Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Is THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU a STAR WARS spin off too far? + Leo Woodall

Episode Date: May 21, 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. Our guest this week is Leo Woodhall, who stars in upcoming thriller Tuner as Nikki, a new York piano tuner who discovers a talent for cracking safes, thanks to his hypersensitive hearing. He chats to Simon about the process behind his performance, going to piano-tuning-school, and working with Hollywood legend Dustin Hoffman. Keep an ear out for Mark’s review of Tuner, coming up in next week’s podcast. On this week’s review slate we’ve got three more of the biggest movies hitting the big screen. First up, it’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, the latest Star Wars franchise adventure starring Pedro Pascal as the helmeted bounty hunter, alongside a super cute/slightly unnerving puppet [delete as applicable]. Will Mark jump onboard, or is this one Star Wars spin off too many? Plus we’ve got the Good Doctors’ verdicts on Manchester-set romcom Finding Emily, and road trip horror Passenger. All that plus the usual bountiful witterings from Mark and Simon and excellent emergency mails from you listeners. We might read yours out, but you’ll also have to endure The Laughter Lift – so it’s swings and roundabouts. Another top Take nonetheless! The fundraising page for Dave Mitchell, director of Alien On Stage can be found here: https://www.goodhub.com/go/helpdave You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo. 🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on your first Saily data plans! Use code [Take] at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/Take ⛵ 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: 00:00 Introduction 00:09:39 Finding Emily review 00:16:22 Box Office 10 00:29:43 Leo Woodall interview 00:44:13 Passenger review 00:52:51 Laughter Lift 01:00:47 Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu review Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now, Mark, you were telling me the other day about this Saly e-Sim app. Which one was that? Well, the one I just install on my phone before I go abroad so that I can save loads of money on roaming and data charges when I'm there. Ah, yes, it's dead simple. Install the Saly app on your device and choose a data plan. There are multiple plans in over 200 destinations available at some of the best rates online.

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Pick up these mail. 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. So before we go any further, let us just, we salute all the people who put this show together at the end of the show. Yes. But I think at this point at the show, we should salute Josh, our engineer who, for reasons, best known to himself, supports Arsenal Football Club, who at the time of recording last night, because of results elsewhere, won the title. almost all Arsenal fans

without having been watching the game or down the pub or rounded a friend but Josh has just told us this. Well, you do the punchline mark. Well, rather than doing that because it was I think maritally expedient

he went to collage club and he had an exciting club. First round of collage club. The great thing about this is not only does it show great sense of proportion and he puts it he's putting his marriage first but also it sounds like a sitcom that you know on the night that your team win the title for the first time in 22 years where are you I was at collage club it's not even an exciting club it's with respect you know anyway so

congratulations to our engineer who I think has made a commendable decision I think I Honestly, I think that is really genuinely commendable. Do you remember the episode of whatever happened to the likely lads when they were trying to avoid hearing the result of a football match? Remember that? It was an England match. Yeah. It was an England match.

And at one point, one of them had seen the beginnings of a headline, which was England. And then they couldn't figure out what it was. And he was in the middle of having a haircut and somebody started talking about it, so he rushed out. And this went on and on and on. on and on, and then they finally get to sit down in front of the match. And it's actually ballroom dancing because the headline was England rained off. Yeah, something that would never happen before. But anyway, so Josh, although us mentioning this has now made it quite difficult for a bunch of other people who say,

I just stood on the podcast, that Josh, big Arsenal fan, he went to college club, not go to the match. Why can't you be like Josh? Exactly. Why can't you be? We should get T-shirts. What would Josh do? Yes. Instead of what would Jesus do, what would Josh do?

Well, Josh would go to collage club because his wife wants him to. Very good. Anyway, how was Cannes, which is what I was going to say at the beginning. Something I never thought I'd ever say to you ever again. No. How was Cannes? Well, something I, I mean, Cannes itself. I mean, so I arrived.

I mean, briefly. I arrived Wednesday night because the premiere of the director's cut of the Devils was on Thursday, and I was introducing it. So I arrived at Wednesday night, immediately had a panic attack and got ahead. but bumped into a friend and Paul Laverty actually. And so talk to Paul Laverty about this, that and the other, and that was very nice. And then on the day, I sort of did my very best to just keep my head down. And they do this really weird thing because I was introducing it.

We had to walk up the red carpet. And so in order to get to the red carpet, they put you in a car that's quite literally 150 yards away from the red carpet. And then you sit in the car for an hour in a like, holding pattern like an airport. And then they finally let you out and then you bring you up the thing and you all face one way and a whole bunch of photographers take your photograph and no idea who you are. And I don't think those photographs will appear anywhere because it was, you know, me and Lacey Russell and Vicki Russell and, you know, not people who were immediately

recognizable to the world. And then you turn around and then you do the other bank. Then you move up a bit more and then you face one back and then you do turn around and then you do the other. And then you get to the top of the stairs. And of course I did what you're not meant to do is I took out my iPhone to take a picture of it. And the iPhone was wrestled. from my hand by the security guards. And anyway, then did the, when I did the introduction, it was packed. It was the hot, weirdly enough, it was the hot ticket that evening, getting tickets for the devil's director's car in the salpinwell.

Peter Jackson was in the audience. Wow. Peter Jackson, no less, and a whole bunch of critics and filmmakers. And the response has been amazing. It's got, I mean, it's got really, really good responses. And then the next morning, I had breakfast with Alan Jones, the good, Professor Her indoors had come on the Thursday. So we had breakfast with Alan and Diego.

And then we got the hell out of Dodge. So for me, it was kind of ideal because I was there in, did an event which I love. The film looked amazing. I mean, they've done an incredible restoration on it. They've gone back to the camera negative. They've done it to the template of the director's cut that we did with Ken in 2004. And it was really moving, actually. It was really, really moving.

So I had a not terrible experience in Cannes. Okay. Mark, hey, put that down to experience. Okay, but you'll never go again unless similar circumstances arise. I can't imagine another circumstance that would make me want to go back. What are you getting excited about in this podcast? Well, I'm going to be reviewing. Yes, it's not necessarily the same thing.

Not necessarily the same thing. And perhaps getting excited about Finding Emily, which is a new Manchester-based Rom-com, Passenger, which is a road movie, horror movie, and Star Wars, Mandalorian, and Grogu, which, well, the title, is self-explanatory. Yeah. That's a film based in the Star Wars universe and features Mandalorian and Grogu.

Exactly. Would that be right? And our very special guest will be is Leo Woodall who is starring along with Dustin Hoffman, although Leo Woodall is the star alongside Dustin Hoffman, in Tuna, which I think comes out next week. Next week.

He is certainly a buzzy actor. So we'll talk to Leo Woodall. And then in take two, What are you up to there? Two animations in Take 2, Charlie the Wonder Dog and Tom and Jerry Forbidden Compass and one of those two films is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

Okay, I'm predicting it's going to be Charlie the Wonder Dog, but we will find out in Take 2. Before we get to all those enticing reviews, in response to 0.4 of Theo Dombrowski's email about movie cliches last week, how to disguise yourself as a denizen of movie land. And one of them was, when you fall from great heights, discover that crashing through a tree will break your fall,

don't, like a real person, find yourself thoroughly dead. These are the things that, you know, get you annoyed, you know, an unrealistic in movies. That was number four. Well, Ed Freshwater, yes, Ed Freshwater, that Ed Freshwater says, I agreed so much with fellow church member Theo's letter a couple of weeks ago about people sitting bolt up right after nightmares,

because that was the first one. But one point of difference. In 1944, Nicholas Alcermade was a tail gunner in an RAF Lancaster that was shot up over Germany. Unable to reach his parachute and with his aircraft on fire, Alcermade took the terrible decision to jump out of the plane, leaping to his certain death from a height of 18,000 feet. Wow.

