Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Is DISCLOSURE DAY the best Spielberg in decades? With EMILY BLUNT & COLMAN DOMINGO

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show—a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time. It’s Disclosure Day week! Yes, film buffs, that means it’s time for a new Steven Spielberg film—and not just a new Spielberg, but a new Spielberg sci-fi. We can’t wait to see the iconic director return to the genre he defined, and to hear Mark’s verdict. Should we believe the hype that it’s his best film in decades? As well as Mark’s review, we’ll hear Simon’s interview with two of its stars, Emily Blunt and Colman Domingo. They talk Spielbergian on-set insights, space aliens, and, erm… Percy Pigs. Plus, yet more speculation as to whether Jaws is or is not about a shark. On top of that we’ve got two more reviews of two new movies who dared to release alongside this box office whopper. First up, quirky Scottish tragicomedy The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford, about a man desperate to keep his small town’s true history alive when a Game-of-Thrones-style production circus arrives and threatens to redefine it. And it’s reissue time for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, scrubbed up in glorious 4K, and back on the big screen to celebrate. How does this groovy and grimy modern classic stand up after nearly 30 years? Let’s see what the Good Doctors say. All that plus the usual hilarity/hardship of the Laughter Lift, and of course your erudite and insightful correspondence to boot. Don’t sleep on another top Take! You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo. 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] Timecodes: 00:10:27 The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford review 00:20:03 Box Office Top 10 00:35:23 Colman Domingo and Emily Blunt interview 00:46:23 Disclosure Day review 01:12:10 Boogie Nights review 01:22:57 What's On? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before we begin, a quick reminder that you can become a Vanguard Easter and get an extra episode every Thursday. Including bonus reviews. Extra viewing suggestions. Viewing recommendations at home and in cinemas. Plus your film and non-film questions answered as best we can in questions, Schmestians. You can get all that extra stuff via Apple Podcasts or head to extra takes.com for non-fruit-related devices. There's never been a better time to become a Vanguard Easter.

Free offer, now available wherever you get your podcasts. and if you're already a vanguard Easter, we salute you. Hello? Hello, Simon Mayo. It's Mark Kermode. Password? Sorry?

State the password. What password? Exactly what an imposter would say. Simon, it's Mark. We host a podcast together. Public information. No, you've been watching Mission Impossible again, haven't you? Maybe.

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Hey, sweetie. Your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car. I'm going to give it a try. Wish me luck. Me again, I put in the license plate. It gave me an offer. Unbelievable. Okay, I accepted the offer.

They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair. It's done. The car is gone. I'm holding a check. Anyway, Carvana. Give it a whirl. Love you. So good, you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on...

Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. I say, Mark, that's a jolly good... A couple of... Was that like a poster and a... There's an Elvis Presley drawing. No, no, that's a photograph, but it's an old Elvis Presley poster.

It's kind of like a... It's quite a classic Presley image. And then below it is this fantastic photo of Elvis. combing his hair. Oh, I thought it was Morrissey. Yeah. Very good. Because somebody wrote underneath, I went below the line on YouTube. I'm really sorry. I always feel like Ewan McGregor diving down the toilet in train spotting in order to retrieve the suppository. And the suppository that I found was someone going, oh, Mark Como says he doesn't listen to Morrissey anymore. Why has he got big picture of him on the wall? It's not Morrissey, it's Elvis Presley,

you dimwit. You could make your life so much better by not doing that. Except we have a whole feature in our special live show, which we're doing after this, in which members of the production team act out below the line comments. So they do it so you don't have to. May I just say to anybody, if you're not already, you know, Ultra Vanguard Easter patron, if you're not already tuned into this, every other week, Simon and I do a live show after the recorded show. It's a lunchtime to naughty lunchtime treat. and the highlight of it is that members of the production team

reenact comments below the line comments from our YouTube channel and they're basically just versions of I hate Mark because but they're all left by persons who probably should have just walked away from the screen rather than letting us know what they think but it is people who should be banned by the new government the government's only looking at banning under 16s It should also ban all those people who go leave messages on websites below the line. It always reminds me of that brilliant bit from Blazing Saddles when Gene Wilder says,

look, these are, you know, these are ordinary people, you know, salt of the earth. Morons. Now, there'll be letters. Can I apologize in advance? Today appears to be hedge-cutting day in this particular. part of Shobis, North London, where all the hedge huttors, a hedge cutters, I'm not sure how many there are. How many hedge cutters would a hedge cutter cut if a hedge cutter would cut hedges? Yeah, well, they're all here. So if there's a kind of a buzz, then, and you're kind of

yourself thinking, what's the buzz? Tell me what's happening? When do we ride into Jerusalem? Anyway, it's the hedge cutters of North London. They're all here. It does sound like a Billy Bragg song, The Hedgecutters of North London. Hedgehoppers Anonymous. They were good. They had one hit. It's Good Newsweek. And then that was it. And then they moved on. Sorry. How did that go? Hedgehoppers anonymous. They had one hit. It was called. Hedgehoppers. Hedgehoppers anonymous. That was what they were called. It's like a piece of 60s bubble gum. I don't remember it at all. It's good news week. Someone's led off a bomb somewhere, contaminating the atmosphere. It's good news week. You know, it was one of those Eve of Destruction songs in the mid-60s.

I can't remember anything. I have no memory of that at all. Well, you wouldn't have because it was before your time. It's before my time as well. It's just, you know, kind of thing that you inhale over the years. What a bit like asbestos, really? You just can't get rid of it. And it's not good for anyone.

And I would never play it on the radio. So when we get to discussing movies and things like that, what are you interested in today? What's an interesting week? we have the Fall of the Douglas Weatherford, which is a strange sort of bittersweet black comedy starring Peter Mullen. There is a reissue of Boogie Nights, the Paul Thomas Anderson movie,

about which I have much to say because I love that film. And you may have noticed that there's a new Stephen Spielberg movie opening. It's called Disclosure Day, and that brings us to our very special guests, plural. Yes, we have Coleman Domingo and Emily Blunt, two of the many stars of the new Spillard. Bilberg film. Although Emily Blunt is kind of, I think, you know, she's the one that's getting

the rave reviews, I would say, on balance. And her and Joshua Conn, in fact, it's Brits everywhere in that movie, with only Colin Firth allowed to do his own accent. But because he's, because he's a baddie. That's right. But Josh O'Conn and Emily Blunt are very American, and Coleman, Amigo is American, and you'll hear my conversation with them fairly shortly. What else? I've got strictly ballroom here, but I can't remember why. That's in take two. So in take two, there's a reissue of Baz Luhrman's breakthrough feature.

We'll be doing that. We will also, I have to say, when we come to five questions, three questions, Your Majesty Film Club, we're going to be doing an absolute treat of a film in which I have asked you to prepare by bringing along a book that we co-wrote. And I hope you've done that. Well done. although that's the Korean edition. That's the one I'm going to be reading from.

Are you okay, fine. Well, that will be particularly, that will be a particular treat. Simon reads his own review of a film in Korean. Yeah. Or if I pick up the wrong version, it'll be Chinese. But anyway, a reminder you can get Take 2 with no more of our brilliant ads. Some people really, really like the ads that we do and some people don't. But anyway, on Take 2, you can get none of them by heading off to our Patreon page,

and we're running a 90% off. 90%? I mean, why don't you just give it away? Give it away, give it away now. Anyway, so 90% off promotion until the end of the month, you use the code June 90, which is almost like Joe 90, but that won't get you anything. June 90 gets you 90, 90, 90%? Was June 90 90, sister who had her own spin-off series. Very, that would, I'd watch that. Yeah. I would definitely watch that. I loved Joe 90.

I so wanted to have the thing when, you know, you get in a revolving ball and then you put a pair of glasses on and you know stuff. That would, honestly, that would have been so great, wouldn't it? Don't you think that is, that's, that's the kind of AI. That's essentially what you're going to be able to do. You're going to have all this knowledge. You're going to put on a special set of glasses. and suddenly you'll know exactly how to do open heart surgery.

But also the other thing about Joe 90 that was brilliant was there was some reason that it was the kid that they could do it to. And it was something like because his brain wasn't already full of rubbish, he had more space to know all this stuff. And it was just like, what a strange idea? Yes. You know, with the child with the superglasses and the super knowledge because his brain has got enough space in it.

