Once every five (or so) years, Academy Award-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis takes to the screen to embody a powerful masculine figure. On the heels of his announcement that this month’s “Phantom Thread” will be his final picture, Chance and Noah look back at career touchstones of an actor with the chiseled features of piece of […]
Author Archives: Chance Solem-Pfeifer
We Watched “Star Wars” (And Other Movies)
You know how when you have 10 days off work you basically just start devouring movies? Press play to hear your hosts dig into: Star Wars: The Last Jedi – 4:30 Call Me By Your Name – 25:20 I, Tonya – 38:20 Bright – 52:40 From *perhaps* the best Star Wars ever made to the worst […]
“Billboards,” “Blade Runner,” And Be Reel’s 2017 Recap
Our year-end episode has arrived, friends, and here’s what’s on the agenda: 2:40 – Noah took himself to “Blade Runner 2049,” so we catch up on Denis Villeneuve’s towering dystopian sequel. 18:25 – We circle back to review “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” a movie in which Frances McDormand tries to burn down the whole […]
Back To Your Regularly Scheduled War In “Darkest Hour”
One of the simplest points that can be made about “Darkest Hour” is that it portrays the flip side of this summer’s “Dunkirk.” You could cut the two movies together — the horrifying beaches from one, the brooding before a war-room map from the other — into a piece of Oscar bait that would feel […]
The Director Has No Clothes
If you’ve seen “The Room,” you know it transcends the filmic category of “so bad it’s good.” There’s a sense of tragedy, ambition, and madness all bubbling somewhere in that 2003 cult phenomenon, a phenomenon celebrated and investigated by James Franco’s new drama/comedy, “The Disaster Artist.” This week, with the help of film critic and […]
The MegaPod, Vol. 3
Every Thanksgiving, your strangely committed hosts watch six movies for something they call The MegaPod. For the third iteration, we drafted movies from franchises we thought we might otherwise not get to in the course of our normal episode selections. As always, our families just loved that we had to watch 12 hours of movies […]
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Who has the best stare in the movies? Nicole Kidman’s leaps to mind. She looks through her co-stars (Colin Farrell twice this year, like he was a smudged window) as if to say, “Not only do I not trust you, I own you.” Charlize Theron is close behind when it comes to looks that drill […]
The Medium Chills
When friend groups reunite in country houses, this week’s genre teaches us that old songs, old wounds, and binge drinking aren’t far behind. Having just hung out in the Poconos two weeks ago (and gone 2 outta 3 from that list), we decided to watch three movies that all owe something to “The Big Chill” […]
Reeled In: “Lady Bird”
On this new mini-episode, Noah and Chance discuss “Lady Bird,” the witty and affecting new film portrait of a teenage girl’s last lap around Catholic high school in 2002 Sacramento. The directorial debut from Greta Gerwig has garnered near-universal acclaim, and we add our voices to that choir, praising the film’s accessible star performance and […]
The Fall Classic 2K17 Presents “The Recruit”
2003’s “The Recruit” is about a CIA recruiter played by Al Pacino recruiting a CIA recruit played by Colin Farrell. But can a CIA recruiter played by Al Pacino be trusted? 2017’s Fall Classic celebration was, in some small part, about Noah and Chance recruiting a dozen other people to watch a middling action-thriller instead […]