Writer, producer, actor and podcaster Kulap Vilaysack -- whose moving personal documentary Origin Story is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video -- throws down for the retro delights of Joe Cornish's Attack the Block, the 2011 SF thriller that pitted John Boyega, Jodie Whitaker, Franz Drameh and Nick Frost against an invasion of gorilla-wolf aliens. Your genial host Norm Wilner thinks you'll like the way this one turned out.

Filmmaker Robin McKenna, whose new documentary Gift is playing at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto right now, rides for the dreamy landscapes and flowing score of Jim Jarmusch’s entrancing alt-Western Dead Man. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to saddle up for this one.

Writer and producer Ramona Barckert -- whose new film Ordinary Days is now playing in Toronto, Halifax and Edmonton -- stops by on a rainy day to discuss Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me? and the spiky pleasure to be had in watching Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant engage in petty larceny. Not that your genial host Norm Wilner would ever condone such behavior, of course.

Writer, performer and future podcast prom queen Jocelyn Geddie (The Beaverton, I Hate It But I Love It) throws down for the queasy high-school horror movie that is Brian de Palma's Carrie -- the first big-screen Stephen King adaptation, and one that still packs a hell of a punch. Your genial host Norm Wilner wasn't expecting to laugh quite so hard for this one.

Recorded in his London edit suite, filmmaker Charlie Lyne — director of Beyond Clueless, Fear Itself and the newly released Lasting Marks — breaks our format with The Clock, Christian Marclay’s 2010 gallery installation that uses the entirety of cinema and television to tell you the current time. Your genial host Norm Wilner wandered into it once at the Southbank Centre.

Actor and musician Ricardo Hoyos — most recently seen beachside in Travis Knight’s Bumblebee — tackles the Farrelly brothers’ Dumb and Dumber and the manic delight that is the young, hungry Jim Carrey. Your genial host Norm Wilner popped out the cap in his tooth for this one.

In town for the opening of Four Chords and a Gun, his new play about Phil Spector and The Ramones, actor and author John Ross Bowie finds a strange connection to his own work in Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh’s layered 1999 drama about Gilbert, Sullivan and The Mikado. Your genial host Norm Wilner is all ears.

Writer-director Natty Zavitz, whose new film Acquainted just opened in Toronto and Vancouver, tackles the last of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales: Love in the Afternoon, the 1972 drama starring Bernard Verley as a happily married man drawn to the possibility of a new lover. Your genial host Norm Wilner dedicates this episode to the launch of the Criterion Channel.

Fun fact: While Shazam! was shooting in Toronto last year, screenwriter Henry Gayden dropped by the studio late one night to talk about the eccentric, romantic miracle that is Steve Martin and Mick Jackson’s 1991 comedy L.A. Story. Your genial host Norm Wilner has the complete works of John Lillison right there on the coffee table.

With the big Canadian Screen Awards gala this Sunday night, The Drawer Boy co-director Arturo Perez Torres — who’s nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay — is here to talk about Alfonso Cuarón’s 2001 road movie Y Tu Mamá También, and how it influenced both his documentary and dramatic filmmaking. Your genial host Norm Wilner brought sunscreen and everything.

Author, academic and filmmaker Tananarive Due stops in to discuss a film she knows backwards and forwards: Get Out, Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning creeper about … well, you know what it’s about. With Peele’s follow-up Us opening this Friday, your genial host Norm Wilner feels it’s the perfect time to put this into your brain.

Katie Douglas — whom you might know from Mary Kills People and Every Day, and who stars in Danishka Esterhazy’s creepy new thriller Level 16 — bears witness to the piercing humanity of Clio Barnard’s 2013 drama The Selfish Giant. Your genial host Norm Wilner is right there with her.

