With his new film Dream Scenario spreading like a virus across the US and Canada, writer-director Kristoffer Borgli steps up for The Idiots, Lars Von Trier’s 1998 drama about a group of people who choose to embrace provocation to shatter the veneer of polite society. Your genial host Norm Wilner is just too genial to do that sort of thing. 

With her new short Cold making its world premiere at Toronto's Blood in the Snow film festival this Saturday, actor and filmmaker Liz Whitmere opens up Yorgos Lanthimos' absurdist 2017 tragedy The Killing of a Sacred Deer to see what makes it tick. Your genial host Norm Wilner knows better than to offend Barry Keoghan.

With her new feature We Will Be Brave playing the Regent Park Film Festival next Friday, November 24th, documentary filmmaker Chrisann Hessing celebrates the bloody good time that is Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s 2014 vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows. Your genial host Norm Wilner has never needed a chore wheel.

With his new film Hands That Bind freshly arrived in theaters and on digital in the US and Canada, writer-director Kyle Armstrong digs into Lodge Kerrigan's excruciating 2004 drama Keane, which stars Damian Lewis as a man in a profound state of crisis. Your genial host Norm Wilner is braced and ready.

Happy horny Halloween! With his first feature Verona opening theatrically in Toronto this Friday, November 3rd, and screening in Landmark theaters across Canada on Monday the 6th, writer-director Sebastian Back tackles Walerian Borowczyk's 1975 art-house erotic fantasy horror film La Bete. Your genial host Norm Wilner strongly advises listener discretion. 

Sure, Halloween is just around the corner but Dicks! The Musical co-creators and co-stars Joshua Sharp and Aaron Jackson are here to spread the joy of another season, celebrating the 2020 Netflix musical Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square. Your genial host Norm Wilner is ... surprisingly into it. Dicks! The Musical is in theaters now from A24 and VVS, depending on whether you're in the US or Canada. You can find Aaron and Josh on Instagram at instagram.com/garbagetroll and instagram.com/cluckcluckjoshsharp, respectively. Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square is currently streaming on Netflix.And hey, the podcast is on Bluesky now! Follow us at semcast.bsky.social 

Casting director turned writer-director Jennifer Cram, whose first feature Sick Girl is in theaters and on demand this Friday, October 20th, tackles Reality Bites, the 1994 comedy that asked Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn and director Ben Stiller to represent all of Generation X. Your genial host Norm Wilner was there too.

With her new web series How to Fail As a Popstar premiering on CBC Gem this Friday, October 13th, multimedia polymath Vivek Shraya is here to discuss the movie that had a profound impact on her younger self: The Bodyguard, Mick Jackson's 1992 thriller-slash-romance starring Whitney Houston as a megastar who hires Kevin Costner as her protection -- only for them to realize their relationship is much more than just professional. Your genial host Norm Wilner always wondered about that rule.

With her reality comedy I Have Nothing now streaming on Crave, Baroness Von Sketch Show's Carolyn Taylor is here to tackle Colin Higgins' 9 to 5, the 1980 workplace comedy smash that pitted office workers Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton against Dabney Coleman's swaggering jerk of a boss. Your genial host Norm Wilner really wanted to sing the song.

With their first feature Tenzin now streaming on CBC Gem and available on digital across North America, directors Michael LeBlanc and Josh Reichmann share their love for Adrian Lyne's 1990 thriller Jacob's Ladder -- you know, the one where Tim Robbins plays a Vietnam veteran who finds life back home even more hellish than it was in country. Your genial host Norm Wilner has some thoughts.

With his first feature Relax, I'm From the Future opening in the US this Friday, September 22nd -- and having a preview screening in Toronto at the Carlton Cinemas ahead of its official release October 6th -- filmmaker Luke Higginson takes 24 Hour Party People for a spin, celebrating the perfect casting of Steve Coogan as '70s TV presenter Tony Wilson, and pretty much everything else about Michael Winterbottom's 2002 dramedy. Your genial host Norm Wilner is still coming down from TIFF, to be honest.

With her new documentary Analogue Revolution: How Feminist Media Changed the World premiering Friday at the Atlantic International Film Festival (and playing the Toronto Independent Film Festival on Sunday), professor and filmmaker Marusya Bociurkiw salutes Laura Poitras' Nan Goldin documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed -- for obvious reasons. Your genial host Norm Wilner is glad she did.

