Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Mark interviews Bob Odenkirk + will NOBODY 2 meet his expectations?

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.  Supersub Sanjeev is back again this week, donning his Take merchandise—and he’s not the only special guest we’ve got for you. Bob Odenkirk—star of ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘Better Call Saul’, ‘Nobody’, and now ‘Nobody 2’--joins us too. It’s Mark’s turn to do the interview honours this week, and he’s pretty chuffed with that—but as it turns out, he’s not the only fan in the room... They unpack the film’s stonking action seqeunces and talk sequel nerves, father figures and Jackie Chan.   Mark reviews the summer holiday action comedy too, as well as all the biggest movies you can catch on the big screen this week, rain or shine. First up, ‘The Materialists’--whose director Celine Song was our guest last week...and kind of became Sanjeev’s new bestie in the process? We get both Mark and Sanj’s takes on her New York romcom for our cynical modern dating scene. Plus, a much more grusome take on finding your ‘other half’, ‘Together’. Starring real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie, this co-dependency body horror is a real scrunge-fest. Don’t miss Mark’s verdict!   And for those still enjoying our run of curry house correspondence, this week’s laughter lift is for you. Keep that correspondence coming on all things curry and non-curry related—and make sure to get it in sharpish this week, as we’re recording next week’s show this Friday!     Timecodes (for Vanguardistas listening ad-free):  The Materialists Review: 09:42  BO10: 23:51  K Pop Demon Hunters review: 21:33  Bob Odenkirk Interview: 33:42  Nobody 2 Review: 45:55  Together Review: 54:49    You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo  Please take our survey and help shape the future of our show: https://www.kermodeandmayo.com/survey   EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!  A Sony Music Entertainment production.      Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts    To advertise on this show contact: [e-mail]  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, hey everybody, it's Simon. And hey everybody, it's Mark. And now August comes around, and we're all thinking the same thing. How am I going to keep streaming, like I'm in the UK, is the Kerber de Mayo annual cruise docks in St. Martin, Easter Island, and the Outer Hebrides. Well, I've got a suggestion for you, Nord VPN. You know, I had a feeling you'd probably say that. Nord provides virtual private networks, VPNs in 118 countries,

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Hiring, Indeed is all. you need. 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, Schmessian. 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 you and welcome to the take hey mark hey sandh how you doing how you doing you went all elvis there

did i yeah you went hey mark in the way that i imagine that elvis would have done had he ever met me which he didn't do. So I tell you very, very quickly, Elvis once met Bill, not the other way round, Bill Blattie, who wrote The Exorcist, that was 20 seconds in, met Elvis, because Bill used to go to Las Vegas because he liked playing the tables or whatever it was. And he was in Las Vegas in the 1970s, in a hotel that Elvis was staying in, well, the hotel. And he was in the lobby. And somebody came up to him and said, oh, Mr. Blattie, Elvis Presley would like to meet you.

And he went, all right. So he got taken up to Elvis's room, and he met Elvis. And I said, wow, Bill. What was he like? He said he was very nice. He showed me some karate moves. But, I mean, did he say, you know, I love the exercise, man. That's demon possession, man.

I was one hell of a movie. Mark, you're there in lovely Cornwall, I'm guessing? No, I'm in Edinburgh. I'm at the Edinburgh Book Festival. Because thank you for asking, Sange. The book, which I've been writing for 10 years, finally exists. And so I'm up here doing a couple of book festival events. So, yeah, no, I'm in a glamorous hotel room in Edinburgh.

And it was boilingly hot here yesterday. And apparently it's going to be thunderstorms today. But you're in showbiz, North London, right? I'm in showbiz, North London, yeah. I'm just up the showbiz road from Simon. So not too far from him. So obviously, that just reaffirms that this is showbiz, North London. Absolutely.

A kind of stellar street kind of area that I live in. So let's throw to what films we might be listening to reviews of today. We have a terrifically mixed bag. We have materialists. Your interview with Celine's song was in last week's show. Terrific interview incident because obviously when we were recording the show, you hadn't done the interview yet. But I then listen back to it, really, really good interview.

I have never heard a filmmaker agree with their interviewer so much as Celine's. Every single thing you said. Celine's song went, yes, yes. It was like, you're suddenly your new best friends. I mean, she was absolutely lovely. And also, how nice at the end, because you were in a junket, so I was number 10 or 12, you were number 10 or 12. And how lovely that at the end she said, I could talk to you for another hour.

