We continue our yearly tradition of breaking down the Best Picture nominees and the odds they have to win each of their categories. On the first episode of the series we talk about The Banshees of Inisherin , The Fabelmans and Top Gun: Maverick . We label each nomination as Frontrunner, Dark Horse, Longshot and Just Happy To Be There. Joining the show is Jeff Bulmer and Pierre Frigon, the hosts of the Classic Movies Live podcast who were last heard on episodes Better Know a Contributor - Pierre ...
Feb 06, 2023•2 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 37
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's A Most Violent Year directed by J.C. Chandor. The film stars Oscar Isaac as a man in 1981 New Jersey who is on the precipice of controlling a building to expand his natural gas empire while the world around him is crumbling. His wife, Jessica Chastain, supports her husband, but has her own secrets too. Joining the show is Todd Pengelly critic at For Reel . Our double bill pairings inc...
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Season 8Ep. 36
With the Oscar nominations announced just yesterday, Rachel and Dakota react to who is up for the industries highest honours. We discuss the lack of surprises and domination of the same ten films in just about every category, early favourites and more. The Oscars will be handed out on March 12th 2023, but along the way we will have plenty of great Oscar content, including breaking down each Best Picture nominated film along with all their other nominations, predictions of who we think will win a...
Jan 25, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 8Ep. 35
On this bonus episode, I am sharing my interview with Benjamin Belloir, director of the new film Beautiful Stranger for the Academy of Death Racers Festival. Beautiful Stranger is a queer short about a man who experiences a sudden break up and decides to try his luck on a dating app despite his hesitations. I was asked to film a Q&A with Benjamin to appear alongside the film's screening. Feel free to either watch the movie first or to listen to the interview here beforehand. To watch Beautif...
Jan 16, 2023•30 min•Season 8Ep. 34
We are back from our holiday break and it's time to start looking back on the year 2022! We discuss some of the biggest news stories that dominated the film world. We look at how horror movies were dominating the box office (Scream 5, X, Pearl, Men) and some reinventing how word of mouth works (Terrifier 2), how RRR became a global phenomenon, the DC Films reshuffling and cancellation of projects, the Don't Worry Darling drama and much more! Read a timeline of the DWD drama . Follow Rachel on Tw...
Jan 09, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Season 8Ep. 33
It's our last show of 2022! Last year we decided to have some fun by playing a fun little game, you can check out 177: This or That to see how Rachel tortured Dakota into Sophie's Choicing his movie opinions. Rachel is back with another fun game, but to face off against Dakota we have Matthew Simpson from the Awesome Friday podcast. Rachel "created" a game where she looked up popular actors and filmmakers on Letterboxd and asked the guys what the four Most Popular films were in their filmographi...
Dec 20, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 8Ep. 32
It's finally here! With the release of the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound Great Films of all Time poll came out on December 1st, and the discourse has been nonstop since then. Everyone has put out their thoughts and opinions and we decided to weigh in as well! Dakota and Rachel react to the official list. They also polled nearly 80 critics and industry professionals to submit their own list. We reveal our own ballots, the Contra Zoom Pod Top 10, and discuss some interesting stats and f...
Dec 12, 2022•1 hr 57 min•Season 8Ep. 33
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's The Captive directed by Atom Egoyan. The film stars Ryan Reynolds who even eight years after his daughter was kidnapped he still maintains hope. Rosario Dawson and Scott Speedman play the detectives trying to track down the young girl. Joining the show is Matthew Simpson, host of Awesome Friday and last heard on episode 212: 2022 VIFF Wrap Up. Our double bill pairings include You Were...
Dec 05, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Season 8Ep. 32
Back on November 26th 1942 the movie world was changed with the release of the Michael Curtiz directed Casablanca . The film appears on lists such as the IMDb Top 250 , the Letterboxd Top 250 Narrative Features , AFI's 100 Years 100 Movies and the 2012 Sight & Sound Critics Poll . The film won Best Picture, Director and Screenplay at the 1944 Oscars. It is beloved the world over with a stacked cast that includes Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Peter...
Nov 28, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 8Ep. 31
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's Revenge of the Green Dragons directed by Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo. The film stars Justin Chon and Kevin Wu as two young men in a Chinese gang, The Green Dragons, in the early 90's in New York. Joining the show is Rose Ho , one third of The Asian Cut (alongside Rachel and Alisha Mughal). Our double bill pairings include Goodfellas (Dakota), Gook (Rachel) and Dragonball Evolution (Rose...
