We wrap up this year's Toronto International Film Festival by talking about the big hits and misses, our favourite films and the award winners. Joining the show to help us break it all down is Jeff Bulmer, one half of the Classic Movies. Jeff also contributed some festival movie reviews to Contra Zoom. The films we review include: The Holdovers , Woman of the Hour , Dream Scenario , Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person , Hit Man and Motherland . See the full list of award winning ...
Sep 18, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 9Ep. 23
In lieu of a full episode this week, we bring you the ninth 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 Bil Antoniou, the host of the Bad Gay Movies Podcast and authoring of the monthly Criterion Shelf column (a column Dakota often contributes to as well). Dakota and Bil talk about the legacy of Yasujirō Ozu and Tokyo Story, whether or ...
Sep 11, 2023•51 min•Season 9Ep. 22
The 2023 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will run from September 7-17th and we are here to preview our picks for the movies we are most excited about. Dakota's Picks: Evil Does Not Exist , Hit Man , Poolman , Woman of the Hour and Zone of Interest . Rachel's Picks: The Boy and the Heron , The Critic , Dumb Money , Knox Goes Away and The Pigeon Tunnel . It was announced a few weeks before the festival that Bell will not return as the title sponsor next year. Stay tuned for a lo...
Sep 04, 2023•49 min•Season 9Ep. 21
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2015's Slow West directed by John Maclean. The film stars Kodi Smit-McPhee as Jay a teenager from Scotland who comes to the wild west in search of the young girl he's in love with. Michael Fassbender plays Silas, a mysterious man who agrees to help guide Jay across the plains with questionable motivations. Joining the show is Jericho Tadeo, The Asian Cut's Critic at Large. Our double bill pa...
Aug 28, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Season 9Ep. 20
On August 16th 1977 Elvis Presley died, marking the 46th anniversary of his untimely passing. Currently The Criterion Channel has a 6 movie collection available to stream. We discuss three of the films, King Creole , Wild in the Country and Viva Las Vegas . We talk about Elvis' acting abilities, how his music is incorporated and whether or not his movies deserve a reevaluation from the film community. Read Rachel's interview with Steve Binder, the director of the famous 1968 comeback special on ...
Aug 21, 2023•1 hr 31 min•Season 9Ep. 19
For the third year in a row we are covering Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival, which celebrates the best in horror and genre cinema with an emphasis on international movies. We review A Disturbance in the Force: How The Star Wars Holiday Special Happened , Talk To Me , river , With Love and a Major Organ and Sometimes I Think About Dying . We also have some honourable mentions including Where The Devil Roams , Baby Assassins 2 Babies and It Lives Inside . Watch Dakota's interview with the filmma...
Aug 14, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 9Ep. 18
Fantasia Festival is still going on, but we had the chance to interview two sets of directors who had their films screening at this years fest! First up is Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor, the directors of Satan Wants You a documentary about the start of the Satanic Panic. Second is Toby Poser, John, Zelda and Lulu Adams the team behind Where the Devil Roams , about a murderous carnie family during the Depression Era. Read Dakota's review of Satan Wants You from Hot Docs earlier this year, and hi...
Aug 07, 2023•43 min•Season 9Ep. 17
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2015's Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland. The film follows Oscar Issac as a billionaire tech CEO who invites his employee, Domhnall Gleeson, to administer a Turing Test. The subject is Ava, played by Alicia Vikander, a robot that may or may not have human consciousness. We have Canadian writer and director Jeremy LaLonde , best known for films such as Ashgrove and James vs His Future Self ...
Jul 31, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 9Ep. 16
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 1951 film The Day The Earth Stood Still directed by Robert Wise and the 2008 remake also called The Day The Earth Stood Still directed by Scott Derickson. Check out our past Make/Remake 's for more great comparison episodes and see the Letterboxd list. Watch Brodie's short film The Gift ...
Jul 24, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Season 9Ep. 15
A few weeks ago CBC released a poll conducted by them where industry professionals and critics voted to help make a list of The 50 Greatest Films Directed by Canadians . Both Dakota and Rachel voted on the list, with Rachel even writing in praise of the #6 movie Crash. Joining the show to talk about the list and who they also voted for is Matthew Simpson and Taylor Beaumont. Listen to episode 45: Canadian Filmmakers where we discuss a similar subject. Check out Taylor's massive list of great Can...
Jul 17, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Season 9Ep. 14
It is Dakota's birthday week, and we continue the trend of picking a category and choosing our favourites from it. In 2020 there was 114: 30 Films in 30 Years , in 2021 it was 157: Best Films Through the Decades and in 2022 it was 199: Best Films by Genre . This year we are naming our 10 favourite films by language. We cover four specific languages, one country, two regions and three wildcards! We name both our picks and runners-up. See our picks below (Dakota’s first, then Rachel’s)! French: In...
