Contra Zoom Pod

For our Halloween special this year we decided to fill in some horror blind spots and check out the Giallo collection that is available to stream on the Criterion Channel. We review Blood and Black Lace , Don't Torture a Duckling and Deep Red . Joining the show is Matthew Simpson, one half of the ⁠Awesome Friday⁠ podcast. Check out the full list of movies in the Criterion Channel collection on Let...

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2016's Mojave , directed by William Monahan. The film stars Garrett Hedlund as Tom, a depressed director who goes into the desert and ends up coming across Oscar Issac’s drifter Jack where they have a confrontation that continues back in LA. Joining the show is Matthew Simpson, one half of the...

The 2024 edition of VIFF just wrapped its 43rd year. We discuss our thoughts on the festival and review some of the films watched. Joining the show is Todd Pengelly , Marta Djordjevic and Christopher Cross . We review Anora , Universal Language , All We Imagine As Light , Conclave , A Different Man , The Girl With a Needle , No Other Land and Rumours . Read Dakota's reviews of Inedia , A Different...

With TIFF now behind us, it is time to discuss some of our favourite films that played, the award winners and what comes next for the People's Choice selection. Joining the show is Jeff Bulmer from Classic Movies Live , Thomas Stoneham-Judge from For Reel and Darren Zakus from Movie Scene Canada . We review The Life of Chuck , The Substance , Queer , Eden , The Shrouds , SATURDAY NIGHT , The A...

The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5-15th and we will be in town covering the fest. Here we preview our most anticipated films playing! Joining the show is Jeff Bulmer, one half of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Classic Movies Live⁠⁠⁠⁠ podcast. Dakota's picks: Oh, Canada , SATURDAY NIGHT , The Shrouds , The Last Showgirl , Anora and Relay . Jeff's pick: Ick , Universal Language , The Lif...

The 2024 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival just concluded and we discuss some of the films we watched, including Cuckoo, The Silent Planet, The Tenants, Electrophilia, Darkest Miriam, Hollywood 90028 and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. Joining the show is Jeff Bulmer, one half of the ⁠⁠⁠Classic Movies Live⁠⁠⁠ podcast. Read Dakota's reviews of The Silent Planet and Electrophilia . Read...

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2015's Mississippi Grind directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The film stars Ben Mendelsohn as Gerry a down and out gambling addict who befriends Ryan Reynolds Curtis, a man who he believes is his good luck charm. Joining the show is Eric Zhu, who publishes his work on Substack calle...

It is recently Dakota's birthday, and we continue the trend of picking a category and choosing our favourites from it. In 2020 there was ⁠114: 30 Films in 30 Years⁠ , in 2021 it was ⁠157: Best Films Through the Decades⁠ in 2022 it was ⁠199: Best Films by Genre⁠ and in 2023 it was 243: Best Films By Language . This year we are continuing 2022's theme of doing ten more genres by going throug...

The 2024 Toronto Japanese Film Festival has just concluded and we wrap up the best films that we saw during the run. Joining the show is Jeff Bulmer, one half of the ⁠⁠Classic Movies Live⁠⁠ podcast. We discuss Stay Mum , Missing , Great Absence , Life is Climbing and Mondays: See You "This" Week . Read Jeff's reviews of Missing and Don't Call It Mystery . Follow Classic Movies Li...

The Canadian Screen Awards celebrate the best in film, television and web content from Canada, and we discuss the films that were nominated and won at this year's ceremony. Movies discussed include BlackBerry, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, The Queen of my Dreams, Red Rooms and more! Joining the show is Jeff Bulmer, one half of the ⁠Classic Movies Live⁠ podcast. Read our...

Summer movie season is upon us, so it is time to pick what movies with a confirmed release date we are most excited about seeing this year! Dakota's picks are The Bikeriders , Kinds of Kindness , Wolf Man , Gladiator 2 and Nosferatu . Rachel's picks are Twisters , Trap , Speak No Evil , Wolfs and Mufasa: The Lion King . Rachel also announced that she is ending her run as permanent co-host....

The 2024 Seattle International Film Festival just concluded and we wrap up some of the films we saw. Joining the show again is Thomas Stoneham-Judge, the owner of For Reel , who was last heard on episode 270: 2024 Oscar Draft . We talk about Dìdi , The Missing (Iti mapukpukaw) , Tiger Stripes , Terrestrial Verses , Hitchcock's Pro-Nazi Film and Bob Trevino Likes It . Read Dakota's review o...