Actor, playwright and now filmmaker Gord Rand -- whose feature debut Pond Life makes its world premiere in Toronto at the Canadian Film Fest later this month, and who co-stars opposite Carolina Bartczak in the upcoming drama An Audience of Chairs -- is here to tackle The Shining, Stanley Kubrick's famously contentious 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's novel. Which is handy, because your genial host Norm Wilner just finished trimming the hedge maze.

Writer, producer and director Adriana Maggs -- whose new drama Goalie opens in Toronto and Vancouver this Friday, March 1st -- steps up for a lost Canadian classic: The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood, Mark and Andy Jones' 1986 satire about the fantasy life of a Newfoundland bureaucrat. Your genial host Norm Wilner is just glad to know he's not the only person who saw it.

Documentary filmmaker Christy Garland -- whose new film What Walaa Wants screens in Toronto February 20th at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema before beginning a Canada's Top Ten run at the TIFF Bell Lightbox March 1st -- goes deep into Alexander Payne's distressingly prophetic high-school satire Election. (You know, it's the one where Matthew Broderick declares Reese Witherspoon his mortal enemy.) Your genial host Norm Wilner regrets not having cupcakes on hand.

Writer, producer and critic Ashlee Blackwell, founder of GraveyardShiftSisters.com and an essential part of the new Shudder documentary Horror Noire: The History of Black Horror, tackles the allure and repulsion of Ganja & Hess, Bill Gunn's radical 1973 study starring Duane Jones and Marlene Clark as two very different people who share an infernal thirst. Your genial host Norm Wilner is all in.

Writer, producer and director Jeremy Larter -- whose first feature Pogey Beach is now available for rental and purchase on iTunes -- settles in for a conversation about Don Shebib's Goin' Down the Road, the 1970 drama that more or less created English Canadian cinema. Your genial host Norm Wilner is trying very hard not to think about how much he hated the sequel.

Actor, producer and now screenwriter Jennifer Dale — whose new movie Into Invisible Light opens in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver this Friday, February 1st — drops in to celebrate the vivid environments and shattering emotional arcs of Luca Guadagnino’s 2009 breakout I Am Love. Your genial host Norm Wilner tries not to bring up the Suspiria remake. (And fails.)

Author and screenwriter Linwood Barclay — who adapted his own novel Never Saw It Coming for a movie that’s newly available on iTunes — welcomes SEMcast into his home to talk about Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful 1954 examination of voyeurism, paranoia and gardening. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to pull up a chair.

Actor, author and producer Greg Sestero (The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room), whose new project Best F(r)iends reunites him with The Room's Tommy Wiseau, drops by to talk about Ed Wood ... both Tim Burton's 1994 biopic, and the actual director of Plan 9 from Outer Space and Bride of the Monster. Your genial host Norm Wilner has no idea why Greg picked a movie about a famously terrible filmmaker. No idea at all.

We’re still stuck in the ’80s, as Oscar-shortlisted filmmaker Charlie Tyrell (My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes) brings the love for Heavy Metal, the 1981 anthology feature that was supposed to bring sexy sci-fi animation into the mainstream. Your genial host Norm Wilner has some thoughts on why it didn’t.

Welcome 2019 by going back to 1988, as writer and producer James Hurst (Degrassi: The Next Generation, Flashpoint, Wynonna Earp, Frankie Drake Mysteries and more) unpacks the mysteries of Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko — both versions! — in an epic conversation. Your genial host Norm Wilner recommends listening while lying very still.

It's Christmas Day, and writer-director Justin McConnell -- whose new movie Lifechanger opens in Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary this Friday, December 28th before coming to VOD on New Year's Day -- is here to jingle the bells for Christmas Evil (aka You Better Watch Out), Lewis Jackson's 1980 Yuletide psychodrama. Your genial host Norm Wilner knows if he's been bad or good.

Programmer, producer and occasional actor Peter Kuplowsky has long been a champion of outsider cinema, and that's why he's flying the flag for Charles Roxburgh and Matt Farley's 2012 creature feature Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You! Also, he's presenting Dial Code Santa Claus with Justin Decloux this Thursday, December 20th, at The Royal in Toronto, so your genial host Norm Wilner thought this was a nice excuse to get him on the show.

