Contra Zoom Pod

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2013's The Spectacular Now, directed by James Ponsoldt. The film is a coming of age romantic drama about Sutter, played by Miles Teller, who despite being popular has no direction in his life and showing signs of being a burgeoning alcoholic. He meets Aimee, played by Shailene Woodley, who seems to have her life together but isn't quite out going enough as she falls for Sutter. Joining Dakota and Rachel is Brodie Cotnam, a screenwriter and author. He wrote the book Reality TV and Crack: A User's Guide to an Utterly Useless Existence... and can be heard on The 4th Line Podcast.

Our double bill pairings include Edge of Seventeen (Dakota), 500 Days of Summer (Rachel) and The Way Way Back (Brodie).

If you haven't heard our deep dive into the origins of A24, listen to episode 108: A History of A24 Films and our last episode in this series 172: A24 Retrospective - The Bling Ring.

Follow Rachel on Twitter and check out her website for more great reviews.

Follow Brodie on Twitter. 

Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more!

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to [email protected] and we will send you free swag!

Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Our first director ranked episode since episode 134: David Fincher Ranked, we look at the films by Wes Anderson as we celebrate his tenth feature film release, The French Dispatch. Joining the show is Stephanie Prior, who was last heard on episode 162: Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2021. 

For more information on the rise of Wes Anderson and how he got his first film made, check out the You Must Remember This season of  Polly Platt the Invisible Woman.

Listen to Dakota guesting on Please Watch This as he talked about The Life Aquatic. 

Here are our rankings for Wes Anderson:

10. The French Dispatch

9. Bottle Rocket

8. The Grand Budapest Hotel

7. Isle of Dogs

6. Rushmore

5. The Royal Tenenbaums

4. Moonrise Kingdom

3. Fantastic Mr. Fox

2. The Life Aquatic

1. The Darjeeling Limited

We also gave out our own awards

Best Picture: The Life Aquatic (D), The Darjeeling Limited (S)

Best Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe - The Life Aquatic (D), Edward Norton - Moonrise Kingdom (S)

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett - The Life Aquatic (D), Tilda Swinton - The French Dispatch (S)

Best Actor: Adrian Brody - The Darjeeling Limited (D), Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel (S)

Best Actress: Olivia Williams - Rushmore (D+S)

Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more!

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to [email protected] and we will send you free swag!

Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Normally Make/Remake examines how two films that share the same story. Not to say what film was better or worse, but how they are similar and different while following the same arcs. This time we are looking at the 1984 David Lynch version of Dune and the 2021 Dune directed by Denis Villeneuve. Check out our past Make/Remake's for more great comparison episodes. Sammy Feilchenfeld, last heard on Better Know a Contributor - Sammy Feilchenfeld, joins the show providing insight into how the two movies deal with the original source novel that he is a big fan of. 

Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more!

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to [email protected] and we will send you free swag!

Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

In lieu of a full episode this week, we bring you the fourth in our series of bonus episodes, Better Know a Contributor, where we ask frequent guests of the show 10 Contra Zoom Pod movie questions so you can learn more about your favourite voices. On this show is Calum Macnab, one half of the Scaretroducing Podcast. We talk favourite movies (The Shining and Mulholland Drive), favourite guest appearances (104: Make/Remake The Invisible Man and 93: Best Films of the Decade Part 1), last movie turned off (Spiral, but not the one you're thinking of) and more!

Follow Calum and his show Scaretroducing on Twitter and Instagram. 

Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more!

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to [email protected] and we will send you free swag!

Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Now that Spooktober is over, it's time to get dark and gritty with Noir-vember! Starting back in 2010 and coined by critic Myra E. Gates, every November movie lovers delve into the crime subgenre Film Noir. We make a top five list of our favourite noir films, but do so based on certain criteria. 

Classic Era Noir - The Maltese Falcon (Dakota's pick), Night and the City (Rachel's pick)

New Hollywood Noir - Chinatown (Dakota's pick), A Better Tomorrow (Rachel's pick)

New Neo Noir - Devil in a Blue Dress (Dakota's pick), Who Killed Cock Robin? (Rachel's pick)

Comedy Noir - The Big Lebowski (Dakota's pick), The Kid Detective (Rachel's pick)

A Different Kind of Noir - Blade Runner (Dakota's pick), Breathless (Rachel's pick)

Check out Rachel's website for more great reviews and follow her on Twitter.

Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more!

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to [email protected] and we will send you free swag!

Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2013's The Bling Ring, directed by Sofia Coppola. The movie is a rich kids gone bad, as bored Hollywood teens decide to start robbing celebrities they see on TV all the time. We talk about whether the film is style over substance and how well Emma Watson plays bad. Joining Dakota and Rachel is Naomi Wada Platt, a YouTuber who often covers Japanese culture and politics in both English and Japanese language videos, who was last heard on episode 155: Toronto Japanese Film Festival.

Our double bill pairings include Rififi (Dakota), Set It Off (Rachel) and Ocean's 8 (Naomi).

If you haven't heard our deep dive into the origins of A24, listen to episode 108: A History of A24 Films and our last episode in this series 169: A24 Retrospective - Spring Breakers. 

Check out Rachel's website for more great reviews.

Follow Naomi on Twitter and Instagram.

Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more!

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to [email protected] and we will send you free swag!

Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Our yearly Halloween special is back! Back in 2010 Mark Gatiss coined the term "Unholy Trinity" in his BBC documentary series A History of Horror, in regards to three seminal British folk horror movies, a subgenre that gained popularity in the late 1960's and beyond. The three films were 1968’s Witchfinder General, 1971’s The Blood on Satan’s Claw and 1973’s The Wicker Man. We first heard the term "Unholy Trinity" back when we watched Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, a documentary about the history of folk horror that we covered on episode 145: SXSW Film Festival 2021.

Witchfinder General 14:00-28:30

The Blood on Satan's Claw 31:00-42:30

The Wicker Man 43:00-1:03:00

For more information on the Unholy Trinity, check out this article from Film School Rejects. 

Check out Rachel's website for more great reviews and follow her on Twitter. Read Rachel's interview for The Last of The Right Whales.

Check out and subscribe to Box Office Watch on Spotify and follow them on Twitter.

Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more!

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to [email protected] and we will send you free swag!

Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

On this episode we wrap up the 2021 edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival. Joining the show to talk about movies watched is Thomas Stoneham-Judge, the Editor-in-Chief of ForReel Movie News and Reviews. 

Belfast 11:00-19:00 Read Dakota's review.

Red Rocket 19:30-30:00 Read Dakota's review.

Official Competition 30:00-39:00

Benediction 39:00-47:30 Read Dakota's review.

Drive My Car 49:00-52:30

Memoria 52:30-1:04:30 Read Thomas' review.

All My Puny Sorrows 1:04:30-1:10:00 Read Dakota's review.

Check out our preview episode 167: Vancouver International Film Festival Preview 2021.

Watch Thomas' own festival wrap up!

Follow Thomas on Twitter and Instagram and ForReel on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Check out and subscribe to Box Office Watch on Spotify and follow them on Twitter.

Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more!

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to [email protected] and we will send you free swag!

Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode, 2012's Spring Breakers, directed by Harmony Korine is on the docket. The film had some stunt casting bringing in teen starlets Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson putting them in bikinis and watching them act like bad girls opposite James Franco doing a riff on the rapper Riff Raff and the directors wife Rachel Korine who rounds out the quartet of young women. 

Our double bill pairings include Taxi Driver (Dakota's pick) and Wild Things (Rachel's pick). 

If you haven't heard our deep dive into the origins of A24, listen to episode 108: A History of A24 Films and our last episode in this series 159: A24 Retrospective - The Green Knight. 

Check out Rachel's website for more great reviews.

Check out and subscribe to Box Office Watch on Spotify and follow them on Twitter.

Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more!

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to [email protected] and we will send you free swag!

Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

After having such a great time covering last year's Cinefest Sudbury, it was a must to return to this Norther Ontario film festival. Last year it was digital only, this year they went to a hybrid model like so many other film festivals. We look at a few films we both saw and some short films seen too. 

Wildhood 6:30-15:30 Read Dakota's review and Rachel's review.

Drunk Bus 15:30-27:30 Read Dakota's review and Rachel's review.

Shadowtown 29:00-41:30 Read Dakota's review and Rachel's review.

Shorts 41:30-48:30 Read Rachel's reviews.

Check out Rachel's website for more great reviews (including Learn to Swim as seen at Cinefest) and follow her on Twitter.

Check out and subscribe to Box Office Watch on Spotify and follow them on Twitter.

Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more!

Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to [email protected] and we will send you free swag!

Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.