Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Does RESIDENT EVIL equal WEAPONS? + JULIETTE BINOCHE

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time. Legendary French actress Juliette Binoche is our special guest this week. She’ll be talking to Simon about her new film Queen at Sea, a hard-hitting drama examining the tensions and taboos of caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s. Plus we’ll hear a little about her dance documentary directorial debut In-I in Motion - which is also released in the UK this week. She even challenges Simon to get on the dancefloor…now that we would like to see… Mark reviews Queen at Sea, as well as three more big screen releases - it is, as they say, a packed show. We’ll get his verdicts on Resident Evil - an adaptation of the hugely popular videogame from Weapons director Zach Cregger - as well as dark classroom satire Bad Apples, starring Saoirse Ronan, and the latest Aardman animated treat, Shaun The Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. Plus an uncharacteristically quite-funny Laughter Lift (which we really did need this week…), and all your excellent correspondence. Keep it coming please! You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo. A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts To advertise on this show contact: [e-mail] EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it! Here’s the link for tickets: https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo Timecodes: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:09:51 Resident Evil review 00:20:20 Box Office Top Ten 00:31:52 Juliette Binoche interview 00:48:02 Queen at Sea review 01:00:04 Laughter Lift 01:03:12 Bad Apples review 01:12:38 Shaun The Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom review Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Best thing that's ever happened to you financially. Go. Easy. Sold my car on Carvana. Amazing offer. Really? I hit 200 on a scratcher. Did the scratcher come to your house and hand you a check? No. How many scratchers did you hit to get that? I hit a button on Carvana.com once. Okay, that's fair. It's like the lottery, except you always win.

Not like the lottery at all, actually. Exactly. Inexplicably good. Offer's worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. Some evil thing happened here. Three people die in a quiet suburb in Mississauga, Canada. It's not a coincidence. One after the other.

In the same house. Is this bad luck or something more sinister? The worst investigative mess I've ever encountered. A long simmering what took you so fucking long to get here. From Sony Music Entertainment, This is What Happened to the Harrisons. I'm Amy Dempsey Raven. What Happened to the Harrisons is available now on The Binge.

Search for it wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. Subscribers to the Binge can listen to all episodes, all at once, ad free. Before we begin, a quick reminder that you can become a Vanguard Easter and get an extra episode every Thursday. Including bonus reviews. Extra viewing suggestions. viewing recommendations at home and in cinemas. Plus your film and non-film questions answered as best we can in questions,

Schmestians. You can get all that extra stuff via Apple podcasts or head to extra takes.com for non-fruit-related devices. There's never been a better time to become a Vanguard Easter. Free offer, now available wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're already a Vanguard Easter, we salute you. Well, let's get the very latest on how the Rocking tour of Ireland went because before we go any further, I feel as though we need to know how the gang of three performed. Well, I'll tell you one thing. The tour should have been sponsored by

Vocal Zone because I spent the entire tour protecting my voice with Vocal Zone. I've now just slipped to Vocal Zone in because it is that weird thing about when you get to my age doing three gigs in a row. By the time you get to the third gig, you can barely speak. And when we did the third gig in Kilkenny, I just, you know, I was goggling with honey and lemon and Jack Daniels. No, no, no, no, Jack, you can't. What is the, what's the alcoholic drink that you're, that is meant to be good for your throat? Is it brandy? Jack Daniels. No, whiskey, whiskey absolutely isn't good for your throat. Because it, alcohol dries your throat out anyway. Anyway, the gigs were fab. Absolutely great. Really, really good crowds. Loads of people who

the words to all the songs. Also, loads of people who, you know, who didn't know the album at all. So it was, yeah, it was, it was, it was really good fun. But I'd tell you what, if, if we did three nights, right? So we did Galway, uh, Belfast and Kilkenny. And at the art the road, sack the road. Sack the tour manager. Exactly. At the end of it, we felt like we've been on the road for about four years. And so if that's what three nights feels like, it's no wonder people go crazy where they go on tour for several months. What was the best night? Um, they were all very different. I mean, Belfast, obviously, I'm in Belfast a lot.

I'm back in Belfast very soon because I'm doing Cine Magic and I'm introducing the Devils. And Paul and Janice, our friends live there. So I'm there a lot. Oh, good. Well, Paul and Janice come to my, my, um, my, um, my, uh, and tell the listeners what I sent you a video of. Well, you sent me a video of a crowd in Galway, I think of Gullway, who was shouting something at the phone. I think they were saying hello to me, but then I couldn't hear what they said after that. No, they said, we love you, Simon Mayo. But they had no idea who I was.

They all know who you are. They all know who you are. And then I did the radio show with the gentleman who is going to be interviewing you for Simon Mayo 40 years of broadcasting fun. And he's great. Mattel. Ralph McLean. I can't remember which one it was. Yes, you did that show.

Yeah, it was good. Anyway, so that's good, and he's really looking forward to it. So, yes, people are going to, it's going to be packed. It's going to be sold out. It'll be absolutely sold out. I don't think so. Anyway, it'll be very nice to see however many people do turn up. But are you going on the tour?

Are you going on the road again? Well, probably at some point. So I tell you, weirdly enough, one of the highlights of the thing for me was, after we'd done the Belfast gig, we went back to Paul's house, and it was like 12 o'clock at night, you know, so yeah, rock and roll. And I stood in Paul's kitchen and had a cup of tea. and a piece of toast and that was absolutely lovely. That's how rock and roll we were.

Tea and toast day. That's fantastic. Tea and toast with peanut butter and marmite. It was absolutely fantastic. Peanut butter and marmite is the greatest thing on toast. It's my go-to kind of, I've had a terrible, terrible night. I need a breakfast which is going to set me right. Although this was in the middle of the night.

So I wasn't having a terrible night. I was having a fabulous night because I was having my tea. And oh, and I tell you what, I did something which I've, very rarely do as well. I put a spoonful of sugar in the tea. Did it help the medicine go down? It did. In the mostly lightful way. Later on in this year podcast, Mark will stop gigging and having toast and be performing reviews of these films. Well, it's a really packed show and a very, very different set of films. So we have the new Resident Evil film, which I'm very excited about talking to you about. We have bad apples,

which is a very sort of strange dark school satire. Sean the sheep, the beast of mossy bottom does exactly what it says on the tin, and Queen at Sea, a harrowing drama with our special guest. Juliet Benos, who

is kind of like French film royalty, would you say? I think international film royalty, yeah. And a bonus review in take two, Mark. 50 years of punk. It is 2026. It is 50 years on since 1976, so 50 years of punk. Didn't punk sound kind of stop, really, in 1979?

Well, according to this documentary, it started and finished in 1976. Okay, so it's like a year of punk, 50 years on. Yeah, it's about six months of punk, about 50 years on, yeah, exactly. You can get Take Two ad-free by heading to our Patreon page. You just search Kerman and May of Patreon, and you'll find us there, all willing and able. If you want to send us an email, correspondence at codemail.com. Julian says, dear Brad and Donald, medium-term listener, second-time emailer, I've greatly enjoyed the recent correspondence about in-car coffee-making equipment.

Yes. I know plagiarism is frowned upon, but life is short, and the subject too important not to share this fascinating nugget, synthesized entirely by chatGBT or chat GBAH, as my beloved calls it. which it probably will be from now on. So I'm automatically suspicious, Gillian, this is a summary made by the blob that is going to kill us all very shortly.

