The Playlist Podcast Network

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.

Long Shot Director Jonathan Levine Channels Capra and Lubitsch to Craft a Winning Romantic Comedy by The Playlist

Writer and director Madeleine Olnek first considered that Emily Dickinson might have been a human being with desires, muses, and ambitions when she read a 1998 New York Times investigation of the famed poet's original drafts. The result was the play "Wild Nights With Emily", now an inventive literary comedy starring Molly Shannon, Amy Seimetz and Brett Gelman. Press play for a discussion of Olnek's new movie, her meeting Molly Shannon in college, and battling the painted-over legacies of historical women. "Wild Nights With Emily" is out now in select cities. This podcast host whole-heartedly recommends it.

All it takes is a carnival coin-trap, a packet of Party City fairy dust, or a wizard who needs you as his champion and — SHAZAM! — that pesky childhood is over in an instant. But is being thirty, flirty and thriving all it's cracked up to be? This week, BE REEL discusses "Big" (1988), "13 Going On 30" (2004), and "Shazam!" (2019). Be Reel is brought to you by California College of the Arts' Writing MFA Program. Learn more about CCA.edu/writingmfa.

'Be Reel' co-host Chance Solem-Pfeifer speaks with director Emma Tammi about her new horror film "The Wind" (out now from IFC Films). They discuss how Tammi made the transition from documentary filmmaking to genre mashups, how the wind haunted real-life pioneers, and why trauma is having its day in the horror genre. Be Reel is brought to you by the California College of the Arts' Writing MFA.

Indie Beat - Micah Khan by The Playlist

JC Chandor's "Triple Frontier" isn't the first movie to wonder what would happen if a few rogue soldiers tried to get rich while allegedly doing the right thing. On a new "Be Reel," Chance and Noah review Netflix's latest film and compare its themes and all-star casts to "Three Kings" (1999) and "Kelly's Heroes" (1970).

Indie Beat - Brennan Vance by The Playlist

If you don't know the 1782 French novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” don't feel bad. It's far more likely you know the films it inspired: "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988), "Valmont" (1989) and "Cruel Intentions" (1999). This week on Be Reel, Noah and Chance revisit all three stories of high-court treachery and conquest with the help of film critic Abbey Bender (Village Voice, Time Out New York). The sexual politics are dicey, the costumes grand, and we try our best to figure out what's going on in the cinema of the wealthy and wicked.

Erik and Joe discuss Gaspar Noe's latest, Climax.