I know, I know. I thought you were like going to go out for dinner and continue the conversation or something. It was, anyway, terrific interview. We've also got a review of Together, which is a satirical. body horror and nobody too with our very special guest who is

Bob Odenkirk he is and in take two for the Vanguardistas in take two we have reviews of Unmored which is a thriller

that you and I have both seen which we're going have a very interesting discussion about and there is a reissue of Ghost Dog which is back in Sydney plus all the other

extra stuff you get every Thursday as a vanguardista and indeed the whole back catalogue of bonus joy there you go it's bonus joy

Well read. Well read. Thank you very much. As ever, if you're a vanguardista, we salute you. I salute myself. Here's an email. Our conversation on narrow road to the deep north has generated a fascinating email from a Japanese listener. Also, this Friday 15th of August is the what we call the BJ Day, or in Japan, officially as I'll have a go at this.

And Botsusha or Suitu Shi and Wa or Ki-Nen-sur-ri-hi. Apologies if I got that, completely wrong. The day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace. The official documents for surrender were signed on the 2nd of September. Here's the email. Hello, Mark and Sanjeev. I'm Japanese, a long-time listener and a first-time emailer. I recently listened to the episode where Sanjeev raised the question of whether Japan had truly

shown regret for its actions during the Second World War. Obviously, I have to step in at this point and go, that wasn't me. I was quoting from an email that I think was sent by James, I think last week. I must admit, I found the comment quite difficult to hear. Since the end of the war, Japan has openly acknowledged its wrongdoing, both through public statements and in the national education system. I'm in my late 30s, and when I was at school, we were taught very clearly that what Japan did during the war was unforgivable and a cause for deep shame. I believed it then, and I still firmly believe that war must never be repeated. However, as I've grown older and broadened my understanding, I've started to question how one-sided that education may have been.

I've learned that in some countries, including Taiwan, Palau and Indonesia, there are people who express a surprising sense of gratitude for Japan's invasion. While it's undeniable that many suffered under Japanese rule, they also acknowledged the infrastructure, legal systems and technology that Japan is. introduced. Elements that have, in some cases, had lasting positive effects. Some even credit Japan's presence with their helping to accelerate the end of Western colonial rule in their regions. I've also come to reflect more critically on how the Allied powers, particularly the US and Britain, portrayed Japan as a uniquely aggressive power, despite having long histories of colonization themselves. When Japan was seen as a threat, it was quickly condemned for behavior that Western powers had engaged in for decades.

To be completely honest, when Sanjeev, I didn't. It's an email, I was quoting, questioned whether Japan had truly shown regret. It gave me the impression, perhaps unintentionally, that Japan is still not seen as an equal. Yes, we lost the war and you won. But what is Japan, but is what Japan did really so different from what the West had already been doing for many years? Of course, we regret the suffering caused by our country's actions during the war. The loss of innocent lives is something that should never be forgotten. But I do wonder, have the nations that judged us ever reflected just as deeply on their own pasts?

In the same episode, a listener wrote in to say that their mother had visited Japan and felt that Japanese people tended to place the blame for the war on certain individuals, particularly those more directly involved, rather than acknowledging broader national responsibility. But that impression may stem from a narrative shaped by the US during the post-war occupation. The American administration sought to distinguish between the wartime leadership and the general population, portraying the people as victims who had been misled or brainwashed by their government. In doing so, the US positioned itself as the heroic liberator rescuing the Japanese public from tyranny. One final note, in the same episode, a listener mentioned a haiku they encountered in Hirajumi,

and interpreted it as a reflection of Japan's regret over war, suggesting that the summer grass resembled the nodding heads of fallen warriors. But that interpretation isn't quite right. Standing on land that was once home to a powerful and prosperous civilization in the 17th century, Matsuo Basho was struck by how completely it had returned to open grassland. The haiku is about the relentlessness of time and how even the grandest dreams of warriors eventually vanished without a trace. Despite all this, I want to say I really enjoy the show.

