Cinema On A Shelf

Collector Conversation with Dakota Arsenault (Contra Zoom)

• Matt • Episode 16

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In a little change of pace from the typical episode, Matt has invited his first guest onto the podcast! This is the first in a "Collector Conversation" series where he talks to different physical media collectors and aficionados about how they collect physical media, what sort of things interest them as collectors, and an quirks or special interests they may have relating to collecting. No two people collect the same way, and Matt hopes to explore that with this series.

For this inaugural episode, he sits down with Dakota Arsenault, host of the podcast and film review site Contra Zoom. He talks about how Arrow has become his favourite label to collect for, his current case replacement project, the sad state of availability of Canadian films on physical media, and much more.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

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Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

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Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Cinema on a Shelf, a podcast about movies and physical media. My name is Matt, and thank you for spending some time with me instead of watching a movie. I promise I will try to make it worth your time. Today's gonna be something a little bit new for Cinema on a Shelf, in that it's gonna be the start of a new little mini-series, sort of one uh one of many that I have going on the podcast so far. And this is going to be my first episode with a guest on the podcast. Um so the series that I'm gonna start doing here is called Collector Conversations. And I thought it would be kind of fun to invite some different people onto the podcast and have a bit of a conversation with them about collecting movies on physical media, because as I've talked about a lot of different times before, there's really no right and wrong way to collect movies. And everybody gets to kind of decide what they want to do and the things they're sort of interested in and how they want to collect, how much they want to collect, what they want to collect, and I thought it it'd maybe be kind of interesting to start to have a few conversations with different people about this. So for my first episode of this, I am gonna be talking with a fellow podcaster, Dakota Arsenal. We're gonna touch on a whole bunch of different uh subjects related to how Dakota collects movies, and um, without further ado, we'll get right to that conversation right now. So I guess I can start with uh saying welcome, Dakota, to the podcast. Thank you for uh for coming on and being my my inaugural guest in this little what I hope's gonna be a series.

SPEAKER_02

I always enjoy being a guinea pig, so thank you very much for for having me on. Uh it just means that this will be an episode I probably won't listen to. I love listening to your show, but I don't know how much I enjoy listening back to me talking, especially when you know you have to edit your own podcast and so you hear your voice enough.

SPEAKER_00

That that's fair. Yeah, I I completely understand with that one. I I I don't really scroll around my own episodes too much. So um yeah, I guess we can start off by um I'll give you a bit of the floor to maybe do a little bit of a self-introduction and um a bit about who you are and then maybe a little bit about um you know how movies are are part of your life.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, sure. Uh I I host a podcast called ContraZoom Pod. It is also a website, ContrazoomPod.com, where we also post written reviews. So the movie podcast aspect, I've been doing this. I'm just starting my 12th year now, which is insane to me that I've been doing it for this long. Uh over 300 episodes. I think uh by the time this comes out, we'll probably be at 334, which also is pretty mind-blowing. Um yeah, I it it's it's such a tough podcast to describe to get sort of give the elevator pitch to people. You know, I I just sort of use the tagline where we go back and forth about film uh because the episodes kind of range about everything, you know. We we cover film festivals, we cover Oscar season, we look back at movie anniversaries. Uh, I do a whole series where I'm going through A24's entire filmography. Right, yeah. It's kind of a little bit of everything. It's it's sort of whatever is you know interesting me at the time. Is there something in the news that I can tie in a little bit? I like if you're just a general movie fan, there's gonna be something for you. Maybe not every episode is gonna be for you, but there's gonna be enough interesting stuff that I think you're gonna be intrigued by. And then over on the website, website side of things, uh, I've got a terrific team of writers that uh write about films that review films. We do a great job with covering film festivals, so we do a lot of that. And uh recently we've been trying to get more into reviewing physical media. Um previously, you know, Sony had sent, has been sending me and one of our other writers, Jeff, uh, some copies of their films, but uh recently got involved with uh a company called Allied Vaughn, which uh is the parent company, I don't know, partner company of Moviesing, where you uh actually now are a contributor to the website reviewing physical copies and your your uh review has already gone up, T and Sympathy, and uh there'll be a few more coming in the next month and going forward as well.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, it's really exciting. It's been a fun uh I used to at one point in my life do a little bit of of uh like album music writing reviews. This is now 20 years ago or so. So it was kind of fun to to get back into doing a bit of of non-work related writing and uh some stuff about things I really am am enjoying. And I, you know, you reached out to me being a physical media podcast. I was like, hey, you interested in doing this? And um, we're both Canadian too and living on the same side of the country, so that may have that may have played a little factor too. Who knows? A little bit. Yeah, well, that's fair. That's um awesome. Well, that's great. And uh yeah, ContraZoom is a it it's a really fun, very uh diverse podcast as well. That was uh that was one of the things that struck me when I first started checking out a lot of your back catalog stuff that you're right, you can you can kind of go in and go, oh, this looks really interesting. And if it's like going through the A24 retrospective stuff, it's like, well, I haven't seen that yet, so I don't want to listen to that, but I'll go watch this one. Yeah, it's so it's it's really good with that. And I think it's it's fun to have a podcast like that where you're doing something that interests you because if you're if you're locked into something and you know, if you're doing nothing but Oscar race stuff, which I know you do as well with the Oscar Death Race stuff, um, but some years you get into the Oscar season and it's like boy, I don't like many of these at all. So it could be a little uh a little tougher for that. So but today we're talking a little more about the physical media stuff, as uh as you mentioned, and I think what I kind of want to do with this is have it really be just a kind of a conversation back and forth, talking a bit about um being a collector, which uh I know you you are as well, and talk a bit just about what what kind of interests you, how you got into it, how you do what you do with it, because this is the fun thing about this little hobby is uh everybody has their little quirks and niches about it, and it's always fun to hear about. So um, I guess maybe the first place to start is is to ask you about how long you've been collecting physical media for.