Modern British, so this is the chat GBAH summary. Okay. Modern British tanks and many other armoured vehicles are fitted with a boiling vessel, a BV, capital B, capital V, an electric water heater that allows crews to make hot drinks and heat rations without leaving the safety of the vehicle. vehicle. The system was introduced after the Second World War when it became clear that crews brewing tea on improvised petrol burners outside their tanks were making themselves highly

vulnerable targets. You would have thought they might have thought of that. From late war tanks such as the Centurion onwards internal boiling vessels became standard equipment. Today's systems, including those fitted to the Challenger 2, run from the vehicle's electrical supply and provide hot water for drinks, ration packs and even basic washing facilities. Manufacturers describe them as water and ration heaters rather than dedicated tea machines, but the military importance of a reliable brew should not be underestimated. The humble BV has become a vital morale-boosting piece of kit, enabling crews to eat, drink, and maintain a semblance of civilisation while remaining under armour.

How about that? And his sign-off is, Ticky Tee Tank Tickety Tank Tinkety Tank Tinky Tinket Tink Tickety Tink Tink. It's like Tinkety Tink

Tickety Tank. Anyway, would you welcome a boiling vessel in your, if you're on the road, for example, with your Gang of Three Chums? Yes. Would an internal boiling vessel

help? Do you think? It would. And what would make it even better will be a toaster. So you've got your internal boiling vessel and then something to cook the toast on. Can I ask you a question?

You said that thing about they discovered that having people outside the tank boiling something made them a target, right? Cruise brewing tea on improvised petrol burners outside the tank. Exactly. Neither you nor I smoke. But you know sometimes you see that thing in movies

that somebody is holding a seat. often somebody who's quite tough. They're holding a cigarette. They're not holding it sticking out from their fingers. They're holding it in their fingers with the lighted bit sort of facing in. Cuped in their hand. Cuped in their hand. And I said to somebody once, what's that about?

They said, oh, it's an army thing. Is it? Said, yeah, it's an army thing because you do it because that way you can't see the glow. So it doesn't make you a target. Have you ever heard that before? No, I hadn't heard that. I think I'd assumed it was to protect. protect it from the wind?

Well, I mean, listen, this may not be true, and I'm not going to ask chat GBAH, because as you said, there is a temperature chance that is trying to kill us. But I was told that it's a way of stopping the glow so that you can't be, you can't be spotted by a sniper. And I just thought it was an incredibly cool fact. I mean, it's just one of those things that stuck in my head. I just wondered whether you knew it was true because you seemed to know lots of things. No, no, no. I don't, I'm sure our very intelligent listenership will know,

but, you know, don't smoke, obviously, because it's stupid thing for you. But also, you would think there's no real reason for holding it, cupping it in your hand other than your own personal security. Yeah, exactly. It reminds me of the line from the Scrutti-Politi first album, he held it like a cigarette behind the squadies back. He held it so he hid its length and so he hid its lack.

Okay, very good. Scruti Politi, don't get a lot of references on this particular show. Correspondence at KonaMo.com, if there's a better line, or if you can explain, if there is another reason. Or maybe Mark is exactly right, and he's raised the issue, and he's got the answer already. If it's going to keep you from a sniper, it seems like a very good reason to hide your cigarette habit. Speaking of which, Resident Evil. What can you tell us about this?

Okay, so, second rebrand. boot and eighth film in the Resident Evil film series based on the Resident Evil video game franchise. Now, I don't play video games or I've watched Child to play video games. You have very little experience of video games? Yeah, very little. In fact, nothing since Golden Eye. Okay, fine. So you've never played Resident Evil?

I've never played Resident Evil. No, no. Okay. But I have reviewed all the Resident Evil films. on our show over the years. Because they date back to 2002, Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil. Then he was writer and producer for Resident Evil Apocalypse,

Resident Evil Extinction, came back as director for Resident Evil Afterlife, Retribution, and Final Chapter. Those films all had Mila Jovovich's Alice, who was a character who was created for the films. She was like this covert agent, and she was like super heroic, but she was created for the films

and she was she was battling the umbrella corporation and their bioweapons, which have triggered a zombie apocalypse. Then that came to an end. Then in 2021, there was a reboot, Welcome to Raccoon City with Kaya Skodilario. And that was directed by Johannes Roberts.

And I thought it was kind of okay, but according to the Hollywood reporter, it was a commercial and critical flop. And the franchise took a further knock in 2020, when Netflix canceled the Resident Evil TV series after one season. So the movies have been a very mixed bag, but up until this one, they had grossed something like $1.2 billion.

The Resident Evil series was at one point the highest grossing film series based on a video game and the highest grossing horror film series and the highest grossing zombie film series, but that was a while back. Now, Resident Evil being rebooted for a second time, but guess who's at the helm this time. Zach Kregor, director of Barbarian and Weapons.

Oh, okay, well, so suddenly. Precisely. Suddenly, it's like, okay, so we mean business. So this new film is directed by Craigor, it's written by Craigor and Chey Hatton. It's an original story. It is apparently set in the Resident Evil universe

during events which play out in the same time frame as the Resident Evil 2 game, but updated. Okay, so Austin Abrams is Brian, who is a medical courier, who we meet him having just discovered that his girlfriend is pregnant, and we meet him delivering or trying to deliver a package in an overstretched hospital. He's got this medical package, but nobody is taking it off him. He should go home to his girlfriend to discuss what they're going to do. Instead, he gets offered another delivery job.

It's a double pay job because it involves taking something in a medical bag, up into the snowy mountains, up to Raccoon City. As he decides, I'm going to do this because it's a double pay, it's a super thing, and I'll make money out of it. As he drives, the snow gets worse, visibility gets low, and then somebody rushes out in front of the car, and he hits them. Here is a clip from the trailer. Hey, man, I got to be seven.

Do you know where I can take this? Excuse me, I got, oh my God. Anybody order a kidney or liver, whatever this is. Anybody. It seems like it's kind of important. Hey, you got time for another run? No, I'm wrapped up for the... It's outside the zone so it pays double.

I can do that. Sweetart, I'm sorry, this signal sucks here. Can you hear me? I'm going to stay with Katie for a bit, I think. Michelle, please do not go stay with freaking Katie. I'll still hurt my feelings that you don't even care enough to come home and have this conversation. Seriously, I'm working. This could be some eight-year-old boy's heart or someone's mom's brain. So, the person rushes out in front of the car gets hit very badly, very, very very, very, very,

badly wounded, but they don't die. On the contrary, they come back and they come back fighting, as does everyone else, because this place is the epicenter of a bioengineered outbreak that causes organisms to mutate and regenerate in increasingly outlandish, zombieified fashion. Turns out that the package that he's got is the antidote, and he must deliver it to a medical scientific centre, which is at the very, very top of a tall tower in the middle of the city, encountering en route all manner of mayhem. Now, Zach Craig himself said this is very different to his previous films. And his previous movies have been, like,

they've got a lot of emotional and political complexity. I mean, you and I talked an awful lot about what weapons meant, about, you know, what was going on, what, you know, what was the subtext of it. If you're looking for that kind of emotional, political complexity, you're not going to find it here. And nor are you going to find the kind of pulling the rug out from undue, surprises of Barbarian. What you are going to get is an absolutely no-holes barred rollercoaster

romp that melds the sort of first-person shooter action of a video game with the visual weirdness of a film like John Carpenter's The Thing and the humor of Crager's earlier comedy works. And honestly, it is pedal to the metal stuff. It's 95 minutes long. It's stripped down. It's got great central performance. Top support, incidentally, from the likes of Carly Rice, and Paul Walter Hauser, Paul Walter Hauser, who was a guest on this show a few years ago, and he was great. He was a really, really good guest, but he's got a good role to play here.