Thank you for your work and for the conversations that challenge and stay with us. Best regards, a Japanese listener, Shizuka. Well, can I say two things. Firstly, beautifully read Sanjeev. And as you quite correctly said, what you were doing was quoting an email from a listener. I'd just like to say, find me another movie show that does this. I mean, I'm really sorry, but this actually proves the point, which is that movies, and in this case, a TV show, are a way of talking about life. They are a way of talking about the things of the world. And I think that

one of the things that we all treasure most about the listeners is that that is, I think, how they treat this program. It's, you know, it's the Roger Ebert thing, life itself. You know, movies are life itself. TV shows, they are life itself. They are a way of talking about the world. And I'm really proud that we have an inverted commas movie show that could provoke that email, which incidentally was beautifully read by you in your fabulous, sonorous voice. Well, thank you very much. And thank you for the email. I agree with you. I think, again, I think we touched upon this last week that, you know, difficult things may be difficult to talk about, but they're always worth talking about.

And I think also it is interesting for me in that email. the point that I was trying to make last week, which is that a lot of people now seem to take very personally events that happened and decisions that were made by governments a long time ago. And I think that, you know, the one thing that distance can give us is the ability to contextualize. And we hear it a lot, you know, where people will kind of say, well, what about what you did in the Second World War then?

And I was thinking about this recently, actually, which was that, yeah, you know, horrific is horrific. Wherever you place it and however you try to justify it, the actions are horrific, even if they're made with the best intentions. But the one thing that we can do, looking back, is to say we have learned from that, and we wouldn't do that again. And that is the learning, and that is the, those are the lessons, I think. There you go.

I have a radical suggestion. Should we review a film? Go on. Flip an egg. Go for it. Okay. So, materialists, which, as I said before, you did a brilliant interview with Celine Song for last week's interview.

And honestly, it was the meeting of minds of all time. It was, I was thinking, I don't think I've ever had a conversation with a filmmaker in which they agreed so fully with what I was saying. Can I just say, when I first walked in to the interview and I was introduced to her, I said to her, I said, look, every single person that's come out has said that you're really lovely. So I just want to say the pressure is all on you. Well, you can listen to that interview by downloading last week's show if you haven't already. So materialist, this is the new film from Celine Song, who made Past Lives, which is my favorite film of the year that it came out.

Past Lives was a depiction of a love non-triangle. It's sort of a story about how relationships change over time, about how relationships define identity. And what does it mean or what doesn't it mean to be fated? This is also about relationships, but not so much about love, but more specifically about date. And in that interview that you did, Celine Song said, it's about the dating market, okay? So, to coach Johnson is Lucy, who is a matchmaker in New York. She works at a company called Ador. She's got a top-notch access rate.

Her clients get married. She's also single. She says that she's either going to marry someone wealthy or die alone. She meets Pedro Pascal's high-flying financier. Correct me if any of these things you think are wrong, incidentally if Sanchez do leap in. And she thinks he'd be perfect for her portfolio. But then she does the thing, she breaks the rule about, you know, don't sample the merchandise, that she sort of starts to have a relationship with him.

You know, rather than putting him on the books, he becomes, you know, potential partner. Meanwhile, her ex, Chris Evans, is a cater waiter. And we learned that one of the reasons that she broke up with her ex was that they were broke and that she is a materialist and that material things do matter to her. as does the idea or the concept of love. Here is a clip. When I see your face, I see wrinkles, gray hair, and children that look like you.

Can't help it. But as your friend, I would tell you it's a bad idea to be with a 37-year-old cater waiter who still has roommates. I would say, you definitely shouldn't marry a guy that has $2,000 in his bank account. in a city he can't afford, who's only still there to keep trying to be a theater actor because someone told him he was good at it once. And yet you can hear from his voice that, you know, he's got something. So in that interview, there's a couple of nuggets from that interview.

So Celine Song said everyone thinks that Lucy's an expert in love. She isn't. She's only an expert in dating. She also said that the film was inspired by her own experiences working in a dating agency while trying to be a playwright and said that she learned more in that brief time about what people need, want, than, you know, a lifetime of experience. And she compares the job to being a stockbroker in which relationships are like there's a stock market, in which things have value. And she talks a lot in that interview about the idea of valuing somebody in terms of their height, their weight, their income, their age. And obviously that seems completely at odds with the elusive idea of love.

And in fact, the film opens with a sequence in which we see like a couple from an ancient time, apparently, you know, having a love bond at the very beginning. So the idea is that this has been going on, you know, all the way through, you know, mankind has been looking for love. So it's about the merchandising of the idea of affection and the way in which we objectify ourselves and we objectify other people. And obviously that objectification ends in what Celine's song calls dehumanization. She also talked a lot in that interview.