Nov 14, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Season 8Ep. 30
It's Noir-vember again and we are back with another great film noir themed show! This year The Criterion Channel has a collection of 20th Century Fox produced films and we look at three of the movies showing. Joining the show is critic Alisha Mughal, who was last heard on episode 197: David Cronenberg and Body Horror . We discuss Fallen Angel directed by Otto Preminger, Call Northside 777 directed by Henry Hathaway and Panic in the Streets directed by Elia Kazan. Listen to last year's noir theme...
Nov 07, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Season 8Ep. 29
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's Laggies directed by Lynn Shelton. The film stars Kiera Knightly as a woman who faces a quarter century crisis and runs away from her life to stay with a high schooler played by Chloë Grace Moretz. Joining the show is Kattie Laur and Mark Allin, Kattie is a writer for Pod the North and producer on Alpaca My Bags while Mark is a musician and host of former movie podcast Videophilia. Our...
Oct 31, 2022•1 hr 35 min•Season 8Ep. 28
It's our annual Halloween special! This year we are looking at three versions of the Nosferatu story in preparation of Robert Eggers version coming next year. When the Bram Stoker estate wouldn't grant F.W. Murnau the rights to film Dracula in 1922, he made his own version and changed the names making Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie Des Grauens (A Symphony of Horror) starring Max Schreck. In 1979 Werner Herzog remade the film with Nosferatu the Vampyre starring Klaus Kinski. Then in 2000 E. Elias Merh...
Oct 24, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Season 8Ep. 27
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's Tusk directed by Kevin Smith. The film stars Justin Long as a podcaster who travels to Winnipeg, Manitoba and decides to interview a former sailor, Michael Parks, who had lured Wallace in hopes of performing a grotesque surgery on him. Joining the show is Nathan Sizemore, one third of the I Hope You Suffer podcast who was last heard on episode 128: Fright Flicks . Our double bill pair...
Oct 17, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 8Ep. 26
While Rachel got to have her fun covering TIFF, those of us on the west coast got to enjoy the Vancouver International Film Festival. Joining the show is Matthew Simpson, one half of the Awesome Friday Podcast , who was last heard on episode 211: A24 Retrospective - The Rover . We're trying something new, both Contra Zoom and Awesome Friday are releasing the same episode, so you can listen to the show either on this feed or theirs! We each rank our top five films seen during the VIFF. Matthew's ...
Oct 11, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Season 8Ep. 25
In lieu of a full episode this week, we bring you the sixth 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 Pierre Frigon, one half of the Classic Movies Live podcast. Rachel and Pierre talk about how originally he and his CML co-host Jeff Bulmer were rivals, how he's never seen Jaws (the same answer Jeff gave on his episode), why he struggle...
Oct 03, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 8Ep. 24
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's The Rover directed by David Michôd. The film stars Guy Pearce as a man tracking down a group of thieves that stole his car in post apocalyptic Australia. He finds Robert Pattinson, the brother of one of the thieves left for dead and uses him to find the group. Joining the show is Matthew Simpson, the host of the Awesome Friday podcast who was last heard on the show back on episode 200...
Sep 26, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Season 8Ep. 23
Rachel Ho continues to captain the CZP ship as she recaps the Toronto International Film Festival. Joining her is Prabhjot Bains, a writer for Tilt and Exclaim! as they talk about the highs, lows and complexities of the fest. They talk about The Whale, My Policeman, The Menu, The Banshees of Inisherin, Brother and The Fabelmans. They also give brief mentions to Aftersun, Triangle of Sadness, Empire of Light, All Quiet on the Western Front and Causeway. Read Rachel's reviews for The Whale and Bro...
Sep 19, 2022•1 hr 31 min•Season 8Ep. 22
Rachel Ho flies solo for the first time as she interviews two directors whose films were playing at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. First up is the Anthony Shim , who made the Canadian-Korean drama Riceboy Sleeps about a single mother who is struggling to raise her son as new immigrants to Canada. They talk about struggling to find the right actors for the roles, why music was the key to writing the film and having the nicest press kit ever. The second interview was with John Ba...
Sep 13, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 8Ep. 21
Back on episode 151: Hot Docs 2021 , Rachel and Dakota reviewed a ramen documentary called Come Back Anytime . They both fell in love with the gentle and warm doc about Master Masamoto Ueda who is not only a great ramen chef, but also a community leader in his neighbourhood in Tokyo. Director John Daschbach is an American that lives in Japan and became a regular at the shop and decided to make a documentary about the noodle king. We get in depth on how to best capture food on film, how Abbas Kia...
