![]() But I was too stunned to judge.īoth of them have spent their entire adult lives working in movies, television, theater-the visual arts, where voice and imagery are sacrosanct tools of communication with the audience. She said it almost like a confession, as if bracing for judgment. They watch almost everything now with the subtitles on, she told us, even Ken’s own show, which is full of rapid-fire financial jargon coming at you in about a dozen languages and a riot of accents. Ken is a cast member on the HBO series Industry, and Nancy works in New York theater production, and they’re both a bit older than us-squarely Gen X. Then, a couple of months later, over New Year’s Eve, my wife and I were about to start watching Don’t Look Up with another couple, Ken Leung and Nancy Bulalacao, when Nancy asked if we minded her turning on the subtitles. ![]() For the life of me I couldn’t understand how this didn’t drive everyone else crazy too. We left the subtitles on that night, and I noticed that even though I knew every word of Clueless (or maybe it was The Goonies), I was still reading along. This monologue was all internal, though, because I’m in my mid-40s and don’t want to sound like an old man shouting at a cloud. They’re not for fluent English speakers watching something in fluent English. Subtitles serve an important purpose for people with hearing or cognitive impairments, or for translation from a foreign language. My soul can’t bear the notion of someone watching The Sopranos for the first time and, as Tony wades into the pool, looking down to the bottom of the screen to read. Because now, instead of focusing my attention on the performances, the costumes, the cinematography, the painstakingly mixed sound, and how it all works together to tell a story and transport me into an alternate world, my eyes keep getting yanked downward to read words I can already hear. All that came out, though, was: Why? They don’t like missing any of the dialogue, he said, and sometimes it’s hard to hear, or someone is trying to sleep, or they’re only half paying attention, and the subtitles are right there waiting to be flipped on, so … why not?īecause now I’m reading TV, not watching it. Now, I don’t like to think of myself as a snob-snobs never do-but in that moment, I felt something gurgling up my windpipe that can only be described as snobbery, a need to express my aesthetic horror at the needless gashing of all those scenes. “Oh,” the husband said, “we always leave the subtitles on.” ![]() “Oh,” I said as the opening scene began, “you left the subtitles on.” Our younger neighbors had come over with their kids and a projector for backyard movie night- Clueless, I think, or maybe The Goonies. The first time it happened, I assumed it was a Millennial thing. Cher also possesses her own sensitive side, and she is looking for the perfect boyfriend, whom she ends up finding where she least expected.This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. But Cher, who lives with her tough yet warm-hearted lawyer dad (Dan Hedaya) and hunky, sensitive stepbrother (Paul Rudd), also has an innate urge to help those less fortunate, like the two introverted teachers she brings together ("negotiating" herself improved grades in the process) and new friend Tai (Brittany Murphy), who starts out a geek and ends up a Cher prodigy. Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and Dionne (Stacey Dash), both named after "great singers of the past that now do infomercials," are pampered upper-class girls who care less about getting good grades than wearing the right clothes and being as popular as possible. Jane Austen might never have imagined that her 1816 novel Emma could be turned into a fresh and satirical look at ultra-rich teenagers in a Beverly Hills high school. After the film, join us down the street at Parlour for the Rewind! after party with fun, food, and drinks!
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