People really should listen to that interview about wealth is control. The idea that love is only for the wealthy in this dating world. She says it's the great drug of our time. You know, why do we do Instagram of our food? It's because it's expensive. And so all these things, these are things that play right into all my kind of, you know, yeah, fine, well, I'm ticking all the right boxes. I actually think the most piercing line in the film is when there's a line when somebody says that what they want or what they get is the idea of feeling valued and feeling valuable and it's a very double-edged sword because the whole point about this thing is, well, what is value in this market.

So the message of the film is, you know, look, we're not merchandise, we're people, which is very close to, you know, we are the world, we are the children. It's a strange experience for me because I loved past lives, okay, and I thought past lives was really piercingly melancholic. I thought this was much more broadly in the kind of in the rom-com area. I mean, when I reviewed past lives, I compared it to Wongar Wise in the Mood for Love and Richard Link later's before trilogy, and David Show's Return to Soul and Nora Effron, and even a bit of Tokyo story. This is much more in the Nora Ephron school.

There's a fantastical element to it. There is a dramatic element to it. It feels like a played drama as opposed to past lives, which felt like you were actually watching something completely convincing playing out on screen. Again, in your interview, Celine's song referred to that thing that in Jane Austen novels, for example, one of the ways out of material straits is through marriage,

and that that then continues. So, I mean, I think she's a brilliant filmmaker. I liked the film a lot. I thought that it had so many, you know, very, very well-observed things about this thing about, you know, merchandise, commodification, dehumanization, all that sort of stuff. I have to be honest, it didn't pierce my soul in the same way that past lives did. I liked it very much. And I thought it was a really smart, well-written, well-played.

you know, slightly bittersweet rom-com with much more of a kind of, almost a sort of, you know, a fantastical underlay to it. But it, I mean, saying it's not like past lives, it's like that very famous thing. I've said this so many times, Joseph Heller was interviewed after he'd written, was it something happened? And the interviewer said, you'll never write anything as good as Catch-22. And he said, few people will. I mean, saying that something isn't as good as past lives is not saying it isn't really good. I'm really fascinated to know because I know you've seen both those films. Where does it sit for you in relation to past lives?

I mean, I wonder, when you were just talking that, I wonder, past lives, I think to Western audience is less familiar, that whole notion of, you know, fatalism. And, I mean, I think that's worked into the culture. It's one of the things that I didn't have enough time to talk to Celine's song about was just, you know, where, you know, in terms of her cultural background and experience, how did that inform elements of the film? in terms of materialists because I think that that notion of, you know, the, of matchmakers and trying to kind of arrange a deal is not dissimilar to how arranged marriages work.

Yeah. You know, people with, you know, families would do all of that and say, well, how tall is he? How much does he earn? You know, how tall is she? You know, what's her education, et cetera. And they would do that anyway. So that part of it didn't feel alien to me. I mean, when I went to see the screening, there were a couple of other people who, you know,

who, as they were coming out, were talking about how as cynical they thought the film was. You know, it was a very cynical take on dating. And I thought, no, it isn't for me. I mean, that's just what has always happened, which is what is suggested in the film. Whereas I think past lives are that whole notion of fatalism and the fact that, you know, it was taking place in Korea. There was a kind of other worldness about it that this doesn't have. This is much more familiar. Also, it's in New York, which, you know, as you said from, you know, everything.

from when Harry met Sally to Han and her sisters and, you know, and a dozen other rom-coms is familiar to us. Yes, yes. As a city and setting it there. I really, really loved it, actually. I think that, you know, one of the things about art, I think that came up in the conversation with her was that, you know, when you look at art, any kind of art, you kind of value it for what it gives to you, the feelings it gives to you, as opposed to someone tells you how much

it's worth. And you go, my God, this is wonderful. And the thing with this film was that it has, by the end of it, I felt really good. I felt really nice. I felt happy. And whenever I've thought back to it, and the soundtrack is brilliant as well. I think there's some great needle drops in there. And also I think that Celine's song is a very lean director.

There's very little in the film that I thought was kind of wasted in terms of shots. in terms of bangles, et cetera. So the more I've thought about it, the every time I do think about it, I just end up feeling very, very happy. But I agree with that. And it's, I'm slightly surprised that somebody would say it's a cynical take. I think it's not cynical. I mean, I think it is a, there's an element of romantic fantasy about it. I mean, even when you look at the poster and that kind of very posed image of the three of them, that tells you immediately this is a different world to the, to the world of past lives. And actually, I suppose, maybe, maybe I want more cynicism.

