Special Subject - Elise's Family Freak-Outs – Part 1 - TO SLEEP WITH ANGER (1990) and THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS (2001)

With this episode we launch the first of Elise's three-part Special Subject, Family Freak-Outs . We start with some musings about how to define this micro-genre, what makes it different from a standard family melodrama and its relationship to horror, and then we move into our first two freak-outs, Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger (1990) and Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenebaums (2001). While the problems these families are dealing with in their very specific milieus of middle-class black South Central LA and upper-middle-class white fairy-tale Manhattan are very different, the capacity to freak out may be a universal feature of the family; and in these two movies, at least, freaking out can lead to healing. Then a quick Fear and Moviegoing in honour of Catherine O'Hara's passing, Christopher Guest's Best in Show. Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: Microgeneric Musing Re: Freak-Outs 0h 06m 03s: TO SLEEP WITH ANGER (1990) [dir. Charles Burnett] 0h 31m 50s: THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (2001) [dir. Wes Anderson] 1h 03m 22s: Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto: Christopher Guest's Best in Show (2000) at the Carlton Cinema (Catherine O'Hara Tribute) +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: "Sunday" by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive ) * Read Elise's piece on Gangs of New York – "Making America Strange Again" * Check out Dave's Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!

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Special Subject - Elise's Family Freak-Outs – Part 1 - TO SLEEP WITH ANGER (1990) and THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS (2001) is an episode from Another Kind of Distance: A Time Travel, Twin Peaks, Film, Doom Patrol and Nostalgia Podcast by Dave.

This episode is 01:09:28 long.

This episode was published on Mar 20, 2026.

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