With her new film Lucky Star making its Toronto premiere at the Reel Asian film festival this Saturday, writer-director Gillian McKercher is here to celebrate Pietro Marcello’s muscular adaptation of Martin Eden, which galvanized the festival circuit five years ago but was lost in the first wave of COVID. Your genial host Norm Wilner didn’t expect this episode to be as timely as it is, but there you go.

Since Lauren Collins is starring in the new Crave series My Dead Mom – and since the US election is all anyone can think about right now – here’s her 2015 episode on Gillian Robespierre’s breakout comedy Obvious Child, the one where Jenny Slate plays an aspiring Brooklyn standup trying to build a set while dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. Your genial host Norm Wilner really hopes America holds itself together this week.

With his sci-fi drama The Becomers landing on Blu-ray today, writer-director Zach Clark closes out his October horror viewing with Jack Hill’s unquantifiable family study Spider Baby. Your genial host Norm Wilner wonders whether it truly is The Maddest Story Ever Told.

With his short film The Light Before the Sun making its world premiere at the Hamilton Film Festival this Saturday, October 26, actor and director Michael Greyeyes is here to talk about his newfound passion for Wong Kar-Wai’s 2000 romance In the Mood for Love. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting so long for someone to pick this one, you guys.

As their found-footage horror movie It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This continues rolling through theaters, filmmakers Rachel Kempf and Nick Toti drop by to talk about their love for Eli Roth’s Hostel, and make the case for the film being a lot more thoughtful than people gave it credit for. Your genial host Norm Wilner is willing to hear them out.

With her first feature Compulsus opening across Canada this Friday – just as her second film, Lakeview, rolls through the festival circuit – writer-director Tara Thorne stops by to salute Lorene Scafaria’s 2019 true-crime picture Hustlers, in which Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez play exotic dancers who exploited their patrons right back. Your genial host Norm Wilner still doesn’t understand how the Oscars overlooked that one.

He faces off against hard-partying puppets in Steven Kostanski’s new comedy Frankie Freako, but right now Conor Sweeney is here to get very serious about his love for Ridley Scott’s genre-defining 1979 masterpiece Alien. Your genial host Norm Wilner can’t believe it took somebody nine and a half years to pick this one.

With her new drama The Arrival freshly available on digital and on demand, producer-director Alyssa Rallo Bennett is here to explore the slow-rolling dread of Sam Esmail’s 2023 drama Leave the World Behind. Your genial host Norm Wilner stocked up on bottled water before the recording, just in case.

With his paranormal thriller Succubus hitting DVD and digital next week, writer-director RJ Daniel Hanna stops in with a film that somehow no one’s picked in over 500 episodes: Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Your genial host Norm Wilner is really glad he did.

His debut dramatic feature Shook makes its world premiere at TIFF this Saturday, but first Amar Wala is here to celebrate Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, the 2019 indie hit that spins an emotionally complex tale of generational culture clash -- and lets us see Awkwafina in a whole new light. Your genial host Norm Wilner hopes to see you at the Festival.

His first feature Doubles is available on digital and on demand today, so writer-director Ian Harnarine steps up to celebrate Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come, the movie that introduced reggae to the world and made Jimmy Cliff an even bigger star than he already was. Your genial host Norm Wilner is here for the celebration.

His exquisite folk-horror film All You Need Is Death is on digital and on demand in the US and making its way to Canada, so writer-director Paul Duane drops by to sing a love song to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s groundbreaking 1997 thriller Cure. Your genial host Norm Wilner is a little nervous about listening too closely.

Her new drama Good One is in US theaters now and opening in Canada this Friday, so writer-director India Donaldson is here to discuss Archipelago, Joanna Hogg’s 2010 drama about a family struggling to enjoy a weekend together. Your genial host Norm Wilner is just so happy someone finally picked one of Joanna Hogg's movies.

With his new thriller Cuckoo creeping into theaters this Friday, writer-director Tilman Singer joins us from Berlin to unpack his love for David Lynch’s 1997 identity-crisis nightmare Lost Highway. Your genial host Norm Wilner still gets the shivers when he remembers that one moment. No, the other one.

With her new series Poly is the New Monogamy freshly landed on Hollywood Suite, actor, producer, writer and director Cat Hostick is here to tackle Ari Aster’s sunlit creeper Midsommar -- you know, the one where Florence Pugh goes on a European vacation. Your genial host Norm Wilner isn’t going anywhere near that big stuffed bear.

Before his charming new film Bookworm opens Montreal’s Fantasia Festival on Thursday, producer and director Ant Timpson spends an hour discussing his love for Cornel Wilde’s 1965 survival thriller The Naked Prey. Your genial host Norm Wilner can see where he’s coming from.

Juno-winning comedian and actor Dave Merhege – who co-stars opposite Daisy Ridley in Rachel Lambert’s affecting new drama Sometimes I Think About Dying – is here to praise the manic commitment of Robert Pattinson in Josh and Benny Safdie’s white-knuckle drama Good Time. Your genial host Norm Wilner is totally on board with this, as long as no one gets hurt.

With her new film Valley of Exile opening across Canada this Friday, July 5th, writer-director Anna Fahr is here to discuss a lost masterwork of Iranian cinema: Bashu, The Little Stranger, Bahram Beyzai’s 1986 drama about an orphaned child and the woman who takes him into her home. Your genial host Norm Wilner hates that this story is still relevant four decades later.

Actor Ryan Ali, who stars in the drag dramedy Queen Tut – freshly streaming on Crave in Canada – takes on Good Grief, the movie Daniel Levy made after Schitt’s Creek came to an end. Your genial host Norm Wilner wishes everyone a happy Pride.

Actor Shayelin Martin, who stars as determined teen surfer Goat in Caitlyn Sponheimer’s first feature Wild Goat Surf, now available on digital and on demand, is here to celebrate the comfort – and singing! – of Mamma Mia!, the 2008 Abba jukebox musical and international smash. Your genial host Norm Wilner has always admired Pierce Brosnan in this one.

Now that his first feature Before I Change My Mind has arrived on digital and on demand, writer-director Trevor Anderson takes a little time to celebrate Pedro Almodovar’s madcap 1987 neo-noir Law of Desire. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting a long time for somebody to pick another Almodovar movie.

Before her first feature I Used to Be Funny rolls out to theaters across North America this Friday, June 7th, writer and director Ally Pankiw (Schitt's Creek, Black Mirror, Terrific Women, Feel Good) takes a moment to celebrate the candy-colored act of subversion that is Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont's Josie and the Pussycats. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting years for this.

As his radical slasher film In a Violent Nature lumbers its way into theaters across North America, writer-director Chris Nash steps up for the very specific chills of The Eclipse, Conor Mcpherson’s 2009 ghost story starring Ciaran Hinds as an Irish widower who finds himself drawn to a writer at his village’s annual literary festival despite being literally haunted by horrific visions. Your genial host Norm Wilner is glad he avoids most festival parties.

With her new documentary Wilfred Buck rolling into theaters across Canada, filmmaker Lisa Jackson is here to lose herself in the forests of Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning 2001 fantasy about a little girl who braves a supernatural world to rescue her parents. Your genial host Norm Wilner makes sure he never eats at an enchanted buffet.