I’ve been trying to get Bruce McDonald for an episode of Someone Else’s Movie  ever since I first conceived of the podcast — and it shouldn’t have been this hard, he lives like five minutes away and we run into each other in the neighborhood at least once a month.

But he works a lot, which I can’t really fault him for doing, so every time we came close to locking down a session he’d have to run off to shoot something. It took a pandemic to get our schedules to line up, mostly because there’s literally nothing else to do.

And you know what? I’m not sorry. Because Bruce — who’s doing an at-home press tour for his new film Dreamland, arriving on VOD Friday — picked Quadrophenia, the undefinable mods-and-rockers fantasia from The Who that became an unlikely midnight-movie in the 80s despite having almost none of the qualities a midnight movie is supposed to have. (As we discuss in the episode, it’s like a Ken Loach film intermittently disrupted by musical montages.)

And that made for an awfully enjoyable conversation, which I think you’ll like if you can bear down through the occasional Zoom audio garble. Still haven’t quite figured this whole remote-recording thing out, I guess.

So give it a listen!  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher and get it immediately, or download the episode directly from the web.

And don’t forget to check out the latest episode of NOW What while you’re at it; I talk to Hot Docs director of programming Shane Smith about the festival’s decision to take itself online this year, and what that might mean for future editions.

Speaking of Hot Docs, I made some recommendations if you’re trying to sort through the program. But it’s just a sliver of what’s available, so dig deeper. You’re sure to find something that grabs you.