With her latest movie Code 3 on digital and on demand this Friday, December 19th, actor Aimee Carrero is here to celebrate Mike Nichols’ (and Elaine May’s) 1996 version of The Birdcage, with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane as a gay couple trying to trick the conservative parents of their son’s fiancee into thinking they’re a nice, normal couple – which, of course, they are. Your genial host Norm Wilner wishes Gene Hackman had done more comedies.

With his critically beloved debut drama Eephus now on VOD and streaming on Mubi, writer-director Carson Lund stops in to share his love of Monte Hellman’s Two-Lane Blacktop, the existential cross-country race drama with James Taylor, Dennis Wilson and Warren Oates that confounded and enthralled audiences in 1971. Your genial host Norm Wilner is all about the momentum, man.

In 1974, Just Jaeckin’s Emmanuelle marked a turning point for adult cinema ... but not every territory welcomed it with open arms. With his new documentary Emmanuelle in Ontario included on Severin Films’s brand new Saga Erotica: The Emmanuelle Collection boxed set, journalist and filmmaker Eric Veillette joins your genial host Norm Wilner to discuss the film and its very Canadian controversy.

Documentarian Tasha Hubbard, whose first dramatic feature Meadowlarks opens across Canada this Friday, November 28th, credits Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone – the 2010 drama that introduced the world to Jennifer Lawrence as an Ozark teenager trying to save her family from ruin by finding her vanished father – as one of the reasons she became a filmmaker. Your genial host Norm Wilner is here to find out why.

Film critic and author Barry Hertz, whose new book Welcome to the Family unpacks the history of the Fast & Furious movies, is here to talk about Fast Five, the beloved 2011 chapter where director Justin Lin introduced Vin Diesel and Paul Walker to a whole new level of motorized mayhem – and supercharged the franchise. Your genial host Norm Wilner can’t really argue with the choice.

Writer-directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese, whose animated sci-fi comedy Lesbian Space Princess is in theaters now, step up for Raja Gosnell’s 2004 live-action sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed – which, your genial host Norm Wilner is surprised to discover, holds up pretty well two decades later. 

Actor Guillaume Marbeck plays Jean-Luc Godard in Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, so he has a unique perspective on Godard’s revolutionary first feature Breathless – which, it just so happens, Nouvelle Vague is all about. Your genial host Norm Wilner cannot thank Winnie Wong enough for coming up with this concept.

Writer-director Bryn Chainey, whose eerie debut Rabbit Trap is ideal Halloween viewing, is here to talk about the Jonathan Miller’s 1968 BBC adaptation of M.R. James’ Whistle and I’ll Come to You, which launched a British tradition of televised ghost stories – and still holds a disquieting power. Your genial host Norm Wilner suggests you listen to this episode in a very dark room.

Bryan Fuller created the cult TV shows Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies and Hannibal, among others, and his delirious first feature Dust Bunny plays the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival this Thursday, October 23rd. And he’s here to explore Philip Kaufman’s brilliant reinterpretation of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting a long time for this one.

With his historical drama Vindication Swim rolling into US theaters this Friday, October 17th, writer-director Elliott Hasler is here to swash some buckles for Gore Verbinski’s 2003 blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl – the movie that made him want to be a filmmaker at the age of four. Really. Your genial host Norm Wilner has done the math on this.