Phil is playing hurt with a nasty head cold. Dean is braving the sub-zero temperatures. And somehow, they manage to bring you one of the most epic installments yet of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! They start the show by discussing some of the upcoming 2026 cinematic releases that the Criterion Collection has on their list of the films they are most anticipating. Then, they analyze the Academy Award nominations, the surprises, the snubs, and the historic trends they see unfolding. From the best in cinema 2025 to the worst in cinema, an email from a loyal listener inspires Dean and Phil to discuss the Razzie Awards. Finally, your friends in podcasting wrap things up by revealing each of their lists of the five films that angered them, frustrated them, or downright confused them in 2025.

Phil gets things started by singing the praises of “The Lowdown” (and its emotional intelligence), and of Marc Hershon, who had this Sterlin Harjo-created Ethan Hawke-starring series on his list of the best television of 2025. Some casting news (regarding season 4 of “The White Lotus”) has Phil greatly enthusiastic. Then, for the first time in ages, but as they used to do on the regular back in the day, Dean and Phil analyze the long four-day weekend’s domestic box office, paying particular attention to the lack of performance by (the supposedly excellent) 28 Days Later: The Bone Temple and the milestone achieved by bona fide movie star Timothée Chalamet. Then, the conversation about IMDB’s list of the 20 most anticipated movies of 2006 picks up where it left off last week. The incredible achievement Sentimental Value pulled off at the European Film Awards gets placed in a historic perspective. Two movies get reviewed: Dean wags his finger at the Edgar Wright remake The Running Man and Phil doffs his cap to Bi Gan’s masterful Resurrection. This week’s show is EXCELLENT, but don’t take our word for it – just hit “play”!

This week’s episode finds Phil in the “DMV” (DC-Maryland-Virginia) area and Dean safely ensconced back in Michgan. Phil quizzes Dean about Renaissance man Martin Mull, iconic Winnipeg musician and broadcaster Ray St. Germain, two Oscar-winning composers, and an Oscar-nominated documentarian. Dean and Phil also sing the praises of perhaps the greatest actor to NEVER get nominated for an Oscar! Such streaming fare as “Tulsa King”, Season 4 of “The Boys”, “Ripley”, Season 2 of “Tokyo Vice”, and Richard Linklater’s Hit Man all get reviewed as well.

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.

Dean was still battling Covid and Phil was heading to Savannah, Georgia, so this week’s installment of was recorded several days early. In it, Dean offers suggestions to Phil of sites he should visit in the Hostess City of the South and Phil regales Dean with the history of the place where he would be staying. Dean and Phil preview what they expected to happen in the ongoing labor strife in Hollywood. A deep discussion of improv leads to Dean recounting a particularly hilarious scene in which he once performed. This leads to a preview of Richard Linklater’s new movie, Hit Man, and that leads to a discussion of two classic films celebrating anniversaries this year: the Hong Kong actioner Executioners (aka Heroic Trio 2) starring Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh, and Maggie Cheung, which turns 30 this year, and perhaps the greatest concert film of all time, Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense, which turns 40 this year and which has inspired Talking Heads reunions. Finally, a beloved English folk singer and a former piano prodigy get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.