SPEAKER_02

So I was trying to think of that, and like back uh, you know, uh I I'm in my mid to late 30s, so you know I I've been around long enough where I had you know VHS at home, and yeah, as a as a kid, it was obviously a lot of Disney and stuff like that, uh kid-friendly material, and then whatever my mom had at the time. Um, and then got a DVD player at uh in the early 2000s, and so we we sort of got some DVDs, but it wasn't really until I was, you know, end of high school going into college that I started sort of collecting DVDs. Um HMV, which is mostly known as a music chain, was great for their um either like two for 20 or like four for 30 titles like that. So like I would I I would often pick up a lot of titles like that. Uh and then I I found myself moving around a lot and I and I sort of parsed down my collection sort of the bare minimum. And then it was only really in the last I would say six years or so that I've gotten back into it, um specifically getting you know nice boutique versions of Blu-rays, 4Ks, box sets, things like that that uh that really kind of shape my taste. Yeah. Um and then now sort of the emphasis on on making sure that like I'm I'm getting good versions. I'm not, you know, I I there's nothing I I have no issue with people that are like, you know, I just want to go thrifting and see what I can get. I've got several friends that like that's what they love to do, and yeah, don't really have the the space. So I am very specific in my curation of what I do buy. So it is very much so like is this like a very nice addition of something? Is this a you know a brand new restoration in 4K? Things like that. So I'm I am very specific about what I do buy these days just because of shelf constraints, basically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that is the uh the great dilemma. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh I no longer buy DVDs at all. Um I only own a handful still. Uh, and they're and they're mostly ones that sort of have sentimental value to me. Um whether they're specific additions. I have a couple small DVD box sets, things like that. Yeah. But it it's very minimum. I think it's like less than 20 now I have of DVDs.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, okay. Yeah. I I've been slowly paring down my own collection with it, just upgrading kind of where where I can, and there's certain things that I'm finding that that's tougher and tougher to do in certain ways of just it's either out of print or goes for a whole bunch on secondary markets if that's the case, or even just uh has never been released. Uh this is this is the the the beauty and the pain of the hobby, I guess, of finding what you like, but also not finding what you want to find as well. So um, so in in talking about that in in sort of curating the your collection the way you do, where do you mostly kind of go to find stuff? Are you doing a lot more online shopping? Are you doing some in-person stuff where you can?

SPEAKER_02

Uh it's mostly online shopping, just because I find um Canadian retailers, uh, unfortunate side effect is uh our Canadian dollar isn't as strong as the American one, so things automatically get priced differently. And then I also find that there's just too much of an upcharge where like I love supporting, you know, the local businesses, but when you're charging even with the conversion rate, you know, ten dollars more than what the American what what I could buy from directly from the American site, it makes it very difficult sometimes to to go that route, uh, unless it's either a used version or a used copy or something like that. Uh, because even the sales often don't do the same discounts as directly from either the boutique label themselves or American retailers like the Barnes and Nobles and things like that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. And it it used to be not always that way. Like I know at one time when when we were able to buy stuff from the Barnes and Noble sales, which right now they've been restricting it the last few years. But there used to be a time where the the Canadian dollar was was at par with the American dollar, and it was an absolute steal. In fact, even a couple of years I remembered it being slightly stronger, which was just hey, those were the days. Had I known.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, those are those are the days I grew up in Ontario where like you go down shopping to Niagara Falls and be able to spend so much more money and be like, well, let's just hit up all the outlets in Niagara Falls, Buffalo area, and uh and uh make it like bandits.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, and I mean that's a whole cottage industry. Yeah, not just there, but in a lot of places. I mean, where you are now, that's it's a big deal to it's very easy to to drive down to Seattle from where you are. And uh a lot of people do it, and uh, you know, maybe there's a little bit less traffic these days because of political reasons, but it's you know, that that's uh I think always a big thing. There's always people trying to figure out you were telling me a funny story about a a friend of yours that does live down south that you sort of had uh mewling Blu-rays for you at one point.

SPEAKER_02

A little bit, yeah. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna name any names because I don't want him getting flagged at the end. We're not narking on anybody. No, uh I but I am not the only one. Uh I currently have uh three criterion titles at his house uh from the from the last flash sale that went on.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, uh I've kind of long actually seen some of those services that do that where you can it's like the mail service to various border towns throughout parts of of the US that then they will like pay a little extra service to mail it from there up to Canada, which I I I've never actually done the math to know if it's cheaper in some cases. I maybe it would be. I know it would be cheaper for other physical media stuff. I think like records, they charge a lot to ship over the border, but movies, movies, I think you you pick and choose a little bit of where it's.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, uh like a site like Criterion, buying directly from them. Uh, I don't know if you find this, but they hit you real hard with uh with the duties uh when you're importing them. They seem to be the only one. I think it's because they use DHL, and I guess DHL under overestimates how much the duties are gonna cost. I don't know what it is, but like I I I try not to import directly from Criterion because of the duties.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I find the same thing. I I I find that at times I haven't gotten hit if it's a smaller order, you know. I having been a like been a channel member, sometimes you get those those gift codes in the in your email. And I I've done that some of the time where where I just order like one title if I'm really, really looking forward to it and using the code. I've had a few of those that haven't done with anything, so I think some of the smaller amount ones. Now that being said, I haven't done that in a little bit, and I know the the rules about the de minimis exemptions and things like that have changed with with shipping. So yeah, it's uh and the last time I did it, I just took the hit because I I quite literally used about 10 of my Criterion channel codes all at once. So one of the flash sales that I was just like, oh, this is gonna be worth it, it's fine. Yeah, um in in terms of that, and you mentioned Criterion. I think this is a something that anybody that's listened to me before knows I I love talking about boutique stuff. Um outside of Criterion, which it does sound like you you do have uh some of those in your collection. Is there any other sort of boutique labels that you are really interested in or have been collecting for or really enjoy collecting for?

SPEAKER_02

Um I I'm loving going deeper into Arrow's catalog. Uh I think sort of maybe overtaken Criterion is maybe my favorite label. I like Criterion, you know, it's it's the gold center. It's it's one of those things where you know they're they're so good and so popular, and they put out so many great titles, they're almost underrated again because you sort of forget just the impact and influence they have. Where, like, right, you know, if if if I was ever invited to go to the Criterion Closet, I'd be like the Safety brothers, you know, just absolutely stuffing their tote bags, multiple tote bags, all um so like it's it's funny where you're like you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Criterion is the best, but you know, I also really love these other labels, and it's it's it's a weird dichotomy in that regard. Uh Arrow has really sort of become my sort of go-to now. And uh the reasoning because is uh two years ago I did a podcast about uh Giallo films for my annual Halloween episode. Right. And uh that's become a huge obsession of mine. Um so I so I've now in in a span of I think 12 months, less than 12 months, I bought all five of the essential Giallo box sets from Arrow. Absolutely love them all, they're fantastic, and uh they have a bunch of other like individual releases as well, so now I'm slowly starting to like look at those. I'm like, oh okay, which ones do I want to kind of grab there? Uh I recently just for the Arrow sale, uh their Easter sale, got two Argento films.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, okay. Yeah. That the I'm thinking of the two is uh they've got Catanine Tales and Bird with the Crystal Plumage.