It was like the kind of Johnny Mnemonic idea. I loved that show and I loved the theme. I loved all the Jerry Anderson shows. I loved all the Jerry Anderson theme tunes. An email from Matt Woodhouse, who says, Dear, it ends on and a brighter note. Long-term listener,

second-time emailer, first in the Egg and Spoon Race in 2018, aged 44. Already a lot of information. Thank you, Matt. As if camping wasn't bad enough, great friends in a bar make it just about bearable. A trip to a campsite, near Rosson Wye a few years ago

was marred by us being woken in the night. You'll see how this ties into the show, by the way. Okay. Very shortly. Being woken in the night by a kaleidoscope of blue flashing lights and the sound of many vehicles. We'd chosen this site as it was on the river and you could hire canoes for a day as a way of exploring the waterways,

which meant the children might be happy and entertained for a few minutes before the endless moaning resumed. Matt's a bit jaded, I think. Astonishingly, a lovely time had been had by all, though the sobering realization of what was now happening changed the atmosphere for all. They were clearly searching for a body. Thankfully, after a few hours of our emergency services

searching the river in the surrounding area, it turned out that it was just... What do you think? A bike? An attention-seeking horny peacock, which had been heard and reported by another camper shouting help. Not used to the sound of said feathered show off,

trying to attract a mate. Of course. They'd mistaken their scream for that of a child calling for help. Fair play to them for trying to avert a disaster, though. Never mind the thousands wasted conducting the search. Lives risked and more importantly, are already terrible night's sleep ruined. Wow.

Love the show, Steve. Yours grumpily and still sleep deprived. Matt Woodhouse, who's still not caught up by the sound of it from the interrupted. So last week, no, two weeks ago you talked about the sign of a peacock. sounding like someone crying for help. Then to prove the point, we had the actual... No, we did it in the same week. Our production team was so on top

that I said in the introduction that a peacock sounds like a child shouting help. And I did an impression of it, which is... Help! Help! And you said, that's ridiculous. And I said, I bet you our top production team can get a sound of the peacock. And they did really swiftly, and they played it,

and it sounded uncannily like my impression of it. And you then went on to a whole riff about how I'm better at impersonating animals than human beings. Which seems fair enough, I think. But also, that is, you could imagine how, I suppose, if you're camping and you hear that sound and you're not used to it, do you ignore it if you think? That sounded like a kid shouting for help. What do I say? It's remarkable. It really does sound like that.

And you said, what it actually says, help. And I said, well, when you play it, you listen to it. It is remarkable. In fact, our top production team have it cued right now. That's amazing. I don't think I call 999 on the basis of that. But anyway, it's a very good thing. And Matt, thank you very much indeed for pointing that out.

So we'll talk Spielberg shortly, but there's another film which is just, I suppose most films are not coming out this week because Spielberg is coming at this week. And so we get some other interesting and quirky little films. Would that be right or is that patronising? No, not patronising at all because there is a very, there is a very, well-respected tradition of counter-programming, which is that if there is a really, really big movie out, the thing you don't want to do is to release a moderately big movie against it. What

you do is you release something that's completely the other end of the scale, because it's like not everyone will want to see Disclosure Day. So they may want to see the fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford, which is this new film by Sean Dunn, who is a filmmaker born and raised in Edinburgh, made a splash with British by the Grace of Garden Kingdom Come. This is his feature debut. And it is a strange, melancholy, wistful drifting in the third act into something eerily surreal sort of black comedy. So Peter Mullen stars. And if Peter Mullen starring is not a recommendation enough for you, you're listening to the wrong show. Okay. So Peter Mullen stars, he's Kenneth. He is a widow devotee of the titular, sir, whose ghost incidentally provides a kind of

from beyond the grave narration. And the narration tells us that although this character has been forgotten, Kenneth is his last chance to redeem his name and place in history. What we know of Sir Douglas Weatherford, we know from Kenneth, because Kenneth works in this visitor centre as a tour guide. And his tours involve him dressing as Sir Douglas Weatherford, who he reveres as an 18th century philosopher from whom he says he is descended. So he's very, very proud of the fact that he's actually connected to this guy.

And according to Kenneth, Sir Douglas Weatherford was a great man, not least due to his breakthroughs in medical science, images of which adorned the local pub. Although as the film plays out, we discover that his version of that character may be somewhat rose-tinted because actually when we hear from the character, he's very, very dyspeptic. But no one cares much about Kenneth or Weatherford until, in the middle of one of his tours explaining the history,

a van pulls up containing this kind of Game of Thrones style TV show, which is shipped up into the village and is going to take over the village, thereby usurping Kenneth and his love of real history with this whole fictional Game of Thrones style thing. Here's a clip. So Douglas Weatherford played a central role in world history. I'm actually a descendant of Sir Douglas. We actually share a birthday.

Although I say so myself, I think I'm looking pretty good for a 282-year-old. Thus, it is the question of the age. The Times keen to capitalize on the show's arrival. Ember Fair. All that fantasy wizard dragons. You are standing in history. But no one cares that they're standing in history.

All they care about is the Game of Thrones-style TV show. So Kenneth is outraged, particularly outraged, when the visitor center is effectively taken over by this television show. And he's now asked to take part in all this sord and sorcery nonsense. So he sets about mounting his own rival homemade video production to tell the real story of Douglas Weatherford and put his new generation of fans to shape. Now, according to the official description of the film,

it says, Fall of Douglas Weatherford is a dark comedy exploring the thin line between history and fantasy. I would say that it's also about the intransigency of old age, the burden of grief and loneliness, because a lot of it is about somebody who has lost things and is trying to invest everything they have in something else. It's partly about the anxiety of kids caring for parents

who seem to be losing the plot. and also the sort of the cosmic tragedy of feeling that you're the only person who remembers history in a world in which everyone's attention span is about five seconds. It's a very odd film. And when I said this thing about counter-programming, it is a perfect example of counter-programming because believe me, it could not be further from being Disclosure Day. And on the one hand, if you've got a great big science fiction movie happening over here, this seems like the perfect time saying,

no, that's not what I want. What I want is something different. And whether you like this movie or not, and actually I did, for the most part, you can pretty much guarantee it's not like anything else that's playing on screen. Clearly, Sean Donnie wrote and directed it, has got a very singular sense.

At times, I was reminded of the kind of the pointed scabrousness of Martin McDonough, for example. But this has got a real kind of, there is a real sense of melancholia under it. And a lot of that comes from the fact, I think Peter Mullen's performance is so great. I mean, whenever you see Peter, you've said this before,

you see an actor's name on something. You think, okay, there's going to be something of interest in here because it's that person. You know, you know it's going to be of value. And what he does is, he really sort of embodies that, on the one hand, he's cantankerous. On the other hand, he's sad and lonely.

and on and it's and there's a lot of very dark humor and dark comedy in the piece. But you kind of go into the story because of his involvement in it. The way it's shot, the DP is David Gallego, reminded me a little bit of, remember when we were talking about Savage House last week? Yeah. And saying that it was kind of like Barry Lyndon with leeches. That was that was very much your line.

It was very much my line, which I'm very proud of, which is why I just brought it out again. But it's that thing about downtrodden majesty. something that was once grand and is now not so grand. And there is this kind of going on in the film, there's this tension between this apparently grand history and then this thoroughly mundane and quiddian modernity. And the other thing that I really liked about the film is this.

The score is by Gazelle Twin. Now, do you know Gazelle Twins work at all? No. Okay, so Gazelle Twin is Elizabeth Bernholtz, who is Ivan Novello nominated composer-producer, vocalist, who on her website

is described as multidisciplinary artist whose experimental composition and unconventional production style draws on diverse musical roots from sacred choral to early electronic

and contemporary dance music and combines the sound of some ancient choral hymn with something altogether more modern and unsettling. Now, the thing is that I really like Gazelle Twins' work.

I had interviewed Gazelle Twin when I was doing the show at Scala, and I promise you, if I still had the Scala show, I would be playing Gazelle Twins' contribution to this film over and over again, because it's got this score, which is really eerie. It sounds like voices, but there's synths and other things involved in there.

And there's a particular track called Tempest Lament. And it's really eerie and really kind of strangely ethereal and sad and cronky and off-kilter. and I know that I am particularly interested in how much music can bring to a film, but I was really conscious watching this and an awful lot of the strange off-kilter atmosphere of it was working because of this terrific score by Gazelle Twin. It reminded me actually quite a lot of the vocal score from there's a film called Mouthpiece that I reviewed on this show a few years ago. And that score gives it a real sense of heart and soul and also sadness.

And that combined with Peter Mullen with the things that really, drew me in. As I said, it's an odd film. It is definitely not for everyone. And there's a kind of point about two-thirds of the way through in which it tips over much more sort of heavily into a kind of surreal sensibility. And it is really strange. But I saw it immediately after watching Disclosure Day. And it was the perfect kind of counterpoint because it was so much a different sensibility of film. As I said, it does have a very distinct sensibility. A while back I wrote down the phrase quotidian modernity. Did you actually say that?

Yes. I did. I'm sorry. But I am nothing if not pretentious. Just look below the line on the YouTube channel. Yes, Sudes Corner. There you go. I've been in Sudes Corner quite a few times. Is it still a feature? I don't know. I mean, I confess that I haven't bought private eye for a little while.