Actor Stuart Hughes, whom you may have seen in Orphan Black, Murdoch Mysteries, Republic of Doyle and It, and whom you should see in The Drawer Boy, now streaming on Highball.tv, celebrates the 40th anniversary of Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven by delving into its impressionistic depths. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been looking forward to this one for a while.

Prem Singh and Michael Pugliese -- who co-wrote and co-star in the true-life boxing drama Tiger, in theatres now -- throw down for Rocky, the movie that made Sylvester Stallone a star, won a few Oscars and launched a franchise that continues to this very day. Your genial host Norm Wilner, on the other hand, is famous for his glass jaw.

This episode isn't really about The Swimmer, Frank and Eleanor Perry's 1968 drama about the death of the American dream. It's just the hook for singer-songwriter Ensign Broderick -- whose new album Bloodcrush is in stores and online, and whose song "Accidence" powers the new short by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson -- to talk about the film music he finds most meaningful. And it turns out your genial host Norm Wilner is just fine with that.

Actor Richard Clarkin of Great Great Great, Ordinary Days, Murdoch Mysteries and The Drawer Boy, which opens in Toronto this week, settles in to talk about The Pledge, Sean Penn's searing 2001 drama starring Jack Nicholson as a retired police detective obsessed with finding a killer of young girls. Your genial host Norm Wilner is always up for a wallow in the heart of darkness.

It's our 200th episode, and actor, writer, funny person and insightful podcaster Naomi Snieckus is here to help us celebrate it -- which makes perfect sense, since her choice of Judd Apatow's The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling is all about self-knowledge as a conduit to comedy. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes in advance for all of the personal material.

Actor, writer and killer stand-up Mark Little has been a superfan of Fred Dekker's 1987 horror comedy The Monster Squad for his entire goddamn life, and now that Mark's new movie Room For Rent is available on iTunes -- and still playing theatrically in Winnipeg and Ottawa! -- he has an excuse to talk about it for an hour. Your genial host Norm Wilner has some questions about nards.

In town to close the Toronto After Dark Film Festival with his slasher comedy You Might Be the Killer, writer-director Brett Simmons tackles Rick Rosenthal's Halloween II ... the first sequel to John Carpenter's horror masterpiece, but by no means the last. Your genial host Norm Wilner is all in, even though he totally knows this won't be the end of Michael Myers.

Actor, writer and producer Ruth Goodwin -- who's finishing up a run of The Wolves at Streetcar Crowsnest in Toronto this week -- steps up for Bend It Like Beckham, Gurinder Chadha's 2002 sleeper starring Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in a culture-clash comedy. Your genial host Norm Wilner doesn't know a striker from a winger, but whatever.

Filmmaker and podcaster Justin Decloux -- who celebrates the Blu-ray debut of his new feature Impossible Horror next Tuesday, October 23rd, with a release party and screening at The Royal in Toronto -- steps up for Army of Darkness, Sam Raimi's goofy 1993 adventure that wrapped up his Evil Dead trilogy with a lot more comedy than people were expecting. Your genial host Norm Wilner has his boomstick at the ready.

Author, critic and occasional actor Adam Nayman — whose shiny new book The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together is available now from Abrams — steps up for Fargo, their Oscar-winning 1996 dramedy about people making very bad decisions in Minnesota. Your genial host Norm Wilner agrees with him one hundred percent.

Actor, writer and director Anna Hopkins -- whom you'll be seeing in Bad Blood when its second season starts up on Thursday, October 11th, and who's making the festival rounds with her short film The Give & Take -- stops in to share her love for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Steven Spielberg's 1982 classic about a boy and his alien. Your genial host Norm Wilner feels exactly the same way about it, which is nice.

