On this second episode of Year 20 (“the year we get it right!”), Dean and Phil have crime on their minds! They start with an appreciation of director Jules Dassin’s classic film noir Night and the City. Then a Hitchcockian thriller, Mirage, by Edward Dmytryk, the man largely responsible for Jules Dassin getting blacklisted gets analyzed. Both films show telltale signs of having been directed by men with quite different experiences of the Hollywood blacklist. A neo-noir that never disappoints is Robert Altman’s Philip Marlowe adaptation The Long Goodbye. Dean and Phil discuss the film as a “satire of melancholy” and share many stories about the filmmakers and actors’ remarkable approaches to telling the story. Another 1970s mystery film, the ill-fated Agatha about the real-life disappearance of the great mystery novelist Agatha Christie for 11 days in 1926 gets reviewed. The final suspense picture on the Chillpak crime blotter this week is Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterful The Wages Fear. Dean reviewed it several weeks back, and now it’s Phil’s turn to compare and contrast it with William Friedkin’s 1977 adaptation of the same source material, Sorcerer. Finally, one new blockbuster, the crowd-pleasing The Devil Wears Prada 2 gets analyzed both as a legacy sequel and as a very hopeful harbinger for the summer movie season.

Welcome to Year 20 (“the year we get it right!”). On this, their overall 988^th installment, Dean and Phil really put the “Hollywood” into “Chillpak Hollywood Hour” with showbiz news, analysis, previews and reviews. It starts with a discussion of the long-running series “Supernatural”. Then in the “Lawsuit of the Week” the supposed end of the It Ends With Us lawsuits gets discussed. The surprising details of the SAG-AFTRA deal with the AMPTP get analyzed and the fact that it (most likely) means no labor stoppage for the next four years gets celebrated. Some fascinating rules changes for next year’s Oscars get dissected, and some seemingly terrific, but certainly intriguing, news regarding Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia” movie for Netflix gets hailed. The Cannes film festival gets previewed. As does the American Cinematheque’s Bleak Week festival. Finally, two current theatrical releases get hailed as modern masterworks and the plans for a new episode of “Deep Dive” get finalized.

Welcome to a show 19 years in the making! Special guest co-host Jon Lawlor and special guests Erynn Petrulis, Yoshi Kato, Lily Holleman, and Marc Hershon join the festivities and help Dean and Phil celebrate this milestone event! Topics include movie-going here and in Japan, improvisation in jazz and in deejaying, performance art, laserdiscs, and the guests’ earliest memories of both Dean and Phil and of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. Jon Lawlor is the purveyor of numerous Chillpak theme songs throughout the years, as well as the co-host of the Chillpak Hollywood Presents shows “The Art Life” and “Celebrity Deaths”. Erynn Petrulis is an accomplished performer and musician whose persona “Kalinda” records on a major label. Yoshi Kato is a well-respected music journalist, and one of the true authorities on jazz. Lily Holleman is a brilliant actress and comedic stage performer. Marc Hershon is a branding expert, veteran podcaster and podcast reviewer, longtime professional in both the television and comedy industries, and star of the Chillpak Hollywood Presents show “Television with Marc Hershon”.

We are one week away from Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness celebrating 19 years of “changing the way people listen to the internet” through YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour (now the flagship of the “Chillpak Hollywood Presents” expanded universe of podcasts on Substack). On this week’s show, Dean and Phil come to humorous grips with just how long they have been doing this show through discussions of celebrity deaths and conspiracy theories surrounding dead and missing scientists. They also go deep on the, perhaps unfortunate, legacy of “The X-Files” inspiring people to “trust no one”, especially when it comes to journalists. Two great Vietnam War films get discussed briefly before an in-depth discussion about all that is wrong AND right with the recent blockbuster Project Hail Mary, as well as the most recent installments in both the Predator and John Wick cinematic universes.

After a cold open wherein Phil gives everyone the lay of the land, outtakes from last week’s show are picked up off the cutting room floor, dusted off and used, revealing an obviously drunken Dean and (a perhaps tipsy) Phil continuing their discussion of commuter trains before delving into Project Hail Mary and a couple of vintage James Bond films. Then, after a midpoint musical interlude that allows Dean and Phil to become sober as judges, good pal Jon Lawlor joins the conversation for analysis of the Live Nation and Ticketmaster court case and the pending Warner Bros.-Paramount merger. During the show, Phil learns the difference between a Japanese bathhouse and the Alamo Drafthouse, and the difference between the words “vacillate” and “oscillate”.

