1-Week Rental | Behind the Scenes Film Analysis

In the history segment from our Patreon-only episode about  The Truman Show , Matt and Laci cover: How The Truman Show  started as a much darker script by Andrew Niccol about an alcoholic, philandering New Yorker. When director Peter Weir came aboard he had a few notes—like, why would this show be so popular if it's about a depressing, unlikable cheater?  Jim Carrey based his performance on his da...

The winner of our recent Listener Choice Lottery was our friend Monique (of Monique's Movie Madness, @moniques_movie_madness on TikTok). Her movie? The Legend of Billie Jean (1985). Not only had neither of us ever seen this movie, we'd barely even heard of it. But boy is it a hidden gem. Pure sleazy '80s goodness.   Helen Slater plays our hero: Billie Jean, a 17-year-old resident of Corpus Christi...

Diane Keaton accidentally inherits a baby. Hilarity ensues. Actually, this isn't your typical "I don't know how to change a diaper!" comedy, it's actually a pretty sweet and incisive look at the demented work culture of the 1980s. This is where Diane Keaton and Nancy Meyers first collaborated, and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Also, this movie has one* cute baby!   *Actually two....

Louisiana got hit with a historic winter storm and the state shut down. Your pals Laci and Matt have cabin fever and are furious as they haven't been able to go anywhere or do anything all week, including podcasting. So here's their apology and update on the schedule. We will return in one week with our episode about  Baby Boom  (1988).  If you are shaking from withdrawal because it's Friday and y...

Get over here to this podcast about Mortal Kombat (1995). We're revisiting this movie, even after having already covered it on episode 76, because that episode was less than 30 minutes long. And respect must be paid! Director Paul W.S. Anderson knows exactly what kind of movie he's making here, and the scuzzy mid-'90s vibes are immaculate!   Now, is this movie basically just you watching the video...

This is a preview from the Patreon-exclusive bonus episode where Laci and Matt give their spoiler-filled thoughts, analysis, theories, etc. about the terrific Apple TV+ series  Severance . Get the full episode by subscribing to  Load Bearing Beams: Collector's Edition on Patreon for $5 a month: https://www.patreon.com/c/loadbearingbeams   Follow 1-Week Rental, a movie podcast: Twitter: @1weekrenta...

What if there was a romantic comedy where you were rooting for the evil "other woman" but you didn't know it? Well, Hollywood boldly went there in 1997 with My Best Friend's Wedding . And what a charming evil woman we have as our protagonist here, in Jules (Julia Roberts). She's an utter delight, as is Kimmy (Cameron Diaz). The only stretch here is that either would find anything appealing about t...

Friend of the Show Caleb Hogan finally forgives us for our thoughts on Nacho Libre and makes his long-awaited return to the program. And he's brought us a fascinating movie: The 2014 Zac Efron/Miles Teller/Michael B. Jordan/ rom-com That Awkward Moment . 2014 feels like it was 1,000 years ago, doesn't it, folks?   Bonus video: We talk about movies we think will serve in the future as great time ca...

Hello friends. Please enjoy this sample from our brand-new premium episode about  Get Out  (2017). But to hear it in full, you gotta join our Patreon, a.k.a., Load Bearing Beams: Collector's Edition .  Here's where you can do that: https://bit.ly/4a1hpB2   Our next regular episode will be out in two days. It's about  That Awkward Moment  (2014), featuring our friend, returning guest Caleb Hogan. ...

In this special bonus episode, you'll join Laci, Matt, and their guest Jay (a.k.a. Cinema Coconut) as they answer completely sincere, totally-not-fabricated questions about that pesky thing we call love. And, in case you haven't heard, love actually IS all around us, if you just take the time to look. It's in the love an aging pop star has for his manager. The love a bored supervisor has for meddl...

Ho ho ho and ruff ruff ruff. Scott "The Tool Man" Calvin (Tim Allen) is cursed with hideous Christmas powers and finds himself turning into the eternal sprite of winter. He has only 11 months to get his affairs in order before he leaves Earthrealm behind. Can he patch things up with his estranged son Charlie (Eric Lloyd) before it's too late? And does he need to watch his back or the elves who wor...

When Matt falls onto the train tracks, Laci hops down to rescue him, but they both get hit by a train, and now they're podcasting from the afterlife. The first movie up in this Afterworld Era is While You Were Sleeping (1995), the Sandra Bullock imposter/coma/Christmas rom-com classic.   How great is it seeing star-making, lightning-in-a-bottle performances like Bullock's performance here? How gre...