Writer-director M.H. Murray -- whose first feature I Don’t Know Who You Are has its world premiere at TIFF this Thursday, September 7th -- salutes Three Colours: Blue, the first film in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s brilliant trilogy of dramas inspired by the themes of the French flag. Your genial host Norm Wilner is just here to be amazed by Juliette Binoche.

TIFF is coming, but you know what else is? Children Ruin Everything, the second season of which is about to air on The CW in the US for the very first time! And that lets your genial host Norm Wilner reissue the very second episode of this podcast, in which actor, screenwriter and future sitcom star Aaron Abrams attests to the comic perfection of Bill Murray and Howard Franklin's 1990 classic heist comedy Quick Change. Totally holds up.

Calgary filmmaker Berkley Brady, whose first feature Dark Nature is now streaming on Hollywood Suite, professes a lifelong love for Garry Marshall’s Beaches -- the beloved 1988 melodrama starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey as lifelong friends who are the wind beneath each other's wings. Your genial host Norm Wilner has something in his eye, okay?

With her first dramatic feature The Unknown Country now in U.S. theaters and dropping on digital next month, filmmaker Morrisa Maltz discusses Abbas Kiarostami's 1987 breakout Where Is the Friend's House?, the observational drama that introduced the Iranian director to the world -- even though he'd been making movies since the '70s. Your genial host Norm Wilner is moving this week, so please keep him in your prayers.

With his time-travel drama Aporia opening in theaters across North America this Friday, writer-director Jared Moshé is here to salute Peter Cattaneo’s The Full Monty –  the 1997 international smash that made Trainspottting's Robert Carlyle sexy instead of scary.  Your genial host Norm Wilner always knew the guy had it in him.

With his new thriller The Channel now available on digital and on demand, writer-director William Kaufman drops us into the urban nightmare of Michael Mann's Collateral, the one where Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise drive around Los Angeles in a murder cab. Your genial host Norm Wilner reminds you: Always tip your driver. Or else.

With her new film North of Normal opening across Canada this week, filmmaker Carly Stone is here to support another new release, Celine Song's stunning drama Past Lives. Your genial host Norm Wilner hopes he and Carly will see you at the 6:30pm screening of North of Normal this Friday, July 28th, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Sarah Gadon will be there too!

Actor and comedy dynamo Emma Hunter (The Beaverton, Mary Goes Round, Mr. D and now Moonshine, which returned to CBC this week and just reached the US via The CW) has loved Penny Marshall's 1992 grand slam A League of Their Own since she was a kid. Now she gets to love it on a podcast. Your genial host Norm Wilner is here to supply the stats.

This week, filmmaker Mel Eslyn -- whose first feature Biosphere, starring Mark Duplass and Sterling K. Brown, is now playing in the US and available to rent on digital across North America -- celebrates Todd Rohal's The Catechism Cataclysm, another weird comedy about two guys going through some stuff. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting twelve years to talk about this movie with somebody. 

Veteran genre director Chuck Russell (Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors, The Blob, The Mask, Eraser and the new Paradise City) picks Robert Clouse's martial-arts classic Enter the Dragon, leading to a conversation about how Bruce Lee changed action movies in general -- and Chuck's, specifically. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been sitting on this one since last fall, and he's so glad you finally get to hear it.

Author and actor Priya Guns -- who co-stars opposite Devery Jacobs in V.T. Nayani's This Place, returning to the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto next Friday, July 7th -- throws down for the genius of Boots Riley's 2018 debut Sorry to Bother You, a movie that doesn't get anywhere near the respect it deserves. Your genial host Norm Wilner has Priya's back on this one.

In advance of the special Pride screening of his New Romantics documentary Tramps! this Thursday, June 22nd, at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, filmmaker Kevin Hegge celebrates another music movie: Alek Keshishian's Madonna: Truth or Dare, the 1991 documentary about the controversial Blonde Ambition tour that nudged queer culture into the mainstream. Your genial host Norm Wilner never mastered voguing.

With his latest feature Enter the Drag Dragon now playing in Saskatoon and opening in Toronto next Friday, filmmaker and exhibitor Lee Demarbre is here to sing the praises of Sam Peckinpah's era-defining 1969 Western The Wild Bunch. Your genial host Norm Wilner is all ears.

