In what might be a first, Dean will offer up both a point and a counterpoint (all on his own) about the merits and deficits of Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter. Then, Phil will discuss the long career of the great cinematic surrealist Luis Buñuel and take a deep dive into one particular masterpiece of his, the 1950 Los Olividados (“The Young and the Damned”). Buñuel’s famous collaborations with Catherine Deneuve will lead Phil and Dean to discuss this legendary star’s almost unparalleled status as the “face” of 1960s cinema. Jacque Demy’s singular The Umbrellas of Cherbourg gets celebrated as a result. If Ms. Deneuve was NOT the face of global cinema at that time, then that title belonged to the late, great Claudia Cardinale, who gets remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

It’s been a while since Phil brought out the ol’ Chillpak soapbox, but on this week’s show, it comes in handy as Dean and Phil delve into the huge show biz news in “The Explanation of the Week” involving late night shows, corporate mergers, bribery, evangelical Christianity, and Stephen Colbert. In “What We’re Reading” the teachings of Taoist philosophy go into the spotlight. The first two episodes of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” season 3 get reviewed and Phil defends the series from some recent criticisms about the show “not being about anything”. Then TV mysteries “The Residence” and “Poker Face” get discussed before the 1965 big-screen Agatha Christie-adapted mystery Ten Little Indians and 2024 Cannes winner for Best Director, Grand Tour, get reviewed.