Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Emily Watson, God’s Creatures, Dungeons & Dragons, and Law of Tehran

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

Emily Watson stars alongside Paul Mescal in new psychological drama ‘God’s Creatures’. She joins Simon and Mark in the studio to talk about what it was like playing Paul’s mother in the film where her sense of right or wrong is well and truly put to the test. Mark reviews new Iranian crime movie ‘Law of Tehran’, ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ - starring a stellar cast including Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Regé-Jean Page among others - based on the tabletop role-playing game ‘Dungeons & Dragons’, and ‘God’s Creatures’ - a story about a mother (played by Emily Watson) who tells a lie for her beloved son that rips apart their family and close-knit Irish town. Time Codes (relevant only when you are part of the Vanguard): 12:30 Law of Tehran Review 20:22 Box Office Top 10 34:02 Emily Watson Interview 49:43 God’s Creatures 01:00:57 Dungeon’s And Dragons: Honor Among Thieves 01:11:55 What’s On EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Your business has grown fast, from opening your first location to planning an expansion in no time. And with your business platinum card from American Express, you can access spending power and payment flexibility to fuel your growth. Sarah, the contractor is here with the plans. American Express, don't do business without it. Terms and conditions apply visit mx.ca slash business platinum. Something that's... You get rid of? No, no, I'm just closing a thing.

I'd like to close the window. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do a thing I'd like to close the windows. Mm-hmm. So that I have. Have we started? I don't know. Have we started?

No, no, yeah. Here we go. Okay. I'd like to start today's episode by reading something. Okay. Am I going to like it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Where you sent it to me so many. Okay, am I gonna like it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Where you sent it to me so many. Oh, sorry. So this from MovieWeb, the 10 most... Oh, yeah, yeah. Well respected movie critics of all time. These 10 great film critics remain most referred to at all times as they remind the audience of what great cinema is and always will be.

Number 10, Vincent Canbey, prolific film and theatre critic for the time. You can't read the whole thing. Oh, I can't read. Number nine, Stanley Kaufman. Numbers scrolling through. Number eight, Leonard Molten. Number seven, François Roland Truffaut. That's François Truffaut. Andrew Saris at number six. That's Ponswell Truffaut. Andrew Saris at number six. Tension is building here. Five Kenneth Turan.

Yep. Most of these are dead now. Is it Pauline Cale? Pauline Cale. At number seven. Number four. Peggy Pardon. New Yorker.

All that jazz. These are very old. Number three. Mark Kermod, which is the most ridiculous thing ever. Kermot was born in July 1963 in Barnett, England. That is true. He began his career as a film critic, Lardydar, Tumpty Tump. Tumpty Tump. It does. He has written several books. Known for his work as a regular on BBC Radio,

Fire Lives, Kermit and Mayo. See, Film Reviews of dates, which he hosts a radio host, so I'm going to add a date. The bad date. Inaccurate and out of date. So number two is Gene Siskel. And number one, Roger Ebert. Considered to be the most influential film critic

who has shaped film criticism in the 21st century. Okay, anyway, there you go. So can I just, top three, can I just point out? That's good. I sent you that with the thing which said, inaccurate, out of date, and frankly ridiculous, but hey, but hey, absolutely. And if you're gonna be anywhere, be in the top three.

Also, don't be number one on number two because that is disqual in e but literally that's, but that's like the parents race at school sports day. You don't want to win because because it's sort of you just want to not embarrass exactly. So being third is absolutely perfect. Although I just, I would like to say the idea that I am even in the same company as those people is patently ridiculous.

I mean, listen, everyone listen, I'm grateful. I'm hugely grateful. And everyone listening to this podcast right now has stood up where they are and applauded. And so that's ridiculous. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. What you can do though is you can show your appreciation by coming along to London's Union Chapel on Tuesday the 23rd of May for a small fee, which will get you a ticket. There are only a very few tickets left that you can be in the presence of the number three music, right?

Music critic. He'll only be a few yards away from you. Incidentally, you can touch his flesh. I don't know whether we're announcing it. I'm presuming that we're not, but we have secured a tippy top guest. Because you know, last time when we said there's going to be top guests and we were going, we had no idea. There is at least one. At least one tippy top guest. Absolutely.

Rock solid confirmation. That's happening for whom it's going to be. That is right, isn't it? It's a highlight of their career, I think. Anyway, no, no, I'm not announcing the no, I'm just saying that there is now, as before, where we were just lying, when we just said, they'll be top guests, we thought, I don't know,

they will be, I will be two. What? Two more guests or just two in total? One more guest. Do you know who the other one is? No, okay. Well, I can't say it, I can't say it. If I were you, I'd get a ticket because you wouldn't want to miss out.

No. On who that other guest might be. Well, on who the first guest might be? Yeah, well, it is. First guest, it is. First guest. Then who's the second guest? No.

They need to be it. Okay. We will have the organ plugged in at the unit trouble, but the trouble is... We'll have to register it out of the talk as we don't own the rights to the music. It's very entertaining, if we guess, to play the organ. Unless the organist plays a selection of tunes by the Dodge Brothers, which we do own, well, I own. Yeah, but I co-own.

But you'll expect money. No, no, no. Anyway, later on, every quarter I get a PRS check, and it's like £1.29. Emily Watson's going to be on the show, which is always a very good name. Magnificent. Talk about God's creatures.

Also, take two will be on the way, even more of this kind of crazy nonsense, and you're reviewing what in take two. We're going to be reviewing Dance Craze, which is back out in Centremaster 1981, and Tetris, which is the new movie starring Tarant Edgerton about get this, the licensing of Tetris. I mean, that doesn't make a movie. Except it does.

Okay. Pretentious. Why is it? I have a slight twist actually, but it's people 12 at mark 10.5. Take it all leave it. You decide our word of mouth on a podcast feature is the, tell me if I've got this

pronunciation right, the Mac and I, cooking for the micro house by, here a kazoo creator. Yeah, close enough. Close enough. Okay, slightly patronizing. That's in take two. One frame back, that's on there. Oh, by the way, also shrink the box ad free on

Tuesdays alongside all our other extra content on the take channel. Bank artist does this won't appear in the cupboard. Take feed. It has its own feed within the channel. No idea. Absolutely no idea. You take the flange from the widget and you put it into the Splung Chromit DI and I. It's like open university from 1975. You can spot us all via Apple Podcasts or head to extra takes.com for non-fruit related devices. And if you're already a Vanguardista, as always. Wiseliger, thank you.

An interesting email from Ian Ford, Deputy Knight Editor at the Guardian, News and Media. Deputy Knight Editor? Yes. Well, that sounds like a movie job in its own, right, doesn't it? De- I would, you know, that if you're the Deputy Knight Editor, there's something shadowy going on. And what's that over there?

There's a little mysterious thing. You can have that on a double bill with the Knight Porter. The Knight Porter and the Deputy Night Editor. There's a new drama series on Netflix called The Night Agent, which is one of those which starts fine in the second episode of Go This Is Robbish. Oh really? Okay. But it's something about them. So Ian Ford, Deputy Night Editor, that's his job. Okay. Dear Mellon and Farmer. Very good. On the subject of swearing on your excellent podcast, the desire of some of your listeners

to have an unburdened songd version. May I please interject to tell these listeners that despite what they may think, they do not want it. I know this because when I first moved to London, a decade or so ago. I ain't to London, no, we're only, sorry. Thank you enough, Pogs. I briefly had ambitions to be a film reviewer and wangled myself into a small screening

room attended by the esteemed film critics of the big smoke. Okay. Imagine my delight upon seeing the good doctor walk into the room and then imagine my horror as entirely reasonably when in private conversation with another critic, I overheard him swear. Now, I've no real problem with swearing, I should stress, and it didn't diminish my respect from arc in the slightest. I think it did.

It's just that the moment of hearing the lovely man off the radio, and a Jeff, it well cringed. It's like hearing my dad swear, and Ejeff, it, well, cringed. It's like hearing my dad swear, and my dad is a saintly man and has never sworn. So if I sit to say, please leave swearing as something you do in private, or if needed, bird song, sincerely or as deputy knight edit

at the Guardian News and Media, Ian Ford. Well, you can rest assured, Yes. Mr. Ford, that, that is exactly the way we continue to. Precisely. To continue. And if there is any, if in a jethin, you will not be hearing. Not hearing it.

