With Vivieno Caldinelli’s horror comedy Scared Shitless making its Toronto premiere this Saturday, November 23rd at the Blood in the Snow film festival, scene-stealer Mark McKinney is here to ride or die with George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which rolls back the clock to show us how the wasteland’s greatest warrior learned her craft … and what it cost her. Your genial host Norm Wilner would have given an arm to have this conversation.

With her new film Lucky Star making its Toronto premiere at the Reel Asian film festival this Saturday, writer-director Gillian McKercher is here to celebrate Pietro Marcello’s muscular adaptation of Martin Eden, which galvanized the festival circuit five years ago but was lost in the first wave of COVID. Your genial host Norm Wilner didn’t expect this episode to be as timely as it is, but there you go.

Since Lauren Collins is starring in the new Crave series My Dead Mom – and since the US election is all anyone can think about right now – here’s her 2015 episode on Gillian Robespierre’s breakout comedy Obvious Child, the one where Jenny Slate plays an aspiring Brooklyn standup trying to build a set while dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. Your genial host Norm Wilner really hopes America holds itself together this week.

With his sci-fi drama The Becomers landing on Blu-ray today, writer-director Zach Clark closes out his October horror viewing with Jack Hill’s unquantifiable family study Spider Baby. Your genial host Norm Wilner wonders whether it truly is The Maddest Story Ever Told.

With his short film The Light Before the Sun making its world premiere at the Hamilton Film Festival this Saturday, October 26, actor and director Michael Greyeyes is here to talk about his newfound passion for Wong Kar-Wai’s 2000 romance In the Mood for Love. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting so long for someone to pick this one, you guys.

As their found-footage horror movie It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This continues rolling through theaters, filmmakers Rachel Kempf and Nick Toti drop by to talk about their love for Eli Roth’s Hostel, and make the case for the film being a lot more thoughtful than people gave it credit for. Your genial host Norm Wilner is willing to hear them out.

With her first feature Compulsus opening across Canada this Friday – just as her second film, Lakeview, rolls through the festival circuit – writer-director Tara Thorne stops by to salute Lorene Scafaria’s 2019 true-crime picture Hustlers, in which Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez play exotic dancers who exploited their patrons right back. Your genial host Norm Wilner still doesn’t understand how the Oscars overlooked that one.

He faces off against hard-partying puppets in Steven Kostanski’s new comedy Frankie Freako, but right now Conor Sweeney is here to get very serious about his love for Ridley Scott’s genre-defining 1979 masterpiece Alien. Your genial host Norm Wilner can’t believe it took somebody nine and a half years to pick this one.

With her new drama The Arrival freshly available on digital and on demand, producer-director Alyssa Rallo Bennett is here to explore the slow-rolling dread of Sam Esmail’s 2023 drama  Leave the World Behind. Your genial host Norm Wilner stocked up on bottled water before the recording, just in case.

With his paranormal thriller Succubus hitting DVD and digital next week, writer-director RJ Daniel Hanna stops in with a film that somehow no one’s picked in over 500 episodes: Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Your genial host Norm Wilner is really glad he did.

His debut dramatic feature Shook makes its world premiere at TIFF this Saturday, but first Amar Wala is here to celebrate Lulu Wang’s  The Farewell, the 2019 indie hit that spins an emotionally complex tale of generational culture clash -- and lets us see Awkwafina in a whole new light. Your genial host Norm Wilner hopes to see you at the Festival.

His first feature Doubles is available on digital and on demand today, so writer-director Ian Harnarine steps up to celebrate Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come, the movie that introduced reggae to the world and made Jimmy Cliff an even bigger star than he already was. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to crank up the sound.

His exquisite folk-horror film All You Need Is Death is on digital and on demand in the US and making its way to Canada, so writer-director Paul Duane drops by to sing a love song to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s groundbreaking 1997 thriller Cure. Your genial host Norm Wilner is a little nervous about listening too closely.

Her new drama Good One is in US theaters now and opening in Canada this Friday, so writer-director India Donaldson is here to discuss Archipelago, Joanna Hogg’s 2010 drama about a family struggling to enjoy a weekend together. Your genial host Norm Wilner is just so happy someone finally picked one of Joanna Hogg's movies.

With his new thriller Cuckoo creeping into theaters this Friday, writer-director Tilman Singer joins us from Berlin to unpack his love for David Lynch’s 1997 identity-crisis nightmare Lost Highway. Your genial host Norm Wilner still gets the shivers when he remembers that one moment. No, the other one.

With her new series Poly is the New Monogamy freshly landed on Hollywood Suite, actor, producer, writer and director Cat Hostick is here to tackle Ari Aster’s sunlit creeper Midsommar -- you know, the one where Florence Pugh goes on a European vacation. Your genial host Norm Wilner isn’t going anywhere near that big stuffed bear.

Before his charming new film Bookworm opens Montreal’s Fantasia Festival on Thursday, producer and director Ant Timpson spends an hour discussing his love for Cornel Wilde’s 1965 survival thriller The Naked Prey. Your genial host Norm Wilner can see where he’s coming from.