Sep 05, 2022•33 min•Season 8Ep. 20
With the Toronto International Film Festival just around the corner, running from September 8-18th, we decided to preview what movies we are most excited about. Dakota's picks include Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story , The Good Nurse , Triangle of Sadness and Wendell and Wild . Rachel's picks include Stellar , Viking , Brother and The Banshees Of Inisherin . They both are very excited for Decision to Leave so that made their lists. They also share a few honourable mentions. Look for more great TI...
Aug 29, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 19
Two years ago on episode 85: All Things MCU , we talked about all the big announcements for Marvel post Infinity Saga. Now that most of the movies and TV shows talked about then have come out, it's time to look ahead again. During this year's Comic Con, Marvel announced the slate for Phases 5 and 6, now being called the Multiverse Saga. Joining the show to talk about upcoming films Captain America: New World Order, Thunderbolts, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars along with the TV shows ...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Season 8Ep. 18
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2014's Obvious Child directed by Gillian Robespierre. The film stars Jenny Slate as an aspiring stand up comedian who gets dumped and in her grief has a one night stand that ends up with her getting pregnant while the rest of her life is collapsing around her. Joining the show is Stephanie Prior, CZP's fantastic graphic designer, who was last heard on episode 188: 2022 Oscar Predictions . Ou...
Aug 15, 2022•53 min•Season 8Ep. 17
With Montreal's Fantasia Festival wrapping up, we look back at one of the premiere genre film festivals. We discuss several films we saw including the opening night selection Polaris, Skinamarink, Baby Assassins, My Small Land and Topology of Sirens. Listen to our interviews with KC Carthew, director of Polaris and Berkley Brady, director of Dark Nature on episode 203: Fantasia Fest Interviews - Polaris and Dark Nature Directors . Read Dakota's reviews for Polaris , Baby Assassins , Topology of ...
Aug 08, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 8Ep. 16
Fantasia Festival is still going on, but we had the chance to interview two directors who had their films screening at this years fest! First up both Dakota and Rachel chat with KC Carthew, the director of Fantasia's opening night film Polaris , afterwards Rachel goes solo as she talks to Berkley Brady the director of Dark Nature . Read Dakota and Rachel's reviews of Polaris and Sara Clements review of Dark Nature . Follow Rachel on Twitter and check out her website for more great reviews. Liste...
Aug 01, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 8Ep. 15
Dakota and Rachel share their picks for their top five movies of the year so far and a few honourable mentions! Dakota's picks were After Yang, The Batman, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Top Gun: Maverick and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Rachel's picks were Ambulance, Apples, Ashgrove, Cha Cha Real Smooth and Fire of Love. Read Rachel's contributions to That Shelf's best movies of the year list. Follow Rachel on Twitter and check out her website for more great reviews. Listen to ...
Jul 25, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Season 8Ep. 14
We return with coverage of this year's Toronto Japanese Film Festival which showcases the finest Japanese films that are often getting either Canadian or International premiere's, giving audiences a chance to finally see the best movies coming out of Japan. We covered the festival last year on 155: Toronto Japanese Film Festival . On this show we talk about Midnight Swan (which won Best Film at the 2021 Japanese Academy Awards), The Pursuit of Perfection , It's a Flickering Life (2022 Best Film ...
Jul 18, 2022•59 min•Season 8Ep. 13
For our special 200th episode Dakota and Rachel decided to look back at films that made them the movie watchers they are today. From fond early moviegoing memories to the first time they were challenged to what made them want to be a critic. They picked five films each and got some voicemails from friends of the show who wanted to share their picks! Dakota's picks: The Birds/North By Northwest, The Shawshank Redemption, 12 Angry Men, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Great Beauty. Rachel's picks: The Lion...
Jul 11, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 8Ep. 12
For the last two year's for my birthday I've dedicated the podcast to celebrating some of my all time favourite movies! In 2020 there was 114: 30 Films in 30 Years and in 2021 it was 157: Best Films Through the Decades . Returning after being on last year's birthday special is Bil Antoniou, last heard on episode 189: 2022 Oscar Recap . We go through ten different film genres and name our favourite films from each of them! See our picks below (Dakota's first, then Bil's)! Comedy: What We Do in th...
Jul 04, 2022•1 hr 48 min•Season 8Ep. 11
In our third "A History Of..." series after the success charting the rise of NEON , A24 Films and The Criterion Collection we are looking at Laika Studios, a film studio that has revitalized the art of stop motion animation. The studio put out its first film in 2009 with Coraline and since then have released five Oscar nominated movies including Kubo & the Two Strings and ParaNorman. We trace their roots of the studio and how they grow out of another groundbreaking studio. Watch the Will Vin...
Jun 27, 2022•58 min•Season 8Ep. 10
