The Celebration is the first film in the Dogme 95 movement, an artistic exercise by a group of filmmakers led by Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg pushing back against what they saw as the excesses of 90s filmmaking. Wouldn't you know it, for Dogme's 30 anniversary, Dogme 25, pushing back against the excesses of 2020s filmmaking, was announced at last year's Cannes Film Festival! (Stay tuned for more!)

The Celebration stars Henning Moritzen as the patriarch of a wealthy family celebrating his 60th birthday. But in bringing together all his children for the first time in several years, he accidentally invites conflicts which threaten to tear his family apart.

The Celebration is one of the most highly-regarded Dogme 95 films (indeed one of very few to be met with positive critical success), and would go on to be submitted to the 71st Academy Awards as Denmark's International Feature submission (but was not nominated). It's also one of Vinterberg's best-known movies, aside from the most recent Another Round (which he ended up finally winning an Oscar for).

In this episode, our hosts discuss The Celebration and Dogme filmmaking! Does this have anything to do with last week's episode on The Drama? You'll have to tune in to find out!

In the latest from Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli, a relationship is rocked right before the wedding when the soon-to-be-spouses reveal to each other the worst thing they've ever done. One of those things is truly messed up. The other is also pretty bad!

The Drama is seemingly tailor-made to spark Discourse, but does it succeed? And whether it succeeds or not, are the conversation points it raises interesting enough of a springboard? Pierre and Jeff take a crack at discussing, with full spoilers, the Robert Pattinson/Zendaya two-hander!

This episode also contains light spoilers for the film Our Hero Balthazar.

Written and produced between seasons 1 and 2 of Batman: The Animated Series, Mask of the Phantasm finds Batman facing his past when a mysterious figure called the Phantasm begins killing mafia bosses in Gotham City. At the same time, Bruce Wayne's old flame Andrea Beaumont comes back to town to... visit? Settle some business with her father's successor as CEO of Beaumont Industries? It's a little unclear, but it's up to the World's Greatest Detective to make it clear, and discover what Andi's been up to since they last met... and learn how this all ties back to the Phantasm.

Jeff takes a few points from this review of Mask of the Phantasm by Darren Mooney on Letterboxd. Check it out, it's a good read!

Considered by many to be director Paul Thomas Anderson's magnum opus, There Will Be Blood stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, an oil-man attempting to strike rich in the town of Little Boston. As Plainview buys up the land in town, promising untold riches and prosperity to the people of Little Boston, he runs up against Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a local preacher and "son of these hills" who is, to put it lightly, not fond of the way Plainview conducts business.

There Will Be Blood would go on to be nominated for 8 Academy Awards, winning Best Actor in a Leading Role for Daniel Day-Lewis and Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. Perhaps just as impressively, it was the second movie that our co-host Jeff would see in the Dundee Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska, becoming the centrepiece of a formative experience to his development as a cinephile.

You know the drill: both our hosts have seen this movie, and they've got thoughts! Are they good thoughts? Bad thoughts? Oil thoughts? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff dissect another classic movie... live!

Project Hail Mary is a new sci-fi film from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, directors of 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, and The Lego Movie, but most recently best-known as the Oscar-winning producers of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse! Written by Drew Goddard -- screenwriter of Ridley Scott's The Martian -- and adapted from a novel by Andy Weir -- the original writer of the novel The Martian -- Project Hail Mary is packed with big names behind the cameras, and Gosling and Sandra Huller aren't small names in front of the camera, either.

In Project Hail Mary, a high school science teacher wakes up 11 light years from Earth, alone in a small spacecraft and no idea who he is or why he's there. Those questions are answered pretty quickly though: his name is Ryland Grace, and he's there to try and find a way to stop the sun from dying.

Should be simple enough.

Retrograde amnesia makes for a film where just about everything is spoilers, so keep that in mind for Pierre and Jeff's spoiler-filled discussion of Project Hail Mary! What did our hosts think of Gosling? What did they think of Huller? Is there anyone else in the movie, and if so, what did our hosts think of them?

Tune in as we go through another classic movie... live!

From Daniel Chong, director of Cartoon Network's We Bare Bears, Hoppers stars Piper Curda as Mabel Tanaka, a teenage environmental activist who transports her mind into the body of a mechanical beaver in order to save a glade near her home that's scheduled for demolition. Mabel quickly finds herself in over her head as she discovers the complexities of forest animal society, and the difficulty of communicating Mayor Jerry Generazzo's (Jon Hamm) intentions to remove the animals in favour of his pet project, a new beltway.

After Elio and Inside Out 2, Hoppers feels like a bit of a deviation from Pixar's recent output, but also something of a return to form. Tune in as Pierre discuss what makes it fresh, what it says about the environment and eco-activism, and what this movie means for Pixar's future!

The Secret Agent is the second Brazilian movie in as many years to be nominated for Best Picture! A film by Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent stars Wagner Moura as Armando, a professor on the wrong side of the Brazilian dictatorship in 1977. Arguably as much a film about a man on the run as it is about life in Recife under the dictatorship, The Secret Agent stands out as somewhat experimental among this year's Best Picture nominees. It's both a movie that trusts the audience to fill in the blanks when it comes to the plot and world, and also leaves a few too many blanks for the audience to be comfortable.

The Secret Agent is a film that would be difficult to have a boring conversation about, so this episode is guaranteed to be one of the best in this year's Best Picture series!

What did our hosts think? Did they like it? Does that matter? Tune in to find out... Live!

And stick around to the very end for our hosts' thoughts on each of the Oscars categories. In some years, naming their picks has been a matter of seconds. This time... well, it's a lot harder!

Spinning out of the beloved cult-classic 2017 Viceland show Nirvanna The Band The Show (itself based on a webseries of the same name from 2007), NTBTSTM follows Matt and Jay as they try to get a show at the Rivoli. What starts as a crazy plan to advertise a not-yet-existent concert by skydiving off the CN Tower quickly spirals out of control, resulting in Matt and Jay briefly travelling back in time and changing their futures! If that sounds hard to follow, just imagine Back to the Future, but set in Toronto as a mockumentary.

Joining us today is Allen, a personal friend of the hosts and a huge fan of the show from when it originally aired. Between Pierre, Allen, and Jeff, we've got three distinct levels of familiarity with the show, rounding out a pretty good panel to talk about Matt and Jay's misadventures in 2008!

Jeff refers multiple times to this interview conducted by Peter Kuplowsky in advance of the release of NTBTSTM: https://youtu.be/14gqhme2A0Q?si=lU_L85ThiaL-Vqbz

Bugonia is the latest collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, remaking the 2003 South Korean classic Save the Green Planet by Jang Joon-hwan. In both films, a powerful pharmaceutical CEO (Emma Stone/Baek Yoon-sik) is kidnapped by a down-on-his-luck man (Jesse Plemons/Shin Ha-kyun) who is convinced the CEO is an alien from the Andromeda galaxy, bent on destroying humanity. Both films are comic yet tense hostage thrillers, and cutting commentaries on society in their respective release eras. What's most interesting though, is that despite being quite similar on the page -- Bugonia even taking some lines from Save the Green Planet verbatim -- the two are, thematically, quite different!

In this episode, following in the footsteps of previous episodes like Classic Movies Live – Season 4, Episode 15: Do Do-Over: The Hidden Fortress/Star Wars and CML Classics – Episode 33: Infernal Affairs, Pierre and Jeff break down both Bugonia and Save the Green Planet!

But first, Train Dreams!

Based on the 2011 novella by Denis Johnson, Train Dreams tells the story of Robert Granier, a railroad worker at the turn of the 20th century in the Idaho panhandle. Taking place over nearly 50 years, Train Dreams tracks the life of Granier as the world rapidly develops around him, while his own life progresses much more quickly than he initially expects.

Pierre is away this week, but joining Jeff in his stead is friend of the show and first-time guest Victoria, who brings a background in media analysis and proximity to the Toronto film scene to talk about everyone's new favourite Joel Edgerton movie!

You'll next see Victoria as part of this year's Academy of Death Racers awards! The Deathies will be hosted this year on March 14th on YouTube! What's your favourite memory associated with March 14th? Sound off in the comments below!

In the last episode, occasional Oscar rivals Bong Joon-ho and Adam McKay faced off with two films about classism and economic collapse. In the battle between Snowpiercer and The Big Short, McKay narrowly snatched victory, defeating his quadruple-Oscar winning opponent!

Speaking of snatching things... this week we're talking about heists!

Sort of!

First on the ticket is a director prizing quality over quantity. Despite a filmography of only 4 films, Marielle Heller has made a name for herself with high-profile, buzzy titles that always get at least a little awards attention. Her film Nightbitch got Amy Adams a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress - Musical or Comedy, her film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood got Tom Hanks an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The film we're talking about today, Can You Ever Forgive Me? netted Academy Award nominations for both of its main stars, Richard E Grant for Best Supporting Actor, and Melissa McCarthy for Best Lead Actress, as well as a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for writers Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty. Can You Ever Forgive Me? is of course a biopic about Lee Israel, a biographer who in the 90s became infamous for forging literary letters in the style of authors such as Noël Coward, Fanny Brice, and Ernest Hemingway. McCarthy plays Israel in perhaps her greatest role to date, bringing just the right mix of misanthropy and charm to really centre this fusion of a biopic and a crime thriller.

Heller's opponent is the ever-illustrious Guy Ritchie! Coming up alongside Matthew Vaughn in the early 2000s, Ritchie would make a name for himself with films like Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and later the Sherlock Holmes series starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. He's also the director who gave audiences their first taste of Jason Statham, who has himself become an institution in the 25+ years since his breakout role in Lock. Ritchie's followup to Lock would be the riotous ensemble heist film Snatch, about two boxing promoters who get in over their head at the same time as a group of small time criminals get their hands on a rare diamond. Those two plots, initially unrelated, intertwine in hilarious, almost Looney Tunes-esque ways as each group repeatedly fail their way upwards. Starring Statham alongside Brad Pitt, Stephen Graham, and Lennie James as everyone's favourite character Sol, Snatch has stood the test of time to become regarded as one of Ritchie's best films, as well as one of the most popular in each of the aforementioned actors' filmographies. (Editor's Note: Jeff claims repeatedly in this episode that Sol is "the driver." This is not true: in scenes featuring Sol and his gang driving, Sol sits next to the driver)

Joining us today is a guest last heard on our 2025 Year In Review episode, and before that Kickin’ It With Kendrick, Episode 3: The Twilight Saga. That's right, Kylie from the Academy of Death Racers is back! Like all our guests, Kylie has a bit of a bias towards one of our competing films. Can you guess what it is before she tells you? And will Kylie's favourite come out on top? Tune in to find out in today's episode of Director Showdown!

This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article.

Special thanks this week to our good friend Cris, who made the cover art for this episode! Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd to see more of her artwork, film opinions/reviews, or both!

In Marty Supreme, directed by Josh Safdie, Marty Mauser (Timothee Chalamet) needs cash now to get to Japan to prove he's the best table tennis player in the world. Chalamet gives his best performance yet as the ego-centric, driven Mauser, as he comes face to face with mob bosses, actresses, and the richest man in the world played by Kevin O'Leary, in his quest to be the best!

We've already spoiled that Chalamet is great in this movie, but how is it overall? How is Tyler the Creator in his first role? How is Odessa A'zion, most recently seen in I Love LA, in what could be her breakout role? How is that guy from Dragon's Den that we all usually hate?

I hope you're as excited as the writer of this description for the first episode of yet another year of Classic Movies... Live!

Join us as Pierre and Jeff discuss their favourite films of the year, including plenty that are just too strange for us to have devoted a full episode to. Additionally, our hosts discuss the current state of the film industry, and what it's like to see a film in 2026!

In this episode, be prepared for minor spoilers for Lilo & Stitch and Jurassic World: Rebirth. Major spoilers (potentially) for all of the following:

Kokuho Predator: Badlands 100 Meters HIM Resurrection Materialists Of the above films, Jeff reviewed Kokuho and HIM for Contra Zoom Pod, and you can find those reviews here: Kokuho, HIM.

Special thanks to all the guests featured in this episode, including:

Dakota Arsenault from Contra Zoom Pod, last heard on CML in Episode 6 of our Director Showdown Series! Dakota especially liked our Frankenstein & The Bride and Apichatpong Weerasethakul vs. Ava DuVernay episodes! We especially liked CZP's K-Pop Demon Hunters and VIFF episodes!

Pedro Lima, last heard on Season 6, Episode 19: TIFF Preview. Pedro writes reviews for several outlets, including Contra Zoom Pod, Shortstick, Movies We Texted About, and Keith Loves Movies. Pedro wrote a wonderful review of the film Dry Leaf over at Movies We Texted About.

Kylie Corcoran, last heard on Kicking It with Kendrick Episode 3: The Twilight Saga.

rach, last heard on Season 5, Episode 3: The Zone of Interest.

And Jason Christian of Cold War Cinema. We especially enjoyed Jason's episodes on Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Pickup On South Street

While he isn't featured on the episode, longtime friend of the show Ben also conducted an excellent interview with Celine Song, director of Materialists, which you can check out directly on YouTube.

To celebrate the holidays this year, we're taking things back to one of our favourite series on this show. In fact, long-time listeners may remember that our current cover art template was pioneered with an episode on the second movie in this series. The series I'm talking about, of course, is James Cameron's Avatar.

And today, we're talking about the end of the current saga (but unlikely the last film in the series): Fire and Ash.

Fire and Ash picks up right where The Way of Water left off. The Sullys have helped to save the Metkayina tribe, but lost their eldest son, Neteyam, in the process. Everyone's favourite tulkun, Payakan, has also defied his people's non-violent ways. And of course, Colonel Miles Quaritch barely managed to escape with his life. It's increasingly clear that proximity to the Sully family makes anyone a target, but as the Sullys attempt to escape back to the forest alongside wind traders, they're ambushed by the mysterious ash people, a tribe of Na'vi who believe Eywa has forsaken them.

If you're not an Avatar-head, a better way to describe the film might be that Fire and Ash continues to explore the series' themes of belonging, reincarnation, and colonization, this time through characters that haven't gotten their time in the sun in previous movies. The film continues to amaze visually, pushing the boundaries of what movies can look like. The plot grounds itself in familiar territory in order to dive deeper into the philosophies and psyches of its characters. Like The Way of Water and Avatar before it, Fire and Ash truly is a sight to behold.

...and perhaps that gives away our broadest thoughts on it, but nevertheless our hosts have lots to say! Tune in to hear it all this week on Classic Movies Live!

