I can’t believe I’ve been making Someone Else’s Movie for nine years now and this is the first time someone’s wanted to talk about Josie and the Pussycats. Or maybe I can, since Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont’s delightful 2001 satire still hasn’t received the respect it deserves.

Fortunately, Ally Pankiw is in the Pussycats’ corner. She loves it wholeheartedly, in fact, and was delighted to learn it was available for her episode of the podcast. And so we could talk about it the way she experienced it as a kid, a blot from the blue, and as an unlikely source of inspiration for her work writing Schitt’s Creek and directing that one episode of Black Mirror (“Joan is Awful”) and the first season of Mae Martin’s Feel Good.

(Ally’s new film, I Used to Be Funny, is also very good, and it starts rolling into theaters across North America this Friday. Don’t miss out.)

You can find the podcast at the usual locations — Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify — or download the episode directly from the web and listen to it while standing in line to buy whatever shiny new thing you suddenly want to own.

And speaking of Shiny Things, are you caught up on your reading? Last week, I covered the new releases of Kung Fu Panda 4 and Bob Marley: One Love, and the new 4K releases of Peeping Tom and American Sniper, two films that tell very different versions of the same unpleasant story. C’mon, subscribe already.

Also, given the uncertain publication schedule here, I should also let you know that next Tuesday, June 11th, is the date of the next See the North screening, and we’re featuring LIlies, an essential work of queer Canadian cinema now beautifully restored in 4K and presented in the company of director John Greyson and writer-star Michel Marc Bouchard. Tickets are still available — and free. Come on out, why don’t you?