Actor and filmmaker Dan Abramovici (Ben's At Home, Limnal) is here to celebrate Stanley Tong's 1992 action picture Police Story III, better known as Supercop -- you know, the one where Michelle Yeoh jumps a motorcycle onto a moving train, Jackie Chan hangs from a helicopter, and your genial host Norm Wilner can't watch it without anxiety.

It's our 450th episode. and actor Sean Gunn -- fresh from playing both Kraglin the Ravager and Rocket the raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 -- is here to run through Robert Altman's epic 1975 masterpiece Nashville in just under half an hour while your genial host Norm Wilner makes the most of every minute. Who wouldn't, really?

With his latest film Blueback now available on digital and on demand across North America, director Robert Connolly (The Bank, Paper Planes, The Dry) is here to discuss how Vincent Ward's genre-bending 1988 fantasy The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey changed the trajectory of his life and career. Your genial host Norm Wilner can see how that could happen.

With his second feature Retrograde opening across Canada this Friday, writer-director Adrian Murray celebrates the 30th anniversary of Richard Linklater’s cult classic Dazed and Confused -- the one about some teenagers in Austin, Texas on the last day of school in 1976. Your genial host Norm Wilner loves this one, man: He gets older, but the movie stays the same. 

Writer and producer Ian Carpenter (Shudder's Slasher: Ripper, Tubi's Marry, F***, Kill) brings Harmony Korine's 1997 directorial debut Gummo onto the podcast ... and finds himself re-evalluating the movie that rocked his world a quarter-century ago. Your genial host Norm Wilner has totally been there, just not with Gummo.

With his new drama Acidman now available on VOD in North America, filmmaker Alex Lehmann (Blue Jay, Paddleton, Meet Cute) salutes Nine Days, Edson Oda's metaphysical masterwork starring Winston Duke as a man who spends his afterlife auditioning souls to be born into the world. It sounds heavy, but it's light as air ... and just as essential. Your genial host Norm Wilner is all in on this one.

Before she starts pursuing Emily Hampshire and annoying Jonas Chernick in Sean Garrity’s The End of Sex, opening across Canada this Friday, actor and occasional director Melanie Scrofano fulfills a promise made years ago and shares her love for Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 WWII extravaganza Inglourious Basterds. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting seven years for this.

Actor and filmmaker Vanessa Matsui (Ghost BFF, The Girlfriend Experience, The Hot Zone, Letterkenny) celebrates the Toronto premiere of her directorial debut, Midnight at the Paradise, by digging into the remarkable chemistry of Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack in Sophie Hyde's Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for calling Daryl "David" that one time.Midnight at the Paradise premieres this Friday, April 21st, at the Paradise Cinema (of course). Tickets are still available right here.

With her directorial debut Emily arriving on digital, actor-turned-filmmaker Frances O'Connor shares her love for Alejandro González Iñárritu's 2010 drama Biutiful, and Iñárritu's fascination with finding emotion in the most extreme circumstances. Your genial host Norm Wilner is listening.

Film teacher and filmmaker Joseph Amenta, whose first feature Soft launches its Canadian run at Toronto's Revue Cinema on Friday April 7th, is here to talk about the way Sean Baker's Tangerine introduced them to an entirely new way of making movies -- and one that feels even more important today. Your genial host Norm Wilner is excited to hear about it.

Montreal filmmaker Sarah Watts -- whose first feature You Can Live Forever, co-directed with Mark Slutsky, is now playing in theaters across Canada -- celebrates Bound, the 1996 debut that introduced the world to the Wachowskis, and to the sight of Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly as film-noir lovers. Your genial host Norm Wilner was wondering when someone would choose this.

With his prizewinning second feature Riceboy Sleeps playing in theaters across Canada in advance of next month's Canadian Screen Awards, actor and filmmaker Anthony Shim shares his love for a formative South Korean classic: Lee Chang-dong's unforgiving drama Peppermint Candy. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been looking forward to sharing this for a very long time.

For our eighth anniversary, actor Romina D'Ugo (I Like Movies, now playing in theatres across Canada) is here to honor Michael Radford's 1994 heartbreaker Il Postino -- a film that stands as testament to both Pablo Neruida's poetry, and star Massimo Troisi, who spent a decade trying to make this movie and died the day after it wrapped. Your genial host Norm Wilner is in awe of ... well, all of that.

