Small Beans

2006. Tom Skerritt, Ron Perlman, Steven Weber. A god-like earth spirit destroys a town and local motorists. Seems pretty straight forward. So why do Abe and Michael take an hour to discuss King’s fascination with the “outsider” trope in moral tales, the nature of faith in storytelling, and centrism in Hollywood? Because it’s Kings of King, baby! Features: Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

Old came out this weekend so we wanted to look at Shyamalan’s approach to scene work and camera motivation. In this episode, Adam dissects Unbreakable and offers an explanation as to why some of his films don’t connect with the audience emotionally. Features: Adam Ganser: https://twitter.com/therealganz Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

As we learned, this franchise is not really a story as much as a continuous series of fantasy scenes. Good thing we have Sarah and Bridgett to walk us through it. At one point, Bridgett slams her leg on their table and like a classic dom, Sarah takes over the podcast. I’m just keeping track of how their status changes through these episodes. Anyway, as Sarah says in this podcast: “Let’s get to the fucking. This movie’s about the fucking. Let’s get to the fucking.” Features: Bridgett Greenberg: https://twitter.com/BridgettTweets Sarah Griffith: https://twitter.com/sk_griffith Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

Friend of the pod, Daniel O’Brien, a man from the Garden State himself, joins Michael and Abe to discuss writer/director Zach Braff’s debut, Garden State. The gang talks about how the following years have turned against this once beloved film. As one of the seminal Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope films, they unpack it’s at times misguided narrative, it’s attention to style, and how it’s message could be damaging to teens. Features: Daniel O’Brien: https://twitter.com/dob_inc Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

It’s a free episode! Tell your friends they can listen! This episode covers the topics: Why does the universe exist? What is morality? Do you believe in an afterlife? Are these all human creations? So pretty low stakes stuff for our podcast that pairs Futurama episodes to Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. This show exclusively releases every other episode here on the Small Beans patreon. Wimmy Wam Wam Wozzle! Features: Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP David Bell: https://twitter.com/MovieHooligan Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

Abe and Michael examine the 95 minutes of the 2017 action/adventure film The Dark Tower. Based on an eight book saga, this "sequel" was critically panned and financially a sleeper. Why wasn’t it memorable for some? Does it hold up on a second viewing? Your dads, Abe and Michael, would never fight, but they definitely have a difference in opinion. Look at that! 400 podcasts/videos! Hurrah us! And you! You made this happen! Features: Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

Adam exposes how The Day After Tomorrow dramatizes science, how it attempts to prepare the viewer for moments of emotional significance, and how Roland Emmerich reels in world-spanning plots into simple parables. As always, we have our theories as to why Emmerich uses specific lenses, staging, and POV to evoke a thesis and an emotional response from you. Does it work? Will we ever figure out what’s happening with the podcast’s introduction guy? Is he dead? Is he a ghost? What’s going on there? Features: Adam Ganser: https://twitter.com/therealganz Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

The Casters are back and they’re more Curious than ever! Both of them haven’t seen this film yet! And spoilers, as it came out last week, you may have not seen it either! Episode starts with Bridgett and Sarah pre-Fast 9, then you have about an hour and a half of glorious post-Fast 9 clarity. Features: Bridgett Greenberg: https://twitter.com/BridgettTweets Sarah Griffith: https://twitter.com/sk_griffith Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

In this Show Me Producer chosen episode, Adam and Maggie each bring the film they consume like comfort food. We check in with Maggie’s cat’s grooming situation. So, I think we’re all squared up. If you patronize us, feel free to email us suggestions for episodes at any time at magsandganz@gmail.com. Adam Ganser: https://twitter.com/therealganz Maggie Mae Fish: https://twitter.com/MaggieMaeFish Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

This episode’s guest is streamer, cosplayer, and podcaster: Marina Reimann! Per usual for the pit, we have a disclaimer. We cover being queer, feeling impostor syndrome because we're in monogamous long-term relationships, and a bit of our sexual histories, including Marina's assault and how she came back from that. Features: Marina Reimann: https://twitter.com/HeartFistBrain Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691 Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans

Oh great. The Nazi one. Michael and Abe dissect the very problematic production of Apt Pupil as well as the differences between the film’s execution and the novel. Did y’all know that David Schwimmer is in this? Crazy. Anyway, we also decided which Stephen King adaptation we’ll cover next time! So, you know, you can watch it before! See! We’re prepared! Features: Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