Except he landed in a tree and survived. His injuries from the fall itself amounted to a sprained knee. His improbable escape led the Germans to think he was a spy until the wreckage was found and he gained some celebrity as an inmate in the notorious Stalag Luft III. His captors even made him a certificate to prove his account, a quite remarkable story that this serves repeating. Wow.

So it's fair to say that in general, if you fall from a greater height and land in a tree, it's not good. However, for Nicholas Alchamide, even though it was in tragic circumstances, imagine falling that distance, landing in a tree and spraining your knee. Wow. Well, Ed, thank you so much for that incredible piece of information. And Jimmy says a couple of weeks ago, Lister wrote in about unrealistic movie moments and their real world consequences, including how falling from a great height into a tree is very unlikely to save your life. That immediately caught my attention as I'm currently reading, how I fell from the sky,

by Juliana Kupka tells the extraordinary true story of Lancer Flight 508, which broke up mid-air over the Amazon after being struck by lightning. Julianne describes leaving the plane till still strapped to her seat, seeing the jungle spinning below and crashing into the rainforest. Despite serious injuries, she survived alone for nearly two weeks before being found, helped by survival skills she'd learned through her parents' conservation work in the rainforest, a kind of a setup that if that was in a movie, you'd think, no, I don't think I'm going to believe that.

The book also mentions a man at the airport whose reservation on the same flight was cancelled at the last minute and who angrily tried to board anyway. That man was Werner Herzog, who later made the film Wings of Hope about Yuliana's story. He also contributes a perfectly Herzogian blurb to the book, which is, she didn't leave the aeroplane, the aeroplane left her. Apologies. If this has already been mentioned on the show, I'm a bit behind. Anyway, so in general, I think that the rule is still a good one, which is don't fall from great heights and land in a tree, because it won't do you any good.

However, obviously, there are exceptions to most rules. Correspondents at codemoe.com, let's talk about a brand new film that's out there. So finding Emily, which is a Manchester set rom-com from writer, and forgive me if I'm pronouncing this incorrectly, Rachel Hirons, I would say, or Herons, and director Alicia MacDonald. So Angori Rice, who's been in loads of things, we loved Mayor of East Town, and she was the daughter in Mary of East Town. So she's Emily. She's on a student visa at Manchester, I think it's the uni, Manchester Uni, where she's finishing a psychology degree.

And there's a position on offer that would secure her status there. But in order to get that position, she has to deliver an absolutely kick-ass dissertation as a sort of final part of what she's doing. And so what she's doing a dissertation on is the proof that romantic love is a form of self-destructive madness. It's like an evolutionary hangover. And she finds a perfect, if unknowing subject in Owen, who is played by Spike Fern, who was the Screen International Star of Tomorrow a year, a couple of years ago. So he's a working class lad. He works at the college.

And he's desperately searching for an Emily that he met. He met her at the bar where he was working and she was dancing. And they kind of really got on. And he knows her name is Emily. He doesn't know anything else. She gave him her phone number, but looks like she missed out one number from the phone number. So all he knows is Emily, hence finding Emily.

So he goes to the university and says, I'm trying to find this girl. Here's a clip. Oh, I don't know her last name. I can't help you then? Don't you have like a directory with all the students' names on her? No. It's just I really need you help because, yeah, I've got something of hers.

That's what it is. I've got this. This is hers. Well, it was her dad's and there was this fire and it was really like kind of, yeah, that's a lie. Do you want the truth? No, I don't. I met her last night and just really got on with her. I realize about here and she drinks beer bottles and she's just funny, smart. Have you ever met somebody in like, all that shit you've got going on in your mind? It doesn't matter anymore.

And like the light at the end of the tunnel, you're just standing in this light. And you're just like, just like, oh, I'm always just like, please, could you tell me like what class she's in maybe? Or I feel like it might be the most important thing you ever do. You've got two seconds to leap before a call security, all right. Yeah, okay, all right. So he's convinced that the Emily that he met briefly is the one. She, the different Emily, the one that's doing the psychology degree, is convinced that romantic love is basically driven him mad and therefore he's a perfect subject. So she conspires to help him try and find his Emily.

by getting access to those email addresses of every Emily at the college, which is a breach of data, but also a breach of ethics, because he doesn't know that she is writing a thesis on him. So, I mean, obviously the setup is vaguely preposterous, but it's a rom-com. And the film's largely carried by the scrappy charm of its leads, particularly, I have to say, Spike Fern, who has the sort of gangly, awkward, love-struck, lovable persona to a team.

I mean, I think you heard it in that clip. I mean, I think it is a very charming performance by him. Everything about his performance is believable, even when the narrative contrivances are completely unbelievable. So it's like, well, I wouldn't believe in any of this for one minute, but he's doing it convincing enough that I do. And Gorey Rice has the harder role, because I actually never believe for one minute in her student status

or in a dissertation or in a course. I mean, it's not her fault. I actually think that it would be hard for anyone to make that, role convincing because that role is the contrivance role. That role is the, okay, you have to believe that here is a person working on this dissertation and blah, blah, blah. And I think, okay, I don't believe in any of that. There is absolutely mechanics. I also didn't believe for one minute in the on-campus television station, which seems to be broadcasting 24 hours a day and has big screens out everywhere so that at any time of day or night, people can see things

about this story on this big TV. I mean, if you, you know, I was at Manchester in the 80s. I don't know it was a different era, but if you ever did University Radio, you'll know that you might as well have just been talking, you know, down a toilet roll in your own room. Unless you were on University Radio Warwick, in which case you were closed down because we were broadcasting,

not to the campus, but apparently to the submarine fleet. What? Yes. The Ministry of Defence shut down the University Radio. radio station because it was broadcasting to submarines. Are you serious? Yeah, yeah, absolutely serious. How were you broadcasting the submarines?

I don't know. It couldn't reach Toss or Flats, but it could reach the submarine underneath the Atlantic. But anyway, that got sorted and then we were allowed back on. Well, that's absolutely perfect. Okay. Also, I didn't kind of really, there's a whole thing going on about the warring factions among the various Emmys, which are supposed to sort of parody, you know, campus politics, people, the way in which people respond to the fact that there's this love struck guy who's

desperately looking for anyone called Emily, you know, is he cute and lovable, or is he actually harassing and stalking and all the rest of it? However, look, it's a rom-com and the rom-com is not a genre in which gritty credibility is the driving force. It's a genre in which it's, do you like these people, do you care about them and do you actually, are you sort of anticipating in your mind how the thing's going to play out? So, I mean, the whole thing looks like an advert for Manchester's thriving nightlife, which frankly, I'm all up for. and there were more than enough chuckles and poignant moments to paper over the frankly gaping cracks in the narrative. I do think that an awful lot of credit is to spike from making any of it believable.

Because because you believe in him and because you believe in, you know, Owen's sort of completely wide-eyed infatuation, you sort of just go along with the rest of it. And like I said, it is contrived. It's got every cliche in the book. But it was kind of charming and kind of sweet and kind of funny. And I do love the Manchester Locals. So generally, I thought it was fine. Finding Emily is the movie Correspondence at codemone.com.

