Writer-director Jeff Barnaby — whose Mi’kmaq zombie thriller Blood Quantum is now available on demand in Canada and streaming on Shudder in the rest of the world — embraces the pulpy Victorian horror of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 spectacle Bram Stoker’s Dracula with the pure heart of a fan. Your genial host Norm Wilner did not see this one coming.

Actor turned filmmaker Amy Jo Johnson — whose spiky second feature Tammy’s Always Dying debuts on VOD this Friday, May 1st — joins us to discuss Matt Ross’ Captain Fantastic, the 2016 road movie-slash-family drama that earned Viggo Mortensen his second Oscar nomination, introduced American audiences to a lad named George MacKay and started Amy Jo on the path to making her own stuff. Your genial host Norm Wilner is ready to take the ride.

For our first isolation episode, Barry Sonnenfeld — cinematographer (Raising Arizona, When Harry Met Sally …), director (Get Shorty, Men in Black) and now author (Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker) — joins us from Telluride to talk about The Long Goodbye, Robert Altman’s woozy 1973 spin on Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled detective novel. Your genial host Norm Wilner was surprised at how well the whole remote-recording thing turned out.

What We Do in the Shadows breakout star Harvey Guillen celebrates the show’s return (this Wednesday! 9 pm! On FX!) with a tribute to James Cameron’s Titanic, the monster hit that paired Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as young lovers trying to survive the greatest nautical disaster of their time. Your genial host Norm Wilner had no idea he’d be dropping this episode on the 108th anniversary of the sinking, truly.

Actor and filmmaker Jessica Hinkson (Another Wolfcop, Jessica Jessica) is here to celebrate one of the oddest musicals ever made: Romance and Cigarettes, John Turturro’s wild attempt at infusing a working-class love triangle with the spirit of a jukebox musical — and starring James Gandolfini as a guy named Nick Murder. Your genial host Norm Wilner never thought anyone would pick this movie … and he’s so there for it.

Feel nostalgic for cans of 35mm film and eating in restaurants as comedian and actor Andy Kindler (Raising Dad, Bob’s Burgers, the Thought Spiral podcast) steps up for The Big Picture, Christopher Guest’s 1989 comedy starring Kevin Bacon as a promising young director who discovers the last thing Hollywood wants him to do is make art. Your genial host Norm Wilner still wishes the Pez People had released an album.

This week, actor and writer Jess Salgueiro — of Letterkenny, Workin’ Moms, The Boys, Mouthpiece, I’ll Take Your Dead and most recently Canadian Strain, now available on digital in Canada — drops in to talk about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the 1975 Milos Forman drama where Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher faced off in a mental institution, and everybody won Oscars for their trouble. Your genial host Norm Wilner hopes everyone is safe and sound this week, by the way.

Canadian-born, London-based standup Mae Martin is the co-creator and star of the terrific new Channel 4 series Feel Good, which premieres in the UK tomorrow and lands on Netflix everyhere else on Thursday. And she’s here to celebrate the weird, wonderful world of The Rocky Horror Picture Show … and to reveal a personal connection to Jim Sharman’s 1975 midnight classic. As it turns out, your genial host Norm Wilner remembers the sequel a lot more clearly.

For our fifth anniversary, we’re in London with writer-director-producer Marie Clements (The Road Forward, Looking at Edward Curtis), whose new film Red Snow opens in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa this Friday, March 13th. And she’s there to stand up for Paul Haggis’ Crash, the 2004 ensemble drama about race and class in America that became the Oscar winner everyone loved to hate. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to help her correct this injustice.

With his first feature Run This Town opening across the US and Canada this Friday, March 5th, writer-director Ricky Tollman drops in to discuss the existential questions — and unexpected belly laughs — lurking within Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure. Your genial host Norm Wilner is braced for the avalanche.

Writer-director Albert Shin, whose new thriller Disappearance at Clifton Hill opens in theatres this Friday in the US and Canada, would like to direct your attention to Memories of Murder, the 2003 South Korean procedural that established Bong Joon-ho as one of the most interesting and versatile filmmakers of the new millennium. Your genial host Norm Wilner is not kidding about that assessment.

His debut feature Nose to Tail is now playing in Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary, so writer-director Jesse Zigelstein is here to raise a glass to Sideways, Alexander Payne’s 2004 drama about two friends on a trip to wine country — and who, before it’s over, will face their own personal spit buckets. Your genial host Norm Wilner is fine with merlot, just for the record.