Yeah. Now, one of the reasons, of course, that I swear in private is to get it all out. So that's the time we get here. I can just do this without. This I think is an email from Oscar Sivachon. Hello presenter Bjorn and contributor Benny. Regarding your ongoing discussion on how to pronounce foreign words, I felt compelled to write in when listening to this previous week's episode, I noticed a veritable smorgasbord of mispronounced Swedish words.

Is it not smorgasbord? Almost certainly. Smorgasbord. As you need a booty? Swedish chef, god bless him. As you requested audio references to foreign names, I've attempted to provide a quick guide, which you can find attached to this email. Okay. I've also included a few bonus Swedish pronunciations, which you may find useful in your day-to-day life.

I was considering including Swedish footballer Slatan Ibrahimovic, but I once said it wrong, and my nephew mocked me mercilessly. I've also deliberately not included the pronunciation of my own name because it's a car crash of Norse consonants, and I will be delighted to hear Simon attempt it. Is this an audio file that he sent? Yes, which I'm going to play on just a moment. Does it hit Max von Schudrów of well, we're going to find out.

OK. But so the car crash of Norse consonants, I think Oscar is going to be Oscar. And I think and it's written Sigvardson. So I think that's probably going to be the G is going to disappear. So it's going to be something like civage on. OK. Why does the G disappear?

It just does. Why shouldn't it? Why should it hog all the limelight? I suppose it's like sign, isn't it? Yes. Yes. Exactly. Yeah.

Anyway, so this is what Oscar is sent us. Okay. Greetings, Kerr, Morden, Mayo. The Swedish word for death cleaning is pronounced death stabning. The actor from John Wick is Bill Scorskord and his father, by the wayier från John Wick är bilskarskord. Och de här är ställan skarskord. Den stinkifis är koldsursstärming och det är delicious.

Jag tror, en av det. Vi aktier har plöts av en konstatin är kold Pieta-Stormare. Markus är väldigt klart av det här. Gullt på. Som bonus Swedish words. De mängder av Abba, Orangneta, Björn, Bänni and Annifrid. A large selection of options is a smurgos bud. The direct of the seventh seal is Ingemar Bayman. And the holiday from the horror movie is Miss Omar, though I kind of prefer Mark's version on that one.

There you go. Well, we're pleased. I don't think we're far off. Thank you. Oscar Sivarshoff. You're right about the G going, because he said, he said, he did, there's no,

well, this is my very primitive Danish has taught me that, you know, letters like D and G, they just disappeared. He said, he said, he said,

he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, Madison is, Mads Michelson is Mads Michelson, so the D disappears. I'm just assuming that the role of the continent in Norse is to disappear.

Like the Fjords. Yeah, exactly. So there you go. So Oscar, thank you. That's really fantastic. And if you would like to correct anything that we say, so there's a voice note. Voice note, like Oscar. Yes, there you go.

Oscar. Can you just do me a favor because the thing you didn't do in that? And that was lovely. Thank you. Could you please send me Max von S Because the thing you didn't do in that, and that was lovely, thank you. Could you please send me Max von Siddhal, Max, because my friend Donkann, who lives in Sweden, insists that it's actually Max von Sudoff, and I don't know whether he's right

because he's from St. Albans. So could you, well, could you give me a definitive Max von Siddhal? We'll still say Smorgersbord, but anyway, because that's true. So he didn't do sure. He did, it's up there. It's in the cloud.

It is. What do we need up there? What does that mean? Scandinavia. Oh, it's up there. Scandinavia, okay. Fun, fun, fun. So, correspondents to codermay.com.

Voice notes, please, to ADAR, useless pronunciation. Okay. Movie review time. What's out? A law of Tehran, which is a film, which actually first played in a film festival in 2019, so it's taken a little while to get here. It is by Saeed Rostai, who's subsequently made Leland's Brothers, which was a palm-daw contender in 2022. This is a really kind of nerve-jangling thriller about the unwinnable war on drugs. So Pemmaide, who's, I mean, he'll be known from a number of things, but I suppose most

significantly Askofahadi's separation is Sumat, who is a cop, who is waging war on drugs in Tehran. The war that he wages involves at one point going to this absolute hellscape of huge concrete concrete pipes in which addicts live, rounding them all up, getting them all into a cell, stripping them naked, humiliating them, questioning them, threatening them all with the worst possible sentences. And they are basically on the trail of a kingpin. They need a name. They need the name of where the drugs apply's coming from.

And this leads them to Nuskagsad, who they find finally in a kind of swanky apartment, under circumstances that are not what they expect. But as the drama plays out, in an awful lot of it plays out within the police station, the line between cops and criminals doesn't just become blurred as like completely not there at all. There are several sequences in which the cops themselves

find themselves in handcuffs, in which the cops themselves find themselves in cells. And then out of them again, as if this is completely business as usual, the film starts with a really kind of kinetic, on-foot chase sequence that reminded me of, remember Point Break? The scene in Point Break when Keanu Reeves chases the guys out of the apartment and it's done with a kind of hand held really, really so absolutely terrifying on foot chase. So this begins with one of those chase sequences, which then ends in a way that is on the one hand absolutely grueling

and horrific and on the other hand is absurdist slapstick in the manner of Buster Keaton. And what the film manages to do, the film is also known elsewhere as just 6.5. What the film manages to do is to create this atmosphere in which there is a war on drugs that is not being won, despite the fact that the death penalty would apparently theoretically deter people from breaking the law.

But no matter how stringent the penalties, no matter how ruthlessly they clamp down, it's not having any effect at all. In fact, the number of users and the supply of drugs is increasing. So what the film does is, on the one hand, it's a very gritty policeio in which it's got the center of it, characters who are very troubled and torn and wrestling with impossible issues. What it's really about is the first, the desperation of the drug trade, the human squalor of the drug trade, but it's also about the fact that perhaps the punishment isn't working and perhaps the punishment is the problem if you have a situation in which people are

facing the death penalty. Well, then there is nothing to lose. So although it never talks very openly about its politics, um, it actually becomes a really interesting discussion about this isn't working. What you're doing is not working. And it doesn't matter how rigidly or rigorously you try to do, it's not working. And also during the course of the drama the central kind of kingpin and the central cop character, you think you have a kind of moral handle on each of their

positions, but at any moment when you think you do the drama wrong foot shoe and says, well actually there's another side to this story. So I thought it was fascinating. Apparently, certainly thought it was fascinating. Apparently, certainly when it was first released, and I just checked this now, I think it's still true, that it was Iran's highest grossing domestic comedy, highest grossing domestic movie, not including comedies, because almost all of Iran's highest grossing domestic movies

are comedies. And this is the one exception in the top 10. I guess it's been around for a while. It's played the festival circuit. The filmmaker has subsequently made another and probably a slightly more fated film. It is available in cinemas and on a cursenhome cinema. Really well worth checking out.

It kind of... Should we hear a clip? Oh, yeah, we have a trailer. It's not really a classic. Does it give a flavor? A little bit of a flavor. It's not really a classic. Is it a flavor? A little bit of a flavor. Yeah, have a listen, see what you think. I'm going to be a little bit more comfortable.

So, what do you think of my husband? He's got a lot of work to do. That's it. The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End

The End The End The End The End The End The End Did you gain anything from that? No, but I made me want to watch it, actually.

Yes. Okay, so it's, like I said, it is a gripping crime thriller, but I made me want to watch it actually. Yes. Okay, so it's, I guess it is a gripping crime thriller, but it's actually about, it has sort of rather more existential themes than that. And it's, I think the thing that makes it really interesting is on the one hand, there is this kind of real gritty brutality about it. On the other hand, it's got this kind of gallows humour absurdity, which is this is an absurd situation. and that the opening sequence is Absolutely breathtaking. I mean really really audacious. I won't spoil it I've read a couple of reviews which do which is a real shame because you need to watch the opening sequence without knowing how it ends

But it's really like wow, okay law of Teirot is that movie still to come what you review I'm going to be reviewing Dungeons and Dragons, which is there is a new Dungeons and Dragons film about, which I spoke to Charles III in order to get completely up to speed, and God's creatures with our special guest. Emily Watson, who'll be here. We'll be back before you can say, ono a desigas o vivons, on un dois,

on moir, c'est la vérité, which as you know is Voltaire. We should be considerate to the living, to the dead. We owe only the truth. Happy Nord Christmas. Protect yourself whilst Christmas shopping online and access all the Christmas films from around the globe. Plus, when you shop online, you'll have to give websites your card details and other

sensitive data like your personal addresses. Those websites should already have their own encryption built into their payment systems, but to be on the safe side, you can use a VPN to ensure that all data coming to and from your device is encrypted. Even if you're using an unsafe Wi-Fi, you'll still be able to shop securely with a VPN. And you can access Christmas films only available overseas by using streaming services not available in the UK. To take our huge discount of your NordVPN plan, go to nordvpn.com slash take. Our link will also give you four extra months for free on the two-year plan. There's no risk with Nords 30-day money back guarantee. The link is in the podcast episode description box.

