This week’s episode picks up where last week’s show left off with a deep dive into Charles Laughton’s 1955 masterpiece The Night of the Hunter the ending to which Dean greatly misunderstood. In fact, a special guest stops by to help explain the ending and to discuss the film through the prisms of expressionism, surrealism and absurdism. Then, Dean, Phil, and (frequent collaborator) Jon Lawlor discuss several filmmaking and film distribution and film marketing topics pertaining to Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. In 1964, the United Nations produced four movies for television. One of them featured an all-star cast and a script by Rod Serling. Carol for Another Christmas gets discussed. Finally, the recent conversation the gents had about Carl Theodore Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc inspired a thoughtful email from a loyal listener.

This week, another “audio collage” of two different conversations recorded at different times, both exploring different facets of comedy. First Dean and Phil convene to compare notes on the new reboot of The Naked Gun – what it did right, what could have been done better and what good things its success (especially with young people) might portend! Another recent release, Riff Raff gets reviewed, and the importance of sketch and improv training for actors gets discussed. Then, your friends in podcasting take a deep dive into The Beatles’ movies directed by Richard Lester: A Hard Day’s Night and Help! A whole lot of deep concepts and legendary cinematic figures get explored as a result! In the final half hour of this epic installment, frequent contributor to the show, and comedy impresario, Marc Hershon and Phil discuss recent, disturbing news from the world of television, before discussing a Marc Maron comedy special, how authenticity might be having a moment, how young people seem to have good B.S. detectors, and several of Marc’s formative comedy influences.

Because of some crazy travel plans (London! New York! Tokyo!), the next three episodes of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour promise to be unusual even by our standards! This week’s topics include a forthcoming Broadway revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross”, the crazy, big screen experience Megalopolis, the lineage of Longlegs director Oz Perkins (and a bit about one of the film’s stars), and a “smart house” thriller from Canada, Red Rooms. The North American tour of (“the Modfather”) Paul Weller becomes “The Live Event of the Week”. The deaths of master stone carver Simon Verity, best-selling mystery novelist Nelson DeMille, beloved actor James Earl Jones, and the utterly peerless legend of the stage and screen Maggie Smith all get discussed. Art, architecture, mythology, philosophy, movies, television, music and more on this week’s show – in other words, something for everyone, right?

Welcome to a truly great episode and it all starts with an alternately touching and hilarious cold open! In “Celebrity Deaths”, Dean and Phil remember a jazz music pioneer, an actor who was an important influence on Dean, and a versatile, prolific, Oscar-winning filmmaker. Last week’s Oscar nominations get analyzed, as does the ensuing anger surrounding supposed “snubs”. After the break, the great film critic Luke Y. Thompson joins the fun, discussing how critics, like performers, can get “pigeon-holed”. He offers up thoughts on the Oscar-nominated The Zone of Interest and the underrated Beau is Afraid, and hips you to a black and white sci-fi comedy that is well worth your 68 minutes! He even talks about toy reviews and toy photography! And trust us, this episode offers a lot of laughs! Find links to all of Luke’s articles and reviews at https://linktr.ee/lytrules. And learn about his work as a toy collector, photographer and reviewer at https://www.eql.com/media/adult-toy-collecting

 

Recorded late last week from a certain “historic building in downtown Los Angeles”, this episode begins with Phil doffing his cap about what Dean got right in discussing Sarah Polley’s Women Talking a few weeks back AND wagging his finger at what Dean got wrong while discussing Netflix’s “Wednesday” this past week. Phil then hails Joel de la Fuente (of “Man in the High Castle” and most recently “The Mysterious Benedict Society”) as his favorite actor. At that point, Dean and Phil switch gears for a show ten years in the making, analyzing the just-released, decennial Sight and Sound poll of all-time greatest films! What Dean and Phil were expecting and what surprised them leads to what promises to be an ongoing conversation about re-contextualization and the importance of learning how works of art resonate with different groups and different cultures.

This week’s brand new show is a whole lot of fun, with a cold open (about Dean’s former website), a special guest appearance (from Siren FM’s Alex Lewczuk), a discussion about why certain movies (especially in the “Star Trek” universe) seem like movies, whereas others seem like TV episodes, a review of Doctor Sleep, a celebration of Stanley Kubrick, an analysis of an all-time great movie monologue delivered by a powerhouse actress (Nicole Kidman), and a remembrance of actor-producer Kirk Douglas, along with a thoughtful conversation about the messy business of appraising legacies.

On the agenda in another action-packed installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour is a full report on Dean and Phil’s movie The Lady Killers  at the historic BAL Theatre, and a full report on what makes that theater so darn historic, the aftermath of the devastating California fires, Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind, movie pacing, and in “Celebrity Deaths”, an innovator in motion picture title design, a country music and television icon, a screenwriting legend, a beloved television villainess, and a Shakespearean actor who gave one of the all-time great big screen performances without actually appearing on-screen are all remembered.

This week, your friends in podcasting complete their epic 2-part celebration of the all-time greatest comedy movies! Boasting films from (almost?) every decade of feature filmmaking, this week’s installment covers Dean and Phil’s respective Top 5’s! There are bound to be crowd-pleasing favorites, silent classics, independent gems and studio blockbusters. So, keep those Netflix queues handy!