Tag: film critics

Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 18 Episode 5

Posted on by PHIL19

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.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 18 Episode 2

Posted on by PHIL19

Phil is back from a weekend excursion to Catalina and regales with tales of his trip. Dean previews his forthcoming trips to London, Los Angeles, Japan and Europe. Many different Netflix shows starring comedian John Mulaney get discussed, and his work ranging from stand-up to sketch to performance art gets analyzed. Three recent movies also get analyzed: the “found footage” horror favorite Late Night with the Devil, the Ian McShane-starring indie thriller American Star, and a modern classic from France, The Taste of Things. Finally, Hollywood giant Roger Corman gets remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

 

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 3 Episode 52

Posted on by PHIL19

Your friends in podcasting and broadcasting start the show with a “cold open” about some greats of Italian cinema and the genius of Jennifer Coolidge and the cinematographer of “The White Lotus”. Then, after Phil regales with tales of a one-day, 650 mile road trip to Turlock and back, Dean and Phil spend the bulk of the show doing a deep dive into analyzing the year in movies 2022. They take the 10 nominees for the Best Picture Oscar and compare/contrast that list with both the critics’ choices for the top dozen or so films of the year and the top ten box office releases of the year. What emerges is an analysis of the present, and perhaps the near future of moviemaking and movie-going.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 3 Episode 47

Posted on by PHIL19

Happy St. Stephen’s Day, Happy Boxing Day, Happy (final day of) Hanukkah AND Happy 2nd Day of Christmas! Dean and Phil celebrate it all by comparing notes on their holiday celebrations, by sharing stories of Dean’s jury duty and of Phil’s cross-country travels with THE Fuzz Aldrin! Film critics everywhere have been weighing in on the best movies of 2022. Dean and Phil will check in on their consensus picks (thus far). They will also discuss a handful of current and recent releases, including Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pinocchio”, the dark satire “The Menu”, Ti West’s “X” and “Pearl”, and they re-visit the recent comedy actioner “Bullet Train”, using it as an excuse to analyze the work of Ryan Reynolds, and to celebrate the greatness of Michael Shannon.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 3 Episode 8

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Phil (in Hollywood) and Dean (in the environs of Detroit) checked in with each other before, during and after Sunday night’s Oscars and recorded their conversation about the movie industry’s big night. There are insights, there are jokes, there is snark, there are criticisms, and oh, yes, Dean has been drinking!

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 3 Episode 7

Posted on by PHIL19

Phil has been chasing trains all over California and he has stories. St. Patrick’s Day was this past week and Dean and Phil have jokes about that. In “Celebrity Deaths”, Oscar-winning actor William Hurt gets remembered and the controversy surrounding celebrations of his legacy will get examined. Star of the original “Godzilla” and a great story about him get discussed, and before the Chillpak Morgue closes, R&B great Timmy Thomas has his praises sung. This is, of course, the biggest week in Hollywood and Dean and Phil “go to the movies” to discuss Steven Spielberg’s next film (a sequel to a 1960s classic), the brilliance and pain and artistry of Richard Pryor as seen in Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip and the inspiring visual storytelling on display in the works of Paolo Sorrentino, specifically his current Oscar nominee for Best International Film, The Hand of God.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 3 Episode 6

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Dean starts the show by talking about shoveling his driveway. Phil talks about location scouting and chasing trains. Then, they roll up their sleeves and in “Celebrity Deaths”, they remember 8 actors and 1 legendary studio exec turned producer who was responsible for some of the greatest and most beloved films of the past 45 years. Speaking of great films, two of this year’s fascinating and inspiring nominees for Best International Film will get appraised. So, will the franchise prequel A King’s Man. This weekend’s Directors Guild Award-winner, Jane Campion, gets the last word with an epic takedown of Sam Elliott in the wake of his unfortunate commentary while a guest on Marc Maron’s podcast.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 3 Episode 5

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On this week’s episode, Dean and Phil pick up right where they left off last week when they were discussing the SAG Award winners. Specifically, they will analyze what the foreign-language “Squid Game” winners tell us about the ways Americans in general (and younger generations in particular) consume their entertainment and their openness to subtitles. This conversation continues with a review of the multiple Academy Award-nominated Norwegian film The Worst Person in the World. Other nominated films get reviewed, including Coda, and the 1961 classic Judgment at Nuremberg gets reappraised. The box office triumph of The Batman and what it might mean for movie-going gets examined. An awards season controversy and what it means for the Best Picture odds of The Power of the Dog get dissected. Dean offers up a BBC Series recommendation. Finally, in “Celebrity Deaths”, one author, three musicians, and the “Freddy Krueger of Magic” get remembered.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 3 Episode 4

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Phil is back from Hawaii and bringing with him observations about how the islands AND America have changed since he last visited the spots he traveled to (24 and 36 years ago respectively). He and Dean bring back “What We’re Reading” after a lengthy absence, and the discussion of books will lead to discussions of comedy, the Golden Age of Radio, watercolor painting and YouTube instructional videos! In “Celebrity Deaths”, an Oscar-nominated star of M*A*S*H, one of the greatest comedy movie directors of all time, and the “Queen of Funk” all get remembered. The show concludes with an analysis of Sunday night’s Screen Actors Guild awards. What do the Film winners portend for the forthcoming Oscars, and whom did Phil and Dean vote for in these award categories? All that, plus what non-nominated film might be one of the very best of 2021?

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 3 Episode 3

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This week’s episode is a very unusual installment, even by our very unusual standards! Part 1 features Dean and Phil continuing their discussion of last week about the future of awards shows in general, and the Oscars in particular, while paying tribute to two great films from last year that went overlooked by the Academy: David Lowery’s The Green Knight and Rebecca Hall’s Passing. And because Phil is on his long-delayed honeymoon, Dean will spend part 2 interviewing one of his key collaborators on his “Scared & Alone” show, the Gentleman Psychic, Richard-Lael Lillard!

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