Highest team podcast listeners, Simon Mayo. And Mark Kermot here. I'm excited to let you know that the new season of the Crown and the Crown, the official podcast, returns on 16th of November to accompany the sixth and final season of the Netflix epic royal drama series. Very exciting, especially because SuperSub and Friend of the Show Edith Bowman hosts this one. Indeed, Edith will take you behind the scenes, dive into conversation with the talented cast and crew, from writer and creator Peter Morgan to the crown's Queen Elizabeth, Emelda Staunton. Other guests on the new series include the Crown's research team, the directors, executive

producers Suzanne Mackie and specialists such as Voice Coach William Connaker and props master Owen Harrison. Cast members including Jonathan Price, Selim Dor, Khalid Abdullah, Dominic West and Elizabeth the Bikki. You can also catch up with the story so far by searching The Crown, the official podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe now and get the new series of The Crown, the official podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe now and get the new series of the crown, the official podcast, first on November 16th.

Available wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by Mooby, a curated streaming service dedicated to elevating great cinema from around the globe. From myConnect directors to emerging otters, there's always something new to discover, for example. Well, for example, the new Aki Karazmaki film, Fallen Leaves, which won the jury prize at Cannes,

that in cinemas at the moment. And if you see that and think I want to know more about Aki Karri's Mackey, you can go to Mooby the streaming service and there is a retrospective of his films called How to Be a Human. They are also going to be theatrically releasing In January Priscilla, which is a new Sofia couple of film, which I am really looking forward to since I have

an Elvis obsession. You can try Mooby Free for 30 days at Mooby.com slash Kermit and Mayo. That's M-U-B-I dot com slash Kermit and Mayo for a whole month of great cinema for free. What we're back, I was just thinking about that very wise and profound, Voltaire quote, which I gave in the original friend.

So I got a mouthful of a quest on it because I didn't realize you were coming straight back. Yeah, yeah, we're right back on it. On Dwad Desigar, all that, we should be considered to the living to the dead. We owe only the truth. If you're telling a story about the past, you have to tell the truth. And don't make it up. Is Voltaire, although I despise what you say, or will defend with my life, you're right a story about the past, you have to tell the truth. And don't make it up. His vault here, although I despise what you say, will defend with my life you're right to say it. Yeah, I believe that is correct. But he didn't say in English with his mouth. He did say it with a mouth full of croissant.

Because he can cause it. All French do that. And he had a baguette under his arm. As he said. He was wearing a stripey t-shirt. He didn't know who drove the baguette. He had two onions. I think good.

They didn't hear it, so you'll have to gloss now. Who drove the bad guys? The other money ins. Very good. They didn't hear it, so you'll have to gloss now. In Mr. Infinity Pool, it was making reference to Cabaret Voltaire and it's not that, Cabaret. It's not that one. And it's not that one. A necessary eighties music reference, I think. The cabs.

Somebody said, somebody said, they think the other day saying, ask Mark, have you ever heard of the monochrome set? Of course I've heard of the monochrome set. I'm my age, of course I've heard of the monochrome set. When you in the monochrome set. I was in the monochrome set. I can't have a senior in Maze fans. Box office top 10 at 15 Infinity Pool. Deer shallow end and deep end says Mark Dunford. Sussex Cricketly panel umpire actually umpiring at Worthing Cricket Club in May. In Crawley West Sussex.

Um, hello, Mark. Hello. Dear shallow end and deep end. No, he's called Mark and I was saying hello to him. Oh, but also hello to you. I hope you're, you mark it in the studio. Yes, I hope you're good as well. I'm good too.

What a film. Easily the best cinematic experience I've had this year. Mia Goth is astonishing. Just comparing how she says, James. James! Alexander Skarsgard probably pronounced wrong, but seen previous voice note. Character at the beginning and the end of the film

shows the journey you go on with her character from understated to manically unhinged. What I found interesting when listening to Mark's reviews when he made the comparison with Ben Wheatley's in the Earth, as I was watching the film, I was thinking, the last time I felt this uncomfortable slash on the edge, watching a movie was another Wheatley film kill list. Oh right, that's interesting.

Funny, visceral, thought provoking, cerebral, sexy. What more could you want from the film? Love the show. Mark Dunford. I mean, I love Infinity Pool. I think it's great. And Mia Goth's performance is astonishing and coming the week after the UK release of Pearl, I know Pearl's been out for a while in other territories. But you go, okay, that's quite the the Mia Goth double bill. And that thing about the way in which she says James changing during

the course of the movie, she's got this real ability to, you know, the one hand she can be kind of, you know, understated and, you know, quiet and generally, on the other hand, she can be absolutely Texas Chainsaw Massacre levels of out there with the scene that everyone keeps referring to when she's in the sort of full taunting way. James! And it is, you've never, and somebody sent a message saying, Infinity Pool is a great film, unless you're called James, because you'll never want to hear your name set out loud every then.

Next, an email from James. Oh, okay, here we go. This film haunts me still. I saw the European Premier back in February at Berlin-Arlie. Whilst I enjoyed and found equally horrifying, Mirgoth is such an exciting talent. Cronenberg's scurrying of the rich in the Brits slash Yanks Abroad mentality

was so well-realized. Mark Joa's sturdiest stomach than me as I found the bodily fluids too much to handle. Oh, really? I also enjoyed the location of the police prison cloning center, which is in central Budapest and was the hideout for deckard in Blade Runner 2049. Oh, wow.

An intentional Easter egg question mark. I don't know. I didn't know that. There you go. And he's from James. Because most of the, because it's a Canadian, Hungarian, Croatian, co-production, so hence Budapest. Yeah.

Number 10, nothing in America, well, it's not charted in America, because number 10 here's what's love got to do with it. Which, not that one, but we enjoy, have you seen it yet? I have not. Okay, it's fun. When it comes out on streaming, you should watch it, because it's kind of, it's enjoyable, it's entertaining.

Rylane is new at number nine. Just great. And I want as many people as possible to go and see this. I think it's director and Alan Miller is a real talent. It's a, you know, it's a kind of reinvention of the modern rom-com. It makes jokes about its relationship to love actually, which is sort of very smartly done. But great performance is, and a kind of a bright, colourful movie in every sense. I mean, it's like the colour palette of the areas that they walk around from, you know,

Brixton to Peckham. It's just, you know, the camera is just drinking in these locations. It's really, really kind of gorgeous. And in fact, I had mentioned to the director. I said, oh, you know, it reminded me of Antonio and he's blow up because that so much of blow up is to do with the color of the streets that they walk through.

And anyway, she sent me a message saying, oh, I've seen blow up and you're right. that is a very good reference point, which I was very pleased about. John Roach B. N. Onnes C. N. M. I. E. T. L. B. I. W. P. What is that? And winner of 25 pounds worth of Smurfs in a 1982 colouring competition. That's a great thing to win. This starts as an email to... 22 pounds worth of smurfs. 25 pounds worth of smurfs. In what, in weight or... 25 pounds sterling. Yes.

How much does a smurf cost? I already imagined there like 50p, so he probably got an awful lot of smurfs. More smurfs. He could have made one of James Cameron's Avatar movies. Dear love and guacac and guacac, it's guacially. Guacially. Yeah, that's the gag. Rylane was very enjoyable and I couldn't help wondering

if it was always a shoe-in for best film when it includes the line, got to respect the code in a discussion of cinema etiquette. Keep up the redacted work. Hello to Jason Tiggity-Tong, up with Bluehead feminists. John Roach with all those aforementioned credits. So good. Number eight is 80 for Brady. I mean, I wish 80 for Brady was better than it was because, you know, I like Jane Fonda

and I like Lily Tomlin and I like Reese Runner. I mean, it's... But I just... Maybe it's a thing that doesn't travel. I'm not sure that the American sports obsession into which it taps makes any sense here. And I mean, I didn't know the Brady of the 80 for Brady, who turns out is, you know, I asked you, and you said, yes, everybody does. Yeah, Tom Bradby reads the news on ITN.

