Kermode & Mayo’s Take - HONEY, DON’T: a film title that reviews itself? + Sam Riley on ISLANDS

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.  Grab the popcorn, because we’ve got a load more sweet and salty reviews for you this week on the Take. We’ll let you find out which are which. First up, ‘Honey, Don’t’, the neo-noir crime comedy from Ethan Coen that follows ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ as the next in a soon to be trilogy. Plus, two new indie flicks: Cork-set drama Christy, following two brothers forging a new life outside the care system, and the odd-couple holiday drama ‘Signs of Life’. There’s ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ too... but is it really really the last one this time?   Our guest this week is the ever-excellent Sam Riley—a stalwart on British screens since his breakout role as Ian Curtis in the Joy Division singer’s biopic ‘Control’. This time he’s starring in ‘Islands’, a mysterious sun-soaked thriller out next week. He plays tennis coach Tom—who seems to have the perfect life hitting rallies all day and chasing holiday flings all night—but things get complicated when he gets wrapped up in a dodgy family drama. Sam sits down with Simon to unpack his role in the movie, plus they talk middle-aged angst, holidays in the German Skegness, and that time he almost got arrested in Aberdeen... Keep an ear out for Mark’s review of the film next week too.   There’s top correspondence from you Wittertainees as always too, as we dive ever deeper into the cinema seating debate and beyond. Don’t miss another top Take!      Timecodes (for Vanguardistas listening ad-free):  Honey, Don’t: 08:15  Box Office Top Ten: 14:00  Sam Riley Interview: 26:15  The Conjuring: Last Rites: 38:49  Signs of Life Review: 52:33  Christy Review: 58:13        You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo  Please take our survey and help shape the future of our show: https://www.kermodeandmayo.com/survey   EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!  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]  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Okay, ready. Let's do it. That's famous introduction to a very good song. Okay, ready, let's do it. Hang on. That is... Okay, ready, let's do it. Daman. Boom, boom, boom, ch, boom, ch. Welcome to the voice of Buddha. Oh, that's right. That's that, yeah.

Very early, very early human league. all right what's sorry and look on what's this one two one two one one two three four i don't know it could be jonathan richmond and the modern lovers no it's i found that essence rare by gangful but you're in the right ballpark i suppose yeah so i would just like to say um obviously we were did a show last week um but i have been away for for a while. And before we went away, we had a conversation about spectacles and you had a different pair of spectacles on. Yes. And I commented on the spectacles and you said you had like 150 pairs of spectacles. Ten pairs. Something like that. And it was the first thing you thought about

when you got up in the morning, what pair of spectacles am I going to wear today? Precisely right. So today I'm rocking the kind of the C-3 ones which go well with my grey hair because it's like they're kind of got grey frames and then they're very focals and I like them very much. And I said I have one pair of glasses and I said what happens if something happens to them and you went well what could possibly happen to them they're on my face.

Exactly. So there I was on a Danish beach with wearing sunglasses and with these glasses that I'm wearing now in a case in a bag where unbeknownst to me at some stage in the walk they fell out. So this is like very early

in the Danish holiday and I got home and realized that I only had sunglasses and I didn't have my glasses, so therefore could not read, unless with sunglasses on, could not, you know, couldn't watch television unless for sunglasses on. And obviously, some rock and roll stars might get away with that, but I would just look like a complete div. So I thought, if Mark were here, he would be mocking. Yes. But in my, trying to retrace my steps, I noticed a lonely lifeguard hut on the beach, deserted and I climbed up the steps and I peered in through the glass and there on their little table I could see my glasses. Wow. So if someone had handed them in, I think it was another

lifeguard of found them, handed them in and so the following morning I got them. And the lesson of that was, first of all, Mark is always right. Secondly, get yourself other glasses, which I have now done. Good. And thirdly, get one of those little tags, an air tag. Leave them with your glasses and then you will never lose them again because you will always know where they are. What, you mean like a tracking device? Yeah. So my glasses case now has a tracking device on it. So I will always know precisely where they are. That's a good idea. Yeah, it's like 20 quid or something and it means that I'll, I won't have to spend how many hundreds of pounds getting new, new glasses. And that is your tip for this particular week. Anyway, it's, it's good to be

back doing this thing. What are you going to be talking about later? We have got a Pact show. So, in Take 1, reviews of Honey Don't from the makers of Driveway Dolls. The Conjuring Last Rights, I don't know whether that's a threat or a promise. And Christy, which is a lovely little independent film, and Signs of Life, which is also a lovely little independent film. Sam Riley is going to be with us to talk about his new film, which is called Islands. And can you talk excitedly about the films in Take 2? Yes, I'm also going to be reviewing excitedly the new Orlando Blan film, The Cut. and On Swift Horses, which I originally saw in Croatia in that festival that I was at just a few months ago.

I hear, when you say On Swift Horses, what I hear is, On Swift Horses, yeah, same as me. Same as me. Plus all the extra stuff and the extra episodes and all the glory that you get from being a Vanguard Easter. Simon in London, but currently in Las Vegas. Long-term listener, first-time email. On visiting Las Vegas for a significant birthday this week, my wife and I thought we'd take one for the church and head to the Wizard of Oz at the sphere for the first run of shows. Yes.

Which we have been discussing in recent weeks. Yeah, we have. Eyebrows were first raised at the blimey Charlie ticket prices, which were along the lines of taking a family of four to the Odian Milton Keynes IMAX with a bag of spangles and then some, i.e. ticket prices started at $120 per person, peaking at $359 for the VIP Witch Experience. Wow. I'd like to know what you got for that. For us, it was perhaps, I mean, and bear in mind, I mean, I know the sphere is an incredible place, but this is an old film. I mean, I know they've done some work on it, but anyway. Well, they haven't.

The AI has done some work on it. That's the whole point. Simon from London continues. For us, it was perhaps more everything that we feared rather than hoped for as an experience. The overwhelming visuals and the sheer size of the screen is very on point for Vegas. The film has been pared down to 75 minutes since apparently those tinkering felt the original kind of dwelled on a few things that were somewhat superfluous, which elicited a rather loud harumph from us both when reading the show's blurb. Gone are the original glorious hand-painted

backdrops. Instead, we have gaudy AI-expanded, photorealistic landscapes, which of course look entirely out of place. And the actors' faces are of the uncanny valley variety when they move outside the original frame, which the munchkins, with the munchkins, especially hard done by. It's all entirely absurd, especially when the foam apples are thrown into the audience in the requisite scene and flying monkeys swooped from the auditorium, even if the tornado and the opening credits reveal is grudgingly rather special. Thankfully, what remains is the creativity of the original technicians and the heartfelt performances of the cast.

So ultimately, we're glad we went, but rather felt that your AI engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop and think if they should. I love the show, Steve, up with misunderstood green witches and down with cultural vandalism from Simon, normally in London, but currently in Vegas. So I think that would be interesting. I don't know whether I, would you pay $120 for that? No. No, I mean, I wouldn't know.