Have you not had a bath? Have you not had a bath? Have you not had a bath and a beer in a private eye? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good. Yeah. Although that makes it sound definitely. slightly dodgy. Yeah, it does. It does. But no, I have been in, I've been in Soot's Corner many,

many times, and it's a badge I wear with great pride. All right, still to come, the box office top 10, plus Mark talking about boogie nights and disclosure day, special guests, Emily Blunt, Coleman Domingo, talking Spilberg in just a moment. Yeah, Mark, I was online shopping the other day and he got me thinking, you know how in Jurassic Park they bring dinosaurs back to life using cutting-edge technology? Yes. That's how I imagine people build online stores? What, by using dinosaur DNA? Well, not specifically, but it certainly feels that complicated, and it's a right pain to

remember all of your details. And that's why smart businesses use Shopify. There's no need to get your wallet out, just hit the purple pay button and complete your checkout with one tap. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, from household names like Heinz and Mattel to brands just getting started. It helps find customers with... easy-to-run email and social media campaigns. And if you get stuck, Shopify's always to hand

with award-winning 24-7 customer support. See fewer carts go abandoned and more sales go with Shopify and their shoppay button. Sign up for your £1 per month trial today at Shopify.com.com.com.com slash take. Go to Shopify.com.com.uk slash take. Fabio Semantilly. Big hearts, big voice, big laugh. A rock star hairstylist who drove a Porsche. He was like a wizard behind the chair. The killers came for Fabio in his own backyard. You can't rationalize it.

You can't figure it out. There was rampant speculation about everything. But every wild theory was wrong, because the truth was even more unbelievable. Well, is anyone hearing what I'm hearing? And even more heartbreaking. The uncertainty of not knowing is a form of agony. From Sony Music Entertainment and novel,

This is Cut Color Kill. I'm Jonathan Hirsch. Cut Color Kill is available now on The Binge. Search for it wherever you get your podcast to start listening today. Subscribers to The Binge can listen to all episodes, all at once, ad free. Right then, we have a box office top 10 at number 13 Savage House. Which we were just talking about in the previous review of Sir Douglas Weatherford. I mean, I really enjoyed it.

I thought that Richard E. Grant was having terrific fun. I thought that Claire Foy was the real heart and soul of the film. And again, I mean, as with Sir Douglas Weatherford, this is out in cinemas at the same time that Disclosure Day is going to be out in cinema. So it is classic counter-programming. Void stuff on Patreon. Hello, Mr. Stuff or Mustafa. Void stuff?

That's who this is from. Someone called Void, first name, stuff, second name. Okay. Is that a real name, do you think? I suspect, well, let's say that it is. Okay, great. And someone has gone through life, hello, I'm. void stuff.

I'm glad to see Savage House got film of the week last week as I had a blast watching it on Saturday. While a rather top-heavy opening dumps exposition like a Dickensian novel, the characters that populate the film's Bleak House are memorable enough to keep everything zipping along nicely, even with a two-hour runtime, I'd love to see With Nail with Richard E. Grant's character here. Chauncey, yeah, Chauncey, yeah, Chauncey, go head to head somehow. I think this is the first character in Grant's repertoire that could give that miserable old

accidental holiday maker, a run for his money in a battle of pretentiousness, and I say that as a major compliment. Stefan on Patreon, the film may have taken inspiration from too many sources. It also seems to want to make sure this does not go unnoticed. What initially is amusing becomes tiring over time. The ending is fundamentally unsatisfactory, trying too hard to be a moral tale. End a little bit earlier and spare us what is another example of Peter Glanz, who's the director, and write it, basically saying, just in case you. you missed what I was trying to say and do. I wish the film had been more condensed.

The acting keeps the film alive. Sadly, the edit does not. Savage House number 13. I really enjoyed it. Petty is at number 11? Yes, so this is a telegramuage Indian sports action drama. Wasn't press screened. If anybody's seen it, let us know.

Correspondence at codemair.com. Tuna is at number 10? Which I think both you and I enjoyed. obviously hasn't set the box office a light but I do think the performances are good and it was a last week we had an email from somebody

who said that it ought to have been called Baby Grand Driver which I thought was a joke that I wish that I had made I think China will be watched for a long time and I think it'll have its life for maybe it'll be gone next week but I think when it turns up on a streaming service people will think oh this is good I'm enjoying this I also suspect it's one of the films that when Leo

Woodall is absolutely everywhere in some blockbuster movie. People will go, did you ever see Tuna? Because that was actually one of his best performances. And it's kind of a timeless thriller, really. It's not essentially based in any period, but I do think it's very good. Devil Wears Prada 2 at number 9. It's number 10 in America. Sixth week of release has done very, very well. I don't think it's great. Sorry, you. I was just zipping on here. Sheep detectives are number 8. Enjoy it very much. Really liked it. Very odd. Michael is at seven here and seven there. Didn't enjoy it very much, really didn't like it, not odd.

Number six, Star Wars, The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda. Or Michael Benton's Potty Time in Space. I refer everybody to the finest review of the film, which was delivered by Your Child One, who was a great fan of the series, and concluded that the film was basically a bunch of TV episodes strung together every half an hour. Yes, he enjoyed it also.

Yeah, he enjoyed it. It's fun. Number five, number two in America is obsession. Well, obsession is now, how much money has it taken at the box office? Read that figure, Simon. 10,333,516 pounds, 21 pence. And it cost very, very little. And it is now sort of part of this discussion that everyone's having about,

has the world changed so profoundly that it's now possible for these movies to do this well? And the answer seems to be, well, it hasn't happened suddenly. I mean, it has been happening for a while. But yeah, I mean, I thought obsession was terrific. But I think it's great that it's done as well as it had. But we still have the number four ahead of it, which is... Which is backrooms. Which in its second week of release has taken how much?

It has taken 8,600... Oh, 8,651,000, 8,000, 8,881 pounds and 3P. I just like to add to everybody. Simon is adding the Pence numbers. as a joke. It could be true. It could be true, but it isn't true. But that is, I mean, just look at that.

Number five and number four, those two films, which between them, wouldn't fill the catering budget of the biggest movies that are being released at the moment, have between them taken 18 million. It's astonishing. So Backrooms at 4, number 3 in America, the Backrooms says Charlotte, age 38 in London,

which is how she signs her email. The Backrooms left me feeling completely discombobulated. was deeply unsettling and genuinely frightening and it made me feel scared in a way I don't think I've ever experienced before. What a remarkable achievement for a film. More than that, though, it gave me a real surge of excitement about the potential of YouTube as a platform for discovering diverse hidden talent. It offers young artists and filmmakers' opportunities to showcase their work in ways that might once have been impossible, opening doors for people who may otherwise have been overlooked or never had access to the film industry. So Backrooms is at number

for. There's more on backrooms in the overflow car park. Sign up for extra takes on patreon.com and you use June 90 until the end of the month for 90% off. This is going to be repeated until you're fed up with the fact and you actually just go, oh, okay, I'll just sign up then. Number three is Masters of the Universe is a new entry. Nathan Pavey on Patreon says Masters of the Universe was silly fun, lots of throwbacks to the original cartoon toy line. it's not going to win any awards, especially not in CGI, but sometimes you need a bit of nostalgic, ridiculous fun. Eddie says, what I can't quite pin down is why I liked it so much. Perhaps it was

the mood or simply a strong hit of nostalgia, not just for He-Man, but for the broader 80s fantasy style it channels, unashamedly camp, unbothered by seriousness. Run down as I may be, I was swept up in it and even got chills when Adam finally got the power. It made me feel like a kid again, something I haven't experienced in a cinema for quite a while. And Aeman says, for one listener, the real magic of this Masters of the Universe film isn't just nostalgia. It's that it captures the spirit of the original filmation cartoon, where action always came with a moral core. Director Travis Knight leans into that tone delivering something that's big, strange and joyfully sincere, with wild characters, bombastic, synth-heavy scoring, and a cast that's fully committed, particularly a stand-out skeletor.

The result is a film that feels less like a cynical reboot and more like a heartfelt continuation, one that lands especially well for those who grew up with it, but still has enough energy and imagination to pull in new audiences. Finally, Dr. Smith on this, I thought the soundtrack was phenomenal. Brian May's guitarists were epic, the lush rock lines pushed the film along, the needle drops were spot on, the music pushed the heroism through the whole story. The soundtrack needs some critical acclaim. Love the movie as a whole, but let's show some love for the music. So that is for Masters of the Universe at number three. Well, we did show some love for the music when reviewing the film. And I agree. I think it's colourful, fun, entertaining, throwaway stuff.

It is half an hour too long. But it's, you know, it's jolly. And it is Jared Leto's best performance. Again, to repeat, you can't see his face and his voice doesn't sound like him. But it is his best performance. I thought it was perfectly fine. I don't feel strongly about it either way, but it's very nice to hear that people have had such positive reactions to it.

Because if you are a devotee of Masters of the Universe and you have an emotional investment in it, then it's great that it seems to have paid that back. So good. I'm really pleased. Number two is the Amazing Digital Circus, colon, the last act. And it looks as it's taken like 200 quid more than Masters of the Universe. Yeah, so basically this is the final installment of this animated web series, Australian animated web series, of which I knew nothing at all until it turned up in cinemas.