That's what it's about, yes. Number seven here, Number five in the States is 65. Still haven't gone. Need to go. Number six. Number seven. Number eleven in the States. Pushing boots the last wish. I had a conversation just the other day with a friend of mine who I respect and like very, very much. And they said that they absolutely loved pushing boots last wish. And when I said that I was lukewarm about it, they almost disowned me. Well, that's a number of listeners have made the same. No, I know. I know. But it's just it's interesting that it happened to somebody who I know,

and I know quite well, went, sorry, pardon, what? Yes. So I don't, I was under, I was underwhelmed. I was underwhelmed. Hello, you're is it I was underwhelmed, I was underwhelmed. Hello, you're is it five, massively underwhelmed. Apparently this worked much better on stage. I never saw the stage play. There is something just so odd about the fact that on the one hand, it's this celebration of the NHS

and it has this whole speech at the end of it, which is to do with everything that people in the NHS went through during COVID and yet and yet and yet it has that absolutely I mean I know ripped from today's headlines subplot but it's it's like the drama is pulling in two different at least two different directions I I found it and do we have any emails about it no okay so scream six is it four Have any emails about it? No. Okay.

So, a cream six, is it four? Creed three, is it three? Much better. Number two here, and number two in the state's Shazam, Fury of the Gods. This from Dr. J. Row, research project manager for the Surrey Black Scholars Program at the University of Surrey.

Dear Mark Strong and Butt. Now that's a good start. It is very easy. It's very easy. But I'm afraid you lose me at this point. Okay. Listening to last week's discussion between Mark and Simon regarding Shazam, reminded me of the confusion I had

when I first heard the title. Like Mark, actually it was me. It was you, it wasn't me. To title Shazam evoked the image of a genie rather than a superhero. Last week's listener wrote that Mark, actually it was me. Simon. Might have been confusing it with the 1960s TV show Shazan, but Mark had no

memory of such a show. No, I didn't, but you did. So the key thing here, then Dr. J. Row Research Project Manager for Sorry Black Scholars Program is you've got us confused. Yes, I'm Mark and I'm Simon. I might, however, they continue, have found the source of the confusion. It's because I am the number three film critic in the world. Yes, I still can't quite believe that. Your drive time, Sean Gray is fantastic. Absolutely, I love it. But if you listen to him, he's the trick. Yeah. Subscribe, so you get rid of the adverts for sell your gold. That's the thing. The subscription one is so much better if you listen to me

Yes, on drive time on great sits radio do the subscription. I'm gonna do that because that will be a lovely thing Yeah premium. Yeah come a premium list. Anyway, you heading back south today Yes, I'm going back to the new forest. Okay, great Because the good lady professor her indoors has got an exhibition on, and I need, she wants to disfiling now. You're flailing. She needs to discuss some problematic students that she's got this year.

Anyway, Dr. J. Row continues, I might have found the source of the confusion. I think if there's anyone confused, that's right. It's possible that like me, Mark is thinking of a poorly reviewed, but fond fondly remembered 1996 fantasy comedy called Kazam that film definitely not stars American basketball legend Shaqialo Neil or Shaq as a wrapping genie Trapped inside a magical boom box. Amazingly Kazam is also often confused with a non-existent

1990 film about a genie called Shazam, which does not star the comedian Sinbad. I hope this helps. No, it doesn't, Jay, the person most confused is you. I think. Get me from the Shaquille O'Neal, Kazam, to the ex-assist in two moves, and fire Kevin Bacon. Actually, no, although almost certainly yes.

I can't do that. So Shaquille O'Neal starred in Blue Chips, which is directly by William Freakin. Here they go. Number one here, number one in the states is John Wick for. Now, here's an email. Boom. And indeed, boom. Boom again. I think this is from Paul O'Kanen, but it's very Irish, so I've probably got that wrong.

Please send us a voice note to correct. Illustraous gentlemen, in 1973, the BBC began last of the summer wine with the implication that this was the beginning of the declining years of the three main characters. Is it Blamire? Not quite sure. Blamire? Clegan Compo. 50 years on, we have Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise around the same age as Michael Bates, Peter Salison, Bill Owen, but racing around in cars, flying fighter planes and generally beating the living daylights out of every bullet. Everyone they meet, what a change 50 years can make.

Although it does raise the question, how will Keanu fare against Noribati? He would really need his nunchucks then. And it best regards, I think that's Paul Okhner. Darren Leithley in Dublin, Kyarrae's ability to give a range of nuance in a single, simple yeah, is unparalleled. However, we're not here for his speechifying. Bill Scarsgard, as close as we're going to get, unhinged villain is left to chew on the plot at exposition. We're here for Reeves to get beaten, shot, stabbed, chopped and strangled. The action scenes are phenomenal. And once I'd worked out the marginal connection between the plot and reality, as bodies have flung around and smashed into hard services, with Scant regard for basic physics and medicine, I went along for the ride.

Thank you, Dan. That thing about Scant regard for basic physics and medicine, again, this brings us back to it's like musicals. If people who don't like musicals go, where's the music coming from? Why are they dancing? Why isn't anyone noticing? What's going on? In fact, there is a very funny Saturday night life sketch. I know that's a rarity, but there's a very funny Saturday night life sketch in which you man from the high school musical movies, Zach Efron, who might love above all things, goes back to high school music and does this speech about how he's been out in the real world and it's terrifying.

He said, you know, I was feeling sad and lonely, so I started singing a song about feeling sad and lonely. You know what? The music didn't start. It turns out nobody sings in the real world. So if you don't like musicals, that's issue. If you do, you just go, well, that's the convention. The convention is Fred Astaire suddenly goes,

we are heaven, I'm in heaven, and I don't know, and you know, the whole orchestra joins in and Ginger Rogers does everything backwards and in heels. It's the same with these movies. If you're looking at it in terms of the real world physics of it, no, it doesn't make any sense to, of course it doesn't. You know, as you said yourself, the blind swordsman, all you need to do is stand 10 feet away from him

and walk stand one, pay shooting. So, you know, I don't, I honestly don't believe incidentally that a Kevlar suit would offer the kind of protection that Kevin Reeves has. 20 fighters trying to take you down. They don't do it one at a time. No, no, and that's what they do here. They do it here because you take your turn,

but that's not the point because it's a musical. This isn't a spoiler. When you see John Wick for it, if you have seen John Wick for, when I went to see it, there was a late running screening and I had to leave, I think it's 90 seconds before the end. So I had seen the final, the big set piece, that's how it finishes.

I absolutely have to go because otherwise my producer is going to be, I ain't where is he. So I left, I think it's 90 seconds before the end and I shouldn't have. That's all I'm saying. As we discover, we were talking about it on the end. And I shouldn't have. That's all I'm saying. As we discover, we've been talking about it on the tube. We won't say anything that no, because I said, you said, well, I'm an idiot. Very close to being an idiot anyway. Correspondence to current amount of You said what? You said what? Exactly. That's not true. And today's guest is Emily Watson, Cosford Park, Punch Drunk Love, Doubtless Mark, we'll mention that.

They're of everything, Ms Potter, Apple Tree Yard, and now God's Creatures. You'll hear our interview with Emily Watson after this brief clip from the film. Oh, it's get in on. Where's Brian, Mike? Sorry to drag you all the way into town. He must be delighted to have Brian back in the house with you. Sure, you know who's that?

Sure, I can. God knows if Mike gets more back into the house, we'd be tearing slips off each other. Australia, he was, was it? Australia, yeah. And that always the way, breaking his mother's heart. Exactly. Look, there's been a claim made about an assault

in the village a couple of weeks back, where a young woman who was in Dannell's pub on the night of the 18th of April. Brian says he was at home at Jule Dad night. Is that right? He was, yeah. And that is a clip from God's Creatures. It stars Emily Watson.

I'm delighted to say that Emily's physically in our studio, which is a wonderful thing. That's a bit thrilling. Both, yeah. Well, do you like the studio? We're very pleased with it. It's really cool actually. It's really. It's quite nice, doesn't it? thrilling, both here. Do you like the studio? We're very pleased with it. It's really cool actually. Isn't it?

