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Josh Olson shares his top 10 movies from his favorite movie year, 1992, with Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Star Wars (1977)

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

After Dark, My Sweet (1990)

The Last Of The Mohicans (1992)

Thief (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Manhunter (1986) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Last Of The Mohicans (1936)

The Player (1992) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Popeye (1980)

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Quintet (1979)

​HealtH (1980)

Come Back To the Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)

Secret Honor (1984)

The Graduate (1967) – Neil Labute’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Touch Of Evil (1958) – Howard Rodman’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Dead Alive a.k.a. Braindead (1992) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary

Meet The Feebles (1989) – Mike Mendez’s...

You’ve asked questions. Prepare for the answers.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

The Beguiled (1971)

Tenet (2021? Maybe?)

Smokey Is The Bandit (1983)

Robin Hood (2010)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

The Devils (1971)

Song of the South (1946)

Gremlins (1984)

Dillinger (1973)

Marcello I’m So Bored (1966)

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Big Wednesday (1978)

Swamp Thing (1982)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Payback (1999)

Bell, Book And Candle (1958)

Blowup (1966)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Medium Cool (1969)

25th Hour (2002)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Palm Springs (2020)

Groundhog Day (1993)

Mandy (2018)

The Sadist (1963)

Spider Baby (1968)

Night Tide (1960)

Stark Fear

Carnival of Souls (1962)

The Devil’s Messenger (1961)

Ms. 45 (1981)

Léolo (1992)

The Howling (1981)

Showgirls (1995)

Green Book (2018)

The Last Hurrah (1958)

The Best Man (1964)

Advise and Consent (1962)

The Candidate (1972)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Seven Days In May (1964)

The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

The Man (1972)

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

Four Lions (2010)

Pump Up The Volume (1990)

Nightmare In The Sun (1965)

The Wild Angels (1966)

The Omega Man (1971)

The Nanny (1965)

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man...

The Canadian film industry produces numerous blockbuster features, as well as popular TV series, in an entertainment business mostly financed by Us Hollywood studios:

Some notable 'Hollywood North' movies produced over the years include "2012", "X-Men: The Last Stand", "Man of Steel", "Star Trek Beyond", "Tron: Legacy", "Titanic", and "I, Robot", all filmed in Vancouver, with "Kick-Ass" and "Suicide Squad" shot in Toronto.

But truly 'Canadian' movies, produced and directed by Canadian film-makers, are not as well known around the world as their Us counterparts. Is it because the Canadian government investing tax dollars into properties, insist their films be representational 'art', while Hollywood films only care about profit ?

Chances are, you will never see a slot machine based on "Jesus of Montreal", or "Goin' Down The Road"...

...while Hollywood's "Terminator" and "Jurassic Park" movies have popped @ the 'Royal Vegas Online Casino' as slot games. 

The Royal Vegas, just like Hollywood,...

The Canadian film industry produces numerous blockbuster features, as well as popular TV series, in an entertainment business mostly financed by Us Hollywood studios:

Some notable 'Hollywood North' movies produced over the years include "2012", "X-Men: The Last Stand", "Man of Steel", "Star Trek Beyond", "Tron: Legacy", "Titanic", and "I, Robot", all filmed in Vancouver, with "Kick-Ass" and "Suicide Squad" shot in Toronto.

But truly 'Canadian' movies, produced and directed by Canadian film-makers, are not as well known around the world as their Us counterparts. Is it because the Canadian government investing tax dollars into properties, insist their films be representational 'art', while Hollywood films only care about profit ?

Chances are, you will never see a slot machine based on "Jesus of Montreal", or "Goin' Down The Road"...

...while Hollywood's "Terminator" and "Jurassic Park" movies have popped @ the 'Royal Vegas Online Casino' as slot games. 

The Royal Vegas, just like Hollywood,...

Léolo

Directed by Jean-Claude Lauzon

Canada, 1992

Jean-Claude Lauzon’s semi-autobiographical Léolo is not for the squeamish. This isn’t horror, blood and guts stuff. It’s a film with a smell and a texture.

Leo Lauzon (Mazime Collin) lives in a crowded Montreal apartment with his largely insane family, but spends most of his time in his imagination as the Sicilian Leolo Lozone, bizarrely conceived by a tomato, and entirely in awe of the world around him.

Léolo is obsessed with body parts and secretions. There’s an emphasis on liquids, fecal matter, and colossus bodies. Characters eat, things squish and slide. It’s a mélange that sometimes verges on the uncomfortable, but is always tangible – it has the feeling of concrete memory, not the stuff of distant nostalgia.

One bit of Léolo’s voiceover sums the film up nicely: “I was always divided by me desire to vomit and my desire to jerk off.

Everything old is new again. Berthed from the initial goal to both restore and digitize over 200+ films in Quebec’s rich cinema of the past (e.g: Jean-Claude Lauzon’s Léolo – see pic above), Quebecor’s Éléphant ClassiQ is now moving into larger steel-trap memories of French film history and culture. I spoke to Gérald Duchaussoy, Project Manager for a new film fest initiative/event that’ll take place in Montreal in mid November, one that serves up a plate of restored classic French films from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Africa and Quebec — all with English subtitles.

Eric Lavallée: Film preservation and restoration is a serious business and now we have several silent film festivals, Il Cinema Ritrovato, TCM, Grand Lyon joining the ranks Cannes Classics in serving a public need. I was wondering what kind of recent trends you’ve notice and what is your take on why this has...

Sophia Loren named guest of honour and Kieslowski returns to Cannes Film Festival. No 35mm prints to be screened for the first time.

