Contra Zoom Pod

Hey everyone, this is the debut episode for our brand new film podcast Contra Zoom! Hosts Dakota Arsenault and Andreas Babiolakis take on a massive project of watching every Best Picture winner throughout the Academy’s history! They start with the first ten winners from 1927-1937. At the end of the rankings the guys give awards to the best of the best (so far!)...

This week Dakota Arsenault and Andreas Babiolakis talk about the Toronto Screenwriter’s Conference, a yearly get together where the greatest script writers, show runners, executives and others talk on a professional level to attendees who are writers themselves. We also have two great interviews with David S Goyer and Mara Brock Akil...

This week Dakota Arsenault and Andreas Babiolakis turn the tables a bit regarding subject matter and discuss a play called Mr. Burns a Post Electric Play (you’ve probably seen the posters all around subway stations). Instead of just talking about the play the guys discuss methods of telling stories and how telling tales is a human ritual...

In this episode Dakota and Andreas review the new Marvel movie Avengers: Age of Ultron and then rank all 11 Marvel Cinematic Universe films from worst to best. The discussions touch upon casting, scripts, direction, themes and execution...

For this week’s episode Dakota and Andreas discuss the finale for Mad Men and what the series as a whole meant to them and the landscape of television. The landmark show just finished its seven-season run back in May and the guys have had some time to digest what happens. They talk about their favourite characters and some of the best moments on the show...

This week we started a new feature where Live in Limbo’s mastermind Sean Chin joined us to talk about his three favourite movies.

– Shawshank Redemption

– 2001: A Space Odyssey

– A.I. Artificial Intelligence

The bottom five of our countdown is the following. Dakota’s ratings come first followed by Andreas’

10. How Green Was My Valley 2.5/10 5/10

9. Going My Way 4/10 6/10

8. Mrs. Miniver 7/10 7/10

7. Gone With the Wind 7...

Continuing on from our Best Picture Winner decade-by-decade breakdown from last week’s part 1 Dakota Arsenault and Andreas Babiolakis count down the top five films of 1938-1947. 

– Dakota recommends that you read the bio and trivia on actor John Garfield

Here is a link to our bottom five in this decade’s Best Picture Winner’s

Dakota’s ratings come first followed by Andreas’

5. Gentleman’s Agreement 7.5/10 8/10

4. You Can’t Take It With You 8...

Your hosts Dakota Arsenault and Andreas Babiolakis were lucky to enough to see a screening of Rebecca hosted by the legendary film director Guillermo del Toro while he was in town to host a lecture series based on Gothic Horror films. 

• For those not familiar with GdT’s filmography, check out Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, or the Hellboy films. 
• Back in 2012 GdT hosted a four part series about other Hitchcock works...

TIFF is in its 40th year.

Andreas and Dakota (mostly Andreas though) covered a bunch of TIFF films including Love, Stonewall, Lolo, Room and more. Check out their capsule reviews HERE...

On this episode the guys start talk about the third edition of their Best Picture Winners revisits. The years are 1948-1957 (the 20th– 29th Oscar winners). You can find Edition 1 here and Edition 2 here and Part 2 here. 

Dakota and Andreas talk about the history of HUAC (The House of Un-American Actives) and the Hayes Code both black marks on the history of Hollywood.

Sarah Rix’s favourite films

• Oceans Eleven
• Fantastic Mr...