Someone Else's Movie

Screenwriter, producer and now author Aaron Barnett – whose 30th anniversary novelization of Matthew Bright’s cult thriller Freeway is available this Sunday, August 30th, from Echo On Publications – is here to celebrate Phil Joanou’s State of Grace, a magnificent mob thriller that got steamrolled by Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas in September 1990. Your genial host Norm Wilner has room in his heart for both of them.

As his new series American Hostage makes its way towards a world premiere at TIFF, actor, comedian and makeup effects artist Aaron Merke stops in to talk about The Ladykillers – the original 1955 Ealing Studios comedy where Alec Guinness and a crew of wrong’uns plot the perfect heist, only to be foiled by a little old lady. Your genial host Norm Wilner is impressed by how much ground we cover in this one.

Her new documentary The Art of Adventure is now available on VOD and streaming on Hollywood Suite in Canada, so filmmaker Alison Reid drops by to share her love for Jon Avnet’s 1991 drama Fried Green Tomatoes. Your genial host Norm Wilner is still trying to figure out why his preview audience rejected it so violently.

With his aristocratic comedy Savage House now available on digital and on demand, writer-director Peter Glanz is here to venture into the depths of Joel and Ethan Coen’s unquantifiable Hollywood nightmare Barton Fink. Your genial host Norm Wilner is already quite well-acquainted with the life of the mind, thank you.

As her first feature A Safe Distance rolls towards its Canadian premiere at Fantasia on Thursday, director Gloria Mercer is here to make sure Robert Altman’s Thieves Like Us is held in the same regard as all his other ‘70s classics. Your genial host Norm Wilner can’t really find a flaw in that argument.

With his directorial debut The Outer Threat opening across Canada today, veteran producer William Woods steps up for M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, the follow-up to The Sixth Sense that dared to imagine a different kind of superhero movie. Your genial host Norm Wilner is curious to see where this goes.

With his eerie Rose of Nevada enthralling audiences across North America, and opening in Toronto, Vancouver and Hamilton this Friday, Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin is here to make the case for John Milius’ Big Wednesday – the personal epic starring Jan-Michael Vincent, William Katt and Gary Busey as California surfers – as a lost masterpiece. Your genial host Norm Wilner is curious to see where this goes.

His new movie Best Boy follows three adult siblings locked in a deeply dysfunctional rivalry with one another, so it makes perfect sense that writer-director Jesse Noah Klein would want to tackle Thomas Vinterberg’s radical Dogme drama The Celebration, aka Festen. Your genial host Norm Wilner guarantees this episode was recorded entirely handheld.

To mark the release of a new boxed set of her cinema from Severin Films and Yellow Veil Pictures, writer-director Lucile Hadžihalilović joins us to investigate the looping mysteries and chilling implications of Alain Resnais’ avant-garde masterpiece Last Year in Marienbad. Your genial host Norm Wilner is sure he’s had this conversation before.

This week, writer-director Alex Noyer – whose folk-horror creepshow Love Is the Monster is newly available on VOD – asks whether Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead is a faithful remake of the George A. Romero classic, or something entirely new. Your genial host Norm Wilner is very interested in the answer.