Juno-winning comedian and actor Dave Merhege – who co-stars opposite Daisy Ridley in Rachel Lambert’s affecting new drama Sometimes I Think About Dying – is here to praise the manic commitment of Robert Pattinson in Josh and Benny Safdie’s white-knuckle drama Good Time. Your genial host Norm Wilner is totally on board with this, as long as no one gets hurt.

With her new film Valley of Exile opening across Canada this Friday, July 5th, writer-director Anna Fahr is here to discuss a lost masterwork of Iranian cinema: Bashu, The Little Stranger, Bahram Beyzai’s 1986 drama about an orphaned child and the woman who takes him into her home. Your genial host Norm Wilner hates that this story is still relevant four decades later.

Actor Ryan Ali, who stars in the drag dramedy Queen Tut – freshly streaming on Crave in Canada – takes on Good Grief, the movie Daniel Levy made after Schitt’s Creek came to an end. Your genial host Norm Wilner wishes everyone a happy Pride.

Actor Shayelin Martin, who stars as determined teen surfer Goat in Caitlyn Sponheimer’s first feature Wild Goat Surf, now available on digital and on demand, is here to celebrate the comfort – and singing! – of Mamma Mia!, the 2008 Abba jukebox musical and international smash. Your genial host Norm Wilner has always admired Pierce Brosnan in this one.

Now that his first feature Before I Change My Mind has arrived on digital and on demand, writer-director Trevor Anderson takes a little time to celebrate Pedro Almodovar’s madcap 1987 neo-noir Law of Desire. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting a long time for somebody to pick another Almodovar movie.

Before her first feature I Used to Be Funny rolls out to theaters across North America this Friday, June 7th, writer and director Ally Pankiw (Schitt's Creek, Black Mirror, Terrific Women, Feel Good) takes a moment to celebrate the candy-colored act of subversion that is Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont's Josie and the Pussycats. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting years for this.

As his radical slasher film In a Violent Nature lumbers its way into theaters across North America, writer-director Chris Nash steps up for the very specific chills of The Eclipse, Conor Mcpherson’s 2009 ghost story starring Ciaran Hinds as an Irish widower who finds himself drawn to a writer at his village’s annual literary festival despite being literally haunted by horrific visions. Your genial host Norm Wilner is glad he avoids most festival parties.

With her new documentary Wilfred Buck rolling into theaters across Canada, filmmaker Lisa Jackson is here to lose herself in the forests of Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning 2001 fantasy about a little girl who braves a supernatural world to rescue her parents. Your genial host Norm Wilner makes sure he never eats at an enchanted buffet.

With her first feature Wild Goat Surf now playing in Toronto and Vancouver, actor and filmmaker Caitlyn Sponheimer is here to celebrate – and interrogate – Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning 2013 drama The Great Beauty, in which Toni Servillo’s aging Italian scenester finds himself pondering the limits of la dolce vita. Your genial host Norm Wilner just hopes he ages as well.

It’s our 500th episode, and actor Sara Canning – who’s got two films opening in Toronto this month, The Burning Season this Friday, May 10th, and Sweetland on May 17th – is here to plumb the psychological depths of Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, the film that showed us all what Elizabeth Olsen could do, and left us on the edges of our seats. Your genial host Norm Wilner still hasn’t recovered, honestly.

Writer-director Ned Benson – whose new feature The Greatest Hits is now streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney+ everywhere else – is here for a sprint through Martin Scorsese’s 1985 Soho nightmare After Hours. Your genial host Norm Wilner always makes sure he has a spare twenty because of this picture.

Documentary filmmaker Ken Wardrop – whose new feature So This is Christmas makes its North American debut at Hot Docs next Tuesday, April 30th – saw David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago as a boy and has been swooning over it ever since. Your genial host Norm Wilner has tea and lemon at the ready.

Screenwriter Paul Laverty – whose decades-long collaboration with director Ken Loach culminates in The Old Oak, now in theaters across North America – is here to shine a light on Diego Quemada-Diez’ 2013 migrant drama The Golden Dream. Your genial host Norm Wilner is always happy to lend a hand.

Friday bonus episode! Actor and filmmaker Anna Maguire -- who literally gives her heart to Hamza Haq in Kim Albright’s With Love and a Major Organ, opening today in theaters across Canada -- salutes another oddball romance: Hal Ashby’s 1971 cult classic Harold and Maude. Your genial host Norm Wilner has the hearse all gassed up.

With his first feature In Flames opening in theaters across North America this Friday, April 12th, writer-director Zarrar Kahn is here to resurrect BeDevil, Tracey Moffatt's one-of-a-kind anthology of Australian ghost stories ... and the people who fail to learn from them. Your genial host Norm Wilner just survived an eclipse, so he's ready for anything.