Specifically, William Shakespeare, and even more specifically, the rendition of William Shakespeare played by Paul Mescal in Chloe Zhao's most recent film Hamnet.

Hamnet is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Maggie O'Farrell, recounting the story of a tragedy in the life of The Bard that preceded the writing of his play Hamlet. Focusing primarily on his wife, Agnes (Jessie Buckley), and her life in Stratford-upon-Avon raising their children, Hamnet is a story about absent fathers, overprotective mothers, and the grief that sets in when everything you do just isn't enough to stop the worst from happening.

Hamnet marks a major career milestone for Zhao. Coming off of Marvels The Eternals, it's significantly lower budget, but more traditionally fictional than her previous film Nomadland. It's her first time working with Mescal and Buckley. And certainly not least of all, it's her second time winning TIFF's People's Choice Award!

Will it also be her second film to go big at the Oscars? Tune in as our hosts talk about one of their most hotly anticipated films of the year... Live!

Zootopia 2 picks up right where the first one left off. Judy Hopps is the first bunny cop in Zootopia, and reformed criminal Nick Wilde is the first fox cop, and Hopps' new partner. After busting Mayor Bellweather in the first movie, Hopps and Wilde are on an ambitious streak of overachieving, and starting to get sloppy as they try to leave their fellow police in the dust. After an animal trafficker gets away on Hopps and Wilde's watch, the duo is suspended... just in time to learn about a planned heist that threatens to turn the entire society of Zootopia on its head!

Zootopia introduces Andy Samberg, Fortune Feimster, and Ke Huy Quan to the budding billion-dollar franchise, and brings back all the voices and talent that made the first one what it was.

We didn't have the opportunity to talk about the first Zootopia on this show, so we never got around to exactly what that first one was... let's remedy that this week!

...Live!

In the last episode, we saw a clash of titans with Apichatpong Weerasethakul vs. Ava DuVernay, both with a film about how the sins of the past inform the issues of the present. Between Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Origin, the Palme d'Or winner ultimately came out on top, with Weerasethakul taking the record for first-round winner with the longest surname!

This week, we try to imagine a world without capitalism... and end up just imagining the end of the world instead!

Up first, we have another Palme d'Or winner. Hailing from South Korea, Bong Joon-ho really made a splash in the West when his 2019 film Parasite became the first Asian movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Of course, by the time it won, it was hardly a surprise: Parasite had already picked up the Palme d'Or and 3rd place at the TIFF People's Choice earlier that summer! But before Parasite, Bong had already established himself with films like Memories of Murder, The Host, and even a couple of Hollywood films like the Netflix-released Okja. Today, our hosts talk about Bong's biggest sci-fi hit: Snowpiercer. Starring Chris Evans, John Hurt, and Song Kang-ho, Snowpiercer is a climate-conscious thriller about a popular uprising on the world's last surviving train during a new ice age.

Opposite Bong is Adam McKay! A longtime collaborator of Will Ferrell, McKay cut his teeth in comedy with films like Talladega Nights, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and The Other Guys. In recent years, McKay pivoted slightly, moving away from outright comedies and into comedically-tinged political dramas. In recent years, McKay's even proven himself a regular at the Oscars with films like Vice and Don't Look Up -- which we covered in episode 18 of our series Losing It Over Leo. But the first of those dramedies was the Ryan Gosling/Christian Bale/Steve Carrell-starrer The Big Short. Centred around a group of Wall Street investors who recognize the subprime mortgage bubble before it became the subprime mortgage crisis, The Big Short tells the true story of how a handful of millionaires profited off the misfortune of a whole country. It also does a great job of answering the question on everybody's minds: what is a "subprime mortgage"?

Joining us today is a repeat guest: Mark Morgan of Rambling Cinema! Mark was last heard on Match 4 of Director Showdown, where his passionate advocacy for Darren Aronofsky was ultimately unsuccessful in carrying the mother! director to victory. Will his favourite prevail in this episode? You'll have to tune in to find out!

This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article.

Special thanks this week to our good friend Cris, who made the cover art for this episode! Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd to see more of her artwork, film opinions/reviews, or both!

Sentimental Value reunites director Joachim Trier with star Renate Reinsve to tell the story of Nora, a Norwegian theatre actress in the middle of a bold new production of Hamlet whose life is thrown into disarray by the reappearance of her film director father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard). Gustav wants Nora to star in his latest film, a deeply personal story that he claims he wrote specially for her. Nora, of course, wants no part in it, so Gustav instead casts American superstar Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) to play the lead instead.

Sentimental Value is an affecting story about relationships that may as well be impossible to fix, and people unable to communicate with each other. A story about things going unspoken that makes surprisingly effective narrative use of that unspokenness. Between an amazing script, great performances from all three leads, and Trier's unique deadpan sense of humour, it's a film that shouldn't be missed!

So luckily, our hosts didn't miss it! Check out our thoughts on this eventual classic movie... live!

...and also in this episode, we talk about a new release reuniting the Four Horsemen of Magic! We saw that one, too!

In the previous episode, Pierre and Jeff talked about James Whale's 1930s films Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. This week, our hosts are back to discuss an adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic that goes in a very different direction.

Starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein sees the director returning to a gothic horror period piece a la Crimson Peak. Boasting a more "book-accurate" version of the story, Frankenstein features both Victor (Isaac) and the Creature (Elordi) recounting events from their points of view to a neutral sea captain (Lars Mikkelsen), who holds the fate of both in his hands.

del Toro's interpretation is quite different from Whale's, focusing on entirely different themes and sections of the story. Is it better for it? Well, the answer to that question is a bit more complicated than it may initially appear....

For more Frankenstein discussion, you can check out Jeff's appearance on the Halloween episode of Contra Zoom Pod, where he joined Dakota Arsenault and Matthew Simpson to talk about Whale's vision, del Toro's, and also Young Frankenstein!

The sophomore feature from director Mary Bronstein -- her first following 2008's Yeast -- If I Had Legs follows a psychotherapist named Linda as her life rapidly falls apart around her. Already stressed while dealing with her daughter's special needs and her sailor husband's absence, Linda's world is turned upside-down when a hole suddenly opens in the roof of her apartment. After moving into a local motel, Linda now has yet another thing to balance within her already overfull life.

If I Had Legs stars Rose Byrne as Linda, with fantastic supporting performances from Conan O'Brien in a rare dramatic role, A$AP Rocky fresh off of Highest 2 Lowest, and rising star Ivy Wolk. Our hosts talk about what drew them to this movie, and how much or little Bronstein's manic energy pays off!

On this week's episode, our hosts talk about one of the most influential horror film duologies of all time: Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. If you haven't seen either of these... well, you've probably seen more than you think!

Pierre and Jeff talk about seeing Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's monster on screen for the first time, and finally recognizing where just about every sci-fi trope in film -- maybe ever? -- comes from! We talk about Boris Karloff and Colin Clive, James Whale and Ernest Thesiger. You might even hear us talk about Daniel Radcliffe. Why? To learn that, you'll have to tune in to hear us talk about this all-time classic movie... live!

In Good Fortune, Ansari stars as Arj, a down-on-his-luck gig worker barely making ends meet in LA. When Arj meets Jeff (Seth Rogen), a millionaire venture capitalist with an easy life, things briefly start to look up as he becomes Jeff's permanent assistant... only to take a turn when Jeff lets him go after a little over a week. In his lowest moment, Arj is visited by the angel Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), who offers him the opportunity to live a few days in Jeff's shoes to see that the life of a rich man in LA isn't all it's cracked up to be. Thing is, life as a rich man in LA turns out to be all it's cracked up to be.

Good Fortune is a type of comedy that's increasingly rare in the modern cinematic landscape. But is that a good thing, a breath of fresh air perhaps, or something we're happy to be rid of?

Tune in to find out as Pierre and Jeff discuss this week's classic movie... live!

On today's episode of Classic Movies Live!, we're once again reviewing a film featuring the incomparable Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson! Last discussed in our episode about S03E55 – Black Adam three years ago, Johnson is positioning himself for a comeback as a "serious actor" with a starring role in a film by one of the Safdie Brothers, chronicling three years in the life of UFC legend Mark Kerr.

The Smashing Machine shows Kerr during a pivotal moment in his career, as he struggles with an opiate addiction, as well as losing his first fights during the earliest days of Japan's mixed martial arts Pride Fighting Championships. An acting showcase for Johnson and co-star Emily Blunt, The Smashing Machine centres Kerr and his rocky relationship with his then-girlfriend Dawn Staples, and the tension between his home life as a gentle giant, and his life in the ring as one of MMA's most brutal fighters.

The Smashing Machine is a landmark film in the careers of Safdie and Johnson, but does it succeed in setting either up for new career highs? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff break down everything there is to talk about Mark Kerr, Dwayne Johnson, and Benny Safdie in yet another classic movie... live!

Very loosely based on Thomas Pynchon's novel "Vineland," One Battle stars Leo as Bob Ferguson, an aging revolutionary thrust back into the crosshairs of an anti-immigration anti-domestic-terror general named Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn). Fifteen years after the dissolution of Bob's revolutionary group, the French 75, Lockjaw finally tracks down him and his daughter, Willa, and decides to wipe out the rest of the group once and for all.

One Battle might be PTA's most explicitly political movie -- and one of Leo's -- and couldn't be more of the moment. Despite that, it's far from a cynical political commentary, with just as much to say about what it means to age out of the counterculture. Or even if "aging out" is a viable way to exit the counterculture in the first place.

There's a lot to say about Leo's latest, and our hosts are going full spoilers for episode two-zero of Losing It Over Leo!

If you were wondering where we were over the last few weeks, well, we went to the fiftieth iteration of the Toronto International Film Festival! This year hosted over 250 movies, and Jeff tried to see as many as he could! As you'll hear, he got way further towards that goal than he probably should have...

In this episode of Classic Movies Live!, our hosts talk about TIFF50. The good movies, the great movies, and one or two of the ugly ones. Tune in for the inside scoop on which movies you should be on the look out for in the latter half of 2025!

Reviews for each movie are spoiler-free, but if you want to know what we're talking about, see the timestamps below!

0:00 - Intro and general festival thoughts 6:57 - Wake Up Dead Man 15:40 - Hamnet 25:02 - F*ck My Son! 29:58 - Midnight Madness feat. Festival Correspondent Robert Hill 36:14 - The Testament of Ann Lee 47:57 - Sacrifice 54:28 - Sacrifice and Rental Family feat. Dakota Arsenault of Contra Zoom Pod 1:04:12 - Frankenstein 1:13:41 - No Other Choice 1:23:45 - Kokuho feat. Festival Correspondent Robert Hill 1:33:12 - Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie 1:34:26 - No Drama feat. Brandon MacMurray of Shortstick

For more TIFFTY content, check out Jeff's reviews over on ContraZoomPod.com, including in-depth reviews for two movies we discuss here -- Sacrifice and The Testament of Ann Lee -- and many that we don't -- like JUNK WORLD and Mare's Nest. Jeff was also recently on an episode of Contra Zoom Pod, where he talked about a different set of films from TIFF. Check that episode out here!

Our hosts re-encounter the renowned director with his latest film, Caught Stealing!

Featuring an all-star cast including Austin Butler, Zoe Kravitz, Matt Smith, Regina King, and Liev Schreiber, Caught Stealing represents a bit of a departure for Aronofsky. Unlike the deeply metaphorical mother! (which our hosts tackled in an episode of Director Showdown), Caught Stealing is pretty straightforward... or at least, takes place straightforwardly in the modern world. In 1998, former baseball virtuoso Hank (Butler) is caught in the middle of a gang war involving high grade ecstasy that puts him at odds with the Russian Mafia, corrupt cops, Puerto Rican gangsters, and a pair of terrifying Orthodox Jewish assassins. And all of it starts when his friend Russ (Smith) asks him to catsit for the weekend...

This week's episode is shorter than usual, but no less impactful as we talk about all aspects of Caught Stealing! How is Austin Butler? How does it compare to other Aronofsky films? What does it all mean? The answers to all these questions and more today on Classic Movies Live!

Are you going to TIFF this year? Well, Jeff is! And joining the show today are two other credentialed members of the TIFF50 Press Corps, Pedro Lima and Kyle from Awards Addicts!

On today's episode of Classic Movies Live, we talk about movies we're excited to see at TIFF, including many that probably have gone under your radar. We talk about the festival experience, the names to watch, and all sorts of things to look forward to over the next few weeks!

In particular, this episode contains segments on the films Dry Leaf (dir. Alexandre Koberidze), Mare's Nest (dir. Ben Rivers), Hen (dir. György Palfi), No Other Choice (dir. Park Chan-wook), Frankenstein (dir. Guillermo del Toro), and Nuestra Tierra (dir. Lucrecia Martel).

You can read Pedro's review of Dry Leaf for MoviesWeTextedAbout here. You can find more of Pedro over on Twitter, as well as ShortStick, MoviesWeTextedAbout, Contra Zoom Pod, and Keith Loves Movies.

You can get more Kyle over on his YouTube channel The Awards Addicts and From the Fourth Row!

In the last episode, we looked into Joanna Hogg and Jason Reitman's approach to autobiographical -- or semi-autobiographical -- filmmaking. How each artist explored the impact of people around them on their view of themselves, or the people closest to them. Pitting The Souvenir against Saturday Night, Hogg ultimately came out on top and advanced to the next round!

This week, we move into finding the first competitor for the fourth matchup of that next round....

We start with the heavy hitter, the first director in this series to win a Palme d'Or for his work, Apichatpong Weerasethakul! Born in 1970, Weerasethakul (or sometimes "Joe") grew up in a traditional Buddhist family, and got his bachelor's degree in architecture in 1994. Before even finishing school, he'd already made his first short film, and would go on to debut his first feature, Mysterious Object at Noon, in 2000. In 2010, Weerasethakul finished a multi-platform art project, "Primitive", which culminated in the film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival. Uncle Boonmee would go on to be selected as the Thai submission for the International Feature Oscar at the 83rd Academy Awards, but would not be selected. But despite not being recognized by the Academy, Uncle Boonmee was and continues to be recognized by many critics as one of the best films ever made.

Facing off against Joe is Ava DuVernay. DuVernay has proven herself a force as both a narrative and documentary filmmaker. Her 2017 documentary 13th was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature, making DuVernay the first black woman nominated for that award. Her 2014 film Selma was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards. She's additionally directed A Wrinkle In Time for Disney, produced 2021's The White Tiger, and written, directed, and created shows for HBO, Netflix, CBS, and others. DuVernay's 2023 film Origin combines all those skills, DuVernay adapting the book "Caste: The Origins of our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson into a hybrid docudrama about Wilkerson's life and the idea of caste.

