The Kick

Chance and Noah do a podcast, and you're going to hear us ROAR! On this week's episode, we take on pop musicians by unpacking their self-produced documentaries. In Demi Lovato's "Simply Complicated," the guys are torn about objectivity and ulterior motives. In Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never," Chance and Noah spar over whether Bieber is a talented performer or a symptom of parasitic celebrity culture. Finally, in Katy Perry's "Part of Me," Chance would maybe grab a beer with this surprising acolyte of Alanis Morissette, while Noah can't get over how terrible a husband Russell Brand was. If this genre isn't your cup of tea, sorry not sorry.

Once every five (or so) years, Academy Award-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis takes to the screen to embody a powerful masculine figure. On the heels of his announcement that this month's "Phantom Thread" will be his final picture, Chance and Noah look back at career touchstones of an actor with the chiseled features of piece of coinage. From this year's Reynolds Woodcock to Bill "The Butcher" Cutting ("Gangs of New York") to Nathaniel "Hawkeye" Poe ("The Last of the Mohicans"), Day-Lewis always swings for the fences. But how will be his legacy be remembered, and how watchable are these prestige pictures?

Dust off your tunic and sharpen your knives: It's the DDL pod!

You know how when you have 10 days off work you basically just start devouring movies? Press play to hear your hosts dig into "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," "Call Me By Your Name," "I, Tonya," and "Bright."

From *perhaps* the best Star Wars ever made to the worst thing Netflix ever spent 90 million dollars on, happy new year, friends.

Our year-end episode has arrived, friends, and here's what's on the agenda:

2:40 - Noah took himself to "Blade Runner 2049," so we catch up on Denis Villeneuve's towering dystopian sequel.

18:25 - We circle back to review "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," a movie in which Frances McDormand tries to burn down the whole world with her eyes.

33:20 - Your hosts begin to wrap up 2017, each counting down their five favorite characters from the year in film, including entries from Get Out, Call Me By Your Name, and The Disaster Artist.

46:05 - Noah fashions a litany of 2017 lists to remind us what movies we may have missed this year and what movies just plain missed us.

Happy holidays, all!

If you've seen "The Room," you know it transcends the filmic category of "so bad it's good." There's a sense of tragedy, ambition, and madness all bubbling somewhere in that 2003 cult phenomenon, a phenomenon celebrated and investigated by James Franco's "The Disaster Artist."

This week, with the help of film critic and Mousterpiece Cinema host Josh Spiegel, we dig into three films about movie directors producing real trash, on shoestring budgets and dragging along bands of conspirators. We watched "The Disaster Artist", "Ed Wood," and "Bowfinger" to examine the psyches of directors who maybe should have called "cut" on the whole project.

Every Thanksgiving, your strangely committed hosts watch six movies for something they call The MegaPod. For the third iteration, we drafted movies from franchises we thought we might otherwise not get to in the course of our normal episode selections. As always, our families just loved that we had to watch 12 hours of movies over the weekend. Check out the choices and timestamps below.

6:40 - "Jaws: The Revenge" - Positing that there's a psychological bond between a grieving widow and a shark, and streaming on Netflix.

22:30 - "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" - Thriving on the unintentional hilarity of those uber-detailed turtle suits, and streaming on Hulu.

32:50 - "Scream 2" - Losing itself in a tidal wave of self-awareness and blood, and streaming on HBO.

44:20 - "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" - Grappling with your 13-year-old sense of humor, and streaming on HBO.

59:50 - "Ocean's 12" - Watching powerlessly as those beautiful thieves hatch a plan so hair-brained it notoriously ruins the movie, and streaming on Amazon.

1:15:00 - "The Mighty Ducks" - Shooting on the net and wondering if a warm, childhood feeling is enough for a good-good, and streaming on Netflix.

Our annual MegaPod approaches! Oh, you don't know what that is? Don't sweat it. It just means we watch six movies instead of three.

This year we've selected six candidates from whatever film franchises we want, draft-style. They're all free on streaming services, so listen here for our surprise picks, the ensuing cheers and guffaws, watch along with us, and get ready for the full episode to drop after the long weekend!

On this new mini-episode, Noah and Chance discuss "Lady Bird," the witty and affecting new film portrait of a teenage girl's last lap around Catholic high school in 2002 Sacramento. The directorial debut from Greta Gerwig has garnered near-universal acclaim, and we add our voices to that choir, praising the film's accessible star performance and appreciating how Sacramento makes both for a great anywhere and a hyper-specific somewhere. Visit bereelpodcast.com for some writing and all our episodes.

When friend groups reunite in country houses, this week's genre teaches us that old songs, old wounds, and binge drinking aren't far behind. Having just hung out in the Poconos two weeks ago (and gone 2 outta 3 from that list), we decided to watch three movies that all owe something to "The Big Chill" and the experience of getting out of town with old buds. We watched "Peter's Friends" (1992) and its parade of English talent before they were Dr. House and Elinor Dashwood, "Hot Tub Time Machine" (2010) and its cauldron of camp, and "Joshy" (2016) with its bizarre choice to let improv comedians go wild amid tragedy.

2003's "The Recruit" is about a CIA recruiter played by Al Pacino recruiting a CIA recruit played by Colin Farrell. But can a CIA recruiter played by Al Pacino be trusted?

2017's Fall Classic celebration was, in some small part, about Noah and Chance recruiting a dozen other people to watch a middling action-thriller instead of enjoying the natural beauty of the Poconos. Could the hosts of Be Reel be trusted?

We answer these questions and more in our first-ever episode to feature 10+ guests and to be partially recorded in backwoods Pennsylvania.