Veteran writer/producer Ali LeRoi — whose body of work includes writing Down to Earth and Head of State, creating and producing the television series Everybody Hates Chris and Are We There Yet, and whose powerful first feature The Obituary of Tunde Johnson just dropped on VOD in North America — loves heist movies, and he especially loves Ben Affleck’s 2010 thriller The Town, accents and all. Your genial host Norm Wilner is really curious to see how these things all line up.

Writer-director Shatara Michelle Ford, whose powerful first feature Test Pattern is now streaming on the Kino Marquee virtual cinema platform, has loved Nora Ephron’s 1998 rom-com You’ve Got Mail since she was a tween, and is more than happy to talk about how Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan make it awfully easy to excuse some very problematic material. Your genial host Norm Wilner is sorry he sounds like he’s stuck in a fishtank this week.

Guled Abdi, Vance Banzo, Tim Blair and Franco Nguyen — who are collectively known as Tallboyz, and whose sketch show returns for a second season tonight, Tuesday September 16th, on CBC and CBC Gem — assemble to talk about Hook, Steven Spielberg’s 1991 fantasy adventure starring Robin Williams as a grown-up Peter Pan, Dustin Hoffman as his arch-enemy Captain Hook and Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell. Your genial host Norm Wilner is a little nervous about this one.

Writer-director Nicole Dorsey, whose powerful first feature Black Conflux will finally be arriving later this spring after being named to TIFF Canada’s Top Ten in 2019, breaks down the power and influence of Joyce Chopra’s unnerving 1985 drama Smooth Talk and the devastating performance of Laura Dern and Treat Williams. Your genial host Norm Wilner is awfully nostalgic for the days when he recorded this show in person.

Film critics Haley Mlotek and Adam Nayman were among a dozen experts interviewed by Jeffrey McHale for his 2019 documentary You Don’t Nomi, about the reclamation of Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls — received on its release in 1995 as an unmitigated disaster — as both a camp classic and legitimately good movie. So of course they’re here to talk about Verhoeven’s film, and why it’s time to take it seriously. Your genial host Norm Wilner learned a whole dance routine for this.

Steven Kostanski — writer-director of Manborg, The Void and the brand-new splatterfest Psycho Goreman, just released on VOD — steps up and throws down for Paul W.S. Anderson’s Mortal Kombat, the 1995 hit that turned a videogame series into a remarkably satisfying cinematic experience. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to battle alongside him.

Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin, who spun their friendship into bittersweet, chaotic comedy in The Climb (debuting on VOD today) are here to discuss the allure of Matteo Garrone’s 2012 Cannes Grand Prix winner Reality, and the curious ways in which it meshes with their own festival favorite. Your genial host Norm Wilner is rooting for them.

Never give up, never surrender! Actor, writer and director Sugith Varughese — whom you may know from Kim’s Convenience and Transplant, and who just turned up on The Expanse — is here to share his love for Galaxy Quest, the ingenious sci-fi comedy where Tim Allen, Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver are washed-up TV stars recruited by actual aliens to save the universe. You have no idea how long your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting for someone to pick this movie.

It’s 2021! We made it! And writer-director Quinn Armstrong, whose fascinating found-footage psychodrama Survival Skills is now available on VOD, is here to talk about the seemingly incongruent Brief Encounter, the Celia Johnson-Trevor Howard romance (written by Noel Coward, and directed by David Lean) that hasn’t lost an ounce of its power after three-quarters of a century. Your genial host Norm Wilner is eager to see how that all lines up.

Surprise! We have an episode this week after all! John Patrick Shanley — the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Moonstruck, and most recently the writer-director of Wild Mountain Thyme, in theatres and on demand now — is here to talk about Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and how Celine Sciamma’s 2019 masterpiece clobbered him with its art and its passion. Your genial host Norm Wilner knows how he feels.

What better way to mark the holiday season than to welcome back Phillip Iscove — creator of Sleepy Hollow, co-host of the delightful Podcast Like It’s 1999 and friend of the show — to celebrate his very favorite Christmas movie: Batman Returns. You know, the one where Tim Burton got to do literally anything he wanted after the success of 1989’s Batman, and made one of the weirdest damn things ever produced by a major studio. Your genial host Norm Wilner is here to help Phil unpack it.

