If you’re in the USA, we hope you are having/had a wonderful Labor Day. If you are elsewhere in the world, we wish you a wonderful Monday! Either way, we think this installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour will help you get the week off to a good start! Phil is playing hurt, battling COVID, migraines AND the intense L.A. heat wave, yet nevertheless brings his “A” game as he and Dean take their talk of “transitions” to a whole new level, thanks to a beautiful email from a listener like you (yes, YOU!). Dean saw Bullet Train and has a lot of thoughts. Phil weighs in on The Souvenir: Part II and shares a wonderful story about acting based on Robert Blake’s experiences making David Lynch’s Lost Highway.

On this week’s show, Dean shares with Phil his jury duty “cheat code”, Phil shares with Dean fascinating historic facts and rumored hauntings surrounding the town of Turlock, and they discuss another David Lynch-Mark Frost television collaboration from the late 1980s, and this one was supposed to star Steve Martin and Martin Short! Speaking of those comedy greats, their co-star from “Only Murders in the Building” has a new movie in development, a remake of a 1980s classic. Dean and Phil discuss it and they analyze the ever-shifting landscape in the battle between theatrical movie-going and streaming releases, a battle that movie theaters seem to be winning. A terrible new Netflix movie gets discussed as does the rather spotty track record of its celebrated directors. Other topics covered include “Better Call Saul”, the casting of Bullet Train and Craig Kilborn’s new podcast. Finally, in “Celebrity Deaths”, three trailblazers get remembered: Pat Carroll, Bill Russell and Nichelle Nichols.

This week’s show runs the gamut culturally, from a production of “Uncle Vanya” in “Live Event of the Week” and a discussion about whether the play is a comedy, to stories of jury duty prompted by a “Lawsuit of the Week”, from an excellent documentary recommendation by a loyal listener like you (yes, YOU!) to a deep dive analysis of the U.S. box office (including a quiz!). The success of Where the Crawdads Sing gets paid particular attention, as does the “Mission: Impossible” franchise. The once-every-ten years Sight and Sound poll of the greatest films ever made leads to a discussion of the Daniels, Edgar Wright and Roy Andersson. Finally, great stories about the making of David Lynch’s Dune, Blue Velvet and The Straight Story get shared.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, from the cosmic to the deeply personal, Dean and Phil are going deep on this week’s show! Remembering the haunting, ethereal “voice” of “Twin Peaks”, Julee Cruise, leads into ruminating about the afterlife, hauntings, consciousness, and moral underpinnings to the universe. This, naturally, involves analyzing two new Netflix comedy specials – Ricky Gervais’ “SuperNature” and Norm MacDonald’s “Nothing Special” – and two fascinating and troubling cinematic releases of the late 60s – Otto Preminger’s Skidoo and Richard Brooks’ In Cold Blood.

Dean is back from the UK and reports on his travels. Phil has been availing himself of classic movies and has thoughts on an indie gem from the 1980s, a mind-bending oddity from Joseph Losey, and a 1960 epic about the founding of Israel. The episodic series “Space Force”, “Barry” season 3, “Our Flag Means Death”, “Hacks” season 2, “The Book of Boba Fett”, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and season 2 of “The Mandalorian” get discussed. Four giants of the music industry and 3 beloved character actors get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Finally, Dean and Phil explain why Tom Cruise was probably the perfect person to produce and star in a brilliant sequel 36 years after the original, and Phil shares some inspiring words relating to Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Because Dean is “on assignment” in the UK, he and Phil recorded a very special episode for this week! Dean and Phil pay tribute to their friend Mark Bennett, who died at the end of 2021. Mark was a journalist, a filmmaker, a philosopher, a researcher, and a truly gentle, caring man, who features prominently in Dean and Phil’s The Truth Is Out There, and who last appeared on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour in March of 2021. He has been described as a “spy from the future” and as such, Dean and Phil’s memories of him segue nicely into an email from friend of the show Jon Lawlor all about time travel movies. Keep pen, pencil or keyboard handy, because Dean and Phil hit you with a bunch of really cool movie recommendations!

Your friends in podcasting (AND broadcasting!) have quite the week to discuss! As the holidays approach, and Covid-19 dashes Dean’s travel plans, Awards Season in Hollywood gets underway. The National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle announced their winners of the best in cinema for 2021, and a consensus has begun to form through critics Top Ten lists about the best of the year in television. Dean and Phil discuss it all. They also try to make sense of the latest in the accidental shooting on the set of “Rust”. A whole lot of classic films get discussed, including which films may have best depicted what life in America was really like in the mid-1980’s. A new documentary series about The Beatles from Peter Jackson gets reviewed and four actors and a musician get remembered in our penultimate installment of “Celebrity Deaths” for 2021. If nothing else, you will learn that the movie Beau Geste is NOT the movie Gunga Din and director Wim Wenders is NOT director Werner Herzog.

Saturday was International Ghost Hunting Day and Dean was at the forefront of it. Phil has been thinking a great deal about Buster Keaton, his influence, and other films and filmmakers that might have influenced the making of his beloved Wings of Desire. Phil asks Dean about legendary actress Ruta Lee, and an episode of “The Twilight Zone” in which she starred. One of the greatest banjo players of all time, a giant of reggae, and a founding member of a chart-topping UK pop band all get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. In the return of “What We’re Reading”, Dean discusses an artist who was once the most popular in Amsterdam and who has fallen into obscurity. This leads into a fascinating discussion about communicating with the future. Phil is reading a novel that explores two different timelines in the marshes and on the coastline of North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s. Dean and Phil then re-visit last week’s Emmy Awards and do an analytical deep dive into the furor surrounding “Ted Lasso” season 2 and the concept of “public ownership” before reviewing season 1 of “Hacks”. Finally, we want to wish our sponsor, Empire State Gas, Many Happy Returns! Thanks for sponsoring us all these years. You’ve got great gas!

After a whirlwind, emergency trip to Turlock, Phil is back in Los Angeles. Dean Haglund is in Northern Virginia. They hook up via Zoom for a first half that covers the great new, Oscar-nominated film Another Round, and its director, Dogme 95 co-founder Thomas Vinterberg. They discuss the controversy that brought destruction to the annual Ovation Awards, honoring the best in Los Angeles theater. They play two rounds in their weekly vintage movie ad game and they celebrate the lives of a great character actor and a great funk musician, both of whom died this past week. All that, plus we find out if Dean ever went by the moniker “Dean E” or “Deanie”. In part 2, Dean interviews film and television critic, friend of the show, and fellow Michigander Mattie Giles. They discuss dogs, great bookstores, binge-watching “E.R.”, the D.C. Universe movies, why Dean can’t actually watch anything in one sitting and more!

Phil shares some of his Los Angeles adventures from the past week. Dean shares his latest adventures in painting. Phil celebrates the daily joy of David Lynch reading the weather report. Dean and Phil update on the latest in the battle between two different actors’ union, and on the battle between the Writers Guild and the most powerful agencies in Hollywood. They discuss season 4 of “Fargo” and the work of “X-Files” veteran Daniel Sackheim on “Lovecraft Country”. Phil questions Dean about the comments from comic book legend Alan Moore on the cultural blight that superheroes, superhero comics and superhero movies have become. Several performers and writers get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Dean and Phil bring back “What We’re Reading” and celebrate their all-time favorite bookstores!