Dean Haglund is back in Los Angeles and he and Phil Leirness went up to the rooftop studio high atop the historic neighborhood of Los Feliz to get their drink on and to record this episode all about travel, commuter trains and movies. Dean sings the praises of Waymo, tells tales of getting “upgraded” during his flights, and says the word “bathhouse” way too many times for Phil’s liking or comfort. Phil discusses a potato chip brand he really enjoys and shares the cocktail recipe for a “Manhattan Noir”. In between, the film noir classic Odds Against Tomorrow, the current Japanese movie Exit 8, and the Japanese classics Spirited Away and Shall We Dance? all receive deep-dive discussion. The great Harry Belafonte and the brilliant Koji Yakusho are both celebrated, and Dean explains a bit about Noetic Science as depicted in Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets.

In his final show from his current trip to the East Coast, Phil regales with thoughts of Easter and tales of cherry blossoms. Dean explains why he did not see Project Hail Mary. An email from a friend of the show leads to further discussion of the 1978 sci-fi cheese-fest Starcrash and to the entire concept of “guilty pleasures” getting analyzed. An email from another good friend of the show causes Phil and Dean to go deep into dead actors taking roles away from living ones and into the exact role Doja Cat played in denying Timothee Chalamet a Best Actor Oscar. Then, Dean and Phil turn their attention to the big show biz news of the weekend: the Writers Guild of America striking an unexpected deal with the AMPTP, and the latest headlines to come out of the Justin Baldoni-Blake Lively lawsuit. Finally, the proceedings wrap up with your friends in podcasting sharing personal recollections of the 31^st greatest movie theatre in the world right now according to Time Out.

Phil is in the nation’s capital, and reveals that he really doesn’t understand much about weather at all. Dean is in Birmingham, Michigan, where the ongoing airport delays prevented him from participating in this weekend’s “No Kings” protests. Phil shares with Dean the favorite signs he saw while protesting with his in-laws! Last week, Dean and Phil discussed the 107 year-old Santa Monica Airport, soon to close operations for good and set to become public parkland. Phil regales Dean with tales of one very famous and beloved movie filmed there. This leads to a discussion about built sets that were too big for any studio soundstage to hold. After that, three very disparate, and somewhat unusual, films get analyzed: the recent Japan-set Rental Family starring Brendan Fraser, the 1978 sci-fi schlock movie Starcrash (featuring Christopher Plummer!) and the 2025 faith-based historical fiction family film Sarah’s Oil. Finally, Dean and Phil do more exploring in the Time Out list of the 100 Greatest Movie Theaters in the World RIGHT NOW. Oh, and a belated Happy National Respect Your Cat Day to all who celebrate!

This week’s episode starts off with a follow-up to a fascinating bit of silent film history discussed on this weekend’s “Celebrity Deaths” show. That leads into discussion of the landmark 107 year-old Santa Monica Airport and what is to become of that land now that the airport is (finally) shutting down. AI is creating a “new” Val Kilmer performance for an upcoming feature film. Dean and Phil have thoughts. Likewise they have thoughts about three movies: the 2016 classic zombie thriller Train to Busan, the most recent film from indie film legend Jim Jarmusch, and an all-time masterpiece from The Archers. Then, your friends in podcasting wrap up the festivities by discussing several more of the theaters that made Time Out’s list of the 100 Greatest Movie Theatres in the World RIGHT NOW!

This week’s show begins with Dean and Phil discussing the World Baseball Classic and sharing (and answering) an email from a loyal listener who wanted to celebrate the recent 25^th Anniversary of Dean’s series “The Lone Gunmen”. Recorded on Sunday morning before the Oscars (and before the big “Firefly” announcement), the bulk of the discussion surrounds what Dean and Phil are looking for at Hollywood’s big night. They discuss how talented filmmaker and entertaining video host Ryan Casselman might just have devised scientific formulae for “decoding” Oscar voting. The controversy surrounding Timothée Hal Chalamet’s comments regarding ballet and opera get full analysis. Then, five films go under the microscope, including two by classic thriller director Henri-Georges Clouzot, two tales of nuclear paranoia from Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow, and the multi-Oscar-winning 1983 classic Tender Mercies.