The first show of 2025 find Dean and Phil in good form and discussing a wide array of topics including the landscape and geography of NY’s Central Park, nature photography, the It Ends With Us controversy and lawsuit, and the near future of motion picture distribution both theatrically and via streaming. The truncated nature of this year’s mad dash Awards Season will get analyzed before the Netflix series “Man on the Inside” gets reviewed. Then, your friends in podcasting roll up their sleeves to re-examine Netflix’s 2018 film The Christmas Chronicles and offer their thoughts on the Ralph Fiennes-Juliet Binoche starrer The Return as well as the brilliant Nickel Boys and the reviled (and misunderstood?) Joker: Folie a Deux. Finally, thoughts regarding the suicide of filmmaker Jeff Baena are offered and Ralph Fiennes closes the show by being very “demure”.

Following up on last week’s milestone (and VERY bizarre) episode #500 (where Dean and Phil took a road trip to a cemetery) is no easy task, and this week’s show proved to be torture in its production, so please forgive the (slight) delay in getting it to you and the (frequent) technical problems during it. This being 2016, there are, of course, new “Celebrity Deaths” to discuss. There is also an email from a listener like you (yes, YOU!). There is the return of “What We Are Reading”, several “Live Events of the Week” and New Year’s Eve plans get compared. Then, the subjects of year end critics’ lists and award nominations get discussed and a handful of new and recent films get analyzed, including Rogue One: A Star Wars StoryPatriots DayLion, and Lights Out. Is it possible that the best film of the year is also one of the best TV shows of the year? Find out NOW on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

It’s our New Year’s Eve special! Listen tonight when you’re drunk, or tomorrow when you’re still drunk. I’d write a better blurb, but I need to get drunk! Enjoy and have a safe, responsible, Happy New Year!