Should you see it? Coming next, I'm not going to ask Mark, because I can tell you that it's, we're talking Star Wars, Mandalorian and Grogo. That's not three films. That's one. Passenger. And special guest on the show is Leo Woodall after this. Howdy partner?

Hello, Simon Mayo. I was just thinking the other day about the good old days. What, the good old days in the Wild West? What's with the howdy partner thing? Well, I was just thinking that when we started out in the radio, we were lucky because we had each other to bounce off. But most people don't have that support from a partner when they're starting out in business,

and they can get overwhelmed easily. Yeah, very true. But they could try Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, from household names like Mattel and Heinz to brands just getting started. Shopify can help you get more efficient, whether you're uploading new products or trying to improve existing ones. And if people haven't heard about your brand, Shopify helps you find your customers

with easy-to-run email and social media campaigns. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing. Sign up for your £1 per month trial today at Shopify. dot co.uk slash take. That's Shopify. dot co. UK slash take.

Okay, box office top ten. Here we go, starting at number 12. Top Gun Maverick. And everybody shout out to Top Gun Maverick, because that's what we do. That's what we do. When we say Top Gun Maverick, but obviously we're in the street.

This is a reissue. And this from Jonathan Smith, Dear Inshore and Ensure, speaking as someone of somewhat of a pedant. Okay. Has ever so much has so much ever been spent on a movie

to correct a single typos? He attached. So I'll show you this. He sent us like a split screen thing. Right. And at the top, it's, so this is like the text that comes up at the beginning

of Top Gun. Right. Top Gun, 1986, it says, on March 3rd, 1969, the United States, States Navy established an elite school for the top 1% of its pilots. Its purpose was to teach the lost art of aerial combat and to ensure I-N-S-U-R-E that the handful of men, blah, blah, blah, they succeeded. Today, the Navy calls it fighter weapon school. The flyers call it Top Gun. Right. And then Top Gun Maverick has exactly the same scroll, except that lost out of aerial

combat and to ensure E-N-S-U-R-E that the handful of men. Okay, so the flyers called it. Top Gun. So in between Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick, they learnt to spell. Jonathan Smith, Geography, Grade B, thank you very much indeed. Anyway, I think we know. There's more Top Gun in a moment, but anyway, at number 10, it's Athiradi. Which is Indian Malam language, action comedy, wasn't press screen. So if anyone seen it, drop us an email. Shrek is a new entry at number nine. It's just re-rass-rength. It's just re-rack. released Tastic at the moment, isn't it? So yeah, Shrek. You remember Shrek? It's Shrek. It's back in cinemas. Yes. And it's number 11 in America, so it's doing very well all over again.

Number eight here, six over there, the Super Mario Galaxy movie. This is its seventh week of releasing it's still in the top ten, so it's done terrifically well. Total box office at the moment looks like, wow. I mean, 37, yeah, it's taken a huge amount of money. It's just not very good. Number seven is the Christopher's. This from time travel prof. Award season is earlier and earlier these days, but it won't be this movie that finally gets Ian, his Oscar and BAFTA. The lone lady watching with me on a Friday afternoon

struck up a brief conversation immediately afterwards as to what I thought. I thought it was okay but freely admitted that I didn't quite get it. A fairly linear enough story, but I didn't quite get the last 20 minutes as to why certain things happened. She was hooting at numerous lines that Ian was spouting. She thought that this was his best performance on film. That's some praise for someone who told me they'd seen him in Hamlet at the Cambridge Theatre. Okay, well, obviously time travel proff wasn't that excited.

I think award season will remember the performances. And user, you, a bunch of numbers, I love this. Ian McKellen is an acting god, and Michaela Cole plays off him so beautifully. Steven Soderberg is a phenomenal director. the Christopher's at number seven. Yeah, I mean, I absolutely loved it. I think you said it was almost certainly one of your films of the year. Whether or not it is remembered when award season comes around nine months from now

remains to be seen. But certainly, I mean, I think the performance by Ian McKellen and McCallie Cole are terrific. And Ian McKellen said in that interview that the writer had said that they had written it for those two actors. And he said, well, I'm not sure that I believe it about me, but I certainly believe it about Michaela. I can't imagine anyone other than those two doing it. Number six here, number eight over there is Top Gun.

It is a 40th anniversary. Now, apparently in the States, they're on the same listing. So the reason that it's probably that it's number eight in the US is that presumably that's a double bill of Maverick and Top Gun Maverick. So anyway. So when you say they're on the same listing, you mean they're on the same bill, you buy a ticket for both films?

Yeah, I mean, it just says here. They're on the same listing as Maverick in the American chart, which implies that they're together. Yeah. Because they're both number eight. Well, I mean, it's a heck of a double bill. Yeah. Number five is Mortal Kombat 2, which I enjoyed.

And I thought it was good, fun. I think it was an interesting adaptation of a video. I mentioned the Mortal Kombat series over the years has generally had a kind of sort of, you know, a slightly raised, it's slightly better than some of the really, really terrible computer game adaptation. But no, I thought it was good fun. Obsession is at number four, number three in America. Nick in Leeds says, Dear Honey and Bunny, I just came out of obsession, having experienced the curious sensation,

of feeling a tightness in my chest and a stinging in my eyes during most of its runtime. Seems I'd forgotten how to blink and breathe. This is my new favourite horror of 2026, sorry Hocom. and this year's talk to me. The cast are great, especially Indy Navarette, who really goes there. By the way, Wiki says it's Indynavoretti, but I would have thought it's Indynavarette.

Anyway, it really goes there in a manner reminiscent of Mia Gauthored her most fantastically deranged, and it has one of the greatest shock scares, I think, have ever seen, also reminiscent of an infamous scene in the debut movie by the Philippa brothers, that you can see coming a mile away, just makes it all the worse when it happens.

And Peter says it's an insane, deliriously over the top, an incredibly noisy little number, for sure, for sure, which you find yourself laughing at in one minute and then choking on your popcorn in horror the next. And then somewhere in between, not being sure how to react at all. That's obsession. Number three, in America, number four in the UK. I really liked it. It is genuinely twisted. It works because it's a horror movie with an outlandish conceit, you know. It's the monkey's poor thing.

It's to be careful what you wish for. It's also a story about coercion and control and the horror of coercion and control. And it's absolutely, I mean, in my review, I made specific reference to the Philippi brothers because there is that, I mean, when it turns nasty, it turns genuinely nasty. And I came out of it and then Boyd Hilton, I saw Boyd afterwards. And he went, you know, wow, that was really, wasn't it? It was really. Boyd Hilton is another one who we won't be seeing for weeks after the Arsenal victory.

Is he an Arsenal supporter? He's an Arsenal supporter. Okay. So he said, do they call it a gooner? They're gooners. They're, and they're everywhere. It's like an infestation, basically. But anyway, Boyd will be very happy.

Hello, Boyd. The sheep detectives is at number three, number five over there. Matt and Deb in Mac say, the audience in our screening were an interesting mix of young families and retired couples. And the film proved to be suitable for both, as it was a curious mix of Wallace and Gromit meets Poirot-style murder mystery,

with the focus squarely being on suitable for children. The sheep were clearly the stars of the show with a range of recognizable voice actors lending their tones to a diverse cast of Ovine characters who were far smarter than the humans. It was a very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon surrounded by an audience clearly enjoying themselves while outside it was raining.

