This week, we're heading down to the basement with no regard for our own well-being as an impromptu theme emerges from our weeks-long run of perfect pictures and Masterpiece Month continues with 2007's Zodiac, directed by David Fincher, written by James Vanderbilt, and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Edwards, Chloë Sevigny, Elias Koteas, John Carroll Lynch, Brian Cox, Philip Baker Hall, Dermot Mulroney, Donal Logue and Charles Fleischer. It's very much a movie about obsession, the irresistable pull of a puzzle, and has a compelling case as Fincher's best movie. Watching it now, it's almost an ill omen for the cultural obsession with true crime content and podcasts in the years since, but this one manages to explore its gruesome crimes in a way that doesn't feel gratuitous or exploitative -- a tough needle to thread.

If you'd like to watch Zodiac before listening to our discussion, it is currently streaming on Paramount+.

Other works discussed on this episode include Knives Out, Glass Onion, Mank, Citizen Kane, The Killer, Spy, The Heat, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Identity Thief, A Simple Favor, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Accountant, Twilight, Saint Maud, Ren Faire, The Idea of You, Kissing Jessica Stein, Friends With Kids, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Everybody Wants Some!!, Dazed and Confused, Nope, Evil, The X-Files, the music of Maggie Rogers, Summer of Sam, Fight Club, Se7en, Alien3, The Social Network, Panic Room, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Spotlight, Prisoners, Hustle, Iron Man, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Oppenheimer, Succession, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Devs, Twister, Mr. Show, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Boston Strangler, Cold Case Files, Forensic Files, I'll Be Gone In The Dark, and Accepted, among others.

We'll be back next week to wrap up Masterpiece Month with the Wachowskis' magnum opus on what it means to create art under capitalism as we step behind the wheel with Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci and Matthew Fox in 2007's Speed Racer -- a movie that is sadly not available for streaming in Canada currently. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!