The Hip Pocket

ERIC VESPE cut his teeth as Quint at Ain’t It Cool, starting with the site when he was still in high school, and he grew up embedded on film sets all over the world. He has written hundreds if not thousands of interviews and set visits, and along with his creative parter Aaron Morgan, he’s also made several short horror films while developing various feature projects.

He was one of the first people I invited to be on the show, in large part because he’s become a podcasting superstar with The Kingcast and The Spiel, focused on two of pop culture’s most totemic artists. I was not surprised when he came back with two films right away, because I think if you turn my friend into a math equation, his first film plus his second film is a pretty handy summation of who he is.

I mean, his Hip Pocket choices are Almost Famous, Jaws, and A Matter of Life and Death, the Powell and Pressberger masterpiece. I mean, Eric really is the kid from Almost Famous, but for the movie business in the early 2000s, and of course, he took his online name from Spielberg’s breakthrough blockbuster, something that he found incredibly awkward when he actually met Spielberg, as we’ll discuss. That last film? Well, Eric’s a big ol’ softie, which is one of the reasons I love him, and that movie speaks directly to that gooey romantic heart of his.

I figured if he’s going to give you a core couple of pieces of his identity as his picks, I can do the same, so I’m adding Lawrence of Arabia to the Hip Pocket Hall of Fame this week.

If you’d like to support The Hip Pocket at Patreon, you can find us at https://www.patreon.com/c/DrewMcWeeny.

If you’d like to find us on BlueSky, you can find us at https://bsky.app/profile/itsthehippocket.bsky.social.

The Hip Pocket is hosted by Drew McWeeny and Aundria Parker.Craig Ceravolo is the show’s bandleader and producer. It is a Formerly Dangerous Production.

BEAR MCCREARY is our guest today, and he couldn’t have been more of a delight. From the moment I contacted him about being on the show, he was engaged and excited. He sent me a number of possible combinations of films and themes before landing on the one he went with: Movies that combine rock music and symphonic score on their soundtracks.

Makes sense. After all, McCreary is one of the hardest-working film and TV composers today. His mentor was the legendary Elmer Bernstein, so he learned about film composition from one of the all-time greats, but he’s also a working rock musician who frequently collaborates with his brother Brendan. His breakthrough work was the Battlestar Galactica reboot, and his music was a huge part of that show’s identity. He’s done terrific work for Outlander, Foundation, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. His recent album The Singularity features contributions from guests like Rufus Wainwright, Slash, Buck Dharma, Scott Ian, Joe Satriani, and Corey Taylor. In 2019, he wrote the score for Godzilla, King of the Monsters, a score that my son, a lifelong Godzilla fan, refers to as “straight f*****g fire.”

His three Hip Pocket choices were Highlander, Pink Floyd - The Wall, and Heavy Metal, and I felt it was my moral imperative to choose Phantom of the Paradise as our response film.

Finally, I was in a mood after all of that, so I picked Hedwig and the Angry Inch to join the Hip Pocket Hall of Fame.

If you’d like to support The Hip Pocket at Patreon, you can find us at https://www.patreon.com/c/DrewMcWeeny.

If you’d like to find us on BlueSky, you can find us at https://bsky.app/profile/itsthehippocket.bsky.social.

The Hip Pocket is hosted by Drew McWeeny and Aundria Parker.Craig Ceravolo is the show’s bandleader and producer. It is a Formerly Dangerous Production.

CLAY KELLER is a writer, actor, and podcaster, and one of the hosts of Screen Drafts, a collaborative competitive movie discussion game where groups of people battle it out to create the definitive lists on topic after topic after movie loving topic. He was one of the hosts of the now-defunct Vidiots podcast, and he’s helped create a sprawling community of movie fans who can endlessly debate the various categories that are introduced each week.

His three Hip Pocket selections were Broadcast News, Malice, and Summer Hours. Craig chose True Stories as our response film.

Finally, Drew inducted Quick Change into the Hip Pocket Hall of Fame.

If you’d like to support The Hip Pocket at Patreon, you can find us at https://www.patreon.com/c/DrewMcWeeny.

If you’d like to find us on BlueSky, you can find us at https://bsky.app/profile/itsthehippocket.bsky.social.

The Hip Pocket is hosted by Drew McWeeny and Aundria Parker.Craig Ceravolo is the show’s bandleader and producer. It is a Formerly Dangerous Production.

BRYAN COGMAN is today’s guest, and he’s showing his sensitive side with his choices. This might be a surprise if you primarily know him from his WGAw-nominatd work on Game Of Thrones as a writer/producer. He was educated at Juliard as an actor, and he’s certainly got a big soft spot in his heart for great performances. He’s also worked on remakes of Sword in the Stone and Zorro for Disney, with the latter in development as a series for Wilmer Valderama.

His three Hip Pocket selections were About A Boy, Broadway Danny Rose, and Lost in Translation. Aundria chose The Shape of Things as our response film.

Finally, Drew inducted Freebie & The Bean into the Hip Pocket Hall of Fame.

If you’d like to support The Hip Pocket at Patreon, you can find us at https://www.patreon.com/c/DrewMcWeeny.

If you’d like to find us on BlueSky, you can find us at https://bsky.app/profile/itsthehippocket.bsky.social.

The Hip Pocket is hosted by Drew McWeeny and Aundria Parker.Craig Ceravolo is the show’s bandleader and producer. It is a Formerly Dangerous Production.

