Jonas Chernick’s Guest Picks | August 20, 2024

Jonas Chernick is a Canadian actor and screenwriter. His new film The Burning Season premieres on Hollywood Suite Tuesday, August 20 at 9pm ET on HS00. To celebrate the premiere, Jonas has programmed an evening of films across all four Hollywood Suite channels.

When Hollywood Suite asked me to program an evening of movies, it was a film geek’s dream-come-true. I mean, I’ve been keeping my own personal “top ten movies” lists since I was old enough to write.

I decided on two tenets during the process: 1) it had to be a movie that, if I came across it while flipping channels, I would be unable to stop watching, and 2) it had to be a movie that had a profound impact on my career as an actor, writer and / or producer.

So why these films? Well, Taxi Driver is one of those classics that gets better with time. The Tenant is Roman Polanski’s best film, a master class in tension and paranoia – one of the first movies that demonstrated how ambiguity can ignite the imagination even more effectively than straight-ahead storytelling. Close Encounters of The Third Kind is the greatest alien contact movie ever made, and it posits an optimistic vision of first contact that sets it apart even further from the rest of the class. Do the Right Thing and Thelma & Louise are perfect screenplays, each exploring a succinct theme (racism and misogyny) via surprising stories and complicated characters, where every single detail supports the film’s ideas and complexities. They set the bar for my teenaged self to aspire to make movies that are both wildly entertaining but are also about something important and thought-provoking.

The Breakfast Club was a pivotal piece of my adolescence and is probably the movie I’ve seen the most times (I know every word), and Raising Arizona demonstrated to a 14-year-old me that when it comes to filmmaking, there are endlessly imaginative ways to tell a story. Discovering Albert Brooks while watching Defending Your Life was a turning point for me as a writer-actor. He explores his own anxieties, regrets and ambitions through intelligent comedy and sharp intellect, and is a filmmaker with whom I strongly identify. Ditto for Judd Apatow, whose 40-Year-Old Virgin directly inspired several of my own feature films, including My Awkward Sexual Adventure (coming soon to Hollywood Suite!). His exploration of male sexual insecurity is so heartfelt, honest and hilarious that he invented an entirely new genre.

There are two Paul Thomas Anderson films in my program: Boogie Nights is visceral and electric and a pure example of true cinematic bravado, with every delicious frame an homage to PTA’s love of filmmaking. Conversely, the restraint and reserve of Punch-Drunk Love delivers a darkly hilarious examination of repressed anger, with Sandler delivering one of the greatest performances of all time.

And then there’s my 2023 film The Burning Season, which is honoured to be premiering on Hollywood Suite. I hope you have a chance to watch it, and while you do, keep in mind that Hollywood Suite was instrumental in the development and production of the movie. They don’t just have great taste in classic movies, they have great taste in NEW movies, and throw their support and weight behind Canadian movies, in truly heroic fashion. Thanks Hollywood Suite! And enjoy the film everyone.

JONAS’S PICKS

Click on titles below for more info and additional playtimes

Hollywood Suite 70s Movies

Taxi Driver
August 20 at 9pm ET
Available on demand in August

The Tenant
August 20 at 11pm ET

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
August 21 at 1:10am ET
Available on demand in August

Hollywood Suite 80s Movies

Do the Right Thing
August 20 at 9pm ET

The Breakfast Club
August 20 at 11:05pm ET
Available on demand in August

Raising Arizona
August 21 at 12:45am ET
Available on demand in August

Hollywood Suite 90s Movies

Defending Your Life
August 20 at 9pm ET

Thelma & Louise
August 20 at 10:55pm ET
Available on demand in August

Boogie Nights
August 21 at 1:10am ET
Available on demand in August

Hollywood Suite 00s Movies

The Burning Season
August 20 at 9pm ET
Available on demand in August

Punch-Drunk Love
August 20 at 10:35pm ET
Available on demand in August

The 40-Year-Old Virgin
August 21 at 12:15am ET
Available on demand in August