In this episode, we're taking a look at how the most distant past affects the present. How trauma seeps through generations, and ultimately forms the very society we live in today. Not all of us can recall our past lives, but there must nevertheless be an origin of our discontents.

Joining us on today's episode is Zachary Lee! Zachary is a freelance film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com, MovieWeb, Letterboxd, and many more sites. Recently, he wrote a few pieces about the film The Monkey, at least one of which we briefly talk about in this episode. You can find more of Zachary over on Twitter and Letterboxd!

Finally, check out the RogerEbert.com review of Origin that Zachary mentions in this episode, written by Robert Daniels

This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article.

Special thanks this week to our good friend Cris, who made the cover art for this episode! Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd to see more of her artwork, film opinions/reviews, or both!

On this episode of Classic Movies Live, Pierre and Jeff discuss Weapons. Cregger's Magnolia-inspired, deeply personal meditation on... well, a lot of things, many of them pretty disturbing!

This episode contains full spoilers for Weapons, but we recommend you go in blind if you have the chance! Spoilers for the episode: both our hosts are about to recommend that you see this movie!

Until this weekend, that is.

This week on Classic Movies Live! our hosts take on not one, but two movies! First up, we're talking about Dave Franco and Alison Brie's relationship, specifically in the context of Michael Shanks' directorial debut horror film Together. Next up, the long-awaited reboot of The Naked Gun from Akiva Schaffer starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson!

Both parts of this episode will have spoilers, so here's a light one: Go see these movies if you haven't!

If you reach the spoiler warning in the discussion of Together, you can skip to 35:11 to hear our hosts k about The Naked Gun.

Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach star in a 60's-inspired, alternate universe take on Marvel's First Family. The fourth adaptation of the Fantastic Four, First Steps sees Reed Richards welcome a new baby while he and his family fend off Galactus, the Eater of Worlds.

This is the final MCU film of the year, and the one that will lead into next year's Doomsday. In a year full of superheroes, how do Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and The Thing fare? Is Ralph Ineson's Galactus better than Rise of the Silver Surfer's CGI cloud?

And maybe just as importantly: will Pierre ever like a superhero movie again? Could First Steps be the cure?

Tune in for answers to all these questions and more.... live!

Jeff and festival correspondent Robert are in Montreal for the first week of the 29th Fantasia Film Festival! Featuring a range of films from all over the world, Fantasia has more than established itself as the go to festival in Canada for horror, anime, and lower-budget indies you might not see anywhere else!

It's also a major festival early into film festival season, and as such often hosts North American premieres of major summer blockbusters and Cannes titles. This year is no different, with the festival's opening night featuring the incredible one-two punch of Eddington and The Smurfs!

Robert and Jeff went to both and sat down afterwards to talk about the good, the bad, and the smurf of it all!

In today's show, you'll also hear about the most-anticipated festival titles from Pedro Lima (of Contra Zoom Pod, Movies We Texted About, and Keith Loves Movies), Dakota Arsenault (of Contra Zoom Pod), and rach (of Contra Zoom Pod).

But that's not all! Bryan Loomis from the What a Picture Podcast calls in to talk about a great movie he's seen at Fantasia, as does Calvin Kemph from The Twin Geeks!

The gang's aall here on this week's episode to talk about Classic Movies... Live!

This week on Classic Movies Live, our hosts discuss the long-awaited follow-up to Black Adam: James Gunn's Superman!

Continuing the story of the DC Universe that began with Blue Beetle, Peacemaker, and Creature Commandos, Superman takes place 3 minutes after the big blue boy scout loses his very first fight. Superman soon finds himself thrust into an international conflict which may or may not be entirely smokescreen for the nefarious plans of jealous tech-billionnaire/genius Lex Luthor.

Gunn hits the ground running with his take on the Man of Steel... but how does it compare to something like Man of Steel? Tune in as our hosts break down yet another classic movie... live!

In this episode, we're talking about two of the year's biggest action movies, both starring Shea Whigham!

To start off, our hosts discuss Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. If this is to be the last Mission Impossible movie, how is the series going out? Is McQ and Tom Cruise's latest collaboration and the culmination of their biggest project together worth seeing? There's a good chance you've already made your decision, but we're here to help you if you haven't!

In the second half of this episode, we're talking about the latest from Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski. Trading Tom Cruise for Brad Pitt and airplanes for fast cars: it's F1 The Movie. Pitt stars as a washed up Formula 1 racer brought in for one last series. Here on CML, we love car movies... did we also love this one? Tune in to find out!

An unbelievably prolific writer, King has produced dozens of novels and even more short stories, several of which have gone on to become some of the most iconic films of all time. The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, and who could forget Gerald's Game?

In the first half of the year of our lord 2025, two of the hottest directors working today have adapted some of King's yet-unadapted short stories, and the results, while fully in different genres, are shockingly similar.

From the director of Longlegs, Osgoode Perkins, comes The Monkey, a horror-comedy about an evil -- or cursed -- toy monkey that brings death to a small town in Maine. And from Mike Flanagan, creator of series such as The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and the film adaptation of Doctor Sleep, comes The Life of Chuck, a feel-good story about an accountant told in reverse -- and also the winner of TIFF 2024's People's Choice Award. While the films may not seem similar, both deal with themes of fate and making the most of life... though they may reach somewhat different conclusions.

Join us today as we compare and contrast two by King. Should you check them out? What are the stories saying? And how does King think we should spend the time we have left?

For more on The Monkey, check out this interview conducted by Zachary Lee!

A movie 14 years in the making, Final Destination: Bloodlines resurrects the turn of the century horror series with another entry that will make you afraid of everything from trampolines to rotating doors! In Bloodlines, a woman avoids a deadly premonition, saving dozens -- maybe even hundreds -- of lives, only to discover that Death comes for everyone, anyway. Over fifty years later, Death has nearly balanced the books... all that's left is to take the rest of the woman's family.

Bloodlines puts a unique spin on the classic Final Destination formula, but does it work?

Tune in for our hosts' thoughts on the sixth Final Destination, and where it ranks among the series!

Be warned: this is a full spoilers discussion!

But you might have heard of them by a different name...

Our hosts break down the MCU's exciting crack at a Florence Pugh/Lewis Pullman-led supervillain movie. Is this justt The Suicide Squad with a new coat of paint? Or does it stand out as something truly special? Or at least... kind of special? Also in this episode: has spoiler-culture gotten out of hand? Note that there will be full spoilers for Thunderbolts* here, as we discuss the very nature of spoilers themselves!

Jeff refers to a review by Darren Mooney in this episode, mistakenly attributing it to Stephen Gillespie. Both are fantastic reviewers you should check out!

Set in the Mississippi Delta in 1932, Sinners has it all: Blues music! Irish jigs! War veterans! Vampires! It's part horror movie, part musical, part period drama. Michael B Jordan stars twice!

Sinners is a movie truly filled to bursting with ideas, so much so that our hosts can only barely scratch the surface. How does Coogler present those ideas? Does it work? Tune in and find out on today's episode of Classic Movies Live!

Are you interested in seeing Sinners, but want to know the best way to do so? Check out Ryan Coogler's breakdown of the different presentation formats of his latest movie here!

After a well-deserved break, Pierre and Jeff are back to share their thoughts on the new Christopher Landon movie: Drop!

In Drop, Meghann Fahy plays Violet, a widow on her first date in years with a handsome, mild-mannered photojournalist. But things quickly go sideways when Violet starts receiving threatening memes via DigiDrop (a legally-distinct AirDrop alternative). Someone has broken into Violet's home, and is going to hurt her son and sister unless she kills her date... or figures out who is sending the drops!

It's rare to see a movie about evil memes, but it's always a blast! And there's certainly more to Landon's latest thriller than meets the eye! Could Drop, in fact, be a future classic?

Tune in as our hosts break it down... live!

...and if you're not sold on the movie just yet, check out Jeff's 4-star review over on Contra Zoom Pod

From Brazil, I'm Still Here tells the story of Eunice Paiva, a human rights lawyer and mother of five whose husband is disappeared during the Brazilian dictatorship in 1970. Fernanda Torres gives a commanding performance as Paiva, whose memory of her husband persists long after all hope is gone that he may one day return. I'm Still Here is nominated for Best Picture, Best International Feature, and Best Actress for Torres. As you'll soon see, it's a powerhouse in each of those three!

Nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, Nickel Boys marks the narrative feature debut of RaMell Ross. Ross explodes onto the scene with one of the most politically poignant and visually powerful American films of the 21st century. Are we overselling it? Absolutely not! Nickel Boys may only be up for two awards, but it deserves a whole lot more than that!

And finally on today's episode, our hosts wrap up their thoughts on 2024 in movies! What are Pierre's picks in each category? What about Jeff's? What's the final word before the Oscars?

All this and more in today's episode of Classic Movies Live!

If you'd like to read more about I'm Still Here, check out Jeff's review for ContraZoomPod!

An astonishingly big movie made on an astonishingly small budget, Brady Corbet's third feature is a towering film about the immigrant experience in turbulent post-WWII America. Following Laszlo Toth from the early 50s to the mid-70s, The Brutalist examines the nature of patronage, the interplay between art and commerce, xenophobia and antisemitism, and much more.

It's a hard movie to pin down, but our hosts sure tried!

The Brutalist is nominated for 10 Oscars, include Best Picture, Best Actor for Adrien Brody, Best Supporting Actor and Actress for Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, Best Director for Brady Corbet, and a whole host of technical awards. We're going to talk about every one of those... live!

If you'd like to read more about The Brutalist, check out this amazing piece by Corey Atad!

In A Complete Unknown, James Mangold directs Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan in the lead up to the folk singer-songwriter doing the unthinkable: going electric. Also starring Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Unknown shows the effect Dylan has on the people around him, and the way that times were a-changin' in the mid-60s.

A Complete Unknown is nominated for 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Chalamet, Best Supporting Actress for Barbaro, Best Supporting Actor for Norton, and Best Director for Mangold. Does it deserve all the praise? Can art change the world? Tune in today and find out... live!

From director Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez is an epic crime-thriller narco-musical about a transgender druglord coming face to face with the crimes of her past. From the day it premiered at Cannes, Emilia Perez has stunned and polarized audiences and critics alike. It took home Best Actress at Cannes for all four of its lead actresses, with Jury president Greta Gerwig praising the bold performances, but would go on to be reviled by many trans and Mexican critics for what many consider an offensive, stereotype laden portrayal of communities Audiard admits to knowing little about. Of course, no community is a monolith, and Emilia Perez certainly has plenty of defenders, most notably in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which saw fit to nominate the film for an astounding 13 Oscars.

In today's bonus-sized episode, Jeff and guest host Ben intend to talk at least a little bit about each of those 13 nominations, as well as how the film works as a film and as a musical. And of course, because it's unavoidable, our hosts break down the most recent controversies surrounding the film and its star, Karla Sofia Gascon.

Pierre is absent this episode, but will be back for the next one! If you'd like to hear more from Ben, you can check out his last appearance on the show just one week ago, when he joined to talk about Wicked! You can also check out his YouTube channel, where he talks about movies, TV, and musicals.

Note: Late into this episode, Jeff mentions a tweet by Karla Sofia Gascon disparaging Selena Gomez. While Gascon's Twitter account has plenty of controversial takes, this one is apparently fake., or at least hasn't been verified.

Directed by John M. Chu, Wicked adapts the first act of the smash hit Broadway musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz! Long before the arrival of Dorothy, a young, green-skinned woman named Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) meets Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande) at Shiz University. Though Galinda aspires to become a sorceress, it's Elphaba who harbours the talent for magic. The two form a tense rivalry that blossoms into an uneven friendship, all the while living through the rise of the wannabe-fascist huckster The Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldbum).

Joining us on this episode is everyone's favourite guest, Ben! Our resident Broadway Boy was last heard on Classic Movies Live – Season 5, Episode 2: Maestro almost a year ago! For this episode, Ben's come ready to talk about one of his favourite musicals, and how it made the jump from stage to screen.

Ben has lots of connections to Wicked, not the least of which is this recent series of interviews he conducted with many of the behind-the-scenes talent! You can see more of Ben over on his Youtube Channel! And of course, he'll be back next week...

From director Coralie Fargeat, The Substance tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging Hollywood star who, after being dismissed from a popular exercise show, begins taking a black market experimental drug called the Substance in a desperate bid to regain her former glory. Intoxicated by fame after the Substance gives her a second chance at youth, Elisabeth soon finds herself at odds with the younger persona granted to her by the experimental drug...

The Substance is a brilliant showcase for Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid, who all shine in Fargeat's award-winning screenplay. Part body-horror, part comedy, part poignant social commentary, The Substance is a blunt instrument with a little bit of something for everybody. So which parts did our hosts latch onto? Tune in today as Pierre and Jeff discuss another prospective Best Picture nominee... live!

This episode features a brief discussion of the LA fires. If you'd like to learn more about how to donate to those in need, check out this article from the LA Times.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Julie Wisehart.

Sean Baker's Anora follows the titular sex worker played by Mikey Madison as she's swept up in a whirlwind romance with Vanya Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn). But what at first seems a modern Cinderella story quickly becomes something much more frustrating when Vanya runs away to evade his Russian oligarch parents. Reluctantly paired with Vanya's godfather Toros and his henchmen Garnik and Igor, Anora sets out to find Vanya before his parents arrive in the US.

Anora is a spin on the classic screwball comedy that sets up all the classic tropes. But can it deliver on them in a satisfying way? In this episode, our hosts discuss their first Best Picture nominee of 2025!

For more about Anora, check out this article on Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/article/anoras-ending-is-no-fairy-tale.html

In 2024, we've talked about everything from indies to blockbusters, sequels we thought would never get made to timeless classics that have been remade again and again. We talked about Oscar winners, Oscar hopefuls, and movies that got passed over entirely.

And over the year, we've seen some absolutely fantastic contributions to film that deserve their own shoutouts! In this episode, our hosts discuss their favourite films from 2024 over five categories: Best Screenplay, Best Direction, Best Supporting Performance, Best Lead Performance, and Best Film! Have you seen all our picks?

Tune in for our thoughts on some of the best in cinema 2024 had to offer, and check out our Twitter in the coming days for Pierre and Jeff's Top 10 lists of the year! We'll be back in 2025 to talk about more Classic Movies... Live!

On this year's very special Christmas Day episode of Classic Movies Live, our hosts discuss the most important Christmas classic movie of all time: It's A Wonderful Life.