SPEAKER_02

Is that they also have deep red, so I didn't get Bird with the Crystal Plumage uh this time. Uh that'll be that'll be a a pickup next time, probably.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's an interesting one. Uh Giallo's a genre that I I I've like barely dipped my toes into. And I know there Arrow's one of the labels, so there's several labels that really go like full bore into the Giallo stuff. I mean uh Italian film is kind of rich in a lot of genres, but um yeah, they they do a really good job with that, and because horror is one that I like am still a super novice in, that uh but it always looked anytime you see stills or like uh you know videos or video essays that they're talking about Giallo, like they always look incredible.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, they they really do. Uh I believe it's Vinegar Syndrome has their forgotten Gialli box sets as well, which I'm sort of curious about, but like the price point is a little high, and the reviews that I've read is the box sets are kind of all over the place in terms of like quality of film, not necessarily the quality of the look, but just the the quality of the films themselves. And so like that's still a bit of a tough sell for me to like go in blind buying some of them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and that that does make sense for vinegar syndromes kind of uh you know what they do, their Uber of stuff. They they will go in, they're just as happy to do an Uber low budget, not not wonderful quality film, but give it a loving edition, just as much as they'll you know, shell out to do Showgirls or Roadhouse or something like that. So yeah, no, that's that's fun. I Arrow's one that uh that I like I I I'm late coming to like I've been collecting criterion for a really long time, and Arrow was one I think for a long time because of the stuff they typically did, didn't quite interest me as much. And in the last uh five years, certainly, they seem to have done a lot more that is like hitting me right in the spot of like, oh, this is really interesting, and then they have discovering the Arrow Academy stuff, and even though now that's not really a thing anymore, that's like okay, yeah, I have some things to to kind of dive into. And and they I would the one thing I've found with with any of their stuff is you talked about getting like good remasters and good uh restorations. Uh like I've yet to s watch something from them that's even like mildly not great.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and their their packaging is absolutely top-notch. Like you their their box sets are so sturdy, they they look great, their artwork is always terrific. Like there's there's no complaint with the actual packaging and release of any arrow title.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, it's it's not a it's not a super surprise that a lot of their limited stuff that they put out with a box, like the you know, the Hong Kong John Wu films or the the dollars trilogy stuff, like it's no wonder that it gets sold out really, really quickly because uh they have that hallmark for their quality for sure. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, uh I also have a a bunch of Kino Lorber titles too. Um they they I love what they do too, because it's a lot of classic films, sort of like the the B tier if Criterion releases the A tier of classic films, Kino Lorber's kind of like that B tier of like, oh, you know, here's Jimmy Stewart's other films, here's Alfred Hitchcock's other films, things like that where where you can really sort of like fill out your collection of like what what's what's the director star's next rung down of like all-time classic films? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Or the ones that just have been they get in weird limbo. I feel like, and I I've got quite a few keynotes as well, and it's a label I actually really am looking forward to talking about at some point in an episode because they do find that like volume kind of niche of saying, like, hey, everybody knows you know these Mike Nichols movies, but like we had them for a bit and then they went out of print, so it's like, oh well, where are they gonna go? And Billy Wilder stuff is the same. I because I collect a lot of Billy Wilder stuff, they've done some really fun additions that some are still in print, some aren't, and they they really get that like volume in there where it's like, hey, if you're really wanting to collect for this actor or this director or this this person, you're probably gonna find some good additions there. Not necessarily the most stacked, but yeah, like still really still gonna look probably as good as you're gonna get. So 100%.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, a lot of stuff that you can't find on streaming or anywhere else, and so it's a great way to kind of fill out your collection that way. Yeah, yeah, that's without breaking the bank either.

SPEAKER_00

I and that's that's also really nice too. You know, the I think the boutique space is the the prices do go up and up, and a lot of times you're getting good quality out of it or limited editions or extra stuff that some people get really into, and sometimes if you just want kind of a nice 4K edition of like high noon, you're gonna find it on Kino for a pretty good price. So yeah, that's pretty good. Um, I think I know the answer to one of this because we've had this conversation before, um, and yeah, I mentioned a little bit about like collecting for a person or a director. Um, and I know one specifically that you kind of get into with this, but is there a you know a specific like director or actor that you kind of like to collect a lot of or focus on?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's sort of where a lot of my collecting focus does go into play. Uh I've Never been able to ask answer the question, who's your favorite actor? I don't have one. Um but you ask me who my favorite director is, you know, we can spend the next hour just talking about that. Uh yeah. And so that's where a lot of my sort of collecting sort of boils down to. Alfred Hitchcock was the first one. I own almost all of his films that are are in print released on either Blu-ray or 4K, things like that. Um so you know, the a lot of people kind of forget like just how big his filmography is. Um it's huge. Yeah, it's it actually I think is about 50 or so films. And so I think I'm in the 30s of what I own. There's a whole bunch. Yeah. That also includes like uh some of his silent films, a lot of his early British films, a lot of stuff that, frankly speaking, is not very good. Keno L has put out a lot of them. Yeah. I think I own all of them from Keno except for Jamaica Inn. That's the last one. And like every time I go to check it out, it's when it's on sale, it's still not cheap enough for what is a pretty bare bones release. I'm like, I'm not spending 30 US on Jamaica Inn. Yeah, that's for Hitchcock. Um so he's like sort of the big one, and then since then I've kind of moved on to a couple other directors that are really big and important to me. David Cronenberg is a big one. I I mentioned I've got three Criterion titles waiting to be picked up. All three of them were Cronenberg titles. I got uh Scanners, um uh The Brood and The Shrouds. Uh I picked up last time. Um so I own I'm I'm getting there. I I think I'm probably about 25% with these new ones. I'll probably be about 40% of his titles. Uh and then sort of now it's sort of playing the waiting game of waiting for some of his lesser titles to get upgrades. Some of them only ever came out on DVD. Or frankly speaking, I don't I try not to buy Blu-rays that came out when Blu-rays first came out. Yeah. Basically were just DVDs put onto Blu-rays, they weren't really remastered or upscaled or anything like that, uh, or restored. Uh and so I'm sort of waiting for for some of these titles that, yeah, it came out in Blu-ray in 2013, 2012, but you know, it kind of just looks like a DVD.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, it wasn't kind of fully remastered to what you want it to be for uh for some of that. 100%. And I I did the same thing with a little bit of Cronenberg because I do really love a lot most of his films that I've seen, even the even the real left turns for stuff like M butterfly and whatnot. But the the one that I I like held out the longest for in upgrading was Dead Ringers because I it's one of my favorite of his, and it for a really long time just was like, uh no, I had a had the old criterion, and I'm like, yeah, this is this is gonna do, and then uh Shout Factory or Scream Factory at it, I'm not sure which line of theirs did it, and uh god, it looks great. And actually, I discovered too that my old uh my old film professor from the University of Alberta uh does commentary on it. And after I watched that, I was like, I did an essay about David Cronenberg for this man, and I'm now realizing that he's guesting on the Blu-ray. That he must have loved my essay as a 20-year-old.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, Matt's got it all wrong. Huh? This is not what Cronenberg was intending with this palette object.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm sure I wasn't the only one. Um, you talked a little bit about shelf space and about sort of that being a thing that uh that you're conscious of with collecting. What does your sort of shelf space look like? Like what do you use for shelves? Do you uh you know, do you sort of have taken up more room than you want to take up and are trying to pare down? Or or what do you what what do you kind of have for that?

