The Kick

In 1995, "Toy Story" set the gold ... well, polyurethane standard for toys springing to life in film. But it's not an uncommon concept. From "Ted" to "Annabelle," it's not hard to see what's cute, creepy, or ironically crass about playthings suddenly speaking in adult voices. On this week's show, we watch and review three Toy Tales (they're off-brand toy stories), including "Child's Play" (1988),...

Given "Mad Max: Fury Road," the Fast franchise, and now "Atomic Blonde," Charlize Theron seems dead set on spending her forties as an action star. But the South African actor has been working across genres for two decades, stealing scenes, elevating co-stars, and portraying complicated, sharp-edged characters with tumultuous internal lives. On today's show, we discuss three of Theron's boldest ant...

With the film world abuzz about "Dunkirk" this week, we paired the new war epic from Christopher Nolan with two other military rescue films: "Behind Enemy Lines" and "Black Hawk Down." After Noah shares the story of his transcendental evening with Phish, we dig into "Dunkirk" and argue over whether Nolan's manipulation of time is a gag or a successful bit of orchestration. At 25 minutes, we're joi...

A lot's happened since they've been out: families befriended, families hoodwinked, families pressing murder charges. This week, we watch over the eerie, difficult-to-pull-off genre of coma movies, including The Big Sick (2017), While You Were Sleeping (1995), and Reversal Of Fortune (1990).  We begin with the new autobiographical comedy from Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon, The Big Sick. Noah and...

They may be aces behind wheels, sharks in pressed uniforms, and imps tiptoeing up to jewelry boxes, but are they even old enough to vote? This week, Noah and Chance try not to be taken for fools by prodigious teenage crook movies. They begin a bit divided on the surprise summer hit BABY DRIVER, about an iPod-toting getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) trying to survive a few final heists. A bit after the...

On this week’s mini-episode, we’re laid up recovering from Sofia Coppola’s “The Beguiled.” The Southern Gothic tale of a wounded Union soldier stuck on a Virginia plantation of exclusively women, Coppola’s remake of the 1971 original is an achievement in tension and character dynamics. Still, we argue over its ambition and historical considerations. The first 15 or so minutes of today’s show are s...

By happenstance or by hijacking, we tackle three films this week in which getting from A to B goes horribly wrong. We start with 1974's "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three," our first example of the triangle formed among helpless passengers, a mysterious invader, and the everyman hero who tries to intervene. At 18 minutes, we hop aboard a similar movie that's about twice as long and twice as fast...

Ramp up the violence and turn down the storytelling; it's Part Two of our Alien franchise reappraisal! This week, we pick up with "Alien 3" and analyze why it's so fit for reclamation from fans and cinephiles alike. At the 24-minute mark, Chance is joined by the hosts of the Alien universe podcast "Perfect Organism." Jaime Prater and Ryan Zeid discuss why the narrative hardship of "Alien 3" appeal...

The Alien franchise’s five-decade journey has crossed genres, intersected the careers of preeminent filmmakers and wavered wildly from classic to culty to catastrophic. With the recent release of the disturbing and philosophical “Alien: Covenant,” we set out to reappraise all the chest-bursting and face-hugging in Part One of our franchise retrospective: 2:02 - Noah and Chance give some franchise...

A statue of Rocky Balboa looms over most people’s visions of boxing and boxing films alike, but that hasn’t stopped contemporary filmmakers from mining the gritty world of professional pugilism for its comeback stories and unlikely heroes. On this week’s show, we watched three such films, starting with "Chuck," the new biographical film about Chuck Wepner, the club fighter who largely inspired the...

In the wake of 4/20, Chance and Noah try to fan away the smoke around the genre of stoner movies. They start with 1998’s HALF BAKED, which is to say, they start out frustrated. Then, Chance’s city doesn't need a special day to celebrate marijuana, but it has been 20 years since Portland produced the forgotten ‘90s slacker film BONGWATER. Chance met up with writer Jay Horton to discuss his Willamet...

On this week's show, fateful duffle bags turn desperate people into unstable people. It's all based on the release of Netflix's new film WIN IT ALL, which stars Jake Johnson as a gambling addict with one job to do — don't open that bag an old acquaintance left at his apartment. After reviewing Joe Swanberg's WIN IT ALL, we transition to A SIMPLE PLAN (1998) at 21:40, in which Bill Paxton and Billy...

Disney's recent streak of reimagining its animated classics has been stylish, sometimes transformative, and a bit uncanny. But the films also look a bit like a sign that reads "Just leave your $400 million here, America." This week, we're discussing the remakes that Disney is reanimating in the style of live action, even though CGI is still the dominant tool at work. We begin with the new and rela...

Spike Lee turning 60 this week gives us ample reason to reflect on the pioneering American filmmaker. With the help of two guest scholars, Chance and Noah revisit three of the writer-director's collaborations with Denzel Washington. 5:00 - Chance interviews veteran critic and author David Sterritt to set the table for discussing Spike Lee's legacy and status as an American icon. 20:00 - Your hosts...

Where in the present day can you find the stakes of high society match-making or puritanical persecution? Try high school. This week, we're discussing high school comedies that find their roots in canonical English literature. Chance starts the show in conversation with novelist JoAnna Novak, whose forthcoming book I MUST HAVE YOU explores the voices of '90s teenagers and briefly riffs on CLUELESS...

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...

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...

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...

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 fo...

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...

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 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 t...

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 ret...

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...

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.