The Playlist Podcast Network

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.

Indie Beat - Iman Zawahry by The Playlist

On a new BE REEL, Noah and Chance take on sports movies where the most important games are played in offices. Starting with the slick, provoking new Steven Soderbergh film "High Flying Bird" and its critique of the NBA, the pod then revisits the statistical revolutions of "Moneyball" and the racial profiteering of "The Great White Hype." Be Reel is brought to you by the by California College of the Arts MFA in Writing Program.

Though the Columbian crime epic “Birds of Passage” finds its shape in familiar gangster arcs, its approach to depicting the South American drug trade is one of lyricism and embedded observation of the indigenous Wayuu people. Listen as our Chance Solem-Pfeifer speaks to co-director Cristina Gallego about her latest film with creative partner Ciro Guerra, following on from the Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent.”