SPEAKER_02

Uh I I think it was about a year ago I I upgraded my shelf because the one that I had ran out of space. Um and so I got some some shelves from Ikea. I wish I can remember what the name of it is. They're they're not the Billy ones, but they kind of look like that, but nicer. Um, and it came with a bracket, so I've got three of them. Um and it sits in a corner, so they've got brackets on the the two outer ones to kind of like hold it in place so that way it kind of creates uh a semicircle of shelves in the corner. Um still works really nice. Uh the top shelf of it is a glass shelf, so I've got like some knickknacks, some Funko's and things like that. Um and then on the top, I I bought some uh LED battery-operated pot lights. Um so I put that uh in in each one of them so that way it can kind of glow a little bit, and I'll match the color. I do have LED strip lights in my living room and behind my TV, so like oftentimes when we're watching movies, turn all the lights off, but then you know I'll sort of set the color tone of of what the movie looks like. Uh so that way, you know, if we need to get up or we're eating something, uh that uh you can still see a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that makes sense. I used to have one of those on my last TV. Actually came in pretty handy for doing that. Yeah. Um, organizing collections. It's it's just a whole episode about this. You did. This is this is such a funny, wild, even as I was researching it, I'm just like, there are some people out there that go on Reddit and talk about the way they organize things, and I immediately defaulted in my head to him, like, this is John Cusack and High Fidelity doing the like, yeah, sure, okay. Yeah, it's not normal. How do you how do you approach organizing your collection?

SPEAKER_02

I'll say when I was listening to your episode on that, uh, I was like, oh yeah, I've tried almost most of these methods uh in one way or another. Um the bigger your collection gets, it ironically gets both easier and harder at the same time because uh the more titles you have, you're like, oh, okay, yeah, I can break it down by by label or by format or things like that. Whereas if you have, you know, if you only have 30 or 40 titles, it looks weird when you start breaking it up and you're like, you can't find anything. So it's just easier to keep it alphabetical. But then on the flip side, uh the larger and larger you get, you know, you kind of just want to scrap all that and be like, okay, I I just need to keep this alphabetical. Um so saying all that, I do it is a little of a bit of a complicated system. Um I do have sort I sort by label for Criterion, Arrow, and Keno. Okay. Where uh Criterion, it's by spine number. Um and then the other two, it's just alphabetical sort of box sets or the chunkier formats come first, and then everything else kind of comes afterwards. Uh, and then whatever is left in my collection, uh, I I sort it by 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, alphabetical. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah, that's I that's sort of the system I've landed on. I I think I call it a few more of my my boutique ones than I used to. Um, and I don't even do it with all of them. I know my Warner Archive stuff is still just in amongst everything else. And there's a part of my brain that's like, but I'm doing it for these and not for these. This is this is the problem that this this sickness of a hobby will do to you.

SPEAKER_02

I'm moving soon, and so you know that also comes with that opportunity of uh reorganization if I feel up to it.

SPEAKER_00

It does, and also comes with the the hassle of of moving with a collection, which I've done many times in my life, and is um well, and you can also see behind me I also have a record collection, which nobody wants to help you move.

SPEAKER_02

That's more what I'm concerned about moving. I also am a record collector, and I probably have about the same amount of titles, both in movies and in records, uh about 250 or so. But you know, the 250 records weigh a hell of a lot more than 250 movies.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I've honestly taken to the point where anytime I'm moving, I I know that the records are on me. So I'm like, I really can, you know, I I have a literally another one of those sizes shelves just on the other side. So I have been collecting for a lot of years. So I know that it's like this is my problem, I will pack it up, I will deal with it, I will lift it, I will, and then if we do get help from anyone else, then I'm not asking them to do that, which is part of the joke because everybody knows how much I love all of the physical stuff that I've got. So um it's funny actually, when we were getting prepared for this, uh, I I had this question, and you sort of prompted being like, Oh yeah, I have I'm doing this thing. I'm like, this is exactly kind of what I'm gonna ask about. Um any sort of interesting quirks that sort of go with your collection. And you mentioned that you're kind of on a mission of like a great um not case reorganization, but a case swap, I guess.