I mean, I don't know what the dollar to pound thing is now, but it's about the same, isn't it? $120, it's about £120 or something. So, no, that's insane. I mean, thank you very much for taking one for the team and going to see it. I like the expression that, you know, the fears were met rather than I laid. But yeah, I mean, I'd watch it if they said, oh, you can watch it for free. That'll be fine. Looking at those prices reminds me, I'm going to see Evita tonight at the London Palladium.

And I am looking forward to it enormously. Am I right in thinking that there is a bit in Evita when she sings the main song out into the street? Yeah, which sounds like an absolute genius piece of. Production. Yes, she sings, don't cry for me, Argentina, opening the second act, just after nine o'clock, on the balcony in front of London Pladium. So if you're a wandering tourist, you've just come out of Aberdeen's Steakhouse or wherever, you get an international superstar singing a huge musical hit for free. But what if you're in the theatre? How can you see her if she's outside? I shall report back. I should report back. Yeah. I mean, it'd be weird if it was like you'd paid to see the thing and you see the whole thing, but when you get to the big song, she'd go, I'm just going to pop outside for a minute. I'm thinking of it as it's just the price of a train ticket to Edinburgh.

That's how I'm thinking of it. Or from London Dependsance, whichever way you want to do it. Okay, so if you want to get in touch, we would love to hear from you, of course, always, all the time. And it's correspondence at codemoe.com. Tell us about a movie that's out that we might love or not. Yes, Honey Don't. One of those rare movies like Superbad, in which the title reviews the film. This is from the people who brought you drive-away dolls.

So director Ethan Cohen best known for his work with his brother Joel, but here working with his wife, Tricia Cook, who also edits, and I have to say badly on both fronts. As before, this is a knowingly trashy, this time neo-noirre lesbian crime thriller starring Margaret Qualley. So it's kind of self-conscious, deliberately built cult movie, you know, like Troma or like Tarantino's Grind House stuff. And so apparently this is the second film in the lesbian B-movie trilogy. So, Hooray, there's more to come. Go Beavers is in the works. Whoopty-Doo. This one is set in Bakersfield, California. So Margaret Qualley is this smart-talking PI, Honey O'Donoghue. She's investigating a death. It's meant to be a road traffic accident. Clearly wasn't. Chris Evans is the local preacher who gets his church to have sex with him by telling them not to be macaroni. that really He gets his church to have sex with him By telling them not to be macaroni And I'm not making this up How can you have sex with a church Is it like having sex with a car?

No, the members of the church That's even worse Yes, it is, yes And he's also involved in drug trafficking And Aubrey Plaza, who I've always liked, is a cop Who gives honey a hand In the local bar

Yeah, okay And then gets to pull a lot of faces Here's a clip from the trailer Honey, oh, God, and Hugh, I ain't seen you at a minute Me, Novotny, are you aware of any trouble she was in? Why she owe your money? She was afraid of something, the cops couldn't help her, right? I said I'd help.

Cops said it was an accident. That was from her church in town. She never wore that in the house. Bill neither. And that joke, which is very much a visual joke, is she holds up this white, this white smock, which is from the church, and then out of it falls a bondage, leather bondage outfit. So that's hilarious. Anyway, so the Wikipedia page says that this lesbian caper trilogy is tonally reminiscent of the wackier Coen Brothers movies

like Raising Arizona, although, as I said with the first one, it's much more like burn after reading. It's filled with slapstick violence, people getting comically shot in the face, burned, stabbed, skewed, smashed under the wheels of a car. There's loads of salivably salacious sex. So, you know, Margaret Qualley and Aubrey Plaza, hitting the handcuffs. Chris Evans in a jock-strapped threesome. Loads of anti-Trump jokes. There's a bit in which there's a maga tailplate on the back of the car, which gets a sticker put over it, which says, I have a vagina and I vote. Somehow, despite all of these things, it is staggeringly boring. And at one point whilst watching it, and bear in mind, it's not a long film.

found myself drifting off to sleep. Also, on that same wiki page, and incidentally, I'm quoting Wiki because this is what the film deserves. It says the release of the trilogy is the outcome of 20 years of writing by Cohen and Cook. And although the two movies between them are only round about three hours in total, I feel like I've been watching them for 20 years. The dialogue is meant to be smart and sassy. It just reminded me of the counsellor, as did the previous film. The pacing is meant to be kind of, you know, wacky and reckless. It's just shonky. I mean, there are whole scenes that look like they're not the, they're not even, they're even like an edit. They just look like somebody assembled the footage. You know, when you shoot a movie,

they say, just assemble the footage, and then we'll have a look at it, and then we'll figure out what we've got. And the thing I was thinking was, you know, there's always this thing which you said, oh, Mark Kerma just likes films if they're woke, you know, well, okay, this has got anti-maga jokes in it. It's got LGBT-friendly. It's got strong female leads. All those things. I absolutely thought

it was one of the most boring pieces of rubbish I've seen this year. So, firstly, I was right. And secondly, they're going to do all this again for a third one. It's just, I mean, I can't understand our film with so many

things in it that should be entertaining. Who's so lacking in entertainment you would think that given the film is as you have described and it is

including the jock-strapped threesome and internationally famous movie stars getting up to no good and seriously French kind of activities

you would think you might say it was distasteful or it was bawdy or it was unnecessarily crude but how

I like to think I could have made that film and for you not to say it was boring. It's so boring. It's just so boring. And it's so... Can I just don't go on? How is that... I know.

I mean, believe me, I'm in the same. I just don't understand how it... It could be terrible, but I don't understand boring. Yeah, and I don't understand it either. In a way, I'm kind of impressed that this second time round, they've done it again. Okay, so Mark's going to be reviewing, I'm going to tell him, because he'll... No, I know. page. Cundering last rights. Cundering last right, Christy and signs of life. I've prepared.

Excellent. Also, the box office top 10 and the laughter lift and Sam Riley on the way. Now, Mark, if you've shopped online, chances are you've bought from a business powered by Shopify. You know that purple, shop pay button you see at checkout. The one that makes buying so incredibly easy, that Shopify. And there's a reason so many businesses sell with it. Shopify makes it incredibly easy to start and run your business. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, including names like Mattel and Jim Shark to brands just getting started. Shopify has hundreds of beautiful, ready-to-go templates to express your brand style. Tackle anything from inventory to payments, to analytics, and more all in one place.

And Shopify has built-in marketing and email tools to find and keep new customers. If you want to see fewer carts being abandoned, it's time for you to head over to Shopify. Sign up for your £1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com. com.com.uk slash take. Go to Shopify.com.uk.uk slash take. Hey, take listeners, this is an advert from BetterHelp. Now, when it comes to wellness these days, don't you reckon it feels like there's advice for everything? Oh, you should do cold plunges? No, you should do gratitude journals. But how do you know what actually works specifically for you? You can almost get lost in these recommendations.