Starring James Stewart and directed by Frank Capra, It's A Wonderful Life tells the entire history of George Bailey, a banker from Bedford Falls who repeatedly falls on hard times. Like a 20th Century Ebenezer Scrooge, Bailey is hardened by a difficult life, but unlike the Dickensian character, he refuses to let it affect his ability to do the right thing. When Bailey finally reaches his breaking point, he wishes in a moment of weakness that he was never born, and experiences a terrifying vision of a world without his guiding hand.

Though far from universally loved in its day, It's A Wonderful Life has become inseparable from the Christmas season, and broadly re-evaluated as one of the greatest films of all time.

So this year, our hosts are going to take a look. Is it a classic? Obviously yes! What do Pierre and Jeff think about it? Tune in to find out!

This week on Classic Movies Live!, it's our second Christmas episode of 2024! In this episode, Pierre and Jeff discuss A Christmas Carol, but not just any version: The 1992 adaptation by Brian Henson featuring Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge!

The first Muppets film produced after the death of the visionary Jim Henson, The Muppet Christmas Carol puts a comedic spin on Charles Dickens' classic tale of the miserable miser Scrooge. But despite the presence of Henson's iconic puppets, this version of A Christmas Carol is earnest and full of heart. It's not just A Christmas Carol with Muppets; it's a brilliantly-written novel musical presentation of a story so often adapted there shouldn't even be room for more.

So what makes the Muppets and their take on Scrooge so special? Tune in as our hosts dissect Brian Henson's directorial feature debut!

In today's episode, our hosts discuss the sophomore feature from Ontario-based writer/director Megan Park, My Old Ass!

In the last week of her summer vacation before she moves to Toronto to attend U of T, Elliot (Maisy Stella) takes mushrooms with her friends and meets her future self (Aubrey Plaza). But the kicker? After she's sobered up the next morning, she can still contact her future self over the phone under the contact "My Old Ass". My Old Ass explores ideas we've all thought about: if you could talk to your younger self, what would you say? If your older self told you something, how seriously would you take it? Can you change the past at all, because if not, does any of that even matter? These questions are all at the centre of My Old Ass, a deceptively touching coming of age movie.

And with that summary out of the way, you'll probably want to know if Pierre and Jeff thought it was any good? Tune in to find out!

This week on Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff usher in the Holiday Season with a new Christmas classic from one Mr. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

In Red One, Santa Claus (J. K. Simmons) has been kidnapped. With the fate of the holiday on the line -- since no one can do what Santa does, and no one's ever been able to do what Santa does -- the big man's head of security Callum Drift must team up with Jack O'Malley, a hacker with a heart of gold, to put the yuletide back on track.

From the director of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Red One is the most expensive Christmas film released in years. The Rock is on record saying that seeing Red One on an IMAX screen is "Game Over"...

So is that a good thing? Our hosts investigate on today's episode of Classic Movies Live!

24 years after the original, Scott returns to Rome for Gladiator II! In this iteration, Denzel Washington joins Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal in a bread-and-circuses plott that threatens to unravel the city of Rome itself!

Could Mescal in this film go toe-to-toe with Russel Crowe in Gladiator? How evil are the villains of this movie? Is Denzel the best actor of this or any other generation? All these questions and more in today's episode of Classic Movies Live!

In the last episode, we looked at forbidden summer love, and the impact that a whirlwind romance can have on a person. By way of Todd Field's In the Bedroom and Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name, we examined the ways a skilled director can convey the rise and sudden fall of a relationship. In a hotly-debated match, Guadagnino ultimately emerged the victor! This week, we're setting out to find his next opponent...

Born in 1960 in London England, Joanna Hogg made her feature directorial debut in 2007 with Unrelated, introducing the world to a then-unknown actor named Tom Hiddleston. Hogg and Hiddleston would continue to work closely together for 2010's Archipelago and 2013's Exhibition. After a six-year hiatus, Hogg would return to film with a trilogy of films for A24: The Souvenir, The Souvenir Part II, and The Eternal Daughter. The Souvenir duology would earn Hogg widespread recognition outside of the UK, along with several nominations at the British Independent Film Awards.

Hogg's opponent in this episode is Canadian comedy royalty, the son of Ivan Reitman, Montreal's own Jason Reitman! Reitman would make his debut in 2005 with Thank You for Smoking, before directing the one-two punch of Juno and Up In The Air (starring Anna Kendrick), both of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Director. His filmography since has been varied -- as has its critical reception -- but it all culminates in 2024's Telluride-premiering film Saturday Night, a tense, almost-real-time comedy about the making of the very first episode of Saturday Night Live!

In this episode, we examine art and the impact it has on an artist. The Souvenir duology draws heavily from Hogg's own past as she reflects and reinterprets her own journey as a filmmaker. Meanwhile, Saturday Night examines the legacy of the longest-running variety show on television through the eyes of the people who made it -- and directed by someone pretty close to the real people he depicts!

Joining us on today's episode is Dakota of Contra Zoom Pod! Dakota is a frequent guest who was last heard on the second-ever episode of Director Showdown. On his own site, he's also written about Saturday Night, which he rated 4.5/5 after it's TIFF premiere! Contra Zoom Pod also has a running series on A24 films, which Pierre and Jeff recently joined to discuss The Souvenir duology in more length.

This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article.

Special thanks this week to our good friend Cris, who made the cover art for this episode! Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd to see more of her artwork, film opinions/reviews, or both!

Based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris, Conclave is a political thriller centred around the selection of the Bishop of Rome. After the death of the pope, Thomas Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) organizes a conclave to determine his successor. While a few popular candidates for the position emerge right away, it's not long before troubling information about several of the cardinals comes to light. It's enough to shake one's faith in the Church... an institution Lawrence has already begun to doubt.

This is a spoiler-filled episode without a spoiler warning, so if you want to see Conclave, find the fullest theatre you can and see it with the biggest crowd, then come back and hear Jeff and Pierre discuss this soon-to-be-classic... live!

Note: In this episode, Jeff mistakenly claims that John Lithgow was in The Two Popes. This is not true. The actor in The Two Popes was Anthony Hopkins.

The epic conclusion to Sony's superhero trilogy starring Tom Hardy is out, and our hosts are spending an hour checking in with our good friend Venom! Writer of the previous films Kelly Marcel emerges to pull double-duty on The Last Dance, making her directorial debut to close out the stories of Venom, Eddie Brock, and Mrs. Chen, while opening the door for more exciting (?) avenues for the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters!

We covered the second movie in the series, Let There Be Carnage, all the way back in Season 3, so it's an understatement to say we were looking forward to this one! So how does The Last Dance hold up? Can Marcel and Hardy stick the landing on their symbiote series?

Find out in this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!

Smile 2 stars Naomi Scott as Skye Riley, a popstar preparing for her comeback tour a year after a horrific car crash takes the life of her boyfriend Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson). Only days before the first show, Riley witnesses the suicide of Lewis Frigoli (Lukas Gage), who bludgeons himself to death while smiling. If you've seen the first movie, you'll know that's a classic case of "Tag! You're cursed!"

The border between reality and fantasy fade as Riley reckons with her past, and the crushing responsibility of putting on the greatest show of her life. Now additionally afflicted with a demon that feeds on her insecurities, can Riley overcome the Smile Demon?

Audiences and critics have raved about Smile 2, but what do our audiences and critics have to say about it? Find out this week on Classic Movies Live!

Probably best known for Lilo & Stitch (one of Jeff's favourite movies), and How to Train Your Dragon (widely regarded as one of Dreamworks' best films), Chris Sanders returns to Dreamworks in 2024 for his fifth directorial effort: The Wild Robot!

Based on the children's book of the same name by Peter Brown, The Wild Robot stars Lupita Nyong'o as Roz, a robot who takes on a maternal role after finding an orphaned gosling on a strange island. As Roz adapts to her environment, so too does her environment adapt to her, her empathy and compassion gradually spreading across the island. The Wild Robot is a heartwarming story of found family, and, in a way, what it means to be a person.

Our hosts have thoughts on the movie! And also thoughts on Sanders, fellow animation director Brad Bird, perpetual wildcard Neil Blomkamp, and much more in today's episode of Classic Movies Live!

The second Joker movie is anything but more of the first. Where the first was a straightforward riff on Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, the sequel is part musical, part courtroom drama, part fever dream, and if it's derivative, it pulls from enough sources that it's hard to call it a riff on anything. But with so many moving parts, does the followup to Phillips' Oscar-winning Venice-darling work?

In this episode, Pierre and Jeff reflect on the original Joker, and discuss the merits of its sequel. Hot off the heels of Megalopolis, is it possible we've got another controversial arthouse hit on our hands?

Saying Francis Ford Coppola is best known for The Godfather isn't wrong, but it neglects his absurd run of some of the best films ever made. Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, One From the Heart, and of course the other two Godfather films. Not to mention he's the first of many amazing filmmakers to carry the last name Coppola. We've talked about plenty of Coppolas on the show, including Francis' daughter Sofia and nephew Nic Cage, but only in a single episode did we touch on the man himself.

But in 2024, Francis Ford returned to theatres with an astoundingly ambitious and confounding opus: Megalopolis. First conceived over 30 years ago, Megalopolis is a passion project Coppola has been trying to figure out how to make ever since. Giancarlo Esposito, who appears in the finished film as Franklyn Cicero, was cast , first read for the film over two decades ago. This year, with a hefty loan and after a frankly nightmarish production, Coppola finally managed to bring his vision to the screen.

So is that vision good? Critics have been mixed, but you have yet to hear Jeff and Pierre's takes! Today, our hosts sit down to talk about the experience of seeing Megalopolis in a crowded theatre on opening night. You don't want to miss this episode: clocking in at an hour and a half, our hosts could have gone on for hours with their thoughts about this movie!

Based on the 2022 Danish film of the same name, Speak No Evil follows an American family as they visit a British family they met at a resort. But the British family -- featuring James McAvoy, Aisling Franciosi, and Dan Hough as a boy without a tongue -- becomes increasingly pushy and uncomfortable to be around. At what point will the Americans say enough is enough and finally leave? And what could be McAvoy's ultimate goal?

In this episode, our hosts break down the American version directed by James Watkins, the Danish version directed by Christian Tafdrup, and the idea of remakes in general. Which version is better? Maybe more interestingly: what's actually the difference?

On today's episode of Classic Movies Live! Pierre interviews Jeff about his experience at the first TIFF sponsored by Rogers. In particular, our hosts focus in on the movies Dullsvillle and the Doodleverse, It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This, Presence, Saturday Night, Friendship, and Piece By Piece!

Tune in to hear (spoiler-free) breakdowns of each of those movies, along with general impressions of this year's festivals, and some teasers of films you might hear about on the show later in the year!

If you're interested in seeing It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This, check out the filmmakers' official website for upcoming screenings, or to request a screening near you!

After you've listened to this episode, check out some of Jeff's reviews over on Contra Zoom, including Heretic, The Substance, and The Return. Also, Jeff was just featured on the Contra Zoom Pod's own TIFF Wrap-Up, where you can hear him talk about a set of films almost entirely undiscussed on this episode!

In the last episode we examined two relationships in flux, and what they can tell us about our wider world at large. In the battle between Darren Aronofsky's mother! and Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz, Polley came away the first victor to deviate from the Rotten Tomatoes bracket that inspired ours! Moving on, we're taking another look at relationships from a different angle...

Californian director Todd Field, has only three films to his name, but an astounding number of Oscar nominations. Notably, each of his films has managed a Best Actress nomination for its leading lady, though none yet have won. Fittingly, Field's films include complex characters (male and female), the screenplays filled with poignant dialogue and juicy roles. This is perhaps most exemplified in his phenomenal debut In The Bedroom, in which a small-town couple struggles to put their lives back together after tragedy strikes.

Squaring up against Field is one of Italy's best living directors, Luca Guadagnino! Hailing from Palermo, Guadagnino has over 10 films under his belt as a director, splitting his time between narrative features and documentaries. In recent years, films like Bones and All, Suspiria, and Challengers have made him a formidable and exciting name in cinema. But the film that really put him on the map was 2017's Call Me By Your Name, which would go on to be nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor, finally winning for Best Adapted Screenplay.

In this episode, we look at how relationships, particularly taboo relationships, are approached by both directors through In The Bedroom and Call Me By Your Name. How do Field and Guadagnino approach the inner lives of their characters?

Joining us on today's episode is film critic Jericho Tadeo! Jericho makes his Classic Movies Live! debut here, and what a debut it is! Jericho's work can be seen at The Asian Cut, as well as over on MovieWeb. Jericho was recently at TIFF, where he got to see and review a film by his favourite director, which you can read here!

This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article.

Special thanks this week to our good friend Cris, who made the cover art for this episode! Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd to see more of her artwork, film opinions/reviews, or both!

As TIFF 2024 rages, we look back to TIFF 2023 to discuss Richard Linklater's Hit Man, starring everyone's favourite actor Glenn Powell. In Hit Man, Powell plays Gary Johnson, a psychology professor who moonlights as a fake hitman in police sting operations. When one of the stings goes differently than expected, Johnson becomes romantically involved with the unhappily married Madison Masters (Adria Arjona). But having met Masters as "Ron the Hitman", Johnson is forced to live a double life, adopting the charismatic persona of Ron permanently around Masters, while continuing his life as Gary everywhere else.

Mostly a romantic comedy, Hit Man hits on themes that go deeper, talking about issues with the American legal system, and examining the kind of person who would order a hit man in the first place. It's an immensely fun movie, with plenty under the surface. Join our hosts today as we discuss our thoughts on Linklater's latest... live!

Originally titled Pussy Island, Blink Twice satirizes the Epstein Island scandal and tech billionaires in an unflichingly dark, but witty thriller. When tech-mogul Slater King (Channing Tatum) invites Frida and Jess (Naomi Ackie and Alia Shawkat) to a getaway on his private island, the two enthusiastically agree. An all-expenses paid vacation to a luxurious tropical paradise? How could you not? But as the two spend more time there, they begin to realize none of the women can ever remember the previous evenings, while the men are never willing to talk about them. Furthermore, some of the groundskeepers seem to know Frida...

A director's first film is a big deal, especially when that director is an established actor! Does Kravitz deliver the goods? Tune in for our hosts opinions... live!

Set between Alien and Aliens, Alien: Romulus follows a new cast of characters as they board an abandoned space station in search of cryopods, and get more than they bargained for when it turns out the space station is filled with Xenomorphs. Romulus is billed as a return to form for the franchise after Prometheus and Alien: Covenant divided audiences. Is Alvarez the right fight to bring the franchise into the roaring 20s?