SPEAKER_02

I am telling me about that. Purging the blue Blu-ray cases. I hate those cases. I think they look so ugly. Um, if I want to get really nerdy, uh I I really like, you know, I think it's like Mondo Macabra does the red cases, and then like I've seen like some Italian releases do the yellow cases, okay, things like that. If I was like really nuts, I would I would do those, but like they are so difficult to find, it's so expensive to like just straight up buy the empty cases. I'm not doing that. No, no. Um, I really like the clear cases, you know. Thank you, Criterion. You know, you do it the best. The criterion cases are the most beautiful.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. I think they there's a few other labels to use them. I think Flicker Alley does as well. And indicators are a little different. They're the one with the like the extra clear space on top, like the blue ones, which I think also look look pretty nice too. But that uh I might pick your brain about that at one point because I don't know that I have a have a I don't despise the blue cases. I also have a because I collect all these physical media things, I do also have a little video game collection. And like for something like a PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 game where it's Sony in the blue cases, it kind of makes sense for them because they do put a little bit of branding on their spines to sort of make it and it's it's their colors, you know. Xbox used to do green cases with stuff. Um but yeah, I I might might pick your brain about sourcing that if my if that part of my collector brain ever gets tickled and I wanna want to change those out.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, there's a there's a website that I buy them from, I have it bookmarked somewhere. I can't remember what it's called. It's like Good Woody Shop or something like that. I can't remember, but they basically tell uh that you either mostly bulk, but like uh media related things. So you can buy blank discs, you can buy you can buy cases, you can buy storage, things like that. Uh I I think it's meant for retailers, but they do offer things on uh on individual levels. Some of it does come where it's like minimum buys. So recently I just got uh clear cases for uh movies that have two discs. But it's a minimum buy of six. Um so it worked out where I think I had five, and so I have one left over now, but that's fine. I'll just hold on to it until the next time I get a movie with two discs, and I'll just swap it out right away. Um and then I had to replace uh I had got the Godzilla King Kong, the the the newest Monster Verse, the the legendary Monsterverse box set where it's five from Groove and the case arrived damaged. Uh they wouldn't replace it for me, uh despite going back and forth and very not happy with Groove's customer service over this. Uh so I ended up buying a five case. Even though it was 4K, they didn't have the black version, so I just got the clear. I was like, whatever, and it has a slip cover anyways. I don't care. I just want to make sure it's in a secure case where the discs are no longer loose inside.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, that's fair. I guess there's not too many of those those sets that have the like the little flippy case and thing of like the Blade Runner uh, you know, one with like five discs in it. Yeah. That might be a little harder, but if they've got something like that, that at least is helpful.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so the five the five disc one was a little bit more expensive. It was sixteen dollars for the single unit. Um, but like I if it was if it was just the color of the case, I probably wouldn't do it. But the fact that the case was damaged itself necessitated me having to swap it out because I just you know I didn't want floating plastic in there and the discs, you know, jumping around and things being scratched up and things like that. So it was it was worth it for the sake of it. Um switching that. So it was crazy. So I got it for Christmas and it was just sitting on my shelf because like I could hear the plastic rattling inside and the discs rattling inside, so I left it there and was going back and forth with them, and they it was a whole ordeal. Eventually they were just like, no, sorry, we can't do anything about this for you. And I'm like, all right, fine. Okay, I'll just buy a case.

SPEAKER_00

I guess that's also the beauty of buying stuff online, too, is sometimes sometimes it is what it is when you get them in the mail. So yeah. Um in terms of uh I you know, and that's uh like you said, a a little quirk, but almost like a little goal of like, hey, I'm I'm doing this and upgrading things. I I before I ask maybe the general question, I being both Canadian, and I I know that both of us kind of seems like we both have a a real kind of uh not necessarily a soft spot, probably, but maybe an interest in movies from our country because it's kind of a it's a very interesting topic that is still probably completely underrepresented for a country as big and as old as Canada. We've relied on Hollywood movies for a long time. And I know with um when I did my episode about um Canadian International Pictures, you talked about you wanted to pick up one of their releases. And um Canadian movies are really hard to find in physical media a lot of the time. And um, I know I I kind of have I'll I will go in and out of like what I want in the collection and what I kind of find with it. Is there I do you do much collecting of of Canadian movies outside of Kronaberg stuff?

SPEAKER_02

Unfortunately, no, and it's mostly just due to availability. Um it's really tough. Still, I find new Canadian movies will often only get like a DVD release, too. Yeah. Where you know, I don't buy DVD, so I'm not gonna buy that. Um where it's a bit of a shame. Sometimes you'll get a Blu-ray, um, but like very bare bones packaging, kind of ugly artwork on the outside filled with like quotes and the fact that we live in a bilingual country means everything is in both French and English, so it just like it looks so busy and crowded, and so it's really tough. And and there's you know, there's CIP and no one really else is doing any sort of boutique style releasing, and it's a real shame. Like over on ContraZoom, a big part of my ethos is supporting Canadian cinema. Uh, I I do several episodes about the Canadian Screen Awards. We recently did an episode talking about the nominees for this year. We'll do one once the uh the award show actually happens. Uh, I try to dedicate at least one or two other episodes per year talking about Canadian films. Whenever I'm at a film festival, I make sure that I am also covering Canadian films, encouraging my writers to do it too. Even though not all my writers are Canadian, some are American, I will still encourage them to watch Canadian films and to write about them because that's something that like I I feel a duty to do. And it's frustrating that there isn't enough of us out there that that give a damn. Um and the Canadian Screen Awards, every once in a while I'll I'll just like look on Spotify, be like, is anyone else even podcasting about the Canadian Screen Awards? And you you type that into Spotify, and the only result that will come up is my show, and I think there's like one other podcast in episode once about it, and that is no one else is covering them. It's like, how how are we not covering our version of the Oscars, people? Like, what's going on here?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. This is uh this is very having taken a Canadian English film class at one point in university, like this is the uphill struggle, and it really hasn't changed. Like it's it's always sort of swimming upstream and fighting against where the money is, frankly, and as successful as something like the National Film Board has been in certain sects of film, it doesn't translate over to something. Like, I think the last new Canadian film that I saw get a decent release, I think was Red Rooms, because I think Vinegar Syndrome got a version of Red Rooms. And I I'll be really interested this year to see what happens with um Nirvana the band, the show, the movie, being as that it's become as big as it is internationally, not just in Canada. It seems like that's the sort of thing that might be a little more ripe for getting a a decent addition, whether they're able to get a boutique label to do it, or whether I it that's not A24 doesn't have that one, but uh no, uh, but there is already a pre-order for a Blu-ray for it.

SPEAKER_02

Uh and it does look nice. Uh yeah, it it more traditional of what other people would expect. And I think it's because it has been such an international hit.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, anytime you like you kind of see it unexpectedly in places. Actually, when I was in TIF last year, uh, which I just went to the opening weekend of TIF and only was able to see a couple of movies, and I lined up for the Criterion Closet because I, of course, I did. Um, the like the biggest lineup of that opening weekend that I saw for rush tickets was not sentimental value, was not knives out, it was Nirvana the band, the show of the movie. And I was like, this is there might be something here, and then it got wide distribution through Canada, through the US, internationally. Like you tune into a bunch of different kind of bigger podcasts, and like people are really championing it as a movie, which hasn't happened in a Canadian movie probably since something like I don't know, my big fat Greek wedding, where it's like a like a weird Canada international hybrid production. Like yeah. Yeah, it's it's sort of a struggle bus with uh with some of those. And I I do I I buy a few more DVDs, I think, than than it sounds like you do. And there's some that I'm just like, yeah, Jesus of Montreal is only really available on DVD, and Adonargeo, it's only really available on DVD, saddest music in the world, and like yeah, it's it's sort of is there even a release of of uh last night?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

No, I have I have the DVD of it, and like that is one that it's that might be my most like of Canadian movies that are out there. Like that is that would be such a fun rediscovery for the world at large if like a fun boutique label took it on. Yeah, like yeah, yeah. I I love that film so much.