Incidentally, word to the wise, in this film, just because you recognize someone and they're famous, doesn't mean they're not toast. Greger has described this film as a love letter to the games, because apparently he played the games and was a big fan. And he compared it tonally to Sam Ramey's Evil Dead 2, which I've talked about quite a lot of being like the epitom me of slapstick splatter. I mean, you know, Ramey himself said of the Evil Dead movies,

they offer the three stooges with blood and gut standing in for custard pies. But Craigor really know, I mean, he really knows how to do a pulse racing chase scene. He really knows how to do leap out of your seat jump scares. I mean, on a technical level he's second to none, it does help that the central character is a clutz. And one of the central jokes is he has no knowledge of firearms. And obviously the situation he's in requires a lot of lot of knowledge of firearms. And so he's constantly messing up and falling over and dropping things like a kind of comedy stooge character. And there's a, there's quite a funny thing in it, which is that you remember the opening of four weddings and a funeral in which it's Hugh Grant's trying

to get out of the house because he's realized that he's late for something. And he's basically just swearing, yes. Posh swearing, exactly. Well, there is quite a lot of that, although it's not posh swearing. It's just sort of, you know, young American swearing. But it is funny because it goes on for quite a long time, because he just keeps dropping things and not being able to put the stuff together. So he's kind of epitome of the underdog hero. The best thing, however, is the monster designs. I mean, you know, they've got obviously nowadays we're in a world of like up to the minute, you know, VFX.

But watching this, I was really sort of put in mind of the plastic scrunginess. We were talking about screaming mad George recently. The plastic scrunginess of Screaming Mad George's work on society or Rob Boutin's creations. And I mentioned, you know, John Carlin. is the thing, which is that's very kind of plastic reality. That's all done, you know, that's physical stuff. And there is a real fleshy quality to the monsters on screen here. There's also more than a touch of the Stuart Gordon reanimator movies. I mean, particularly when they get to the science lab, and it does look like the kind of,

the sort of B-movie set of one of those Stuart Gordon films. And it's got a generally gleeful attitude toward bodily mutation. And it was funny as I was watching it. I was thinking, And on the basis of this, I can imagine Zach Craig are having a really good crack at remaking Frank Henan Lottes' basket case and doing something interesting with it. I mean, it's got old-fashioned mutant monster appeal, which I really like. But it's a very, very up-to-the-minute post-video game era filmmaking. So it manages to be both a really good film and a really good video game adaptation. One funny thing about it was, I read an interview with Craigger in which he said that after the first preview screening, He took a lot of the jokes out because people were finding it too funny.

Well, I have to say, I found it funny in the same way as I find Evil Dead funny or Evil Dead Too funny. I thought it was just an absolute romp and it's 95 minutes long and it chews you up and spits you out the other end and it's got a proper bonzo finale and I really enjoyed it. And it is like we're in a whole different level when it comes to Resident Evil adaptations. It's a romp. And I think you'd enjoy it to. What is a bonzo finale?

I don't want to, I don't want to, I mean, it's like throw everything at the screen in the finale. Kitchen sink finale. Yeah, kitchen sink finale, but done well. Is it about anything? No. You said these are always about something. Yeah, I mean, it is about something. It is about the kind of, you know, it is about being a roller coaster thrill ride.

That is what it's about. And I think that's what Craiga meant when he said it's very different to his previous films, which were very consciously about something. I mean, specifically weapons. You know, there is so much written about what weapons is about. But this is about, you know, that video game you really enjoyed? Well, get a load of this. Okay, that sounds like a contender for movie of the week,

which would be a very interesting thing. box office top 10 do we need do we need some ads yes let's say let's take some ads unless of course you don't get ads in which case we'll move on to the box office top 10 but for everyone else here's some important messages do you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life you know the same way you can skip an ad i get it i'm siaya and i live in ice cove i've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way i planned and today i'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays

on CBC Gem. Some evil thing happened here. Three people die in a quiet suburb in Mississauga, Canada. It's not a coincidence. One after the other. In the same house. Is this bad luck? or something more sinister. The worst investigative mess I've ever encountered. A long simmering what took you so fucking long to get here. From Sony Music Entertainment, this is What Happened to the Harrisons. I'm Amy Dempsey Raven. What Happened to the Harrisons is available now on The Binge.

Search for it wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. Subscribers to The Binge can listen to all episodes, All at once, ad-free. Well, that was fun. Now, the box office top 10. Here we go. Oh, we're starting at number 10. It's slightly surprising.

Number 10 is Coyote v. Acme. Which I think would make a very good double-bill partner with the new Resident Evil film because it's the same, again, it's the sort of slapstick stuff, which I really enjoy. And I thought Coyote v. Acme was really good fun. And we should point out, once again, this is the film that the studio didn't want you to see.

They wanted to write it off as a tax loss. And I'm really glad it's got into cinemas because it's terrific. Number nine, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the 45th anniversary 4K reissue. Yeah, I mean, it's odd to think that Raids of the Lost Dark is 45 years old. It just makes me feel very, very old. But, you know, it's a film which has stood the test of time, certainly more so than some of the other Indiana Jones films. Number eight is Runner.

Which is kind of all right. You know, it's sort of mid-range actioner with O. Wilson, Alan Richardson. It's, it is, this is the latest from Angel Studios, who we've talked about before, they were kind of, the sort of faith-based studio who are kind of trying more and more to move into the mainstream,

and it doesn't get much more mainstream than this. Isn't there another movie out called The Runner? That's a different film. That could be confusing, though, couldn't it? I don't think that's out at the moment. There has been a film called The Runner, but this isn't that. So this is Runner.

So if anyone is watching the new, Jack Reacher series on Netflix every single time. Is it Netflix or is it Prime Video? I think it's Prime Video. Yes, it's Prime Video. Every time it breaks for one of those incredibly long ad breaks, they're advertising this movie that you're talking about. So it goes from Jack Reacher to another Jack Reacher

and then another Jack Reacher all the way through. So it doesn't really change at all. He was interviewed recently. Who was? Your man, Alan, thingy. thing thingy him Alan Titchmarch? Alan Richson. Alan Richson, who plays Jack Reacher

in the series. No, that's Alan Titchmarsh. That's definitely Alan Tichmarsh who does that. Okay, Alan, imagine that if Alan Titchmarch is actually playing Jack Riech. Anyway, the other Alan did a big number on Trump. It was amazing. So I was thinking, oh, okay.

What did he say? I couldn't possibly. But, you know, it was full on. It was a Jack Ritcher-esque, kind of rant. So runners at number eight. Number seven is insidious out of the further. And I still haven't.

I mean, that's it. I haven't. I haven't. I haven't. There's too much out and life is too short. Are you ever going to see out of the further? No. I'll see it when it comes to, I know, but I'll see it when it comes to streaming. But I just, I sort of, it's one that I just sort of feel like I've seen it anyway, but I know I haven't,

but it feels like I have. Anyway, Fall 2 is at number six. Colin Scott, yes. It says just back from Fall 2 and was hugely disappointed. Almost everything that made the first film worth watching was absent. The heights didn't feel as high. The relationship between the protagonist was shallow, and the twisty plot stuff towards the end was both unnecessary

and blindingly obvious from early on. Sadly, I don't have any hopes now for the third film that was set up such a shame after the first installment. Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. The plot twists are completely, you go, yes, saw that coming, absolutely. But I disagree with you about the heights thing. I mean, this is certainly aided by the fact that I am terrified of heights. By two great terrors, heights and being buried alive. That's it. So the worst thing I could possibly happen to me is I could be buried alive at a great height. Unlikely. But, you know, one can dream. But I did spend.

an awful lot of fall two just because I'm absolutely terrified of heights, feeling that thing, you know, the feeling in your stomach of, you know, and I did actually find myself saying out loud, it's only a movie, it's only a movie, it's only a movie, and it didn't work. UK number five, number two in America's Spider-Man brand-new day. Just that, this and Odyssey between them have pretty much sort of put cinema attendances back on the map. So it's so good for them. I liked brand-new day and I liked Odyssey, which is for, we'll probably have more discussion about both of them in the overflow car park. But they have, between them, really, really put bums on seats.

