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”.

Are Dean and Phil filled with the spirit of the holiday season? This week, we will all find out! They certainly are immersed in the spirit of the Hollywood Awards Season and they discuss the top ten films according to critics, and delve into the top films and performances according to the Golden Globes. They do deep dive analyses of two films – one current award hopeful, and one all-time classic from a true giant of cinema. Then, in the return of “Celebrity Deaths”, a world-famous mentalist, and a big-screen comedy hit-maker get remembered.