SPEAKER_02

If I had enough money, that's what I would be doing is like some sort of a contemporary to Canadian International Pictures where they are very much are focused on like the 70s and 80s sort of con exploitation era. Uh I would love, you know, there's so many great films from the 90s and the 2000s, things like that that just exist in limbo.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Like I like the fact that something like Adonarjuit doesn't have an HD version, yeah, is a crime because that film looks incredible.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, just oh it's and like that sounds like the type of film that Criterion would love to release, too. I got it.

SPEAKER_00

They and they did just do when I was at the the closet at Tiff, I did pick up uh 32 short films about Glenn Gould, which it like they picked up, and I was like, oh yeah, this is this is the kind of thing they should be doing. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if they tried to pick up like the Red Violin, another another Francois Gerard film that's amazing and is kind of lost in that limbo period of late 90s, early 2000s of availability.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, yeah. It seems like unless your name is uh David Cronenberg or Adam Ogoyen, yeah, it seems like the international uh labels don't care. Um like even in our own country, it's it's tough because you know we are so walled off from the French industry. Like, I like yeah, uh unless it's like the one or two big name directors or the one or two breakthrough titles per year, I have no idea what's coming out of Quebec. And then you realize that they've got hundreds and hundreds of films, you know, coming out every year or every few years, and you're just like how do you keep track of the thing.

SPEAKER_00

And kind of semi-thriving in there, you know, in Montreal and Quebec City and in the in the La Belle Provence. Like they they're doing just fine, like they've had a thriving industry for a long time.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you'll you'll like there's like a bilingual actors, you'll you'll see them pop up once every few years, and then you'll look at their IMDB or their letterbox and realize that you know they did five movies last year, but they were all French-Canadian films. I I did not hear about any of these titles.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, it's uh it'll it'll be a struggle, but I I I'm I'm hopeful with some of the newer stuff. Like I know I mentioned Red Rooms, Red Rooms got some pretty good notices. Nirvana the band, the show. Even I I think my one of my local independent theaters, I think this week is picking up Mile and Kicks, which I'm really interested to see. Um, yeah, maybe it will improve and maybe I don't know, maybe things will blow up and you and I can start that uh that label. There we go. Yeah, second Canadian boutique. Um, you mentioned in the in your podcast that you you also have a recurring series about doing an A24 retrospective. Um have you dove into A24's physical media stuff?

SPEAKER_02

I only own one of their titles, and that is The Last Black Man San Francisco. It's one of their like the large, awkward ones that everyone kind of hates. It looks great, but like it doesn't fit anywhere. I've got like one specific shelf with like my awkward box set. So my uh the Fellini box set from Criterion, the Godzilla Showa era, uh, and then that one. I think those are kind of the three that like don't fit on any other shelf, so it like has to be bigger space. There's more there's more notches in between the shelves than the other ones. Um so those are that's the only A24 release that I have, like specifically from them. I do really like the look of their, you know, the barcode branding that they have. I think very clean. I really like that. Um it's just tough. I find I I don't like paying a lot for one movie. And they don't really do sales, they make it hard for these titles to be sold up in Canada. Yes. Things like that. And so it's like I don't really want to pay like $50 Canadian for a single movie. Like that's that's kind of that's kind of ridiculous. Uh, I know you did a whole episode based on sales, uh, and one of the things that you use was a Reddit link that I had sent you. And like I try not to, I I I refuse to buy to pay more than uh than market value than the MSRP price. I will not pay more than that. I don't care how much I love a movie, it's not worth it to me to pa more than that. Um and I try always to buy stuff on sales because like when when there's like four criterion sales a year, why are you spending you know the the 30, what is it, $40 USD for a 4K when you can get it for $20 four times a year. Just just wait two months and there'll be a sale. Uh Kino literally always has a sale on, like yes, they do.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, pretty frequently. Even if they change up titles for it, they're not sure about a sale.

SPEAKER_02

Uh Arrow does also does like six sales a year and things like that. Vinegar syndrome does several sales a year. Why are you why are you?

SPEAKER_00

Well, there's some newer ones that started, Radiance has started doing a few more frequent ones too. 100%.

SPEAKER_02

So so in my mind, I it does not make sense to me to buy a movie over retail. So I'm not gonna do that. And when the retail is so expensive, like these A24 releases, as beautiful as they look, it's it's a really hard sell. And I love A24 films, but I find that for the most part, the movies that they've been choosing to release haven't been my favorites of theirs. So it's like every time I'm like, oh, that looks really nice, but like I like the brutalist, but I don't love the brutalist, so I don't know if I'm gonna buy it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the brutalist is the one that I have, and I'm I'm actually holding off on watching it because I do want to do an episode of like discovering the label a little bit, and I I have been watching what they've been doing for that exact reason because there's some that I really don't appeal to me. Some that I've seen that I want to revisit. Like I one of my favorites of last year was Eddington, and I'm really interested to check out what they were doing with that edition. Uh, I also probably am a wouldn't be one I would go back to a bunch, but the zone of interest was probably one of my favorite movies in the last latter half of my lifetime. Like I I thought it was incredible. Yeah, uh, it's not gonna be one that it's a bit like Requiem for a Dream where it's on your shelf, and when you want to watch it, it's a great edition. Uh, I'm not gonna be putting it on, you know, once a month or anything like that, but I'm interested to kind of check out them as a label because because you're right, the packaging for them is is really stellar. A lot of the artwork of what they're doing is really cool. Um, the special edition stuff, like the you know, the last black man of San Francisco, the Stop Making Sense, the Everything Everywhere said, the Green Knight, like they have those kind of bigger ones that look interesting, and I'm not sure if it's completely what what's my vibe that I want to be that I want to collect, but they seem to do some cool stuff. I'm interested to check them out. But yeah, the I mean a lot of a lot of their older films still are you know, like the Blu-ray of Under the Skin I have is the like elevation standard one. So yeah. No, it makes sense. And the yeah, the money thing creeps up again. It is an expensive hobby, as as we all know. Is and speaking of that, you know, in in thinking about things that you know you're you're conscious of, and it does does sound like you kind of have a pretty good ethos about what you want to collect and what you'll do with that. Is there anything that you maybe don't have any of, or you maybe just have a little bit of that you really have enjoyed and want to want to collect more of or want to look for more?