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2015's Dark Places directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner. The film stars Charlize Theron as Libby Day a woman who witnessed her older brother murder her entire family in a satanic ritual as a child, only to now be forced to questioned if that's what really happened. Joining the show is...

For the fifth year in a row we are covering the Hot Docs Film Festival , which celebrates the best in documentary films. We discuss 6 films watched during this year's fest. Joining the show is Jeff Bulmer, one half of the Classic Movies Live podcast. The films covered are Secret Mall Apartment , American Cats , Red Fever , Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story , Agent of Happiness and Michel G...

Back in 1954, Akira Kurosawa made the seminal samurai epic Seven Samurai starring Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. The film tells the story of a group of ronin who band up together to save a farmers village from a group of bandits. The film came out 70 years ago, so to celebrate the anniversary we review it and talk about the film’s influence. Joining the show is Bryan Loomis host of the What a...

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2015's The End of the Tour , directed by James Ponsoldt. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg as David Lipsky a Rolling Stone journalist who spends five days interviewing breakout author David Foster Wallace, played by Jason Segal. Joining the show for the first time is critic Nick Tiffany ....

Now that the Oscars are behind us, it is time to put a cap on the movie year that was 2023. There were a ton of incredible films so buckle in as Dakota and Rachel name their ten favourite films from last year. Along the way they get plenty of help from friends of the show who sent in voicemails of their pick for their number one movie too! Dakota's Top 10 Monster The Teachers' Lounge How t...

The 96th Academy Awards are officially behind us! We look at the big winners, best dressed, best performances and hosting! Joining the show once again is Todd Pengelly, a writer from For Reel who was last heard on episode 271: 2024 Oscar Predictions . Before we dive into the show we look at the crop of this year's Canadian Screen Awards nominees. Check out this helpful Letterboxd list made by...

We have come to the end of Oscar season, with our final episode before the Academy Awards on March 10th, 2024. We predict the winners for all 23 awards. Joining the show is Todd Pengelly, a writer from For Reel and a member of the Cascadian Film and Television Critics Association . See below the picks for the Oscars: Supporting Actress - Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Dakota and Todd) Supporting Actor...

For the second year in a row, we are doing an Oscar Draft! It is very simple, each person selects 5 movies that are nominated at this year's Oscars and whoever gets the most awards, wins! Joining Dakota once again is Alex Watson and Brodie Cotnam, and filling in for Rachel this year is Thomas Stoneham-Judge the owner of For Reel . Check out last year's draft . Dakota's Team Barbie Kill...

We continue our yearly tradition of breaking down the Best Picture nominees and the odds they have to win each of their categories. On the second episode of the series we talk about Poor Things , American Fiction , The Holdovers and Past Lives . We label each nomination as Frontrunner, Dark Horse, Longshot and Just Happy To Be There. Joining the show is Jeff Bulmer and Pierre Frigon, the hosts of...

We continue our yearly tradition of breaking down the Best Picture nominees and the odds they have to win each of their categories. On the second episode of the series we talk about Killers of the Flower Moon , Barbie and Maestro . We label each nomination as Frontrunner, Dark Horse, Longshot and Just Happy To Be There. Joining the show is Kyle Garzon who was last heard on 228: Oscars 2023 – The W...

We continue our yearly tradition of breaking down the Best Picture nominees and the odds they have to win each of their categories. On the first episode of the series we talk about Oppenheimer , Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest . We label each nomination as Frontrunner, Dark Horse, Longshot and Just Happy To Be There. Joining the show is Paulo Bautista host of the Oscars Death Race Podca...

On this bonus episode, I am sharing my interview with Mike Donahue, director of the new film Troy for the Academy of Death Racers Festival. Troy is a short film about a couple in NYC who hear their neighbour having loud sex nonstop, the noise consumes their lives until one day it stops and they try to learn what happened. I was asked to film a Q&A with Mike to appear alongside the film's s...

The 2024 Oscar nominations have now been announced with Oppenheimer, Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, Barbie and Maestro leading the pack. We go over the big categories and discuss what we think of the crop of nominees including who our pleasant surprises were and biggest snubs. Joining the show is Matthew Simpson, one half of the Awesome Friday podcast and co-founder of the Cascadian Film...