On this episode, our hosts talk about their thoughts on the Alien franchise, franchises in general, Alien vs. Predator (remember those?), and of course Romulus. If you watched Romulus in space, would anyone hear you scream? Tune in to find out!

In the last episode, we talked about ensemble films centred around crime, and the way a skilled director is able to bring large casts of characters to vivid life on screen. With Steve McQueen's Widows up against Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel, it was Iñárritu who ultimately came out on top, earning his place in the second round of our Director Showdown! But who will he face in Round 2?

Born in Toronto in 1979, Sarah Polley started as an actress before moving to directing, starring in the likes of The Sweet Hereafter, Go, and Zack Snyder's directorial debut Dawn of the Dead. In 2022, she wrote and directed Women Talking -- which we covered on the show back in Season 4, Episode 11 -- for which she won her first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Before Women Talking, Polley's last narrative feature was Take This Waltz, a drama set in Toronto's Little Portugal neighbourhood, featuring Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen as a couple in a rough spot in their relationship.

Facing off against Polley is one of the boldest filmmakers alive, Darren Aronofsky! Making his debut with the film Pi, during our cutoff year of 1998, Aronofsky has gone on to widespread acclaim and awards attention, with a slew of provocative films including Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan, and The Whale. His films have regularly been nominated for acting Oscars, with The Wrestler and The Whale in particular breathing new life into the careers of Mickey Rourke and Brendan Fraser (and Fraser taking home the statuette to boot). In 2017, hot off the heels of his biblical thriller Noah, Aronofsky would make another biblical horror film, mother!, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem as stewards of a house that becomes suddenly and inexplicably popular.

Both Take This Waltz and mother! centre around relationships, though what those relationships say and symbolize is, in a few words, quite different. How do Polley and Aronofsky use these devices, and how do the films around them hold up? In this episode, we discuss the benefits of audacity and the merits of nuance in filmmaking. Tune in as we discuss Take This Waltz and mother!

Joining us on today's episode is Mark Morgan, previously heard on Season 4, Episode 23: Alien. Mark is a part of the Academy of Death Racers, which hosts a yearly online film festival, as well as an awards show early in the year to correspond with the Oscars! While tickets for this year's festival aren't available yet, we encourage any listeners to follow aodr.net for news as it comes out!

This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article.

Special thanks this week to our good friend Cris, who made the cover art for this episode! Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd to see more of her artwork, film opinions/reviews, or both!

In Josh Margolin's feature directorial debut, Thelma (Squibb) teams up with her old friend Ben (Roundtree) to get $10.000 back from a phone scammer, in a bid to prove that she's perfectly capable of living independently at the ripe youngg age of 93.

Thelma is a rare story about finding your way after nearly a century of life, almost a coming-of-age, but long after the age has already come. So how does it resonate with our much younger hosts? Tune in for our (spoiler-light) thoughts!

Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, Twisters is a legacy sequel -- but really more of a spiritual successor -- to 1996's Twister. If you haven't seen the first one, though, you can still watch this one! In Twisters, meteorologist Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) returns to her home state of Oklahoma to help her former classmate, Javi (Anthony Ramos) gather data on tornadoes. While there, she meets "Tornado Wrangler" Tyler Owens (Glenn Powell), a YouTuber as passionate about tornadoes as she is, but with a bit less respect for Javi and his more clean-cut, college-educated crew.

Twisters is an incredibly fun movie, with just the right blend of science, romance, and action to make the perfect summer blockbuster experience. It's also the poster child for the up-and-coming 4DX film format.

Our hosts have seen the movie, experienced it in 4DX, and developed plenty of thoughts. So what makes Twisters so good? Tune in to find out on this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!

But is Deadpool & Wolverine really an MCU movie? Or is it the last gasp of the Fox/Marvel universe? Or, more intriguingly, is it some mix of the two? If you're seeing this episode, there's a good chance you already know the answer to that question.

Tune in as Pierre and Jeff check in on the state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and talk about Ryan Reynolds' crowning achievement!

Note for this episode: lots of spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine! There are spoiler warnings, but even then, proceed with caution!

Starring Nicolas Cage as a serial killer and Maika Monroe as an FBI Agent, Oz Perkins' riff on The Silence of the Lambs took the world by storm with its committed viral marketing. Hailed as one of -- if not THE -- scariest movie of 2024 so far, Longlegs has gotten rave reviews praising the performances, theming, and tone.

So is Longlegs Perkins' magnum opus? Is this another in a long series of wins for Cage?

Tune in this week as our hosts break down the highest-grossing horror film of the year!

A Quiet Place: Day One has John Krasinski passing the directing reigns over to Michael Sarnoski, director of Pig, for a more intimate story in the immediate aftermath of an alien invasion. Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn star as Samira and Eric, two survivors left to fend for themselves in New York. When the world's ending, what do you do in the face of impossible odds? Walk to the Bronx to get a pizza, of course!

Tune in for our hosts' thoughts on John Krasinski, Michael Sarnoski, Lupita Nyong'o, and of course, the latest Quiet Place movie!

The claim in this episode that Some Good News was inspired by a video series out of Kelowna is unsubstantiated. As it happens, the truth may be the other way around.

In the last episode we examined juvenile tragedy through the lens of Denis Villeneuve's Polytechnique and Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, with Villeneuve advancing to Round 2! With our first Round 2 matchup determined, we turn our attention to the third matchup of Round 1.

Hailing from London, England, Sir Steve Rodney McQueen, CBE is a British filmmaker best known as the first black filmmaker to win the Academy Award for Best Picture with his film 12 Years a Slave. After winning the Oscar in 2013, it would be 5 years before McQueen assemble a host of big-name collaborators forhis next film, Widows.

In the opposite corner, we have one of the most prominent Mexican filmmakers working in Hollywood, a member of the Three Amigos alongside Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro, the man who would take the next two Best Picture wins after McQueen: Alejandro González Iñárritu! Iñárritu would burst onto the scene in 2000 with his debut Amores Perros, gain more renown with his followup 21 Grams, and win the Best Director award at Cannes with his opus Babel, which would be nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Babel is well-known for its enormous ensemble, and non-linear approach to storytelling surrounding a crime and its consequences. Consequences and ensemble are two major features of Widows as well, which our hosts will break down as we discuss early-career Iñárritu vs. recent McQueen!

This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article.

Special thanks this week to our good friend Cris, who made the cover art for this episode! Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd to see more of her artwork, film opinions/reviews, or both!

Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemmons, and Willem Dafoe, alongside an ensemble supporting cast, Kinds of Kindness is a "triptych fable", an anthology spanning three unique stories loosely related via theme and the mysterious initials "RMF." Described by some as Lanthimos' "meanest" work, Kindness was already divisive when it premiered at Cannes and won Plemmons the Best Actor award. With Lanthimos' latest now out in the wild, which side of the fence do our hosts land on? And what exactly are the thematic links between the various stories of RMF?

The answers to all these questions and more in today's episode of Classic Movies Live!

A sequel to the 2015 instant-classic about the emotional inner life of a young girl, Inside Out 2 introduces new emotions as Riley goes through puberty. During a weekend at hockey camp in her summer before high school, Riley's head is hijacked by new emotion Anxiety (Maya Hawke), whose crew of more complex emotions including Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment, quickly supplants Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, and Disgust.

The new characters have notable parallels to the existing ones, the journey through Riley's head mirrors that from the first movie, but that said, is Inside Out 2 just more of the same?

Tune in today to hear Pierre and Jeff discuss Pixar as a studio, Inside Out as a franchise, and of course, the highest-grossing movie of the year so far!

Billed as a slasher film from the perspective of the killer, In a Violent Nature is a meditative experience somewhere between a depraved horror flick and an ASMR video. The film follows Johnny, a terrifying force of nature, as he walks through the woods, stalks dumb teenagers, and commits acts of debauchery that would make Michael Myers squirm.

So how does Johnny's adventure work on screen? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff discuss In a Violent Nature!

In the background of this episode, nature sounds from minither 2 on YouTube.

In the first episode, we looked at how Antoine Fuqua and Pete Docter handled institutional corruption with Training Day and Monsters, Inc., with Pete Docter advancing to the next round. In this episode, we're about to determine who Docter will face off against in Round 2!

From Glasgow, Scotland, Lynne Ramsa erupted onto the scene with her 1999 debut Ratcatcher, which screened at Cannes' Un Certain Regard section. In 2011, she'd return to Cannes to compete for thee Palme d'Or with Tilda Swinton-starrer We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Facing off against Ramsay is Gentilly, Quebec's own Denis Villeneuve! One of the most acclaimed Canadian directors working today, his debut feature August 32nd on Earth was selected as the Canadian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, though it would not ultimately be nominated. Just over 10 years later, in 2009, Villeneuve would sweep the Genie Awards with his dramatisation of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, Polytechnique.

In this week's episode, we discuss tragedy in educational institutions, and the themes and resonance of Polytechnique and Kevin, as we debate Ramsay vs. Villeneuve!

Joining us today is Dakota Arsenault of Contra Zoom Pod, last heard on Classic Movies Live – Season 4, Episode 15: Do Do-Over: The Hidden Fortress/Star Wars. You can find more of Dakota over on Twitter, Instagram, and Threads, or on any of your favourite podcasting services! Jeff recently guested on Contra Zoom as well to talk about the Canadian Screen Awards, which you can hear more about here. Also check out the other most recent episode, in which Dakota and Rachel Ho discuss their most anticipated movies of 2024.

This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article.

Special thanks this week to our good friend Cris, who made the cover art for this episode! Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd to see more of her artwork, film opinions/reviews, or both!

Starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the titular role, Furiosa shows the backstory of the breakout star of Fury Road. From her early days in the Green Place to her ascension to praetorian of the Citadel, Furiosa is an adrenaline-fueled epic spanning 15 years. Joining Taylor-Joy are Chris Hemsworth, playing the hilarious and terrifying Wasteland Warlord Dementus, Lord Protector of Gastown, and Tom Burke -- in what is sure to be his breakout role -- as Furiosa's mentor, Praetorian Jack.

Furiosa takes what Fury Road built and expands on it, but does it succeed? Can Anya Taylor-Joy match Charlize Theron's unforgettable portrayal of Imperator Furiosa? How does Chris Hemsworth fare as a villain? Tune in to hear our thoughts on all these questions and more!

And if you'd like to hear what our hosts thought of Fury Road, have we got an treat for you! Check out our episode on Fury Road, featuring Bhavna Sharma of The Bloody Broads!

In this mostly spoiler-free episode, Pierre and Jeff discuss the religious undertones of the latest Apes movie, as well as their experiences with the Matt Reeves movies, and hopes for the series going forward.

Fully self-funded, The Phantom Menace afforded Lucas full creative control over his universe. The film would be filled with memorable and quirky characters, an ambitious (if uneven) story, innovative film techniques never before seen at that scale, and career-making performances for its top-billed cast. It would go on to become the highest-grossing film of 1999, and be nominated for three Academy Awards. It would also divide critics and fans for years, with its legacy in a constant state of eternal re-evaluation.

And speaking of re-evaluation, neither of our hosts had seen this movie since they were much younger. So this week, you'll get to hear Pierre and Jeff re-evaluate their own feelings on The Phantom Menace... live!

In this extra-special, bonus-sized episode, Pierre and Jeff break down Sam Raimi's influential movies about a kid (no older than my son!) who can do whatever a spider can! How does Raimi's vision hold up 20 years later? Our hosts discuss Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3!

Ghostwatch is often held up alongside War of the Worlds as one of the most successful pranks in the history of broadcast entertainment. An hour and a half television movie starring famous newscasters aired as a special report, Ghostwatch successfully fooled many in the UK into believing they'd just witnessed a real haunting. How did it work? Would it still work today? Was it a morally ok thing to do in the first place?

This week on Classic Movies Live!, our hosts break down Ghostwatch! Joining us today is Calum Macnab of Scaretroducing! Calum was most recently heard on Season 4, Episode 48: Year in Review 2023, and before that all the way back in 2022 on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 25: The Day Shall Come. For more of Calum, check out Scaretroducing on Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify, among other places!

The fourth directed feature from Alex Garland, Civil War stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny and Steven McKinley Henderson as journalists in a near-future documenting the final days of a second American Civil War. Is the war a possible future for the United States? In a bold move, Civil War provides no easy answers, even about its own world.

But does the film's ambiguity work in its favour, or leave Garland's latest feeling hollow? Tune in as our hosts discuss this modern classic, live!

Drawing inspiration from Korean action movies, John Wick, and most importantly the myth of Hanuman, Monkey Man stars Patel as n underground boxer intent on getting revenge on the man who stole his childhood. But more than a simple revenge thriller, Monkey Man is a political statement on the state of modern India from a member of the diaspora. Does it work?

Tune in to hear our white hosts discuss!

For another perspective on Monkey Man check out Siddhant Adlakha's review for IGN

Centred around the fictional talk show "Night Owls with Jack Delroy", Late Night stars David Dastmalchian as one of the only variety show hosts ever to give Johnny Carson a run for his money. With his show at risk of getting cancelled, Jack Delroy devises a TV event that will "shock the nation", involving a showcase of the supernatural on live cable television during Sweeps Week! But as the show progresses, it quickly becomes clear that Jack has bitten off more than he can chew when it comes to the occult.

After debuting at festivals to rave reviews, Late Night has enjoyed a spirited theatrical run, and is soon to be available on Shudder. Our hosts both saw it in theatres, and we're excited to advise you to do the same! Tune in as Pierre and Jeff break down the directorial debut of Colin and Cameron Cairnes!

Jeff reviewed this movie after its Canadian premiere back at Toronto After Dark Film Festival. You can check out that review over on Contra Zoom!

This week on Classic Movies Live!, we talk about Sidney Sweeney's latest film about a virgin birth: Immaculate!

Immaculate stars Sweeney as Sister Cecilia, an American nun transplanted to an Italian convent, who becomes pregnant through an apparent miracle. As Cecilia's pregnancy progresses, it quickly becomes clear that all is not as it seems at this isolated nunnery in the Italian countryside...

Our hosts break down Sweeney's latest film, her career thus far, and the nature of the religious symbolism in Andrew Lobel's screenplay!

Pablo Berger's Robot Dreams, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Sara Varon, is about a lonely Dog and his Robot friend. After spending a wonderful summer together, the two are separated and must find their ways back to each other, or move on with their respective lives. It's both a slice of life and a poignant tale of a relationship breaking down in a realistic way, but not a complete one. A throwback to animation of years gone by, and a love letter to the New York of the past, Robot Dreams is straightforward, but packed with exciting visual flair.

