Dean previews his upcoming improv show. Phil previews his forthcoming travels with his cat. Dean and Phil analyze the latest news in the escalating showdown between the Hollywood studios and the creative unions, including the terms of the tentative agreement between the studios and the directors. Then, the rest of the show is about a handful of the greatest films of all time, including Casablanca (with fascinating and surprising stories about its making), Seven Samurai, Pickpocket and Out of the Past, and a couple of truly awful ones (a musical version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Kirk Douglas?!). Discussion of great actors, great editing, great cinematography, and Wabi-Sabi ensues! 

Your friends in podcasting and broadcasting start the show with a “cold open” about some greats of Italian cinema and the genius of Jennifer Coolidge and the cinematographer of “The White Lotus”. Then, after Phil regales with tales of a one-day, 650 mile road trip to Turlock and back, Dean and Phil spend the bulk of the show doing a deep dive into analyzing the year in movies 2022. They take the 10 nominees for the Best Picture Oscar and compare/contrast that list with both the critics’ choices for the top dozen or so films of the year and the top ten box office releases of the year. What emerges is an analysis of the present, and perhaps the near future of moviemaking and movie-going.

Recorded late last week from a certain “historic building in downtown Los Angeles”, this episode begins with Phil doffing his cap about what Dean got right in discussing Sarah Polley’s Women Talking a few weeks back AND wagging his finger at what Dean got wrong while discussing Netflix’s “Wednesday” this past week. Phil then hails Joel de la Fuente (of “Man in the High Castle” and most recently “The Mysterious Benedict Society”) as his favorite actor. At that point, Dean and Phil switch gears for a show ten years in the making, analyzing the just-released, decennial Sight and Sound poll of all-time greatest films! What Dean and Phil were expecting and what surprised them leads to what promises to be an ongoing conversation about re-contextualization and the importance of learning how works of art resonate with different groups and different cultures.

You might not know the name Don Phillips, but you will definitely know the names of many the performers whose careers he launched as a casting director, and the films with which he was involved. He is one of four cultural titans that Dean and Phil remember in “Celebrity Deaths” on this week’s show, including a poet and founder of the mythopoetic men’s movement, an iconic Broadway composer, and a trombonist who received the highest honor ever bestowed on jazz musicians. Dean will update us on the latest in his bout with Covid-19, his travel plans, his live ghost hunts and his “Hellacious Renovations”. Phil will regale us with his birthday adventures, his deep dive into historic movie locations, and his exploration of the Manzanar “War Relocation Center”. Several movies will get analyzed as well, including a Kurosawa classic ripe for a modern-day remake, a film noir with a claim to the best dialogue of any movie ever, and a current box office hit that begs the question, “Does bustin’ make Dean & Phil feel good?”

Saturday was International Ghost Hunting Day and Dean was at the forefront of it. Phil has been thinking a great deal about Buster Keaton, his influence, and other films and filmmakers that might have influenced the making of his beloved Wings of Desire. Phil asks Dean about legendary actress Ruta Lee, and an episode of “The Twilight Zone” in which she starred. One of the greatest banjo players of all time, a giant of reggae, and a founding member of a chart-topping UK pop band all get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. In the return of “What We’re Reading”, Dean discusses an artist who was once the most popular in Amsterdam and who has fallen into obscurity. This leads into a fascinating discussion about communicating with the future. Phil is reading a novel that explores two different timelines in the marshes and on the coastline of North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s. Dean and Phil then re-visit last week’s Emmy Awards and do an analytical deep dive into the furor surrounding “Ted Lasso” season 2 and the concept of “public ownership” before reviewing season 1 of “Hacks”. Finally, we want to wish our sponsor, Empire State Gas, Many Happy Returns! Thanks for sponsoring us all these years. You’ve got great gas!

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!

It’s Memorial Day here in the USA, so this episode is coming out about 12 hours later than we like. Nevertheless, Dean and Phil remember a wonderful actress, the artist who designed so many classic movie posters, a pop artist whose sculpted work is iconic, a movie actor and television star from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and a prolific and controversial award-winning novelist. Following “Celebrity Deaths”, your friends in podcasting will weigh in on the criminal charges filed against former mogul Harvey Weinstein and his lawyer’s rather shocking public defense of Weinstein’s actions. Then, it’s time to dig into the latest “Star Trek” news and a handful of recent cinematic releases a half-dozen or more current or recent cinematic releases, including a new “Star Wars Story”, two superhero movies, and an indie comedy. All that, plus a Memorial Day-inspired re-appraisal of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

 

It’s a special Top Ten show! Your friends in podcasting count down their all time favorite War Films! It’s amazing how many different sub-genres of war films, Dean and Phil discover and more than thirty films actually get discussed. Trust us – It’s totally awesome.

This week’s show is over five and a half years in the making.

It starts with your friends in podcasting revealing their all-time Top Ten Films.

Then, they reveal the all-time Top Ten according to all the guests who have appeared on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

What films will make the cut?

We wouldn’t dream of spoiling it. HOWEVER, we CAN let you know that these films did NOT make the top ten, though they came very close, finishing in positions twenty-four through eleven:

24. Vertigo (Director: Alfred Hitchcock, Year: 1958)
23. Apocalypse Now (Francis Coppola, 1979)
22. Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
21. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
19. TIE – Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994), The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998)
18. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
17. Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987)
16. the Matrix (The Wachowskis, 1999)
15. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
14. Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
13. Fellini’s 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)
12. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
11. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

Got your popcorn? Then, let’s go to the movies!