Beer And A Movie

For the first time in recent memory, a Finnish action film showed up at our local multiplex, and we just had to find out what might warrant such a wide release. Learning that it was a Nazi revenge film set late in WWII, we felt that the best cinematic pairing would be Inglourious Basterds, and boy were we happy with that selection once we had actually seen them both. With beers from Germany (one of which might rank as a certain kind of war crime) on deck to stoke the conversation and returning guest Kailey joining in with her razor-sharp wit, this is one investigation of WWII on film and beer that you won't want to miss (especially if you are a guy over the age of 35).

We go full-on Swayze (how did we not drink a hazy?) this week on BaaM. Our Discord crew (get in there if you're not already!) picked Point Break for us to watch, and we decided to double down, or "double deuce" if you will, by pairing it with Road House. Anthony Z joins us for this discussion of two late 20th century action classics(?), and we enjoy some new-to-us beers from Martin House and Real Ale, two breweries that are BaaM staples. Be ready to get wet and wild on this week's episode!

It's all about horror in families this week on BaaM as we take on the newest entry the Evil Dead franchise, Evil Dead Rise, the first to really focus on how Deadites can wreak havoc within a family unit. Following that, we take on a pre-Evil Dead classic of the demonic possession subgenre, The Exorcist, a film with a storied past that helped to raise the profile of horror in the 1970s. It's an episode filled with blood, vomit, and plenty of beer!

With the arrival of Beau Is Afraid, Ari Aster's latest epic dark comedy, Dave and Joe felt they needed to have an Aster skeptic in the third seat to help bring some balance to the proceedings. Welcoming back returning guest Kyle Ferguson, the conversation is predictably lively, spilling over to our second film, Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, a film that also has a troubled person played by Joaquin Phoenix at its center. With some pretty nice thematic beer pairings from Stone and Hong Kong's Young Master Brewery, this is a BaaM episode that is sure to delight.

We sink our teeth back into the tried-and-true BaaM format this week, even bringing back former regular host, Carlos Cooper, to review the latest release featuring our patron saint, Nicolas Cage. With him portraying Dracula in Renfield, we chose to pair it with Coppola's cinematic take on the character from 1992, and Joe comes in clutch with outstanding thematic beer pairings. Don't f*ck with the formula, amirite?

This week on Vin et Cinéma, we reach the conclusion of our quest to cover all of the 10 movies in the Sight and Sound 2022 Critics' Poll with our review of Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman on this week's episode. Along with our returning guest, Pam Brouillard, we also take on Agnes Varda's French New Wave classic, Cléo from 5 to 7.

We take on Apple TV's latest feature film, Tetris, which dramatizes the surprising yet telling story of how one of the most popular video games of all time came from out of the waning moments of the Soviet Union to become the global phenomenon that it is now. The timing is perfect for us to do one more film on the 2022 Sight and Sound list, Man with a Movie Camera, an experimental documentary that despite receiving mixed reviews upon its release in 1928 has come to be seen as a trailblazing and foundational piece of filmmaking in the 95 years since its arrival. It's cinematic creativity meets communism this week on Beer and a Movie!

After numerous delays, the 4th chapter of the John Wick series has finally arrived on the screens of our multiplexes, and we offer our thoughts on this latest installment and the franchise overall. Our second film is the one currently sitting in the 10th spot of the 2022 Sight & Sound poll, the classical Hollywood musical, Singin' in the Rain. It's a week of glorious cinematography, rain-drenched sets, stunning choreography, and, of course, some (hopefully) delicious beers, this week on Beer and a Movie!

This week finds us delving back into the singularly visionary mind of David Lynch as we approach Mulholland Drive, a film that wasn't initially intended to be a film but that nonetheless is now ranked as the 8th best of all time in the 2022 Sight & Sound poll, and we pair it with an earlier film that also had its origins in televisual storytelling. Playing with tropes of soap opera, police procedurals, and horror, these  aren't always the easiest for casual viewers to digest, but your intrepid hosts - along with returning guest Harold Ramos - do their best to parse through these thorny and often cryptic films tinged with sly humor and indelible sights and sounds.

Claire Denis had wowed us back in episode 45 when we reviewed her then-new-release, High Life, but it has taken our Sight & Sound catch-up journey to get us back to the writer/director's unique cinematic perspectives. To pair with her 1999 film Beau Travail (#7 on the 2022 poll), we look at one(!) of her two features from 2022, Both Sides of the Blade, starring BaaM faves Juliette Binoche (High Life) and Vincent Lindon (Titane) as well as Gregoire Colin, who also appears in Beau Travail. Its all about grown-up drama and cinematic style this week on BaaM, but you may want to put on your dancing shoes, just to be safe.