Jul 10, 2023•1 hr 46 min•Season 9Ep. 13
For the 3rd year in a row we cover the Toronto Japanese Film Festival and talk about movies we saw. They include Plan 75 , BL Metamorphosis , Roleless , and Father of the Milky Way Railroad . Read Jericho Tadeo's original review of Plan 75 when it was screened at TIFF last year on The Asian Cut . Both Dakota and Rachel participated in CBC's The 50 Greatest Films Directed by Canadians and Rachel wrote in support of the #6 film, Crash. Check out past episodes covering TJFF including 201: 2022 Toro...
Jul 03, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 9Ep. 12
In lieu of a full episode this week, we bring you the eighth 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 Paulo Bautista, a man who wears many hats but some of the podcasts he hosts include the Oscars Death Race Podcast , Box Office Watch , Filmography in Focus , Yet Another Anime Podcast and Into the Aether Vortex . Dakota and Paulo talk ...
Jun 26, 2023•51 min•Season 9Ep. 11
We're a little over halfway through 2023, so we decide to look at the best films of the year so far! Our titles are listed alphabetically, so they are not in order of our rankings. We also share our honourable mentions that just missed the cut! Dakota's Top 5 BlackBerry Renfield Satan Wants You Scream 6 Showing Up Rachel's Top 5 BlackBerry John Wick: Chapter 4 Past Lives Retrograde Riceboy Sleeps Listen to Classic Movies Live review BlackBerry. Listen to past episodes 238: Most Anticipated Movie...
Jun 19, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Season 9Ep. 10
It's June, which means it is Pride Month! Bad Gay Movies is one of my favourite podcasts and love hearing Bil Antoniou talk about gay themed movies, but I wanted to hear his thoughts on movies that are actually good. We decided to focus on movies that were influential to Bil as he was coming of age. We discuss Madonna: Truth or Dare , Jeffrey and Clueless . Listen to our last Pride themed episode 112: Celebrating Queer Cinema . Read Examining the Politics of Madonna's 'Truth or Dare,' 30 Years L...
Jun 12, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 9Ep. 9
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2015's Cut Bank directed by Matt Shakman. The film stars Liam Hemsworth and Teresa Palmer as a couple who accidentally film the murder of their small town mailman. Once John Malkovich, the towns sheriff, starts to investigate the crime, things suddenly start not appearing as they seem. Joining the show is Daniel Grant, one half of the Spoiled Rotten podcast a fellow That Shelf show. Our doub...
Jun 05, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 9Ep. 8
Now that all the limited releases of 2022 have come out and we are past the winter studio dumping grounds, it is time to look at what movies are coming out the rest of this year. Both Dakota and Rachel pick 6 movies each that have confirmed release dates and discuss why they are so excited for them. Dakota's picks: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse , Asteroid City , Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One , Barbie , Next Goal Wins and Kraven the Hunter . Rachel's picks: Past Lives , Elem...
May 29, 2023•1 hr 36 min•Season 9Ep. 7
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2015's While We're Young directed by Noah Baumbach. The film stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a couple who hit their mid-life crisis and meet young hipsters played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried who re-energize them. Joining the show is Bil Antoniou host of the Bad Gay Movies podcast. Our double bill pairings include The Darjeeling Limited (Dakota) and Being Julia (Bil). See our comp...
May 22, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 9Ep. 6
The first James Bond film Dr. No was first seen outside the United Kingdom in May of 1963. We celebrate the 60th anniversary of the film franchise by revisiting the seminal action movie directed by Terrence Yonge and starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress and Joseph Wiseman. After we discuss the movie we look back at the franchise as a whole including our favourite Bond actors, best theme songs and overall best movies. We then look ahead to who we want to play James Bond now that Daniel Craig is ...
May 15, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Season 9Ep. 5
The 30th edition of the Hot Docs festival that celebrates the best new documentaries just concluded in Toronto. We discuss the films Satan Wants You, July Talk: Love Lives Here, I’m Just Here For The Riot, A Still Small Voice, Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun and The Mountains. Joining the show is Courtney Small a critic who runs the publication Cinema Axis and who's work can also be read at That Shelf and POV Magazine among others. Read Dakota's reviews of Satan Wants You , July Talk...
May 08, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Season 9Ep. 4
It is Contra Zoom Pod's 8th anniversary! To celebrate we decided to do a best of the year episode, from before CZP started! Our first best of the year show was 2015 ( 20: Top 10 Films of 2015 ) so we are going back in time to 2014. This show was inspired by Dakota's blog post Best of 2014 . Listen to Better Know a Contributor - Dakota Arsenault to learn more about the history of the podcast. Dakota's Top 10 10. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 9. Edge of Tomorrow 8. Wild 7. Whiplash 6. The Grand...