But then I say that, and I absolutely love Nora Ephron. And one thing you could never call Nora Ephron was cynical. I mean, you can say about when Harry met Sally. And I think there is some of what when Harry met Sally in this. One thing you say about when Harry met Sally is it's, you know, it's romantic, but it's also very, very clear-eyed about that central thing about, you know, can men and women ever be friends or does the sex part always get in the way? And, you know, I had the privilege of interviewing Nora Ephron a couple of times.

and she, there was nothing dewy-eyed about the way in which she viewed human relationships, but she had a way of writing that had that kind of magical New York fairy dust or whatever you want to, you want to call it. And I mean, I like the fact that this is called materialists, and it is about materialism, and its central character is somebody who is avowedly materialistic. What does that mean? One criticism I would have, I really could have lived without the sequence at the beginning, establishing the, you know, this is what love has always been like through the eight.

I thought that was a misstep. I thought that stuck out like a sore thumb. What did you think? I didn't mind it. I mean, you know, it comes back to it to round it off. I suppose there's different ways of kind of suggesting that. There may be other ways of doing it. Yeah, not doing it.

Or not doing it. I mean, but overall, as I said, when I got to the end of the film, it really was about, well, what has, what feeling has it left me with? Yes. And the feeling is happiness. Yeah, it's joy. Well, that, say, and she's a five-star review. Here's an email.

Hello, Black and Pink. I'm not sure if Mark will review K-pop Demon Hunters because it did not have a theatrical release. But I wanted to write in because this seemingly below the radar Netflix release has taken the world by storm. My boys, who are 7 and 5, have had this movie on repeat since it was released. It feels like this movie came out of nowhere and has gone completely viral.

Would love to hear Mark's thoughts on the movie if he's seen it. Cheers. Mark done. Well, I have seen it because, I mean, It's on Netflix. And, of course, I had exactly the same as, you know, same as everybody else read that, you know, it was a huge success. I watched it while I was on route to Edinburgh.

And it's, you know, it's good fun. I mean, it's weirdly good fun. It's got that thing about, it's got these kind of, well, as everyone will know, the song from it stormed the charts and became hugely successful. And, of course, you know, I was the kind of generation of people who were brought up on, you know, cartoon pop bands and, you know, the art.

He was the arch. was Sugar Sugar is the Archies, isn't it? You know, that idea about the creative, but all the monkeys, of course, who were, you know, live action cartoon Pop Man. And so the idea of, you know, there's this girl band and they're,

they're demon hunters by day, well, demon hunters by night, and also this government, but their songs are going to unite the world against these demons. And then there's this K-pop boy band. And then there's a whole thing about, you know, well, you know,

are they as demon-free as they think they are? And then there's this sort of Romeo and Juliet across the barricades, there's romance going on, And then, you know, every now and then it stops. And they do an absolutely killer machine-tooled pop song that it's like a kind of sugar-candy rush. It sort of reaches in and, you know, pulls at all your senses. And you go, oh, I'm enjoying this.

I mean, it's good for it. It's, you know, it's jolly and funny and entertaining. And I liked it. I mean, one of the weird things is it's become a really, really huge success. And obviously, loads of us didn't review it because it didn't get released theatrically. Do you know what the biggest selling movie of, uh, 2020? is so far. Take a guess at what the biggest selling film of the year

so far is internationally. Gosh, internationally. I mean, I would probably, it must be a Chinese language film or something. It's Nezatou, which is an animated film, which has taken nearly two billion worldwide. Yeah, precisely. So this whole thing about,

there's a whole, I mean, people have talked about the way in which the international movie market is changing. The international movie market is changing massively. and our concept of what is big in the movie world is fundamentally shifting. The ground upon which we stand is fundamentally shifting. And it's a really exciting time. It's a really strange time, but it's a really exciting time.

There you go. And now in time-honored tradition, let's do the top 10. So at number 10, we have stands. So this was a limited release, so just it won't be there next week. This was a documentary about Eminem's career as seen through the eyes of his fans very much for M&M fan, for and about M&M fans. And it was only in cinema as four, I think, three nights. Number nine, it's the Hindi language film Sayara, which is still there.

We talked about this before. Did anyone send us in a review? We haven't so far. No, okay. Well, there's still time. Please do. Number eight, US number eight is F1. I mean, it's the fact this is now it's seventh week in the chart.