Last week's movie of the week, pressure is at number three. CJ says, blooming brilliant, really tense, you really felt the pressure. Brendan Fraser and Kerry Condon were great, but Andrew Scott, what a performance. And Chris L, or possibly one, says very much enjoyed it, but yet again, the actual D-Day landing show, only American solace. on the beach and in the ships, would it have hurt for a British film to show gold and sword beaches as well as the Canadians on Juno? Oh, okay, so it shows Canadians as well as Americans, but it doesn't show prints. Anyway, pressure's at number three. I liked pressure a lot. It's funny

because I was talking to the good lady professor her indoors just this morning, and she had been driving to and from Exeter, and she listened to our review of pressure and said, well, I really want to see it now, which I'm glad about, because I did like it. But the The line in it, which is the funniest line, I know it's not a comedy, it's a drum, but there is a very funny line in which Brendan Fraser's Eisenhower says, you know, look, I need to know what the weather's going to be, what the weather's going to be like.

And Andrew Scott's character, the meteorologist, says, well, I fear that you're asking me something which is a scientific impossibility. You know, for long-range forecasting can only ever be guesswork. And he says, it's not long range, it's Monday. And Richard Scott says, you're in Northern Europe, anything after tomorrow is long range. Very good. Number two here, number 14 in America is Oasis.

Don't Look Back in Anger. Carl Webster says, to paraphrase Noel Gallagher, on the reaction of the comeback tour crowds, I never expected such an outpouring of joy and emotion. Don't Look Back in Anger is one of the most consistently moving illustrations of what French sociologist Emil de Kame called collective evascence that I've ever seen. Almost every crowd scene found me overwhelmed

and sobbing like a Christian at the rapture. So I would just like to compliment Carl for, I've never heard that as a phrase, sobbing like a Christian at the rapture. I'm not 100% sure it works. But also, I haven't heard of sociologist Emil Dirkham, but collective effervescence, I do like as a phrase. It's great.

I mean, the film won me over, and I had gone in quite cynically because I'm not the biggest Oasis fan. And I do think as a piece of filmmaking, it's fairly, you know, it's fairly by numbers. But there is something, I mean, those songs are bangers. And there is something about just seeing the, you know, seeing the brothers put old grievances behind them and go on stage all around the world holding hands together. And certainly the film focuses on that collective effervescence of the crowd, you know, people just in tears because Oasis about. on stage in front of them playing those songs.

So I think the film works. And the number one film here and over there is Practical Magic 2. Kirstie says, I watched Practical Magic 2 before listening to your review. And while I agree with many of your criticisms, I absolutely loved it. For many, mainly women of a certain age, practical magic was not a forgotten film or book.

And when you began your review by saying it was a forgotten movie with a sequel no one asked for, I suspected we were going to differ. The film was not for you, you lovely chaps, and that's fine. The film was for me, and that is a rarity after sitting through endless trailers where women don't really speak, a semi-naked, being the McGuffin at best and not the main character. This film featured women of my age, albeit with fairly immobile faces, problems that didn't revolve around drugs, gangs, punching, and all things fairly sad.

There was also a fairly naked, Lee Pace. Thank you very much. Yes, we all laughed heartily at the train, the bus, and we were outraged. It was an apple pie and not a crumble, but me and my coven agreed that it was complete nonsense, and we loved it as it was for us. I'm really glad. I said during the review that one of the things that I get accused of is liking things because they align politically. And I said, this is a perfect example of why that statement is a load of old hooey. Because all the things that you've just said, I agree with.

it is a film by four and about women in a period when those things are spectacularly rare. And on that basis, I should have loved it and I didn't. And you're quite right to say, you said, you know, maybe it's just, we'll differ because it's not, because you're not the target audience. And I understand that completely. I wish it had been a better film. I wish that it had not, you know, that the writing had been better, that the plot was. wasn't as mechanical as it was, that the characterizations weren't as paper thin as they were.

But I absolutely, firstly, I'm delighted that you went and you had a really good time and that you went with a group of people who had an equally good time. That's terrific. I just wish it was a better film than it is, but I absolutely hear and agree with what you're saying about. How many of these do we have? And the answer is, sadly few, because it isn't a film in which a bunch of men run around punching each other and blowing things up. And that is something of a rarity. Correspondence at covenomero.com. There's more of that in the overflow car park.

And in just a moment, it's our special guest. And if you don't get the ads, then that special moment is upon us already. So our guest today is Juliet Benos, one of France's most celebrated actors with a career spanning more than four decades and over 60 films. rendezvous, the unbearable lightness of being the English patient, Chocolat, the Return, which, as you know, is a reimagining of Homer's Odyssey. There's a thing, in which Benosh stars as Penelope alongside Ray Fines as Odysseus, and now she stars in Queen at Sea, alongside Tom Courtney and Anna called Marshall,

which follows a middle-aged woman struggling with her mother's dementia. You can hear my conversation with Juliet after this clip. What are you doing? I'm not leaving her. You can't be here. They find you here. We've... They've reported this to social services.

Someone's coming by tomorrow at 10. You can't be here when they're here. Coming about to do what? And that is a clip from Queen at Sea. Juliet Benosh. Welcome to the show. Thank you. How are you?

I'm good. Thank you. How are you? Yes, I'm doing very well. Very tired. Tired? Yeah, I woke up at quarter to four, and I watched some of your dance movie, which we're going to get to in a bit, which is the second Juliet-Binosh film, which is out.

But introduce us to Queen at Sea, introduce us to this story. Oh, wow. I'm not sure I'm very good at that, but Lance Hammer, our director, went into, chose to talk about a difficult subject matter, which is about how do you take care of, of older people in our world. And also the topic being my mother in the story having an intercourse with my stepfather. And she has dementia and is it possible without her consent to have sex?

And so the law says you cannot have sex. But of course, when you're in a loving relationship with you've been married for 20 years, how can you stop suddenly wanting to be, you know, expressing you love through a sexual relationship? And so the subject is big and the questions, there are many of them, because where is the truth of it all, it's very difficult to answer. Yes. Because it's a blurry kind of line when it comes down to intimacy, to love, to the law and dementia. So as you play Amanda and Anna Calder Marshall is your mother.

And so it's a very shocking opening. But then the other shocking thing is that you decide to report your stepfather to the police. Well, it's a reaction because when I see, he knows it's forbidden. It's been happening before. And so when she suddenly sees that it's still happening, she does, she's so so parallel. She doesn't know what to do. And so she thinks. Okay, to stop that and to protect my mother,

what I should be doing is to call the police. And that's what Amanda's doing. And it's very violent, but at the same time, she doesn't know how to deal with it anymore. And the interesting thing with this film is that you have, at the same time, it's very soft feelings between the characters and at the same time it's pretty violent too, because you don't know how to deal with it.

When your character Amanda reports this to the police, what does she want to happen? What does she expect to happen as a result of the moment? She wants her stepfather to stop. She doesn't know what she's going into. And that's a big surprise in the film is that it takes another kind of state that suddenly her parents' place or her mother's place with a stepfather becomes a crime place. So they're not allowed to go back to that place anymore because the police is taking over and the institutions are taking over.

It's the process. It's a very kind of a mechanic in a way. It's not human anymore. But that's the way the process is. And so that's why she's wondering whether she made the right decision or not. And she's lost. As the stepfather is lost as well, Tom Courtney's character.