Should you watch Robot Dreams when it releases in US theatres on May 31, 2024? Yes!

Should you also listen to our hosts talk about why it's similar to Past Lives? Also yes!

Emerald Fennell's second feature has been described as The Talented Mr. Ripley meets Brideshead Revisited. Barry Keoghan stars as Oliver Quick, an Oxford scholarship student who becomes dangerously obsessed with the exuberantly wealthy Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). After being invited to Catton's estate for the summer, Quick ingratiates himself with the Cattons, becoming a regular part of the family... but does he belong?

Saltburn is many things: raunchy, dark, a commentary on class and obsession... but is it good? Tune in as our hosts get to the bottom of this and many other questions!

Also in this episode, our hosts talk about the awards show they hosted: The 4th Annual Deathies! You can watch the replay here! Also, Jeff declares 2024 the year of Kevin Costner!

Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Editing, and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, Anatomy just won all five of those awards and more at this year's Cesar Awards! Justine Triet's Palme d'Or winning legal drama dissecting a couple's very literally declining marriage is not only one of the year's most awarded films, but also one of the most fascinating, featuring a small cast of excellent characters, and a script that manages to turn an hour of time in-universe into something puzzling, scandalous, and maddening.

In this episode, Pierre and Jeff lay out their thoughts on Anatomy, the French legal system, what it means to review a movie, and talk a bit about other courtroom dramas (specifically Twelve Angry Men and Red Rooms). Also in this episode, our hosts list their picks for each of the Oscar categories!

For more talk about the Oscars, check out the previous episodes in this season of Classic Movies Live!, or listen to our hosts' guest appearances on ContraZoom Pod, where they talked about Poor Things, Past Lives, American Fiction, and The Holdovers, and The Oscars Death Race Podcast, where they talk about Barbie, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Poor Things.

Before the Oscars air this weekend, check out the Deathies, a community-run Awards show by the Academy of Death Racers hosted by Pierre and Jeff! The 2024 Deathies air live on YouTube on Saturday, March 10, at 6 PM EST/3 PM PST!

Also be sure to check out Classic Movies Live! on Twitter, where our hosts will be talking all about the Oscars in the lead-up to and during the show!

Frustrated by his lack of authorial success and the expectations imposed on black writers, and dealing with expensive family tragedies, Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Academy Award nominee Jeffrey Wright) writes a cliche-ridden parody of the kind of black story he thinks white people want to read... only for it to become an overnight sensation. Reminiscent of The Producers, Monk pushes the joke further and further, only to fail upwards every time.

American Fiction is one part poignant satire of the publishing and entertainment industries, and one touching family drama, elegantly balanced by spectacular performances from Wright, Sterling K. Brown, Issa Rae, and a phenomenal supporting cast.

But how does it stack up against the other Best Picture nominees in 2024? Tune in to this episode as our hosts break it down category by category!

If you'd like to hear our hosts talk a little more about American Fiction, check out this recent episode of Contra Zoom Pod, featuring Pierre and Jeff discussing the movie as well as Poor Things, The Holdovers, and Past Lives!

Past Lives is a film that demands context, and evokes questions of the nature of relationships. It's not enough to ask what our hosts thought of the movie, but instead what the movie brought up in our hosts. Tune in this week as Pierre and Jeff discuss relationships, In-yun, Canada, and Ryan Gosling!

If you'd like to hear our hosts talk a little more about Past Lives, check out this recent episode of Contra Zoom Pod, featuring Pierre and Jeff discussing the movie as well as Poor Things, The Holdovers, and American Fiction!

Directed by Jonathan Glazer and based very loosely on both the book of the same name by Martin Amis and the real life of Rudolf and Hedwig Höss, The Zone of Interest is a terrifying and poignant holocaust film unlike anything else this year. Taking place directly next door to Auschwitz, Zone is just as much about what the audience never sees as it is about what they do.

To quote Glazer himself: "[Zone] is not a film about the past. It's trying to be about now". Accordingly, this episode quickly delves into modern political topics including discussions of ongoing international conflicts.

Today's episode features Jeff and special guest rach, who was last heard in a very different episode, Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 21: Romantic Comedies and Mr. Right. For more of rach, check out her Substack, where she regularly posts meditations on gender in popular culture.

Based on the life of legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and his wife Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), Maestro gives audiences a front-row seat for the triumphs and tribulations of the Great American Composer. Chronicling over 50 years of Bernstein's life, Maestro sees Cooper attempt a comprehensive profile of an artist who only wished he had more to give.

Joining our hosts today is Ben! Last seen on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 8: The Last Five Years, Ben once again brings his extensive knowledge of music and musical history, as well as a wealth of knowledge about Bernstein himself.

Tune in to hear Ben, Pierre, and Jeff break down what works about Maestro, what doesn't work, and talk about every aspect of this week's seven-time nominated Oscar movie, to determine once and for all if it's a Classic Movie, Live!

Also, go check out Pierre's music over on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/artist/3wGIUo6AF2qgQVDaEyjFiM?si=5LYZht_FQ6qZVOEFswWHhg

But first!

A few years ago, our hosts made it their mission to talk about all the films nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars before the ceremony, and with 4 of the nominees having had dedicated episodes last season, we're starting today on the final 6!

First up, Alexander Payne's TIFF favourite starring Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers! In this film set at Christmas 1970, a curmudgeonly boarding school history teacher spends the holidays at school looking after the students who aren't going home for the holidays. What at first seems a bit like an extra-long detention with everyone's least favourite teacher soon becomes a bonding experience between a surprising found family.

The Holdovers was a big surprise for both of our hosts, but is that a good thing? Tune in this week to find out our opinions on this new Christmas Classic, Live!

This year, we've talked about some of the biggest box office events ever, and some of the worst in recent memory. We've discussed veteran directors' latest epics and exciting new features from indie up-and-comers. We've talked about awards, festivals, streamers, and verified classics! But even with all the movies we covered, there were still plenty that we just couldn't find the time for!

In this episode, Pierre, Jeff, and friends of the show devote some time to 15 great movies that haven't been talked about at length on Classic Movies Live, yet! In this extra-long, graciously time-stamped episode, our hosts will expand your holiday watchlist with some of the best that 2023 had to offer!

0:00:00 - 0:20:19: Intro and thoughts on 2023 in movies 0:20:19 - 0:25:18: Bottoms 0:25:18 - 0:31:43: The Killer 0:31:43 - 0:34:36: Asian and Asian diaspora cinema in 2023 (Call in from The Oscars Death Race Podcast's Paulo Bautista) 0:34:36 - 0:44:07: The Teachers' Lounge 0:44:07 - 0:56:21: The Marvels 0:56:21 - 0:59:26: Robot Dreams (Call in from Kylie from The Academy of Death Racers) 0:59:26 - 1:08:41: The First Slam Dunk 1:08:41 - 1:20:20: Fast X 1:20:20 - 1:21:57: Knock at the Cabin (Call in from Scaretroducing's Calum Macnab) 1:21:57 - 1:33:04: Sometimes I Think About Dying 1:33:04 - 1:40:58: No Hard Feelings 1:40:58 - 1:48:56: Gran Turismo 1:48:56 - 1:52:23: Saltburn (Call in from rach) 1:52:23 - 2:01:50: Late Night With the Devil 2:01:50 - 2:13:58: The Holdovers 2:13:58 - 2:21:30: What's coming in 2024

Keep an eye on our Twitter in the coming days for Pierre and Jeff's Top 10 lists for 2023, and stay tuned for exciting new episodes coming in 2024!

Some of our guests today:

Paulo Bautista runs The Oscars Death Race Podcast, as well as Box Office Watch, where he reviews awards season hopefuls and breaks down box office news, respectively. Pierre and Jeff recently had the opportunity to guest on a recent episode of ODR's upcoming season, which should be live in just a few weeks (and will be linked here when it is!). Paulo was last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 14: The Box Office & The Accountant.

Kylie is one of the co-directors for the Academy of Death Racers Festival, which this year features over 50 shorts, including several shortlisted for the Academy Awards! You can get tickets over at aodr.net. The festival runs from January 5 and January 21. Kylie was last heard on our show on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 3: The Twilight Saga.

Calum Macnab is one half of the excellent horror film review podcast Scaretroducing. Most recently, they did a retrospective on Rob Zombie's Halloween films. Calum guested on our show a while ago to talk about Chris Morris on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 25: The Day Shall Come. He was also heard as a special guest on Season 4, Episode 12: The 95th Academy Awards.

rach runs a blog with several pieces of gender analysis in film over on Substack. She also came onto our show to discuss romantic comedies in Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 21: Romantic Comedies and Mr. Right. She was last heard as a special guest on Season 4, Episode 11: Women Tárking.

For more on some of the films mentioned here, check out our TIFF episode, or read Jeff's reviews of Gran Turismo and Late Night With the Devil over at Contra Zoom Pod!

Poor Things stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a sheltered young woman who runs away from home to learn everything she can about the world. That description is technically correct, but the latest outing from the director of The Favourite is not only so much more than that, but such a strange, unique story it's impossible to summarize into a single sentence.

Based on a novel by Alisdair Gray, Poor Things is one of the most visually arresting and thematically bold wide-release films of the year, and it's certain to make a big splash when it hits theatres all over the continent this Friday! And once you've seen it, our hosts will be right here to provide their thoughts on Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and friend of the show Christopher Abbott!

Set in the aftermath of World War II, Godzilla Minus One stars Ryunosuke Kamiki as Kōichi Shikishima, a former pilot turned minesweeper. Still haunted by his experiences in the war, Shikishima soon finds himself at the centre of a much different, much bigger horror: the colossal amphibious force of nature Godzilla!

Drawing as much inspiration from Jaws as from 1953's Godzilla, Minus One is an epic story of guilt and survival in the aftermath of tragedy. Is it also one of the best movies of the year? One of our hosts thinks so, but you'll have to tune in to find out who!

In the latest film from director Kristoffer Borgli, Cage plays Paul Matthews, an unremarkable university professor who begins appearing in people's dreams. Through no fault of his own, Matthews is suddenly world famous for just sort of standing around. Fame has its perks, of course, but it would have a lot more perks if Matthews were famous for the research he's spent his entire career trying to get noticed for.

Dream Scenario is a brilliant film about sudden fame, memes, cancel culture, and midlife crises that fully capitalizes on Cage's larger-than-life persona. It's a film Pierre and Jeff had plenty to say about, and one you'll want to check out if you can! But in the meantime, tune in as our hosts explore the mind of Paul Matthews.

Jeff previously talked about Dream Scenario on Contra Zoom Pod episode 252: 2023 TIFF Wrap Up

Covering Napoleon's entire life in a mere two and a half hours, Napoleon is nothing short of a true historical epic. But does it live up to that responsibility, or is it just very, very long?

This week on Classic Movies Live! our hosts discuss Scott's filmography, Phoenix's tendency to be a weird little dude, and how big Vanessa Kirby's role is in this movie!

For more on Napoleon, his life, and his legacy, check out the series over on OverSimplified!

Originally a passion project for British director Richard Stanley, Moreau would drop Stanley partway through filming in favour of veteran director John Frankenheimer, who then proceeded to clash with the enormous personalities of stars Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. Ultimately the film would release a critical failure and box office disappointment but would go on to have an oversized legacy thanks to absurd behind-the-scenes shenanigans.

Drawing from Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau, Kilmer's 2022 documentary Val, and the film itself, Pierre and Jeff discuss the Dr. Moreau's wild ride on the 27th (plus 2 months, almost) anniversary of the film's debut!

Welcome to Director Showdown! In this new series, we pit 64 of the biggest directors to debut since 1998 against each other in an elimination bracket to determine who will be crowned the greatest director of the last 25 years!

In each episode, we'll examine thematically similar movies from two different directors, comparing how each tackles that week's themes, as well as the achievements each filmmaker brings to their respective film. To start things off, Pierre and Jeff examine the nature of systemic corruption, as depicted in Antoine Fuqua's Training Day and Pete Docter's Monsters, Inc. Both movies were nominated for Academy Awards at the 74th ceremony, with Training Day earning Denzel Washington the Oscar for Best Actor. But only one movie can come out on top, and one director will end their journey with the show in the first round!

Join us as we debate Fuqua vs. Docter in the first ever Director Showdown!

This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article.

Released in 2015, Fury Road took the world by storm. The first Mad Max film in 30 years, Fury Road featured a complete cast reset, with Tom Hardy taking over as Max Rockatansky, joined by Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa and Nicholas Hoult as Nux the Warboy. Fury Road is a pure adrenaline rush from start to finish, with each of the leads turning in career-best performances, while also cementing composer Junkie XL as an essential voice in cinematic scoring. The film would go on to be nominated for 10 Oscars -- beaten only by The Revenant in number of nominations -- winning 6, the most of any movie at that year's ceremony.

Did Fury Road deserve the acclaim? Does it hold up 8 years later? The short answer is "absolutely. Without a doubt." For the long answer, you'll have to tune in as Pierre, Jeff, and Bhavna dissect this classic movie... live*!

You can find Bhavna on every social media site as @theluckysharms, including Twitter, bluesky, and Instagram (where she's got an underscore after her name). You can also hear Bhavna with her co-host Jamie on their podcast, Bloody Broads, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you like to listen to podcasts. You can find all their links, including socials, right here. They also just launched merch, which you should check out!

This episode was produced during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strike, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/

Of course, our hosts were first in line to see the new film from Emma Tammi and Blumhouse, starring Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard alongside a host of Jim Henson animatronics! Is Five Nights, like The Super Mario Movie before it, the greatest video game movie ever made? Or are its scares as rancid as a child's corpse? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff give their thoughts on Freddy, Chica, Foxy, and Bonnie!

For more behind the scenes of Five Nights, check out this video from The Film Theorists detailing what it was like on set!

This episode was produced during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strike, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/

Killers of the Flower Moon tells the story of the Osage Indian Murders, a series of murders perpetrated against the Osage tribe in Oklahoma during the early 20th century.

While Killers features many indigenous people both in front of and behind the camera, the film is nevertheless told by Martin Scorsese, focusing on the non-native perspective. An ideal version of this story would be told by an Osage filmmaker, and we encourage you to seek out indigenous voices in film. You can support indigenous film through organizations like ImagineNative. Be sure to check out Osage reviews of film as well, like this one from Robert Warrior.