It has held up, although I have to say, I had a conversation with somebody for the first time, for the first time in seven weeks this week. They went, I saw that F1. It was the worst film I've ever seen. I said, why? They said, because the script was rubbish. It went, yeah, it's Brad Pitt and fast cars. They went, yeah, but the script was rubbish. I mean, you're going to see it for the wrong reason.

Number seven, US, number six is Superman. I enjoyed it more than I had expected I was going to. Number six, US number seven, Jurassic World Rebirth. A classic example of a director getting the very best out of a frankly, ropey, ropey sequel script. I mean, that's the script looked like it was written by, what did they show, it'd be written by AI, you know, dear AI, write me a sequel to the Jurassic world movies, there you go, that's it. I think Gareth Edwards did a good job of the direction, but the script was all over the show. Number five, US number four, the bad guys two.

Did you see Bad Guys One? I didn't. Okay, well, if you saw Bad Guys One and you liked it, it's that. It's literally that, more of that. At number four, US number three is The Naked Gun. The general feeling at first was Mark has got a tin ear for comedy. Everybody thinks this film is hilarious. Mark is the only person who didn't laugh. Mark is the only person who didn't find it funny because he is a miserable old grump. And yet, the number of conversations I've now had with people in which they went,

yeah, I laughed a couple of times. Yeah, no, that's it, right? In a 90-minute movie or whatever long it is, you laughed a couple of times. the general consensus from people that like the film seem to be well it's 25 minutes of comedy in it i'm sorry and i rest my case your witness your honor i don't one one last thing i wanted to say about naked gun when i was thinking about it was the just in terms of leum nison's chosen voice for his character yes which he's taken his voice from taken yes that same voice yes And that's not Liam Neeson's normal voice.

No. Leslie Nielsen used his own voice. Yes. And the moment that you pour on an exaggerated voice, you're saying, I am a caricature. Yes. I'm a big cartoon. Yeah. And then it's very difficult to kind of take what is happening to you seriously at all.

Yes. He is not underplaying it. He is overselling it. He's doing Liam Neeson growls. I told him it's like it's kind of vaguely transatlantic, but not. Well, yeah, it is that, you know, he goes down here somewhere and then occasionally there'll be something that'll be bring to mind that it's kind of, it is, it's uniquely in this. I was reminded of Sean Connery in, you know, in the untouchables. Remember, Sean Connery's.

Oh, wow. Anyway. Sean Connery in any further, I mean, Hunt for Red October, where he talks about coming from Vilnius. That's right. in his shop, Murray. At number three, in US number three, it's fantastic four first steps. So I thought it was, I liked it very much. I loved the design.

I want all the furniture. Freakier Friday is UK number two and US number two. Rockin'chimp says never been the biggest fan of the original, but this was as good as that. While to my surprise, it maintained the same kind of tone as before. Yeah, I really liked it. And nobody was more surprised than me. I went into, you know, naked gun thing, oh great a naked gun movie and thought it was

boring. And I went into Freaky a Friday thinking, really? And then I laughed. And then actually at the end of it, I got all teary. And when it got to all the messages about, you know, hey, we're all family together and everything. I was going, yes, we are all family together. I was thinking. Why am I crying at this?

And in some contrast, UK number one, US number one is weapons. Okay. Now, you've seen it. And, okay, I have. You go. I'll be led by you. Go ahead. Okay.

Well, we've had loads of weapons correspondence. Good, good. And, I mean, tune in next week for more. Okay. So this is from Josiah, who says, Dear Freakier Friday and Taco Tuesday, I saw weapons during an early access screening at the Alamo Draft House in Lower Manhattan. Like Mark, I was intrigued by the image of the ghostly assault rifle and actually muttered to myself in the theater. Wait, is this an allegory about school shootings? The answer, as it turns out, is yes, but only within a wider thematic context.

Weapons is ultimately about the decimation of the American dream by an out-of-touch gerontocracy that undermines the future of younger Americans to maintain its grip on power. In the past five years alone, we've seen Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Senator Diane Feinstein, Representative Jerry Connolly, and yes, President Joe Biden, refused to relinquish power to younger replacements, all with eventually disastrous results and to the direct benefit of Donald Trump and his crypto-fascist agenda. One major issue in which the older generation has consistently failed to meet the moment is gun violence.