It's quite nice, doesn't it? Yeah, very trendy. And we'll happily do interviews down the line to people in various parts of the world, but it always counts for more. I think you get extra time, an extra love if you're in the studio. Extra time, extra love, a special kinetic energy.

Before we discuss God's creatures, Mark is allowed 10 seconds to tell you how much he loves. My favorite films of all time, I watch it over and over again. I need to have a long conversation with you about whether or not all the Superman stuff was discussed on Saturn. I'm sure it wasn't by you. I just love it. That's enough. We did a watch along. Yes, there's a watcher on the internet. There's him and me talking all the way through the movie,

literally doing a watch along with it. It's one of my favorite films of all time. I can recite the whole dialogue. I love film. I'm so pleased to be at the same... Have I done it now? Okay, thank you. So, we just heard in that clip that we're clearly in Ireland, introduces to God's creatures. Where are we? God's creatures is set on the coast of Kerry. It's a small, very cut off fishing village set around a oyster farm, which is a very lonely, perilous, hardworking world where the men do all the work and the

women do all the processing. And I play a mother whose son returns after many years away, much to her delight and not so much the delight of everybody else. Probably my poor mascot. Poor mascot who is adorable, and in her eyes, he can do no wrong, and then he does wrong, very wrong, and everything unravels from there. I think Paul's apart from there. Actually, we had a similar conversation with Paul Maskel

when we were talking about After Sun. When you got the script, because there's so much in After Sun that isn't on the, it's not in the dialogue. Yes. And there's elements of that in this film that there's a lot of silence and a lot that's unsaid. Yes. When you saw the screenplay, what, when you saw the script, what did you think? Well, my first reaction after the first couple of pages was my god who wrote this, it's, you can smell it. You can smell it, it did just, because the screenwriters and the producer both grew up in a fishing village in Kerry,

in a fishing in that community, and it had a real sense of authenticity to it, which immediately had me hooked. But yes, to me, it feels like, it's a story about intergenerational violence and the received and accepted levels of violence in a community that have just been on question for generations. And this is a moment now where people are telling this story and questioning that. You know, this is a story about a community that closes ranks around a rapist

and his mother gives him an alibi. This is supposedly a very profoundly religious place where everybody says, Mass, and goes to the blessing of the boat, what's wrong with this picture, you know? It's a... Can you explain a bit about your reaction when your son Paul Neck School, not called Paul

Muskel, he's a Brian. Brian. And that would be very convenient if the car accident was called Paul Muskel. It's an interest, I don't know quite how to describe your relationship. I mean, obviously, you're overjoyed that he's back from Australia, as any mother would be. Although, unexplained circumstances which suggests that something has happened in Australia we don't know about. But you are there's something very...

Yeah, it's a bit off. It's a bit off. A bit off from the very beginning and you can you feel that in the reaction of his sister and his dad that his mother is instantly enabling of everything he does and everything he wants and covers for him, lies for him, steals for him. There's a sort of whiff of an ead-a-pool thing going on as well, I think. They're just relationship, they're just a bit too close, it's a bit weird. We kind of, you know, lent into that, you know, you had to sort of dial it up and down. You're making a squirm.

Yes, it's uncomfortable. It's also slightly uncanny because when she first sees him, there is a look in her in your face, which is, I can't quite believe he's here. And you do a thing which is that you reach out and touch him as if you almost believe that he isn't going to be there. And there is a sense of the returning ghost that you never expected to walk back into the room. I think so. I mean, in my head as an actor, it's a moment where she, she's embracing her daughters, child her grandchild. And it's a moment of prayer, of desperate prayer of,

I wish this was my son. And she puts him back in the prayer and turns around. And he's standing there. You know, that's was my sense of the, the, the, in her head, it's a miracle. And God has done this for her, and she's not going to question it in any way. And that is a sort of catastrophe waiting to happen, really. That very moment is sort of sets the path for what happens later. Also, sorry, in terms of belief, can you just say something about anybody who's lived in a coastal place or in fishing village will know this already?

But the film has, at its heart, this weird conundrum that people who work the water don't swim. Don't land a swim, I know. It's the most extraordinary thing, which they don't land a swim so that they can't be asked to rescue somebody else. They can't be asked to put their life in jeopardy to save somebody who's in the water. That's why they don't learn to swim. And there's also the suggestion that learning to swim is bad luck because it's somehow, if the water takes you, the water takes you. Yes, it's very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very true. I mean, I don't know if that's changing now, but it's certainly in the last few decades,

it has been a thing. There is, it seemed to me, unless I miss something, almost nothing in this movie, apart from police uniform here and there, to suggest it's 2023. No, it's not. There is no modernity. And Banshee's of Incherin is 100 years prior

to this movie. But if Colin Farrell had walked on set and talked about his donkey, it wouldn't be an out of place. You know, I mean, it doesn't feel like a modern film. No, the directors Anorinceeli would deliberately not specific about that. It is 80s, 90s, possibly, and very definitely pre-internet. So the sense of being cut off and not having a mobile phone to explain everything is definitely there. But it wanted to feel as relevant, you know, this, there are stories of this nature in the news in recent years in rural Ireland, where a mother has given an alibi for her son, has been believed end of story. A man has exonerated the whole village, chased him by the hand.

And the victim is left with nothing. Can you tell us something about your two co-directors and how they work together and how you met them and your experience of them? I always think when you're making something that's very very particular to a particular place, very very relevant to a particular place, that if you have an outsider looking at it through different lens, that always makes for something interesting. Because they're from New York? Yeah. They're New Yorkers, two young women from New York, and a made a film called The Fits, which was brilliant.

Previously to this, and Celia, they worked together. Celia was an editor, but this is the first time that they collaborated. They're so cool. They are such amazing women. They are brilliantly intelligent and thought. Every second of this screenplay and the film had been thought about very deeply before we made the film.

And the rehearsals were a process of discovery for us of that process, of their thoughts. So you had proper rehearsal time. Oh, it was amazing because... Which is rare. Well, we shot in lockdown. And we were all in isolation at first in our little hearts and cottages along the coast of Donnago, which is why we shot rehearsing on zoom, which was the weirdest, weirdest thing. I first met poor Muscle rest of the cast all on zoom. And then after a week, we were sprung into what was

essentially the Mary Celeste. It was an abandoned hotel on the cliffs looking out over the sea where we were like a, you know, first we were like a sort of bag of bouncing tennis balls just like pinging off the walls of this crazy energy. Speaking to people. Insane. And then shooting films in a pub, it's like, oh my God, you remember this. But in itself, gave us an energy of,

we had to just jump in and form a company and get, there wasn't any small talk. We just had to get stuck in. And it was very sensitive stuff, it's very difficult material, it's very confronting, you know, because the whole community is complicit in this situation. And that's what I think makes it really interesting because we, you know, it's very difficult, very easy to be black and white about these things, and so this man-bad, everybody else good, but not so, you know, it's, and I think they're very clever in their way, they little just, they plant very little, kind of story bombs along the way, just letting you

realize slowly, oh god, you know, and the way that the community is revealed through the, through the pub, which is at first feels like a very convivial, loving place, and then makes your blood run cold the way they start to talk about this case of sexual assault. Compare your Irish accent with Angela's ashes. Was it the same Irish accent? How subtle and how different did it have to be because you were in the worst place? It's different, yes, it's different. When I first took the job, I then googled Kerry Axe and nearly had a heart attack. The first thing that comes up is it's like a YouTube thing of two guys coming down off a mountain who've lost a sheep and it is incomprehensible down off a mountain who fell off the sheep and it is incomprehensible.

And I am in so much trouble, but I had a really great dialect coach. Who is your dialect coach? Neil Swain. And I'm not one of those people, I mean, I've got a good ear, but I'm not one of those people who just picked something up. I have to really, really learn it like an issue. I'm really, really study. And was it easier to master the accent or to learn how to cut salmon or fillet macro? Actually, doing those kind of things when you're doing it for a part is kind of fun. And in my own life, I'd probably be very, very squirmish, but I, I rolled my sleeves up,

you know, and we were able to do. Do you smell a fish at the end of the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, really, really quite grim. If Marks allowed his love bombing moment with Adam Sandler, can I, I'm going to come back to it, but I just want to mention Chernobyl, because which I and I bored people's sense of it was I just think it was one of the greatest pieces of television ever. Thank you. Written by Maizen and the last of us currently is just stunning. Oh my god. We go. And again, Craig Maizen.