Partly inspired, apparently, by the writings of Harlan Ellison, it's going to come to streaming on the 19th. So just last night, I just dipped into a little bit of the previous series, which seemed very strange, and I will then, I'll review this when it comes, when it comes to it, but it was basically because it's the last installment. They put it into cinemas, and it's done astonishingly big business. So once again, everything is in flux. The rules do seem to have changed quite profoundly. Funnily enough, I bumped into a friend of mine who works in distribution just in Oxford Street just yesterday. And I said, how's it going? And they

were saying, well, a particular film had opened and completely tanked. And they'd been surprised because they thought the film would do quite well, and it really hadn't at all, hadn't touched the side to the box office. And he said, but in the meantime, Amazing Digital Circus is cleaned up. And I said, because I'm me, what's Amazing Digital Circus?

And that was the first I heard of it. David on Patreon, the Amazing Digital Circus was, unfortunately, for me, a letdown ending to a very good and promising TV series. I have to admit, though, that because I came to the series very late, literally like two days before the film came out, I wasn't as emotionally invested in the characters as many people are.

The show deals with a lot of issues such as anxiety, abandonment, and so on. All things that I'm lucky enough not to have in my life, so I'm very much aware that I'm not the target audience for the show. And whilst I enjoyed the series, the finale didn't quite deliver on the potential darkness that had been teased before. The description of it is, follows a group of humans trapped inside a circus-themed virtual reality simulation

where they're overseen by an erratic artificial intelligence while coping with personal traumas and psychological tendencies. And from the brief bit that I've seen, it looks quite interesting. And number one is Scary Movie 6. This from Tom in Doncaster. Dear Mark and Simon, since COVID, it's been rare for me to be in a truly full screening. Dune Part 2, Oppenheimer, Barbie Wicked. So it was a real surprise booking scary movie in finding the screen nearly sold out.

Critics haven't been kind, so expectations were low, and yes, the film itself is only okay. There are a few laughs, especially the Get Out parody, but nothing remarkable. What was remarkable was the audience. It's been a long time since I've watched a comedy with a full house, and the film clearly landed. Big laughs, people sharing moments, quoting lines as they left. I walked out with a spring in my step, not because the film was great, but because of the shared joy in the room. A reminder that sometimes the magic isn't on screen, but in the audience around you. Colin Scott says this latest instalment is the most miserable experience I've ever had in a cinema. So on the one hand, literally zero laughs.

I could make a funnier parody in my own front room and I am not a funny person. So I disagree with Mark's assertion that this is probably the best in the series. It really isn't. Please never let a way and it's anywhere near this sort of word processor, camera ever again. So more discussion on current films in the Overflow car park. But that's Scary Movie 6 at number one. Well, interestingly enough, a critic friend of mine, just as I was going into the screening of Disclosure Day, said to me, you know, you were very kind to Scary Movie 6. And I said, well, I don't know that I was because what I was saying was, I do think it's probably

the best of the series. I know that obviously one of the listeners doesn't agree with that. But because I could see that there were jokes in it that would be crowd-pleasing Friday night fair. And from that first email, and I'm, again, just nothing but delighted that you had such a great experience. And I love the fact that you've described it as being, you know, the magic isn't on the screen. The magic is in the room. Because there are jokes in it that I could see would land well with an audience. And I called it right when I said, you know, I don't like it at all, but I can see that it may may well have a big opening weekend. My suspicion is, And I remain to, we may to see how this plays out that next week it'll be virtually gone.

Like it will have dropped three or four places and then that'll be it. That it was, it was absolutely the Friday that it opened weekend. But again, I'll say the key issue for me is that all the things in it that are funny hark back to the old Wayans Brothers back catalog back to things like Hollywood Shuffle, I'm going to get you suck at that kind of stuff. And they have nothing to do with horror movies. It's just a shame that this has to be. be strapped around a horror movie spoof because that is the one thing that the scary movie series

has never understood is scary movies. And box office fans, don't forget that Take Ultra, which is available exclusively to Patreon Ultras, we have a feature called Grossly Remarkable, which is a monthly box office feature where you get to sound like a right clever clogs when you go down the pub because you'll have lots of facts and figures. And of course, Mark, don't forget, you can use your June 90, not Joe 90, but you're June 90 to get 90% off until the end of the month. I can't believe 90% off. 90. I mean, not just 85.

Anyway, that's enough corporate nonsense. We talk with Emily Blunt and Coleman Domingo. It's Spielberg. It's Disclosure Day and everything is next. So I guess this week are two of the stars of the new Stephen Spielberg film Disclosure Day. Emily Blunt and Coleman Domingo, do we need to go? So, Sicario, of course, Young Victoria, Devil Wears Prada, Luper, Mary Poppins returns, Into the Woods, A Quiet Place, Oppenheimer, and so on.

Coleman Domingo, two-time Tony winner, Fear of the Walking Dead, Marrani's Black Bottom, colour colour purple, Rustin, Sing, or Emmy for Euphoria, Oscar Noms for Rustin and for Sing, Sing. So these are two top-class performers, and they are about to perform for you after this clip from Disclosure Day. If this is all their plan, Hugo, you can be sure it's in their interests, not ours. That's a very lonely way to look at the world. Oh, don't

condescent to me. I'm listening to you, Noah. Something I've learned quite a bit about. From your friends? Yes. They regard empathy as an evolutionary advantage, as the foremost evolutionary advantage. In fact, the core of animate

existence. Our rejection of this understanding is leading us to our extinction. That is a clip from Disclosure Day. I'm delighted to say that Coleman Dominga, Emily Bates have joined us. Welcome to the show. Thank you.

Hello. What are you eating? Be honest. I was eating a Percy Pig before this. What were you eating before you started huffing Percy Pig? I actually have a Percy Pig. You walk down the corner outside with a big bag of Percy pigs. Listen, whenever I'm in the UK,

gummies are my thing. You're going to be insufferable. She's very worried about my energy today. It's insane. So, on the subject of the film, is there anything in your career that is as buzzy and as exciting as a new Spielberg film with the hint of science fiction and aliens? I mean, it's just extraordinary, isn't it? I mean, come on, Stephen Spielberg, define this genre. This is his genre.

And so we screamed with excitement when we got the call to meet him. Then when we read the script. When you say we? Me and Coleman. Yeah. Because Coleman and I are together. We're joined up the arm. Congratulations.

John and Grole are fine with it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, we were just, just, why? We just like, truly delighted, really. I'm blown backwards by the idea. Because the idea, I mean, it's such a huge film. I mean, it's typical Spielberg.

He takes you to the wildest parts of your imagination, that innocent child in you, but also he takes you to worlds that you, that are unknown, the anticipation that he has in his movies, and now we're actually in it, so it's kind of cool. Coleman, tell us about Hugo. Tell us about your character. Hugo is someone who knows. who knows way more than everyone else. He's sort of puppeteering.

And really, there's a, the whole film is basically a race for information, whether or not we want to expose information or withhold it. And he's on the side of, he believes he has reasons why it should be out there in the world. And so you'll find that out in the movie. But he's someone who's a bit more, I think he's the philosopher and the heart in that way of like, of this whole idea. and I think there's other sides who are looking at more, you know,

commercializing things and a bit more rigid about rules. Emily, tell us about Margaret. So you present the weather on the local, so we're in Kansas. So it's a thriller, it's the present day, it's Kansas. You're on the telly. She is the weather girl at a TV station in Kansas City. And I think she's a restless, quite scatty, tangential person trying to find her sense of belonging, sense of self.

can't quite grasp purchase of what she wants in life. And I think she's just looking for really what she was made for. And I don't think she ever anticipated she was made for the kind of journey that she goes on on Disclosure Day. But I think she's a very classic Spielberg character, those people who are in a situation where they're way over their heads. I think Stephen loves outsiders. He loves people who are sort of white-knuckling their way through something extraordinary.

And what can you say about the gifts that your character has? Because very early on in the film, we see you turning up at the TV station, you start to speak and then you start making noises. You've spoken about this. But what can you tell us about that gift and what on earth you're doing? Well, it's sort of what to say so I don't give too much away, you know, as I talk to you. But a gift has been bestowed upon her. Something has been triggered from an experience she has. had in her childhood that she has a foggy, blurry recollection of.

And everything is suddenly exposed on national television. And really at the core of, she sort of represents the theme of empathy in the film. She has really bestowed the most amplified version of this. The film is kind of about empathy, really. And your character, Cullen, seems to be also one of the most empathetic characters out there. I know Steven Spielberg has talked about empathy being a superpower, which kind of that Elon Musk is not going to like this film, but who cares? But you are, you are both, you represent very powerful examples.

Yeah, I think, I think, Hugo believes in the possibility of leaning into the other and not being afraid of it. Because I think there's always some thoughts about, like, oh, that the things are outside of ourselves are going to harm us in some way. But that's actually not the reality. We have to actually lean into it and get to understand and know.

