The Kick

On today’s mini-episode, Noah and Chance discuss the new horror film GET OUT. It’s the directorial debut from Jordan Peele (of Key & Peele), in which a young black man visits his white girlfriend’s well-to-do parents for the first time. Creeps of a racial nature ensue. In addition to the impeccable script and scenic creativity, we discuss how the current number one movie in America has a field day with audience expectations.

First half spoiler-free, second half with spoilers. Dig in.

Replete with trivia, rants, and some self-examination of why we care despite knowing we shouldn’t … it’s our 2017 Oscars episode. Topics of discussion include:

1:30 - Why is it we watch the Oscars again?

5:35 - The grassroots earning and staying power of “Moonlight”

9:00 - Good or bad, “Hell Or High Water” is a strange nominee

13:15 - Where is the blockbusting Best Picture nominee from 2016?

18:00 - Which Oscar entry will wear the worst over time?

22:50 - Why are the acting categories are divided in idiotic ways?

28:00 - Inventing new awards for children and acting specialists

30:35 - Chance & Noah make their picks

Follow @bereelguys on Twitter for some jokes this Sunday evening. You can at least count on jokes.

With Michael Douglas' sexy trilogy of FATAL ATTRACTION (1987), BASIC INSTINCT(1992) and DISCLOSURE (1994), American pop noir hit a real hot streak about 25 years back. This week, we discuss the genre hybrid that introduces a flawed Douglas protagonist to his match/demise in the femme fatale's of Glenn Close, Sharon Stone and Demi Moore. On an episode that's real steamy and just as political, we've got a guest to boot.

3:35 - FATAL ATTRACTION, and how Glenn Close wins and loses big

20:35 - Can this podcast handle BASIC INSTINCT?

28:05 - Birth Movies Death writer Jacob Knight guests as our Verhoeven scholar

50:54 - DISCLOSURE won't let you ignore its reactionary politics

Happy Super Bowl Week to you. And yet, do you find the corporate carnival distracts from you from the fundamentals of football? Erodes the glory from what's really just young people beating the living daylights out of each other? Maybe high school football films are more in your playbook. We kick off this week's episode with VARSITY BLUES (1999), the first of three films about small towns where football is religion. At 18:15, it's on to REMEMBER THE TITANS (2000) and the Disney-fication of breaking players' egos until they aren't racist anymore. At 31:40, before there were clear eyes and full hearts, there was Billy Bob Thornton trying to carry 2004's FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. Email us at bereelguys.com to tell us which 32-year-old actor played the most convincing high schooler.

Even if you don't know the Kasdan family, you undoubtedly know their work. New Hollywood titan Lawrence Kasdan wrote the screenplays for EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. In the last 15 years, his sons Jake and Jon have taken up the family trade. This week, we watch their first major films to develop a theory of the family. To start, BODY HEAT (1981) is an early and electric take on the erotic thriller with two '80s stars in their primes. At 20:20, ORANGE COUNTY (2002) has slapstick energy, but what else? At 30:37, we conclude with IN THE LAND OF WOMEN (2007), a movie that's a little painful for Noah to reappraise.

Maybe it's his general uprightness or the fact that he looks like Jesus in the proper light, but Liam Neeson is the actor you put in a film about Christian colonialism — be it 13th century Jerusalem, 17th century Japan, or 18th century Argentina. The Irish stalwart binds this week's trio of movies about Christian missionaries and the ethics of that mission. After a quick Neeson primer, we begin at the 5-minute mark with THE MISSION. That's the 1986 epic in which Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons team up to save an indigenous South American tribe from slavery, and also serve God's will. At 21:20, we discuss 2005's KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, which is Ridley Scott riffing on The Crusades for three hours. His characters are very into serving God's will. At 34:20, we come to the new Martin Scorcese film SILENCE, which pits the faith of two Jesuit priests (and their desire to serve God's will) against a Japanese state deadset on stamping out their influence. It's nearly nine hours of film and two people completely unqualified to discuss Christianity! Let us begin.

The boys are back to belatedly send out 2016. They start with a full-on review of LA LA LAND, arguing whether its half-commitment to the musical genre is a problem. At 16:20, they apply their rating system to ROGUE ONE, trying to divorce its quality from the STAR WARS universe. At 21:25, they hand out some BRG superlatives for 2016 in film, like who acted most shamelessly, what performers caught the break they needed, and they shout out Viola Davis, Ryan Reynolds, and more. They wrap up at 30:20, taking down awful trailers for Jan + Feb movies and previewing 2017. Happy new year, listeners! Hang in and hang out.

More than 170 years since its writing, the Charles Dickens novella A CHRISTMAS CAROL still looms large as the seminal text on how not to be a penny-pinching goon during the holidays. And why not? It's mostly secular and it makes capitalism seem compassionate if you can spare a few shillings. This December, Noah and Chance watched three Hollywood spins on A CHRISTMAS CAROL to see which gimmicky retelling comes out best.

They start with 1992's THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL and its rather classical baseline, save the singing puppets. And boy does Noah have some thoughts about those! At 14:00, they switch to 1988's SCROOGED with complaints on just how deplorable Bill Murray's Scrooge archetype is. At 23:00, they finish out with 2000's THE FAMILY MAN, a movie in which Nicolas Cage is sort of transformed by Christmas, but isn't it strangely aspiring to so much more? Thanks for listening, and happy holidays from our tiny BRG family.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we set about on our now-apparently-annual tradition of watching three pairs of twin movies — same subject matter, same year(ish). We took in the power and limits of an Old West lawman in TOMBSTONE (1993) and WYATT EARP (1994). We asked how creatively CAPOTE (2005) and INFAMOUS (2006) ought to treat the epitome of creative non-fiction. And we've seen what can go wrong — in plots and in whole films — when magicianship is about more than just tricks in THE ILLUSIONIST (2006) and THE PRESTIGE (2006). If you want, skip around using these timestamps:

2:20 - A leading TOMBSTONE scholar guests on the show.

23:45 - Three hours of WYATT EARP is flunked in a few minutes.

31:20 - CAPOTE peers grimly and carefully at the world.

41:25 - INFAMOUS lightly reimagines Truman Capote as theater.

49:45 - Why won't you reveal your trick, THE ILLUSIONIST?

1:01:35 - How to watch THE PRESTIGE if you know the twists.

On this new mini-episode, Noah and Chance review MOONLIGHT, perhaps the most acclaimed American film of 2016 thus far. Well, we don’t diverge too far from that line. With a camera that’s imperfectly beautiful, director Barry Jenkins presents a coming-of-age triptych on race and sexuality that’s both quiet and stirringly acted.

Find all episodes at bereelguys.com.