So Martin and Leslie, as we mentioned, Tom Courtney and Anna called a Marshall, two incredible actors to extraordinary performances, who apparently played Hamlet. He was Hamlet and she was aphelia in 1968. That's incredible. I don't think they'd acted since. What was it? Did you, were you familiar with Anna? Were you familiar with Tom? I was familiar with Tom. Because I had seen 45 years. And I was, I was familiar with Tom. And I was familiar with Tom. And I was, you familiar with Tom. And I was familiar. I didn't know about Annie, but we talked about Wethering Heights because she played when with Weathering Heights and I did as well with rape fines many years ago. So we had that in common. But as soon as I, Annie was on board of, I felt like very close to her and to Tom as well. I mean, we really bond, had a real wonderful bond together. And we were all, I think, what united us is the need of expressing truth, of exposing truth. truth, of exploring truth throughout the story.

It was a phrase you used in another interview turning suffering into knowledge, which I thought feels appropriate. Yeah. You said that you said yes to this straight away. Why was your reaction so strong to this? Well, because when I read the script, I felt it was, it really was talking about the subject that usually you don't see in films because it's put it on the side, because we don't want to talk about this,

because it's about dementia, it's about older people, it's about, you know, close, you know, coming to death area. And so all those questions are put, you know, usually your... And also I loved it because it was about the intimacy, but also about the different ways of loving. There's the love between the two characters of my mother and stepfather, of course, but also the love between my stepfather and my stepfather, and me, the stepdaughter, that is we're learning to love each other with our differences

and different points of view. And, you know, we're both trying to protect her and his character in different ways. As a husband, he wants to protect her and not sending her to institutions and sending her to this kind of this sort of persecution. In a way, and I want to protect my mother because I feel like she's in danger. When we've discussed dementia in movies over the years, it only occurred to me this morning that there's always been a French angle to the film. So Florian Zella, when he was directing the father, that was one.

But also, Mia Hansen Lerver came on the show talking about a bon matins on fine morning, which was a very personal film for her. I know you've worked with her before, about getting her, the story inspired by getting her father a place in the nursing home. So that even though the bureaucracies are different, the police are different, the social services are different, the story of a middle-aged person trying to get their parent into the right nursing home. We don't know how to do it. None of us know how to do it. No, it's horrible. But that is an international story.

Absolutely. And I think any story should be international. That's why whether Lance was making this film in America or in England or in France or anywhere else, it doesn't matter. It's how do we stay human in a place where you don't know how to behave? You don't know how to adapt yourself in a situation like this. And you're discovering as you're going through it. And I know myself, you know, and that's why probably it touched me because I myself in my life, I was going through a father who was disliked. into being ill, losing track of time and space.

You know, it was not exactly the Alzheimer illness, but it was close to it. And plus having, you know, cancer. And I was having a son who was, you know, coming into love and sex life and all that. And so there was the descending and the, you know, ascending kind of energies and, and problems, and I was caught in between it,

I didn't know how to deal with it, and the fact I had a script that was close to that, and having a director like Lance being so open and needing to have somebody with him to believe that, you know, this film could happen, was just a present for me. And I love the fact that Lance is not being pressured by time or money or things like that.

He wants to be independent. And I love that because I think this kind of films and directors and producer and producer as well is, you know, even though we had shot the film, he took his time to edit, he made a family, he got married, you know, he took the time of life. And he had that freedom of doing it. And I thought it was just beautiful to see how it was supposed. it together at the end of the day. I do want to ask you about your directorial debut in I In Motion, which is also up. Before we get there, we're just on directing. Am I right that you say on set

that the first three takes you would like to do them the way you want to do them? In other words, you're kind of directing yourself. Is that right? Well, a lot of times you're directing yourself because that's part of, you know, what an act to do. He has to be in touch with what's happening in him and yet being going into the unknown. We write through our emotions, our spirit, our bodies, our feelings, our guts, are the spirit that's coming to you. You know, you have to be connected to places that are invisible somehow. You're recreating life. So, of course, you have to back and forth, back and forth.

You know, it's in the inside and how do you expose it? Expose it. And that's a question of volume. And with the director, you know, he's in touch with you as well because he's really looking and his feeling and is. you know, listening and all that, but most of directors, great ones, they let you explore what's happening in you, because you don't know, you're discovering as you're going, but you just got to throw yourself into it and risk something that you don't know. Because if you try to control, it's a machine can do that, but not the human kinds is your cells have to

be in touch with another kind of level. And so Lenz was just, um, I said this to him, so he can relax for three takes and not jump on you and thinking, I've got to control this, I've got to make sure this, I've got to make sure that. But still, he has his ideas because when he was writing, he had, you know, a sort of a vision or a feeling about what he wants. But, of course, you know, you want to be inspired by your actors or by your DP, how he's lighting and everything, because there's an artist in each of us, in each, you know, know, inside it, that needs to come across with what you wrote, what the story is.

And so I usually ask that with directors, it's like the first three ones, it's with me, because I don't know what's coming. I don't know what it is, but it's been cooking in me during the time I was learning the lines and imagining and feeling and being in touch with what, you know, where it's going. but it needs to birth. It's lovely, actually, I think, to work that way. I mean, of course, sometimes it's not as, you know, three and two, and it's not like that.

And when a director, you know, sometimes they jump on you because they know what they're feeling, I'm very much open to, so sometimes... I bet they use your take, though. Huh? I bet they use one of the first three takes normally. As the directors. Yeah.

You'll have the answer. And of course, you are the director for In-I-in-Motion. It's your directorial debut. Just tell us what we need to know about it. I've seen it about half an hour of it. There's another 90 minutes to go. I am exhausted. Oh, it's not supposed to exhaust you.

It's supposed to give you actually the need of creating. Because he can't act and you can't dance. Is that the starting point? And then you get together and then you find that actually you can. I wouldn't say that like. You want to learn a new art form. Right. So there's a dancer in you, even though you haven't danced before.

And there's an actor in you, even you never worked as an actor. I think there's a creator in us, in each of us. Now you have to be daring to open up and feel a little ridiculous sometimes, and daring to learn and not know and be humbled by it. And then bit by bit, you learn something. But of course, when you have somebody helping you, like Susan Batson, who's an acting coach and who's in the film, Simmons Hughes was our rehearsal director and was helping me and was my trainer every day.

And being in front of Akram Kahn, who knows so much about, you know, movement. It's you're learning something new. And I think life is about transformation. It's about going into the new. And being, you know, opening. yourself into something new. You're not, you're not born in one single road. Then something you can enlarge fields of possibilities. And I believe that you can, you can dare something new. Did you direct Ray Fines recently in a short film? That must have been fun. Yeah. Well, actually, I

started to shoot in a short film I wrote, but then the producer I had, did Dick. couldn't find the money. And then I'm thinking of finding the money myself. And Ray've played in it graciously for friendship. And he's wonderful in it. And Anish Kapoor is supposed to be in it. Because I was editing for two, two years and putting the film together. I put it aside for a while. And now I want to go back to it. So we'll see if Anish still want to be part of it and if I can find the money. Final question. And we're well over time. Is it more difficult to get films made now? Oh yeah. Definitely. Yeah. It's more difficult. Yeah. Because I think platforms has been really making cinema a hard life. And but I think probably people are,

are going to be bored in watching TV series, you know, because it's not shot the same way. And I think cinema belongs to cinema because it's, it's an art form. And to have the concentration of film is a different experience than having a long, addictive kind of, you know, story that it's, they're made in order for you to need to have another one. And it feels to me that, you know, the addiction is not always a good sign. Juliet Benoche, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Juliet Benosh talking amongst other things about her new movie Queen at Sea. Now, before Mark does the review and we talk about the film, We should say, this does come up every now and again. It all depends on timetables and superstars availability. That interview was done tomorrow. So I haven't done the interview and Mark hasn't heard it. So all those great points that Juliet mentioned,

we probably won't be mentioning because we don't know what she's just said. But anyway, so you're slightly ahead of us. So that to one side, Mark, what did you think of Queen at Sea? Well, thanks for clarifying that. I'm going to presume that in the interview that they've just heard, but we haven't done yet, that Juliet Binosh has done a lot of setting up. But since I don't know how much she did, just to recap, okay? So this is a harrowing drama written and directed by Lance Hammer. Juliette Binoche plays Amanda, who is a mom who lives and works in Newcastle where she has university tenure. She's in London with her teenage daughter, Sarah, visiting her mother and stepfather. Leslie and Martin, played by Anna Calder Marshall and Tom Courtney. And in an early scene, Amanda and Sarah walk into the apartment and walk into the bedroom where they find Martin on top of Leslie. And Leslie, who has advanced dementia, has a look on her face that seems horrified.