This episode was produced during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strike, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/

The "true story" of demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren's most haunting case, The Conjuring stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as expert ghost hunters who must perform an exorcism for the Perrons, a family of seven in Rhode Island. As they learn more about the ghosts, the Warrens and the Perrons must battle their personal demons, but mostly the quite literal ones that have taken up residence on their lawn!

The Conjuring would go on to spawn two direct sequels and two spin-off series, and became career-defining work for Wan and Wilson. It was also the first entry in a sprawling cinematic universe the likes of which horror hasn't seen since the Universal Monsters.

So why The Conjuring? What makes this film a true classic? The answers to this and other questions on this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!

Referenced in this episode: check out Alisha Mughal's review of The Exorcist: Believer!

This episode was produced during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strike, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/

On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff talk about The Creator, an original sci-fi film from Edwards starring John David Washington, Gemma Chan, and Ken Watanabe. Releasing at the most topical of times, The Creator takes on human-AI relations while heavily integrating East Asian themes and aesthetics... for better and worse.

Referenced in this episode is this video by Patrick H Willems about the state of the modern film industry. For more thematic analysis on The Creator, check out this review by Siddhant Adlakha on Joysauce.

This episode was produced during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strike, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/

From the series' origins with Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson to the requel series directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, we break down the themes and screams of all 6 movies. Major spoilers for the whole series abound in this episode!

This episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

For his third Inspector Poirot film, Kenneth Branagh adapts the lesser-known Agatha Christie mystery Hallowe'en Party. Moving the action to Venice instead of rural England, A Haunting In Venice finds a retired Poirot reluctantly brought back to investigate a several-years-old murder alongside mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) and medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh). But when another murder happens, Poirot must reckon with the ghosts not only of the deceased, but of his own past, as he slowly realizes that there's more to the people in the house with him than he originally thought...

This episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

Tune in for in-depth (spoiler-free) reviews of Next Goal Wins, Origin, Dicks: The Musical, Hit Man, AGGRO DR1FT, The Teachers' Lounge, Green Border, Sleep, Hate to Love: Nickelback, The Holdovers, The Monk and the Gun, and others!

And when you're done listening to this episode, check out some of Jeff's reviews over on Letterboxd, as well as Jeff's guest appearance on the TIFF episode of Contra Zoom Pod. Jeff also wrote reviews for two TIFF movies not discussed in this episode, I Don't Know Who You Are and Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person.

Finally, check out this review from David Ehrlich of AGGRO DR1FT, mentioned in this episode.

In the time since this episode was recorded, Hit Man has found distribution with Netflix. Make sure to watch it in theatres when it releases!

This episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

A classic tale of hubris and the man who weaponized his to make an island full of dinosaurs, Jurassic Park would go on to spawn one of the biggest franchises of all time. Groundbreaking in the fields of visual effects and Jeff Goldblum usage, Jurassic Park is held up by many today as one of the best movies ever made.

But will our hosts agree? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff discuss Jurassic Park on this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!

This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

Jaws was Spielberg's big break! His third film for Universal, second collaboration with John Williams, and first film in his long career of major successes that would come to define the modern blockbuster, Jaws is a film with a legacy a big as the titular shark! It's also a film that at least one of our hosts hadn't actually seen before this episode!

Viewing Jaws as an unfamiliar movie, how does it hold up? Even more interestingly: what can the rest of Spielberg's filmography tell us about Jaws... and vice-versa for that matter! All these answers and more on today's bonus-sized episode of Classic Movies Live! Spoilers in this episode for Jaws and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

The Meg series of films stars Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor, a marine biologist/diver/eco-terrorist who repeatedly encounters Megalodons, a species of prehistoric giant shark. Based on a series of novels by Steve Alten, there's certainly more to it than that, but you really can't go wrong with "Statham vs. Shark"!

Also in this episode, our hosts give their thoughts on the state of Statham's other big franchise: The Fast and the Furious!

Spoilers in this episode for The Meg, Meg 2: The Trench, and Fast X.

This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

Adapted from the Disney theme park ride of the same name, The Haunted Mansion features a family of colour moving into a secluded mansion only to discover that it's inhabited by 999 ghosts... but there's always room for one more. To avoid becoming the 1000th ghost, the family teams up with a wacky band of characters including a short man and Madame Leota - a long-dead fortune teller who is trapped inside a crystal ball - to thwart the sinister plot of the owner of the haunted house. The same thing happens in Haunted Mansion 20 years earlier, but different!

This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

From first-time director Juel Taylor, They Cloned Tyrone stars John Boyega, Teyonah Paris, and Jamie Foxx as three friends who uncover a vast cloning conspiracy below their town. But if that sounds strange, buckle up because that's hardly the half of it! Reminiscent of blaxploitation films of the 70s and 80s, as well as weird modern sci-fi hits like Sorry To Bother You, Taylor's debut is certainly one of the most original movies ever to premiere as a Netflix Original. Is it also one of the best?

This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

Longtime listeners will remember that both Pierre and Jeff are lifelong fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, so it only makes sense that our hosts cover the latest reboot from Seth Rogen and Jeff Rowe! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem features the titular turtles as you've never seen them before: portrayed as teenagers! Featuring a huge cast including Ice Cube, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Maya Rudolph, and four relative newcomers as the turtles, Mutant Mayhem puts a unique spin on the turtles' origins and characters. Do the creative risks pay off? Tune in to hear our hosts break down Rowe's directorial debut!

This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

The third solo-directed film from Greta Gerwig, Barbie features Gerwig's biggest budget, biggest cast, and first foray into an existing IP. In a world where a three-hour-long scientist biopic can sell out IMAX theatres for weeks, Barbie is doing ever better, on track to become the biggest movie of 2023, and the biggest female-helmed movie of all time!

In this episode, Pierre and Jeff break down the Margot Robbie vehicle. What do its themes say about capitalism and feminism? How does the portrayal of toxic masculinity and patriarchy land? Is this the film that will win Ryan Gosling his Oscar?

And to close everything out, we discuss the state of the Hollywood today! Despite the biggest opening weekend in history, the ongoing writers' and actors' strikes leave the film industry in a pretty curious position. What could this mean for Saw Patrol?

This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

The simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer produced one of the biggest box-office weekends of all time, with both movies already garnering commercial and critical acclaim! It's official: Audiences love Bobby Oppenheimer!

In the first of two Barbenheimer episodes, Pierre and Jeff address the implications of such a massive cinematic event. Is this just the shot in the arm the movie industry needs? Will it ever be replicated again? What about Saw Patrol?

Then, our hosts break down Nolan's three-hour epic biopic. Nolan-regular Cillian Murphy stars in the title role alongside Robert Downey, Jr., Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Alden Ehrenreich and Josh Hartnett, as well as dozens of massive names! Deeply personal and politically poignant, Oppenheimer is a movie that sticks with you long after the credits roll. So what did our hosts think of it? Tune in to find out!

For more Oppenheimer content, you can check out Jeff's review over on Letterboxd.

This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

Dead Reckoning, Part One is the seventh movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise that's regularly seen Cruise perform death-defying stunts over the course of almost thirty years! As one of Hollywood's oldest currently active franchises, and one of Cruise's proudest achievements, how is the franchise doing seven installments in?

Our hosts discuss their thoughts on Mission: Impossible, Tom Cruise, newcomer Pom Klementieff, and the dearly missed Henry Cavill!

This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed here wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

In this episode, Pierre and Jeff run through the movies they each saw during June, including The Flash, Asteroid City, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Were any of this year's most hotly-anticipated June blockbusters worth the wait? Well, the answer isn't entirely no!

Also in this episode, Jeff references a review of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts by friend of the show and Awesome Friday co-host Simon Best, which you really should read.

Debuting to incredible critical and commercial success, Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse continues the stories of Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy as they fall in with a legion of multiversal Spider-People. Joining our heroes this time are Indian Spiderman Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni), Spider-Punk Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya), and Spider-Man from the year 2099, Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac).

As a sequel to one of the most influential movies of the last decade, expectations were high for Across the Spiderverse. But while the movie ups the ante from Into the Spiderverse in many ways, is it able to clear the high bar of quality Lord and Miller set with its predecessor?

Tune in as Pierre and Jeff break down part one of the epic conclusion to the Spider-Verse saga!

Set aboard the mining ship Nostromo, Alien follows a crew of seven blue-collar workers attempting to survive after an SOS call goes horribly wrong. What starts out as a routine investigation quickly becomes a paranoid nightmare as crewmates are killed off one by one by a never-before-seen extraterrestrial lifeform that's made its way onto the ship.

Released in 1979, Alien would become the breakout role for Sigourney Weaver, while giving a boost to the career of a young John Hurt as well. It would turn new director Ridley Scott into a household name, and later become not just a pivotal film in his career, but a pivotal era, as Scott would go on to expand Alien into a franchise that today consists of seven main-series films with more on the way! And of course, Alien would spawn iconic scenes, and leave a legacy and impact on pop-culture larger than anyone at the time could have possibly imagine.

So what is the combination of these elements that truly turns Alien from just a well-known film into an undisputed classic? Join us as we break down the film and its legacy!

Mark was last heard in Season 4, Episode 11: Women Tárking, where he shared his review of the film Tár. Before that, he joined our hosts on Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 26: Featuring Mark Morgan (Dummy)!

Mark is one of the co-directors of the Academy of Death Racers Film Festival, which you can learn more about at aodr.net. You can also find him over on Discord, where he'll be happy to explain to you several reasons why Minding the Gap ought to have won Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse exploded into theatres in winter of 2018 and made waves throughout the animation industry. Opening to critical acclaim and commercial success, Spider-Verse would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, sweep the Annies, and usher in a new golden age of mixed 2D/3D hybrid animation. Not even 5 years later the influence of Spider-Verse is felt in animated films from nearly every active studio.

With the sequel Across the Spider-Verse around the corner, Pierre and Jeff revisit the movie that started it all and share some of their thoughts on Sony Animation, Lord and Miller, and what Spider-Man means to them.

From director Matt Johnson, BlackBerry chronicles the rise and fall of Research in Motion, the Waterloo, ON company headed by Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie that created the Blackberry phone, and with it, the modern smartphone industry.

As you're about to hear, BlackBerry is already one of the best movies of 2023, so if you're looking for a movie to check out this weekend, let our hosts convince you that it should be the one about Waterloo, where the vampires hang out!

After the events of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and Drax (Dave Bautista) are back along with newcomers Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) and Cosmo (Maria Bakalova) in a galaxy-spanning adventure to save their friend, Rocket (Bradley Cooper) -- who is not a raccoon.

Vol. 3 is not only the third Guardians movie, but also the thirty-second MCU movie. But which is it more? Does Gunn leave his band of space-misfits with a satisfying ending, or is Vol. 3 just another movie in the world's longest-running silver-screen TV show? Tune in as our hosts break down the latest from Marvel Pictures!

Starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and releasing just a week before the most famous real-life car chase of all time, Jan de Bont's film about a bus that can't slow down endures almost 20 years after its debut! But what is the legacy of Speed? Is its influence on action still felt today? Tune in as Rachel makes the case that Speed truly is a Classic Movie, Live!

For more of Rachel's content, you can check out her website rachelkh.com, or follow her over on Twitter. Rachel can also be regularly heard over on Contra Zoom Pod, including their latest episode discussing the Best Films of 2014, the 20th anniversary year of Speed! Rachel has also guested on Classic Movies Live! before, including in Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 15: The Voices and Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 11: Christmas With Contra Zoom!

On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff talk about sports - or rather, sports-adjacent capitalism - as they take on Air, the newest movie about the 80s from 90s dream team Ben Affleck and Matt Damon!

Also starring Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, and Jason Bateman, Air is a movie about Michael Jordan and his influence on the world of sports and celebrity endorsements... but without any appearances by Mr. Jordan himself!

Also on this episode: our hosts reveal their thoughts on Argo, the DC Universe, and which sports teams they root for!

On an unrelated note, the Oilers lost to the Kings 4-3 on the date of recording this episode. That's relevant to the episode, kind of.

Based on the consistently acclaimed Nintendo games, The Super Mario Bros Movie sees Illumination Studios -- perhaps best known for the Minions franchise -- bringing the most famous gaming mascot this side of Sonic the Hedgehog to the silver screen!

Jam-packed with names like Jack Black, Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, and Anya Taylor-Joy, The Super Mario Bros Movie has name recognition at just about every level. But does it also have quality at every level? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff break down Shigeru Miyamoto's productorial debut!

Starring Chris Pratt, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant, Honor Among Thieves brings the rich world of Faerun to life in a story ripped from a long Saturday session around a tabletop! Blending thrills, humour, and heartfelt character moments, Honor Among Thieves is an excellent fantasy flick filled with references and a love of D&D that roleplaying fans will find immediately endearing.

But did our hosts find it immediately endearing? Tune in for this week's hottest takes only on Classic Movies Live!

Also on this episode: we present Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson with a special award only 2 other people have received!

In the past, we've done similar episodes looking at Citizen Kane and Mank, and Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars. Be sure to check those out, or peruse this handy Letterboxd list for links to all of our episodes!

Joining us today is Dakota Arsenault of Contra Zoom Pod! Dakota was most recently heard on Season 4, Episode 12: The 95th Academy Awards!, and was last a featured guest in Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 15: The Voices.

On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live! we discuss the epic conclusion to Chad Staheleski's breakout directorial series! Starring all of Jeff's favourite guys! Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgard, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Scott Adkins join Keanu Reeves for nearly 3 hours of non-stop action!

Cinematography! An incredible soundtrack! Amazing fight choreography! John Wick: Chapter 4 has it all, and our hosts are here to go through all of it in this spoiler-light episode!

This episode contains fragments of the songs "Genesis" by Justice, "Plastic Heart" by Nostalghia, and "LED Spirals" by Le Castle Vania, and "Got Yourself A Gun" by Nas.

The sequel to 2019's Shazam!, Fury of the Gods sees Billy Batson and his superpowered siblings once again take on an ancient evil in the form of Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu! Described by director David F. Sandberg as a "mini-Avengers movie", Fury of the Gods features a huge cast of characters -- a tough balancing act in any film! So does DC's latest turn a teenage team-up into a successful sequel, or is this last gasp of the DC Universe more of a yawn?

In today's episode, Pierre and Jeff discuss the Oscars - both before the ceremony, and after! Also, learn about the results of the Academy of Death Racers Awards (The Deathies), hosted the night before the Oscars by your favourite hosts! Director/Producer of the Deathies and friend of the show Astro joins us to discuss the 3rd annual ceremony, which you can still watch on YouTube!