Actor Sara Waisglass, who co-stars with Michaela Watkins and Charlie Gillespie in the mid-life comedy Suze -- now available on digital and on demand -- steps up for Emerald Fennell's Oscar-winning hot-button thriller Promising Young Woman. Your genial host Norm Wilner only mansplains a little of it.

He’s on screens across Canada right now in The Queen of My Dreams and he’ll be back April 12th in With Love and a Major Organ, but right now Hamza Haq is here, on this podcast, discussing his all-time favorite film: Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. Your genial host Norm Wilner has the Tumbler gassed up and ready to roll.

With her creepy new thriller Lovely, Dark, and Deep newly avaialble on digital and on demand, writer-director Teresa Sutherland is here to drag the depths of Joel Anderson's 2008 chiller Lake Mungo, a mockumentary that continues to haunt everyone who's seen it. Your genial host Norm Wilner is ready to dive in.

With his new comedy Hey, Viktor! opening across Canada -- and sporting three shiny new Canadian Screen Award nominations! -- writer-director Cody Lightning is here to talk about the bizarre balancing act of sports picture and small-town drama that is Jay Roach's 1999 dramedy Mystery, Alaska. Your genial host Norm Wilner has his skates on.

With his delightful first feature Molli and Max in the Future rolling through U.S. theaters, writer-director Michael Lukk Litwak takes us back to Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg’s glorious 1993 blockbuster about dinosaurs chasing people around an island. You remember it, right? Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum were in it? The dinosaurs looked fantastic? Your genial host Norm Wilner still has the T-shirt. 

With her new movie Suze now playing in theaters across Canada, the invaluable Michaela Watkins revisits Martha Coolidge's Valley Girl, the teen movie that paired Deborah Foreman and Nicolas Cage for a very '80s love story. Your genial host Norm Wilner hasn't seen this one in a while either.

With her award-winning first feature Seagrass opening across North America this Friday, writer-director Meredith Hama-Brown puts on her ballet flats to discuss The Red Shoes, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1948 masterwork about art, life, death, commitment, fear, rage and passion. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for his bad ankles.

With his first feature Marmalade now available on digital and on demand, actor-turned-filmmaker Keir O'Donnell offers his heart to Tony Scott's 1993 pulp-fiction knockout True Romance ... just in time for Valentine's Day. Your genial host Norm Wilner didn't even buy flowers.

With her new film Sometimes I Think About Dying now playing in the US and opening across Canada on Friday, director Rachel Lambert brings up another study of an alienated person making an unlikely connection: John Schlesinger's Oscar-winning Midnight Cowboy, a film unique in American cinema for all sorts of reasons. Your genial host Norm Wilner is walking here.

The Canadian theatrical release of her second feature Tótem  gives writer-director Lila Avilés the chance to bend the format a little and talk about how her voracious, lifelong love of cinema -- from Disney to Cassavetes -- helped her find her own aesthetic as an artist. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for his voice, which he blew out doing Canada's Top Ten events over the weekend.

Charles-Olivier Michaud,  whose adaptation of Kim Thuy's award-winning novel Ru opens across Canada this Friday, January 26th, is here to ride along with Sebastian Schipper's 2015 single-take thriller Victoria, starring Laia Costa as a Spanish pianist who meets the wrong group of dudes in a Berlin nightclub and has a hell of a night as a result. Your genial host Norm Wilner wouldn't even be up at 4 am these days, you know?

With a new restoration of her rediscovered film Household Saints opening at Toronto's Revue Cinema this Friday, writer-director Nancy Savoca shares her love of another long-lost picture: Euzhan Palcy's 1983 debut Sugar Cane Alley, which has been even harder to find in recent years. Your genial host Norm Wilner still regrets not buying the DVD when he had the chance.

With his new movie Who's Yer Father? now on digital and the third season of Run the Burbs premiering tonight on CBC and CBC Gem, actor and stand-up Chris Locke is here to celebrate The Wrong Guy, the deadpan 1997 farce where Dave Foley tries to be a fugitive even though no one is chasing him. Your genial host Norm Wilner has some history with this one.

Happy new year! Writer-director Orson Oblowitz -- whose retro-cinema charmer Showdown At the Grand just arrived on disc and digital -- is here to celebrate the earth-shaking impact of Katsuhiro Otomo's 1988 anime breakthrough Akira. Your genial host Norm Wilner is always happy to nerd out for a bit.

With his extremely '80s thriller Going In now available on digital, actor and filmmaker Evan Rissi is here to celebrate one of the films that inspired it: Road House, the 1989 action drama starring Patrick Swayze as the world's greatest bouncer and Ben Gazzara as the world's pettiest crimelord. Your genial host Norm Wilner would never leave you without an episode over the holidays.

Actors, writers and real-life pals Rosa Labordé and Anna Hardwick – whose new streaming series Nesting premieres on Crave in Canada this Friday, December 22nd -- make some noise for Joan Micklin Silver’s Crossing Delancey, the unassuming 1988 dramedy where Amy Irving plays a New York bookseller torn between a flashy European author and a nice pickle man. Your genial host Norm Wilner does enjoy an old dill.