With the streaming arrival of 2022 critical favorite EO, we took the opportunity to look at this rather unorthodox Polish film which provides glimpses of the range of human behavior, especially as pertains to treatment of animals, through the eyes of the titular donkey at its center. As our companion film, we review our fifth overall from the top ten of the 2022 Sight and Sound critics poll, Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story from 1953, a classic of Japanese cinema that offers a methodical and patient peek at a dispersed family, tapping into some very relatable themes of generational drift and disconnect. Helping Dave and Joe wade through all this are returning guest Kyle Ferguson, our first proper Czech beer (sorry, Poland!), and a return visit to Hitachino Nest to see if can overcome the spoiled offering we had tried waaaaaay back in episode 5. It's a packed episode. Do it up! 

Forget Wong Kar-Wai's whip pans, this episode may cause some whiplash with its shifting between its A- and B-pictures. First up is the horror comedy of Cocaine Bear, currently burning up the box office during a relative lull in new releases. We follow it with our first review in a series that has us playing catch-up with the top ten films of the newest iteration of the Sight & Sound critics' list that we had not already addressed on past episodes. That has us looking at Wong's In the Mood for Love, a romantic drama that has impressed critics and (niche) audiences alike since its initial arrival in the year 2000 (yes, read that in LaBamba's voice). All this with beers from a new-to-us brewery, Family Business Brewing, and our returning guest, Anthony Zoccolillo. Cheers!

It's that time of year again! Your hosts have done their level best to take in as many films released in 2022 as they possibly could and to look back at the beers they had reviewed in that year as well. They are now ready to share their personal preferences and other assorted thoughts on the year, along with some fun diversions. It's a jam-packed episode with none other than BaaM's former producer/host Carlos returning for all the fun!

In our final episode before our 2022 year end wrap-up, The BaaMies, we look at two films that are in the mix for Academy Awards. The (anti-)war film All Quiet on the Western Front has 9 nods, mostly focused on more technical aspects of filmmaking, but also including Best Picture - an award that the 1930 adaptation of the same novel had received long ago. The harder to classify Bardo, from Alejandro Iñárritu, is in the mix for Best Cinematography. With returning guest Josh Deleon we offer our thoughts on these films that might still be able to sneak onto our end of the year lists.

Sarah Polley's latest effort, Women Talking, is currently in limited release as a nominee for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. BaaM invited a crackerjack panel of returning guests - Emily Suggs (Episode 205) and Kailey Diaz (Episodes 216 and 228) - along with one new guest, psychologist Dr. Pam Brouillard, to discuss it over, you guessed it, some beer. As a second film, we look at She Said, a dramatization of the investigative reporting that led to the downfall of Harvey Weinstein, that is now streaming on Peacock. 

We go on holiday this week with two films with resorts as their settings. Brandon Cronenberg's latest, Infinity Pool, is a speculative horror trip that charts the experience of a struggling writer who stumbles into a sort of tourism that goes beyond any we've ever before seen on screen. Aftersun is the debut feature of Charlotte Wells, offering a semi-autobiographical look at a moment in a father-daughter relationship that takes on more gravity as the daughter looks back at it many years in the future. Lots to discuss and some fine beers to sip, so get on your cabana wear and settle in with us by the pool, won't you? 

We go audacious and then reserved with our pairing of films this week. First up, we take on the Tollywood (a nickname for the Telugu language film industry) blockbuster, RRR, an historical epic packed with action, song, dance, and romance that is getting lots of attention even outside its home market. Our second film is a much quieter police procedural-cum-psychological drama, Park Chinook's Decision to Leave. Both films have been fixtures on many 2022 year end lists. Listen in this week, as we discuss these films and sip some beers with returning guest Jimmy Willden!

We're in full on awards season catch-up mode with this week's episode. While Tàr and The Banshees of Inisherin were both released in the fall, neither were readily available to us at the time. Now that both are available on streaming platforms and have begun receiving copious accolades, we felt the need to seriously engage. Join in and hear what we think of these performance-driven films while we sip a pair of stouts with very different origins.

It's an almost-but-not-quite-human episode this week when we take on the recent horror satire hit M3gan, about a robot doll going rogue and running amuck when its creator chooses to test it on her recently orphaned niece. For our film pairing, we also look at Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a film project inherited from Stanley Kubrick and which has at its center another robot doll whose primary objective gets complicated by human being humans. With remote guest Kyle Ferguson rejoining us for these conversations, we sip on 4 different beers from breweries in Texas and California. Cheers!

This week, we invite back returning guest Kailey Diaz to help us take on two films from Darren Aronofsky, a director who regularly plunges into stories about characters who struggle with addiction and obsession. His latest, The Whale, generated controversy even before its release for its casting and over concerns that it would be fatphobic. In wide release now, it is actually generating a lot of Oscar buzz for the controversially cast actor, Brendan Fraser, for whom this is being seen as a comeback moment akin to one that Aronofsky had earlier created with Mickey Rourke in the 2008 film, The Wrestler. With significant thematic overlap between these films, we go deep into discussing their characters' motivations and the successes (and failures) of the performances that bring them to life on the screen. We also drink some hazy IPAs for good measure.