1-Week Rental | Behind the Scenes Film Analysis

This one's a jazz set, a lazy river. Let the conversation take you where it's gonna take you, ya know?  Topics covered: Waterparks Whether or not talking about food is interesting The merits of the Foo Fighters The TV show  The Crown  The merits of a system of government wherein the head of state and head of government are separated 

Another of Laci's faves is a cult classic from the '90s: 1999's  Jawbreaker , the tale of three popular girls who accidentally murder their friend and then clumsily cover it up while also navigating the minefield that is high school. But about half of this episode is Matt explaining why he is disgusted by candy and how hard it was for him to watch this movie given the prominence of the titular Jaw...

Deploy your cowcatcher and join Laci and Matt as they unpack Buster Keaton's action-comedy classic,  The General  (1927). Often considered the greatest of all silent films, it is undoubtedly an impressive technical achievement... but can the jaded and cynical people of today enjoy a movie like this 100 years later after it was made? Listen and find out. 

Your favorite podcast hosts who are married to each other and talk about movies that they loved when younger but haven't seen in a long time and are concerned might not hold up to the scrutiny and cynicism that is aging return to discuss the classic 1994 comedy  Dumb and Dumber .  Matt's distaste for 1990s Jim Carrey has been well explored on this show, but will he be won over this time around? Or...

Laci and Matt unpack the movie  Network  (1976), a movie that predicted that one day, the television news would be kind of silly. Can you even imagine? 

Laci and Matt didn't watch a proper Load Bearing Beams movie for this episode, so they instead reflect on all the TV and movies they've been watching recently:  Munich, The Post, JFK, Nixon, Spotlight, The Simpsons, Futurama, Disenchantment, I Know That Voice, High Score   PLUS: Two separate stories about being scammed A story about Laci's appearance at a meeting of the New Orleans Historical Land...

Are you ready to get twisted? Wicked? Witch-tisted? Some of those? Then grab your woz-blomkers and fiz-tizzlers and mouse-growsers and dog droppings and catch this quintessential "child's horror" film, 1990's  The Witches . 

I've heard of a doll, but a killer doll??!!  We examine 1988's  Child's Play , the debut entry in the eternal  Chucky franchise about an expensive doll inhabited by the spirit of a voodoo-practicing serial killer. 

It's the movie that broke Matt Stokes: 1994's "family" "comedy" Clifford , in which a man in his mid-thirties, Martin Short, plays a 10-year-old boy. Can you imagine??? Matt and Laci have a fierce argument over this cult classic. 

Hey people, our new episode about the movie  Clifford  (the one where Martin Short plays a child) will be out on Monday (Aug. 3). Until then, enjoy this classic from the archives. 

Laci and Matt examine the great screwball comedy  My Man Godfrey  (1936), a film in which Carole Lombard gives what Matt calls one of the great comedic performances in the history of film. Is he right, or is he just a snooty snobby snob who pretends to like old things? If you don't like old movies, we also have a lengthy discussion of whether or not Maggie Simpson is a character, and how she would...

Come on down south—to the Bayou, mayhaps?—to open the book and learn about the Ya-Yas and their many divine secrets in Laci's movie of the week: 2002's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood . 

The Beams are back in town to discuss James Cameron's sci-fi/action classic, Terminator 2: Judgment Day . And the first  Terminator  movie too. Topics addressed: Whether or not free will is a thing Laci is distracted by Sarah Connor not wearing a bra Problems with time travel The inevitable invention of an artificial superintelligence that destroys us all Whether you can be on your phone while wat...

Travel back with us to 1998. Your guides? The Two Eds... Norton and Furlong, of course! They're your stars of American History X ! Exclamation points will make this episode seem more fun than it is! 

The Beams household turns its eye toward Joe Dante's 1998 action-toy picture  Small Soldiers . This podcast addresses a number of questions, including: How many times do you have to hear a song before you can judge its quality? With Disney re-theming Splash Mountain to tell the story of The Princess and the Frog  rather than  Song of the South , what other Disney-owned intellectual properties woul...

Laci chose  Serial Mom , a 1994 movie directed by John Waters and starring Kathleen Turner as a mom who's also *record scratch* a serial killer?? We won't beat around the bush: This movie rules! And so does this episode, because we discuss: The algorithms are getting better by the day Matt's troublesome relationship with food Suburbia? More like, Conformia!  Remember video stores? Celebrity murder...

Matt accidentally opens an evil, cursed book, unleashing a plague upon the Beams household in the form of The Mummy Returns . The only way to undo the curse is to thoroughly discuss the 2001 film starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. They discuss the history of the Mummy  franchise, from its roots in the Universal Monster movies of the 1930s, to the mid-budget action pictures of the '90s and '...

Please contribute to causes that advance social justice, especially in the place you live. We are proud to support New Orleans Safety and Freedom Fund , which is providing bail relief to people arrested right now for protesting police brutality. #blacklivesmatter Load Bearing Beams  will resume its regular schedule with an episode about The Mummy Returns  (2001) next Friday (06.12.2020).

Laci and Matt get sucked into a tangent universe, where they have to discuss Richard Kelly's 2001 time travel/prep school thrillerdrama  Donnie Darko . Who is Donnie Darko, and why is he so dark? Plus, lots of discussion about time travel, dyslexia, and dads laughing at inappropriate times.

By a listener's suggestion, Laci and Matt discuss 1988's animated/live-action/neo-noir PG-rated sex comedy  Who Framed Roger Rabbit . The whole gamut of topics is covered, including: 1) Roger Rabbit's star power (Is Roger Rabbit supposed to be as famous and popular within the reality of the film as Bugs Bunny was in our reality? And if so, how popular was Bugs himself within the Roger -verse?) 2)...

In this very normal episode of the show, Laci and Matt team up to take a look at a movie that holds a special place in both their hearts:  Ri¢hie Ri¢h (1994). They learn that Macaulay Culkin was depressed during the making of the film and that it sent him into retirement, and that the film has spawned a robust fan theory community on Reddit. They share of their favorite theories and much more in t...

Hello, friends. To honor the mothers of the world this weekend, we're covering a movie about the best mothers in the animal kingdom: crows. In addition to discussing  The Crow  (1994) and the tragic death of Brandon Lee, Laci dives into her mysterious past as a goth kid. Plus a detailed breakdown of the career of the professional wrestler Sting as well as the fall of the Roman Empire. All of that...

Matt reached far back into his past to grab this VHS classic. He couldn't wait to see Laci's reaction to the second live-action  Turtles  film. It's pure distilled nineties action, dude! The result: Divorce? Hope it was worth it.

Hop in a time machine folks, and do the Bartman with us all the way back to the early 1990s, a time when Steve Martin could semi-convincingly play a normal family man just trying to make it in this crazy world on a 9-figure annual salary. Laci and Matt examine both Father of the Bride  (1991) and  Father of the Bride Part 2  (1995), plus share the heart-warming story of their own engagement and ma...

For the sixth or seventh time,  Load Bearing Beams  returns after a lengthy hiatus. For real this time! Laci and Matt discuss the 2013 Brad Pitt zombie movie  World War Z and Matt's associated love of the apocalypse. Plus an analysis of what the 2011 film  Contagion  gets right and wrong about pandemics, and much more.