Beer and a Movie

Only six episodes left, so we’re bringing in one of our favorite reinforcements. Kailey Diaz joins the gang for one last hurrah, and we almost go as off the rails as the final new-release movie we’ll ever review: The Bride!, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s strange, ambitious, full-tilt fever dream of a film.

To pair with it, we go back to the movie that helped launch Gyllenhaal into the spotlight—Secretary—a performance that announced her as one of the most fearless and unconventional actors of her generation. 

We also hear from a listener who’s thrilled that David’s Magic Bag of Beer has been leading to longer beer discussions. In response, we reach into the bag twice. First up is Jester King’s Aurelian Lure bottled in 2018, followed by a Bourbon County Brand Stout from 2018. One of these beers has aged beautifully. The other…has not.

With Kailey in the studio, the beers flowing, and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s wild cinematic vision on the table, the conversation swings from thoughtful film talk to complete chaos—exactly the way we like it.

On this week’s Beer and a Movie, we go global — and uncomfortably current.

The Secret Agent and It Was Just an Accident, two Best International Feature Oscar nominees anchor the conversation. Both films wrestle with paranoia, authoritarian creep, and the slow normalization of fear — themes that feel disturbingly timely amid rising global tensions and the recent bombing of Iran. 

Joining us is Ethan Thompson — the original third co-host of BaaM — stepping back into the third chair to walk down memory lane. The rhythm snaps back quickly: old stories, early-show chaos, and the kind of shorthand you only get from building something scrappy together from the ground up.

The beers match the mood.

We start with New Belgium Brewing’s 1554 leaning into the historic zwert tradition, a centuries-old style that uses gruit (a blend of herbs and botanicals) for bittering instead of hops. 

Then David reaches into his Magic Bag of Beer and pulls out a decade-old bottle of Allagash Brewing Company’s Coolship Resurgam. Spontaneously fermented and oak-aged, it arrives tart, funky, and beautifully evolved.

Creeping fascism. Wild fermentation. A reunion years in the making.

It’s Beer and a Movie — and this one lingers long after the glass is empty.

This week, we attempt to find the hidden thread connecting Norwegian heartbreak with Brad Pitt's high-octane racing. Adam Beam returns to tackle two Oscar Best Picture nominees, Sentimental Value and F1. 

On the beer side, we’ve got a Banger Imperial Hazy IPA from Saint Arnold Brewing, juicy enough for a cinematic slow-mo montage, and from David’s magic bag of wonders, the 2025 Goose Island Bourbon County Double Barrel Stout, an imperial stout (17.4% ABV) aged in two sets of freshly emptied Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond bourbon barrels. Sip carefully, argue passionately, and maybe—just maybe—you’ll see why Sentimental Value and F1 kinda work together.

Only 9 episodes left, and this one is all corsets, cruelty, and complicated desire.

Emily Suggs — our resident literary adaptation assassin — returns to the mic after publicly side-eyeing the marketing campaign for the new Wuthering Heights. The big question: did director Emerald Fennell deliver a fever-dream romance worthy of the Brontë chaos…or was this all perfume and no poison?

To keep the seduction simmering, we pair it with Dangerous Liaisons, the gold standard of powdered-wig manipulation. If you like your romance weaponized and your flirtation fatal, this double feature is basically a lace glove hiding brass knuckles.

On the beverage front, Emily zigzags expectations with two non-alcoholic canned mocktails from Athletic Brewing Company, proving you can keep your wits sharp even while discussing reckless passion. Meanwhile, David reaches deep into the magic bag and pulls out a 2017-bottled Oude Geuze from 3 Fonteinen — a spontaneously fermented, beautifully aged Belgian bruiser that’s as complex and unpredictable as the characters on screen.

It’s bodice-ripping. It’s sex-charged. It’s literary. It’s petty. It’s Beer and a Movie at its most unhinged and articulate.

Nine episodes left. Don’t miss the scandal.

Only 10 episodes left!

Harold Ramos returns armed with two things we respect deeply: a massive film pick and an even more massive beer. This time, he brings a 19-year-aged Cantillon Lou Pepe — the longest-cellared beer we’ve ever poured on the show. It’s funky, complex, a little intimidating… which turns out to be the perfect pregame for 2025’s Nuremberg.

To pair it, we go even darker.

We discuss Elem Klimov’s Come and See — a film that isn’t just “disturbing,” it’s endure-it-and-process-it disturbing. The kind of movie that doesn’t feel watched so much as survived. Brutal. Unflinching. Historically suffocating in a way that lingers long after the credits roll.

To honor its Russian roots (and brace ourselves emotionally), we crack open a 7-year-aged Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery Illuminatos Russian Imperial Stout — thick, heavy, and appropriately brooding.

What unfolds is a conversation about World War II on film — but from wildly different cinematic angles. One film examines accountability and aftermath in courtrooms and ideology. The other drags you through the mud, fire, and psychological ruin of war itself. Same historical shadow. Completely different lens.

Big beer. Bigger history. Ten episodes left.

This one weighs something.