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As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. So talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash Kerr Mode. That's BetterH-E-L-P.com slash Kerr mode. Hey, it's the box office top 10. This is an exciting thing. Mark, you ready to go on this? I am. And this one, unlike the last show that we did, because remember it was a pre-record, we made the top 10 up. This one's actually real.

It's based on facts. Yes, it's based on fact, yeah. Facts, I don't know whether facts help, really. I wonder if we can, just in future, just do our own facts and make up our own chart. What do you think? Well, I don't know the truth getting in the way of a good story. Also, because we were off last week, both of us, I mean, we did a, there was a show, but we weren't here. There's a couple of films in this that came out last week that I haven't caught up with because there's so many new movies out this week, so I just apologize in advance. Okay, well, we'll just make it. When we come to that bit, we'll make up a few things. I'll make it up, yeah. Okay. At number 10, materialists.

Well, I'm, you know, I like materialists. I don't like materialists as much as I liked past lives. Sanjeev did a really, really good interview with Celine Song, in which they just got, I mean, I know that you and I met Celine Song. We got them really well with her. Honestly, Simon, I thought Sanjee and her were going to form a production company or something. There was nothing that they didn't agree on. I felt very, I mean, I knew this was happening, and that I was going to miss. the interview with Celine Song, and I was rather jealous of the fact that Sanjeeve got to do it.

Yeah. Yeah. But anyway. Yeah. Anyway, but it's good. It's just not past lives. Number nine, Loka Chapter 1, Chandra. So I haven't seen this, and I don't know whether it was press screened, because this is an Indian superhero film of the kind which often aren't pressed screened. If you've seen it, send us in an email and let us know. The Fantastic Four First Steps is at number eight. I mean, this is now it's sixth week in the charts. and it's done pretty well. But I did think, and it's not damning with faint praise, I do think the design is really worth the price of admission. And that's number six in the States. Number seven, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,

20th anniversary, old people. Yeah, this is a new film, Simon. Have you heard about Harry Potter? Apparently it's quite a big thing. Is that right? Yeah. Well, so we talked about this on the podcast from last week. And, I mean, I still think Prisoner of Azcaban is the best of them,

but I do think there's something quite nice about being able to see the potters back on the big screen. Directed by Chris Columbus, of course, who is back on your small screen because he's done Thursday Murder Club. Yes, that's right. In which he has created the most unbelievable nursing home, care home for old people,

which is basically Hogwarts. Anyway, that's matter. I was watching a Dame Edna thing on Instagram because Instagram's discovered that I find Dame Edna funny. And it is Michael Parkinson's. saying to Damanda, your mother is still with us, and Damina says, yes, she's in a maximum security nursing hunt. It's Harry Potter's at number seven.

Court stealing is at number six. It's number five in America. I got this from Liz H. who's in Santa Barbara, California. Darren Aronofsky's latest court stealing is a rip-snorting blend of straight-up 1990s New York violence and left-field comedic sidebars. Halfway through, I grappled for category, as the mind does. and had the urge to check with commentators to contextualise.

What was this? How does it fit in with Aronofsky's work? I'm glad, though, to have found my own way, Saint-Gougal. Austin Butler is as dreamy as ever. He and that cat are really a stupendous combo. The film distinctly reminded me of uncut gems in its bad to worse, unrelenting panic ride. But in this film, the darkness of the first two acts lifts,

the third act swerves, and the rough stuff takes on a more obviously quirky, more harmless feel of punk rock mayhem. Baseball and baseball fandom cast a rainbow glow over this bad, sad world, as fate pummels Austin Butler's character Hank into confronting his demons. Weirdly, I tasted a tangy nostalgia for the grit, grime and violence of New York City in the 90s. I blame Al Pacino.

Anyway, Liz, who's been writing reviews, I think. But anyway, court stealing at number six. Well, it's a very good review because I haven't seen this. I am going to see it tomorrow. It's weird how much the poster looks like the poster for the previous Austin Butler movie. But I'm going to see, I'm a fan of Darren Aronofsky's work. And what does she say?

Violence with New York comic sidebars. Freakier Fridays at number five. Which I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed Freakier Friday. I mean, I went in with a very heavy heart and I came out absolutely skipping down the street because I enjoyed it so much. Bad guys, too, is it number four? Yeah, you seen bad guys?

It's like that, but two. That's number seven in America. American number one is weapons. We have it at number three. Yeah. And I have never been so delighted than when Child 2 went to see this and then sent me a text after it said, just saw Weapons, absolutely loved it. Fab. And I was really pleased about that because I was excited by the film and I've really thought about it since I've seen it. And yeah, there's things in it seem to be sort of loose ends, but there's so much going on. And I do think it's kind of an overall thing about the current anxiety of American culture. But I just thought it was really, really entertaining. Tom in Staffordshire. I couldn't call myself a horror fan exactly, but I try to stay current with the genre's modern turns, although there's still plenty for me to learn. A couple of Halloweens ago, with my wife, unavailable, I went solo to see Barbarian. It's a funny name for his wife. That's right. I went solo to see Barbarian and was blown away. It felt like a new director bursting onto the scene with the subtlety of a charging rhinoceros, truly scary, but above all,

great fun. So I was excited to catch weapons on a random day off, and it didn't disappoint. It's more restrained than Barbarian, which might seem less thrilling at first, but Zach Kregor knows how to spin a mystery. It's rare for films in this genre to stick the landing without veering into silliness. Weapons does, peeling back layers until you're enveloped in a dark fairy tale of missing children and a town on the brink. It feels very Stephen King, especially Salem's lot. One note for Mark, while the film may not say much overtly, it's clearly about parasitism. Okay. Close reference.

Yes. Well, I don't think I've seen the word parisid. Anyway, says there are moments that hint at abuse and the dynamics of outsider observation, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, yeah. I mean, it may be about that, but I think it's about a lot of things. I keep thinking about the rifle hanging over the top of the house, which I think is absolutely to do with the terrible situation in America with school shootings. I also think it's to do with, I mean, it's the sins of the fathers,

and the, you know, which is a very, very Stephen King thing. It is, there's a lot of Stephen King in there. But I just, the more I think about it, the more I enjoy, the more I think I enjoyed the film, I thought was really terrific. Number two, which is incredible for a 50th anniversary reissue, Jaws. Well, it tells you something about, firstly, how well Jaws has held up, which is amazing, because when you read all the accounts of when they were making Jaws, Stephen Spielberg told this story, and he may have told it when you and I were both,

interviewing him. I can't remember when he told it, but he said that during a break in the filming of Jaws, he went to a party in Hollywood. And an actress came up to him and said, oh, you're Steven Spielberg. And he said, yes. And she said, I hear your career is toast. Because all the scuttle was that, you know, the shark wasn't working. Nothing was working. Everyone was falling out with each other. It was over time and over budget. 50 years later, people are going to see it. And they're going to see it not because of the rubber shark. The interesting, I know that we can constantly do the, it's not about a shock, but certainly going to a screening of jaws, it's not about that. It's about the, you know, the three-way interplay

between those characters having that conversation on the boat. It's about the town, the little small town in crisis. It's about the beauty of the scenes out at sea. It's about the John William's score. It's about all those things. It's not about the rubber shark. To quote Stephen Spielberg, it's about the shark. Tom and Ada in Christchurch, New Zealand. On last week's show, Simon wondered if anyone going to see Jaws at the cinema for its 50th anniversary, would have not already seen it. My daughter, Ada, who is 16, hadn't seen it before.