SPEAKER_02

Um I think the issue with a lot of my movie tastes, you know, I've I've been accused of of having very highbrow movie taste. Uh by my five, me too. Yeah. Um and so I often end up buying movies that like I love, but you kind of have to be in the right mood to want to watch it. You know, you're mentioning um uh what was the A24 film you the the The Zone of Interest. Zone of Interest, yeah. A movie like that. I love that movie too. Uh I've seen it twice. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to watch it again unless you know I maybe do an episode on like a Jonathan Glazer retrospect of something like that. It is so heavy. I own quite a few films that are very heavy. And uh, you know, the mood doesn't strike you fancy where you're like, oh, I I want to throw something on. That's gonna be a fun night, you know. I'm I just got off work, I just want to relax, I want to have a couple drinks or whatever and have some fun. Uh so what I need to do is I need to work on getting fun movies, especially when like uh whether it's with my wife I'm watching, or if I have friends over and things like that, I'm like, hey, you want to watch a movie? Uh by the way, ignore 75 to 90% of my titles because they're gonna be super depressing and dark and not what we're in the mood for.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so I I've sort of been doing that with my Giallo films, but the problem is like they're also not for everyone. Um I I don't watch almost any of them with my wife. They're they're not her style. Um I've I've been showing her some Argento and she likes Argento, so like it's a little Argento's a bit of an easier sell to because like you know, he's his filmmaking techniques are so top tier you can really appreciate that aspect. Yes. Uh, where they're not as sleazy or trashy or things like that, like some of the other Giallo films. So like I'm not gonna like have a friend over and be like, hey, let's watch this really trashy, sleazy Giallo movie. Uh I don't fully know what wavelength they're on. So that's something I think I do need to branch out more and have some fun films. Uh, and I don't mean just like you know, Hollywood popcorn whole superhero type things, just you know, fun films that are that are easy crowd pleasers, and you know, maybe maybe that's action films, maybe that's more uh mystery or comedy or things like that, where I sort of feel like I need to round out my collection a little bit better in regards to you know, if I want to share it with someone.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's fair. I I've kind of in in the almost decade my wife and I have been together now. We one thing we discovered, and I mean we we have our own podcast about doing movie discovery too, but one thing that we discovered pretty early on is that we both love Cary Grant movies. Like it's just the that like hilarious comfort watch kind of even if it's not a hilarious movie, like there's something about watching something like North by Northwest. Yeah. That's just like this is this is great. Anybody can sit down and watch this film and enjoy it. And like, so we've we've really enjoyed that, and I've probably bought even more Kery Grant movies. I d I love his stuff, but yeah, I probably have more now because I will consciously be like, well, yeah, I'll I'll I'll buy Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream Home for five dollars. Sure, yeah, this would be a fun watch. Yeah, yeah. No, that's that's a that's a good uh I like that as far as the it's something that people can get a look at and go like, oh, maybe discovering this. Because yeah, you're right, it's it's tough to sit people down and go, like, here I'm gonna convert you to Anatomy of a Fall, so sit down.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. Or like uh I'm I'm bought the Fritz Lang silent film box set from Keno Lorber. Uh I've only watched two films from it, and I think there's like 15 movies in there. I really gotta get into that. But like, if someone comes over, I'm not gonna be like, hey, you want to watch a two and a half hour silent German film?

SPEAKER_00

Everybody's eyes glaze.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, it makes sense. Um the other thing that I kind of like to in in talking with people about movies or anything like that, we talked about sort of the idea of physical media of stuff not being available or getting re-released or getting reissued or restored. Um, talked about a couple of titles, Canadian ones, that kind of aren't really available or we'd like to see coming out. Is there anything that like in your head is like if the if someone releases this film or remasters it, I will buy it as soon as I possibly can.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Uh I've got a couple titles. Um, you know, I mentioned earlier where directors are a big thing for me. Um, and so two directors that I'm I'm trying to work on my collections. One is obviously Cronenberg, and the title Existence, which was released on 4K by Vinegar Syndrome, uh both a limited edition and standard edition, but they both sold out basically instantly. Um I believe you have a copy of it. I believe we had we had shared some messages about that where you would found it.

SPEAKER_00

I do. Yeah, I've I've one local store that was a Vincent distributor for a little while, and like I found the sweet spot where I think I got the last one they could possibly get.

SPEAKER_02

So and like I said, I don't want to pay more than retail, and so like you look online and the the standard edition is selling for like $200 and the limited edition selling for like $500, and I'm like, no, it's a movie. I'm not spending that much on a movie. I don't care how much I love David Cronenberg, and the fact that I don't have that is killing me. Uh so I imagine eventually the rights will go to someone else, whether Vinegar Syndrome will be able to do a reprint of it, uh, or it will just go to someone else and I'll get it that way. So like I'm I'm totally fine waiting to get that.

SPEAKER_00

Um it's kind of the fun thing with a lot of these is that the like the and I I was fortunate enough to get a copy of that one, but there's so many of them that are just like if you do wait, most things are going to come around. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

The the joke, obviously, like on places like Reddit, where like, oh hey, I I bought the Blu-ray of this, which means next month the 4K is gonna be announced. Um, so like that's what's gonna happen. Um like I I'm not too concerned. Uh if if they if they saw it was feasible to do it once on 4K and the fact that it sold out means they're another company is gonna offer up enough money to whoever owns the rights to be able to do it again. Like it's it's just uh a fact of the nature of how the ecosystem and the the economics of this stuff works. Like they're not gonna be like, oh no, we don't want any more money. We sold enough, we're good, we we're we don't want it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and it and a lot of them, you know, especially with somebody like David Cronenberg, it's not as if the jury's still out on David Cronenberg and they're like, Oh, I don't know if there's an audience for this guy. Like, yeah, they're they're very likely gonna come in and as much as yeah, you know, there's some historical ones that like are just never going to come out or are just like whatever. But I yeah, I think a lot of I find that with records a lot too, that there's sort of the as I I get older and I'm we're close to the same age bracket, I'm a little bit older than you are, but there's a lot of stuff that like I will see at the record store. I'm like, oh, they reissued this album, that's great. And then you see the little sticker on it that says 20th year reissue, and like I need Advil immediately.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, right away. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but the other director who I'm also now is sort of in my radar of what I want to collect all of his stuff is Michael Mann. Um the biggest one is Manhunter. Um there was I and I think that's probably just about everyone's, you know, top of their wish list sort of thing. Uh they had a really, really nice edition come out on Blu-ray, but that was like 10 plus years ago now, and it's been out of print and goes for an insanely high amount of money. Like I said, not paying that. Um there is rumors that a 4K is being worked on. I don't know if it's Criterion or someone else, but like there's there's rumors out there that this remaster is being done, is, is, is, is happening. Um, and then I would say also a lot of his films in general got released on Blu-ray or DVD when they came out. Uh, but you know, they're not really anything special. Like, I'm not gonna get the collateral or uh Miami Vice, the the Blu-ray that they came out, you know. You still see them at Shoppers where they'll be like four action movies in one pack. I'm like, I'm not, I'm not buying this. No shoppers.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I I think there's probably a little bit of uh not that Michael Mann needs renewed interest, but with with the Heat 2 stuff coming out with that about to sort of go into production and potentially being, you know, hopefully it's not Michael Mann's last film, but he's he's one of those directors that is is getting up there in age. And I feel like I feel like if we can get a nice boutique version of something like Black Hat, we can probably get ourselves a nice boutique version of Manhunter that is is a little more available. So it's a good one, man. I haven't seen I haven't seen Manhunter in forever. Oh, it's so good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Every every few months my wife goes, Is there uh is there a version of Manhunter out yet? Is there a version of Manhunter out yet? I'm like, no, don't worry, I will buy it and for you because I know how much you love this. You do not need to ask me every three or four months. I promise you, when it gets announced, I will tell you and I will buy it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, it'll sound it from the uh from the rafters.

