One of the rewarding things about writing about films is the opportunity it provides to meet, and collaborate with, other fellow cinephiles. Being a longtime follower of the site Can’t Stop the Movies, as well as a listener of their podcast, I was pleasantly surprised when one of the creators of the site, Andrew Hathaway, reached out to me about a project that focused on the works of Canadian director Denis Villeneuve.

After a few months of emailing back and forth, as well as some pretty big life events (his wedding, the birth of my second child, etc), the stars finally aligned and we sat down last week and got to work. The result is the first of a series of special Can’t Stop the Podcast episodes in which we analyze Villeneuve’s cannon from his early films right up to his most recent thriller Sicario.

In the first episode, aside from butchering the pronunciation of “Villeneuve”, we get into a rather engaging conversation about REW-FFWD and Next Floor, two of his early short films available for free online. In upcoming episodes we will be tackling August 32nd on Earth, Prisoners, and the aforementioned Sicario, just to name a few. Give the lively discussion a listen-it can be downloaded here or streamed at Can’t Stop the Movies, as well as be found at all the regular podcast places-and let us know your thoughts.