And last week, we went to our local cinema to watch Jaws. I asked her for her review, and this is it. Go on. This is Ada, age 16 in Christchurch. Okay, go, go, go. It was great. I loved it. It was so cool to see this on the big screen.

When the dead man suddenly appeared in the same. submerged boat. I jumped out of my seat. Tom's editorial note, Ada actually said she nearly did a whoopsie in her pants. I've tidied that up. Unlike modern jump scare movies, the lead up to this scare was so calm with Bodie snorkeling in the area, which made the jump all the more shocking. I didn't like Quint and was slightly glad he met his demise. The shark footage was great. Anyway, so now that's all Ada. This is now Tom. Personally, what really stood out on this viewing are the scenes on the beach when the crowd's panic sets in. These really get me on edge and it's the first half of the movie that packs a punch. I was surprised by the second half on the orca in how much

there is so much tranquility and lulls in the action than I remember. I wonder if Jaws have been made now, those last 30 minutes would not be a lot more splashy nashy, which I expect is absolutely correct. You can imagine if Jaws was being done now, even Mr. Spielberg. make it more splashy nashy. Well, if Jaws was being done now, it would be the Meg 2, which is a lot more splashy nashy, you know. I should say, so that's number two. It's also number two in the States.

So this is taking some serious money. Absolutely amazing. And good for it. And number one is the roses. So I haven't seen the roses, but so go ahead. Okay. Susan Lee has seen the roses. Okay, and this is a remake of the War of the Roses. I think there is an interview that Ben Baby Smith has done about it as well.

So Susan says, as a mother of two children that have life-threatening allergies and have been hospitalized after anaphylactic shocks, I was dismayed that this film uses allergies as a source of amusement and manipulation. They also have their facts wrong. If you use your EpiPen, you have to go to hospital. You might not have enough adrenaline inside you to counter the reaction and could suffer from a secondary drowning-type symptom, so you need tests to make sure you're okay. Nobody I know has ever eaten something that they know could kill them just to use their pen afterwards is clearly something that happens in the film. Tragically, sometimes a pen is not enough and the result is death, not something to laugh at and not something you recover from and

just go on and enjoy your day. If someone purposefully put a food you were allergic to in your food and withheld your EpiPen, that would be attempted murder. I think anyone involved in this film should face parents, siblings, friends and families that have been forever affected by a death concerning anaphylactic shock. Ask Danny Olivia and Benedict to have a chat with Natasha's mum, a good place to start. So, Susan, quite legitimately assumed that you would have seen it, but we've been away. No, no, absolutely. Well, can I say just as a demonstration, look, Simon here, this is my EpiPen, which is with me all the time, because I have had anaphylaxis. so I haven't seen the film

but because I'm going to see it now I have to say I have seen the poster and the poster did not look good but you know open mind and everything but I will bear that in mind I didn't know this

that if you use your epipen you have to go to hospital have you ever had to use your epipan no I haven't I mean I've had this since I had anaphylaxis and I passed out and I was ambulance to hospital and then since then I've had an EpiPen. I have it with me all the time.

Okay. So the answer to your email, Susan, is that Mark will report back. Yes, I will report back. As someone who has a vested interest in getting this right. Susan, thank you very much indeed. Correspondence at covenomeo.com. What are you doing next? We'll be doing The Conjuring 2, last rights. And Sam Riley will be with us in a moment. I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the... LA Times. And I'm Paul Shear, an actor, writer, and director. You might know me from

the League, Veep, or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where we talk about good movies, critical hits. Fan favorites, must-season, and Casey Mistoms. We're talking Parasite the Home Alone. From Greece to the Dark Night. So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure. Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcast. And don't forget to hit the follow button. summer's here and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with uber eats what do we mean by almost well you can't get a well-groom lawn delivered but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered

a cabana that's a no but a banana that's a yes a nice tan sorry nope but a box fan happily yes a day of sunshine no a box of fine wines yes uber eats can definitely get you that get almost almost anything delivered with uber eats order now alcohol and select markets product availability ability may vary by Regency app for details. Okay, so this week's guest is Sam Riley. It became famous for 2007's Control, which told the story, The Short Life of Joy Division's lead singer Ian Curtis.

Younger viewers will know him from Maleficent, where he played Diaval. We spoke about Islands, his new film where he plays an old tennis pro, Tom, who meets a family while working at a resort and finds escape from his everyday mundanity. You'll find out how, in just a moment after a clip from the movie. Hi.

Hello. Tom, right? Yeah. You're the tennis coach? It's me. Reception said you'd be here. I'd like to book some tennis lessons for my son. Okay.

How old is he? Seven. Any experience? A little. Not much. Well, the junior group's on Thursdays and Saturdays at 4pm. Just bring him along. I think his father would prefer one-on-one lessons.

He has a thing, but ten minutes. I'm afraid I'm fully booked this week, but the junior group's really good, you know? I make sure everyone has individual time and... We could pay extra. Double? Well, that's a clip from Islands. I'm delighted to say that I've been joined by It Star. Who is Sam Riley?

Hello, Sam. How are you, sir? Hi, Simon. I'm very well. How are you? I'm good. I'm in London. Where are you? In Germany, I imagine. I am in Germany. I'm on the seaside. The old East Germany. East Germany is it any better than that? Because you live in Germany, so is this a holiday for you or are you working? No, I'm on holiday. I'm with my wife and son are down at the beach. I've been living in Berlin for 18 years, that's right. And this film that we're talking about is a German film,

some of it is in Spanish, and it's set on Fuerte Ventura. So explain that riddle, please. Well, it is a German production. The director is a guy called Jan Ula Gerster, and it's his third film. He's done two German language films that were both very successful, and it's his first English language film.

And that's kind of partly how I managed to become part of it, because we both live in Berlin. I got hold of the script as we had the same agents and I could sort of intercept him before it went to any of my more successful colleagues. All right, okay, so that's very interesting. So I was watching an interview that Jan O'Do Gerster has done

and the fact that this is his first English language film, did that mean he was turning to you and the other members of the cast occasionally or is he sufficiently confident in English to get this right first time? He speaks English very well. He's an anglophile. He was one of the people desperately trying to get Oasis tickets, not all that long ago. He's very proficient. Okay, so introduce us to the islands. So it's the name of the movie. Obviously, has a number of different meanings. You play Tom, occasionally called Ace. Tell us about him.

Tom is a middle-aged, washed up tennis coach working at a hotel resort on Fue de Ventura. He's known as Ace because there's a legend on the island that when Raffa Nadal was training there 15 years ago, maybe longer, Tom managed to get six aces past him. We never know whether this is entirely true, but he's sort of living off this former glory. He seems to have the perfect life to the guests that come and go because he's, you know, he doesn't have any real responsibilities. He's in the sun. He's a permanent holiday. He has casual flings with the guests.

