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.

Dean and Phil discuss the death of a genuine L.A. icon, the changes sweeping thru Phil’s beloved neighborhood, the “right” time to move, a TCM podcast about Peter Bogdanovich, his film Saint Jack, workplace safety on the films of Roger Corman and more thoughts on the recent releases The Last Duel and Nightmare Alley. All that, plus they celebrate the lives and legacies of a Nashville broadcasting giant, the “singer of the millennium”, a rock music superstar, three actors, a beloved comedian, a groundbreaking fashion maverick, and two historic figures from the world of sports.

It’s the midst of the holiday season. Travel plans are ramping up and the awards season is starting to heat up! The American Film Institute has revealed its honorees as the top (ten) films of 2021 and a consensus has begun to form through critics Top Ten lists about the best movies of the year as well. Dean and Phil discuss it all. They analyze (and “contextualize”) three new award-hopeful releases from major directors: Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog. They also celebrate foreign films, the Oscars, country rock, The Monkees, the Bronski Beat, New Orleans, The Beasts of the Southern Wild, Interview with the Vampire, telenovelas and more in “Celebrity Deaths”.

It’s Halloween season, so this week, Dean and Phil will get into the spooky spirit of things by celebrating “All of the Them Witches” – programming a dream film festival of witch-themed double-features! Of course, there is a ton of spooky, unsettling and downright terrifying show biz news for them to cover as well, including the potential resolution of the IATSE conflict with the AMPTP prior to almost all film and television productions getting shut down, the messy publicity slaughterhouse that continues to ensue following Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer” and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos’ response to it, and a little bit of “inside” info regarding Marvel’s Black Widow. All that, plus really good box office news and a pioneering animator, a chart-topping bassist, and a best-selling YA novelist get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.