Oh and Emma Thompson was clearly enjoying herself immensely, which was delightful. Sheep detectives, number three. Yeah, well, I really enjoyed it and I was kind of baffled by how much I did because I did go in thinking, I have no idea what this is, but it does look like babe meets knives out.

And it is that, but it's also some other lovely things. We had a couple of emails last week from people talking about how it's also about, you know, poignancy and loss and grief. It's really surprisingly good. And the top two are the very top two, because in total box office, they are streets ahead of everything else put together. Devil Wears Prada is at number two. It's a series of set pieces.

is strung together by a completely mechanical plot in order to get the people in the room so they can do the things that you like. To enormous success. Speaking of which, number one is Michael. And it's not just number one. Once again, it's very number one. This is now, it's fourth week.

And it's, yeah, I mean, it's just absolutely coining it. I'm, I can understand, as I said, I had this conversation with Robbie Colin, that it is as far as a nuts and bolts biopic is concerned, it's solidly made and the performances are pretty decent. But it's also horrifyingly skirting around, you know, it is the elephant in the room. It's, you can't tell that story.

You can't. You shouldn't tell that story without acknowledging the other story, but this has done and it's doing incredibly well as a result of it. Yeah. the total box office, the figures I've got here, roughly 40 million, Devil was Prada 2, 27 million, and then sheep detectives five,

and then everything else is just miles behind. So they're going to be two of the biggest films of the year, aren't they? I mean, I have to say, I thought sheep detectives would do well, I mean, actually better than that, I suppose. I mean, sheep detectives only in its second week. But, yeah, you're quite right.

The difference between it and then Devil Wears Prada and Mike, or it's just they're not even in the same ballpark. More discussion on current films in the Overflow Car Park in Take 2, which is available via Patreon. Moments away from my conversation with Leo Woodall. Okay, Leo Woodall in just a moment, it's Navaretti. We have just been... Yeah, apparently, we found a video of her saying her own name, and it is Navaretti. We stand completely corrected.

Just because she says it that way doesn't mean it's correct. But it also means that is the way we will be saying it. Yes, along with Scarlett Johansson, who... that's, you know, with the hard J. And of course, Mark Kermode. Ah, yes. That's why we're straight. Although that is actually correct. So also you pronounce it, Leo Woodall,

which is a very, very straightforward way to pronounce it. But before we get there, just a quick reminder that you can get take one and take two, add free, plus our bonus take ultra every fortnight, plus the ability to vote on items in the show, contribute to the laughter lift and a bunch more of stuff by heading to our Patreon, which is officially better than Bob Dylan's Patreon.

And also you get this, so this extra show Take Ultra ends with a feature called One Last Thing where the idea is that Mark and I recommend something from our broad hinterland of other experiences, which is a feature that Mark is struggling with. No, no, I'm not struggling. Last week I gave you a great recommendation. Yeah, for something that you'd already talked about,

which is kind of not the point. But anyway, when I was talking about Patrick Radham Keefe's book, London Falling, in my kind of rambly way, I said at the end, it will make you very angry about the Russian oligarchs and their money, which is true. What I didn't mention was it will also make you angry about, let's just say, the authorities who clearly have allowed a bunch of stuff to happen, whether that be successive governments, Metropolitan Police or whoever.

But it's a fantastic reader, and he's a great storyteller. That's what I meant to say, and only realized after you disappeared to Cannes, that that's what I should have mentioned. It was also picked up again in the Sunday Times at the weekend, so it is a story that's continuing. So Leo Woodall is our top guest. Shot to prominence for a lot of people, as seductive Wide Boy Jack in season two of the White Lotus,

alongside Tom Hollander. One day playing Dexter Mayhew, the very popular Netflix series based on the David Nichols book. Nuremberg, most recently, of course, which I think you really liked, Mark, despite... I did, yeah. No, I did like it. You weren't expecting it to.

Leo plays a young American soldier assigned as a German translator who monitors captured Nazi leaders. And also on the posters, Bridget Jones, mad about the boy. He was the boy, the romantic lead opposite René Zellweger. Anyway, he's a man at the moment. He's also the star of a new movie called Tuna, T-U-N-E-R. You'll hear my conversation with him after this clip. Harry Thorwoods is a channel of Tune and Repair. This is Nicky B is my friend. He has a hearing condition. But believe it to that, is it virtuoso. Virtuoso, huh?

Maybe you can inspire. Okay, thank you, Harry. Close your eyes. What's this? C, F sharp. E7, flat nine. F sharp, G, A, A, sharp, B over D sharp. You never take those out? No.

I get hypercustic. I'm allergic to loud noises. Hello? You know how long you're gonna be? It's loud. As long as it takes. Unless you can open the safe. the safe and that's a clip from Tuna it stars Leo Woodall who joins us

Hello Leo, welcome to the show Hi Simon, thank you for having me It's very nice to see congratulations on Tuna which is hugely enjoyable I loved every minute Introduce us to the film and introduce us to your character Nicky White

So Tuna follows a story of Nikki White a young man who is a virtuoso pianist except that he has hyperacususus a condition where you are basically allergic to loud noises. So he can no longer play piano,

but he tunes them with his boss slash uncle played by Dustin Hoffman. And he, Nikki finds himself in a little bit of hot water with some

questionable men where he learns to crack safe. Okay, so a couple of things to sort out. First of all, hyperacusis I know you said it's allergic to loud sound but just tell us so every time we see you

you've got earbuds in with cabling and sometimes you put over ear headphones in as well just tell us more about hyperacus and why it's so important to the story. It's the condition that makes you hyper, hyper sensitive to sound

so much so that you know a dog barking or anything loud can cause extreme pain, sometimes even seizures. And it's a very crippling condition that doesn't really allow you to live a normal life.

So whenever Nicky has to go outside, he wears those big earmuffs, which are still not necessarily appropriate for the sound of life. So you're a piano tuner. What I loved about the film is that I can't remember seeing a movie where piano tuning is at the heart of it. And you've mentioned that he's ended up as a piano tuner because he can't be a fantastic pianist. But he still has an incredible ear.

How did you, or to what extent did you learn the art of piano tuning? I did it as much as I could. I did it as much as I could. There's a lot more to it than I had anticipated and what you would maybe think is involved because it's a really complicated and intricate instrument and we had a consultant on the movie Peter White who that's his job, he's a piano tuner

and he walked me and there were a couple actually another man called Duane, and we just would always be sort of looking at what the sound would sound like if it's out of tune. And to put it in very basic terms, if you hit a key and it makes a sort of what-wah-wha-wa sound, you know it's out of tune. You want the key to make one long, drawn-out sound, and that's how you know it's in tune. but there are three strings to every key on the piano, and if one of them is slightly out of tune, then you've got to fix it. So you went to piano tuning school, basically.

Essentially, yeah. Yeah. Which I imagine is one thing. Learning to play the piano is another thing. I mean, you have to have a few basics there. What did you know before you started this movie about playing the piano? Not a whole lot, Simon. I was always drawn to the instrument,

but to even play a piece two-handed was not in my wheelhouse. So it was great to kind of develop any limited skill that I had on the instrument. And we had a lot of really good coaches and teachers. and we did months and months of training. And I imagine when you're being shot for a movie, a lot of it is, because obviously stuff can be created, you know, afterwards, but the way you sit, the position of your hands, your whole posture is the thing that makes us believe that Nikki is playing the piano.

