Someone Else's Movie

With her new movie Suze now playing in theaters across Canada, the invaluable Michaela Watkins revisits Martha Coolidge's Valley Girl , the teen movie that paired Deborah Foreman and Nicolas Cage for a very '80s love story. Your genial host Norm Wilner hasn't seen this one in a while either.

With her award-winning first feature Seagrass opening across North America this Friday, writer-director Meredith Hama-Brown puts on her ballet flats to discuss The Red Shoes , Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1948 masterwork about art, life, death, commitment, fear, rage and passion. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for his bad ankles.

With his first feature Marmalade now available on digital and on demand, actor-turned-filmmaker Keir O'Donnell offers his heart to Tony Scott's 1993 pulp-fiction knockout True Romance ... just in time for Valentine's Day. Your genial host Norm Wilner didn't even buy flowers.

With her new film Sometimes I Think About Dying now playing in the US and opening across Canada on Friday, director Rachel Lambert brings up another study of an alienated person making an unlikely connection: John Schlesinger's Oscar-winning Midnight Cowboy , a film unique in American cinema for all sorts of reasons. Your genial host Norm Wilner is walking here.

The Canadian theatrical release of her second feature Tótem   gives writer-director Lila Avilés the chance to bend the format a little and talk about how her voracious, lifelong love of cinema -- from Disney to Cassavetes -- helped her find her own aesthetic as an artist. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for his voice, which he blew out doing Canada's Top Ten events over the weekend.

Charles-Olivier Michaud ,  whose adaptation of Kim Thuy's award-winning novel Ru opens across Canada this Friday, January 26th, is here to ride along with Sebastian Schipper's 2015 single-take thriller Victoria , starring Laia Costa as a Spanish pianist who meets the wrong group of dudes in a Berlin nightclub and has a hell of a night as a result. Your genial host Norm Wilner wouldn't even be up a...

With a new restoration of her rediscovered film Household Saints opening at Toronto's Revue Cinema this Friday, writer-director Nancy Savoca shares her love of another long-lost picture: Euzhan Palcy's 1983 debut  Sugar Cane Alley , which has been even harder to find in recent years. Your genial host Norm Wilner still regrets not buying the DVD when he had the chance.

With his new movie Who's Yer Father? now on digital and the third season of Run the Burbs premiering tonight on CBC and CBC Gem, actor and stand-up Chris Locke is here to celebrate The Wrong Guy , the deadpan 1997 farce where Dave Foley tries to be a fugitive even though no one is chasing him. Your genial host Norm Wilner has some history with this one.

Happy new year! Writer-director Orson Oblowitz -- whose retro-cinema charmer Showdown At the Grand just arrived on disc and digital -- is here to celebrate the earth-shaking impact of Katsuhiro Otomo's 1988 anime breakthrough Akira . Your genial host Norm Wilner is always happy to nerd out for a bit.

With his extremely '80s thriller Going In now available on digital, actor and filmmaker Evan Rissi is here to celebrate one of the films that inspired it: Road House , the 1989 action drama starring Patrick Swayze as the world's greatest bouncer and Ben Gazzara as the world's pettiest crimelord. Your genial host Norm Wilner would never leave you without an episode over the holidays.

Actors, writers and real-life pals Rosa Labordé and Anna Hardwick – whose new streaming series Nesting premieres on Crave in Canada this Friday, December 22nd -- make some noise for Joan Micklin Silver’s Crossing Delancey , the unassuming 1988 dramedy where Amy Irving plays a New York bookseller torn between a flashy European author and a nice pickle man. Your genial host Norm Wilner does enjoy an...

With her latest feature Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret gaining momentum on the awards circuit, writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig takes a moment to celebrate the remarkable collaboration between Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater that gave us Before Sunrise and Before Sunset ... and that third one, too. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for mixing up "seven" and "nine" earl...

With her debut feature My Animal in theaters across Canada (and available on digital in the US), director Jacqueline Castel shares her love for the landmark 1942 thriller Cat People -- the one where Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur kept the real horrors offscreen. Your genial host Norm Wilner swears he's never been afraid of shadows.

