This week, Chance and Noah dive into the one-inch pool of movies based on fan fiction — writing that takes the characters of more popular sources and, apparently, has them do weird sex stuff. In addition to the new YA film “After” (2019), our case study includes the mega-franchise “Fifty Shades of Grey” (2015) and one-note joke of a movie “Pride & Prejudice & Zombies” (2016).

Plus, Kathleen Newman-Bremang (of Refinery29) breaks down why this genre so defined by sex isn’t particularly sexy. Read Kathleen’s terrific essay on the subject here.

Be Reel is brought to you by the good folks at California College of the Arts’ Writing MFA Program. Learn more about CCA.edu/writingmfa.