Contra Zoom Pod

This is the first Oscar Primer podcast for Contra Zoom of the year, continuing the series of Oscar Primer’s Dakota does every year, normally just as written articles. He is flying solo this episode as he talks about  Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri , Darkest Hour and Lady Bird . These are the nominations for  Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri  Best Pictur...

Sammy Feilchenfeld joins Dakota to talk about the biggest news stories of 2017. This isn’t the usual top movie of the year podcast, but instead reflecting on the year that was and what to expect for 2018. For an amazing Best Of list check out Rachel Gordon’s Top 25 Films of 2017 , Live in Limbo’s official Best Of list. – Best Picture Winner mixup back in Feb causing LaLaLand to think it won when M...

Here is part two of our Best Picture Countdown of movies that won between 1978-1987. On the last episode we ran down the bottom five films, click HERE to see the list and listen to the episode. On this episode Stephanie Prior joins Dakota again and they talk about the best of that decade.  Here are the bottom five pictures in our ratings. Dakota’s ratings come first and Stephanie’s second nex...

After more than a year off from continuing the Best Picture Ranking series, it is back with a vengeance! Stephanie Prior steps in to join Dakota to review the Best Picture winners from the 1978-1987 Oscars (the 50th-59th winners). The series also got a much overdue name changing dropping the Birdman for the most recent winner Moonlight. If you missed the last time the series was discussed click HE...

For this massive episode Sammy Feilchenfeld joins Dakota Arsenault again to talk about all things concerning the new trend of “Cinematic Universes”, starting with reviews of both Justice League and Thor: Ragnarok the films that helped kick this new style of moving making off. After reviewing the two latest superhero movies, the guys look to see what the future holds for both the MCU and DCEU. – Fo...

After being out for over a month, Dakota Arsenault finally gets around to talking about the new Blade Runner 2049 movie. Sammy Feilchenfeld returns to talk about what he calls his favourite movie of the year so far.  Since this movie has been out for so long, spoilers are talked about in this episode so listeners be warned! – Sammy and Dakota want to heap all the praise on all the amazing act...

On this very special episode Dakota Arsenault celebrates reaching the milestone of 50 episodes! The very first one was back in April of 2015 discussing the first ten Best Picture Winner’s can be found HERE and marvel at how much better the quality has gotten (and notice the run times are much shorter!) A bit of the podcast’s history is shared including the origin of our name.  Special thanks...

The Toronto International Film Festival wrapped a few weeks ago and Mehek Seyid makes a return to Contra Zoom where she talks about the 28 (!) films she saw at this year festival.  The films that won top honours were Three Billboards Outside Ebbing , which won the People’s Choice award, with I, Tonya and Call Me By Your Name being named as runner ups. The top Canadian film was Les Affamés . W...

On this episode Sammy Feilchenfeld joins Dakota Arsenault as they discuss the end of the summer movie season. This episode includes talk on some summer movie highlights, the media’s decision to cause a panic about low attendance rates for crappy movies, the success of IT and the emergence of the app Movie Pass. – THR talks about what a poor few weeks August was for the box office. – Movie Pass mig...

With the recent passing of Horror legend George A. Romero , we here at Contra Zoom thought we should honour him by dedicating an episode of Make/Remake to him. In this Make/Remake series we discuss how remade films are both similar and different from each other, without going super in depth into if they are “good” or “bad” movies. Much like the first iteration of this Make/Remake series ( Seven Sa...

On this special episode, Dakota Arsenault is joined by Sammy Feilchenfeld as they discuss the greatest aspect of Canada- our filmmakers!  From talking about their favourite Canadian produced films like Incendies, Men With Brooms, C.R.A.Z.Y. and many more to just plain talking about their favourite Canadian directors like Denis Villeneuve, Jean-Marc Vallée, David Cronenberg and Deepa Mehta.&nb...

On this week’s episode Sierra Nutkevitch joins Dakota Arsenault and they talk about the latest DC film Wonder Woman directed by Patty Jenkins. In the second part of the episode the two discuss their favourite films directed by women and the importance of female fronted movies.  Sierra wrote an excellent review of the Wonder Woman film that is worth reading before listening to the pod. Sierra...

This is the first episode of a new series called Make/Remake where we look at two films, an original and a remake and compare and contrast the films. It isn’t about anointing, which one is the superior film or deriding remakes as unoriginal. This series is about looking at two films that tell the same story and how the utilize the art of telling a story in both similar and different ways.  Th...