And Amanda immediately berates Martin, telling me that we've talked to this has to stop. Apparently, they've seen a doctor who has told them that Leslie cannot consent. And what he is doing is assault. And she says, you have to promise that you won't do this again. And he says, you can't ask me that. She's my wife. This is what we do. And it's something that she wants.

It is intimacy and she wants it. And Amanda is so outraged. This all happens in the opening act of the film. Yeah. That she calls the police. and she calls the police to report an assault and they arrive, turn the bedroom into a crime scene and the next thing is that Martin is arrested and led off

and as he's led off he says, I'm being arrested for having sex with my wife. And the rest of the drama is essentially and just jump in at any point and correct me if you think I'm mischaracterising it. It is a kind of descent into domestic hell that raises really distressing questions. about age, about dementia, about consent, about the nature of sex and the nature of assault,

of love, of coercion, of dependency and of abandonment. I mean, the first thing to say quite clearly from those subjects, it's, I mean, it is not a bunch of laughs. It made me think, obviously, this will be a comparison which many will make, of Michael Hanukas and more. And That was a film about a loving couple, one of whom succumbs to dementia, leaving the other taking sole care of them. And in that film, there's a character, a daughter played by Isabel Uper, who wants her mother to be put in a home. And the husband said, no, she's not going in her home. She is staying here with me. You only want to put her in a home because it's better for you, effectively.

and there are echoes of that plot in what's happening in Queen at Sea. Incidentally, on the subject of, and you may have discussed this with Juliet Binoch, about what Queen at Sea means, but the director said it's like the image of the matriarch being in a vulnerable position, being at sea, but also he had an image of a monarch in a battleship. So there's two different things going on. There is vulnerability on the one hand, but there is also. some form of sort of, you know, independence. The difference, the difference between this film and Amor,

the Michael Hanukkah film for me, is that tonally, I mean, look, I, as many people do, have firsthand experience of dealing with a loved one who has had Alzheimer's, and many people listening to this will be in exactly the same situation. There were times watching this that I thought, This makes Amor look like airplane in terms of just how unrelentingly grim it is. And that is both a praise and a criticism.

So let me be absolutely clear. The reason the film is so distressing is that it is completely believable. The performances are convincing to the point that I had to, you know, I said when I was watching Fall 2, I said to myself, keep telling you, it's only a movie, it's only a movie. there were times watching Queen at Sea when I had to say to myself, they're just acting. They're just acting. This isn't actually happening. They're just acting.

And that is an absolute, you know, that's what an actor is meant to. I believed in the performances so much that even though I know Tom Courtney and I know Juliette Binoche, I believe that they were the people that they were playing. The performances, I mean, particularly by Courtney and Calder Marshall, are impeccable and fearless. And in Berlin, it won the Silver Bear for best supporting performances for those two, for Courtney and Calder Marshall, and deservedly so, because I think their performances are amazing. And I really did find myself, I'm not just saying this, I really did find myself saying to them. They're just acting. They're just acting. It's not actually happening. They're just acting.

You've got to be pretty brave to play some of those scenes, and they acquit themselves admirably. The film also dares to go where many similar dramas, don't. I mean, the subject of elder sexuality is so taboo that outside of something like Anne Reid's brilliant performance in The Mother, which was way, way back, it's really hard to think of many dramas that take that subject on and don't do so in a way which is, you know, to be laughed at or to be, you know, the subject of comedy or something that they take it seriously. So, 100% applaud it to the filmmakers for making me believe in. this world. The problem, and I don't know, I'd like to know how you feel about this, is that it is so

relentlessly grim, it's hard to recommend it to anyone, particularly anyone, and there are so many people who this is the case, whose lives have been touched by, you know, by Alzheimer's. Now, I can imagine that you could see it and go, oh yeah, okay, this is speaking to me because I really think that these issues need to be addressed, and I can see that it's truthful. And it's also the way in which it deals with questions of consent and intimacy and all those things, really complicated things, it does so in a way which is really sincere and brave and important. There is an issue that there is a parallel story, which is happening with the daughter,

which I found less convincing, because there's three generations of women in this story. And the parallel story of what's happening to the young girl who's in London and hanging out with and making new friends, I can see why it's there because it's kind of reminding you that these people were all young once and these people had a different life once. I just had that part of the drama struck a more convincing note, I think it might have been something of a counterbalance. I mean, as it is, I found it really, really painful to watch. And as I said, that is both a, it is both a criticism and perhaps the ultimate praise is that I just found bits of it unbearable. I should also say that I think the ending is a misstep. Because without giving away the ending, sorry, Simon.

Yeah, sorry, sorry, but that was unintentional. but if you've seen the film, you know. Because I just thought it was like, okay, enough, enough, enough. Tell me what you thought. On Sunday, I went to see De Gaulle, Resistence, and I enjoyed it enormously. And I went with a friend, both of whose parents died with dementia, with Alzheimer's. I'm blurring that just because I can't remember which specifically.

But anyway, sure. and he said there is no way I'm going to be watching that. And it then made me think, well, who is going to be saying that? And in as much, I agree with everything that you said, it is immaculately acted. Juliet Ben O'Shea is great. Tom Courtney and Anna Calder Marshall Art, extraordinary in doing what they do. But it was just so relentlessly grim and getting worse. And then at the end, an ending which I thought was completely unnecessary

and just magnified the awfulness of everything. I wondered who I could recommend it to, really. So I can admire, and I do admire it. Yes. And the performances are great, and they have tackled. a very difficult area, but I had to pause it halfway through to go and have a cup of tea and have a metaphorical biscuit, whatever it was, just to break the mood, and then it got worse. So it may well be that if you are in a position similar to Juliet Benosh, and I think

the daughter was there, in as much as it's important that Juliet Benosch's character is that sandwich generation. Is that the right term? So she's looking after a teenage kid and she's looking after a parent with dementia. Yes. With all of that. So she's coping with all of that. But that, it doesn't really lighten the load. And I found it pretty unbearable.

And I do think because I want to be clear about this. I think the end is a mistake. I don't think anything up until the end is a mistake. I think everything else is valid. And even as I'm saying these, I mean, this is what films ought to be doing. They ought to address this kind of really difficult material. And it's great that it's a film that takes this subject seriously.

I think the end is a melodramatic mistake. So who are we recommending this for? Well, I would say if you're a film lover, from a film-making point of view, it's a very important film. I think from the point of view of the performances on screen, These are, these are like, I mean, Tom Courtney is astonishing. Col de Marshall is terrific, you know. I mean, it's a weird.

You've got a film in which Juliet Benosh is almost the least impressive of the three people. And she's, I think she's one of the greatest actors ever to have been captured on film. I, you know. But it is a really, really tough watch. And I think that it ends up, slaps up. you in the face in a way that did not feel necessary. We should have Tom Courtney on the show again,

and then he can just give away the entire plot. That's it. They can just do that. All the way through, which is what was that film that he did it for? He did it for, was it 45 years? He was an old person having sex in that film as well. Anyway.

Yeah, so that was a very memorable interview, wasn't it, when Tom came in and was laughing and chuckling all the way through and telling us everything about the film. Everything about the end of the film. That's all he talked about was the end of the film. Yeah. Anyway, Juliet Bonosh, thank you for coming in.