American boomers and Gen X's are significantly more opposed to gun control than their younger counterparts. As a result, a largely elderly Congress routinely refuses to advance substantive legislation on the matter, even when shootings occur in schools, and claim the lives of children, including children the age of those who disappear in film. I believe that the ghostly gun, therefore, is just a subtle way of reinforcing the movie's central thesis that there is no single more destructive force to the future lives of young Americans than the present actions of old Americans. How's that for an uplifting message? Tickety-tong and down with the mass proliferation of guns, and that's from Josiah.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I give you our audience correspondence the finest available on a movie show. And I do think that those things are all in there. that was, thank you for that email. I mean, I keep thinking about that image. And I agree with what you said is it is about that, but as part of a wider discussion. So, yeah, thank you for that email. Very good. That's weapons.

I thought it was great. Yeah, so tell me, Sanj, because I, because tell me what you thought, because I, you know, it really affected me. I, no, I, I agreed completely with your review of it last week and Josiah's email as well. I think that there's, it's more layered than it first appears. Yes. And it kind of stayed with me in that sense. But also, I don't think there's anything creepier than creepy children.

You know, I mean, creepy old people, you go, yeah, some old people get a bit creepy. But children being creepy is just, I mean, that really freaks me out. I mean, there are bits about it. I mean, there are still, you know, there are open-ended questions about it. We don't know necessarily the how, well, a little bit of the how, but we don't know why. We don't know what the purpose of that is. I think it's at its best when you're not told how and you're not told why. I mean, I think the tonal shifts are like so widespread.

Okay, there are things in it that don't work. There are things in it that seem messy. But overall, like I said, no one's going to come away from this feeling underfed. And I think that it's at its best when you don't know how or why. And obviously, when it starts to explain things, it narrows its horizons. That's just necessary. And funnily enough, you and I will return. to this later on in the show when we're discussing something in take two, which is a mystery

that is then solved. But I think that there is so many ideas in weapons that I will forgive it any of the, any of things. And like you, I've had the same experience that I have thought about it a lot since I saw it. And what appears at first maybe to be, you know, an piece of entertainment really, really start. You think, oh yeah, and that, and that, and that and that. And how terrific that we had that email. So I'm really glad you liked it. That is weapons, and that's the number one film both here and in America.

But we will be back with some more films, Mark, such as. Nobody, too, with our very, very special guest, who is Bob Odenkirk, who you spoke to. And that will be here in just a second. Now, Mark, if you shopped online, chances are you. bought from a business powered by Shopify. You know that purple, shop pay button you see at checkout? The one that makes buying so incredibly easy, that's Shopify. And there's a reason so many businesses sell with it.

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Sign up for your £1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com.com. Go to shopify.com.com.uk slash take. Shopify.com.com.uk slash take. Want to know the real story of how Oasis made Britain mad for it? How Friends turned us on to coffee culture and super-layered hair. The secrets of Nirvana, train spotting, gay hookups, Diana's revenge dress, and what it was really like to be a spice girl? Flunged back into the decade when the world fell for cool Britannia,

Bumster jeans and Lemon Hooch with Talk 90s to Me. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. And if you use Spotify, you can watch the whole show too. That's Talk 90s to Me. every Monday. Does anyone really know what hormones do? There is so much talk about women's hormonal health, but most women are left even more confused about what it means for them and what to do about it. This confusion ends now. An award-winning German nutrition scientist created a powerful herbal formula called hormone harmony, which contains 12 powerful adaptogens into one

single capsule. Each of these ingredients is carefully selected based on scientific evidence and has been proven effective in clinical studies for women of various ages and hormonal profiles. Happy Mammoth, the company that produces hormone harmony, is famous for its zero-compromise policy. No GMOs, artificial fillers, or flavors, or any other junk, only science-backed ingredients in amounts that are clinically proven. The company surveyed 1,831 women to see how hormone harmony helped them, and the results are mind-blowing. 86% of women started losing weight, 77% said it improved their mood, and 100% said they're feeling like themselves again.

Hormone Harmony has over 50,000 raving reviews from women all over the world, and 98% of them saying they'd gladly recommend it to their friends and family. For limited time, you can get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com. Just use the code, Happy 15 at checkout. This week's guest is Bob Odenkirk. Most of our listeners will have been introduced to him via his role as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and its spinoff, Better Call Saul. Since then, he's become known through a huge variety of films. And Mark spoke with him about his latest action offering, the sequel Nobody 2. You'll hear their talk after this clip.

