Hot Date

1991's Defending Your Life is the fourth film Albert Brooks' wrote, directed and starred in.  He would eventually serve in those capacities on a total of seven films, all bearing his distinctive gentle but incisive examination of love, death and relationships.  Brooks hoped to challenge the popular and Hollywood version of heaven and the afterlife as a fanciful, peaceful Utopia.  He imagines in Defending Your Life a heaven not dissimilar to our corporeal world -- one run much like a business, where the most prepared are rewarded with eternal salvation.  He had a strong cast (Meryl Street, Rip Torn, Lee Grant and Buck Henry) and skilled cinematographer (Allen Daviau) to help him.   Dan and Vicky discuss their first Albert Brooks' film along with some recently seen including the Amazon docuseries Lorena, horror doc Horror Noire, Isn't It Romantic, Happy Death Day 2U, The 400 Blows, 10 to Midnight, 1968's Lion in Winter, and a whole trove of Netflix comedy specials. There's also talk of Dan's recent acting gigs,