Someone Else's Movie

It’s our 10th anniversary! And award-winning actor Felix-Antoine Duval – star of Sophie Deraspe’s wonderful Shepherds, now playing at the TIFF Lightbox and elsewhere – is here to explore the darkest corners of Pascale Plante’s 2023 thriller Red Rooms. Your genial host Norm Wilner is fighting the urge to do the Jeremy Piven thing from Grosse Pointe Blank.

This week, Oscar-nominated writer and director Atom Egoyan – whose latest drama Seven Veils opens in theatres across Canada this Friday – joins the chorus for Norman Jewison’s 1973 screen adaptation of Jesus Christ Superstar … a film, and a musical, with which Atom has a very personal connection. Your genial host Norm Wilner is more of a Little Shop guy, honestly.

This week, actor and filmmaker Jeremy Schuetze – whose first feature Anacoreta is now available on digital and on demand – digs into American Movie, Chris Smith’s beloved documentary about Wisconsin auteur Mark Borchardt’s attempts to make a horror short with the help of his eccentric friends and family. Your genial host Norm Wilner sees more of himself in this movie than he’d probably want to admit.

This week, Moritz Binder – the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of September 5 – joins us to celebrate Sergio Leone’s landmark Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, from the magnificently sweaty cast to the sun-blasted locations to Ennio Morricone’s iconic score. Your genial host Norm Wilner is still a Tuco guy, despite everything.

He broods magnificently in HBO’s Interview with the Vampire, but actor Jacob Anderson shows his looser side in Alice Lowe’s romantic comedy Timestalker, landing in US theaters and on demand this Valentine’s Day. And he’s here to share the gospel of Hot Rod, the 2007 comedy that brought Andy Samberg and his pals in The Lonely Island to the big screen a bit before the big screen was ready for them. Your genial host Norm Wilner, though? He was ready.

As Sook-Yin Lee’s dramedy Paying for It rolls into Canadian theaters, the film’s editor Anna Catley – whose other credits include Things I Do for Money and We Forgot to Break Up – stops in to talk about the allure of Todd Haynes’ glam-rock reverie Velvet Goldmine, which introduced her to new methods of storytelling at exactly the right point in her creative development. Your genial host Norm Wilner was shocked to realize he still hasn’t seen the original cut of this one.

Writer-director Lowell Dean has two movies coming out this year; the first, Dark Match, hits Canadian theatres and lands on Shudder in the US this Friday, January 31st. And to celebrate its arrival, he’s here to talk about Richard Donner’s 1978 blockbuster Superman: The Movie -- which defined superhero cinema, made instant stars out of Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, and got a generation to believe a man can fly. Your genial host Norm Wilner always knew, of course.

To honor the life of David Lynch, whose death last week left a hole in world cinema, here's an episode from September 2017 featuring actor Rick Roberts on discovering the director’s first feature, the undefinable Eraserhead, and becoming a lifelong fan. Your genial host Norm Wilner just wants to lose himself in art right about now, you know?

With their bachelor-party nightmare Birdeater in theaters and on demand in the US and en route to Canada, Australian filmmakers Jack Clark and Jim Weir drop by to share their love for Akira Kurosawa’s relentless 1963 crime drama High and Low, starring Toshiro Mifune as an executive whose scheme to take over his own company is derailed when a kidnapper mistakenly abducts his chauffeur’s son. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting so long for someone to pick a Kurosawa movie, you have no idea.

His delightful first feature Young Werther opens across Canada this Friday, so writer-director José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço is here to kick off the new year by being entirely worthy of Mike Myers’ 1992 blockbuster-slash-breakout Wayne’s World, directed by Penelope Spheeris. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to kick off 2025 riding shotgun in the Mirthmobile.

With his new documentary The Last Republican making its US theatrical premiere at the Film Forum in New York this Friday, writer-director Steve Pink takes a break to dive into the tangled loyalties and murky morals of Luc Besson’s 1990 breakout La Femme Nikita. Your genial host Norm Wilner cannot wait to put 2024 behind him … so Happy New Year, everyone!

Have yourself some Hedwig for the holidays, as The People’s Joker writer-director-star Vera Drew drops in to discuss John Cameron Mitchell’s 2001 glam-rock indie Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and the nuclear impact it had on her own artistic journey. Your genial host Norm Wilner is just delighted to be a part of this one.

With the holidays upon us – and the second season of The Recruit hitting Netflix in the new year – we’re reaching back to 2015 for A Very Kristian Bruun Christmas, in which the Orphan Black and Murdoch Mysteries star hangs out with your genial host Norm Wilner, eating too much fruitcake and talking about the seasonal cinema they both love. Nog up and enjoy, unless “nog up” has a different meaning nowadays.

With his first feature Drive Back Home in theaters across Canada, writer-director Michael Clowater wanted to talk about another modestly scaled, emotionally alive debut: Tom McCarthy’s delicate 2003 character study The Station Agent. Your genial host Norm Wilner is really glad he did.

It’s a mother-daughter episode as actor Sheila McCarthy and producer-director Mackenzie Donaldson – who collaborated on the post-collapse thriller All the Lost Ones, now onscreen in Toronto at the Carlton Cinema – bring The Wizard of Oz to the podcast, just in time to draft on the opening of Wicked. Your genial host Norm Wilner is always up for a chat about how weird Frank L. Baum’s books are.

Writer, director and actor Ben Petrie, whose first feature The Heirloom has its Toronto premiere at the TIFF Lightbox this Thursday, November 28th, before moving to the Carlton and the Revue on Friday the 29th, is here to celebrate City Lights, Charlie Chaplin’s masterful blend of comedy and heart. Your genial host Norm Wilner is amazed this is the first time someone’s brought a Chaplin film to the podcast.

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.