So as someone who was Emmy and Gold Globe nominated for, you know, well, I just wanted to ask you about what that was like working on that program because I thought it was such an extraordinary piece of drama. It was amazing. It was one of those things where you get the script you go, oh my god, let's not... Just up, sorry. That you're perfectly fine.

Okay, we can make a perfect... Yes, squeaky noises. It was considering that what Craig had been known for before that was... Hangover 2, I think. It's a clear trajectory. It was the most astonishing sort of 360 view of something. He completely took on the politics. He completely took on the science. He took on the spirituality of it, the poetry of it, the human side of it, and it was brilliant and it, you know, a real joy to be part of. And also because we filmed in Lithuania, there were, you know, there's a sort of generation of

crafts people there whose lives that it was so real for them, you know, they were part of that whole Soviet culture, and, you know, every detail was attended to in a way that was brilliant. And you and Stalin's Scars Garden, Jared Harris, I mean, everyone was fantastic, but in the final episode where Jared, sorry, I'm totally at the end of the episode, we're going to have to go. When Jared Harris is sort of giving evidence and explaining the meltdown, but also taking down the entire Soviet system. It's an astonishing piece of writing. It really, really is. Craig is clearly very brilliant and very, you know,

his intellectual capacity is enormous. He is a man with an enormous brain, but he also has very, very good, sort of page turning Hollywood instincts. You know, he just knows how to make a story zip and great emotional intelligence, which is a rare combination. I know you're very busy, you're always very busy, what are you off doing next? I'm about to go back to Ireland actually, to do a few days on small things like

these, which is a Killian Murphy film, as based on the book, which is a beautiful story, and I'm playing a nun, which is should be quite fun. You were nice nun, not all, like a psychopath nun. That's pretty psychopathic, I was just kidding. So how much do you want to go and see a movie? Then you watch the psychopathy, and Killian Murphy. Emily, thank you so much for coming.

And God's Creatures is the new movie. There are some great list of questions which we'll get to in Take Two, but for the moment, Emily, thank you very much. All right, thank you. Emily Watson, I'll special guest. And as I said, there's more with her in take two. Great question, it's in take two, it's a very good question. And some more about Adam's son.

Anyway, God's creatures. Two things, firstly, on that subject of fishermen not swimming. I've looked this up, and what it says is, some believe that it showed a lack of faith in the boat, others that struggling against the sea would result in a more stressful drowning. That's the version that I had always heard. It's interesting when she said that her interpretation was so that they can't be sent in to rescue anybody. The thing that I had always been told was it was to do with if you're in the sea, you're going to drown and all you're going to do by having up swimming abilities, you're going to drag it out. And of course, having done the Shetland

Film Festival for 17, 18 years, one of the interesting things when the oil money came to Shetland, one of the first things they did was built swimming pools. Wherever you go in Shetland, there are state-of-the-art swimming pools. Why? Because the modern generation is learned swim. Because the two most dangerous things would be cars

and the water. So it's, but there is a really interesting thing about that idea. Emily Watson talks about it as a kind of madness, and actually the whole film inhabits a kind of madness. So in case you're listening to this, having not just listened to the interview, so the story is Paul Meskall, who of course was Oscar-nominated for After Sun, is Brian. He comes back to this remote Irish fishing village after years away in Australia. Why did he leave?

More importantly, why is he back? And Emily Watson is his mother. She can't quite believe he's back. She thinks it's miraculous. She thinks it's genuinely some kind of miraculous event. She's in this fish processing plant. And then the central dilemma is that he is accused of having done something terrible.

And she alibis him, even though she knows that what she's doing is lying. So it's the tension is between what she thinks she should do in terms of telling the truth and what she will do for her son. And she, uh, normally what's mentioned in that interview, and you pick this up when you saw the film that there's almost a needable thing going on in their relationship. His relationship with his mother is uncomfortable, uncomfortable, his relationship with his father is, you know, equally uncomfortable in different ways. So Emily Watson used that phrase, you can tell something is a bit off that she's an enabler.

And I talked also about the fact that it is, it's a ghost story in many ways. It's the idea that this ghost reappears from the past. So a few interesting things. Firstly, what does the title mean, God's creatures? Does the title allude to the fact that good or bad we are all God's creatures? And if it does allude to that, is it in a benign way, meaning, hey, you know, we're all God's creatures? Or is it in a benign way, meaning, hey, you know, we're all God's creatures, or is it in a scary way, which is, you know, God created all creatures, including the bad creatures, because there was a whole thing about the community is consumed

by religion, which is one of the things that has created this culture of silence. Totally, this reminded me a little bit of, there's a film by Paul Wright from 2013 called For Those In Peril, which featured brilliant performances by Kate Dickie and George McKay. And I thought it was an interesting comparison with that and Emily Watson and Paul Mescal. This has a really powerful sense of location. Emily Watson said, you can smell it. What she meant was you can smell the factory in which she's working. It's also got a palpable sense of dread. In fact, in the early stages, this film was built as an untitled gothic movie. I think the gothic

thing is really important. There is a sort of sense of fall of the House of Usher that this is, it's like a dynastic collapse. This is a family whose secrets are seeping out of the walls and everything is closing in. So I think the Gothic thing is really important. It's got atmosphere to spare the music by Danny Van Cien's son of Durian's really adds to that. I mean, their credits include autopsy of Jane Doe, devil all the time.

I mean, they're very, very interesting musicians. My, my sort of reservation is that the, the central idea isn't particularly original, that, you know, within these communities, there are these horrible hidden secrets and these cycles of violence are kind of repeating themselves. I mean, it, you could see it as mysterious, although it's really interesting that during that interview, Emily Watson basically says, something that if I was reviewing the film,

I wouldn't say quite what she said. Well, what it was was that it implied that, from her point of view, it's not mysterious. You do know what's happened. You do. And I mean, I think if I was reviewing it, I'd say there's an allegation. But her whole thing was none of this is how it is. The drama is about the fact that this thing

has happened. We know it's happened. She knows it's happened. Everyone knows it's happened. And she's still lying about it. And in a way, I think that's kind of it's narrative shortcoming very slightly. I think the performance is a great, and the atmosphere is great. I think the performances are great and the atmosphere is great, I think the location is very good and I think it's got some really interesting ideas in it and certainly those filmmakers that she talks about Celia Davis as she's pronounced Celia and Anaro's Homer, they are fascinating filmmakers. I like that idea right the outside eye coming from New York to this place with the show me shooting off a donigle and bringing something kind of new to that. I thought all of that, excuse me, all of that worked well. I just

I wanted the narrative to be more unexpected. I mean, there are a couple of unexpected moments, and oddly, those are probably the things that don't work quite as well. I mean, there is a, I'm not sure that the finale works as well as it should do. So anyway, I think it's flawed, but I think it's very powerful in its atmosphere. So I think it's got a brilliant sense of location.

I think the performance is great. I think that Emily Watson and Paul Muscle together are fantastic. I think that Emily Watson and Paul Muscle together are fantastic. I just wish that the narrative had been a little bit more unexpected. More with Emily Watson intake too, adds in a minute. But first, it's time once again, very, very good news, everybody, we step into our laughter lift.

Hazard. Shazam, here we go. Hey Mark, seeing as you love the noble gases joke so much last week, I was going to tell you another one, but all the good ones are gone. I got that, I got that, because argons are gas. It is, it's no gas. I got it, okay. Anyway, here's another science you want for you, are you ready?

I was out at a pub with rooms in showbiz Nors London on Saturday for a wedding reception, a neutron walked in. How much for a pint, he said, for you, no charge, said the barman. And I get that as well, because a neutron has no charge. Subatomic particle with no charge. And then a photon walked in. I'd like a room for the night, please, he said, certainly, do you have any luggage we can take up to the room?

Ask the receptionist, no said the photon, I'm traveling light. Because a photon is a little like light particle, quantum of light. It was in fact. It's an education today. It's not funny, but it's an education. It was, in fact, cousin Cecil's wedding to his delightful Parisian fjolse, no Emmy on Saturday. At the reception, I raised my champagne glass and said,

a dish of sliced bread soaked in beaten eggs and often milked cream, then pan-fried, alternative names and variants include eggie bread, bombé toast, gypsy toast, and poor nights of Windsor. It was a French toast. The evening did not end well. I got the bar bill and had a massive rarer with the bar stuff. I argued with my cashier that the bill was £70,20, not £7,000, £7,020. You didn't get the point. Anyway, what have we got? Yes, yes, got that.