Actor and podcaster Lara Jean Chorostecki (Hannibal, X Company, Designated Survivor) co-stars with Aaron Abrams in the indie Nose to Tail, which opens in Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary this Friday, February 14th. Which makes it the perfect time to discuss the subtle perfection of Elsie Fisher’s performance — and writer/director Bo Burnham’s piercing attention to detail — in Eighth Grade. Your genial host Norm Wilner was so sure he was ready for this.

With the Oscars just days away, Toronto filmmaker Sami Khan — whose St. Louis Superman is up for Best Documentary Short — takes a break from the awards circuit to talk about the landmark American drama Daughters of the Dust, and how writer-director Julie Dash’s evocative study of people dealing with a shared trauma influenced his own work (and Beyoncé’s). Your genial host Norm Wilner was delighted for the opportunity to revisit the film.

Actor JC MacKenzie — currently battling monsters in October Faction and corruption in The Irishman, both of which are streaming on Netflix right now — takes a run at Sam Mendes’ 1917, the single-take WWI drama that’s muscled its way to the head of the Oscar pack. Your genial host Norm Wilner, being a big fan of editing, might need some convincing.

Actor and filmmaker Sofia Banzhaf — whom you may know from Closet Monster, Bitten, Carter and Black Conflux, and whose short film I Am In The World As Free And Slender As A Deer On A Plain screens at the TIFF Bell Lightbox this Sunday, January 26th, at 4 pm in the Canada’s Top Ten shorts program — is here to make sure The Canyons, Paul Schrader’s 2013 Hollywood scenester drama starring Lindsay Lohan and James Deen, gets the love it deserves. Your genial host Norm Wilner is not entirely sure he accepts this premise.

Actor Dan Beirne (Great Great Great, Workin’ Moms, White Lie) just won the Vancouver Film Critics Circle award for his performance as William Lyon Mackenzie King in Matthew Rankin’s absurdist history The Twentieth Century. He’s here to talk about Monrovia, Indiana and the observational documentary cinema of Frederick Wiseman. Your genial host Norm Wilner is keen to see how that goes.

Actors Vladimir Jon Cubrt (Hannibal, Stockholm) and Nicole Maroon (Meet the Family, The Boys) are partners in both life and work, and their new film Luba — which Vlad wrote and produced, and which stars Nicole as a young mother trying to get her life on an even keel while dealing with her disintegrating ex — opens in Calgary and Toronto this Friday, January 10th. (It’ll also be available for purchase on HighballTV.com.) They wanted to talk about A Fish Called Wanda, the 1988 comedy in which John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin chase each other around London over some stolen jewels. Your genial host Norm Wilner was awfully curious to see how these things are connected.

Krysty Wilson-Cairns, co-writer of Edgar Wright’s upcoming Last Night in Soho and Sam Mendes’ WWI drama 1917, takes a break from a marathon press tour to share her pure and lasting love for Shallow Grave, the scrappy little thriller that put Danny Boyle, John Hodge and Andrew Macdonald on the cinematic map 25 years ago. Your genial host Norm Wilner wishes everyone a happy holiday, and really hopes Krysty pitches that sequel sometime.

On this week’s episode, Cameron Maitland — the co-host of the Royal Canadian Movie Podcast and a film and content specialist for Hollywood Suite — drops by to talk about the deep-dive retrospective series he’s written for the service, A Year in Film, and one movie in particular: Reginald Hudlin’s Boomerang, the 1992 romantic comedy that gave Eddie Murphy a chance to do something radically different with his persona … and which became a blockbuster most people remember as a failure. Your genial host Norm Wilner would like to remind you that Hollywood Suite’s free preview is on until January 5, 2020. Go watch something!

Her new project Things I Do For Money just had its world premiere at Whistler, so now we can release producer (and actor, and podcaster) Jen Pogue‘s very fun episode on Michael Dowse’s The F Word — the delightful 2013 romantic comedy (released in the US as What If) where Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan try to be friends despite an obvious attraction. Your genial host Norm Wilner is just happy to be celebrating a movie where Toronto plays itself.

Writer, activist and actor Audra Williams drops by to share her love and admiration for Judy Holliday’s Oscar-winning performance in George Cukor’s Born Yesterday — and to discuss how the ethical awakening of Billie Dawn worked as an anchor in her own life. Your genial host Norm Wilner is always up for a comedy with a philosophical core.

Writer, producer and director Erin Berry — whose second feature Majic just had its Canadian premiere at the Blood in the Snow festival in Toronto — celebrates the 35th anniversary of Dune, the David Lynch epic that was supposed to be Universal’s big Christmas event picture of 1984, and decidedly was not. Your genial host Norm Wilner double-checked the correct pronunciation of “Arrakis” for this.