JASON PARGIN is today’s guest, and he came ready to dig deep! No surprise if you’ve read his acclaimed novels like John Dies at the End, Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick, or This Book is Full of Spiders, or if you know his work from Cracked.com. He has a massive TikTok following these days and his latest book, I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box of Doom, feels like an essential text for our turbulent times.

His three Hip Pocket selections were American Beauty, Fight Club, and Office Space, and I picked the Alan J. Pakula film Orphans as our response.

Finally, Drew inducted The Virgin Suicides into the Hip Pocket Hall of Fame.

If you’d like to support The Hip Pocket at Patreon, you can find us at https://www.patreon.com/c/DrewMcWeeny.

If you’d like to find us on BlueSky, you can find us at https://bsky.app/profile/itsthehippocket.bsky.social.

The Hip Pocket is hosted by Drew McWeeny and Aundria Parker.Craig Ceravolo is the show’s bandleader and producer. It is a Formerly Dangerous Production.

ALLIE GOERTZ is today’s guest, and if don’t already know Allie, you’re welcome for the introduction. A former editor of Mad magazine, a writer for @Midnight, a songwriter and performer, and an old-school podcaster, Allie has pretty much done it all. I’ve known her for a long time, and she was one of the first people I wanted to have on to give this format a test run.

Her three Hip Pocket picks this week are A Mighty Wind, They Came Together, and Big Night, and Aundria picked Sleeping With Other People as our response.

Finally, Drew chose to induct The Thin Man into the Hip Pocket Hall of Fame.

If you’d like to support The Hip Pocket at Patreon, you can find us at https://www.patreon.com/c/DrewMcWeeny.

If you’d like to find us on BlueSky, you can find us at https://bsky.app/profile/itsthehippocket.bsky.social.

The Hip Pocket is hosted by Drew McWeeny and Aundria Parker.Craig Ceravolo is the show’s bandleader and producer. It is a Formerly Dangerous Production.

It’s finally time for the second season of The Hip Pocket, and to get things rolling, we’ve got a very special guest.

BILL OAKLEY was a writer/producer for The Simpsons, eventually showrunning the series for several seasons with his creative partner, Josh Weinstein. They co-created the cult favorite Mission Hill, and more recently, Oakley is the creator and writer of Space: 1969, an original audio comedy for Audible. He’s also become a beloved figure on Instagram for his fast-food reviews, and just celebrated the Seventh Annual Steamie Awards.

Bill chose three Hip Pocket movies for us to watch and discuss: the very silly Who’s Minding the Mint?, Norman Lear’s blistering satire Cold Turkey, and the all-star comic avalanche that is It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Each episode, we pick one film to discuss as a response to the movies our guest chooses, and this week’s response was the 1991 Sylvester Stallone comedy Oscar.

Finally, Drew chose to induct Monty Python’s Life of Brian into the Hip Pocket Hall of Fame.

If you’d like to support The Hip Pocket at Patreon, you can find us at https://www.patreon.com/c/DrewMcWeeny.

If you’d like to find us on BlueSky, you can find us at https://bsky.app/profile/itsthehippocket.bsky.social.

The Hip Pocket is hosted by Drew McWeeny and Aundria Parker, and Craig Ceravolo is the show’s bandleader and producer. It is a Formerly Dangerous Production.

The first season of The Hip Pocket comes to a close with an episode focused on the films of the 2020s. Aundria, Drew and Craig discuss the haunting Aftersun, the gleefully silly Love & Monsters, and the wild dark comedy Riders of Justice.

The first season's almost over and Aundria, Drew and Craig look at the 2010s this time, discussing the Argentine black comedy Wild Tales, the geek documentary Wolfman's Got Nards, and John Carney's super-charming Sing Street.

Drew, Aundria and Craig picks three Hip Pocket titles from the first decade of the 2000s, discussing 800 Bullets, George Washington, and the somehow still underrated Michael Clayton.

The big Hip Pocket season one warm-up continues as we reach the 1990s. We talk about The Man in the Moon, Dogfight, and Grace of My Heart, and things get emotional!

The first season of The Hip Pocket continues as Aundria, Drew and Craig pick three films from the 1980s. The Chocolate War, Summer School and The Big Easy all spark lively conversations as they discuss why they chose such unusual titles as part of this warm-up season.

This is not the '70s episode you're expecting. Drew, Aundria, and Craig all choose a Hip Pocket title to represent one of the wildest decades of film, so get ready for conversation about The Silent Partner, Robert Altman's Nashville and the enduring classic Jaws... 2.

Who does a full warm-up season for a podcast? Well, we do! And this is the fourth episode of this first warm-up season. We're still working out some sound issues, but it's starting to come together. More importantly, Aundria, Drew and Craig are starting to really enjoy this time they're spending together. This time, we're talking about the '60s, with Mary Poppins, Billy Liar, and The Bellboy giving us a very odd perspective on a swinging decade!

The third episode of the warm-up season is all about the 1950s. Aundria, Drew and Craig pick Out of the Past, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life.

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Our second warm-up episode is all about the 1940s.

Our idea for our warm-up season was to pick one movie from each decade, starting in the '40s, to give each other an idea of our tastes. Today, we cover Mildred Pierce, Fun and Fancy Free, and Out of the Past.

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Season One of The Hip Pocket opens with a warm-up episode.Aundria, Drew and Craig pick one Hip Pocket movie each, and this week, anything goes. We're discussing Fall, Five Corners, and Bringing Up Baby. It's a strange trio, but a great place to start!

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