What's still to come? Dungeons and Dragons. Okay, back up to the visions. Unless you're a Vanguard Eastern, in which case you definitely don't have a nickname that everyone else knows, apart from you, and your service will not be interrupted. With banking packages from Scotia Bank, you can put money back in your pocket.

That's how Marcus was able to invest in everything he needed to launch his podcast about his pets. Welcome back to PetGas. Visit ScotiaBank.com slash welcome offer. Scotia Bank conditions apply. Get holiday ready at Real Canadian Superstore. Will you find more legendary ways to save than any other major grocer? offer, sco-sh-bank, conditions apply. So before we move on completely from, I mean, the laughter lift was fantastic.

It was on the subject of God's creatures, Samuel in Birmingham. Dear all things great and small. The STL second term email. I was fortunate enough to attend my first ever press screening last weekend for the film God's Country. Was I there swearing? You can always rely on you turning up and the cousin. Toat bags, coffee slurping and serious face boomers aside,

I rather selfishly enjoyed being privy to a release than other people have no chance to see it. However, the film itself was a little too drab. I can appreciate the technical facets, cold cinematography, oyster shell clattering score, etc. But that's a good line, oyster shell clattering score, yeah. But can't help feeling that its interesting moral dilemma score, etc. But that's a good line, oyster shell clattering school, yeah. But can't help feeling that it's interesting moral dilemma was undercut by Sarah.

Is it Ashling, Frankie O.C.? Is that how you say her name? I think it is. Okay. Painfully limited screen time. It feels more like a product of misjudge writing than an earnest attempt to convey her character's voiceless position in the village. Sure, Emily Watson is pretty spellbinding in the central role,

but her abundance of screen time does seem to detract from the thematic heart of the events in the film. The best scenes are those where Watson and Frakeo see share a physical and psychological space, but they are too few and far between to give any meaningful exploration of a very delicate subject matter. Anyway, thanks for the good company on drives to work. Up with BHFs and tote bag wielding critics.

Down with the usual. Thank you, Samuel. What is your tote bag? tote bag is like a gift bag with a, you know, we just got like a press release and a plastic toy which you'll never use. Okay. And maybe a cake.

Okay, okay. Or something like that. Which I've never got in any press screenings. Dear rant and a toey, is this, oh, this is Dan Heycock. Both restaurant and restaurant, this is from last week, derived from the word restaurant which means, of course, to restore. But can in context be translated as tukator? I happen to think that restoration is both an accurate and a more poetic way

to describe what is provided by a good eating establishment. Very good. Of course, language changes in usage and anglophone might modify. Oh, he says, in each case, a different suffix is used to create a new noun. And the place where it happens and er, the person who makes it happen. Of course, language changes in usage and anglophone might modify the word in this way, but this

idea would be as bad as any, like, using burglarized to mean burgle, which is jarring because burglar derives from burgle and not the other way around. People do say burglarized, don't they? It's an Americanization. I can find, right, right. On my first, the itch book, which came out in American. That's right. They American. They changed. They changed.

They used the word burglarized, which just makes it sound like. Wow, but boudlerized. Yes, yes. Very strange. Interestingly, this dispute puts your esteem cells on the opposite sides from those you took in the panorazan debate. One arguing for elegant language that reflects the roots of the words used, the other arguing for vandalistic revisionism. I'm sorry,

I meant to say pragmatic usage. And we leave LeBhF's, Maird Olnatsis, a ultra revisionist historic delay. That's very good. Anyway, so here we go, meat and drink, heart and soul, Dungeons and Dragons. Simon and Garfun call Freeman Harding Willie. Well done. Well done, but doing Freeman Harding Willie. That's a reference for people from the previous section. That's great. I love it. I love all their albums. Hi, Harmin. Particularly, I didn't like it when they went electric, but so Dungeons & Dragons honor among thieves, all 134 minutes of it. Adventure Fancy based on the role-playing game that child-three, your child-three plays. So, you know, hands up, I've never played Dungeons and Dragons. I know very little about it. When I go up to your attic, I walk past child-three's

room where there is the sound of Orcs, always, because he's online doing stuff. Basically, he's a game's master, so he runs it. So there have been previous screen incalations. There was a trilogy of three previous movies, the 2000 with Jeremy Ions, I think 2005's Roth of the Dragon God, and 2012's Book of Vile Darkness. Apparently not respected within the community, generally thought of as absolutely terrible.

This is a reboot directed by John the Golden John Francis Dele, who co-wrote the script. The story is credited to Michael, I think Gideon or Gideon and Scott McKay. Their previous direct in credits, their previous writing credits, includes By the Man Homecoming and co-directing Game Night. So, the film's got a kind of a tortured history. It was with, it was with, it has bro universal, warna's blah blah, paramount. Anyway, what it is, it's a fantasy heist movie in which a group assembled to carry out a job. So Chris Pine is

Egan Darvis whose wife was killed and who then raised his daughter Kira with Holger, played by Michelle Rodriguez, who steals every scene. They're both in prison for thieving, and they're pleading for a pardon. They want to get Kira back from their form apart and a forge, played by Hugh Grant, definitely in Paddington 2 mode. OK. Which is, he's now said that basically,

what he likes to do is play Cads, Scoundrels, and, you know, Bounders. And Bounders, he was interviewed on Stephen Colbert, and he made some very funny jokes about why that's the case. And also get a resurrection tablet that could resurrect life and therefore bring back his lost wife. Teams up with the magic sorcerer Simon, played by Justice Smith and shape shifting, Tiefling Druid, Tiefling Druid, I believe, Doric, Sophie Lill, who's best known to me from the It movies. Here is Simon using his magic to question a corpse

because he has a certain spell which raised the corpse from the dead, ask it five questions, goes back to being a corpse. OK, Simon, how does this work? All right, once the dead man is revived, we can ask him five questions at which point he will die again, never to be re-revived. Five-five questions. I don't know, this is how it works.

It seems arbitrary. Can we get on with this, please? Right, yes. Perlimon, Tegatus. Maybe I'm not saying it. What was it scared really startles? I'm going to use that line. I wasn't scared. I was really starting.

Okay, but you get a sense of, yeah, it's kind of, it's not like I do that. So, um, the quest then involves magical helmets, hordes of treasure, gladiatorial games, and Hugh Grant doing the Hugh Grant CAD thing, which is it. It's a little over long, it makes no sense to some extent unless you're familiar

with the kind of the ball games, and it's daft as a brush, but it is fun. Now, I say this is somebody who's never played Dungeons and Dragons. I asked child three because I enjoyed it and I thought, okay, I probably a little bit more knowledge might have helped. So I said to child three, look, what's the general deal? He said, I haven't seen it, but have you seen the tweet by Matthew Mercer? Or I said, I haven't. So he said, okay, fine.

He then said, you do know who Matthew Mercer is, don't you? And I said, remind me. Because that's always better than saying no. Exactly. Runs the show Critical Role, where a bunch of voice actors play Dungeons and Dragons with cast members. One of the main reasons for doing these popularity researching has an animated series of its own,

Amazon, blah, blah, blah, blah. One of the largest live streams of any kind in the world. So that, along with Stranger Things, has sort of brought it very much into popular thing. And Matthew Mercer said, got to be part of Los Angeles premier of the Dungeons & Dragons movie last night. As much as I was apprehensive given the scars of the 2000 film, the film is thankfully a blast, fun, humorous with some good action and adventure, it evokes, well, a good session at a table. So what that seems to say to me, as the outside who doesn't know anything about this, is if you do play the game, it evokes

the atmosphere of a good session playing the game. The director himself has said that the film doesn't take itself seriously, but crucially is never a spoof. And they cite as influences, the Princess bride, Monty Python, the Holy Grail, Lord of the Rings, and Indiana Jones, which are good reference points. If you're going to be doing this, those are good reference points. Certainly if you put it next to something like Thor Love and Thunder, which was just

the smart, Alex smug jokes. I remember if I reviewed Thor Love and Thunder, it was like, if not even you care about this, why should I care about this? The jokes here aren't, we don't care care about this, why should I care about this? The jokes here aren't, we don't care. The jokes here are, we would like this to be funny. I mean, there's a lot of visual effects.