Filmmaker Matt Gallagher — whose award-winning documentary Prey makes its network and streaming premiere on TVOntario and TVO.org tonight, Tuesday November 19th, at 9 pm — chooses Bennett Miller’s 2011 sports drama Moneyball, the one where Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill reinvent baseball with statistics. Your genial host Norm Wilner is not a sports guy, which may explain the preceding synopsis.

Journalist turned writer (Seinfeld‘s “The Fusilli Jerry”), producer (First Round Down) and distributor (Unobstructed View) Jonathan Gross drops in to discuss his very personal connection to Garry Marshall’s 1984 dramedy The Flamingo Kid, the one where Matt Dillon is a Brooklyn kid who takes a summer job as a Long Island cabana boy. Your genial host Norm Wilner is willing to hear the spiel.

Producer and director Roland Emmerich — you know, the guy who made Stargate, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, and whose new WWII picture Midway opens everywhere this Friday, November 8th — takes some time out of the Midway press tour to talk about Steven Spielberg’s 1977 first-contact epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which literally changed the course of his life and career. Fun fact: Your genial host Norm Wilner had the same experience.

Hello, listeners! You’ve heard Norm complain about politics often enough that he thought you might appreciate the new Frequency podcast The Gravy Train. It’s an eight-part series hosted by The Big Story‘s Jordan Heath-Rawlings, considering the career and legacy of Toronto mayor Rob Ford: His rise, his disastrous reign, and the proof-of-concept he provided for global populism. This is episode one, “Suburbs”, in which Jordan charts Rob’s path to political office. If you like it, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to hear the whole miserable story.

It’s our 250th episode, and it’s Halloween, so what better time for sibling filmmakers Brett and Drew Pierce — in town to screen their new chiller The Wretched at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival — to celebrate Tom Holland’s delightful 1985 creature feature Fright Night, the one where poor Charley Brewster can’t get anyone to believe his suave new neighbor is a bloodsucking fiend. Your genial host Norm Wilner hopes you like the new theme song. And also horror movies.

Writer/director Patrick Wang (In the Family, The Grief of Others) is one of the best American filmmakers working today; with his brilliant two-part drama A Bread Factory newly available on digital and coming to disc next month, he’s here to praise the unique beauty of Electra Glide in Blue, James William Guercio’s 1973 procedural starring Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop with an unbending moral code. Your genial host Norm Wilner did not see this one coming.

Munro Chambers has two movies out right now: Jovanka Vuckovic’s Riot Girls, which dropped on VOD earlier this month, and Rob Grant’s Harpoon, now playing at the Carlton Cinemas in Toronto and also newly on iTunes. Munro would also like to share his love for what Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks accomplished with their 2000 survival drama Cast Away. Your genial host Norm Wilner is on the same page.

Actor and filmmaker Deragh Campbell — who is devastatingly good in Kazik Radwanski’s Anne at 13,000 Ft., and whose latest collaboration with Sofia Bohdanowicz, MS Slavic 7, opens this Thursday in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox — ponders the intimate ambiguities of Les Rendez-vous d’Anna, Chantal Akerman’s 1978 film about a Belgian director traveling around Europe with her latest picture. Your genial host Norm Wilner is eager to see where this goes.

Her first feature Riot Girls just arrived on VOD in the US and Canada today, so filmmaker Jovanka Vuckovic is here to throw down for the scrappy splatterpunk brilliance of Kathryn Bigelow’s 1987 horror Western Near Dark. Your genial host Norm Wilner is more than happy to ride shotgun.

Her new novel Watching You Without Me is released today, so Giller Prize-winning author Lynn Coady — who’s also worked as a writer and producer on Orphan Black, Burden of Truth and Diggstown — is here to talk about the very specific pleasures of Wait Until Dark, the 1967 thriller that pits Audrey Hepburn against Alan Arkin in a battle of wits, and also acting styles. Your genial host Norm Wilner always makes sure his freezer is defrosted.

ICYMI: Earlier this week, your genial host Norm Wilner appeared on The Big Story to take Jordan Heath-Rawlings through the themes of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival … and, inevitably, talk about that new Joker movie. Listen and enjoy, and subscribe to The Big Story and other Frequency shows wherever you get your podcasts!

With her first dramatic feature Honey Bee opening in Toronto this Friday before rolling out across Canada in the next few weeks, director Rama Rau dives into Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold’s 2009 drama starring Katie Jarvis as a rebellious English teenager looking to escape her suffocating life in Essex. Your genial host Norm Wilner was too wrung out from TIFF to do any of the dance stuff.