Strap on your best kicks! Sarah Griffith and Bridgett Greenberg join forces once again for their THIRD Small Beans show, Shooting Threes! The idea behind this podcast is to cover trilogies, one installment at a time. Listen in to these auditory dunks, swishes, and dimes? It’s a basketball theme. We made logos and everything. They of course decided to call their first shot with the steamy, unrated cut of 50 Shades of Grey. The hosts discuss the nuance of their discomfort and we learn fairly early on that Bridgett has taken Sarah’s last name. Congrats! Features: Sarah Griffith: https://twitter.com/sk_griffith Bridgett Greenberg: https://twitter.com/BridgettTweets Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

Willie Muse of College Humor drops by and graces us with several pieces of rough stuff. In this episode, he tells a tale of trying to be the hero of camp and his brother’s tale of an inappropriate walk during a funeral. Plenty oofs this time around. Maybe some yeeshes. Features: Willie Muse: https://twitter.com/Williesillie2 Sarah Griffith: https://twitter.com/sk_griffith Bridgett Greenberg: https://twitter.com/BridgettTweets Rough Stuff Pod: https://twitter.com/roughstuffpod Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

Abe brings the story of the plagued production of Jan De Bont’s Twister. Not only was it rife with poor weather conditions and rough terrain, but choices made by the production and director made work unbearable for the cast and crew. Adam and Abe also discuss the purview of the director, when it’s invalid, and how to fight for your vision without compromising safety. Features: Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Adam Ganser: https://twitter.com/therealganz Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

As promised, it’s still May and you know what that means! Maggie Mae Monkey Movie Madness! The second Frame Rate this month featuring a discussion with film analyst and friend of the pod, Maggie Mae Fish! This episode, we cover George Romero’s Monkey Shines and discuss how it is seriously grounded for a film about a telepathic murder monkey. Features: Maggie Mae Fish: https://twitter.com/MaggieMaeFish Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

Adam brings the heat with 1995’s Heat. A discussion about how within Michael Mann’s apparent action film follows the beats and scene work of a family drama. Adam elaborates the bag of tricks the director uses to sneakily get you involved in the interpersonal relationships even amongst sweeping thrills. The conversation starts with a discussion of musical theater for some reason, and even before that, it appears our MC has turned into a ghost. Features: Adam Ganser: https://twitter.com/therealganz Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

In the last of our three LIVE from UCLA episodes, co-hosts Ivette Ale and Dahlia Ferlito talk with Justino Mora and Karla Estrada on immigration. We talk about borders, the DREAM Act, American foreign policy, and policy reform efforts. You can find full show notes, including useful links and recommended reading, at patreon.com/smallbeans.

HOW COULD YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN MAGGIE MAE’S MONKEY MADNESS MOVIE MONTH?!?! It’s May! At Small Beans, this apparently means we’ll be covering TWO movies this month with our long time collaborator Maggie Mae Fish! And guess what? They both have monkeys in them! And it’s May! What a time to be alive. This episode, we cover the film Monkeybone and discuss its semi-cult status as well as how this insane film was made. Features: Maggie Mae Fish: https://twitter.com/MaggieMaeFish Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

It’s a mailbag episode! That means the star is you! You’re the awkward one! But down worry, Sarah and Bridgett open up about being bullies in school. Yes, they feel terrible about it and it wasn’t cool but in their defense they’re horrible. Then, we go through your emails and bask in your delicious rough stuff like schadenfrude-pigs in your awkwardness mud. Stay tuned until the end of the episode when Bridgett and Sarah have a HUGE announcement! Sarah tries to intro the announcement in a charming way and on-brand Bridgett misses her cue and sneezes. I love Bridgett so much. It’s at timecode 1:11:20 and I want everyone to hear it. Features: Sarah Griffith: https://twitter.com/sk_griffith Bridgett Greenberg: https://twitter.com/BridgettTweets Rough Stuff Pod: https://twitter.com/roughstuffpod Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691

Michael has been waiting for this one! He loves Salem’s Lot! Can’t get enough of it! Abe brings him back to Earth by reminding him that this TV movie, the second film/TV adaptation of Stephen King’s career, had a small budget, the director was their second choice, and the production attempted to shoot a TV miniseries and a theatrical version at the same time. So, you know, it already looks good on paper. It’s about vampires taking over a town! Features: Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty Support Small Beans and access Additional Content: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Check our store to buy Small Beans merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-small-beans-store?ref_id=22691