Beer and a Movie

258: Pan’s Labyrinth/One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - I’m Burping Soy Sauce - Guests Pam Brouillard & Kailey Diaz

We start a new sporadic series this week: "Our Favorite Movies." Guests Pam Brouillard and Kailey Diaz return armed, each with one of their favorite movies: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Pan's Labyrinth, respectively. We crack one from Turning Point Beer, Ingenious Brewing, and De Dolle Brouwers to get us through a very fun, sometimes deep, conversation about...our favorite movies.

257: Oppenheimer/Barbie - There’s No Way I Should Be Talking About This - Guests Hunter and Savannah Hilliard

Joe's kids, Hunter and Savannah, join him to discuss Barbenheimer weekend's big releases: Oppenheimer and Barbie. 

256: You Know He’s Not Going to Die; It’s a Movie - MI: Dead Reckoning Part One/Usual Suspects - Guests Aaron Carranza & Anthony Zoccolillo

We choose to accept the mission: Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part One) along with a McQuarrie connection, Usual Suspects. Does the newest Tom Cruise production live up to the hype? How does Usual Suspects hold up after all these years?

Beers by Back Pew Brewing, Evil Twin Brewing and Prairie Artisan Ales

255: Chekhov’s Vagina - Joy Ride/Better Luck Tomorrow - Guest Harold Ramos

Our second 'Raunch-com' in three weeks, we go on a Joy Ride with guest Chef Harold Ramos. We move into early Justin Lin with 2002 Sundance breakout Better Luck Tomorrow. Harold brings two Weldwerks Brewing Medianoche variants and we go nuts over the thick, barrel-aged Imperial Stout elixir. 

254: From Ark to Dial - The Complete Indiana Jones Franchise

Dave, Joe and special guest, Sean McLain, don their fedoras and strap on their whips to travel deep into the Indiana Jones franchise. From Raiders to The Temple to the 'Last' Crusade to Crystal Skulls and into the new Dial of Destiny we snake through each film and leave no insect-covered stone uncovered. Our favorite (and least favorite) prologues, love interests, villains, action sequences, and so much more.

253: It Gets into All the Crevices - No Hard Feelings/The Apartment

With the new romcom No Hard Feelings, billed as a raunchy laughfest, hitting screens, we took it as a perfect opportunity for a bit of ribaldry on the podcast this week. To pair with that, we go back to what is widely regarded as one of the greatest romcoms of all time, Billy Wilder's 1960 classic, The Apartment. Returning guest Kailey Diaz brings her always-on-point wit to the table as well as a very thoughtful present for Joe, and there is, as always, plenty of beer to go around. Join us for some summertime cinematic diversions this week!

252: Invasion of the Hipsters - Asteroid City/Mars Attacks

This week, Joe and Dave make contact with intelligent lifeforms Roland and Sarah to discuss two alien arrival films with postmodern comedy elements. First up is Wes Anderson's latest, Asteroid City, a play within a telecast within a film that features one of the most expansive ensemble casts we've seen in some time. That's followed by another film with an overflowing ensemble, the oft-derided Mars Attacks from Tim Burton, which appeared during what was otherwise widely regarded as a great run of films in the 90s. With beer from two new-to-us breweries - one being the official brewery of Mars! - this is an (inter)stellar episode that you won't want to miss!

251: How Many Verses Must a Spider Walk Down Before You Call Him a Man? - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse/Fantastic Planet

We dive into some mindbending animation this week when we pair the second installment of Lord and Miller's Spider-Verse series with Fantastic Planet, an underground animated classic from 1973. New guest Connor Stewart joins Joe and Dave as they discuss some of the finer points of animated superheroes and sci-fi - and drink some beers from friends of the pod - this week!

250: Are We Being Too Cage-y? - Drive Angry/Bringing Out the Dead/Leaving Las Vegas

It's been 50 episodes since we last stepped into the "cage," so we find ourselves there again with a selection of three films with Nicolas Cage in lead performances. Joe's pick is Drive Angry, a 2011 supernatural actioner riding the wave of 3D excitement in the post-Avatar moment in which it arrived. Dave selects Bringing Out the Dead, a relatively underperforming Scorsese vehicle that had more critical love than it did financial returns. And, of course, Carlos is back for the fun with his selection of Cage's Oscar-winning turn as a hopelessly alcoholic writer in Leaving Las Vegas. There are dark themes to explore but still a lot of fun to be had and beer to be drank on this 2023 Cage Match episode!

249: Midwest Mayhem - Bridesmaids/The Blues Brothers

When our returning guest Pam Brouillard told us that she would be bringing back some beers from her roadtrip to Wisconsin, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to visit some films with Midwestern settings. Pam's instinct to go the comedy route yielded one luminary of the recent past, 2011's Bridesmaids which brought SNL's Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph to feature film success, and an even earlier film that had come together on the strength of SNL roots, 1980's The Blues Brothers. Two comedy classics and four(!) Wisconsin beers to help us sort them out. This is an episode you won't want to miss!