Jason watches Rogue One for the first time. Will he like it better than Solo? We talk about all the elements we enjoyed but are there too many callbacks to the original movies? Does it rely too much on "member-berries? Is the Vader hallway scene just there to trick us into liking the movie more than we would have?

We also talk about the idea of how our own perspectives create our reality. Is our reality dependent on our perspective of it?

We also ask if and when we should sacrifice for the greater good? When are we ethically responsible for the world around us?

Next week is Calibre (2018).

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Surprisingly enough, Jason really likes Solo (you never can tell)! Your hosts debate the merits of this prequel with a special focus on how well it works as an origin story, the ethics of gambling, and the excellence of the mise-en-scene.

What do you think of Solo? Email us your thoughts at [email protected]

Ryan is by himself in this short episode. Jason experienced some travel difficulties and got stuck in an airport, so Ryan decided that he could use this week to talk about Skeleton Crew. This show is really good! It seems to be a reflection on Star Wars itself and wanting to try something new. It looks great, has pirate action, and good kid acting.

What are your thoughts on Skeleton Crew? Send us your thoughts at [email protected]

Mystery Men (1999) is a personal favorite of Jason's! He hasn't had a long list of things he loved in a very long time. We talk about parts that made us laugh but then analyze the film's deeper meanings.

We ask about what larger contexts should we be connected to. We look to see if "All Star" by Smash Mouth is a deep song. What ideals of human perfection should we be striving for? And analyze the film for Virtue Ethics.

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The third episode of our Star Wars season and the first of the Star Wars movies Jason likes. This episode focuses heavily on the excellence of Palpatine, both the actor and the character, as well as on the pacing failures of the film. The Philosophy of the Reel focuses on the real-world applications of the prescriptions for good and evil the film provides. We cover a number of film studies aspects, some Rhetoric of the Reel, and as the ultimate Dessert of the Reel, the absolute pleasure it was for us to see Samuel L. Jackson flying out a window, screaming into space!

What do you think of the prequels? Email us your thoughts at [email protected]

Umm.... yeah. I had thought Nukie (1987) was the worst movie ever made. Now, I'm not so sure...

The second episode of our Star Wars season! Jason likes it more than Phantom Menace but struggles with Samuel L. Jackson.

We talk building a perfect society based on Anakin's morals, the bad love story, the flaws of the jedi's, the ethics of cloning, being mindful of our thoughts, and more bureaucracy!

Is it better than than the previous movie?

What do you think of the prequels? Email us your thoughts at [email protected]

Welcome to the second season of Desert of the Reel! For the next few months, Ryan is forcing Jason to experience the Star Wars theatrical releases, many of them for the first time. In this episode, we ponder how The Phantom Menace could have been made with its racist stereotypes, lack of acting, wooden dialogue, and the fact that a quarter of the movie is about podracing, which has nothing to do with anything else in the movie or in the series as a whole. On the plus side, John Williams and impressive visuals. As an added bonus, this episode includes a lengthy tirade about bureaucracy.

Email us your thoughts, reviews, and suggestions at [email protected]

Jason is very excited to talk about 2019's I Am Mother. He could have talked about the many different ideas from this movie for hours. A film with three characters but a lot of big ideas. In the future when all humans are gone, a girl is raised by a robot named Mother. However, things may change for her when a mysterious woman knocks on the door, changing everything.

Besides talking about the excellent use of its small budget and filmmaking techniques, we spend the entire episode having a fun philosophical discussion. We talk about whether Mother is "right," do human beings have intrinsic value, whether we can conceptualize a better world with imperfect people, what is reality, how much control we have in life, and, of course, ethics. All this and more!

What a good movie!

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For this episode, Jason chose a PG-13 horror movie called Lights Out (2016). While it's not a perfect horror movie, there's much to be loved and admired in the careful craftsmanship of this film. Your hosts discuss the director's bootstrap film-making abilities, the ways in which light shapes reality, the hierarchy of loyalist ethics, and the natural vs. spiritual impact of horror movies.

What did you think of Lights Out? Email us your thoughts, reviews, reccomendations at [email protected]