And so I think we can parcel that out, whether it's about like non-human life form, life form, UAPs, or it could be your neighbor. You know what I mean? To lean into the thing and to like, don't be afraid of the things that you don't know. Yeah. Lean into it. Is there any extent to which comment you are sort of representing Stephen Spielberg?

That's a great question. Are you Steven Spielberg in this film? Because it felt to me as though you were the director of this thing. This is your show. He's like the puppeteer. He is. In many ways, I don't know what Stephen would say to that, but I do feel that I am kind of a surrogate. for Stephen's philosophy.

I feel like that's him. He's got that sparkle, that belief, that hope. And that hope in humanity, really. The hope in humanity, truly. So I feel like, I feel like possibly a surrogate. I'd like to believe so. When Stephen would direct me in certain scenes, I would see that sparkle in his eye

and that hope and belief. And I literally would just zone in on that and say, I'm going to play a little bit of that. Can I ask you both what it's like to be on the set and being directed by one of the all-time greats? He just walked out, walked down the corridor, the thrill and excitement of people just as they see. But when you're being directed, when you're in the set,

whether it be an intimate close-up scene or whether it be an action scene, what is that, what is that like? I just feel he maintains the intimacy and he protects you very much. He sort of shields you from the iconography that comes with him. He sort of wants you to be blind to that. And it's just in his incredibly humanistic tendencies. He just is able to be a friend to you, be emboldening to you. And he's obsessed with actors.

He's very curious about them, about what you might bring. There's great spontaneity to his sets. You don't feel straight-jacketed by him. Nothing seems overwhelming, even though some of those sets were absolutely ginormous and extraordinary. But it's his. It's his nature that protects you from the ripple effect that you just felt as he walks down the corridor. He wants to be one of you. I did find his spontaneity so exciting.

You would come in and you'd kind of walk through it and stagger through it and he'd watch what you wanted to do in the scene and then he'd walk away for a bit and he goes, okay, this is what we're going to do. And he knows exactly the shots and how to convey the best of you. Just wondering how you can be spontaneous in a movie like this. Because from the outside, we'd imagine that it's all rigid. You say this, you said this.

Well, he's so prepped. Of course, I'm sure he's prepped for a year for this film. I made a lot of decisions with his, department heads, etc. But in the day as well, he's sort of looking for that special, that magic, that thing that you can only get when the divine resides on set. You're like, oh, this is now, I'm in the room with all these people with Emily and Coleman and Josh and Colin and Eve.

And this is what's now sparking his imagination. And he's sort of always looking for an inn and like what's the thing that has surprised him that he hadn't anticipated. And he's just learned over the years that that is his superpower. It's just to spot something. And you see, he just drops in on it. It's such a gift. I want to focus on this.

I'm a rack focus to that. And that wasn't set up. A lot of it was set up, but he said, oh, no, now I see you're giving me other ideas of what the story is. Yeah. At what stage did you say, Emily, that Jaws is your favorite film?

I mean, I think probably from about the age of, like, my early 20s, was actually when I came back to it, because I remember being absolutely traumatized by it when my dad brought it home when I was about eight, I think because he wanted to watch it because he'd seen it many times.

He loves that movie. I was horrified, terrified by it. I was definitely a victim of Spielberg when it came to the ocean. I'm still really uncomfortable in the ocean. I'm like, but then I started watching it in my early 20s and then John and I, my husband and I became completely obsessed

with watching it. And we've watched every behind the scenes you could imagine on it. And I think what I love about it is it's not about a shark. It's about fear and it's about the unknown. And it's about the unknown. And I think it's about not only is there this 360, you feel it visually, their isolation at sea, but it's their own emotional isolation

and how they deal with fear. It became a performance piece for me more than anything. Finally, there's so many things that we could pick up on. But when you got to see this picture, with everything added in with the effects and John Williams' score, Coleman, what did you think? Did you watch it alone for the first time? I watched it alone.

I watched it alone. in the Steven Spielberg's theater at Universal. Did you have Percy Pigs with you? I didn't have any Percy Pigs, so I was wildly out of me. I was too nervous. But I really was nervous, and I was jumping out of my seat, and I was filled with, it's as if I didn't read the script. I knew what was going to happen,

but there was so much things that I didn't know. And then by the time I got to the end, I just sat there. And I sat there overwhelmed with emotion, and I was trying to figure out why was I sobbing like this? And I called Stephen immediately, and I said, thank you so much. You really believe in our humanity. and the possibility of what we can be.

And I thought that's the most beautiful thing that I felt. Emily, when you saw it all put together? I saw it with Josh, and the two of us sat there, gripping each other and yelling and laughing. And I think we forgot that it's a real gift where, as an actor, you can go, oh, I forget I'm even in that movie because you just swept along for the ride.

I felt limbless. I couldn't even walk. It was so thrilled. It's a fantastic ride. I can't wait to go and see it again. Oh, good. Emily Conlon, thank you so much for talking to us. Thanks so much.

Thank you so much. Get your Percy Pigs out. Done. A Spielberg junker is just astonishing. The numbers of people that were around there were absolutely incredible. You're used to them and then you see a movie like this and you realize what... It's a military operation, isn't it? Oh yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah. And I said to, as I was sort of taking a long time gathering my stuff together, I said to Emily, just by saying Jaws is not about a shark you do realize that you've just lit a problem again which we had sorted and put to bed because Stephen did tell Mark and I

that it is about a shark of course it's about a shark and then you come on and then you say that and you just spoilt it for everybody anyway so we had a laugh and clearly I know that they're very good at what they're doing but there was a great atmosphere

in the room Coleman was terrific, had met him before. But they just seemed to be like a very good bunch of people who clearly enjoyed being part of one of the movies of the year. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I'd like to take a chunk of time for us to discuss this, if that's okay, because obviously it is the big movie of the week and you've seen it and we've just done that interview.

So this won't be brief. Okay, so Disclosure Day, Alien Encounter, a sci-fi adventure, of him, Stephen Spielberg, of course, whose back catalogue includes the genre-defining ET, close encounters, more recently AI in that, I said more recently, more recently than those films. So apparently, Spielberg was inspired to return to the alien visitation theme after reading an article in the New York Times called Glowing Oras and Black Money, the Pentagon's Mysterious UFO Program, which had rekindled his interest in the subject. There's been a lot of stuff about Spielberg saying, you know, I do believe in alien,

visitation. On the case of this, he originated the story, as he did on things like, you know, Poltergeist and Goonies. But the script is by David Kep. David Kep's writing credits, he has some great writing credits, but they include Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which co-wrote, the Dan Brown adaptations, Angels and Demons, and Inferno, which, as you know, I'm not a fan of. And most recently, Jurassic Park Rebirth, which, as I said when we read the film, is one of the worst written films I've ever seen. Apparently, for Disclosure Day, he did 42 drafts of the screenplay. That's incredible.

Which leaves one wondering what the 43rd one would have been like. So, as you said, brilliantly in that interview, it's an action movie about empathy in which aliens, as we heard in that clip, so this isn't a plot spoiler, consider empathy is the strongest evolutionary power. So Emily Blunt is Kansas City TV weather. anchor, Margaret Fairchild. When I hear Margaret Fairchild, I hear Morgan Le Fay. I don't know whether that's just me, but it seems to me, you know, the sort of enchantress from the King Arthurian legend. Anyway, she has an encounter with an exotic bird. This bird flies in through the window and looks at her.

And after this, she suddenly finds herself the human equivalent of the babel fish from Hitchhiker's guide. She can speak and understand any language. More importantly, she appears to be able to to almost read people's minds and know exactly what they're thinking and how they're feeling and what they need. So she becomes the most profoundly empathetic person in the room. Empathy is a superpower. Josh O'Connor, meanwhile, is this nerdy cyber specialist, Dan, who seems to be at the beginning, we meet him a wrestling match. He's on the run from the authorities, having somehow purloined something of great value to them, which is to do with the disclosure or enclosure of information about alien landings.

Then we have Coleman Domingo, who is Hugo, who is the disclosure advocate, who is, he described the story as being a race for information story, and Emily Blunt's character calls him in the film, the man who knows everything. So basically, you know, the most, the ultimate Basil exposition. Domingo himself described the character as a puppeteer. And you described him as being the Stephen Spielberg on screen.