Matt's brother Elliott returns to the show to help Matt and Laci cover Home Alone 2: Lost in New York . It's 104 minutes of trying to figure out if Kevin McAllister (Macaulay Culkin) is cinema's greatest sociopath. This movie is a beloved classic to many thirtysomething adults in America, but it is a mess. Shouldn't the whole movie have taken place at the hotel? Also, adult Kevin McAllister is def...

Gobble gobble. As previously announced, we have taken the week off. We shall return in one week with an episode about  Home Alone 2: Lost in New York  with returning guest Elliott Stokes. Thank you for your support of Load Bearing Beams. We love you, you're very special. We have for you here a selection of some of our favorite social media videos that are usually adjacent to the episode of the wee...

Smash Trivia John of Smash Trivia Presents: The Gamma Analysis podcast (listen to it on Spotify ; follow him on TikTok @smashtrivia ) joins us to go over Spider-Man (2002). Director Sam Raimi brought his signature vision and energy to the project and kinda shifted the movie industry into a completely different direction for the next two decades. But how does it hold up as a movie?   Bonus video: W...

Isaiah, Kevin, and Trevor from the great podcast The Reel For Real join Laci and Matt to go through Quentin Tarantino's classic Pulp Fiction . The five have come together to explain what this movie's "actually" about: friendship.   Please support The Reel For Real by subscribing to their podcast on Spotify ( https://bit.ly/4ftLevU ) or Apple Podcast ( https://bit.ly/3ZhFzUl ), and following them o...

We open the book and read from Jim Carroll's many basketball diaries to find out about his life on the streets with Mickey, Pedro, and Neutron. What a time these little scamps had! Yelling at old ladies, knocking hot dogs out of children's hands, and barfing on the guy who would later play Big Pussy on The Sopranos .   Oh, but they weren't all happy days. No, there are dark times ahead for young J...

Folks, we have an election on our hands. The most important of our lifetimes, many are saying. We are talking, of course, about the battle for the president of Carver High School's Student Government Association. In one corner, it's beloved football star Paul Metzler (Chris Klein). In another corner, it's that do-gooding Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon). And in a third corner, it's Tammy Metzler (J...

We call upon the guardians of the watchtowers to aid us on our journey through the Tunney/Balk teenage witch classic The Craft (1996). This is the second time Load Bearing Beams has covered this movie. On the fourth episode of the podcast (all the way back in 2017), Laci and Matt made endless fun of it, but this time, they're making endless fun with it, because, you guys, it's a fun little movie!...

Friend of the Show JT the Talking Head ( @jt_pettry & @mastersofmatinee on TikTok) on TikTok, Masters of Matinee podcast) has brought us one of the most gonzo horror sequels of all time: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986). Director Tobe Hooper finally returned to his iconic characters 12 years after the original, and he made it into a classic all on its own, while taking a dramatic tonal swerve...

You need to stay away from the light! Or do you? What is light anyway? What is truth, what is meaning, what is words? We try getting to the bottom of all of this by discussing the 2001 ghost movie The Others .   Nicole Kidman is Grace, a young mother who seems to have misplaced her marbles. She's alone in an enormous house with two little moppet children who can't go into the light because of an i...

What's your favorite Screamy movie? Is it Scream (1996)? Is it Scream (2022)? Or is it one of the numbered Screams ?   Well, we're talking about the one that started it all, the first movie to ever acknowledge that other movies exist*: Wes Craven's 1996 film Scream !   *not true   Is Neve Campbell, who is indeed good in the movie, doing a little too much "face business" in this film? Is Principal...

We take a look at what appears to be a "boob comedy" from the year 2000: Road Trip , directed by Todd Phillips, who makes Joker movies now.   It's the heartwarming story of Josh (Breckin Meyer), a Boring Guy who cheats on his girlfriend but doesn't mean it. Josh and his pals E.L. (Seann William Scott), Rubin (Paulo Costanzo), and Kyle (D.J. Qualls) do the only thing that make sense: They head acro...

Friend of the Show Patrick Perot (bass player for Rural Route Nine, official house band of Load Bearing Beams) stops by to preach the gospel of his favorite movie, 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). And he's right to! It's a lovely and very funny romantic comedy from back when Hollywood still made those. The chemistry between Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger! The, uh, good efforts given by Joseph Gor...

Laci and Matt are off to learn how to be better camp counselors by getting back to basics. Safety. Canoeing. Shooting arrows. Singing "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley." Making love and drawing the ire of Mrs. Voorhees. Trying to keep their bodies fragrance free, so as not to attract bears.   On a totally unrelated note, this episode is about Friday the 13th Part 2 , Matt's favorite entry in his fav...