SPEAKER_02

And I I will say I am a black hat apologist. I do think that is uh unironically a masterpiece, especially the director's cut where they rearrange the order of scenes. I think it's absolutely fantastic. I love it. I have the arrow version. Um and uh I work I work in film um and listeners obviously don't know that. Um I work in film, I just wrapped working on a show with with a great actor, a guy named Richie Coster, who a lot of people might recognize from The Dark Knight. He plays uh one of the main villains in that film. He has a very long and storied career. Love him, terrific guy. He's in black hat, and I told him I loved it, and he's like, but why? I'm like, like, the script was rubbish. I'm like, no, the script was fantastic, it's complicated and convoluted, but it's a great film. And he doesn't matter how many times I told him I would say it, he would still be like, ah no, it wasn't a very good film. And I would mention specific moments, like there's a great final sequence in this film, um, where there's this like a giant parade going on. I think it's in Thailand or something like that. And game him talk about it's like, oh no, those are all real. We choreographed all of this, thousands of people like going on.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. Michael Man's a special one. That's Black Hat's one that I've never seen the full thing of. Yeah, it's it it. I, you know, I I think it's a bit of a fun, like a punching bag in some ways, but there's there's also enough people that are like, um, but actually it's pretty good, you know. So I I'm I'm I'm interested to check it out.

SPEAKER_02

I'll say the litmus test is this. Did you like his Miami Vice?

SPEAKER_00

Uh not bad. Okay. Not bad. It's been a lot of years since I've seen it.

SPEAKER_02

I would say it's probably totally uh very similar to Miami Vice and sort of shot in a very similar way. Miami Vice really like, you know, one of the first digital films, really sort of the graininess of that. Black Hat does not have that, but like in the way he shot it, it's very similar, very handheld, very free-moving, things like that.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Yeah, that's that'd that'd be something I think wouldn't be a total waste of time for me to check out that. So there you go. Yeah, no, it's uh that's fun, and maybe we'll maybe we'll keep getting stuff, you know, whether it's uh more Michael Mann stuff. He's got he's got some really great editions of I still need to check out the heat 4K. Um but I know the the thief criterion is is just awesome to watch. Oh yeah, that'd be uh that'd be a fun one. Um yeah, that's kind of where where I I wanted conversation to go today. I think this was this was great. Um, thank you for again being uh being my guinea pig for this. This went really well. Um you mentioned the the podcast. Where uh where can everybody check that out and the website and uh anything else you want to plug before we uh finish things off?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, well thank you so much for having me. This is a lot of fun. Uh really enjoy talking about this. Uh I've I have not had the chance to talk about my my collection on my podcast, so I'm glad I was able to do it on another podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh yeah, you can you can find the podcast ContraZoom Pod on all pod uh cast apps. Uh I routinely like check to make sure, like, is there a new one out there? I will upload it up there, the the RSS feed. So you can find it literally everywhere. It's on YouTube, it's on Spotify, it's on Apple, um Podbean, Breaker, whatever you, whatever you use, podcast addict is there. Uh but the website is ContrazoomPod.com. We're posting reviews almost daily. Like we've we've got some a lot of great stuff uh that we do. Uh and then on social media at ContraZoom Pod. I try to keep everything very simple. It is those three words, ContraZoom Pod. Uh so is that everywhere.

SPEAKER_00

Awesome. Well, thank you very much for uh for coming on the uh on the podcast. And we'll uh I mean like you said, I'm I'm gonna be doing a little bit of writing for you as far as the the physical media review stuff. So looking forward to uh to doing more of that. And yeah, appreciate you uh taking the time.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, thank you so much, man.

SPEAKER_00

I love this. It was a great conversation. Uh we've uh we've been able to connect a little bit through the podcast space. And uh if you're interested in checking out uh a really great movie podcast, ContraZoom Pod is a great one to check out. Like I said, uh the tagline we go back and forth about movies is is a great one. It's uh it's a wide variety of topics that Dakota covers uh on his own as well as with a variety of guests on different things. And uh also if you're interested in a little bit of extra movie info outside of the podcast space, also do check out ContraZoom Pods website, which, as Dakota alluded to, I am also going to be a contributor related to some physical media reviews, and uh have done one relatively recently with the uh new Warner Archive Blu-ray for Tea and Sympathy, and have more uh in the pipeline coming up for that. So really excited to be working with Dakota on the ContraZoom Pod website and uh really excited to have more collector conversations in the future. Um I have a few people that I do have in mind that I want to talk to about maybe bringing on the pod to have some conversation. If uh if you're somebody that also loves physical media, would love to hear about all of that stuff and maybe some of the things we talked about today, um, you can check out anywhere on my social media. I do have an Instagram account at cinema on a shelf, which you can uh see new podcasts upcoming, and uh feel free to interact with me and send me a DM on there to chat all things physical media. I do also have a letterboxed account at Maddie236. If you're wanting to check out some of the things that I've been watching and follow along, I'd love to give you follow back, and uh maybe you'll see some of the things that I'm watching on ContraZoom Pods review or even things that I'm talking about on future episodes of the podcast. And if you're interested in checking out maybe another podcast that I'm involved in, uh I do another one with my wife called I Can't Believe You Haven't Seen, in which we watch movies that one or the other of us has not seen before. And our most recent episode was about a film that neither of us had seen before. We held off long enough and finally got to watch Sinners together. So that was our 20th episode of I Can't Believe You Haven's Seen. Same thing uh socials and Instagram at I Can't Believe You Haven's Seen, and pretty much everywhere podcasts are available. Thank you very much for listening to this episode. Take care of the people.