Contra Zoom Pod

It's finally here! With the release of the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound Great Films of all Time poll came out on December 1st, and the discourse has been nonstop since then. Everyone has put out their thoughts and opinions and we decided to weigh in as well! Dakota and Rachel react to the official list. They also polled nearly 80 critics and industry professionals to submit their own l...

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's The Captive directed by Atom Egoyan. The film stars Ryan Reynolds who even eight years after his daughter was kidnapped he still maintains hope. Rosario Dawson and Scott Speedman play the detectives trying to track down the young girl. Joining the show is Matthew Simpson, host of Awesom...

Back on November 26th 1942 the movie world was changed with the release of the Michael Curtiz directed Casablanca . The film appears on lists such as the IMDb Top 250 , the Letterboxd Top 250 Narrative Features , AFI's 100 Years 100 Movies and the 2012 Sight & Sound Critics Poll . The film won Best Picture, Director and Screenplay at the 1944 Oscars. It is beloved the world over with a stacked...

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's Revenge of the Green Dragons directed by Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo. The film stars Justin Chon and Kevin Wu as two young men in a Chinese gang, The Green Dragons, in the early 90's in New York. Joining the show is Rose Ho , one third of The Asian Cut (alongside Rachel and Alisha Mughal)...

It's Noir-vember again and we are back with another great film noir themed show! This year The Criterion Channel has a collection of 20th Century Fox produced films and we look at three of the movies showing. Joining the show is critic Alisha Mughal, who was last heard on episode 197: David Cronenberg and Body Horror . We discuss Fallen Angel directed by Otto Preminger, Call Northside 777 directed...

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's Laggies directed by Lynn Shelton. The film stars Kiera Knightly as a woman who faces a quarter century crisis and runs away from her life to stay with a high schooler played by Chloë Grace Moretz. Joining the show is Kattie Laur and Mark Allin, Kattie is a writer for Pod the North and p...

It's our annual Halloween special! This year we are looking at three versions of the Nosferatu story in preparation of Robert Eggers version coming next year. When the Bram Stoker estate wouldn't grant F.W. Murnau the rights to film Dracula in 1922, he made his own version and changed the names making Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie Des Grauens (A Symphony of Horror) starring Max Schreck. In 1979 Werner...

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's Tusk directed by Kevin Smith. The film stars Justin Long as a podcaster who travels to Winnipeg, Manitoba and decides to interview a former sailor, Michael Parks, who had lured Wallace in hopes of performing a grotesque surgery on him. Joining the show is Nathan Sizemore, one third of t...

While Rachel got to have her fun covering TIFF, those of us on the west coast got to enjoy the Vancouver International Film Festival. Joining the show is Matthew Simpson, one half of the Awesome Friday Podcast , who was last heard on episode 211: A24 Retrospective - The Rover . We're trying something new, both Contra Zoom and Awesome Friday are releasing the same episode, so you can listen to the...

In lieu of a full episode this week, we bring you the sixth in our series of bonus episodes, Better Know a Contributor , where we ask frequent guests of the show 10 Contra Zoom Pod movie questions so you can learn more about your favourite voices. On this show is Pierre Frigon, one half of the Classic Movies Live podcast. Rachel and Pierre talk about how originally he and his CML co-host Jeff Bulm...

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's The Rover directed by David Michôd. The film stars Guy Pearce as a man tracking down a group of thieves that stole his car in post apocalyptic Australia. He finds Robert Pattinson, the brother of one of the thieves left for dead and uses him to find the group. Joining the show is Matthe...

Rachel Ho continues to captain the CZP ship as she recaps the Toronto International Film Festival. Joining her is Prabhjot Bains, a writer for Tilt and Exclaim! as they talk about the highs, lows and complexities of the fest. They talk about The Whale, My Policeman, The Menu, The Banshees of Inisherin, Brother and The Fabelmans. They also give brief mentions to Aftersun, Triangle of Sadness,...

Rachel Ho flies solo for the first time as she interviews two directors whose films were playing at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.  First up is the Anthony Shim , who made the Canadian-Korean drama Riceboy Sleeps about a single mother who is struggling to raise her son as new immigrants to Canada. They talk about struggling to find the right actors for the roles, why music w...