May 01, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 9Ep. 3
The Canadian Screen Awards just handed out awards for the best in film, television and web content. We look at the big winners in the film portion which included Brother dominating with 12 wins, Crimes of the Future with 2 wins and Alice, Darling , Viking , I Like Movies , Riceboy Sleeps and Falcon Lake each winning 1 award. We also named our top five Canadian films from last year! Dakota's Top 5 Brother Ashgrove Crimes of the Future Viking Riceboy Sleeps Rachel's Top 5 Riceboy Sleeps Brother Sk...
Apr 24, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 9Ep. 2
We continue our series going through the entire catalog of A24's films. On this episode we are looking at 2015's Son of a Gun directed by Julius Avery. The film stars Ewan McGregor as a bank robbery who takes a young man under his wing while in prison. Once on the outside the young man decides to join McGregor's crew as they attempt to rob a gold factory in Australia. Joining the show is Simon Best, one half of the Awesome Friday podcast. Our double bill pairings include Heat (Dakota), The Man F...
Apr 17, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Season 9Ep. 1
Now that the Oscars are done, we can officially flip the calendar on the 2022 movie year. Dakota and Rachel each name their ten favourite films from last year and get some help with some voicemails from friends of the show! Special thanks to Calum MacNab from Scaretroducing (Nope), Paulo Bautista from the Oscars Death Race Podcast (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Jeff Bulmer from Classic Movies Live (Babylon) and Bil Antoniou from Bad Gay Movies (TÁR) for sending in voicemails. Dakota's Top ...
Mar 27, 2023•2 hr 4 min•Season 8Ep. 44
After dedicating much of the last two+ months to the Academy Awards, we finally have reached our finish line. The 95th Oscars awarded Everything Everywhere All At Once Best Picture an 6 other awards. All Quiet on the Western Front was the other big winner of the night as well. Joining Dakota and Rachel to recap the winners, review Jimmy Kimmel and discuss everything that happened during the show is Todd Pengelly critic at For Reel and last heard on episode 224: A24 Retrospective – A Most Violent...
Mar 13, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 8Ep. 43
We have another fun bonus episode and if you are either a Spotify or YouTube subscriber you'll also get the video for this show. Brodie Cotnam and Alex Watson join Rachel and Dakota as they have an Oscar Draft. Now you're probably wondering what an Oscar draft is, an idea inspired by the now defunct excellent show First Round Flick , basically you pick a movie nominated at the Oscars and for every award it gets that gets the picker one point. Whoever has the most points, wins! Dakota's Team Baby...
Mar 09, 2023•29 min•Season 8Ep. 42
We finished going through all the Best Picture nominees over the last month and it's time to put our money where our mouths are. Dakota and Rachel run through all the categories and pick who they want to win and who they think will win. This isn't all the great Oscar coverage as in a few days a bonus video podcast will go up where we do an Oscar draft, and there will also be another If We Were Oscar Voters blog post where we share our snubs. Listen to 225: Oscars 2023 – Top Fabelmans of Inisheri...
Mar 06, 2023•1 hr 46 min•Season 8Ep. 41
We continue our yearly tradition of breaking down the Best Picture nominees and the odds they have to win each of their categories. On this show we discuss All Quiet on the Western Front , TÁR , Avatar: The Way of Water and Triangle of Sadness . We label each nomination as Frontrunner, Dark Horse, Longshot and Just Happy To Be There. Joining the show is Kyle Garzon, hosts of the podcast Once Upon a Time at the Oscars a show where every week he review's a different Best Picture nominated film. St...
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Season 8Ep. 40
We continue our yearly tradition of breaking down the Best Picture nominees and the odds they have to win each of their categories. On this show we discuss Everything Everywhere All At Once , Elvis and Women Talking . We label each nomination as Frontrunner, Dark Horse, Longshot and Just Happy To Be There. Joining the show is Paulo Bautista host of the Oscars Death Race Podcast and John Richards the owner of Red Carpet Rosters . Stay subscribed in order to see the rest of our Oscar content this ...
Feb 20, 2023•1 hr 47 min•Season 8Ep. 39
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 1952 Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru starring Takashi Shimura and the 2022 British remake Living directed by Oliver Hermanus and starring Bill Nighy. Check out our past Make/Remake 's for more great comparison episodes and see the Letterboxd list. Follow Rachel on Twitter , bookmark The Asian Cut an...
Feb 13, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 8Ep. 38