He's basically, he's the author there. He's the author. He's the director. He's the guy who is there to explain everything. Then you have Colin Firth at his most sinister, with a sinister beard as Noah Scanlon, who is this spook, who is on Josh O'Connor's trail, clearly has hidden issues of his own. and is deeply, deeply beardy and weird. And then you have Josh O'Connor's partner, Jane,

who's got a secret of her own about her own past, and her past directly links to one of the things that Disclosure Day does, which is a discussion about, if we discovered that there are aliens, would it cause all religion on Earth to basically have an existential meltdown? which incidentally is a subject which is addressed quite profoundly in contact, which is a film that you and I both love. There is the very clear thing set up about Jodie Foster, the scientist,

and Matthew McConaughey, the kind of the evangelical character, and can science and religion coexist? So, first things first, this is a Spielberg movie. No one does grand scale adventure and action like Stephen Spielberg. There is a scene in this film involving two cars and a train that is properly nail-biting in a kind of dual meets the French connection kind of way. I mean, it was really, really gripping. And it's, you know, no one does this stuff as well as Spielberg.

There are tense chases. There are equally tense standoffs. There is mystery and intrigue a plenty. There is even a moment in which it effectively does the invisibility cloak from Harry Potter. And incidentally, the thing, the alien artifact that is being passed around is clearly a Harry Potter wand, isn't it? I mean, they hold it like a wand, it glows like a wand. Yes. Let's get Ray finds in to explain it one more time.

To explain that, what is it? Was it the elder one? The thing that he had clearly never heard of when you asked him where it came from. So it's kind of, I mean, yes, it's space aliens, but it's also Harry Potter. Now, all this, and I want to be absolutely clear about this, from the outset, okay? this is all really good, you know, popcorn, Friday night, multiplex pleasing. And I don't mean any of this as a negative. You go along to see a Spielberg movie with action and adventure and stuff,

and you are going to get it because he delivers. Big screen. Get the biggest screen and the best sound system you can find. Yeah, and get it, you know, get there early, you know, stock up. And the performances are terrific. I have always absolutely loved Emily Blunt, but I think that I think Colin Firth is really terrific in this. I think he's, I think he is doing Sinister Beadey really, really well. So, so the first thing to say is it's a good, romping adventure movie. Now we get into the,

the more problematic area for me. The story clearly has echoes of close encounters, inasmuch as you have central characters who, due to an earlier engagement with aliens, find themselves possessed of some mysterious knowledge that is driving them nuts until they discover what the purpose of that knowledge is. Now, that is basically the plot of close encounters, okay? But in close encounters, the knowledge that is given to Richard Dreyfus' character

is, he has the image of Devil's Tab, but he doesn't know what it is. He's just got this shape in his head. It's got this distinctively shaped language. landmark thing in, I think it's North Wyoming. And this image obsesses him so much that his life falls apart. The character's life falls apart. He starts making it out of mashed potato, then he starts making it out of mud. Everything falls apart. The family completely collapsed because he's been driven nuts. And it's a really, really haunting idea with a kind of somewhat bleak ending. I think spoiling close encounters is perfectly fine, which is that in the end,

the character leaves his family and goes off in the spaceship because it's the only way he can be happy is having this knowledge explained to him finally. Now, in this case, you have this, the weird thing, which is that Josh O'Connor's knowledge is an incredible, he can speak the language of maths. And Emily Blunt's ability is that she's this incredible empath who can understand everybody in any language and what they need. And somehow, these two things are the kind of key element to explaining what is going on with the plot. Somehow these two disparate elements will figure out how the mystery is going to unravel itself.

So my problems are these. Firstly, I think that in the third act, the action of the third act makes no sense at all. I mean, I think it's perfectly fine. I'm not, I don't want to give anything away about what happens in the third act, but I think it's like it's an action-adventure romp and you go, no, hang on, hang on, that does not make sense.

Were you surprised when Jesus? I was surprised when Jesus turned up. And it was played by Jared Leto. Which is a shock, which is just a matter. I mean, an obvious bit of casting, but well done. The fact that he was speaking fluent Aramaic and Emily Blunt's character understood him, I thought was a good callback joke, you know, well done for that.

But if you thought that at the end of close encounters, it required a willing suspension of disbelief to believe that the authorities would allow the Richard Drafer's character to wander onto the spaceship. Honestly, this requires a whole levitation lifting system of disbelief to believe that this is how the end thing.

But it doesn't matter, that's okay. I can kind of, you know, clock your logic at the door and let your emotions do the talking. And for a film which has got this kind of empathy thing going on, I can just about do that. The bigger problem is this, that when we finally get to

the denou the explanations. It did feel to me an awful lot like a very, very old-fashioned kind of series of revelations. You remember in close encounters, there's the thing when the airmen come back from, they disappear in the Bermuda Triangle or something. There's like a really weird thing

with all these airmen have suddenly turned up from nowhere. And it's like, wow, wow, that's amazing. The point is we now live in an age in which in 2006, Anton Deck made a Roswell movie called Alien Autopsy. And we live in a world in which in 2002, M. Knight Shyamalan made a crop circles movie, signs. And I think that when we think of Spielberg and Spielberg imagining alien encounters, what we think is, you know, give me something amazing, give me something that I hadn't imagined,

give me something 2001, and you don't get that. What you get is a late entry in Spielberg's filmography. I mean, he's a filmmaker in his late 70s, and honestly, the sensibility of Disclosure Day is it's a film that could be from the late 70s. It's very old-fashioned, and its ideas are very old-fashioned outside of that central thing about what happens if we disclose this information.

The film's shot by Yanush Kermitsky, he's shot, you know, worked with many times before, 35 mil. There is a lot of lens flare. Now, it's interesting that the lens flare particularly happens in a particular circumstance in a particular set that has, because of its nature in the plot, a nostalgic thing.

But it is almost at times like JJ Abrams doing a parody of Stephen Spielberg, which is, you know, Stephen Spielberg likes lens flare, let's do a ton of lens flare. And I also, I also think that in an age in which a rival talked about the way in which we'd have to redefine language to communicate with aliens, or under the skin talked about the way in which you'd have to rethink the concept of humanity to talk about aliens. It's just not satisfying profoundly to have something which is so old-fashioned in its revelations.

And finally, and this, I throw this, open to the audience. When you see it, the music at the beginning of the end credits literally sounded to me like a quote from the X-Files. And I thought, oh, okay, that's the thing. That's, that's what it's doing. It's, it's almost throwing back. And this is from the guy who kind of invented this genre of filmmaking. It's almost throwing back to a TV series from a previous century. So the key thing is, I enjoyed it. I thought it was fine. I thought the performances were terrific and there were some nice ideas in it. But it's ultimately such an old-fashioned movie, and not in a wonderfully nostalgic way, but in a kind of, okay, I think I need something

better than that at the end of this, because I think we've moved too far. And what I really need is the heartbreak of Richard Dreyfus' character getting into the spaceship and turning his back on humanity because of what's happened as a result of this encounter rather than what we get here. I throw this to you now, what do you feel? Because I know you loved it.

I mean, I agree with most of what you're saying. It was old-fashioned, but I think it was old-fashioned in a way that would... If the kids were still in the house, I would say, right, let's all go and see this. because there is some magic that is happening here. I think what I would say is I enjoyed it because there was enough Spielbergian magic

to make this film happen. You are absolutely correct. I was disappointed about Roswell and Crop Circles, which we know are fake. We're done with that. We have moved on from that. Even Ant and Deck, no, they're fake. It's not a, it's not, this is not a genre defining film

in the way Close Encounters was, and you're absolutely right to mention a rival, which is a masterpiece, and did make you think, wow, I have never seen this before. This is wonderful. And every time I watch it, I kind of forgotten about the twists

and have forgotten quite how brilliant it is. Also, the digital animals were not quite good enough. Can I, can I, I'm sorry, embarrassed to say when you're talking about it. Okay, so can I just raise this very quickly? Yeah. So the shonky digital animals, which I said, I can't believe you can spend this much money on a movie and get shonky digital.

Like, how hard is it to do a fox? I mean, you know, Lars von Trria did a talking fox in Antichrist. It's not that hard. And somebody said to me, ah, it's on purpose. Because as the plot reveals, they're not what you think they are. All right. And I went, yeah, no, they're shonky digital animals. But I left the screening with a smile because I think you can.

And there's a reason that I apologize for this in case it drives people mad. But there is a reason I mentioned Elon Musk in that interview. Because he has said that empathy is a weakness. The fact that it is this film at this time means that the, I mean, imagine, so we're here, we live in the UK. That's great. Imagine if you live in the country that has this sour. corrupted cruel White House running things.

You can say that's not how we were, that's not, they are not the values that we have these, this, here is a guy who's been doing this for 50 years and he has, he is still enchanted with the world, he still believes in compassion, that empathy is a superpower and this, so this, so this film at this time works and I would like to take the family to go and see it.

With all of the reservations that you have quite correctly, analyzed, I left feeling that the world was a better place for this film. And I would say that actually that is, you and I have done this, a version of this show together for several decades, and I've always felt privileged to work with you on it. And I think that at its best, it's this. It's that I can go, as a critic, I think all these things are true. And you can say what you just said, because you're absolutely right. because in a world in which Elon Musk and the rest of it's happening,

a film whose headline plot is empathy is a superpower is on the side of things that are good. So in the same way that War of the Worlds, the Spielberg version, has to be seen in the context of 9-11. It didn't just appear out of nowhere. This film didn't just appear out of nowhere. And you will never get these, you know, Spielberg

or any of these actors to talk. about this because that's not what they do. But when I mentioned Elon Musk, Coleman particularly, you know, smiled and nodded. I think that's fair enough to say. You know, because they know, because this is their world, where empathy is under attack and people, you know, that it's seen as a weakness by a lot of very noisy and wealthy people.