Back on episode 151: Hot Docs 2021 , Rachel and Dakota reviewed a ramen documentary called Come Back Anytime . They both fell in love with the gentle and warm doc about Master Masamoto Ueda who is not only a great ramen chef, but also a community leader in his neighbourhood in Tokyo. Director John Daschbach is an American that lives in Japan and became a regular at the shop and decided to make a d...

With the Toronto International Film Festival just around the corner, running from September 8-18th, we decided to preview what movies we are most excited about. Dakota's picks include Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story , The Good Nurse , Triangle of Sadness and Wendell and Wild . Rachel's picks include Stellar , Viking , Brother and The Banshees Of Inisherin . They both are very excited for Decision...

Two years ago on episode 85: All Things MCU , we talked about all the big announcements for Marvel post Infinity Saga. Now that most of the movies and TV shows talked about then have come out, it's time to look ahead again. During this year's Comic Con, Marvel announced the slate for Phases 5 and 6, now being called the Multiverse Saga. Joining the show to talk about upcoming films Captain America...

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's Obvious Child directed by Gillian Robespierre. The film stars Jenny Slate as an aspiring stand up comedian who gets dumped and in her grief has a one night stand that ends up with her getting pregnant while the rest of her life is collapsing around her. Joining the show is Stephanie Pri...

With Montreal's Fantasia Festival wrapping up, we look back at one of the premiere genre film festivals. We discuss several films we saw including the opening night selection Polaris, Skinamarink, Baby Assassins, My Small Land and Topology of Sirens. Listen to our interviews with KC Carthew, director of Polaris and Berkley Brady, director of Dark Nature on episode 203: Fantasia Fest Interview...

Fantasia Festival is still going on, but we had the chance to interview two directors who had their films screening at this years fest!  First up both Dakota and Rachel chat with KC Carthew, the director of Fantasia's opening night film Polaris , afterwards Rachel goes solo as she talks to Berkley Brady the director of Dark Nature . Read Dakota and Rachel's reviews of Polaris and Sara Clement...

Dakota and Rachel share their picks for their top five movies of the year so far and a few honourable mentions! Dakota's picks were After Yang, The Batman, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Top Gun: Maverick and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Rachel's picks were Ambulance, Apples, Ashgrove, Cha Cha Real Smooth and Fire of Love. Read Rachel's contributions to That Shelf's best movies of...

We return with coverage of this year's Toronto Japanese Film Festival which showcases the finest Japanese films that are often getting either Canadian or International premiere's, giving audiences a chance to finally see the best movies coming out of Japan. We covered the festival last year on 155: Toronto Japanese Film Festival . On this show we talk about Midnight Swan (which won Best Film at th...

For our special 200th episode Dakota and Rachel decided to look back at films that made them the movie watchers they are today. From fond early moviegoing memories to the first time they were challenged to what made them want to be a critic. They picked five films each and got some voicemails from friends of the show who wanted to share their picks! Dakota's picks: The Birds/North By Northwest, Th...

For the last two year's for my birthday I've dedicated the podcast to celebrating some of my all time favourite movies! In 2020 there was 114: 30 Films in 30 Years and in 2021 it was 157: Best Films Through the Decades . Returning after being on last year's birthday special is Bil Antoniou, last heard on episode 189: 2022 Oscar Recap . We go through ten different film genres and name o...

In our third "A History Of..." series after the success charting the rise of NEON , A24 Films and The Criterion Collection we are looking at Laika Studios, a film studio that has revitalized the art of stop motion animation. The studio put out its first film in 2009 with Coraline and since then have released five Oscar nominated movies including Kubo & the Two Strings and ParaNorman. We trace...

In lieu of a full episode this week, we bring you the sixth in our series of bonus episodes, Better Know a Contributor , where we ask frequent guests of the show 10 Contra Zoom Pod movie questions so you can learn more about your favourite voices. On this show is Jeff Bulmer, one half of the Classic Movies Live podcast. We talk what made how Spanglish kept Jeff in check, his favourite movies ( Req...