With his new feature film The Stand In freshly arrived on VOD, screenwriter and producer Sam Bain (Peep Show, Ill Behaviour, Four Lions) is here to talk about Joe Versus the Volcano, the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan fantasy comedy that marked John Patrick Shanley’s 1990 directorial debut. Your genial host Norm Wilner brought plenty of orange soda.

With her new film Wander arriving on VOD, producer-director April Mullen — whose credits include episodes of Wynonna Earp and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and the features 88 and Below Her Mouth — shares her love of Run Lola Run, the high-concept 1998 thriller that made Tom Tykwer and Franka Potente international sensations. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to take this ride again.

Writer-director Francis Lee, whose new drama Ammonite (on VOD this Friday, December 4th) pairs Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan as 19th-century lovers, is here to talk about another tale of unexpected empowerment: Now, Voyager, the Warner Bros. melodrama where Bette Davis takes hold of her destiny after meeting the right psychiatrist. Your genial host Norm Wilner is very happy to stay in 1942 for another week. They have ice cream!

To celebrate the publication of This Is Not My Memoir, legendary theater director and occasional screen actor Andre Gregory is here to talk about a film he’s loved as long as he can remember: Casablanca, the little Michael Curtiz picture where Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman talk about Paris and letters of transit. Your genial host Norm Wilner will remember this just fine, don’t you worry.

It’s been a rough week, you deserve a bonus episode … so here’s filmmaker Sonia Boileau, whose new drama Rustic Oracle arrived on VOD this week, talking about her pure and radiant love for the unapologetic Swayze worship of Emile Ardolino’s Dirty Dancing. Your genial host Norm Wilner is not … not a fan.

Filmmaker Cavan Campbell, whose new short Receiver just shared the Air Canada Best Short Film award at the Reel Asian film festival, will never tire of watching Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal destroy San Francisco in What’s Up, Doc?, Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 salute to classic screwball comedies. Your genial host Norm Wilner can’t help but notice he has the exact same bag as Cavan.

Actor and producer Adam Brody (The O.C,Ready Or Not, Promising Young Woman and now Evan Morgan’s The Kid Detective) embraces the hand-crafted nightmares of Henry Selick’s 2009 adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, mostly because he really loves watching it with his daughter. Your genial host Norm Wilner thinks that’s a wonderful reason to talk about a movie.

With his holiday-movie parody Cup of Cheer arriving on digital and on demand this Friday, November 6th, writer-director Jake Horowitz goes to bat for They Came Together, David Wain’s 2014 deconstruction of prefab romantic comedies with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler leading a murderer’s row of very funny people. Your genial host Norm Wilner can say that again. Tell him about it.

With his new film Spell coming out on demand this Friday, director Mark Tonderai (Hush, House at the End of the Street) is here to talk about David Lynch’s radically conventional 1999 drama, the one where Richard Farnsworth drives a riding mower across the American heartland and meets a lot of really nice people. Your genial host Norm Wilner is all revved up for this one.

With his new film Coming Home Again arriving in virtual release today, director Wayne Wang muses on the debt he owes to Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai des Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles — a singular experiment in location and duration built around a deliberately opaque Delphine Seyrig performance. Your genial host Norm Wilner can’t wait to peel back the layers on this one.

Rage! Rebellion! Hormones! Actor and writer Jessica Reynolds, who stars opposite Jared Abrahamson and Don McKellar in The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw — just released on VOD — tackles the emotional storm that is Catherine Hardwicke’s 2003 Sundance breakout Thirteen. Your genial host Norm Wilner is sure this will go fine.

Filmmaker Jennifer Abbott has two documentaries playing (virtually) at the Planet in Focus festival this week: The Magnitude of All Things and The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel. But she still made the time to talk about They Live, the subversive John Carpenter masterwork that only grows more prescient with every election cycle. Your genial host Norm Wilner packed extra bubblegum for this.