Queen at C is out. Do you know what we need now, Mark? Well, we laugh at him. Just before we go to it, I just want to say, I'm so jealous of you for having met Juliette Binoch because I think she is just an astonishing actor, and I really envy the fact that you read it. Anyway, a little bit of light relief.

With the laughter left. Oh, thank heavens. I think it's the first time I've ever felt glad about that lift arriving. Yeah, that's... So we've just described life, and now here we have just something that's an antidote. Mark, did I ever tell you about the extraordinary precognitive abilities of dear old Grandma Mayo? She was something of a seer, you know. She once warned people, the Titanic would sink, but nobody listens.

She kept warning them and warning them in a louder and loud and... louder voice until they kicked her out the cinema. Okay, I'm funny, everything funny now. Okay, and I'm not sure if you knew this, Mark, and it seems unlikely as I don't really like cats, and I'm always extremely busy, but I've been working at a cat shelter recently. No, you haven't. But as of last week, I'm going to have to find another volunteer's position. Why, I hear you ask?

Why? They've reduced me hours. Okay. And we're back. Yeah. Even after, even after Queenie C, that isn't funny. As a bonus, though, then Mark, let's try you with this. Okay. What do you call a beetle belonging to the Kerkulea?

Hang on. It's been spelled phonetically, which is not helping at all. What do you call a beetle belonging to the Kerkuleanadea superfamily who lives at your house. I'll try this again. What do you call a beetle belonging to the super family Kirkia Leodonia

who lives at your house? And the answer is a resident weevil. Very good. Glad we got there. There must have been another super family that was easier to pronounce the Kerkuleanoidia. Anyway.

Resident Weevil is a good name for a band, though. That's true. Anyway, they kicked her out the cinema. They kicked her out. What's still to come? Oh, still to come. Where is it? Okay, Mark's review of bad apples and Sean the sheep,

the beast of messy bottom. Mossy bottom. Sorry. Messy bottom. No, we've dealt with that. We've done that. And if you've enjoyed what you've heard so far, there is plenty more waiting for you over in take two,

such as five-question film club and questions. Three questions to questions. In which this week we asked, who exactly chooses the movies for film studies, media studies, etc. As worthy of the curriculum. You just search, come at a May of Patreon,

and join us over there, where you can get both takes ad-free, plus take Ultra, and now ads or not, as the case may be. I can't believe Labor Day is almost here. I'm not ready to let summer go just yet. We've got the picnic menu planned, friends are coming over, and my one stop before everyone arrives is always Total Wine and More. I'll grab a couple bottles of wine, some tropical canned cocktails, plus a few hard shelters like mango, lime, and pineapple.

That's why I keep coming back to Total Wine. The selection is incredible, and with the lowest prices, it's easy to prep for the long weekend. This Labor Day, shop total wine and more. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly, B-21. What's it take to be a mentor with big brothers, big sisters? It takes 30 minutes and a cup of coffee. A video game, best two out of three.

It takes sharing thumbs-up emojis, clapping emojis, and loaded nachos at halftime. That's how you make an impact on a young kid's life. So go on. few hours a month because mentorship may sound huge, but the truth is, it takes little to be big. To learn more, volunteer or donate, go to be big now.org. Okay, well, correspondence, thank you very much indeed for all of that, because we build the show around it. In fact, we build our careers around it. Correspondence at covenomeroom.com. What else is out? I've seen some posters for this new

Sir Sharoni, Rohner movie, so tell us more. So, Sechranem, it's an odd little film based on a 2020 debut novel by Swedish author Rasmus Lindgren. The novel was De Unscad, the Unwanted. This is directed by Jonathan Etzler, also Swedish, written by Jessa Kaine and Jonathan Etzler, filmed in Bristol and Bath. It is a deadpan black comedy with a touch of horror and a lot of tongue-in-cheek. So Sir Shoronan is Maria, a somewhat mousy and retiring primary school teacher. and she's always dreamed of being a teacher, you know, of inspiring young minds, but her class is completely disrupted by one kid, Danny,

a great performance, incidentally by Eddie Waller, who is an agent of chaos. So the opening scene finds the class visiting a local cider-making plant, and we see a shoe in the apples, and then we follow the shoe all the way through the cider-making plant until it finally gets into the machine that it then destroys. of course the shoe was thrown in by Danny. Maria knows Danny is out of control.

No one listens to her. The headmistress says class control is your business. Danny's father is a harassed delivery driver who's never around to help, never answers the phone, often doesn't pick his son up. So Danny just goes on destroying things. He breaks a fellow people's arm. He smashes up cars and he finally gets into a physical fight with Maria.

She fights back. And in fighting back, she falls on top of him and appears to asphyxiate him, and then panics, and he tells her that he is going to tell everyone that she assaulted him. Here is a clip. It was an accident, okay? I'm sorry. Strangle me miss.

You got on top of me. You've suffocated me. You could have killed me. I'm going to tell the police. I'm going to tell everyone that you attacked me. I'm going to tell everyone. No. Check it, okay?

You attacked me. There's an off-day, it's said inspection the next day, and she has to get Danny out of the picture. He can't have him in the classroom. And so she takes matters into her own hands. And suddenly, the world is a better place. Danny is gone. Class order is restored. Maria's authority is reinvigorated, and no one cares about Danny except, of course, the police.

So the film is, you know, it's described as a black comedy. and, you know, as the saying goes, black comedy, Swedish black comedy, no laughing matter. So the central premise, remind me, do you remember Stephen Graham came on the show to talk about that film, Good Boy? Do you remember that? Yes, yes, I do indeed. Okay. So in that film, Stephen Graham's character, who is a psychopath, imprisons this foul-mouthed tear away, and in inverted commas teaches him to become a civilized member of society whilst keeping him chained up in a basement. And there is a similar sort of dynamic going on here about treating an angry, out-of-control kid as if they are a wild animal. And then somehow discovering or believing that you're discovering that the animal is responding positively to being treated like a wild animal.

And, you know, of course, we know from the beginning that maybe Danny's issue is he's just never been loved. And now, perhaps, he's finding affection in the worst possible manner. So obviously the whole central idea about the disappearance of a child and the police not knowing what's happened to this missing child is extremely dark. It is also, I have to say, in the context of this film, somewhat credibility testing. because the film, it's a satire. But in order for a satire to work, you do have to believe in the premise, you do have to believe that the central thing is credible. And the problem for me with this is that it isn't satirical enough.

There is a sense of playing safe with the characters, particularly with the central character. I mean, Sertia Ronan is a, you know, a matchless actor on it. We've had Juliet Binoch on the program already, and now we have Sertia Ronan. I mean, these are like, these are towering talents, right? But the way in which the character, her character is played, it doesn't push things far enough to get me over the credibility gap.

And as a result of it, it struggles to establish just how seriously we are meant to take the thing that she has done in order to solve the problem in front of her. And I did find myself too often thinking, yeah, no, that wouldn't happen. I actually don't believe that that would happen. I don't believe that it would be possible for that to happen. And I don't believe that everything else around it, therefore, would happen. What you need to be thinking is this is a sharp, outrageous social satire with a real issue at the center of it, rather than thinking it wouldn't happen. Now, weirdly enough, late in the day, there is a PTA meeting, which actually, for my mind,

resembles a scene from hot fuzz when they all do the greater good and actually I think at that point the film gets the strength of its convictions and gets that tonal thing right but it finds its feet but it finds its feet for me too late in the day it needed to do it a lot earlier

however there are I mean so Sharon is terrific as I said the guy plays Danny is very good there's also near Brown who plays Pauline who is this kind of wannabe teacher's pet who is almost more scary than Danny in a desire to be, you know, to be the teacher's pet.

