Last week, Dean and Phil discussed the ten films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, the ten films released in 2022 that earned the most revenue at the domestic U.S. box office, and the ten (or twelve) or so films the critics have come to consensus on as the best of the year. This week, it’s Dean and Phil’s turn! They will revel their Top Tens, as they count down what might be the films they consider the best, the most groundbreaking, the most important, or just their favorites of the year. 

After a cold open that involves a fascinating horror film from the UK in the 1940s (a rarity at the time) and the scientific theories it helped spawn, Phil reveals the horrific travels he undertook since he last convened with Dean on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! In “Celebrity Deaths”, the political cinema of Jean-Luc Godard gets analyzed, and the lives and careers of five performers and a jazz master get celebrated. Then, it’s back to the movies, with Dean recommending a current horror film and Phil revealing the two mysteries currently in theaters he is dying to see, before he and Dean sing the praises of several “Stranger Things” cast members and then try to figure out what went so right with one Ryan Reynolds vehicle from director Shawn Levy, and what went so wrong with another Ryan Reynolds vehicle from director Shawn Levy!

This weekend, Dean and Phil got together in-person on the “American Riviera” for a fascinating discussion inspired by a loyal listener like you (yes, YOU!). The conversation involves the importance of awards not only recognizing and rewarding great work, but also rewarding the great stories surrounding the making of that work! Somehow that inspires Phil to reappraise the entire filmography of James Mason. That great Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot, gets more time in the spotlight, as Dean and Phil take a little more time giving both a doff of the cap and a wag of the finger to Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile and Phil, who took the time during the week to unearth the final Peter Ustinov performance as Agatha Christie’s protagonist, has some thoughts about Appointment with Death from the infamous Cannon Film Group. Finally, in a riff on their usual “Celebrity Deaths” section, Dean and Phil discuss three non-celebrity friends who died recently.

This week’s show gets started with Dean providing an update on his graphic novel and a review of “Star Trek: Discovery” Season 3. Phil then shares a message from a loyal listener about their film The Truth is Out There. This leads to further discussion about such topics as conspiracy theories, cults, fear, how to recognize the truth, and “alienation of affection”. In “Celebrity Deaths”, Dean and Phil remember one of the greatest writers of television mysteries and an iconic voice of the British Invasion. Dean and Phil share a new review of their dark comedy feature film The Lady Killers and celebrate the fact that now everyone in the world can see it! Finally, a whole bunch of movies get discussed and reviewed, including Spike Lee’s critically-acclaimed Da 5 Bloods, Kelly Reichardt’s award-winning First Cow and a disappointing Tom Hanks western from director Paul Greengrass. Graphic novels, sci-fi TV, great new movies, conspiracy theories, celebrity deaths and more, all in one hour!

For many years, your friends in podcasting, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness, would reveal their resolutions for the coming year and hold each other’s feet to the fire as they looked back to see how they had fared on the previous year’s resolutions. They are a bit too old, and wise, and honestly, have had too much milk punch to engage in an exercise in depressing humiliation. Instead, on this week’s show, they set their intentions for 2020 by comparing notes on what they are looking forward to in this brand new year. Adventures in travel, comedy, movies, art, health and self-exploration beckon …

Your friends in podcasting have been teasing episode #568 for weeks! They had really been looking forward to counting down their all-time favorite Mystery films and the final results prove to be a lot of fun. So, get those Netflix queues handy, because Dean and Phil will hit you with more than two dozen movies they discuss at length with four films actually finding a place on both their Top Tens. There are comedy “whodunits” from the 1930’s, foreign language allegories from the 2000’s, independent films that launched careers, classics from international masters that launched entire sub-genres, mysteries based on books, mysteries based on plays, mysteries set in the farthest reaches of space, mysteries full of post-war romance and cold war anxiety. The biggest mystery of all is after almost eleven years, how do Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness keep managing to provide an hour (plus) of free audio entertainment each week?!