Kodi Smit-McPhee — whom you may remember from The Road, Let Me In, Slow West and a few X-Men movies, and who stars in the new time-travel thriller 2067 — dials in from Australia to ponder the many lives of Jared Leto in Jaco Van Dormael’s reality-scrambling Mr. Nobody. Your genial host Norm Wilner did not see this in his future.

BAFTA-winning filmmaker Neasa Hardiman (Happy Valley, Jessica Jones) — whose first feature Sea Fever is available on disc and digital, and unnervingly relevant to 2020 — is here to talk about Fritz Lang’s seminal 1931 thriller M and its impact on her own artistic development. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes in advance for that bleep, but some secrets demand to be kept.

Actor and filmmaker Sarah Polley credits one film with launching her on the path that led to Away from Her, Take This Waltz, Stories We Tell and Alias Grace: Terrence Malick’s 1998 war epic The Thin Red Line. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been looking forward to this conversation for years.

It’s our 300th episode (which, wow) and filmmaker Michelle Latimer — who’s premiering her new CBC series Trickster at TIFF this afternoon, and whose documentary Inconvenient Indian has its second screening this Thursday, September 17th — is here to sing the praises of Girlhood, and the complexity with which Céline Sciamma’s 2014 coming-of-age story explores female empowerment. Your genial host Norm Wilner is still trying to process this whole “300th episode” deal.

Actor and filmmaker Madeleine Sims-Fewer — whose first feature Violation, which she co-wrote and co-directed with Dusty Mancinelli, premieres at TIFF Monday, September 14th — is here to discuss the extreme emotions of Possession, Andrzej Zulawski’s 1981 masterwork that finds Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill living a nightmare of obsession, betrayal and body horror. Your genial host Norm Wilner still twitches at the thought of the subway scene.

TIFF 2020 is upon us, and writer-director Charles Officer — whose gangland drama Akilla’s Escape makes its world premiere at the festival on Saturday, September 12th, and who also narrates The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel — is here to talk about Carlito’s Way, the 1993 thriller that reunited the Scarface team of producer Martin Bregman, director Brian De Palma and star Al Pacino for a rather more thoughtful take on gangster pictures. Your genial host Norm Wilner has some thoughts on Sean Penn’s hair.

Writer-director Christian Sparkes (Cast No Shadow, Hammer) explores the chilly, creepy questions of Jonathan Glazer’s Birth — you know, the one where Nicole Kidman meets a child who claims to be her dead husband. Your genial host Norm Wilner keeps holy water around for this very eventuality.

Writer, producer and righteous dude Ed Solomon — of It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Men in Black, Now You See Me and of course the Bill & Ted movies, the newest of which lands in theatres and on demand this Friday, August 28th — steps up for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and discusses the profound impact of its revolutionary comedy on his own career. Your genial host Norm Wilner cannot believe there was a time when he got to do this podcast sitting right across from the guests.

You’ve seen actor Julian Richings in everything from Hard Core Logo and Cube to Supernatural and Man of Steel, and you’re about to see him opposite Sheila McCarthy in the Fantasia world premiere Anything For Jackson; now listen to him discuss the Gothic delights of Charles Laughton’s 1955 masterpiece The Night of the Hunter. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been thinking about getting some knuckle tattoos.

Actor and filmmaker Jemaine Clement — who co-stars with Gillian Jacobs in the new comedy I Used to Go Here — zooms in from New Zealand to talk about his love of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 breakout action satire-slash-cultural prophecy RoboCop. Your genial host Norm Wilner guarantees this episode serves the public trust.

With his new film The Cuban making the rounds of theatres and drive-ins, director Sergio Navarretta joins us to share his love for Federico Fellini’s enduring 1960 drama La Dolce Vita — you know, the one that coined the term “paparazzi” while giving audiences a glimpse of a future defined and dominated by vapid celebrity culture. Your genial host Norm Wilner has a story about that.

With his second feature Random Acts of Violence now available on digital in Canada — and coming to the US and UK later this month — actor, writer, producer and director Jay Baruchel brings Paddy Considine’s knotty, ugly, deeply personal Tyrannosaur to the podcast. It’s not an easy movie to watch, and this isn’t an easy conversation. But your genial host Norm Wilner thinks you’ll be better for the experience.

