Tag: film noir

Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 20 Episode 22

Posted on by PHIL19

Despite being recorded later than we like, and despite one of your friends in podcasting definitely “playing hurt”, this installment certainly proves to be a delight. Much hilarity starts the show, in no small part thanks to an email from a loyal listener like you (yes, YOU!), before Dean and Phil get into a fascinating conversation about the court-approved settlement terms for the merger of Paramount/Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. The “Live Event of the Week” returns, thanks to the launch of Phil’s own monthly stage show! He and Dean discuss, and Phil reveals he busted up his ankle falling down a flight of stairs many weeks back. Dean has begun his homework for the next “Deep Dive” into (neo) noir, and has thoughts about François Truffaut’s 1960 New Wave crime drama Shoot the Piano Player. Finally, since “spooky season” has begun, Phil does an in-depth comparison of John Carpenter’s 1982 The Thing and Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 20 Episode 21

Posted on by PHIL19

If we know anything after almost 20 years of podcasting, it’s that people love hearing “production meetings on the air”! If that’s true, then what a show we have for you, with not one, but THREE production meetings – two of genuinely hilarious varieties and the third pertaining to movies like Backrooms, Exit 8, Universal Language and the television series “Severance”. In between those meetings, Dean and Phil share the thoughts of a loyal listener and roll up their sleeves to roast almost everybody involved in the “will they or won’t they” Paramount/Skydance merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. The glory of the once great Paramount Pictures gets re-visited using the all-time Hollywood classic Sunset Boulevard and the just-released season finale of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” season 4 as the gateway for this exploration. Come for the analysis, stay for the story about Phil stealing something! As if that all weren’t enough, Dean and Phil go deep on a perplexing television movie from 1974, its famous writer, its all-star cast, and its legendary cinematographer. Finally, Stop! That! Train! gets fully appraised.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 20 Episode 20

Posted on by PHIL19

Hindsight, like this episode, is 20/20 (Year 20 Episode 20, get it?) and so Dean and Phil begin this week’s show with a clip from the long-running ABC news magazine show “20/20” from the mid-1980s and remark upon just how contemporary those clips sound! From there, the upcoming “Blade Runner 2099” television series gets previewed and the latest in the lawsuit surrounding Paramount’s on-hold merger with Warner Bros. gets analyzed (and laughed about). Phil wants to know why Dean isn’t watching the terrific “Lanterns” on HBO. The brilliance of director Zach Cregger and the success of his new Resident Evil get appraised. Then, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Samurai and the Prisoner (just in time for its return to cinemas, this time in black and white) and DC’s Supergirl both get reviewed. Finally, the great Ang Lee and his landmark Sense and Sensibility get reappraised (just in time for a new adaptation to get released).

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 20 Episode 19

Posted on by PHIL19

Dean Haglund is back from Stockholm and he has brought tales of family mysteries with him! Because Dean is also jet-lagged, Phil Leirness figured this show was the perfect time to ask him about the science of combatting jet lag, about Melbourne, and about wildlife in Australia. Wildlife in Los Angeles, from bears to coyotes to one famous mountain lion, gets celebrated as well. Phil’s suspicions surrounding the lawsuit currently blocking Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. get discussed. The recent “Deep Dive” Dean and Phil did into 1950s film noir gets re-visited and in the process, the work of writer A.I. Bezzerides, and the early works of Stanley Kubrick get dug into, while an email from Maurice Terenzio about an early work by great noir director Joseph H. Lewis gets shared. Dean watched a whole bunch of current or recent releases on his long flight back from Europe (3BHK, F1, Michael and Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die) and Phil shares his thoughts about the current documentary about the late, great poet Mary Oliver. Even more movies than this get discussed, corrections get made and mea culpas are offered!

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 20 Episode 18

Posted on by PHIL19

Dean Haglund is in Stockholm, so for the bulk of the show, this week’s guest co-host, music, arts and culture journalist Yoshi Kato joins Phil Leirness to discuss the death of an all-time jazz great, the implosion of more than one jazz festival and live celebrations of the musical (and movie) legacy of composer John Williams. This leads to a great deal of discussion over the Star Wars franchise, original and recent, including Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, and several Star Wars-related vinyl records. The summer movie season has come to an end with this Labor Day weekend and it was far and away one for the record books. Will Hollywood learn the right lessons from the big success? Don’t count on it. Yoshi and Phil compare notes on what those lessons might be. They also discuss two current theatrical releases (Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and Coyote vs. Acme) and the classic, dreamlike French film Last Year at Marienbad, as well as the lasting influence of that film’s star, Delphine Seyrig. Finally, Dean drops in at the end so that he and Phil can pan two films set during World War I, one quite recent (The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes) and one quite acclaimed (1917).