Artist and filmmaker Ross Sutherland — who’s bringing his Imaginary Advice podcast to The Fest in Chicago this Monday, October 1st — makes the case for Sidney Lumet’s Network as a movie that was both utterly of its moment and somehow ahead of its time. Your genial host Norm Wilner is constitutionally incapable of being mad as hell.

TIFF 18 is over, so let’s flash back to TIFF 17, when writer-director Clio Barnard premiered her new drama Dark River in the Platform program … and slipped away from the press cycle to talk about Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg’s groundbreaking 1970 psychodrama Performance. Your genial host Norm Wilner reminds you that drugs are bad, mmkay.

What? An episode dropping on a Monday? That’s because writer-director Akash Sherman’s first feature Clara is making its world premiere at TIFF this very day, and we mark the occasion by talking about the Star Wars saga. Yup. All of it. Prepared for this, your genial host Norm Wilner is.

As his first feature Trench 11 arrives on iTunes in the US and Canada today, writer-director Leo Scherman finds an unexpected connection to George Sluizer’s The Vanishing, the 1988 thriller with the ending that just won’t let go. Your genial host Norm Wilner has some thoughts about that.

Grace Glowicki -- who co-stars in Cardinals this Friday at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, and who'll be back at TIFF in September with Roney's short film Glitter's Wild Women -- sits down to talk about Love, and how its graphic sex scenes are Gaspar Noe's gateway to honesty. Your genial host Norm Wilner would like you to know that this episode features explicit discussions of sexual content, but we're all adults here.

Documentary filmmaker Barry Stevens is in the studio to mark the 50th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey just as Stanley Kubrick’s visionary masterwork about humanity’s place in the universe makes its IMAX 70mm debut. Your genial host Norm Wilner has a theory about the monolith he’s been sitting on for quite some time.

Tamara Podemski, currently starring in the new thriller Never Saw It Coming, is here to confess her love for The Band’s Visit, Eran Kolirin’s 2007 charmer that somehow became a Broadway smash. Your genial host Norm Wilner has to be honest: He loves it too.

Now that friend of the show Corey Mintz is a podcaster himself -- check out his new series Taste Buds on the Canadaland network! -- he makes a triumphant return to celebrate Big Night, Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott's wonderful 1996 movie about brothers, business, art, food and Louis Prima. Your genial host Norm Wilner bought a red-and-white checkered tablecloth just for the occasion.

Filmmaker Randall Okita — whose first feature The Lockpicker arrives on iTunes later this month following screenings across Canada — is in the studio to talk about Kids, Larry Clark’s 1995 indie about oversexed youth that Harvey Weinstein turned into an artistic cause celebre. Your genial host Norm Wilner has some thoughts about this.

The show returns to London so journalist and filmmaker Neville Pierce — whose latest short, Promise, just arrived on Vimeo — can discuss the life-changing impact and technical virtuosity of David Fincher’s Seven. Your genial host Norm Wilner believes in the second part.

It's construction season, but that won't stop Brent Hodge, director of I Am Chris Farley, The Pistol Shrimps and the brand-new Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary, from discussing Superbad, the 2007 comedy that legitimized writer-producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as a creative force all their own. Your genial host Norm Wilner identifies more with McLovin, much as it pains him to admit this.

With her new novel Give Me Your Hand arriving this week, author and television writer Megan Abbott celebrates on the 1944 noir masterpiece that is Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity. Fred MacMurray as kind of a heel! Barbara Stanwyck as a seductress in a bad wig! Edward G. Robinson as the world's saddest detective! Your genial host Norm Wilner even included authentic Manhattan traffic noises for atmosphere.

With his remarkable drama The Unseen newly available on iTunes, Geoff Redknap settles in for a conversation about Joel and Ethan Coen’s Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, the film that made bowl cuts scary again. Your genial host Norm Wilner just wants to point out he’s never won a coin toss in his life.