This episode features call-ins from a number of guests! Including.... Adele, last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 3: The Twilight Saga! Dakota Arsenault, co-host of Contra Zoom Pod, last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 15: The Voices! Calum Macnab, co-host of SCARETRODUCING, last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 25: The Day Shall Come! Matthew Simpson, co-host of Awesome Friday, last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 22: Rapture-Palooza! And of course SlightAstro, or Ian, co-founder of the Academy of Death Racers, last heard on Season 4, Episode 3: Paddington 2!

First, Pierre and Jeff break down Women Talking. From Canadian director Sarah Polley, Women Talking features an ensemble cast including Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormance, Clare Foy and Rooney Mara. After years of suffering at the hands of the men of their isolated Mennonite colony, a group of women discuss whether to leave the colony, forgive the men, or stay and fight. Taking place entirely within one location, and featuring primarily discussions, Women Talking is certainly unique amongst this year's nominees. But how does it stack up against the others?

Following that, our hosts discuss Todd Field's first film in 13 years: TÁR! Featuring Cate Blanchett in, frankly, the role of a lifetime, TÁR is a layered character study tailor-made for the post-MeToo landscape. While there's likely not a soul alive unfamiliar with EGOT-winner Lydia Tár, Field's profile tears down her character, and tells the story of her fall from grace in a way unlike any we've seen yet! This segment features a soon-to-be classic conversation from our hosts, so make sure you don't miss it!

Also in this episode, we have call-ins from Rach and Mark! Rach was last heard on Kickin' It WIth Kendrick, Episode 21: Romantic Comedies and Mr. Right, and can be found over on TikTok, YouTube or Substack. Mark was last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 26: Featuring Mark Morgan (Dummy)!, and he's one of the key members of the Academy of Death Racers, which you can learn more about over on AoDR.net!

Finally, we talk a lot about friend of the show Paulo Bautista talking about Top Gun: Maverick on this episode. If you want context for that, check out his appearance over on this recent episode of Contra Zoom Pod!

Introducing Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, alongside a host of new and returning characters, Quantumania aims to fully explore a completely new side of the Marvel Universe... So does it succeed? Tune into this extra-long episode to hear Pierre and Jeff break down Paul Rudd's latest starring vehicle!

Tune in for our thoughts on war, but also Edward Berger's latest film!

In this episode, Pierre and Jeff discuss Ruben Östlund's second (!) Palme d'Or winning film, Triangle of Sadness! Featuring an interesting ratio of social commentary to potty humour, Östlund's latest is definitely one of the funner picks at this year's Academy Awards! But is it any good?

Tune in as our hosts break down the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Swedish auteur's influencer comedy!

This episode contains a segment of the song "New Noise" by Refused

Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, is The Fabelmans all it's made out to be? How does it rank among Spielberg's mountain of masterpieces? Tune in today to find out!

Want to hear Pierre and Jeff talk even more about The Fabelmans, but with a little more of an Oscar bent? Check out our hosts' recent guest appearance on Contra Zoom Pod: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2tFAMcpsOqdbqJbdM8gGcy?si=5c5d0be97b6343b9

First up, Pierre and Jeff discuss Blumhouse's latest AI horror-comedy M3GAN, starring Allison Williams! Following that, Pierre interviews Jeff about Brandon Cronenberg's latest Canadian classic: Infinity Pool!

Also in this episode: what makes horror special? What makes January special? What happens when the two are fit so lovingly and perfectly together? And a very special guest!

Based on the book and award-winning Swedish film A Man Called Ove, A Man Called Otto stars Tom Hanks as a grumpy old man with a big heart... in more ways than one! Tune in to hear just how our hosts ended up being pleasantly surprised by this small film with a giant heart!

Releasing over ten years after the previous Puss in Boots, The Last Wish is a major departure from the rest of the Shrek franchise! Most obviously, the animation style is completely different from previous entries, but the storytelling and tone isn't exactly the same either!

Is this new direction good for Antonio Banderas, Mike Meyers, and the rest of Dreamworks' Darlings? Or is The Last Wish likely to be The Last Good Movie from Dreamworks? Tune in to hear our hosts' thoughts!

While the format has since changed, the idea lives on in this, the fourth season of Classic Movies Live!

In this week's episode, Pierre and Jeff are joined by Ian (also known as SlightAstronomer3) of the Academy of Death Racers to discuss a veritable modern classic: Paddington 2! Directed by Paul King, Paddington 2 was at least for a time the highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes, and was recently revealed as Nic Cage's favourite movie in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Is it all a meme? Ian certainly doesn't think so! Tune in this week as our hosts and guest dissect every part of Paddington 2 to determine what makes it a Classic Movie, Live!

And when you're finished with this episode, consider checking out the 2023 Academy of Death Racers Festival! Running until January 22nd, the 2nd annual AoDR Fest has over 50 short films you can watch at home! For only $5, you can grab yourself an all-access virtual pass over at aodr.net! That pass includes entry into a trivia competition at 11 PM GMT on Saturday the 14th as well. Come show off your movie knowledge against our hosts!

On this episode of Classic Movies Live!, our hosts talk about 5 of their favourite movies from 2022, excluding any already discussed in their own episode! If you've been dying to hear Pierre and Jeff discuss the year's horror heavyweights, or festival favourites, you're in for a treat!

This is a spoiler-light episode for all films involved! A full list of the movies discussed is below:

Pierre's List:

• Slumberland
• The Adam Project
• Smile
• Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
• Scream

Jeff's List:

• Inu-Oh
• Women Talking
• Leonor Will Never Die
• Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
• Babylon

This episode also contains segments of the song "Call Me Manny" by Justin Hurwitz, written for the soundtrack of the movie Babylon.

Ushering in the first episode of our fourth season is the first film by the legend himself, James Cameron, in over a decade! Tune in as our hosts return to Pandora and immerse themselves in The Way of Water! If you haven't seen it yourself, be warned that this episode is full spoilers after the 30 minute mark!

Also in this episode, hear how our hosts got their new titles!

In this special Bonus Episode, you can hear each of the interviews we conducted in full, with the only editing done in service of removing radio silence, ums, and ahs. Timestamps for each interview are below!

01 - Interviewee: Meredith Lister, Interviewers: Pierre and Jeff - 0:03:44

02 - Interviewee: Afua Asante, Interviewer: Jeff - 0:28:22

03 - Interviewee: Taylor Wilson, Interviewer: Jeff - 0:37:57

04 - Interviewee: Brian Su, Interviewers: Pierre and Jeff - 0:52:16

05 - Interviewees: Yuvarna Govender and Pierre, Interviewer: Jeff - 1:08:49

06 - Interviewee: Jeff, Interviewers: Pierre and Yuvarna - 1:43:20

07 - Interviewee: Tyron Lake, Interviewer: Jeff - 2:16:37

08 - Interviewee: Rosemary Jean Thomson, Interviewer: Jeff - 2:43:56

In an episode months in the making, Pierre and Jeff are about to take you through 8 years of behind-the-scenes with a definitive (unofficial) history of UBC-Okanagan's premiere campus and community radio station!

This episode features interviews with several current and former members of Heatwave Radio, including Pierre and Jeff, Yuvarna Govender, Afua Asante, Meredith Lister, Tyron Lake, Rosemary Jean Thomson, and our very own editor Brian Su! Stay tuned in the following days for a bonus episode with the full interviews with each of our guests!

Curious about what Heatwave Media is up to now? You can check them out over on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube!

You can hear more of Afua on Gaywire over at CJSR!

Tyron and his fiance regularly stream over on Twitch at pierazzplays!

In the sequel to the smash hit from 2018, Wakanda is at a crossroads. Still grieving the death of their heroic king T'Challa, the formerly isolated African nation suddenly finds itself at the centre of an international conflict involving another formerly undiscovered nation: the sunken kingdom of Talokan! What's more, this sunken kingdom also has a massive amount of Vibranium!

Is Black Panther 2 just Wakanda vs. Wakanda-but-water? Or does director Ryan Coogler have a bit more up his sleeve than first impressions would suggest?

Also in this episode, our hosts attempt to answer the age-old question: what makes a classic movie?

Starring The Batman-star Colin Farrell alongside the legendary Brendan Gleeson, Banshees is a lot of things. It's a film about loss and friendship, the breaking of seemingly unbreakable bonds, daily life and legacy. But more than anything, it's a movie about an awkward situation that hits too close to home.

Tune in as Pierre and Jeff work through their respective traumas, and also talk a little bit about Peter Dinklage!

Tune in as Pierre and Jeff talk about the origins of this incarnation of Black Adam, the faithfulness of The Rock's character to the one in the comics, and the current state of the DC Universe!

Also in this episode: our hosts ponder the possibility of getting a celebrity on the podcast! Box office tendencies in China! Patriotic narcissism!

On this week's episode, our hosts talk about Nicolas Winding Refn again, but this time, his best-known movie: Drive! How does Drive stack up against Valhalla Rising? What can this movie tell us about Ryan Gosling? And what's ahead for our hosts in Season 2 (you already know this, Season 2 started over a year ago!)

Tune in for the final episode of CML Classics!

First off, Pierre and Jeff take on Kid Cudi's Entergalactic, an animated romantic comedy that was released on Netflix at the end of September. Then, it's time for yet another entry in Marvel's Phase Four: Werewolf By Night!

Full spoilers abound for both television specials, so come prepared!

Starring Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, and Kathleen Turner, The Virgin Suicides paints a fascinating portrait of a suffocating suburbia in the late 20th century. Effective in its themes and shocking in its execution, what can Coppola's first movie tell us about her as a director? Tune in to hear our hosts' takes!

One year ago, our hosts took on Halloween Kills, the second movie in the trilogy of David Gordon Green's Halloween reboot. This year, Green's series Ends with the eponymous third movie! Will Halloween end on better note than Kills? What is the legacy of Michael Meyers?

Also in this episode: our hosts discuss Sofia Coppola, date the current episode by talking about episodes yet to come, and Pierre makes a promise he can't take back!

Cameron's 3D, CGI, IMAX, 4DX, etc. extravaganza was lauded at the time for revolutionizing cinema. In the years since, it's been constantly re-evaluated. What has been the lasting impact of Avatar? Has the movie even had a lasting impact? Are you excited for a sequel? What's the name of the main character?

All these questions and more are at the centre of this week's deep dive into the world of Pandora!

First off, we discuss Justin Long's New Movie -- also called Barbarian -- one of the best examples of trailers giving nothing about the movie away in a long time! There's so much to talk about with Barbarian, but in the spirit of the movie, our review is entirely spoiler-free!

Barbarian was previously mentioned in Pierre's Better Know a Contributor episode of Contra Zoom, which you can find over at Contra Zoom! In Jeff's case, he was recommended the movie by Bhavna of the Bloody Broads! Check out their show on Spotify!

After Barbarian, don't touch that dial! Next up, our hosts' review Don't Worry Darling, the latest movie from Booksmart director Olivia Wilde! Should you worry, darling? Tune in to find out!

Based on the Tony-nominated musical of the same name, Funny Girl features the film debut of singer/actress/renaissance-woman Barbra Streisand! Chronicling the life of early 20th-century comedienne Fanny Brice and her complicated romance with swindler Nicky Arnstein (Omar Sharif), Funny Girl perfectly recreates the experience of going to a musical theatre production on the big screen... for better or worse!

Which parts of the movie work? Which don't? Does this young upstart Barbra Streisand have promise? Will the Wheel of Movies ever return?

The answers to at least three of those questions on this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!

Also in this episode: Our hosts introduce the Wheel of Movies!

Jeff's full list from TIFF, ranking all the movies he saw, can be found here. This episode also contains clips from "Multi-Family Garage Sale" by YACHT (originally by Land of Loops).

A big shoutout to friends of the show Rachel Ho and Bloody Broads, who Jeff got to meet in person at the festival. Bloody Broads just kicked off the most important month of the year with Episode 28 talking about Halloween! And as always, Rachel can be heard over on Contra Zoom, including a recent entry in their Better Know a Contributor series interviewing the man, the myth, the legend himself: Pierre Frigon!

This classic episode of Classic Movies Live! is about one of Jeff's favourite movies of 2019. After Reign Over Me, can Adam Sandler redeem himself as an actor? (Spoiler alert: yes!)

And of course, our hosts also talk about that new movie: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero! Itself a celebration of the many storylines that came before, Super Hero sees Piccolo and Gohan teaming up to save the world from a new Android threat... and this one is super hero themed!

Also in this episode, the Wheel of Movies returns!

If you like this episode, check out the last episode we did about a TV show, wherein we reviewed the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Or for more animated movie talk, check out our list of the Top 10 Animated Films By Genre!

Hailed by many as one of Adam Sandler's best performances ever, Reign Over Me features Sandler as a 9/11 widower suffering from PTSD. After reuniting with his college roommate, played by Don Cheadle, Reign follows the two friends as they deal with their personal traumas. Similarly, Classic Movies Live follows friends Pierre and Jeff as they deal with a series of shared, but also deeply personal traumas in the form of the cinematic arts! Tune in for our thoughts on Adam Sandler's career-defining performance!

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a recent Nickelodeon reboot of the TMNT franchise, with a sequel movie on Netflix. That sequel movie is the subject for today's episode! Tune in to hear our hosts break down the new movie, as well as comparing and contrasting to old TMNT series. How does Rise compare to what came before? Does the movie work as a movie?

All these answers and more on today's episode of Classic Movies Live!

This week, our hosts excitedly got back to talking about new movies with Da 5 Bloods! Spike Lee's collaboration with Netflix was highly anticipated at the time, and was making waves as an early Oscars contender. It wasn't to be, ultimately, but that didn't stop our hosts from breaking it down right when it came out!

Taking place almost 300 years in the past, Prey stars Amber Midthunder as a Comanche healer who must fight an otherwordly assailant! With few ties to the rest of the series, Prey represents a new direction for the Predator franchise as it nears its 40th anniversary!

Also in this episode: Pierre expounds on Predator lore by way of the previous movies, Jeff previews The People's Joker, and we talk about what makes a great parody movie!

Want to hear more about Prey? Friends of the show Calum McNab and Gisela Martinez recently talked about it on their show Scaretroducing! Check out their episode here!

Now that it's out, our hosts are going to talk about it! Tune in as Pierre and Jeff go through every element of this ensemble mystery-train-action movie!

Also in this episode: Jeff gushes about Agatha Christie, and the value of twist-endings!

Though it's since been eclipsed by a few episodes, Apocalypse Now! was at the time our longest episode, and remains a favourite among our hosts!