There's the albeir. The albeir, child three tells me, is a thing anyway, but there's some of the albeir turns up. And do you mean albeir as in French for Albert? Or an albeir? An albeir. A bear that's an albeir or an albeir. Half al, half bear? Yeah, you know an owl or an owl that's a bear.

Half-half bear? Yeah, you know the confusion that's in your voice? Yes. Yeah, that was exactly me. And then I said to child three and the Albert, oh yeah, no, that's a thing. Right. Okay. It's a thing.

Okay. Half-half-half bear. Half-half bear. It's just a thing. It's just a thing. But it's the CGI effects are, you know, it's a big CGI special effects thing with jokes in between. So there'll be a big thing about, you know,

a monster and then somebody will, we'll equip it. A lot of those quips are in the trade, actually, I think the trade it was a little too spoilery. Sometimes the visual effects look a bit video gamey, but I laughed several times. I didn't get bored despite the fact that it is long, it's under 34 minutes. The scenery may be digital, but Hugh Grant chose it as if

it's absolutely physical. And, you know, there's a thing in it with the hither, the hither thither spell, which is when you, it's like portal, which is one of the very few video games I do understand. You've got an opening, an entrance and an exit, and you can put the entrance one place in the exit somewhere else, and they use that kind of rather well. The whole thing cost, you know, well over a hundred million dollars, and I suppose that one might argue that the effects aren't quite up to snuff, but you never come out of a film like that. If you ever come out of a film like that going, the effects were really great. What it means is and everything else was rubbish. And in the case of this, their likable characters,

everything has got a quite nice shonkiness to it. It feels like it's in the, you know, it's having fun with itself. Apparently from the evidence of child three, those in the know will not are not outraged by it. And actually, I think when you come to video game adaptations, the people knowing about it not being outraged by it is a pretty solid thing. So it was, I mean, I went in thinking

that it was 94 minutes long, thinking, wow, this is gonna be a breeze. I went, it's, you know, I went in thinking that it was 94 minutes long, thinking, wow, this is going to be a breeze. I went, it's, it's, you know, an hour and 34 minutes. And as I went in, he said, no, no, it's 134 minutes long. That's two hours something. And I went, oh, really? And then I have to say, it was longer than I expected, but it felt shorter than I thought. So that is shorter than John Wick for. Everything shorter than John Wick for. I think the Godfather is shorter than John Wick for. And is a film that is enjoying itself?

Is that a good thing? Or is that slightly dodgy? No, no, no, no, I think, sorry, I think that the sense of fun that it has is kind of infectious. Email here from Alistair. We've got to what's on by the way. So can I just be, I think, I would would like yes, I think you should take child three to see child three does not want

to go and see it with me, but okay, I will I can enable his his his viewing. Okay, certainly. And can I can I take this opportunity to thank him for the for the full ex smorgasbord of references with Lucas Boone having said we're never going to use the word again, it's now every week, every week. Alistair, cinema, lately I have taken to reading my local chain cinema listings, like the classified football scores. This week's readings are John Wick four. Sorry, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, John Wick four shazam two,

Creed three, Creed 3, Scream 6, Pussin Boots 3, Ant Man 3, cocaine bear 65, 80 for Brady. On a more positive note. That's actually that last one is very funny. I would like to shout out Cromedy Cinema in the Highlands, who just put on an excellent film festival

last weekend, support your local independent cinema. Thank you, Alistair. And Rob in West London, this week my girlfriend, Rose and I, had realized that neither of us have had the pleasure of visiting an iMacs. So we made our way down to the BFI iMacs in Waterloo. To enjoy John Wick for a proper bang bang shoot shoot type film that the iMacs' size and sound would easily lend itself to. As we took our seats, the trailers began. Unsurprising, the latest

edition of Fast and Furious trailer began a franchise with nearly enough additions to rival. Now that's what I call music. And Vin Diesel's face appeared on our screen. We both looked at each other and said quietly and co-completely. Family. Family. As if the fast and furious gods were listening, Diesel said the word, Family. In sync with us, which prompted us to laugh. Then he said it again and again and again. By the end of this is a trailer, by the end of then a minute and a half, we counted no less than five families from Mr. Diesel. Either he believes it's all for family or he listens to the podcast and is giving you both a subtle nod to say, I'm listening. Either way, it looks pants. John week four on the other hand was enjoyable nonsense and a perfectly

pleasant way. I'd love to see John week four on that big iMac screen. To spend a rainy Saturday. Because imagine what the sacred curse sequence would look like on the iMac screen. Daunting. I think it's the word. All right, time for what's on. This is where you email us a voice note about your festival or special screening from wherever you are

in the world or the universe. Email yours to correspondents at kermaneway.com. Here's this week's episode. Hi Mark and Simon, I'm Anthony Baxter. And here in Montrose Scotland it's a stranger than fiction weekend at the Montrose Playhouse. On Friday night, 31st of March we have the multi-award winning feature dog Ney Pasaran, including a Q&A with director for Leap A.Bustos Sierra. Doctor Who composer Dominic Glyn joins us for a unique insight into writing music

for film and TV on Saturday, 1st of April, when we'll also be screening my own feature, Flint Who Can You Trust? Tickets are available now at MontrosePlayhouse.co.uk Hello, Mark and Simon. I'm Tessa, lead programmer at the Forbidden World Film Festival in Bristol. It's our second festival in May. We've released passes now. We're going to be celebrating monsters, Michele, and some classics like Cliffhanger, Starship Troopers on the massive screen. We've got in Bristol. We'd love to see there. Please visit our website if you can. Thanks.

Thank you. So that was Anthony Baxter. Can I just say, do you know who Anthony Baxter is? Well, does he do voiceovers for documentaries and kind of lost gold ads? No. Anthony Baxter is the director behind you've been trumped, which was the film that first, you know, sent up the red, but he's definitely doing a voiceover there.

He's saying, hi. You know, he's a, you know, he knows how to speak. He is a really brilliant filmmaker and he was, you know, I've known him since you've been drunk because I reviewed it on the radio. We were live from Wimbledon when we did you've been trumps and it was really great and since you've made dangerous game and you've been trumps too,

he's a really, really fine filmmaker and how lovely, how lovely that he's sent in that voice. Yeah, so Anthony was telling us about Strange Infection Weekend at the Montrose Playhouse and Tessa from the Forbidden World's Film Festival. In Bristol. I love Forbidden World's Film Festival. That was a great title, isn't it? Send us, absolutely.

I'd like to go to both of those things. Yes, please. Thank you, Anthony. Can we have the week off? I think we've got a week off. Oh, we got it off. I've got to get fun. All right. Fine. Good. Yeah. That was easy. So I was it two weeks actually, the easiest negotiation you've ever done.

Really was. Yeah. Then they're keen for us to go send your 20. This is a 20 second audio trailer. But to be honest, if it's good enough, you can make it last. You said your 20 second audio trailer. It sounds like as in 21st, the most of the 21st one, since in the 22nd one. No, not 20 second one. No, I understand.

It was just what it sounded like. Send your 20 second audio trailer. Okay, well, you can do that as well. Yes, make it last as long as you like. Just perform like Anthony did there. Yeah. It can be anywhere in the universe. Correspondence at kermanamer.com.

That would be a very lovely thing. Thank you. We look forward to getting your voice note in time for next week's Pro Nuit. That is the end of take one, production management general all round stuff. Lily Hamley, cameras also by Lily. She basically runs the whole show.

Videos by Ryan Omira and Sanchez Panza, studio engineer Josh Gibbs, guest researcher Sophie Ivann Flynn Rodham was the assistant producer and guest booker. Johnny Socials was on socials, Hannah Toolbitt was the producer and Infinity Pool was the red actor. He does love that name. Mark, what is your film of the week? It's hard, isn't it? I don't know. Not really. Just tell us the one you enjoyed the most. Yeah, I want to say Laura Tarran, but part of me. I'm gonna say that then.

Okay, Laura Tarran. Laura of Tehran at the end, did you go up at the end? Or is it Laura, so Laura of Tehran? Laura of Tehran, all Dungeons and Dragons. By which? You've had ages to work. I haven't, because I worked right up until the last moment to decide.

Oh, let's go for dungeons and dragons. Right. Okay. Very good. Thank you for listening. Extra takes with a bonus review of a bunch of recommendations, even more stuff about the movies and cinema adjacent television. Is available right now, it is landed at the same time as this fabulous podcast. Take three, we'll arrive in your devices in box next Wednesday.