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.

Pile into the back of the car, buckle up, and join Dean and Phil, reunited on the mean streets of downtown Los Angeles, as they make their way into Hollywood for a live improv comedy show! On the way there, Dean reveals his Thanksgiving celebrations, Phil reveals his birthday celebrations, and they discuss the life and legacy of Irene Cara, and analyze a very important and interesting weekend at the box office. Such movies as Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Spirited and The Fabelmans get reviewed. On the way back downtown, they take a deep dive into different kinds of improv comedy AND improv comics. Dean gets weepy about a robot documentary before he sings the praises of the Netflix series “Wednesday”. Phil does likewise with season 2 of “The Mysterious Benedict Society” before he and Dean close with thoughts about season 2 of “Avenue 5”.