So for a film to come out and say, you know what, actually it's the thing that makes us human is, you know, is quite a gift, I think. And may I just say, having just said that impassionately about, I honestly do feel that about working with you, Simon. It is a privilege for exactly this reason. One of our top production team on the nerdiest side of the thing have just put a message which says,

chaos reigns. If you know, you know. So I just, and one final point, which I don't think is, and I think I've got the name of this person, right? Okay. There is one person who's sort of overlooked. But it is difficult to talk about because this is literally in the last 10 minutes of the film.

Okay. There is an actor who I think is called Courtney Grace, who plays the NBC News anchor, who is covering all the stuff that Marks just explained. All of that is happening and being explained in the last 10 minutes. Yes. Because that's the role of the denouement. Yes. And she is the anchor who is interrupting coverage of what appears to be like almost nuclear war. Careful.

Okay. Bad stuff happening abroad. She has to break away from that to bring you this story. and she's, and she is the anchor thinking, what are we watching? And then she has to react to the film that comes up. And I thought she was fantastic. I thought she meant, that is, you know,

first of all, this is the story that you's anchor would dream of getting. We move away from this huge story to bring you this. What? What is this we're watching? And I just, I thought, I thought she got it absolutely right. And I should say, Courtney, once again, that you do know that because, as we've, you were on air live when 9-11 happened and the instruction that you were given was just describe

what you're seeing yeah well that yes and that and that had been told me you know when we started the whole thing but to be able to react i mean obviously she's an actor and it's a script no no i know i understand but it's easy to get that wrong you know and go all bombastic or whatever but i thought she had the right balance of humanity and general i can't believe quite what we're seeing And I would say that if you think that, then that means that that is a job well done because you actually know what that's like. Yeah, okay. Well, that's very kind.

I mean, but to do it whilst being envisioned is something else altogether. So I think we've done a good job because I think I want people to go and see it because it's amazing. And there's so much. And Emily Blunt can do anything. She walks on water. She's like, you know, earlier you were talking about actors who, who if they're in a movie, you're going to go, okay, well, there's going to be something interesting in there.

She is definitely one. Like Florence Pugh is another one. Yeah, absolutely. She was, I was talking to Matt Haig, the author, who's wrote a book called The Midnight Library, huge international hit. And it's going to be a movie, and Florence Pugh is going to be at the heart of it. You go, okay, well, that's going to be good then, isn't it?

Because it's got Florence Pue in it. And Emily Blunt is definitely one of those people who, you know, you can do Sicario and you can do this. So this is, yeah. Good. Something to see. Well, it may be it's movie of the week. You know, I dread to think. I dread to think what you're going to say when we get to the end.

But anyway, obviously, once you've seen disclosure, I'm sure there'll be a lot of correspondence on that. Correspondence at curbinammer.com. Do we have time? Should we do the laughter lift? Yeah, go ahead. Do you have a sense of gay abandon at the moment? I do. I feel both of those things.

Okay, so here we go then. Let's step in and play the music. Now, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to say this properly, because this is like a written joke probably. Hey, Mark, what fruit did Romeo and Juliet eat? I don't know what fruit did Romeo and Juliet eat. Cantaloupe. Canterloop. See, it doesn't. It doesn't really work. It doesn't, because actually the fruit that they talk about is pomegranate. So that's the correct answer. It's just not funny.

It's a cantaloupe. It's not... Not going. Mark, did you know that Mortal Kombat was actually based on a Scandinavian church song? I didn't. It was a finish him. Yay.

And with all this talk about Warwick Student Radio reminds me of my japes during those years. I once went to a... Once went to a fancy dress party with a girl on my back. Who are you supposed to be? said the host. I'm a turtle, said I. Well, who's that on your back then?

Oh, I said that's Michelle. That's Michelle. Very good. What's still to come? This is where Mark says my review of boogie nights plus. I was going to do that. I knew that's what it was. Okay, what's to come, Mark?

It's the reissue of boogie nights. Oh, excellent. On the way. Okay, so we've got some boogie night stuff to come. But first of all, an email from a name withheld person. Okay. This is, there's quite a long version of this, but this is the shortened version.

But it raises some interesting points, which I think you might be interested. Okay. And it says, I am name withheld, a film graduate with a particular interest in censorship history. So this is very much your strong topic.

I'm writing because I'm concerned about what feels like a quiet but significant shift at the BBFC in recent years, specifically a move away from transparency under Natasha Klienski's presidency. Publicly, the BBC continues to promote its classifications as, quotes, trusted, particularly across streaming platforms. However, there's growing evidence of increased reliance on AI-assisted tools,

which appear to prioritize isolated, flagged moments over a full viewing of context and tone. This can lead to odd inconsistencies, such as material previously rated 18, being downgraded without clear or detailed justification, and raises questions about how much of the process is now automated. At the same time, it's become much higher. to understand how decisions are actually made. Content warnings can emit key thematic elements, especially when they're subtextual,

while inquiries to the BBFC tend to yield brief generic responses that don't fully address the question. Resources that were once invaluable to researchers and enthusiasts, such as, quote, recently rated listings, detailed case studies and access to archival material have also been quietly reduced or removed. For those of us interested in film history and classification, this feels like a notable step backwards,

from an organisation that once highlighted its processes openly to one where key aspects are now increasingly opaque. Given your long-standing engagement with the BBC and your work on its history, I wondered if this is something that you might consider exploring or raising publicly, says, name withheld person, but film graduate with an interest in this sort of thing. Okay, well, I confess that I have not heard of this before.

I have been a great admirer of the BBC. BBC since the kind of the turn of the century rejig, and I think that they have done terrific work. I know nothing about what you seem to be talking about is AI being used to flag specific moments, which is a, which were it a thing, would be a return to a previous more box ticky age and also the stuff that you're saying about access to online information and archive stuff. Now, I am not aware of any of this happening. What I do know is that I still have some contacts with the BBFC when Natasha Kaczyxki took over. I thought she was a very good appointment. I did a launch event with them. So I will pass this on to them for comment. And I'll also,

I'll speak to a couple of people that I know who know something about the workings of the BBFC. So So genuinely, I don't know anything about this, and I am not aware of it happening. But I will make some inquiries and see what I can find out. And see if we can maybe get a reply from the BBFC, because this is clearly something which is a matter of concern. Thank you for sending me the email. But I stress again, this is the first time I'm hearing this. So I'll look into it. More.

I'm sure there will be more on this story in future weeks. And your thoughts at correspondence at kermanabow.com. So there is something that's back out, which I suspect you're going to enjoy talking about. Well, so Boogie Nights is being reissued. It is a 4K restoration. This is happening more and more at the moment. Sort of 4K restorations of films are coming back into cinemas and doing very well. As you know, I was talking recently about the fact that we are very soon going to have a 4K restoration of Ken Russell's The Devils in cinemas in the full director's cut.

And also in take two, there's a 4K restoration of strictly ballroom. So honestly, I'm always delighted when older movies make reappearances in cinema, particularly when it's Boogie Night. So Boogie Nights is kind of the film that broke Paul Thomas Ante. Not broke him, as in broke him in half, but kind of broke him big because he'd made, which sounds weird in the film that broke him, because he'd made hard eight, which was 96, which was the year before. And then Boogie Nights came out.

And I remember really clearly being in Cannes the year before Boogie Nights came out and people were talking about it. There was a lot of buzz about this film. So if you haven't seen it, it is a sprawling Goodfellers inflected drama set in the San Fernando Valley, following the rise of a young hustler who makes his name in the adult film industry, first in the nostalgic cellular-driven days of the 1970s, which was the kind of the day. days of porno chic. That was the days of, you know, when deep throat and all that stuff kind of, you know, became the subject of Time magazine articles. And then in the 80s, as that gives way to the rise of video-driven imperatives and the world, this is a world in which as one of the

characters says, we just, we just keep shooting. And performative sex gives way to drugs, violence, nastiness. So the film starts with our anti-hero, who's played by Mark Wahlberg. and this was a breakthrough role for Mark Wahlberg, doing dishes before being spotted as a potential talent by adult filmmaker Jack Horner. Here is a clip. Hey. Hey.

You been working here long? Month. Mori's giving you the job? Yeah. You from around here? I mean, Canoga, Ossita. No, you know where tomorrow's is? Yeah.

How did you get it? Take the bus. What do you want to be? Excuse me? Well, I mean, you take the bus from Torrance to come here, to recede, to do this job. Can't you get a job like this at Torrance? Yeah, but I don't want to. Okay.