But as we get to know him a little bit better, it's more like a sort of. of purgatory that he's in, really. It's sort of endlessly repetitive, self-destructive pattern. So he has an unfulfilled life. I mean, that obviously is told as we journey through the film, but the very first shot, we find you sprawled, we find you sprawled throughout the whole film in various places, on a tennis court, on different beds in the desert. So we know very early on that your life has not gone quite according to plan. Yes. That was the easiest part of the jobs. It was the tennis that was hard. The washed up middle-aged guy who's never fully reached his potential was not a stretch. It was learning to play tennis that was a challenge, really.

But yes, it's sort of, it's like a groundhog day almost. So not just tennis, but Spanish is obviously, you know, you're masterful in German. How's your Spanish? I did do it for a year at school, but I was told to only do it for a year. The Spanish teacher went around the class, deciding who should continue going, see, see, see, not to me. But I had a, I had Spanish lessons before starting, and I, and the crew who were German and Spanish helped me out. Now, into this life, which is not quite as idyllic as we might think, arrive this family. Anne and Dave and their son, Anton, Anne is played by Stacey Martin. Dave is played by Jack Farthing. These are dangerous people. Anyone could see that you'd be crazy to get mixed up with them. What impact does

the arrival of Anne and Dave and their kid have on Tom? Well, it turns his life upside down. It begins innocently enough with Anne asking if she'll give private lessons to the son. And he sort of, there's a strange attraction to, I mean, not a strange attraction to Stacey Martin, obviously that's fairly human, but there is something pulling them together. And Dave and Tom have a sort of strange, almost envy of one another's. live. Tom is questioning whether, had his life gone another path, he might potentially, you know, have a family and more stability, financial stability. And Dave is looking at Tom and thinking, boy, he doesn't have a kid. He doesn't have a wife. And they go out on a night out. Dave is sober until they go out to a club together. And the next morning, Dave has vanished. And then the film sort of twists into a kind of Patricia Highsmith, Hitchcockian, as he disappeared, Is he dead? What's happened to Dave?

Yes. And why is Anne seemingly so cool about the whole thing? Yeah. There's a couple of quotes that I wrote down as the film went through. I think it's Anne who says to your character, play by Stacey Martin, she looks at him and says, why are you doing this? Meaning why are you getting so involved and being so helpful and providing us with all this extra assistance? Without spoiling anything, at this point, why does Tom, why is he doing this?

I don't really know. I mean, I don't think he really fully understands why he's doing it. It's an attraction to this family that he can't really put his hands on. He's very much alone on this island. And his connections with the guests who are largely, not necessarily only British, they're European and what have you. The only two people that have been his connection on the island are a couple who own a camel farm. And they're leaving to go back to Casablanca. And he realizes then how much alone he is.

I think one of the things that appealed to me about the character is that a lot of them, they're not really saying anything to each other. They don't. There's a lot of things that they ought to be asking each other, that they don't. There's a lot of missed opportunities and paths not taken and these sorts of questions that I think are quite, they're quite real, I think. And why people are behaving in the way they are is never really necessarily explained.

And there's a scene where Stacey, Martin says to you, would you like me to explain why I lied to you? And after a long time of thinking, your character says no. But I think that kind of typifies exactly what you're saying, because the audience is thinking, I quite like to know. No, don't say yes. But does that make it an easier job for an actor because it's a physical performance? Or does that make it more difficult? No, it makes it much easier, Simon. I think the moments when an actor really earns his money is when they're saying expositional dialogue. which usually happens when the budget gets cut.

So the big scene, you're men of shoot, you now have to describe, or you have these conversations with close friends where you say, you know, oh, do you remember when you got in that accident and that's how you ended up in the wheelchair? You know, you sort of think, okay, these aren't things people really say to each other. It's much more fun and realistic, I suppose, to play things. With Janola, we ended up taking a lot of dialogue out in the end. You realize that you can show things rather than say things, and it makes it much more interesting.

My wife is Romanian, and they say absolutely everything to each other. It's a cliche, but they don't have a thought that they don't share. We've all met people like that. Yeah, and it's sort of cultural, and she was fascinated by when she came to England with my family, and she thought, why are you not saying? All of these, there are these tensions that nobody ever confronts, which she thinks is quite, typically British. Is it Germanic as well? Would the Germans keep it all in? Well, they're quite direct, actually. Very direct. I mean, it's a cliche. They're potentially

less emotional, but they're very forward. In your description of Tom, your character in this film, you said, I think the phrase you used was washed up, middle-aged, hasn't fulfilled his potential, which wasn't much of a stretch for me. That isn't how we think of you, Sam Riley, I think, is that? Maybe especially for compliments. No, yes, I mean, Before I got the film Control, which I became an actor as a career then, I was in a signed pub rock band in Leeds, and we were sort of touted as the next big thing from Leeds, and in the end it was the Kaiser Chiefs and we self-destructed. And for some months, before I ended up getting control, I was the guy working in the bar in Leeds

that had been in that band that never made it. Didn't you support Baby Shambles? Yeah. You know, we supported Razzie. Lighten. Yes, yes. We had three nights in Scotland with baby shambles. And survived. Well, we survived. I nearly, in Aberdeen, Peter didn't make it out of the bus for whatever reason. And there was a riot when the tour manager went on and explained that Pete can't come out of the bus tonight. His arm falling down the stairs. And the kids in the audience trashed the venue. They were forced out into the street.

And the owner of the venue said, you've got to get out of here and watch from the top window. And as I was looking out of the top window, a short-sighted fan screamed up at me, Pete, because there is a resemblance. So I was like, yes, the police. Pardon my language. And two cops came upstairs.

All right, right? You just want to use a separate beads. And they were going to arrest me for inciting a riot. At that point, my band had just been dropped. So my guitarist was like, this is great. You know, it's like Axel Rose in Paris. So, but as the cops were leading me out, the owner of the venue said, no, that's not him. The one you want's on the bus. So I nearly was arrested. There's a case of mistaken identity. Is that where Kaiser Chiefs got their I

Predictor Riot song from? So they, they're not only replaced your band, but they stole your story. No, I think the I Predictor Riot was just a regular Friday night in Leeds back then. At that time, it was dangerous place. Are you still writing music, Sam? I do at home. between jobs, just to keep me occupied, really. But I've no intention of doing anything with it. I don't think I'll save you from that. No, no, no. I think it's to be encouraged.

And I'm sure your son will be thinking, OK, well, play us that tune. Give him a couple of years, and he'll be wanting to hear your music. There is one song that he enjoys. There's stuff on YouTube, 10,000 things we were called for anyone who's interested. So what do we see you in next, Sam?

What are the projects that are tantalizing for you? Well, I've just finished this year a fantastic project with Charlotte Reagan. Did you see Scrapper last year? I did not, no. It was with Harris Dickinson. She's a young film director and writer, and she's written a project called Mint for the BBC. And I will be attempting the Claudeian accent in that one.