Like you say, even where you sit on the stool, where you're, you know, how your hands is supposed to be positioned up. over the keys were very intricate, but really essential details. So you're working with Dustin Hoffman extraordinarily. So Dustin plays Harry Horowitz. It's his piano tuning business and Nikki is like his apprentice. But the key thing is you are doing all these scenes, particularly in the first half of the film,

with one of the great movie stars of all time. Did you, was it always Dustin? Did you know when you signed on for the movie that it would be Dustin Hoffman? I did, yeah. I think it, I wasn't sure if it was official, but I did know that the part was written for him. Okay. And you've played with some very big stars.

Is it more scary to act with Dustin or with Russell Crow? Good question. I think, let me get back to you on that one, because they're scary in different ways. Yes. Russell's, I love him. He's become a friend, but he's an imposing figure. So that was intimidating.

And he's also, you know, he's Russell Crow. Dustin's, you know, a very sort of gentle, sweet, funny, man, but I didn't know, I didn't really know that going in. I just was desperate for him to like me, to think that I was good at what I do. So that first date with him was pretty intimidating. But he's such a generous, he's a very generous actor. And when someone is that good, they really pull you into their world. I got the impression that he was in charge of every scene.

and that he also could have gone off and, in fact, maybe he did go off on tangents and you just had to follow the tangent. So when you're doing scenes like in the van or in his house, are you on your metal all the time? Does he improv? How do those scenes go? Oh, yeah.

Most of what you see of us in that film is improvised. He has a thousand stories to take. and he would tell them. And we would have these short scenes of dialogue that would be up to half an hour takes because we're just riffing. And particularly in that van was where we were able to sort of build our dynamic a lot

and our relationship. Because he just goes off on one and you don't really know where it's going but because he's masterful of what he does, it always comes back around in a very buttoned up, sort of perfect way. I wonder if the fact, so the director is Daniel Rohr,

it's his Oscar winning, because he was the man behind Navalny, but this is his first story, which he's telling. And I wonder if actually a background in documentary making was ideal for those kind of scenes, where he just keeps rolling. You know, there's no script.

He's filming a documentary. So maybe that's how he felt when he was doing those scenes. Yeah, I think the two went hand in hand. I think it was really freeing as a performer to feel like, you know, the person who's capturing you is just wanting you to behave like a human and not, you know, you're not sort of, shackled by anything. And I think ultimately, you know,

Daniel also just loves movies. So he was able to marry the two incredibly well. The other behind the scenes guy to mention, I think, I mean, being an audio person and a radio person, I've always like it when a movie sounds fantastic. and the sound designer is Johnny Byrne. Zone of Interest, that was him, but particularly Sound of Metal.

So the way we hear what you are experiencing, there's jazz music and there's classical music, and then there is incredible noise which leads to great distress. Johnny Byrne has done a fantastic job. He's done an exceptional job. I think he elevates this film with his work, you know, for a story like this and a film like this, I think his ability to really get inside Nicky's head, which when you experience in a cinema is, it's incredibly immersive and

really elevates the story. So yeah, his work kind of created a new character, you know, in the film. Yeah, which I think people will admire very much. So your character, Nikki, comes from where? What is the accent that you have to master for this? Brooklyn. Okay. How difficult is that? What's the most difficult accent you've had to do?

I've recently did a sort of Kansas accent, and that was pretty difficult because it's not actually south. It's not really Southern American, even though you think it is. Brits think it is, but apparently it's not. I think there were little details that we incorporated into Brooklyn for Nicky, one of them being sort of Harry, instead of Harry, Harry.

And I obviously have to say his name quite a lot. So in this movie, we watch you as a piano tuner and as a pianist. What is the most difficult skill in inverted commas you've had to acquire in a movie? And I'm not talking about being Tom Holland as nephew, not that skill. but any other skill that you've had to sort of acquire as an actor? Learning, I mean, the piano was what's the most difficult by far. I would say German, learning German. Okay.

For Nuremberg was difficult, but I recently had to learn how to shuck oysters for a part. And it was difficult at first, but, one of those skills that you, you know, you can now carry into the rest of your life. Yeah, that's a practical skill. And just speaking of piano, we cannot finish the interview without mentioning the actor who plays Ruthie,

who is the pianist, and the person who your character falls for, played by Havana Rose Lou. Now, she is either an astonishing pianist and a great actor, or she has really learned all those arts, skills that you've told us about earlier because she looks amazing. Yeah, she really hit it out of the park. It was so much work to get to that place and she

put everything into it. She really loved that character and wanted to do her justice and she put so much work into the piano side of it and everything else. Yeah. Well, it's very impressive and I love the film. A hugely enjoyable. What do we see you in next, Leah? A film about Anthony Bordane and A24 film is coming out in August. So I'm looking forward to people seeing that. And I'm about to go to New Zealand to do some Middle Earth work for Gollum.

And that I'm incredibly excited about. Well, very good to speak to you, Leah. Thank you very much, indeed, for coming on the show. And good luck with all the oyster shucking. Thank you, Simon. Thank you for having me on. Just after doing that interview, I then interviewed Anthony Horowitz, the writer and screenwriter. And he said, have you seen that tuna film?

I said, I just interviewed Leo. He said, I just saw it. It was like the secret film at the LFF. And we thought it was amazing. I thought it was fantastic. You must tell everybody about it. I said, well, that's exactly what we're going to do. So, Mark hasn't seen it.

Will you review it next week? Yes, absolutely. So it's National Press Screening on Tuesday. I've actually packed that on Tuesday. And then we will review it on next week's show. So it opens next week. But I have to say, I'm already excited about it, not least because you mentioned Johnny Byrne,

who I think is a really terrific sound designer. And the last time I was on stage with Johnny Byrne, he, in a certain point in the interview, he reached into his bag and whipped out his Oscar. Oh, really? Fantastic. If you've got one, you are going to carry it around. I'm sorry, that's exactly what I would do.

And I thought there was something so refreshing about somebody actually not being abashed about it, about somebody being really proud of the Oscar, because he's an amazing sound designer. Anyway, there's another movie out which Mark has seen and can talk about right now. Passenger, which is the tagline for Passenger. passenger is. 130 million people take road trips every year. 15,400 of them are never seen again, which is encouraging. So this is a... Yeah, I'll give that a stat again. Yeah, so the poster says 130 million people take road trips every year. 15,400 of them are never seen again. Why? What happens to them? Well, Simon... Is it aliens? Is it? Well, okay, so this is a road movie horror

movie hybrid from Andre Ovredol. Incidentally, I was just looking at the, because we're doing the pronunciation things, about Indy Navarretti. And I noticed that Alicia McDonald's Insta thing says not

Alicia, Alicia, I think in that case. Anyway, from Andre Overedole, which I think is correct, which is, he's the Norwegian director behind Troll Hunter and the autopsy of Jane Doe. You remember the autopsy of Jane Doe because Brian Doe, because Brian Cox was in it. Brian really, really liked working on that film, and it's a really good movie.

Very, very little scene, but terrific. So Passenger is written by T.W. Burgess and Zachary Donahue. Story is, young couple give up their Brooklyn apartment, put their life into this van that they've bought, and head off out onto the road like modern nomads. This is their new life, their new adventure. One night went out on the road, in the dark, in the woods. a car overtakes them and then the next thing is they come across the car has crashed and they stop obviously they stop to help and it's it's a grisly death scene and on that car there is a

distinctive three-line scratch like a you know something with three claws has scratched the side of the car and after stopping to help that same mark appears on the side of their van have they picked up some form of supernatural passenger. Here's a clip. I saw these on the car last night. Three scratches just like that. You didn't stop, did you? It's something unholy. Something's far on us. No one outruns a passenger. Wow.

