Feel nostalgic for cans of 35mm film and eating in restaurants as comedian and actor Andy Kindler (Raising Dad, Bob’s Burgers, the Thought Spiral podcast) steps up for The Big Picture, Christopher Guest’s 1989 comedy starring Kevin Bacon as a promising young director who discovers the last thing Hollywood wants him to do is make art. Your genial host Norm Wilner still wishes the Pez People had released an album.

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This week, actor and writer Jess Salgueiro — of Letterkenny, Workin’ Moms, The Boys, Mouthpiece, I’ll Take Your Dead and most recently Canadian Strain, now available on digital in Canada — drops in to talk about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the 1975 Milos Forman drama where Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher faced off in a mental institution, and everybody won Oscars for their trouble. Your genial host Norm Wilner hopes everyone is safe and sound this week, by the way.

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Canadian-born, London-based standup Mae Martin is the co-creator and star of the terrific new Channel 4 series Feel Good, which premieres in the UK tomorrow and lands on Netflix everyhere else on Thursday. And she’s here to celebrate the weird, wonderful world of The Rocky Horror Picture Show … and to reveal a personal connection to Jim Sharman’s 1975 midnight classic. As it turns out, your genial host Norm Wilner remembers the sequel a lot more clearly.

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For our fifth anniversary, we’re in London with writer-director-producer Marie Clements (The Road Forward, Looking at Edward Curtis), whose new film Red Snow opens in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa this Friday, March 13th. And she’s there to stand up for Paul Haggis’ Crash, the 2004 ensemble drama about race and class in America that became the Oscar winner everyone loved to hate. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to help her correct this injustice.

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With his first feature Run This Town opening across the US and Canada this Friday, March 5th, writer-director Ricky Tollman drops in to discuss the existential questions — and unexpected belly laughs — lurking within Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure. Your genial host Norm Wilner is braced for the avalanche.

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Writer-director Albert Shin, whose new thriller Disappearance at Clifton Hill opens in theatres this Friday in the US and Canada, would like to direct your attention to Memories of Murder, the 2003 South Korean procedural that established Bong Joon-ho as one of the most interesting and versatile filmmakers of the new millennium. Your genial host Norm Wilner is not kidding about that assessment.

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His debut feature Nose to Tail is now playing in Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary, so writer-director Jesse Zigelstein is here to raise a glass to Sideways, Alexander Payne’s 2004 drama about two friends on a trip to wine country — and who, before it’s over, will face their own personal spit buckets. Your genial host Norm Wilner is fine with merlot, just for the record.

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Actor and podcaster Lara Jean Chorostecki (Hannibal, X Company, Designated Survivor) co-stars with Aaron Abrams in the indie Nose to Tail, which opens in Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary this Friday, February 14th. Which makes it the perfect time to discuss the subtle perfection of Elsie Fisher’s performance — and writer/director Bo Burnham’s piercing attention to detail — in Eighth Grade. Your genial host Norm Wilner was so sure he was ready for this.

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With the Oscars just days away, Toronto filmmaker Sami Khan — whose St. Louis Superman is up for Best Documentary Short — takes a break from the awards circuit to talk about the landmark American drama Daughters of the Dust, and how writer-director Julie Dash’s evocative study of people dealing with a shared trauma influenced his own work (and Beyoncé’s). Your genial host Norm Wilner was delighted for the opportunity to revisit the film.

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Actor JC MacKenzie — currently battling monsters in October Faction and corruption in The Irishman, both of which are streaming on Netflix right now — takes a run at Sam Mendes’ 1917, the single-take WWI drama that’s muscled its way to the head of the Oscar pack. Your genial host Norm Wilner, being a big fan of editing, might need some convincing.

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