Tag: Martin Scorsese

Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 2 Episode 86

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Much of what we think we see in a movie is based on what we hear. To this day, much of what we expect of how a movie will sound is because of the indelible impacts made by such legendary composers as Max Steiner and Bernard Hermann. Steven Smith is a prolific documentary filmmaker, an historian, a lecturer and the author of books detailing the lives and careers of these two giants of motion picture music. Steven is also a good friend Phil Leirness AND he is the guest on this week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 2 Episode 81

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Dean and Phil follow up on last week’s awesome show by discussing more about “Hollywood accounting” and how in show biz the “bottom line” is often NOT the bottom line! Last week, while discussing the box office struggles of the brand new In the Heights, Dean and Phil were inspired to look back at two dance films based on the same craze that opened on the same day many years ago, one of which boasted a music score from Phil’s frequent collaborator, Greg De Belles. Greg composed the score for Phil’s Karl Rove, I Love You and for Dean and Phil’s The Truth Is Out There and The Lady Killers. Greg died on Friday, and Dean and Phil speak of their immensely talented friend. Of course, the box office struggles continue, so Dean and Phil discuss how a Pixar movie might have been able to change everything. That leads into a deep dive into Disney +, the movie Soul, the miniseries “WandaVision” and the episodic series “The Mandalorian”. There is also a lot of talk about painting, from the advice given by the great Leigh McCloskey to the thematic approach of the Barbizon school of artists and the brilliance of Julian Schnabel’s Van Gogh film At Eternity’s Gate. Finally, Dean and Phil celebrate the careers of an Oscar-nominated character actor and a beloved sitcom actor and director.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 2 Episode 44

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A lot of post-production work went into making this one of our best shows of the year! Dean regales with stories of drinking and jury duty, Phil remembers dear friend and true iconoclast Konrad Monti. Dean and Phil discuss Amazon’s “The Boys” (a show Dean might have actually influenced!) and the dire future of movie-going in the wake of James Bond and “Black Widow” being pushed again, which led to the 2nd largest U.S. theater chain closing, while the first largest still hasn’t fully re-opened! A terrific, and highly musical “Celebrity Deaths” involves celebrations of a great jazz musician (and subject of an awesome Netflix documentary), songwriter-singer-turned-actor Mac Davis, and 70’s-pop-queen-turned-therapist Helen Reddy! Finally, we transport you back to a certain rooftop in the historic L.A. neighborhood of Los Feliz for the conclusion of Dean and Phil’s ruminations on what filmmakers might make the list of their all-time favorites.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 2 Episode 42

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This week, your friends in podcasting definitely put the “Hollywood” into YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour, not only with the topics they discuss but by recording the show in, you know, Hollywood! That’s right, the “Turlock” drinking game might need to take a couple weeks off, while Dean and Phil discuss jury duty, a forthcoming X-Files/Lone Gunmen virtual convention and a spate of recent “Celebrity Deaths” (including a Supreme Court justice, a founder of Women’s Studies, the founding figure of reggae, a controversial jazz journalist and cultural critic, and more). Phil and Dean sing the praises of the late, great Bea Arthur (discussing both “Maude” and “The Golden Girls”). A comparison of Martin Scorsese to David Lean leads to a conversation about Robert Mitchum. A conversation about last week’s show leads to a discussion of the Vincent Price/Diana Rigg vehicle Theatre of Blood, which leads to a discussion of what it will take for movie theaters – and moviegoing – to survive the pandemic and the digital streaming age. Finally, there is the return of “Lawsuit of the Week” featuring everyone’s (real? phony?) favorite heavy metal act, Spinal Tap! 

 

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 2 Episode 41

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This week’s show will be action-packed and an especially fun show for movie-lovers. In “What We’re Reading”, Dean will update us on his Da Vinci-esque “Mind Maps”. In “Celebrity Deaths” a chart-topping singer and an iconic TV star of the 60s who went on to star on-screen and on-stage for more than 60 years will be remembered. Cinemas are re-opening in the U.S., but should they? Not according to filmmakers whose movies are actually going to play in those theaters! Dean and Phil will discuss, and they will analyze both the controversy surrounding Netflix’s “Cuties” and the changes the Oscars will be making to its “Best Picture” category to promote greater diversity in front of and behind the camera. Finally, a whole mess of great films will get celebrated, with a particular emphasis on the greatest British filmmaking team of all time. And if that’s not enough, there’s even a new Chillpak Hollywood Hour drinking game!