So that voice that you heard there, no one outruns a passenger, that's Diane, played rather terrifically by Melissa Leo, who's very much an and Melissa Leo performance. So they meet her at a burning van event, where people who were driving with nomadic people in vans gathered together.

And she tells them, you're not for this life. This life isn't for you. It's a great line which she says, you don't take the trip. The trip takes. you. She also very creepily informs them in a very gremlin style of the three rules of the road, which are stick to the main roads, don't drive at night, and don't ever stop. And that don't

ever stop also features on one of the posters. So you heard from that clip, the sort of the generally creepy tone. The film's got a very, very creepy atmosphere to it. All the woodsy stuff at night is very atmospheric. I was reminded a little of, remember I talked about Babak Anvary's film, Hello Road, which is just the mum and dad out in the car looking for their daughter who's got into trouble on the road in the woods. So there's some really nice use of, you know, it's nighttime, it's dark, everything is just illuminated by the red lights on a parked car, the lights which are quite often flashing. So you see things and then you don't, you do it and you don't. I was also, So there was a film from 2003, a little similar kind of horror road movie thing by Jean-Baptiste-Andrea and Fabrice Canepa, which was called Dead End.

And in that film, there's a family, I think it's Christmas Eve, and they take a wrong turn, and they end up on a road to nowhere in a forest, in a car, in the middle of the night, and everything goes really, really badly wrong. So Andre Eauvedol makes really good use of the kind of the intimate and flashing light thing. I mean, it just works really well. You're in the dark. You're in the forest. And the lights and the car are flashing. So on, off, on, off, leaving you, you kind of peering into the darkness. And you know, you know that it's going to go on off, on off.

And the next time it comes on, there's going to be a scare. And in a way, it's a kind of upmarket sort of visual version of quiet, quiet bang. I mean, you do get the bang, but also what you get is the dark, dark red, you know, or dark, dark face. And it's, I mean, it's really effective because the way in which it works is you have to really look at the screen, you know, you'll see somebody peering into the, was that a figure in the woods? Was that? What was it? You know, and you do the same thing, and then it gives you a jump. There are also some very wince-inducing set pieces involving shins and fingers, which reminded me,

if you remember Ben Wheatley said that thing, I quoted it when we were talking about the Bob Odenkirk film. So the problem with most action movies is they forget that the small things hurt. You know, getting your fingers caught in something really hurts or something just banging on the top of your head really hurts. And Andre Ovidadol remembers that. also two great leads Jake now Skipio or Shipio this has definitely become the show of I'm not sure how you pronounce anyone's name

and Lou Lobel they're really really good as this young couple who you totally believe in is this wide-eyed young couple they've got this dream they're going to go on the road they're going to live the free spirited life you know they're going to be it's going to be all nomadic and I found it I found it properly gripping and thrilling now admittedly as it goes on

the more it explains the curse. Like you said that thing about, is it space aliens? At the very beginning, I thought, is it space aliens? Because, of course, that's one of the first things you think. As it goes on and the explanation is sort of revealed, it becomes less scary because it's at it scariest when you haven't got any idea what's going on. But that said, the final act, when it is sort of revealed,

and there has to be a denouement to return to a word, which we've used many times on this show, is entertainingly silly. I mean, it is silly, but entertainingly so. So some very good needle drops adding to a very good score by Christopher Young, very good central performances, and atmosphere to spare. And I did find myself very gripped by it. I mean, admittedly, I have got a thing about creepy woods late at night, but I think most people do, because I think that's what most fairy tales are based on. You know, you go off into the woods, you can't quite see what's going on, but you know, it's not good.

There's a man with an axe, almost certainly. Well, the interesting thing is, in this particular case, it's not a man with an axe. And that's one of the things that makes it interesting is you're, for quite a long time, you're going, what is it? Because you genuinely have no idea. There was, I can't remember which comedy show it was,

but it was a spoof of the Walton's. Oh, yeah. And you remember at the end of the Waltons, it was always a good night mom, night, dad, can I at Jim Bob. And then there's a pause and then someone says, good night man with an axe. Which is that very good.

If anyone can remember which show that was, do let us know. Anyway, but passenger sounds rather impressive then. Yeah, I mean, it worked for me. And as I said, with the wincey bits, it's not that they're gratuitous or anything else. It's that they are genuinely wincy in a good way.

I mean, there was one moment when I actually hid my eyes behind my hands. Okay, it's going to be too strong for me then. So high time then to lighten the load and to wait as the laughter lift draws up so as soon as the doors open, we'll step in and enjoy ourselves.

Excellent. That sounded weird. And here it is. Hey, Mark, bad news, I'm afraid. Did you know my friend Gavin? No. Well, sadly he passed away last week.

week from a heartburn medicine overdose. Right. I can't believe Gab is gone. Okay. More bad news, Mark. Worse than that? We got burgled this week. Someone stole my camouflage jacket and my flip-flops.

Whoever you are, you can hide, but you can't run. That's better. That's better. Thanks. Oh, by the way, Mark, I'm sure, not sure. Yeah, not sure if you'll know anyone, but I urgently need to re-home a dog. It's a really feisty little Jack Russell.

Barks from 6am through to 3 a.m. the following day, full of character. If anyone's interested, send me an email and I'll even hop over the neighbour's fence and get it for you. Very good. Good, well, that was... That was quite a poor. Poor?

Who wrote those ones? The AW, are you saying? No, no, no. But who wrote the gags this week? They're spontaneous jokes that just came to me as soon as the music... So did you write them? No, of course I did.

Did Child 3 write them? No. Did Simon Paul write them? I expect so. He's not here this week, is it? Simon Paul's main work is to celebrate Arsenal being champions. That's the only, frankly, it's the only, he's on the show day. Do you think he wrote those jokes while celebrating?

Because it sounds to me like he did. I like, I like Gaviscon being a punchline. Yeah, Gavis gone, that was fine. You started high. I mean, that was the high bar. If I'd known at the beginning, wasn't going to, no, but because I thought it's going to get better. But it actually got worse. you go back and do that gag again now, I'll laugh at it because in comparison with the other

gags, it was funny. Yeah, I can't be bothered. We'll move on after this. While you were having a great time in Cannes, by the way, I was heading to Copenhagen for a family christening, which all went very well and it was lovely. However, I, along with 20,000 other people, lost their suitcases because of various things that he threw. And I still haven't got it. So I know I dressed like a teenager, But I do dress up for a family event. And so we went to the christening in the Anglican church in Copenhagen. Everyone's looking fantastic. And I'm wearing jeans and trainers because all of everything else is in a bag in Heathrow.

And because he's got an air tag, I can tell you where it is now. It's in Slough. It's in a cargo centre in Slough. And it's not moving. And it's been there since Friday. Can I tell you what happened to me coming back from Cannes? Did you lose your baggage? Well, yes and no.