I'm never going back to Scotland. Harry Dickinson's flying, isn't he? I work with him on Maleficent too. He's a very child. talented guy. See one of the people that you're comparing yourself with now.

But I'm playing his, you know, people of his generation's parent meanwhile. So, no, could have been. Well, Sam,

if you're still fishing for compliments, I really enjoyed Ireland. I think your characterisation of Tom is terrific and I think it was a hugely enjoyable film.

Oh, thanks, Simon, thank you. I just think it's fascinating with the fact that you made a decision to take dialogue out that, you know,

less is more. let's leave it all to the imagination and the film kind of treats its audience as intelligent enough, I think, to work out what's going on a bit. Yeah, I think I think that's important. I think a lot of the films that Jan Ola and I were talking about at the time and that it reminded me of things, you know, that maybe sound a bit pretentious, but you know, the Antonioni movies or the movies of the 70s that were made for grownups where you figured stuff out yourself where you didn't understand things. and humans behaved like humans. And, I mean, it was a, it's just a, it was a brilliant, brilliant role for me. And the movie is called Islands. It stars Sam Raleigh and Sam, we'll let you get back to your holiday and the delights of the East Germans.

Thanks. There's wet from the sea, not because of the going back. It looks, it looks great. Sam, appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Thanks, Sam. Give my love to Mark. I will do that.

All right. Bye, everyone. Sam Riley, talking about islands. So we should say Mark has not seen Ireland. because it's out next week so you're reviewing it. It's out next week. Yes, it's out next week. And so I will be reviewing it next week. I should say, however, that I am a fan of Sam Riley.

I mean, right back from the days of control, for which he won a Kermode Award, because I thought his performance and that was great. And I've met him a few times over the years, and I've always been a fan of his acting, but he's also always struck me as a really nice bloke. Yeah. Well, I think we just heard that he is. And thanks to Sam for talking about Islands

to be reviewed on next week's, one, will it be take one? I imagine so, yes. Okay. So also out this week, conjuring the last rights, colon, where do we sit in the conjuring universe? Okay, so first, let me

correct you grammatically, the conjuring colon, last rights. Oh, so I've got the, so the you've got your the in the wrong place. You've got your definite article in the wrong place, Simon, yeah. With apologies to Matt Johnson, the there was in the wrong place. So, the conjuring last rights. Well done.

Well done. That was very good. And that was a joke for people of our age. So, okay, within the, so within the conjuring universe. So here we go. So Patrick Wilson and Vera Famiga are back as real life paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, whose hokey case files have been popularized by the conjuring movie. So a lot of what's happened in the conjuring universe as it is now, it's like the MCU. The supernatural MCU is basically, you know, inspired by. the Ed and Lorraine Warren stuff. So the cases in which paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, and if you're people of our age, you will know of them because they tended to turn up on television quite a lot. So they were involved in investigating the Amityville case, which has now, of course, been thoroughly debunked as nothing other than a total scam. They were involved peripherally in the Enfield Poltergeist case, which partly inspired Ghost Watch, was the basis for the country too, although the Warrens apparently in real life had almost no, nothing to do really

with that case. I know that case also pretty much look into it completely debunked. The whole thing about Annabel the devil doll, which of course is central to this universe. You know, the Annabelle thing of the scary doll. Of course, in real life, the Annabelle doll isn't scary porcelain doll. It was just a raggedy and

any doll. And that then became the centre of the Warren's occult museum, about which, incidentally, there is zero evidence that anything in it ever had anything demonic or occulty about it. And now, the Smurl family case, which has previously filmed as a TV movie called The Haunted, which

was based on a book with which the Warrens were involved and has been completely debunked as having no credible evidence whatsoever. However, despite all that, still, the opening credits to last right say that this film is based on, based on the true story, the true story, of the Warren's most terrifying case. This was the case that threatened their family and threatened to end their careers. So returning director, Michael Chavez, I think it's Chavez, so you pronounce it. So it starts with a kind of, it's a lifestyle sequence in which Lorraine Warren confronts a demonic mirror, which then does something to her unborn baby, and then Judy, and then she's rushed to a hospital, and then she gives birth to the

baby, and then the baby is not going to survive, but then the baby does survive, and actually in real life, that person then goes on to carry on the family visit. Anyway, it doesn't make difference. So fast forward several years. Baby is now grown up as their grown up daughter and the warrants have retired because Ed's got a dicky heart. But, but, but they have to come out of retirement to go to Pennsylvania to help the Smurl family into whose lives a terrible evil has come. This terrible evil has come into their lives because the mirror that she was confronting the pregnancy bit at the beginning is now in their house because none of this ever happened. None of this happened at all. I mean, Nobody even pretends that this happened.

None of this happened. Doesn't matter. It's a film. Here's a clip. Ed. There's an evil here. Something I've felt before. This thing in your house is a demon.

It's the first one that we ever encountered. We were young. We were scared. We ran away. After all these years, it wasn't done with our family. Oh, it's so scary. And it's all true.

It's based on the true story. Of course, none of it is anyway. So, in the movie, right, the house that they go to, going to get out of retirement, because they have to go and deal with this thing because his family are being tormented by this thing. The house is like, it's like a house of fun in a, you know, in a fun fair. It's absolutely full of quiet, quiet, bang, shocks, demons, ghosts, goblins, ghouls, there are sequences in which Annabelle, the devil, doll, stalks, Judy.

There are scenes in which the family are attacked by massive pieces of furniture, which fly through the air and threaten to cut somebody's head off and then crash through ceilings. There are scenes in which members of the household become possessed and fly and levitate and generally sweep around the room like in Peter Pan. At one point, the entire house seems to explode from inside. There are car chases and car crashes and violent, death-difying battles in which everyone is screaming at the top of their voice, although it's quite a small house. And you wonder what it sounds like out on the street. And then there are visions of axe murderers and the shining style rivers of blood flowing under this thing like the like the river of blood that apparently flowed underneath the Amityville House, which of course

it didn't. And then there are Bibles that burst into flames, like that stupid bit at the end of the tact on ending to Exorcist 3. And then there's this sort of spider-walking entities, and then these giant mannequins that go from floor to ceiling. You know, for the record, if you look up the real-life Smurl case, okay, what happened was, again, this is quoting wiki. Here's what happened in the real case. Loud noises and bad odors were found in the house. At one point a spirit threw their dog at a wall, shook a mattress and pushed one of their daughters down a flight of stairs. The family were also physically assaulted on several occasions. That, however, is not a movie. Oh, incidentally, there's no evidence that any of it

ever happened. So, as far as the film's concerned, look, there's no point in complaining that a horror film is based on unreality. I mean, look, I love The Exorcist. The Exorcist is inspired by the 1949 Mount Rainier case, which has been completely debunked. I mean, absolutely 100% completely debunked, particularly in the wake of the death of the boy who died a couple of years ago. Anyway, that doesn't matter. Movies and movies and movies. And that would be fine if it was just hooey, big, jumpy, throwy, smashy, explodey, crashy scares. However, the movie then spent an almost equal amount of its time ponderously attempting to deify the warrens as superheroes battling the forces of darkness who selflessly gave of themselves so that they could help

