On today’s episode of Someone Else’s Movie, I’m joined by Semi Chellas — an Emmy-nominated, Gemini-winning writer-producer who made her directorial debut last year with the 70s drama American Woman.

And she picked a movie that’s nothing like hers at all — Chloe Zhao’s The Rider, a drama about a young cowboy named Brady trying to rebuild his life after a devastating head injury.

The character is not too different from the actor who plays him — Brady Judreau was injured in exactly the same way as his character, and his fictional father and sister are played by his real ones — but there are other elements to Zhao’s construction that are entirely invented, and the way The Rider navigates that boundary is something Semi found enthralling, though I had a little more trouble with it on first viewing.

We talk about that disconnect, and why it doesn’t necessarily matter, in a conversation I think you’ll enjoy. Come and listen! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher and get the episode immediately, or download it directly from the web.

And then go listen to today’s new NOW What, in which Eric Kostiuk Williams tells me about the weekly pandemic comic strip he’s been writing and drawing for the paper … and why he’s stepping back from it for a bit. That’s good too!

Also, since it’s almost July, check out our Netflix and Crave look-aheads, and maybe you’d also like to take a look at the list of ten great recent queer films I wrote for NOW over the weekend.

I write a lot of lists.

Hey, look! A Friday post! And why did I remember this week? Because I’ve released a special bonus episode of Someone Else’s Movie today, and you need to know about it!

Why a bonus episode? Because it’s a little smaller and a little less polished, and with a long weekend coming up I figured I should shower y’all in delicious audio content. So please enjoy Oscar-nominated filmmaker and absolute legend Agnieszka Holland on Andrei Tarkovsky’s eerie masterwork Stalker.

We only had twenty minutes, but we went surprisingly deep. Find it at all the usual spots: Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher and get the episode immediately, or download it directly from the web. It’s worth it!

(Also, Agnieszka’s new film Mr. Jones is available on demand right now and it’s pretty intense.)

And feel free to dig into all the other stuff I’ve put out this week, including today’s very special Pride episode of NOW What and  reviews of CBC Gem’s Queens, Netflix’ new documentary Disclosure and Jon Stewart’s risible Irresistible.

I also wrote things about TIFF’s 2020 reformulation and Netflix acquiring the bulk of the Studio Ghibli catalogue, which would also offer a very nice way to pass the time this weekend. And don’t skip over Only Yesterday or When Marnie Was There; they’re not as well-known as the Totoros or the Mononokes, but they’re pretty wonderful in their own quiet way.

Anyway, that’s my week. More on Tuesday, you’ll see.

One thing I’ve discovered interviewing people for an audio format rather than for print is the performance aspect of the conversation. You have to work to balance your guest’s energy, which can be difficult when you’re not in the same room. (Thanks a bunch, coronavirus.)

On this week’s episode of Someone Else’s Movie, though, that was not a problem at all, because Stealing School writer-director Li Dong and I have exactly the same level of love for the feature he chose.

He picked Steven Soderbergh’s delightful reinvention of Ocean’s Eleven, which sent us on a bounce around the entire trilogy and a few other projects from my favorite American filmmaker. And we ended up having a really great time; hopefully you’ll get a little bit of a contact high while listening.

You know how this goes. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher and get the episode immediately, or download it directly from the web. And then you can catch up to all the other things I’ve done over the last seven days:

• New NOW What episodes! I talked to U of T epidemiologist Susan Bondy about the risks of reopening movie theatres, and in today’s episode NOW’s own Sadaf Ahsan talks me down from the residual freakout while discussing how the pandemic is screwing with our heads.
• Hot Summer Guide recommendations for movies and television coming soon
• Yet another NOW VOD calendar, and expanded reviews of Perry Mason and 7500

I work a lot, you know.

I frequently pitch Someone Else’s Movie to potential guests by explaining that the podcast is evergreen: Because movies don’t change, a given episode can be just as relevant in five years as it is today. That’s a feature, not a bug.

In this case of this week’s episode, though, it’s a depressing truth: Spike Lee’s masterpiece Do the Right Thing hasn’t aged a day in the 31 years since its release, because white cops keep killing Black people.

Aisling Chin-Yee, whose first feature The Rest of Us is available on digital and on demand today, was more than willing to dig into that ugly reality, and into the film itself. I’m really glad she picked this, although I’m also deeply, deeply angry that literally nothing has changed about its subject matter.

Give it a listen. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher and get the episode immediately, or download it directly from the web. And then get ready to roll through the other stuff I’ve done over the past week:

• three episodes of NOW What, including my last Hot Docs episode featuring a conversation with Ali Weinstein, director of #Blessed and producer of Lulu Wei’s There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace; a look at the Toronto vegan restaurateur who’s looking to break Uber Eats’ stronghold on delivery apps, and a discussion of the rush to reopen child care in Ontario
• a thing for this week’s Hot Summer Guide about the renewed cultural importance of drive-in theatres
• yesterday’s story about Cineplex preparing to reopen its megaplexes across Canada, which seem like a terrible idea
• the latest installment of NOW’s weekly VOD calendar, and expanded reviews of Artemis Fowl, The King of Staten Island and Lenox Hill

That feels like plenty, right? And yet somehow there’s more to come.