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 2 Episode 38

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California is on fire and Phil gives a full report from Turlock. Meanwhile, Dean Haglund is singing for charity along with the entire cast of “The X-Files” to benefit the World Central Kitchen. And speaking of “The X-Files” Dean wants to discuss the films of former “X-Files” director Rob Bowman in anticipation of a series of shows about the movie directors that are the all-time favorite filmmakers of your friends in podcasting. As promised last week, the implosion of the SAG-Aftra health plan gets dissected and analyzed from several angles. Finally, in “Celebrity Deaths”, a classically trained star of stage of screen, a young star of 70’s independent cinema, a 70’s sitcom fixture, a sex symbol of early TV, a Beat Goddess and Canada’s First Lady of the Blues all get remembered and celebrated.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 2 Episode 37

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Because he’s been driving all over California, Phil tackles the insane, apocalyptic weather racking the Golden State, and Dean updates on the building of his steam room and his graphic novel (both of which are long-awaited) on this week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. The madness of America is addressed through the oddly appropriate lens of Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ and speaking of Scorsese, his mentor, John Cassavetes is very much a subject of discussion, from his directing of the under-seen classic The Killing of a Chinese Bookie to his acting in such crowd-pleasers as the 1964 version of The Killers and The Dirty Dozen. And one of the “Dozen”, the great music star-turned-actor Trini Lopez gets remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Robert Altman’s penultimate film, The Company, receives some fascinating analysis. And speaking of fascinating analysis, somehow a discussion of TV’s “Columbo” and “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” allow Dean and Phil to figure out once and for all why the Back to the Future sequels are so bad! At the close, your friends in podcasting preview next week’s show when they will be discussing the series nominated for the Emmy in the “Best Comedy” category and the dire circumstances threatening SAG-Aftra in the wake of the union’s health plan implosion.

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 2 Episode 31

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It’s all classic comedy, classic television and classic movies on this week’s show! The truly legendary Carl Reiner gets celebrated. Then, Dean and Phil compare the years in film 1982 and 1974 with 1962 to see which year they think was the best year ever for movies!

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 2, Episode 22

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After a cold open in which Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness celebrate the fact that YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour becomes a teen-ager this week, they launch into what they do best, trying to make sense of a (Covid-19) world gone wild with humor, insight, irreverence and inspiration. In the return of “Wingnut of the Week”, Dean and Phil offer a wag of the finger at Covid-19 conspiracy theorists and a doff of the cap to UFO “truthers”. In “Celebrity Deaths”, they pay tribute to a true titan of comedy publishing and filmmaking, an international star who broke big in both Bollywood and Hollywood, a character actor-turned-casting director, an influential folk singer, and the musician who turned Hugh Grant into a pop star! Then, your friends in podcasting tackle how Covid-19 will affect the up-coming television season, and how it will affect the Oscars, before turning their attention to what years in cinema might rival 1962 as the best year ever for movies! 

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Chillpak Hollywood Hour – Season 2, Episode 20

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From the inner space of quiet, self-quarantine lockdowns, to the outer space of “Star Trek: Picard”, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness take you on quite the journey this week! It starts with their latest observations about themselves and others in the wake of another week of isolation. Sadness, quiet and dehumanization are on the thematic menu! They then compare notes on their respective Easter celebrations, which leads to a discussion of a couple of classic musicals: 1934’s Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers vehicle The Gay Divorcee and 1948’s seasonal staple Easter Parade, starring Astaire and Judy Garland. The recent, modern classic, Uncut Gems gets championed by Phil, who tries to get Dean to overcome his trepidation surrounding Adam Sandler performances (and yet, Dean once championed You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, so go figure!). The second half of the show consists of Dean and Phil comparing the years in cinema 1973 and 1974, discussing all the notable films from those two halcyon years, in hopes of determining which year might challenge 1962 as the greatest year in cinema. Finally, your friends in podcasting beam up to the La Sirena to discuss and debate what went right and what went wrong in season one of “Star Trek: Picard”, a show so successful that a big-screen movie version is already in the planning stages.

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