With Women Talking heading to the Oscars this Sunday (where it's up for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay) and newly available on Blu-ray and DVD, actor Michelle McLeod puts her driving goggles on to celebrate Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the 1968 family musical extravaganza starring Dick Van Dyke and a flying car. Your genial host Norm Wilner still has nightmares about the Child Catcher.

With her first dramatic feature Joyride newly available on digital and on demand across Canada, award-winning editor and documentary filmmaker Emer Reynolds (Cuba Was Here, The Farthest) explores the inner and outer spaces of Denis Villeneuve’s acclaimed genre drama Arrival. Your genial host Norm Wilner still can't believe Amy Adams didn't get an Oscar for this one.

With her latest film Jethica freshly streaming on Fandor, Callie Hernandez (Blair Witch, La La Land, Under the Silver Lake, Shotgun Wedding) traps us in a room with Catherine Breillat's Anatomy of Hell, the 2004 chamber piece starring Amira Casar and Rocco Siffredi as two people confronting one another's bodies. Your genial host Norm Wilner is braced for provocation.

Actor, writer, producer and now director Murry Peeters (See, Transplant, The Parker Andersons / Amelia Parker), whose short film Woman Meets Girl premieres Saturday, February 18th at both the Toronto Black Film Festival and Queer Screen’s 30th Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney, Australia, takes a bite out of The Menu, Mark Mylod's recent satirical thriller about the last dinner service at a very exclusive, very committed fine-dining establishment. Could Ralph Fiennes really build a cult? Is Anya Taylor-Joy supposed to look so much like Anna Kendrick? Should we be encouraging people to harm Nicholas Hoult? Your genial host Norm Wilner is plated and ready.

Toronto filmmaker Julianna Notten, whose first feature Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls is now playing at the Carlton in Toronto and available across Canada on digital and on demand, digs into the ecstatic melancholy of Charlotte Wells’ devastating debut feature Aftersun, in which Frankie Corio and Oscar nominee Paul Mescal play out a father-daughter drama through a tragic film of memory. Your genial host Norm Wilner has his own baggage to unpack on this one.

Belgian director Lukas Dhont, whose powerful new drama Close was just nominated for the Best International Feature Oscar, celebrates Chantal Akerman's revolutionary Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles being named the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound last year. And while your genial host Norm Wilner did tackle Akerman's movie with Wayne Wang back in Episode 306, he's happy to go back in.

As he makes his debut as a writer and director with When You Finish Saving the World -- now playing in the US and opening in Canada this Friday, January 27th -- Oscar-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland, The Social Network, Night Moves and many, many more) shares his love for another actor's first feature: Richard Ayoade's 2010 debut Submarine, a coming-of-age tale starring Craig Roberts as a misfit kid in 1980s Wales trying to keep his parents from drifting apart and lose his virginity before he turns sixteen ... not necessarily in that order. Your genial host Norm Wilner thinks he can keep up.

Documentary filmmaker Chelsea McMullan celebrates the Canadian theatrical release of Ever Deadly, their collaboration with Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, by diving into the swamp of Lucrecia Martel's 2001 breakout La Cienaga, the class-conscious drama which ushered in the New Argentine Cinema. Your genial host Norm Wilner is prepared to wade in carefully.If you're in Toronto, Chelsea and Tanya are appearing at the Hot Docs Cinema with journalist and author Tanya Talaga after the 8 pm screening of Ever Deadly on Saturday, January 21st . Tickets still available! Don't miss out!And don't forget to subscribe to Norm's newsletter, Shiny Things! SIgn up for a 14-day free trial right here. It's good for you, probably.

 Actor and filmmaker Karen Knox -- whom you may know from Slo Pitch, Barbelle and Homeschooled, among others, and whose first feature Adult Adoption opens in Toronto this Saturday and in London and Vancouver next week, is here to make a meal of Peter Greenaway's baroque 1989 breakthrough The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, in which  Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren and Alan Howard play four people whose lives intersect at a very fancy London restaurant, with spectacularly tragic results. Your genial host Norm Wilner has a napkin round his neck already.

Happy new year, everybody! Vancouver filmmaker Scooter Corkle, whose new thriller The Friendship Game is available on digital and on demand today, is here to tackle the cannibal chaos of Ravenous, the unique 1999 horror comedy starring Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle as military rivals in 1840s California who disagree on matters of culinary etiquette. Your genial host Norm Wilner can't wait to dig in.