So we flew back from Nice, the good lady professor, her indoors and I, on route to a wedding in Manchester of my very good friend Al. Al the washball player. Not Al the washball player in the Dodge Brothers, but Al the washball player in the Railtown Bottles. You can call him Al. I could call both them. And she, it's her. She's Allison and two washball players in my life both called Al. Anyway, so we got off the plane at Gatwick in order to drive from Gatwick to Manchester, where the wedding.

is happening, right? And we go to the baggage hall and it says coming in on, you know, baggage count and nine, and we wait, and we wait, and we wait, and we wait, then an announcement comes over. Due to a technical problem, we can't unload the following planes, and they read eight planes of which we are the last one. So they say, what you need to do is to go home and report your bag lost. It's not lost. We know where it is. We can actually see the plane that it's not lost on. But that's what you have to do. So eight plain loads of people who can all see where their bags are have to go home and report them lost. And then rather than driving from Gatwick to Manchester, which would have been quite easy, we had to drive from Gatwick to the new forest

to pick up something to make up for whatever clothes we would have been wearing at the wedding, which were now on the tarmac at Gatwick, and then drove to Manchester, which rather than taking three hours, took seven and a half. And our bag came back on Monday. I still haven't got my... What is the air tag thing? What is that? You can track your bag.

Yes. I can tell you precisely where it is. So when I landed on Sunday, I said, can I go and get it? Because look, it's there. It's about 100 metres away. I can go and I can literally get it. He said, no, it has to go through the system. But that was what was happening at Gatwick.

And in fact, there was a woman at Gatwick who was in tears because her car keys were in the suitcase. Well, here's the thing which I learned, which is the official advice anyway, if you have medicines, make sure you carry them with you. Do not leave them in the suitcase. All my asthma stuff, right, was in the suitcase. Yeah.

So anyway, that's enough griping. An email here from, because it was quite gripy. Richie, good day to your big, bad selves. I was chatting amongst my friends, non-church members, unfortunately, but I don't impose my following on others. I just suggest it very heavily. when we started playing what is known as the Muppet game.

So you imagine a remake of any movie where the majority of the cast are played by Muppets, all except for one who can be the original or your own choice. The best we came up with was diehard with Muppets, Kermit as John McLean, as Piggy as his wife, Fossey Bear as the cop outside, Gonzo is the journalist who gets punched, Beaker and Dr. Bunsen as two of the terrorists,

but keeping Alan Rickman as the main villain. How would the good doctors, and opening up suggestions to the public, recast a film. Will Mark recast the Exorcist? Or will he give a curveball in recast Transformers? Because it can't actually get any worse. P.S. on the,

Richie is a science teacher. And he says, on the Project Hail Mary inaccuracies, I can forgive all of them, the centrifuge and so on. However, the one I can't get over is the fact that a teacher is allowed to leave school without setting cover. Leadership at their school would literally be saying, yes, yes, you need to breathe the astrophage to save the world.

but what are you setting for your year 8s? Anyway, so if we're going to recast films as playing the Muppet game. That's very good. I've come up with two options. Okay, go on. I wish I'd done about this in advance. We'll have to pick this up again next week, so I've got a chance to think about it. You go ahead.

It was in the script that was sent to you, but anyway, never mind. Barbie, I'm going to have a Muppet, Ryan Gosling, Emma Mackey, duly, but I'm going to keep Margot Robbie, obviously, so she's in there as the star. But maybe more interestingly, also Margot, Wuthering Heights. So I'm going to have a Muppet, Margot, a Muppet Jacob I Laudy, but I'm going to have a real character, which is Martin Clunes. So I'm going to keep him and all the others are Muppets. All right, well, off the top of my head, if you were going to do The Exorcist,

you'd have to have Miss Peggy as the mother, you know, as the Ellen Burst and Roll. Okay. you'd probably have Gonzo as Pizzouz. Because it's the right voice. You know, the Gonzo voice is kind of a Pazuzu voice anyway. You'd have either Waldorf or Statler as Father Merrin. Okay. And then in the role that we're going to keep, I mean, probably Linda Blair.

We'll keep Linda Blair because she's lovely and that's great. So we'll keep Linda Blair, but we'll recast it like that. Okay. So I don't know if anyone else wants to play the Muppet game, correspondence at covenomero.com. Anyway, Star Wars time, let's go. You sound very enthusiastic about this, Simon. Well, I've watched Mandalorian on Disney Plus,

and I like it. Well, the first series was great. Seconds are not quite so good, but I've enjoyed it. Okay, well, so Star Wars, Mandalorian and Grogoo. So this is the latest Star Wars franchise outing, a continuation of the Mandalorian TV series, with which I'm not very familiar.

I've seen a couple of episodes. I think, as you said, you've seen. How many series have there been? I think there's just a couple, but... Anyway, so this is directed by John Favreau, who's co-creator of the series, along with... And the script is written by...

co-written by him and Dave Floney and Noah Claw. So I'm going to read you just the official synopsis, because there's always this thing with these things about you're going to say anything that you're not meant to say, and there was a thing at the beginning when Ali Plum got up and told us all to not give away plot spoilers. And the problem is because in the Star Wars universe, I don't know what constitutes a plot spoiler anymore. So I'm going to read you the official thing, okay, just so I know I'm not spoiling anything. Following the fall of the Galactic Empire during a period where remaining Imperial Warlords

threatened the galaxy, the New Republic enlists the Mandalorian and his apprentice Grosgoo to rescue Rotor the Hut in exchange for information from the Hut clan on a new Republic target. So Pedro Pascal is the Mandalorian, Dinharin. Is that correct? Am I pronouncing that correctly? Din Jarin. This is the way. This is the way. Okay, fine. Although, since the character is helmeted for most of the time, there's actually no knowing whether it's him. And of course, apparently there are other people play the Mandalorian, Brendan Wayne, Latif Crowder. I imagine in the TV series, there's, so it's the old Judge Dred thing, because for most of the time, the Mandalorian is wearing a helmet. And there's a whole thing about the Mandalorian taking his helmet

off, which is absolutely not done, although in, obviously, in the Sylvester Stallone, Judge Dredd movie, they just took the helmet off. Jeremy Allen White is, in inverted commas, Rota the Hutt, who is son of Jabba the Hutt. Whenever I say that, I always think of the male Brooks Spaceballs joke, pizza the Hutt, who Favro has compared Rota the Hutt to Adonis Creed, a fighter living in the shadow with his father. And then, of course, Grogu, who is a puppet. A decision that I have to say pays infinite dividends because there is nothing that looks or lasts as well on screen as a puppet. Here is a clip. I have to warn you, it's an audio clip. It's a mainly visual thing. But there you go. It's Star Wars. Remember the buttons I told you never to touch. I'm going to need you to touch them.

Look for the ignition relay cutoff. It's next to the future. differential readout, which is between the pump compression gauge and the primary reserve in- No, don't touch the missile battery switch. That's why there's a safety guard on it. Do you see the fuel readout display? Remember I showed you that one? It's on the other side of the manual control surface calibration.

I don't think he knows what he's doing. Which, of course, he doesn't. So in that clip, which if you were listening and not seeing, essentially, Gros is getting to the control panel, lifting up all the things that you shouldn't lift and firing missiles rather than making the everything work. So also in the cast you have Sigourney Weaver, and it is very much an and Sigourney Weaver role as the Colonel of the New Republic who basically sends the Mandalorian off on this mission to go and get Road to the Hut.

There is also a character who is played or voiced or however you want to put it by Martin Scorsese. And so it's a, you know, and it's a very Martin Scorsesey part. And there are a couple of on-screen cameos. There was one on-screen cameo that people in the know laughed at. And I didn't know who it was. And I said to a colleague afterwards, who was that? And they said, oh, that is Dave Faloni, who I didn't recognize because I'm not as deeply immersed in this as some are.

