Classic Movies Live!

Thirty years after Pixar revolutionized the world of 3D animation with Toy Story, they're back to do it again with the fifth entry in a franchise that's been running longer than the age of both its human protagonists combined! In Toy Story 5, a shipment of fifty Buzz Lightyears, stranded on an island, must learn what it means to be a toy. As the group seeks out a mythical entity they know only as "Star Command," they must also contend with fundamental elements of the Toy Story universe: toys must never reveal to humans that they can move and talk; and yet to be loved by a child is the greatest joy and honour a toy can experience. There's also an entire plotline involving returning characters Jessie, Bonnie, Woody, and Buzz Lightyear (classic), in which they encounter the threat of tech in the form of Lilypad (Greta Lee). Five movies in, how does Toy Story fare? Are new stories about Woody and his gang still among the best Pixar can produce? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff tackle this potential classic movie... live!

In the season finale of Classic Movies Live!, our hosts talk about 6 movies they haven't had the chance to talk about yet! With help from many special guests! Join us as Pierre and Jeff discuss their favourite films of the year, including plenty that are just too strange for us to have devoted a full episode to. Additionally, our hosts discuss the current state of the film industry, and what it's like to see a film in 2026! In this episode, be prepared for minor spoilers for Lilo & Stitch and Jurassic World: Rebirth. Major spoilers (potentially) for all of the following: Kokuho Predator: Badlands 100 Meters HIM Resurrection Materialists Of the above films, Jeff reviewed Kokuho and HIM for Contra Zoom Pod, and you can find those reviews here: Kokuho, HIM. Special thanks to all the guests featured in this episode, including: Dakota Arsenault from Contra Zoom Pod, last heard on CML in Episode 6 of our Director Showdown Series! Dakota especially liked our Frankenstein & The Bride and Apichatpong Weerasethakul vs. Ava DuVernay episodes! We especially liked CZP's K-Pop Demon Hunters and VIFF episodes! Pedro Lima, last heard on Season 6, Episode 19: TIFF Preview. Pedro writes reviews for several outlets, including Contra Zoom Pod, Shortstick, Movies We Texted About, and Keith Loves Movies. Pedro wrote a wonderful review of the film Dry Leaf over at Movies We Texted About. Kylie Corcoran, last heard on Kicking It with Kendrick Episode 3: The Twilight Saga. rach, last heard on Season 5, Episode 3: The Zone of Interest. And Jason Christian of Cold War Cinema. We especially enjoyed Jason's episodes on Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Pickup On South Street While he isn't featured on the episode, longtime friend of the show Ben also conducted an excellent interview with Celine Song, director of Materialists, which you can check out directly on YouTube.

This week on Classic Movies Live, our hosts talk about Shakespeare! Specifically, William Shakespeare, and even more specifically, the rendition of William Shakespeare played by Paul Mescal in Chloe Zhao's most recent film Hamnet. Hamnet is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Maggie O'Farrell, recounting the story of a tragedy in the life of The Bard that preceded the writing of his play Hamlet. Focusing primarily on his wife, Agnes (Jessie Buckley), and her life in Stratford-upon-Avon raising their children, Hamnet is a story about absent fathers, overprotective mothers, and the grief that sets in when everything you do just isn't enough to stop the worst from happening. Hamnet marks a major career milestone for Zhao. Coming off of Marvels The Eternals, it's significantly lower budget, but more traditionally fictional than her previous film Nomadland. It's her first time working with Mescal and Buckley. And certainly not least of all, it's her second time winning TIFF's People's Choice Award! Will it also be her second film to go big at the Oscars? Tune in as our hosts talk about one of their most hotly anticipated films of the year... Live!

It's time for the long-awaited episode 8 of Director Showdown! In this series, we pit 64 of the biggest directors to debut since 1998 against each other in an elimination bracket to determine who will walk away the greatest director of the last 27 years! In the last episode, we saw a clash of titans with Apichatpong Weerasethakul vs. Ava DuVernay, both with a film about how the sins of the past inform the issues of the present. Between Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Origin, the Palme d'Or winner ultimately came out on top, with Weerasethakul taking the record for first-round winner with the longest surname! This week, we try to imagine a world without capitalism... and end up just imagining the end of the world instead! Up first, we have another Palme d'Or winner. Hailing from South Korea, Bong Joon-ho really made a splash in the West when his 2019 film Parasite became the first Asian movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Of course, by the time it won, it was hardly a surprise: Parasite had already picked up the Palme d'Or and 3rd place at the TIFF People's Choice earlier that summer! But before Parasite, Bong had already established himself with films like Memories of Murder, The Host, and even a couple of Hollywood films like the Netflix-released Okja. Today, our hosts talk about Bong's biggest sci-fi hit: Snowpiercer. Starring Chris Evans, John Hurt, and Song Kang-ho, Snowpiercer is a climate-conscious thriller about a popular uprising on the world's last surviving train during a new ice age. Opposite Bong is Adam McKay! A longtime collaborator of Will Ferrell, McKay cut his teeth in comedy with films like Talladega Nights, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and The Other Guys. In recent years, McKay pivoted slightly, moving away from outright comedies and into comedically-tinged political dramas. In recent years, McKay's even proven himself a regular at the Oscars with films like Vice and Don't Look Up -- which we covered in episode 18 of our series Losing It Over Leo. But the first of those dramedies was the Ryan Gosling/Christian Bale/Steve Carrell-starrer The Big Short. Centred around a group of Wall Street investors who recognize the subprime mortgage bubble before it became the subprime mortgage crisis, The Big Short tells the true story of how a handful of millionaires profited off the misfortune of a whole country. It also does a great job of answering the question on everybody's minds: what is a "subprime mortgage"? Joining us today is a repeat guest: Mark Morgan of Rambling Cinema! Mark was last heard on Match 4 of Director Showdown, where his passionate advocacy for Darren Aronofsky was ultimately unsuccessful in carrying the mother! director to victory. Will his favourite prevail in this episode? You'll have to tune in to find out! This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article. Special thanks this week to our good friend Cris, who made the cover art for this episode! Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd to see more of her artwork, film opinions/reviews, or both!