Matt and Tanner have a deep appreciation for both books and movies, especially when a book becomes a movie. Tune in as they discuss some of their favorite adaptations as well as a few stinkers. Each episode includes an extended conversation about the author, the filmmaker, their respective bodies of work, and plenty of questionable tangents about the hosts' personal lives.
"Is white guilt going to make me forget that I'm running a business?"
Tanner finally gets a day in the sun when Elmore Leonard's novel, Rum Punch gets reimagined by the South Bay's finest filmmaker, Quentin Tarantino.
Topics include Tanner's enduring affection for this movie, Robert DeNiro's (quietly) commanding performance, whether or not Jackie Brown succeeds as a hang-out film, Elmore Leonard's tips for writing, and his desire to evoke comparisons to Ernest Hemingway over Raymond Chandler. Matt also airs his grievances about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, to which Tanner offers a comprehensive rebuttal.
We finish the episode by drafting our top 5 combined QT/PTA films. Riveting.
16 Jan 2023
Burning
“He’s rich enough to listen to music while he makes pasta.”
We got ourselves another triple adaptation, folks. Well, sort of. Burning by Lee Chang-dong is based on the short story, “Barn Burning” by Haruki Murakami, inspired by the short story, “Barn Burning" by William Faulkner. Fun!!!
Topics include Murakami’s western influences and style of writing, Murakami translating Raymond Carver NOT Raymond Chandler, Yoo Ah-in’s status as a “tabloid bad boi” in South Korea, Steven Yeun’s ability to star in both English and Korean films, the nature of compulsion, screen quotas in South Korea, our favorite shots, long takes, and compositions in the film, and plenty of asides about I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.
16 Jan 2023
Brokeback Mountain
“Jack Twist? More like Jack NASTY.”
Our backs were fine after this film, but our hearts? Shattered. This major motion picture directed by Ang Lee was adapted from the short story “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx as part of her collection, Close Range: Wyoming Stories.
Topics include when we first came to this film, the S-Town podcast, Proulx’s Vermont roots, Larry McMurtry’s All of My Friends Are Going to be Strangers, Tanner being emotionally destroyed by The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead on a plane, rampant homophobia in Wyoming, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Health Ledger’s otherworldliness, Jack Gyllenhaal being slightly miscast but still bringing the goods, and Matt’s experience as an inept manual laborer on a golf course.
16 Jan 2023
American Pastoral
“The Swede.”
So, this is our season’s stinker. Ewan McGregor makes his (feature) directorial debut in this adaptation of the novel of the same name by Philip Roth. Not great!
Topics include continuity errors, Tanner preordering a condemned Roth biography, feminist critiques of Roth, Tanner being intimidated to read Roth in front of an ex-girlfriend’s smart brothers, The Plot Against America, exploring your own ugliness artistically, how the most American thing is wondering what’s American, being wrong about people, Ewan McGregor fully looking 40 years old in a photo insert, Roth’s purported hatred of Woody Allen, the Swedes we know, the film’s hackneyed portrayal of counterculture/times changing, and enumerating all the other ways that this failed as an adaptation.
16 Jan 2023
Gone Girl
"You don't know your own wife's blood type?"
Gillian Flynn and David Fincher are in the cross-hairs when we discuss Gone Girl. Please excuse Matt's nasally baritone, he contracted the novel coronavirus for a second time before recording this episode.
Topics include the original title of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, what constitutes a good date movie, criticism levied against Gillian Flynn, male characters written by women/female characters written by men, how we the people love to hate Ben Affleck, David Fincher's mythic rise to the director's chair and his Kubrickian reputation for needing 100 takes per scene, the phenomenal casting in Gone Girl, and whether or not the twist in Fight Club is fair.
16 Jan 2023
Smooth Talk
"Gonna get you."
We got ourselves a triple adaptation, folks. In this episode, we discuss Smooth Talk, the 1985 film directed by Joyce Chopra based on the short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, inspired by a 1966 news article, "The Pied Piper of Tucson" by Don Moser.
Topics include Matt's pursuit of the film rights to works he can't afford, Joyce Carol Oates's incendiary Twitter presence, her Masterclass, the fictional biography as a literary form, the documentary Joyce at 34, female filmmakers and the adversity they face, Charles Schmid the serial killer, and ancient tactics for child-rearing.
16 Jan 2023
2001: A Space Odyssey
"Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose any longer. Goodbye."
Greetings star-babies, who else thinks this movie is a masterpiece? Open the pod bay doors and buckle up for even more cultural analysis of this fantastic film.
Topics include Matt and Tanner's shared derision for oat milk, Arthur C. Clarke's fascinating life, a deep dive into the collaboration between Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, reading our favorite excerpts from The Lost Worlds of 2001, Tanner's recent experience seeing the movie on 70mm, a Hal impersonation worthy of an HR reprimand, Kubrick's driving Shelley Duvall insane, and much, much more.
16 Jan 2023
Inherent Vice
"Change your hair, change your life."
Flow in through a karmic thermal as we journey into the dark heart of cinema and literature in our episode about everything Pynchon/Thomas Anderson.
Topics include Tanner's passion for sneaking dried fruit into the movie theater, unpacking the mythic reclusiveness of Thomas Pynchon, his crazy writing habits and awesome character names, the secret to music interviewer Nardwuar's clairvoyance, PTA's use of film language, comparisons to Robert Altman, Eric Roberts' craggy face and a fiery take on Owen Wilson's performance in this film.
16 Jan 2023
Fantastic Mr. Fox
"Titanium card? How the cuss did you qualify for this??"
Oh boy, oh boy. We are talkin' Roald Dahl and Wes Anderson, the two most scrumdiddlyumptious storytellers. An absolute phizzwizard.
Topics include Dahl's heroics in WWII, his anti-semitism, his tips for writing, his career in espionage, and how he began writing with the help of C.S. Forester (Not E.M.), James and the Giant Peach, Dahl's children, metaphysics in The BFG, Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach writing at Gipsy House, and Tanner sneaking off from a family reunion to drive to the premiere of Moonrise Kingdom.
We also attempt to rank Wes's other films using a self-conscious tier system and Matt wins cool points for placing Bottle Rocket higher than anticipated.
16 Jan 2023
No Country For Old Men
"I need you to step out of the car, sir."
In our inaugural, borderline unlistenable episode, we discuss the winner of the 2008 Academy Award Winner for Best Picture, No Country For Old Men, based on the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy.
Topics include Cormac McCarthy's literary career, Tanner unintentionally misquoting the opening line from Child of God for years, Blood Meridian, Westerns, Narrative Frames, The Unconscious, Intergenerational Conflict, the Coen Brothers' entire filmography, and osmosis between Cormac and the Coens' style and subject matter.
We also introduce ourselves and each rattle off 10 films to reveal our tastes, while desperately fighting the urge to seem cool.
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