It’s another Friday bonus episode! Beloved actor and gleeful raconteur John Rhys-Davies joins us to discuss Dome Karukoski’s literary origin story Tolkien, which stars Nicholas Hoult as the young J.R.R. and Lily Collins as his lifelong love Edith. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for the lack of Elvish ballads.

Brace yourself for the mega madness, because writer, producer and podcaster Ben Blacker (Supernatural, The Thrilling Adventure Hour, The Writers Panel, Dead Pilots Society) is here for a super-sized episode on Gremlins, Steven Spielberg and Joe Dante’s unclassifiable, relentlessly weird creature-feature Christmas movie. Your genial host Norm Wilner has his blender at the ready.

With her new movie White Lie arriving on digital and on demand today, actor Kacey Rohl (Hannibal, Arrow, The Magicians) is here to discuss Bob Fosse’s autobiographical 1979 dazzler All That Jazz. Your genial host Norm Wilner did the whole “Showtime, folks!” thing before the podcast.

One of the key figures of the New Greek Cinema and now working on the charming new British series Trigonometry, Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg,Chevalier) is here to share her love for Mati Diop’s first feature Atlantics, the haunting love story that beguiled festival audiences around the world. Your genial host Norm Wilner is eager to find out what it has to do with the Netflix crime show Ozark.

With his new drama From the Vine arriving on digital and on demand this Friday, July 10th, filmmaker Sean Cisterna is here to discuss his love for Life Is Beautiful, the Oscar-winning Holocaust fable that made a household name of its director-star Roberto Benigni … and makes your genial host Norm Wilner break out in hives.

Time for another Friday bonus episode, as actor and producer Peter Sarsgaard — currently on your screens in Agnieszka Holland’s Mr. Jones and the Netflix anthology series Homemade — discusses his lifelong fascination with Giulietta Masina’s performance in Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria. Your genial host Norm Wilner is honored to lead the parade.

Emmy-nominated, Gemini-winning writer-producer Semi Chellas — whose directorial debut American Woman arrives on digital and on demand today — saddles up for a discussion of The Rider, Chloé Zhao’s hybrid 2017 drama about a young horseman trying to figure out his future. Your genial host Norm Wilner still isn’t sure how this led to a Marvel movie.

Hey, everybody! It’s a bonus Friday minisode featuring Oscar-nominated filmmaker Agnieszka Holland — director of Europa Europa, The Secret Garden, Washington Square and the newly released historical drama Mr. Jones — on the alluring, enduring mysteries of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 odyssey Stalker. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to be in the Zone with her.

His first feature Stealing School just landed on digital and on demand, and writer-director Li Dong is here to talk about Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven, in which the recent Oscar winner and his very famous friends respun the Rat Pack caper picture into cinematic cotton candy. Your genial host Norm Wilner hopes you’ll buy in.

With her feature debut The Rest of Us arriving on digital and on demand today, producer-director Aisling Chin-Yee is here to explore the life-changing impact of Spike Lee’s masterpiece Do the Right Thing — a film that’s sadly just as relevant now as it was 31 years ago. Your genial host Norm Wilner is here to listen.

With the new 4K restoration of their 1991 drama Thousand Pieces of Gold finally available on disc and digital, filmmakers Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto have some free time to discuss the simplicity and intensity of L’Enfant, the 2005 drama from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne starring Jeremie Renier as a young father trying to correct a terrible mistake. Your genial host Norm Wilner is here to help them through it.

Actor Keir Gilchrist (United States of Tara, It Follows, Atypical, the new drama Castle in the Ground) indulges his love of archaeology with Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a 3D look at French cave paintings that is, at its heart, still a Werner Herzog project. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to explore its depths.

With his new feature Dreamland premiering on digital and on demand in Canada this Friday, May 29th — and in the US on June 5th — filmmaker Bruce McDonald joins us to talk about Quadrophenia, and how The Who’s kitchen-sink midnight movie set him on a course to create his own cinema. Your genial host Norm Wilner still doesn’t understand why those scooters need so many side mirrors.