With his second feature The Last Porno Show making its world premiere tonight at TIFF, writer-director Kire Paputts wants to talk about Sicilian Vampire, the 2015 genre mash-up from Toronto auteur Frank D’Angelo, with whom he’s worked on a few pictures — and who plays a small but crucial role in Kire’s latest. Your genial host Norm Wilner did not see this coming, that’s for sure.

It’s TIFF time, so we brought in actor and filmmaker Aaron Poole — who’ll be at the festival this week for the world premieres of Clifton Hill on Thursday and his own short film Oracle on Sunday — to do what he does best: talk about Michael Mann’s 1995 epic cops-and-robbers drama Heat. Your genial host Norm Wilner is here to keep him sharp, on the edge, where he’s gotta be.

To mark the launch of the second season of their charming infertility comedy How To Buy a Baby on CBC Gem, star Meghan Heffern and creator/producer Wendy Litner are here to talk about the retro pleasures and entirely contemporary consciousness of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, the Netflix charmer that took the world by storm last year. Your genial host Norm Wilner checked his mailbox twice before recording this.

Chantel Riley — of Frankie Drake Mysteries, Wynonna Earp and the brand-new Suits spinoff Pearson — joins us to talk about Black Panther, Ryan Coogler’s revolutionary contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe … and the movie that made her believe she, too, can be a superhero. Your genial host Norm Wilner is more than happy to be her sidekick.

In advance of their new film Spice It Up opens in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox this Thursday, August 15th, filmmakers Lev Lewis, Yonah Thomas and Calvin Thomas assembled to make the case for Kidnap, Luis Prieto’s 2017 thriller starring Halle Berry as a mother who’ll stop at nothing to rescue her son from the couple who’ve snatched him. (Literally; it’s a car-chase picture.) Your genial host Norm Wilner did not expect this choice, but he’s open to it. And don’t forget that Norm and friend of the show Paul Sun-Hyung Lee will be introducing a very special screening of Jaws this Thursday night, at the Revue Cinema! Details at the @semcast Twitter account.

Filmmaker Kalina Bertin — whose powerful personal documentary Manic is now available for rental and purchase on Vimeo on Demand — opens the mysterious box that is Mulholland Dr. to follow Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring down the rabbit hole that is David Lynch’s 2001 psychodrama. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for that one line he had to loop.

With her first feature Astronaut in theatres in Toronto and Vancouver and available on iTunes and Google Play Movies everywhere, actor turned filmmaker Shelagh McLeod makes the case for Duncan Jones’ 2009 debut Moon, in which Sam Rockwell plays a lonely lunar engineer whose world is turned upside down by an unexpected visitor. Your genial host Norm Wilner reminds you to watch Jones’ movie before listening to this episode.

With her award-winning first feature Roads in February screening in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox this week, writer-director Katherine Jerkovic sits down to talk about her admiration for, and awe of, the singular intensity of Claire Denis’ 2004 drama L’Intrus (The Intruder). Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for the HVAC noise.

As we make our debut on the Frequency Podcast Network, filmmaker Larry Weinstein, whose new documentary Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies opens at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema this Friday, July 19th, in Toronto, marks the occasion by celebrating the autobiographical fantasia of Federico Fellini’s Amarcord in all of its grand, grotesque splendor. Your genial host Norm Wilner only regrets not having antipasti on hand for this conversation.

Canadian Screen Award-winning director Jasmin Mozaffari, whose terrific first feature Firecrackers is streaming on Crave in Canada today in advance of its VOD debut on Friday, July 12th, stops in to talk about Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides and its dreamy portrait of young women on the verge of ... something. Your genial host Norm Wilner is still reeling over the fact that it was shot in Toronto.

With Outside the March’s new location-specific theatrical experience The Tape Escape opening in Toronto this Thursday, July 4th, Dora-winning stage director Mitchell Cushman checks out High Fidelity, John Cusack and Stephen Frears’ 2000 adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel about love, music and OCD. Your genial host Norm Wilner is intimately acquainted with all of those things.

In a slight deviation from protocol, Los Angeles immigration lawyer Judy Wood — whose precedent-setting work is the subject of the new drama Saint Judy — discusses Jean-Luc Godard’s monumental 1962 drama Vivre Sa Vie in the context of her own experience assisting refugees and asylum seekers. Your genial host Norm Wilner is, as always, happy to get political.

Actor, filmmaker and friend of the show Samora Smallwood (Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments, The Expanse, Star Trek: Discovery) returns for a deep dive into the symbolism, performances and nail-biting intensity of Jordan Peele’s eerie new thriller Us. Your genial host Norm Wilner made sure no one brought scissors into the studio.