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.

Get full access to Formerly Dangerous at drewmcweeny.substack.com/subscribe