My name is Jack. Eddie, Eddie Adams. Eddie Adams. Eddie Adams and Torrance? Yep. Jack Warner. Don't make it. Really?

Yeah. I'll make it. Adult films, exotic pictures. Want to come back to the table and, you know, have a job. He makes adult films, exotic pictures. So the character at that point that Warburg is playing is called Eddie, but not for long, because he is going to transform himself as Dirk Diggler. Now, the roots of Boogie Nights are in a short that Paul Thomas Anson made in the 1980s

called The Dirk Diggler Story, and you can find it on YouTube. It's not very long. It's like half an hour, 40 minutes or something. And it's really worth seeing if you're a Boogie Nights enthusiast, I'm sure it'll be on the DVDs. That's probably how it's on YouTube. The story also draws on the real-life stories of people like John Holmes and on The Wonderland Murders,

which themselves were the subject of a James Cox film, with Val Kilmer in from 2003 called Wonderland. Boogie Nights was a career-defining film for Mark Wahlberg. The role you discussed this with Paul Thomas Anderson when you were talking about one battle after another, was originally offered two. Can you remember? Oh, no, you got me there.

Yeah, go on. You were talking to him about one battle after another, and he said you finally got to work with... Leonardo DiCaprio. Because he was originally going to be heathed the role. And he said it positive, because what happened was he turned it down in order to go and do a movie about a boat that sinks, right?

So instead, it falls to Mark Wahlberg, and then in the end, Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio make one battle after another, which goes on to win best picture. So as for Wahlberg, he gets, I think, his greatest role as Dirk Diggler. Incidentally, a role for which he has subsequently apologized. He has literally apologized for making Boogie Nights, saying, I just always hope that God is a movie fan and also forgiving,

because I've made some poor choices in my past. Boogie Nights is up there at the top of that list. Really? Nope. I didn't know that. No. Top of that list in the bad movie choice. is Mark, is your roles in Transformers the Last Night or the happening or The Truth About

Charlie or the Daddy's Home Movies or most recently Flight Risk, which you'll remember is the movie in which he's actually got a bald head, but he plays bald so badly that it looks like he's wearing a bald wig. I mean, how about Mark you apologize for those films first before you start apologising for the best film you ever made and will ever make the weird thing is. What did he say, what was he worried about? Was it a moral thing? It was a moral thing. Yeah.

It was the fact that he'd made a movie about, in which he played Dirk Diggler, this porn star who rises up through the industry in the 1970s and in the 80s. And he thought, well, that was a terrible career choice. It isn't a terrible career choice. And we'll get also to why it isn't in terms of the morality of the film in a little bit. But I interviewed Mark Wahlberg for Radio 1 when Boogie Nights came out, and he was lovely.

I mean, back then he said he was using Boogey Nights. Lugie Knight as a way of apologising for his role in Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch and those, is it Calvin Klein underwear that he was advertising? He said, yeah, no, finally, this is great because, you know, I put a lot of stuff behind me. And I said, what sort of stuff? He said, well, like running around in your underpants. I mean, that's not something to be proud of. So I think, firstly, Mark Wahlberg needs to get his priority straight and sort out what you should be proud of and what you shouldn't be proud of, frankly. Funky bunch, you know, they're okay. My own feeling is that like Orson Wells, Mark Wahlberg has kind of lived his career backwards and started out with his best work

and then slowly reversing into this kind of ever more depressing catalogue of flatchel and ring kissing nonsense. The thing is, Boogie Knights is brilliant because it is a brilliant role and he is far from the best thing in the movie. He's terrific in it, but he's far from the best thing because there are so many great things. I mean, the other cast members include, get this, right? Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Riley, William H. Macy, and Oscar nominated Julianne Moore. That core group, incidentally, then went on to be the core team with Paul Thomas Anderson in Magnolia, which follows very hot on the heels of Boogie Nights, and which I know you're a huge fan of Magnolia. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I mean, as ensemble cast go, it's amazing. The other nominations that got along for, with Julianne Moore, was it got a nomination for Best Original Screenplay and best supporting actor for Bert Reynolds, who, in another one of these sort of weird twists of fate, swithered about doing the role for ages, didn't want to do it, didn't think it was a good idea, and then ends up getting that all-important Oscar nomination. Now, in terms of that thing about, you know,

I want to apologize because it was a bad choice, it would be easy to think that a film about the porn industry would be, you know, somehow scuzzy and downbeat and, you know, and all those things that Walberg appears to be worrying about. If you ever listen to the commentary track of Boogie Nights on DVD, there is a moment in it in which Heather Graham, who plays Roller Girl in the film, is terrific in it.

Again, one of her best roles as well, says that despite the fact that the film is set in the porn industry, it has a very kind of sweet family drama subtext, and she says, and you know, the interesting thing is that that is highlighted in a really good review of the film that was written in sight and sound magazine. You know, the British Film Institute's site and sound magazine. Well, guess who wrote that review? I can't possibly...

Take a punt. Was it James Boy King? No. He's the only one I can think of. Go on. Who do you think wrote that review? Pete Bradshaw. No, go on.

Just stop doing the funny answers. Barronomy. No. You, obviously. No. Oh. The good lady professor, her in. Doors wrote it.

Oh, okay. Well, I wouldn't have thought that that was... Exactly. But the point is, she's right. I mean, both Heather Graham... Well, the good lady professor her indoors is always right. Of course. Heather Graham, in this particular case, is right

because what she's doing is highlighting some which is absolutely central to the film. Is that at the heart of it, it does have this real sweetness. And there is a morality, which is a human thing. It's about people together in circumstances that are changing in strange and sometimes terrible ways.

There is a scene in the later part of the film in which they visit the home of this character played by Alfred Molina, which is one of the scariest things I've ever seen. Because as this scene is playing out, there is a character wandering around randomly throwing cherry bombs onto the wall, making these banging noises that are absolutely terrifying. I mean, it is an astonishingly accomplished film. People talk about the, you know, the Steadicam work at the beginning and the kind of very good fellas thing about coming into the house, the pool, all that sort of stuff. Fine, okay, yeah, stylistically, we know that Paul Thomas Anderson is an amazing visual stylist.

I mean, look at one battle after another, look at the river of hill sequence. He always has been. But Boogie Knights has got heart, it's got soul, it's got humor, it's the period detail is astonishing. and it is the work of a master craftsman filmmaker spreading his wings. And from here, as I said, to Magnolia, and from Magnolia to Punch Drunk Love. And just what a joy that it's back in, it's back. I love Boogie Nights. I think it's just a wonderful movie.

And Marky Mark is absolutely brilliant in it. It is the best thing he ever did, he ever will do. And it remains one of my favorite Paul Thomas Anderson movies. and how thrilling that it's back in cinemas. Correspondence at cobbinameh.com before we go, we have a little what's on here from Una from View Digital Community Media in Belfast. On Thursday, the 18th of June at 7pm,

we'll be at the indie bookstore, the bookshelf in Nuri County Down, along with our friends at Nuri.i.e. We'll be hosting a screening of a short documentary, spotlighting the voices of migrant women in Northern Ireland. Migrant women seen and heard was co-created with migrant women themselves. It highlights the hidden cultural barriers that they face every day. At marks both Refugee Week and Indy Newsweek in Northern Ireland.

Tickets are free and available on the Viewdigital.org website. Well, fantastic. When owner sent us that, she couldn't possibly have known what would be unfolding in Northern Ireland in the last few days. So if ever there was a time to go and support this particular film, I think it's now is the time to do that. Una, thank you very much indeed. As she says, tickets are free and available on the Viewdigital.org website, a very timely suggestion. From Una, that's it for this week. This has been a Sony Music Entertainment production.

This week's team, Jen, Eric, Josh and Heather. Producer was Dom, redacted Simon Poole, who was briefly back in the country, but he'll be gone soon. In Take 2, we're directing you to the Overflow car park from all. chat about current film releases, more on the more on Tuna, more the baby Yoda film, you know, whatever it's called, more Richie Grant, Swaziland or Eswetini, I think you have to call it now, chat existential horror and in question, shmestians will be asked with all the different versions of The Odyssey coming up, are we all in fact watching the same film? And Mark will be definitely answering whether Alan Delon ever lived in Hume Cresence in Manchester

with a girl, apart for the fact we might not get there, because That might just fall off the end of the show. Come and join us on Patreon for all the exclusive good stuff, Mark. What is your film of the week? Well, I think as we have discovered between us, Disclosure Day. We'll be back next week. Mark's review of Toy Story 5 will be included. Have you seen it yet?

No, seeing it on Monday. Okay. All right. Very, very exciting. I will bestow a year's ultra membership on that first email. There we go. Matt Woodhouse, who was the good. guy who told us about the strutting peacock that wasn't a child calling for help.

So Matt Woodhouse gets a year's ultra membership. What a joy that is. He's correspondent of the week. Thank you very much, indeed, for listening. There will be another take which has landed very close to this one.