The Cannes Classics line-up of film masterpieces, presented in restored prints, has been announced. The programme comprises 22 features and two documentaries, screened in either 2K or 4K. But for the first time no 35mm print will be screened at Cannes Classics “with regret for some or with celebration for others”, according to a statement.

Guest of honour will be Sophia Loren, who won the award for Best Actress at Cannes in 1961 and was president of the jury in 1966. She will be present at the screening of La Voce Humana (2014), directed by Edoardo Ponti, which marks her return to movies.

That same evening, a 4K restoration of 1964 film Marriage Italian Style (Matrimonio all’italiana) by Vittorio De Sica will be screened.

Loren has also accepted to give a masterclass - a conversation which will take...

The Fantasia International Film Festival held its annual press conference this morning at the Cinémathèque Québécoise in downtown Montreal, hosted by many of the regular festival programmers and planners, among them general directors Marc Lamothe and Mitch Davis, who both represent the heart and backbone of the event, Isabelle Gauvreau, director of Québec short films programming, Simon Laperrière, director of the ‘Camera Lucida’ selections and King Wei-Chu and Nicolas Archambault, directors of Asian programming, just to name a few.

A few of the major announcements from the first few waves were reiterated, such as Takashi Miike’s Shield of Straw as the opening film and Edgar Wright’s The World’s End as the closing movie. One previously unmentioned bit of tantalizing information shared with the press this morning is that in addition to director Edgar Wright hosting, so will co-star Nick Frost!

More details were revealed concerning the Fantasia-Festival...

The full Fantasia 2013 lineup will be announced next Tuesday, July 9th, but in the meantime we have the second wave of titles to share, and per usual, it's a doozy!

From the Press Release:

Following last week’s first wave of programming announcements, the Fantasia International Film Festival is proud to unveil several additional highlights to warm you up for our July 9th Press Conference, where we’ll be unveiling of our full 120+ film lineup. The festival runs from July 18 to August 6.

Official Opening Night Film – Takashi Miike’s Shield Of Straw (North American Premiere)

Hot off its screening in official completion at the Cannes Film Festival, Takashi Miike’s riveting crime thriller Shield Of Straw will be kicking off Fantasia’s 2013 edition with its first screening on the North American continent. Shield Of Straw stars Takao Osawa, Nanako Matsushima, and Tatsuya Fujiwara. Fantasia’s 1997 screening of Fudoh marked the...

From the press release:

Following last week’s first wave of programming announcements, the Fantasia International Film Festival is proud to unveil several additional highlights, before their July 9th Press Conference, where they’ll be unveiling the full 120+ film lineup!

Official Opening Night Film – Takashi Miike’s Shield of Straw

(North American Premiere)

Hot off its screening in official completion at the Cannes Film Festival, Takashi Miike’s riveting crime thriller Shield of Straw will be kicking off Fantasia’s 2013 edition with its first screening on the North American continent. Shield of Straw stars Takao Osawa, Nanako Matsushima, and Tatsuya Fujiwara. Fantasia’s 1997 screening of Fudoh marked the first time that a Miike film had ever been shown in North America, making it all the more joyous to open our 2013 festival with his latest work.

Extensive Artist Talks with Bryan Singer and Simon Boswell

Fantasia will once again offer audiences...

Last week we shared the first group of films and events slated for this year's Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, the largest genre-themed film festival on the planet. In addition to dozens of film entries, many of which are making their world premieres at Fantasia, there will also be some major one-of-a-kind events at the fest, the first of which you can read about in our previous update. But now, here's the latest crop of films and events added to Fantasia's schedule: Official Opening Night Film: Takashi Miike’s Shield of Straw (North American Premiere) This is the second time Miike has chosen Fantasia to debut a film in North America at this fest; the last was Fudoh in 1997. Rated X: A Night with Bryan Singer The acclaimed genre director will engage the audience in an hour-long discussion on his films, career and the genre in general, moderated by Fangoria veteran Tony Timpone.

Le Monde and Le Figaro are among the French papers reporting on the death of Julien Guiomar on Monday at the age of 82. Among the first roles mentioned in nearly every story are his Colonel Vincent in Jean-Marie Poiré's Papy fait de la résistance (Gramps Is in the Resistence, 1983) and his Commissaire Bloret in Les Ripoux (My New Partner, 1984) and Jacques Tricatel in L'Aile ou la Cuisse (The Wing and the Thigh, 1976), both directed by Claude Zidi. International audiences will probably know him best as the Colonel in Costa-Gavras's Z (1969); that same year, he played a Spanish priest in Luis Buñuel's The Milky Way. He also worked with Jean-Paul Rappeneau, André Téchiné, Claude Sautet and Jean-Claude Lauzon. All of the French obits mention Guiomar's deep background in the theater and his popular performances in television comedies.

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In honor of Canada Day, we are republishing this post -- Ranylt's first on the site -- from Canada Day 2007.

July 1 is Canada Day, so while my compatriots are busy painting themselves red and perfecting their Maenadic howls in time for tonight's fireworks, I've been tasked with offering up a list of ten nifty Canadian films that are mostly off the radar outside of this country (and I throw my arms around you in delight if you're a foreigner who's actually seen any of these--French kisses for anyone who appreciates them, to boot).

Many readers seem familiar with Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter and Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire. And David Cronenberg's body of work needs no introduction thanks to The Fly, Naked Lunch, Scanners, Crash (the other Crash!) and Videodrome. As unnatural as it is to omit Egoyan, Arcand and Cronenberg from a Canadian film overview,...