people to overcome the darknesses in the world. And it does this at great length, spending huge amounts of time giving us family backstories about how important the Warrens are and then telling us how heroic they were. And then there's a thing at the end that says, and you need to remember that the Warrens believed in this stuff at a time when science was skeptical about it, to which the answer is science is still skeptical about it because it's not true. None of this stuff happened. And, you know, it wasn't a moment when scientists suddenly woke up and said, yeah, you know what? I think the Warrens were right. I think that occult museum is absolutely full of demonic. This is all bunk. Now, I don't mind bunk, but what I mind is 135 minutes in which half of it is sub-Poltergeist,

umpah-lumper, uga-bougar, schlock. But then half of it is, oh, oh, the Warrens, you know, they, they, they, it's a big, I mean, look, let's be real about this. The Warrens were at best cooks and at worst con men, okay? And it doesn't matter which one of those things you believed. The Warrens were not involved in hand-to-hand combat with the forces of evil. And I'm perfectly fine for you to make a movie in which huge devil dolls storm through corridors. I mean, I wish you'd do it so kind of interestingly, but please don't make me sit there and listen to this sanctimonious rubbish about how important it is. I mean, you can't have it both ways, but they try it, and I lost patience with it completely.

Would it be a better movie if they didn't claim it was based on anything? If it was just a story? Yes, it would still be a not very good horror movie, but it would be a better movie and it would be a shorter movie. I think I mentioned before that I did a TV show a while back called Best of Magic on ITV. Yes, you did. In which there were lots of conjurers. Yeah.

And they turned up and they did their conjuring. Conjuring. So there's a live audience of a few hundred people, and I'm standing watching one of these illusions, which has to be, magic on the television, it has to be, is so boring because it has to be shot so many different times. And this woman summoned me over from the seats. And I lent in and she said, you know this is the devil's work. And that was it. Yeah. Well, he's not doing a very good job.

Then is he, really? No, he's not. He's not. Well, okay. So here's the thing. Having been thoroughly demoralized by that. I feel as though what you need Mark personally is a laugh. Go ahead. Make my day.

Yep, we've got a lift here for you. I've missed this. I know you haven't, but I have. Hey, Mark. Hey, Simon. With all the news about the new Harry Potter series, I remembered this spooky Potter fact. One from the real Potterheads out there.

Okay. If you take the first two letters of the title of each of the seven Harry Potter books, it spells out a secret message. Does it? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah, I know. It did not require glossing. I thought you were trying to work it out.

No, no, no, no. I understood it. I just didn't know where to go with that understanding. Did you hear that the inventor of the throat lozenge? Barry Strepsle died last week. No, I don't believe that the man was called Barry Strepsle, incidentally. Well, go on. There was no coffin at his funeral.

Hey! See? Okay. Here's an old favourite to finish. Right. I was on a flight recently to that there, Copenhagen. When I heard a voice say, Nice shirt, Simon Mayo.

I looked around, I couldn't see who'd said it. A couple of minutes into the flight, the same voice said, have you been working out? You look well, hench. But again, I couldn't see who it was. And then as we were about to land, I heard the same voice saying, you look so much younger than your years.

So I explained to a member of the flight group what had happened. Oh, yes, sir, she said, that's the peanuts. They're complementary. Well, firstly, you wouldn't be served peanuts on an aeroplane because that's the one place that you would never get served peanuts. Oh, stop with your boring facts. The correct answer is the punchline to the first joke. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Is it? Okay. I hope you were politer to Sanjee. Not really. Okay. Well, that's that. What are you doing in our final and most exciting bit? Well, we have two very interesting movies coming up.

We have Christie and we have Signs of Life. On the way. Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. fall get double points on every qualified stay. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit BestWestern.com for complete terms and conditions. Tim's new scrambled egg loaded croissant, or is it croissant? No matter how you say it, start your day with freshly cracked scrambled eggs loaded on a buttery, flaky croissant. Try it with maple brown butter today at Tim's, at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. So reviews, got a couple of good ones, let's go.

Yeah, so a couple of smaller movies, which are much more interesting. So Signs of Life, which is a kind of, it's a film that played in Berlin and has become something of a festival favorite picking up awards at places like the London Independent Film Festival, where it won Best UK Feature. It's written and directed by Joe Milsen. lovely haunting score by the great Anne Dudley, who also acts as a producer, and a very, very fine central performance by Sarah Jane Potts, who is also gets a producer credit on it. So she plays Anne, who is a nonverbal woman, who we meet in what appears to be some kind of disorientated post-traumatic state. She goes to Lanzarotti to a hotel which offers Zen style peace and quiet. She doesn't get that at all. Instead, she finds herself next to a bunch of

aggressive young British lads who play thumping techno music all day and all night and who threaten her when she complains. So she takes a suitcase and she just heads out and she's got a suitcase, she's got a flask to which she clings significantly. She just goes out onto the streets and beaches. And she meets a couple of oddball brits. She meets this very garrulous woman who who seems to be in like a slightly older version of how to have sex, and she talks to her. And then she meets Bill, played by David Gannley,

who is this larger-than-life Irishman, who says very early on, you don't speak and I never stop speaking. And he seems at first to be happy. You see him taking selfies of himself and all the rest of it. But we discover that he is living in the wake of a personal crisis. He's split up with his wife, and he's now estranged from his family,

who is from his kids, who should be with him on holiday. and because his holiday hasn't come together and he has seen her, he reaches out to her and offers her some kind of unlikely friendship. Here's a clip. But everywhere I look, all I can see is where those kids should be standing or swimming or laughing and I can't handle it. So I'm going to head home.

And there's a beautiful villa with a pool. I won't spare. So I don't want any money. I don't want anything. I just want to do something good for someone. I'm tired of all the waste. And so he basically says, look, use the villa. And she does.

But you can tell that what's going to happen is that they're going to start to have some kind of oddball friendship. You know, I talk all the time about show-don't-tell acting. And that is, of course, what this central role is, is that she's not saying anything. But I was watching this. I was reminded of the great Samantha Morton in Sweeten Lowdown. I was just with Samantha Morton at this film festival, this Dora Amar Film Festival. And she's brilliant. Sweet and Lowdown is a nonverbal performance.

She doesn't say anything where expressions speak volumes. In the case of this, the central character does write things down on a piece of paper. But one of the things that film does is quite often she writes something down a piece of paper and she shows it to somebody. But we don't see what it is that she's written down. We just see them responding. And therefore, we fill in the blanks. And actually the same is true of the drama itself, which it becomes quite clear what's going on, but the film never feels the need to actually tell you, properly explain what's going on.