With his new film Dream Scenario spreading like a virus across the US and Canada, writer-director Kristoffer Borgli steps up for The Idiots , Lars Von Trier’s 1998 drama about a group of people who choose to embrace provocation to shatter the veneer of polite society. Your genial host Norm Wilner is just too genial to do that sort of thing. 

With her new short Cold making its world premiere at Toronto's Blood in the Snow film festival this Saturday, actor and filmmaker Liz Whitmere opens up Yorgos Lanthimos' absurdist 2017 tragedy The Killing of a Sacred Deer to see what makes it tick. Your genial host Norm Wilner knows better than to offend Barry Keoghan.

With her new feature We Will Be Brave playing the Regent Park Film Festival next Friday, November 24th , documentary filmmaker Chrisann Hessing celebrates the bloody good time that is Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s 2014 vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows . Your genial host Norm Wilner has never needed a chore wheel.

With his new film Hands That Bind freshly arrived in theaters and on digital in the US and Canada, writer-director Kyle Armstrong digs into Lodge Kerrigan's excruciating 2004 drama Keane , which stars Damian Lewis as a man in a profound state of crisis. Your genial host Norm Wilner is braced and ready.

Happy horny Halloween! With his first feature Verona opening theatrically in Toronto this Friday, November 3rd, and screening in Landmark theaters across Canada on Monday the 6th, writer-director Sebastian Back tackles Walerian Borowczyk's 1975 art-house erotic fantasy horror film La Bete. Your genial host Norm Wilner strongly advises listener discretion. 

Sure, Halloween is just around the corner but Dicks! The Musical co-creators and co-stars Joshua Sharp and Aaron Jackson are here to spread the joy of another season, celebrating the 2020 Netflix musical Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square . Your genial host Norm Wilner is ... surprisingly into it.   Dicks! The Musical is in theaters now from A24 and VVS, depending on whether you're in the US o...

Casting director turned writer-director Jennifer Cram , whose first feature Sick Girl is in theaters and on demand this Friday, October 20th, tackles Reality Bites , the 1994 comedy that asked Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn and director Ben Stiller to represent all of Generation X. Your genial host Norm Wilner was there too.

With her new web series How to Fail As a Popstar premiering on CBC Gem this Friday, October 13th, multimedia polymath Vivek Shraya is here to discuss the movie that had a profound impact on her younger self: The Bodyguard , Mick Jackson's 1992 thriller-slash-romance starring Whitney Houston as a megastar who hires Kevin Costner as her protection -- only for them to realize their relationship is mu...

With her reality comedy I Have Nothing now streaming on Crave, Baroness Von Sketch Show's Carolyn Taylor is here to tackle Colin Higgins' 9 to 5 , the 1980 workplace comedy smash that pitted office workers Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton against Dabney Coleman's swaggering jerk of a boss. Your genial host Norm Wilner really wanted to sing the song.

With their first feature Tenzin now streaming on CBC Gem and available on digital across North America, directors Michael LeBlanc and Josh Reichmann share their love for Adrian Lyne's 1990 thriller Jacob's Ladder -- you know, the one where Tim Robbins plays a Vietnam veteran who finds life back home even more hellish than it was in country. Your genial host Norm Wilner has some thoughts.

With his first feature Relax, I'm From the Future opening in the US this Friday, September 22nd -- and having a preview screening in Toronto at the Carlton Cinemas ahead of its official release October 6th -- filmmaker Luke Higginson takes 24 Hour Party People for a spin, celebrating the perfect casting of Steve Coogan as '70s TV presenter Tony Wilson, and pretty much everything else about Michael...

With her new documentary Analogue Revolution: How Feminist Media Changed the World premiering Friday at the Atlantic International Film Festival (and playing the Toronto Independent Film Festival on Sunday), professor and filmmaker Marusya Bociurkiw salutes Laura Poitras' Nan Goldin documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed -- for obvious reasons. Your genial host Norm Wilner is glad she did.