The Hip Pocket #304 - Phil Nobile Jr.

Quick note.

Today’s podcast is a little uneven technically. Even though we’re in our third season, the demands and variables of recording from four different locations each week sometimes throws some sand in the gears. Ride that volume control and I promise next week’s better.

I know people have this picture of the way the online community works, like there’s a clubhouse where everyone hangs out and everyone knows each other by sight, but that’s not true.

Case in point: I am a big fan of today’s guest. We’ve met once or maybe twice at film festivals, but not for long, and for the most part, our interactions have been on social media. Doesn’t change the fact that I really like and respect this person for their work and for the way they’ve carried themselves through the turbulent world of working online over the last 20 years. Every single time we’ve interacted, I’ve walked away impressed.

More than that, this is a person who walks the walk, at a time when it really matters. He surrounds himself in his work with voices of every type, and he doesn’t do it because he’s hitting quotas or because he’s trying to impress anyone. He does it because he understands that there is a whole ocean of talent out there that will give you great work when you support and make space for them, and the more perspectives you can publish, the richer your work will be. Horror is a genre for and by outsiders, and I love that the magazine I consider most connected to horror history is genuinely progressive these days.

It is, then, a real pleasure to finally have an opportunity to spend an evening having a conversation about movies and life with them. The thing I love most about this podcast so far is having an excuse to see old friends and meet new ones, and this week feels like a little bit of both.

PHIL NOBILE JR. is the editor-in-chief of Fangoria magazine, which is kicking ass and taking name these days. Before this, you may have known him as part of the Birth. Movies. Death. editorial team, where he spent a ton of energy writing about his deeply-seeded love of the James Bond franchise. He’s also worked as a producer on films like Horror Noire, Satanic Panic, and VFW, and you’ve probably seen him in documentaries as a talking head. While you might guess that he’d pick all horror films or maybe spy movies because of his Bond mania, he threw us a delightful curveball instead.

First up, we’ve got Peter Fonda’s lyrical, heartbroken follow-up to Easy Rider, the recently reclaimed and restored The Hired Hand, co-starring Vera Miles and the great Warren Oates. This one will sneak up on you, and I think the same is true of his second film this week. It was a legendary pain in the ass for its studio, but I adore Elaine May’s Mikey & Nicky, co-starring Peter Falk and John Cassavetes. Finally, he picked a movie that ties together this week’s theme of unusual male friendships, a legendary comedy that just got a legacy sequel last week in theaters. That’s right. Turn it up to 11, because we’re talking about Rob Reiner’s 1984 This Is Spinal Tap.

Our reaction film for Phil is the first entry in one of the unlikeliest ongoing film franchises right now as Rob Brydon, Steve Coogan, and a fistful of Michael Caine impressions hit the road in Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip.

We inducted a movie into the Hip Pocket Hall of Fame this week that’s all about the way men are sometimes pressed together into unlikely friendships in suburbia, and how that can lead to a sort of spiraling collective insanity. I hope you love Joe Dante’s The ‘Burbs as much as I do.

I hope Phil enjoyed his time in The Hip Pocket as much as we enjoyed having him, and I strongly encourage you to support him and the entire Fangoria team. They couldn’t be doing any better these days, and I am genuinely proud to be a subscriber.

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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.