.

Please enjoy and share it with a friend!

Buy Our Church Speaks

Shoutouts:

Lost to the West by Lars Brownworth

How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind by Thomas C. Oden

Truth Unites podcast (Gavin Ortlund)

Ancient Faith Radio podcasts

The Classic Anglican Podcast

The Substance!

Bob Dylan

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Four weeks in a row, can you believe it?! This week we are back with a Substantive Cinema pick that we've been excited for for quite some time, Walter Hill's underrated masterpiece Southern Comfort.

The movie follows a squad of National Guardsmen doing exercises in the Louisiana swamps. After some painfully avoidable events, the men become hunted and are on the run for their lives against an enemy of their own making in a place that, while actually being part of their own homeland, they find entirely foreign. On the one hand, the film is a perfectly thrilling and taut entertainment. However, it's also a substantive look at White male entitlement, American exceptionalism, militarism, race relations, and more.

If you enjoyed the film or our discussion we'd love for you to send us an email or voice note. And if you have any suggestions of movies, topics, or guests for future shows, please send those our way as well!

Listen to Mitchell's previous Substantive Cinema appearance

Mitchell's Walter Hill Interview

WH Filmography Ranked

Mitchell on Letterboxd

Purchase the Vinegar Syndrome 4K

Streaming options for Southern Comfort

List of Substantive Cinema movies

Shoutouts:

Witness in the City (Radiance Films)

Troy article (Paste)

Ethan & Maya Hawke interview

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⁠Philip's Letterboxd⁠

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Hey! This is our third weekly drop in a row and we've got a great one coming next week as well! We are back (but will probably shift back to biweekly shortly so we don't burnout)!

This week, we welcome back friend of the show Abby Olcese to talk about her wonderful new book, Films for All Seasons: Experiencing the Church Year at the Movies (InterVarsity Press). You may know Abby from her work at The Pitch in Kansas City, RogerEbert.com, Paste, Sojourners, and more OR you may have seen her incredible viral tweet (possibly the last one?!). Either way, we're talking cinema and the church calendar and hope you enjoy!

Topics covered include: liturgical spirituality, the horror movie fan scene in KC, finding and cultivating community during the pandemic, discovering the wonder of The Muppet's Christmas Carol, finding her grandmother's devotional notes at the perfect time, and more!

Letterboxd list of films covered in Films for All Seasons

Lucky episode with Abby and Director John Carroll Lynch

First Think Christian article

Shoutouts:

Janet Planet

Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian

Purchase Films For All Seasons

Follow Abby on Twitter

Bluesky

Letterboxd

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Philip's Letterboxd

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Once again, we recorded this episode a while back (a number of months ago, in this case) but due to the lamentable state of many things in the US, our episode this week feels eerily timely.

For our first Noirvember Substantive Cinema epsiode of 2024, we are looking at one of Samuel Fuller's most celebrated and highly regarded films, Shock Corridor. In the movie, Johnny Barrett, a journalist in pursuit of fame and acclaim, poses as a lunatic in order to infiltrate a mental institution where a murder has taken place. Can he keep his sanity long enough to solve the case and what will be left of him if he can?

In our discussion we cover: how Sam Fuller bluntly portrays America's various psychoses (nationalism, racial hatred, and the worship of violent power) in the three eyewitnesses that Johnny needs to interrogate, the legacy of Fuller's work in filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Spike Lee, and Jim Jarmusch, the role of journalism in a free society, and more!

Watch Shock Corridor on the Internet Archive

Listen to Mike, Spencer, and I talk about The Naked Kiss, Fuller's follow up to Shock Corridor which also stars Constance Towers.

My discussion of Fuller's war films on The Stacks

Forty Guns episode of The Criterion Connection

Follow Mike's work at Weirding Way

Shoutouts

Spencer: When the Clock Broke by John Ganz

The Surrealism of Friday the 13th

Mike: The Good Fairy

The Strawberry Blonde

Philip: The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch

If you're newer to the show be sure to check out our library of 150+ episodes with folks like Karen Swallow Prior, Jemar Tisby, Tyler Huckabee, Kaitlyn Schiess, Propaganda, Josh Larsen, Stephanie Stalvey, and John Carroll Lynch.

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Email: [email protected]

DM on Instagram

Support Us: Support the show with an individual donation on CashApp to $TheSubstancePod or become a monthly Patreon supporter at patreon.com/TheSubstancePod

We are back! We weren't planning on holding this episode until right before the US Election Day but here we are.

Jon Guerra is an immensely talented devotional music singer songwriter and his new project American Gospel is a beautiful, timely project that some of our listeners put on our radar a while back so we were delighted to have this conversation with him!

We talk music, faith creativity, film (Jon composed some of the music for Substantive Cinema favorite film A Hidden Life), what it means to be a faithful and hopeful believer in such difficult times and more!

If you enjoy the episode, please consider giving us a 5 star review and share it with a friend!

Shoutouts:

The Song That I Am

Shogun

The Chosen (series)

Reading Genesis

Passions of the Soul

Buy American Gospel

Sign up for his mailing list on his website

If you're newer to the show be sure to check out our library of 150+ episodes with folks like Karen Swallow Prior, Jemar Tisby, Kaitlyn Schiess, Propaganda, Josh Larsen, Stephanie Stalvey, and John Carroll Lynch.

Share Your Questions/Suggestions/Feedback With Us:

Email: [email protected]

DM on Instagram

Support Us: Support the show with an individual donation on CashApp to $TheSubstancePod or become a monthly Patreon supporter at patreon.com/TheSubstancePod

Happy to be back in your feeds! Our old friend Josh Tiessen (see Ep. 61 for his first appearance on the show) is back with an incredible new book and body of work and we're excited to share this conversation with you!

Purchase Josh's new book!

From Josh's website:

Shoutouts:

John Mark Comer Podcast

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Antoni Gaudi

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If you're newer to the show be sure to check out our library of 150+ episodes with folks like Karen Swallow Prior, Jemar Tisby, Kaitlyn Schiess, Propaganda, Josh Larsen, Stephanie Stalvey, and John Carroll Lynch.

Share Your Questions/Suggestions/Feedback With Us:

Email: [email protected]

DM on Instagram

Support Us: Support the show with an individual donation on CashApp to $TheSubstancePod or become a monthly Patreon supporter at patreon.com/TheSubstancePod

Notes!

Happy Father's Day! We will hopefully be back on track with our replay schedule here as we build up to our relaunch!

Tyler Huckabee is someone who's work and perspective I've appreciated for a long time and it was a real joy to sit down and talk about movies and the work of David Lynch with him. We cover our mutual, less than virtuous, introduction to his work in Mulholland Drive, finding humanity in people of all walks of life, the value and wisdom of old age, the importance of tending to our relationships, the beauty of the Midwest & much more!

Consider sharing this episode with a friend who loves the movie (or someone who you think would like it!) and if you have any suggestions for movies to cover on future episodes, please let us know!

Shoutouts:

Station Eleven (HBO Max)

X-Men Hickman ⁠Amazon ⁠& ⁠Hoopla⁠

Follow Tyler:

⁠Twitter⁠

Instagram

Substack

⁠The Relevant Podcast⁠

⁠Cape Town podcast⁠

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