It's not even August, and this summer has already smothered the country in multiple record-breaking heatwaves. As with any crisis, we look to the movies for wisdom, catharsis and lunacy. This week, it's three heatwave pictures: "The Seven Year Itch" (1957), "Do The Right Thing" (1989) and Weekend at Bernie's (1989).

In honor of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" turning 50, we’ve constructed a podcast category about bizarro adults and their puzzling worlds. After unpacking the general discomfort of watching candymen, goblin kings and world-builders covet innocent children for mysterious ends, we plunge into the alternate realities of “Willy Wonka” (1971), “Labyrinth” (1986) and “Tomorrowland” (2015).

So says every warden on today's podcast, Alcatraz was the most secure prison ever constructed. Film directors, of course, took that as a challenge and gave us movies about prisoners with dreams too big for the famous San Francisco jail. These famed inmates will try and escape one way or another. We watched "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), "Escape From Alcatraz" (1979) and "The Rock" (1996).

With theaters around the U.S. either open or on that path, we're exploring films that hinge on the theatrical experience, narratively speaking. From “The Last Action Hero” (1993) to “The Majestic” (2001) to “The Blob” (1958), today's episode pays tribute to how films depict movie houses for magical purposes, nostalgic ambiance and self-aware carnage. See you back at the theater soon. We'll be ones toasting ginger ales and Narragansetts.

With one more week until your hosts are fully back in action, please enjoy this episode from our Patreon archives on "The Pelican Brief." We talk John Grisham adaptations, hot Stanley Tucci, whispering Denzel, and much more. Also, if you'd like to join us for this Sunday's "Point Break" watch party, email [email protected] for the link. Cheers!

We're on a short break in May, so please enjoy a bonus episode from our Patreon! This one being a review of 1999’s “The Mummy” which we enjoyed at our March watch party. And if you haven’t checked out the BR Patreon yet, we’d love your support and to spend even more time talking at you about these damn movies: https://www.patreon.com/bereel

John Woo’s unparalleled directing career is best known for blazing barrels, shadow selves and slow-motion “heroic bloodshed.” To celebrate the Hong Kong legend’s 75th birthday, we talk Woo's full arc with film scholar Karen Fang. Then, we focus on a sweet spot in Woo’s oeuvre, when he maxed out his Hong Kong street operas with "Hard Boiled"(1992) and transitioned to inimitable American shoot-em-ups “Hard Target” and “Face/Off."

If you don't know Henry Selick by name, you certainly know his puppets. The Stop Motion guru behind "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993), "James and the Giant Peach" (1996) and "Coraline" (2009) has been capturing children's imaginations—and perhaps lovingly scarring them, too—for 30 years. On today's show we're joined by sculptor and constant Selick collaborator Damon Bard to reflect on a one-of-a-kind career.

And your lower-case hosts said, "Let there be Passover Pod." This Passover, Noah and Chance watch three Hollywood adaptations of the Moses story: "The Ten Commandments" (1956), "The Prince of Egypt" (1998) and "Exodus: Gods and Kings" (2014). It's eight hours of plagues and partings, as we pass judgment on epic Exodus, animated Exodus and atheist Exodus. Behold!

In the amnesia puzzler's golden age (1996-2001), blank-slate protagonists from Christopher Nolan, David Lynch and Shane Black generated their own stories. In every case, these histories ended up rosier and nobler than the depraved violence just beneath the surfaces of "Memento" (2001), "Mulholland Drive" (2001) and "The Long Kiss Goodnight" (1996). So let's retrace our steps through this forgetful sub-genre, shall we?