On this week’s episode Dakota Arsenault introduces interviews that Sierra Nutkevitch conducted at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference this year.  Christina Jennings – Chairman & CEO of Shaftesbury. Christina talks about what it is like to take the plunge and follow your passions and the greatness Canada has to offer in terms of content creators.  Michelle Daly – Senior Director of C...

Rachel Gordon and Dakota Arsenault discuss the top films of 2016, even though it is now 4 months into 2017, as they needed time to digest everything. They were going to just award the top spot to La La Land, but at the last second decided not to. A few guests who also talk about their number one movie of last year join them this week. Gilles Leblanc- Rogue One Sierra Nutkevitch- Moana Sean Chin- A...

After all the craziness of the Oscars Dakota Arsenault and Mehek Seyid needed to talk about what transpired.  – La La Land was accidentally named Best Picture because of an envelope mixup – Jimmy Kimmel making fun of non-white names isn’t cool – John Legend performed both La La Land songs – Mahershala Ali was the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar – Damien Chazelle is the youngest Best Direct...

Just in time for your last minute Oscar pool’s  Dakota Arsenault  and  Rachel Gordon  host the second annual Contra Zoom Oscar Extravaganza! Your hosts are joined by film buff and Capsule co-host  Mehek Seyid . Here are the final predictions for Part 2 of the two-part special. If you missed Part 1, listen HERE . There will be a recap episode after the Oscars. Best Doc...

Just in time for your last minute Oscar pool’s Dakota Arsenault and Rachel Gordon host the second annual Contra Zoom Oscar Extravaganza! Your hosts are joined by film buff and Capsule co-host Mehek Seyid . Here are the final predictions for Part 1 of the two part special.  Best Live Action Short Film Dakota- Enemies Within (not on pod) Best Documentary Short Film Dakota- Joe’s Violin Best Ani...

On this last episode of this year’s breakdown of the Best Picture nominated films  Dakota Arsenault  talks about  Manchester By the Sea and Lion . On last week’s episode of  Contra Zoom  he discussed Hell or High Water, Fences and Moonlight.  These are the nominations for  Manchester By the Sea Best Picture  Best Actor- Casey Affleck Best Supporting Actor- L...

On this second episode of this year’s breakdown of the Best Picture nominated films  Dakota Arsenault  and Rachel Gordon  talks about  Moonlight , Fences and Hell or High Water . On last week’s episode of  Contra Zoom  he discussed Hidden Figures  and  La La Land . These are the nominations for Moonlight Best Picture  Best Supporting Actor- Mahershala A...

On this second episode of this year’s breakdown of the Best Picture nominated films Dakota Arsenault talks about Hidden Figures and La La Land . On last week’s episode of Contra Zoom he discussed Hacksaw Ridge and Arrival.  These are the nominations for Hidden Figures Best Picture  Best Supporting Actress- Octavia Spencer Best Adapted Screenplay- Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi...

This is the first Oscar Primer podcast for Contra Zoom, continuing the series of Oscar Primer’s Dakota does every year, normally just as written articles. He is flying solo this episode as he talks about Arrival and Hacksaw Ridge . These are the nominations for Arrival – Best Picture  – Best Director Denis Villeneuve  – Best Adapted Screenplay Eric Heisserer  – Best Cinematography B...

Dakota Arsenault is proud to announce that Rachel Gordon will join Contra Zoom as the permanent co-host along with her new role as Associate Film Editor! – You can check out Andreas Babiolakis’ Top 25 Films of 2016 and Top 25 Performances of 2016 . – You can find the top grossing films of 2016 HERE .  – Dakota’s thoughts on trends: Great child acting this year (Sing Street, Hunt for the Wilde...

On this mini-episode Dakota Arsenault talks to the lovely and talented Divine Brown, who is most well known for her music career but she is about to star in the musical Passing Strange .  Passing Strange is having its Toronto premiere later this month and it is a rock and roll epic that features a live band on stage accompanying the actors. It is being produced by Acting Up Stage Productions...

This week Dakota is joined by Rachel Gordon to talk about the passing of TIFF founder Bill Marshall , who sadly passed away at the age of 77 on January 1st, 2017.  Dakota and Rachel share some great quotes and stories that emerged in a fantastic obituary from TIFF , which include stories from the people who knew him best.  TIFF while a massive film festival also celebrates Canadian film...