Author Archives: Chance Solem-Pfeifer

With “Parasite” reaching levels of film geek ubiquity, Chance and Noah took this week to look at the buzzy import and the other essential films of its director, Bong Joon-ho. Notably, it’s also a major milestone for the Be Reel guys: they once swore to never discuss “Snowpiercer” on the podcast because of the unrest […]

Charlie Chaplin lampooning Hitler’s bombast and fragility in “The Great Dictator” (1940) marked one of comedy’s all-time “truth to power” moments. But 80 years after WWII, how best to laugh at fascists when they seldom don the brownshirt? With the release of Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit”—a would-be charming comedy about a Hitler youth whose imaginary […]

As much as people say, “You’re your own worst enemy!”, it’s never been truer than for the protagonists of “Gemini Man” (2019), “Fight Club” (1999) and “Us” (2019). Whether through movie-science cloning, mental illness or oppressive class structures (with a healthy dose of late capitalism in all three), this week, the Be Reel guys are […]

It’s a cold, dark place we find ourselves in the space adventure genre, where the themes owe themselves more to therapy couches than astronomy. Today’s trio of the new Brad Pitt-starring “Ad Astra” (2019), the challenging and disturbing “High Life” (2019), and the ever-loving “Interstellar” (2014) shuttles the weight of children and fathers into deep […]

Nobody tells you about the bonus round after the million-dollar question—the one where we ask, “Why have we obsessed for 70 years over the TV game show in all its inherent fakeness, exploitation, and only a lottery ticket’s chance of actually paying the common person their money?” This week, BE REEL is buzzing in, to […]

Making a great impression on your loved one’s parents is hard enough. But then imagine they want to hunt you (“Ready Or Not“), bust you for false crimes (“Meet The Parents“) or poison you for seemingly no reason (“Monster In Law“). Then, you’ve got yourself a matrimonial Be Reel trio of comedic horrors and horrifying […]

The new Cate Blanchett/Richard Linklater film “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” launches Noah and Chance into a Be Reel category about mothers who reject motherhood. All in vastly different life situations, the protagonists of “Bernadette” (2019), “Ricki and the Flash” (2015) and “Second Act” (2018) find a common bond in pursuing much more than what society […]

Every so often a “Be Reel” category arises that makes us wonder if we didn’t unknowingly orchestrate the films ourselves, solely to podcast about them later. Today we discuss three films all from 1989 about deep-sea divers encountering alien life. While James Cameron’s “The Abyss” is the headliner (happy 30th this week), “DeepStar Six” and […]

I’ll be honest. I think Noah’s and my review of The Hateful Eight is one of the strangest we’ve ever done. And that was 2015. Before #MeToo proper. Before anyone had ever uttered that cursed phrase #FilmTwitter. Already we were bunched up in a Quentin Tarantino-induced knot about a movie I think both of us […]

This week, we examine the ample evidence for why you shouldn’t try to save your marriage with a movie. Chance and Noah check in with “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999) as the infamous Stanley Kubrick-directed interrogation of Tom Cruise and his marriage to Nicole Kidman turns 20. We also look back at the lovechild of “Liz” […]