Re-Introducing Re-el Rap Reel Rap

A Brief History of Reel Rap
Shane and Bennett started Reel Rap in the summer of 2017. Bennett became a professional podcaster and a “Chicken Guy” at the local supermarket on the same day. In Boston, Shane was growing mushrooms in his apartment and was oft mistaken for a mentally ill escapee of the local hospital, moonlighting as a barback at an upscale hotel bar.
Reel Rap has its origins in the middlebrow fare that most filmgoers have forgotten. Bennett and Shane have shared formative film experiences, but they haven’t centered on blockbusters and big hits. On the big screen (the Silver), the boys have paid to see slop like The Descendants and nodded politely side by side. On the small screen (the silver), they’ve idly yipped and hollered through all manner of would-be Oscar bait and mid-budget action movies.
The first season found the boys working in familiar middlebrow territory. A fascination with How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) led to their snout-to-tail look at the career of Ron Howard and stretched over more than a year. After focusing on Hollywood’s nicest guy, they pivoted with a season on one of its absolute worst. Mel Gibson provided the perfect opportunity to settle on a theme. After all, he represents the actor-turned-director at their most grandiose.
Actors-turned-directors (more on them below) have provided Reel Rap with opportunities to discuss some of Hollywood’s biggest Ls as well as their own personal shortcomings. They’ve also discussed some of the great works of American independent cinema, some foreign gems, and even the rare transcendent Hollywood effort.
To recap, here’s where the boys have tracked their mud-soaked galoshes:
* Season 1: Screwball Right Down the Middle of the Plate: The Films of Ron Howard
* Season 2: God’s Angry, Racist Man: Mel Gibson the Director
* Season 3: Cassavetes v. Cassavetes
* Season 4: A Chip on His Shoulder and a Song in His Heart: Jon Favreau’s Hollywood
* Season 5: A Rich Diet: Sofia Coppola’s Substantive Style
* Season 6: Nichols & May & Reel & Rap
* Season 7: Pardon My French! It’s the Complete Works of Jacques Tati!
That’s not including one-offs, holiday specials, and other miscellaneous episodes.
Today, Shane rarely watches movies and Bennett only watches movies. It’s a match made in hog heaven. They’ve covered good movies (Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, A Star is Born, the works of John Cassavetes and Sofia Coppola), they’ve covered bad movies (The Grinch, The Dilemma, the works of Nick Cassavetes), but mostly they’ve covered anonymous movies. Some of the best episodes of Reel Rap episodes focus on movies that no one has thought about — let alone discussed at length — in years or decades. Subscribing to Reel Rap is an opportunity to hear the definitive conversations on films like Ransom, Charlie Wilson’s War, and The Man Without a Face.
Hit the button above to hear the latest episode of Reel Rap. This time around, the boys provide a quick overview of their shared history and reflect on the show’s past, present, and future.
A Poem for Reel Heads
By Shane
Grand theft and the heat’s on, mayors
And Everyone showing their ass
Tom Cruise too. Washed up before he’s in the wash tub
No weeping for Willow, and Gung Ho to those
Who narrowly adored Howard’s ransom, over our hearts
There is no evidence of survivors, drafts of backdraft hopelessly hopefully
Burned. His studio imagines and breathes moneyed breaths in its chrysalis
Parenthood is anything but easy, splashes of mermaid’s wake on our Cocoon. 
EDtv, woah, who me? Im not a cinderella man, I’m a cinderella, man. 
 brave old heart, fuck you. I have no mind not beautiful unwise. 
Mel Gibson freedom, The missing. Missing out and strike anywhere matches on the lip
Of poor Glenn Close's Paper.
 No code but Da Vinci’s for the man without a face
Who steals his passion from Christ. We never knew what happened on hack ridge
Probably where they make mince me