There's also a great performance by Sean Gilda, who is so brilliant in Selfish Giant. You play kitten in Selfish Giant. The characters, nothing kidney about that character at all. And I think he's, I think his performance is really good.

I mean, I think if the film had leaned more into, for example, if the film had leaned more into being about the teacher's pet character, Pauline, who is sort of on the cusp of, you know, how seriously do you take this? It's played much more broadly, but in a very sharp way. I think that satire might have hit home.

As it is, I think the problem is that it's never really willing to commit to the darker than dark central premise until we get to the end, at which point it's sort of tipping over into excruciating comedy, which I think works quite well. There was too much of it that I was just thinking, I don't. no, I don't believe the situation. I think there are very good things in it. I think the performances are good, but I just think it needed to commit

and go a bit harder because as it is, it couldn't quite decide how to deal with the outrageousness of the central premise. I'm sort of intrigued and would watch anything with Sir Sharonan. Of course. Of course. Absolutely.

Because she's brilliant. She is absolutely brilliant. Okay. All right, that's bad apples. So thank you very much indeed for the what's on videos that are coming in. You can still do audio and you can do video because, you know, we can cope with all of this. Here's Jen Skinner from the Sea Change Film Festival. Hi, Simon and Marks. Jen Skinner here, director of Sea Change Film Festival on the beautiful island of Tyree. We're looking forward to welcoming filmmakers from around the world here next week to celebrate women in film.

We're opening with the education of Jane Cumming on Friday night with the director here. We've got 100 years of Prince Akhmad celebration with musicians. We close with Jeannie Finley's new film. We've got the director of Bell. We've got Catalonian filmmaker Judith Kallel. We've got How Deep Is Your Love's Director. And we finish with the disco. We've got daily swims, underwater drawing sessions,

and a singing to the Seals Workshop. So something for everybody. Wow. That is something for everyone. That's really good. Incidentally, the new Jeannie Finley film, which will be reviewing. It's currently in previews.

comes out in a week or so, we'll be reviewing, is terrific. It's absolutely terrific. Thanks to Jen for sending that video in. Please send your videos to the usual address and that video from the most westerly island in the inner Hebrides of Scotland and known as the Hawaii of the North for its exceptional sunshine and world-class windsurfing. That I did not know. I'm now very tempted to go and visit. Correspondence of Cameronau.com Will you be doing

some world-class windsurfing? No, but you know the Hawaii of the north sounds sufficiently beguiling, doesn't it? Yeah, sounds great. Because presumably

there's some surfing culture. I can be a part of that even if I don't intend to go and do any surfing. So we have a Sean the Sheep movie to discuss before we're done. Very good news.

Sean the Sheep, the Beast of Mossy Bottom. You, U certificate for a very mild threat, Scary scenes, rude humor and implied bad language. Can I just ask, if it's a U certificate, does it need to give any justification? Well, I mean, it's a you. Everyone can go and see it.

Yes. Well, it's just, it's you. And then the BBFC advice is that the film includes very mild threat, scary scenes, rude humor and implied bad language. Just so somebody might say, well, you might say that's a you, but I'm not taking my child to see something with implied bad language, not having it. This is the third Sean film from Ardman, a brilliant Ardman, following Sean the Sheep movie and Sean the Sheet movie, Farmageddon, which I just loved. So, Sean, I mean, everyone knows this.

Sean first achieved fame via the TV series of Sean the Sheet, which was itself a spinoff of the Wallace and Grummit, you know, close shave stuff. So it is a stop motion animated comedy horror, which is, of course, the genre of Ardman's greatest. production, Curse of the Wear Rabbit, which was recently back in cinemas as part of the ongoing Ardman celebrations. And if you've been listening to the show regularly, you'll, you know, we're revisiting all the kind of Ardman features. So this is directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, written by Mark Burton and Charles Pilbrow. And the plot centres around Sean attempting to to fix a pumpkin patch, which has been destroyed. And Sean being a sort of Frankenstein-like mad scientist who dreams up, concocks this regenerative potion, which due to a regenerative

potion hair restorer mix up, leaves the farmer turning into sort of something, sprouting Sasquatch-like hair and soon finding himself the center of a pitchfork wielding Halloween hunt. And the voice cast includes Justin Fletcher, John Spart. Danny Dyer, not that one, the daughter, Danny Dyer, Paul Whitehouse. But the key thing, as everyone who knows Sean the sheep will know, is that Sean the sheep is, you know, this is a mostly non-verbal thing. Sean is silent except for the mad scientist's laugh. The farmer most spectacularly talks in grunts and laughs. And I think, honestly, the farmer's performance is brilliant. So because of that, here is a trailer that has a voiceover on it. Here we go.

This year, wake up to a legend so frightful. It will leave you, shell-shocked. Because for Sean and the flock, things are about to get. Hairy. From the creators of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, comes Sean's latest adventure. to catch the most furtastic beast around. That's what I mean about the...

Yeah, I'd go and see it on the basis of that trailer. That sounds good to me. The thing is that, like the creators of the minions, Ardman really understand the physical choreography of slapstick. I mean, the gags are perfectly timed. The facial expressions are brilliantly abstract. I mean, there's the whole thing with the farmer, with his glasses and without his glasses

and what's actually happening with his eyes. the fact that the sheep, you know, speaking at the side of their mouth, the tone being like alternatively, it's humour and adventure, and then a lot of pathos, a lot of pathos. And as always with the album, the attention to detail is paramount. I mean, the movie, it riffs on old horror films like the Universal Frankenstein and the Hammer movies and myths of Bigfoot and Yeties. But it does so in a way that never feels, it's never winking at you. It's never doing that, you know, look at us. Aren't we clever? It's doing it because just this sort of exuberant style of the film. What was the phrase that was it collective effervescence? Yes. Yes,

okay. Well, I can imagine that watching this in a cinema will be an experience of collective effervescence because it looks amazing. I mean, you can feel the world of it. It's, It's got a romping score by Natalie Holtz, which really adds to the charm. And it's just, it's just joy. It's just joy. It's just like, yeah, do this. Just keep doing that forever because it is just a pure, unalloyed U certificate, joy with my favorite implied bad language.

Not bad language, implied bad language. Take your family and enjoy some collective effervescence. Collective effervescence. I guess the thing is you need an... I wonder if some people think they need an excuse. I'm just thinking because I do. I think unless I was going to take a young child to the cinema, you are...

If you had a night out, you'd be going to see Spider-Man or The Odyssey or... Yeah, but you have... Or something like that. You wouldn't... You need an excuse to go and see Sean the Sheet movies, don't you? And you have it, right? Because you have young grandchildren. Yeah, but they are abroad and so...

Yeah, but they'll be showing Sean the Sheep abroad. I mean, you know, you've got a perfect excuse. I mean, four is still quite early, but if I get the opportunity, anyway, it sounds like it's the kind of thing that you should go and see anyway. I agree. If you've gone to see a film like Queen at Sea, then need to follow it up with Sean of the Sheep, the Beast of Mossy Bottom. Anyway, that's it for this week.

This has been a Sony Music Entertainment production. This week's team, Dom, Eric, Josh and Heather, and Scary Chris. actor was Simon Paul. In Take 2, we're directing you to the Overflow Car Park, more chat about current film releases. And don't forget people of Bristol and beyond, we'll be at the beacon on December the 6th for our Christmas special. Tickets are on sale via the link in the show notes. Mark, what is your movie of the week? Well, because I like to include everyone, I'm going to do a double-bill movie the week, one for the young, one for the youngies, one for the oldies. The one for the youngies is Sean the sheep, the Beast of Mossy Bottom, and the

one for the oldies is Resident Evil. We'll be back next week, and Take 2 has landed adjacent to this one. Thank you for listening.