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 20 Episode 16

Posted on by PHIL19

In a cold open, Phil tells of the “Live Event of the Week”. Then, in the return of “Lawsuit of the Week”, the ongoing saga of Paramount’s desired merger with Warners gets updated, and the recent UK privacy lawsuit involving such notables as Prince Harry, Elton John and Liz Hurley gets analyzed. Two listener emails pertaining to the recent, epic episode of “Deep Dive” exploring 1940s Film Noir get shared. The incredible, just-released episode of “The Wayback Machine” gets discussed and Phil follows up on what was covered in that show by asking Dean about the hit 2009 film District 9 and by quizzing Dean on hit sci-fi television of the past 20 years. Phil has fun discussing the attitudes of fans that have assumed “public ownership” of beloved properties (like “Star Trek”) and Dean makes a plug for his favorite band! Finally, Phil discusses the great Jafar Panahi’s multi-Oscar nominated It Was Just an Accident and this leads to he and Dean comparing notes on their go-to streaming channels or apps.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 20 Episode 15

Posted on by PHIL19

In a cold open, Dean and Phil share how impressed they are with an animated short made by the college student son of one of Phil’s high school classmates. In the return of “Lawsuit of the Week”, the most recent threats and developments surrounding Paramount’s desired merger with Warners get fully explained and analyzed. Phil shares sadness surrounding the impending departure of longtime favorite son of Los Angeles, Gustavo Dudamel, who is leaving the L.A. Phil to take over the New York Philharmonic. A great story about Lily (Holleman) Leirness’ encounter with Dudamel gets shared. Dean has started watching “Diarra from Detroit” at Phil’s urging and loves it! A loyal listener has a slight correction to something Dean said on the recent, epic episode of “Deep Dive” exploring 1940s Film Noir. Phil follows up on a couple of films discussed in that show, offering greater context to the writing of The Stranger (1946) and Sidney Greenstreet’s performance in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Chris Carter’s “director’s cut” of the 2nd “X-Files” movie has been released and … Dean and Phil have thoughts. Phil re-watched Citizen Kane, which inspires in-depth discussion of that film’s continued greatness and resonance, and which inspired his watching the recent Japanese psychological suspense film Exit 8, a film Dean is now ready to reappraise!

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 20 Episode 11

Posted on by PHIL19

In a truly confusing, but nevertheless hilarious, cold open, Phil offers a correction about “Malta Air”. Thanks to emails from loyal listener and frequent contributor Maurice Terenzio, Dean and Phil have a ball talking about three great actors of Hollywood’s golden age: Joe E. Brown, George Raft and Edward G. Robinson. The big show biz news of the week get discussed: the possible halt to the Paramount-Warners merger and the historic box office success for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Two new movies get reviewed: The brilliant comedy Stop! That! Train! and the hit Netflix offering Enola Holmes 3. Of course, Dean and Phil continue their ongoing film noir and neo-noir discussion, focusing on the nihilism of the 1970s as depicted in such modern classics as Arthur Penn’s Night Moves and the Paul New man vehicle The Drowning Pool. Finally, colleague Marc Hershon (star of the “Chillpak Hollywood Presents …” podcast Television with Marc Hershon) drops in to help your friends in podcasting come up with ideas for how they can commemorate their upcoming 1,000 episode, and to discuss ideas for Phil’s next movie, a documentary all about improv!

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 20 Episode 10

Posted on by PHIL19

It was a rough weekend for Dean Haglund, whose beloved Doberman, Leeloo, is undergoing emergency spinal surgery as we publish this show. It has also been a rough week for the media business where fear over job loss is concerned. In the UK, ITV has been taken over by Sky and several more television mergers, and downsizings, seem to be in the offing. In the U.S. Netflix is mulling a major expansion, and distribution company NEON has sold a major stake to production company Department M in hopes of massively “scaling up” operations. Dean and Phil have all this “business of show” news covered. Then, they go into detail analyzing Disclosure Day as a definitively “American” movie, and Guy Maddin’s Careful as a definitively “Canadian” one. Then, their ongoing discussion of film noir and neo-noir continues, with some key questions being asked and at least one truly awful neo-noir getting discussed in depth.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Year 20 Episode 9

Posted on by PHIL19

It was a big weekend, and your friends in podcasting have a lot of big topics to discuss, from the World Cup to the art of Caravaggio, from a masterpiece of German literature to the creation of synthetic life that demonstrates most of the hallmarks of actual life, from the ten films that best define America to a couple of the all-time greatest film noirs. Finally, Dean and Phil go long singing the praises of, and asking questions about, the independent film dominating the global box office, Obsession.

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