Later this week, your friends in podcasting depart for Europe. Last night, the Oscars were held. Last week, one of their dear friends celebrated his 81st birthday, another friend had a brain tumor removed, and another friend died. So, you will forgive Dean and Phil if this isn’t the most polished installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. It IS epic in length, and it is full of the heartfelt, the insightful, the irreverent and even the inspiring. Dean reveals that planning a home renovation a few months before getting married might have been a mistake. The winners of last night’s awards get analyzed both for their historical context and for what they say about the art and commerce of motion pictures right now. Actors Gene Hackman and Michelle Trachtenberg, screenwriter and producer Roberto Orci, singers Robert John and David Johansen, and chess champion Boris Spassky get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

What do the movies The Brutalist, The Substance, Red Rooms and Anora have in common? They all made BOTH Dean AND Phil’s lists of the Top Ten Films of 2024! The Critics have all had their say, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have announced their nominations for the Best in Cinema 2024, and on this week’s show, your friends in podcasting finally have their say. Learn what other films made their lists as they count down their Top Ten from the cinematic year just past!

For what it’s worth, awards season in Hollywood is firmly upon us and on this week’s show, your friends in podcasting examine the top ten 2024 releases at the U.S. box office, the top ten films according to critics, and the ten films selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Best Picture Oscar nominations. They analyze the surprises, the snubs and the meaning behind the Oscar nominations, before taking a deep dive into Gladiator II, Wicked: Part One and A Complete Unknown. And speaking of the Academy, Phil had a terrible experience at an Academy Museum screening – so terrible, he might never return. He fills Dean in on the details and they share memories of a colleague about whose death in 2020 they just learned.

Your friends in podcasting have a great deal on their minds … Cold weather in the nation’s capital, the hell of home renovations, fire and long-term unhealthful air and the Olympics in Los Angeles … And they discuss it all on this week’s show. They also remember the late David Lynch, suggesting that no artist has ever loved Los Angeles more than he did. They discuss the latest in the Justin Baldoni-Blake Lively (and now Ryan Reynolds!) lawsuits, and this leads to a discussion of the “abuser’s playbook”. The programming glories of the Detroit Film Theater (at the Detroit Institute of Arts) and the Renzo Piano-designed Academy Museum (at the L.A. County Museum of Art) get celebrated and lead to a discussion about “old school” wide-screen filmmaking, and big screen “pacing”, as well as cyber punk and yacht rock! Finally, analysis will be directed onto the Directors Guild and Producers Guild awards nominations and what they portend for this week’s Oscar nominations. Oh, yeah, and the show opens with an epic Dean Haglund meltdown!

Dean will be heading to Los Angeles this week and plans to deal with a “haunted vacuum”? Paramount Pictures (and its parent company) are for sale. Dean and Phil discuss the ramifications of this. Many great films premiered in competition at the recent Cannes Film Festival. Dean and Phil examine the award-winners. A film festival favorite available now on Netflix is Richard Linklater’s dark romantic comedy Hit Man. Dean and Phil discuss it. Then, they take a deep dive look at three “art house” films of recent vintage and use that dive as the vehicle for exploring the function, importance and failure of critics. The films in question are Joanna Hogg’s ghost story The Eternal Daughter and Jane Schoenbrun’s coming-of-age psychodramas We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and the current theatrical release I Saw the TV Glow.

With Dean in the “Zone of Totality” for Monday’s solar event taking place over much of the contiguous USA, will this week’s show ECLIPSE all those that have come before?! Decide for yourself as your friends in podcasting & broadcasting discuss a great story about how people getting stuck in an elevator changed history, discuss D.W. Giffith’s Intolerance, discuss Kelly Reichardt’s 2006 breakthrough Old Joy, discuss French actor Marcel Dalio, discuss Christopher Nolan’s proposed big screen version of “The Prisoner”, discuss the “renaissance man” artistry of Hiroshi Teshigahara, discuss the poem that inspired “Game of Thrones” AND Ghostbuters: Frozen Empire, discuss the terrific new horror film Late Night with the Devil and the delightful surrealist classic Céline and Julie Go Boating. All that plus “SCTV” great Joe Flaherty gets remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

It’s April Fools’ Day, and what better way to celebrate than by spending an hour enjoying the spirited, irreverent conversation of two fools who have been changing the way people listen to the internet since May of 2007? This week, Dean and Phil discuss the stand-up comedy of Ali Wong, the performance artistry of Laurie Anderson, the beauty of the Fox Theatre in Detroit, the Orpheum Theatre in DTLA, the significance of the Tower Theatre just down the street from the Orpheum, and the Apple Store it now houses. They dig into “True Detective: Night Country”, and celebrate the great Japanese suspense picture Woman in the Dunes, marveling at the fascinating life of its director, Hiroshi Teshigahara. Two Francis Coppola epics, one disastrous, one just completed, both go under the microscope, and in “Celebrity Deaths”, two all-time great actors get remembered.

Awards season is finally behind us and Phil is finally back in Los Angeles, and normalcy is restored on this week’s episode, or at least as much as “normal” is ever on our audio menu! Dean and Phil will reveal any thoughts they have about last week’s Oscars as well as if or how they celebrated St. Patrick’s Day this weekend. In a “Live Event of the Week”, Phil will regale with stories about seeing the great indie rocker Hamilton Leithauser at the legendary Cafe Carlyle. Five movies get discussed: the current smash hit Dune 2, a possible future cult favorite Argylle, the recent Marvel flop The Marvels, the interesting Nicolas Cage vehicle Dream Scenario, and the brand new, utterly brilliant performance documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus. All that, plus a groundbreaking stunt performer and a British actor of stage and screen get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

Because Phil is still traveling in Europe, this week’s episode is a very special show. Several weeks back, Slate published a “hit piece” on the comedic actor Martin Short, questioning his talent, his career, and accusing him of being nothing but annoying (while also acknowledging that he might just be the most genuinely decent and kind person in show business). Many people have weighed in and come to Martin Short’s defense since that article. This week, Dean and Phil take their turn, as they count down their all-time Top Ten “Martin Shorts”. Grammatically incorrect? Sure. Fascinating and hilarious? You bet!