It is left. The film imagines that you are engaged enough and smart enough to be able to fill in the gaps. And I really like that. I really like a film that wants you to do some of the work. There are a great double act at the center of this, this, you know, this like I said, this unlikely oddball friendship. There's that kind of central irony of, he says too many words and not enough words, that she doesn't speak, and he can't stop speaking. But the thing about the combination of the two of them is it also takes you back into the great pathos of silent

comedy, in which you've got, you know, silent comedy is associated with slapstick and humor and all the rest of it, but it's also absolutely about pathos, and there is a lot of pathos in this. This is beautifully shot by Elliot Milsson. It's written and directed by Joseph Milsen. And as I said, it's got this very affecting score. And the thing about it is the world of it, it's almost science fiction inasmuch as this resort. I mean, it's real, but it's almost like it's completely unreal.

In that way that, you know, sometimes you go on holiday and you feel like you're existing out of time. You're existing in a bubble that can only last for a certain amount. time and during that things can happen that can only ever happen in that bubble so it's a film that tells its gestures its story through gestures through movement through music and that trusts its audience to engage enough to follow that long I thought was lovely I think was a lovely a lovely little film with lots and lots of promise and lots of ideas and a really delightful tone of understatement that has at its heart this kind of you know

there's tragedy, you know there's pain, but the film never feels the need to stamp that, you know, and to absolutely stick its, you know, it's flag and I liked it very much, Signs of Life. Will that be difficult to find? It'll be an independent release, but there's quite a few independent releases out this week, and as with any of them, hopefully your local independent cinema will be showing it. And quite often with those things, it's a matter of getting in touch with your local independent cinema and asking them to show it.

okay that's signs of life which leaves us with just one more yeah so christie now you may remember christie because i spoke about it when i went to berlin because i saw this in berlin so this is an indie film set in corks northside written by alan gorman directed by brennan canty who had made a 2019 short of the same name which i haven't seen which provided the seed for this first feature so danny parry's christie who is a troubled teenager he's been in the care system he's been in a foster home He's now out of that because there have been issues. And he goes to stay with his brother, who has got a wife and a kid and a decorating business, but agrees to take Christy in temporarily.

It's absolutely temporarily, despite Christy's reputation for trouble. And everyone in the town, they all remember Christy. And it looks like what he's going to do is bring his troubles home with him. Meanwhile, there's another less benevolent wing of the family into whose arms he, he seems set to be driven. And I thought, going in to see the film, that what I was going to see was a tough, gritty, social, realist drama

with an awful lot of darkness. Here's a little clip from Christy, and then we'll talk about the film. Here, there, will you? Ian Robbins. No, we're collecting for ban on night, you clown. Just lift that pallet out for us. I nearly have it upwards.

Come on. How, can I have the end of your fag? You can you? Come on, what'll I tell you about smoking? You have to give that shit up. man. Dad, would you leave him alone? See you later.

You're, uh, Shane's brother, aren't you? I am, yeah. Yeah, I heard you were saying with him. I'm the one of mine's Charlie. Are you on Facebook? Yeah? Add me there, Shirley. You're on a Hagerty.

Ah, look, Leona, turning to crack on dame already. You're weird, though. Would you go away with your palli-babies? We're not getting rid, Leona. You shut out, boy, that's my sister. Ignore them. They're oxygomies. So you can tell from the tone of that, that's not quite similar. not quite so. Incidentally, I realized I misnamed the writer Alan O'Gorman, not Alan Gorman, my

apologies. So what the film actually does is it, it starts, as Christie starts to find his feet, it becomes a sort of unexpectedly joyous tale, because the first thing that happens is he finds out that he's, rather than just being handy with his fists, he can also make a much bigger impact by being very nifty with his hands as a hairdresser, and he starts cutting hair. And he has this misfit group of friends around him, including Jamie Ford's robot, who is this kind of local celebrity. He's a wheelchair user with a smart mouth who dominates every scene. He's in. In real life, he's a young rapper. You can find him on Insta as Jamie the King Ford. And so, as I said, this began life as a short film, which then provided

the seed for the feature, went on to win Best Irish Film in Galway, recently played very well in Edinburgh. I saw it in Berlin and I had seen a screen review which talked about it as kind of gritty social realist drama and that wasn't what I got at all. I mean, yes, the settings and the circumstances are gritty and realistic and it's people in, you know, in tough times. But the whole tone of the film is positive and humanist and engaging, like in the manner of the Dardan brothers. I mean, it's really powerfully, joyously humanist. The performances are universally great. The setting felt real, but also didn't feel like it was, you know, it was real, but it was seen with an affectionate

eye and seen, I think, from the point of view of the community in which it's set. I mean, you can feel that this is a film that was made by people working together to tell a story. Incidentally, if you see it, make sure you stay for the end credits, the sort of the hip-hop sequence at the end, which is absolutely wonderful. And we'll send you out into the world with a, you know, It was springing your step and a song in your heart. And it was such a surprise for me because I had met one of the producers beforehand. And I'd say, I'd go along and see the film. And I'd seen that there was this review that said it was good, solid.

And then I saw the film and it was such a joy. It was such a treat and so unexpected and so genuinely uplifting that I just thought, oh, this is, you know, how wonderful that we live in a world in which I can go and see a film like this. It can completely surprise me. And, you know, what's that, David Bowie expression? Fill your heart with love today. It was like that. Two queries based on what you've just said.

Yes. One of them I've asked you about before. When you say a film is humanist, I know what humanist means in normal conversation. What do you mean in cinematic? So I use it in terms of, like, for example, as I was just at this film festival, the Dora Film Festival, and one of the things that people talk about photography being humanist photographers. And what they mean is that what they are representing is the very real human story. at the center of any image.

And when I say humanist, I mean a film that is centrally concerned with people's experience of the world, and I generally mean it in a way to mean sympathetic as opposed to exploitative. So the reason that the Dardem brothers are always referred to as humanist directors is that they tell stories of people

often in very harsh circumstances, but what comes through, and it sounds cliche, is the humanity of the characters. That it's not, it doesn't mean it doesn't have an element of, transcendence in it, but it means they are films that are sympathetic to the human experience and that ask us to be the same, to share the experience of the characters.

So in that answer, you've answered the second point, which was going to be, what does the style of the Dardin brothers mean? Yes. Which you have just explained. Which I just did. Sorry. Is that Bob and Jeff Dardin? Bob and Jeff Dardin, that's right.

Yeah, yeah. And they were good friends with Ed and Lorraine Warren, apparently. That's the end of take one. This has been a Sony music entertainment production. this week's team, Jen, Eric, Josh and Heather, producer was Jim. The redactor was Pooley McPoolface. And if you're not following the pod already, I mean, what's going wrong there? Mark, what is your film of the week? Joint film of the week, probably the two lit list films, but with the biggest impact. So my films of the week are Signs of Life

and Christie. Seek both of them out, because this is what cinema ought to be doing. Take two has landed alongside this, take one. So if you're a Vanguard Easter and a subscriber, thank you very much. Indeed, there are more joys to be found there. Otherwise, we'll be back very shortly.