So the first thing to say is, obviously, I am not as deeply immersed in this as some people are. You've been watching the series and I haven't. So that, of course, it's important. What I can tell you is this. If Return of the Jedi was, as they said in clerks, Muppets in space, then this quite often looks like Michael Benton's potty time in space. And I say that as somebody who liked Michael Benton's potty time. So that's a compliment. Yes, it sounds like it isn't, but actually it is because you remember Michael Benton's potty time right? I do, yes. And for those not old enough to remember, essentially Michael Benton would have these kind of

these little worlds made out and then stuff would happen. It was almost like a kind of upmarket flea circus and things would blow up and things would explode and things would run around. And it would very sort of slapstick physical humour. And I've got a real affection for that. I've got a real affection for that kind of filmmaking overcompetable. complex CG. I mean, you were talking about Herzog earlier on. Herzog famously called the makers of the TV series cowards when they considered replacing the puppet in a vertical baby Yoda with CG because he said the puppet was a phenomenal technical achievement, heartbreakingly beautiful. It made you cry when you saw it. And it's now become this whole thing about Herzog's immense attachment to the puppet. And the puppet, Grogu, is definitely the best thing. about this latest movie. Alongside, as I said, there's a sort of team of miniature mechanics

who are brought in to upgrade a spaceship when the Mandalorian needs to be moving faster. And they are very, very much like something that came out of Michael Benton's potty time, which again sounds like a criticism, but isn't. As for the rest of it, there are a lot of CG monster fights, sometimes in performance rings, sometimes in watery pits, always without much regard for the laws of physics. There are some X-wing dog fights, which are somehow far zippier than the originals and yet honestly less impressive than the original movies. There's a bunch of, I mean, the plot isn't very complicated, but there is a bunch of black, baggy plot exposition that's basically sort of rolled out like instructions to a video game, you know, go to this place and do

this, go to this other place and do this other thing. In each individual segment, it's you know, here is the goal, here is the aim, here is the thing you have to get, and then bring this other thing back. I saw it in IMAX on Monday night, because that's when they did the press screening, at the BFI IMAX, which is the biggest screen in, I think it's the biggest screen in Europe. So I saw it in the biggest format possible. And some of it looked impressive, notably the big walking machine things, if they sort of fall over and crash in slowmower, you get a sense of huge, big things crashing,

although honestly I always got that from Thunderbirds, which I always thought did big machines falling over really, really well. There's a sort of post-transformers vibe to that stuff, although, of course, with the added bonus of not being intercut with upskirt shirts of Megha, shots of Megan Fox, which was always the thing that made Transformers so intolerable, was it was essentially this kids movie with this really leering sensibility. you haven't got any of that here.

What you have got is a sort of innocent. So look, it's far better than Transformers, although that, of course, is setting the bar very low. But honestly, it does feel, and this is even to somebody who's not been watching the series, it feels like an expanded TV series episode, which is kind of what it is, because apparently Favre and Faloni were working on a new series,

and then that didn't happen because production was delayed, by stuff in Hollywood. And then they kind of re-evaluated it and thought, well, actually what we'll do is we'll turn it into a mandolary film. I think it was a fourth season. I think there might be three seasons. So I'm not. Yeah, it could be.

But I'm not sure. But the point is, even though I'm not invested in the series in that way, this still felt like, okay, this is basically the biggest TV episode or a couple of TV episodes locked together. There was a UFO film, which was, I think it was the, pilot and then an episode strapped on the end of it. And it kind of felt a bit like that. I mean, I was never emotionally invested, which I have been in some of the sequels. It's not that I've got a complete emotional investment blank on Star Wars. I haven't. Some of the sequels I have

been emotionally invested in. So I didn't mind it. I didn't hate it. I liked bits of it, particularly the puppet. And it's two days after I saw it and I've almost already forgotten absolutely everything about it, which seems like an underperformance for a film that costs this much money. It is honestly the very definition of, meh. So it's just strange to see a movie that big.

All the things that are good about it are small. I think that's the weird thing. All the things that are good about it are small, but it's very, very big, and it felt very baggy and it did feel like somebody's taking your television and put it on the biggest screen possible

and gone, all right, let's call it a movie. Child One has a Mandalorian helmet tattoo. Wow! Yeah. I'm going to say Child One has a Mandalorian helmet. No, he might.

He may well have one, but he's certainly got a Mandalorian helmet tattoo. Okay. Well, maybe, would you ask Child One to go see the film and let me know what he thinks for next week? He might have, child care issues on that one, but I will definitely suggest that he goes and I'll get his review for us. Because as I can't stress this enough, it is obviously different if you're a fan

who is invested in this particular world, then that will make a difference. And I want to be really clear, I am not that. But even as somebody who isn't that, it did feel like a big TV episode. Correspondence at codemone.com, if you are a fan and you do actually go and see it. So let's do a what's on section. Here you can send your videos. This is kind of movie related, movie adjacent, you know how it goes. Correspondence at codemode.com.

First of all, we have Lucy Harvey, who was the director of Alien on Stage, the documentary that Mark reviewed. Which I loved. Absolutely loved that film. Dave Mitchell gave everything to Alien on stage. He is the glue that held it all together. Let's support him now and give him what he needs.

Because since March, he's been hospitalized with Guillain Bar Syndrome. He's in a wheelchair and he's in constant pain. His partner Lydia says that creating this fundraiser means more to them than we know. So the timing is crucial as his sick pay runs out in August and the recovery process is slow. So please donate today. Share this everywhere and let's show Dave that we love him. Okay, we've, thank you very much for that.

Lucy, we put a donation link in the show notes if you want to have more information on that. Here is Dr. Gavin Lee, artistic director of Secretary. Shakespeare? Secret Shakespeare is secret actors in secret spaces. This June at Reading Abbey Ruins from the 3rd to the 20th, the actors who addressed, just like the audience, could be anyone at any time from anywhere. Tickets are available at secret shakespeare.com. dot UK. Thank you, Dr Gavin. Sounds intriguing.

Yeah. And we'll put a link to all of these in our show notes. Send in your videos, please, to correspondence at kermotemeyer.com. That's it for this week. This has been a Sony Music Entertainment production. This week's team, Jen, Eric, Josh, Heather and Dom.

The redactor, Samapal, not that he's interested this week because he's in the pub. And if you're not following the pod already, please do so wherever you get your podcast. Come and join us on Patreon. Mark, what is your film of the week? Well, take a wild guess from the ones that I've reviewed what you think it might be.

Passenger, I would say. Absolutely on the money. We'll be back next week with lots of fabulous stuff. I can't remember. I'm going to bestow. I'm sure it'll be good. I just have faith. A year's ultra membership to our correspondent of the week.

I'll give it to Ritchie, the science teacher guy who had the Muppet game. So Ritchie will be in touch. You were an ultra for a year. whether you like it or not. And if you'd like a little bit more after Take One, head over to Take Two. Would you like me to tell you what we're reviewing on next week's show

because I've actually got it written down? Okay, go ahead. Tuna, Power Ballad, Backrooms, my mother's wedding and Fairyland. That's all to come next week. Some more current stuff on Take Two. Thank you very much indeed for listening. Here, Mark, don't you find public Wi-Fi a waste of time

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