What's up, guys? More than you know. You were told to leave. So what are you still doing in town, old man? I'm here with my family. Making memories. He's making memories, huh? There's no need for this.

This is all a big misunderstanding. I'm here a big... Hey, cold! Come on! Come on! Use your words. That's a clip from Nobody 2. I'm delighted to say that I'm joined by Bob Odenkirk.

Bob, welcome to the show. Hi, Mark. Thanks for having me. So I was a huge fan of nobody and therefore went into Nobody 2 with a sense of both thrilled expectation and also dread. That's because you're British. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what we do.

The cynicism. The cynicism is on the surface. It's actually... The ball was not dropped, though, Bob. Oh, that's nice to hear. Meads a lot. With a big smile on my face. So tell me, so in the first film, we meet Hutch, he's trapped in a 9 to 5,

and then he's not so much haunted as freed by the resurgence of his violent past. Tell us where we meet Hutch at the beginning of Nobody 2. He's found a perfect balance, or so he seems to think, where after the explosion of Nobody 1, he has reincorporated missions and violence and acting out into his life, and he's got it side by side, with his family life. No problem. Everything's smooth sailing, except it isn't, and family life is filled with normal frustrations and anxieties and tensions that everybody has to deal with.

You know, life wears you down and being in a partnership, being married and having kids and schedules and all that stuff and work, it all wears you down. And he sees his kids getting a little bit older and they're about to step out the door, go to college and things like that. And he's going to have one last great trip, going to devote some time, absolutely devote time to his kids and his family. No distractions and no work. And then there's a series of, you could say, microaggressions, annoyances, the normal stuff that happens, especially when you go on vacation. You book the wrong hotel room. The water park is closed the day you show up.

You know, the trip wears you down. and he loses his... And from there, it all unravels. It's kind of lovely that in the first film, the thing that pushes him over the edge is the stealing of the kitty cat bracelet. And in the case of this, it's the slap on the head to his daughter.

He's a very protective father, isn't he? Sure, and any dad would react in some way to that kind of thing. But also, the fun for me was how small can we make the infraction? How, how, you know, I was very, I spoke very strongly about the slap on the bag of the head being something just as tiny as you can make it as thoughtless. The guy who did it, like the second the girl walked out the door,

he went, why did I do that? What an asshole. I shouldn't have done that. It's not really intended. It's just a thoughtless, awful choice that happens. and it's more than Hutch needs to blow his top. Obviously, the writer behind this is Derek Koldstad, who has great form within the action genre. But how much of Hutch have you created?

How much is it your character? Because I can't imagine anyone else playing that character, and I imagine that must be because you've brought a lot of view to him. Yeah, Mark, listen, thanks to Derek and his consider every option, he really is the most open writer. he always says best idea wins and he opens it up to me to throw in my notions everywhere all the time and it's just a great partnership that we have and so yes you're right so much of it comes from me and weirdly i would say a lot of it comes from my father who's somebody i didn't actually know very well but i knew him well enough to know that he could lose his uh he could lose his head very easily and fly into a rage.

And he gifted me with that awful ability. And somehow I think every guy, and even a lot of women, relate to feeling like, if only I could act out a little. It's the reason why you should do a boxing workout because we all have these things. You know, life grinds you down. It wears you out.

And it also has a lot of little tiny indignities that you can't do anything about. But in a movie you can, because it's not real at all. Your background is in comedy, and one of the things with comedy is to do with timing, and physical timing, particularly,

is really important. And with the action sequences in the nobody films, it's a different form of timing, but is there a connection between what you learned as a comedian and what you have to do in the action sequences in nobody? Absolutely. In fact, I remember in Nobody One, we were shooting the bus scene,

and in the middle of it, we're making adjustments to the choreography, as you have to do when you get on the actual location and of course inventing things as well and I thought wow this is this is the closest to a comedy writer's room that I've been in in years where a group of people are inventing together and making each other laugh

I'm telling you after any fight scene I don't know how it is on a Jason Statham film but out of Bob Odenkirk film the minute the minute they say cut everyone laughs They rush around to Video Village and watch the take and see if it worked, see if the magic happened, if the trick was played. But it has a lot of teamwork in it and it has a lot of inventiveness in it and problem solving and fun, just fun. Everyone who loved nobody will be glad to know that nobody too your dad has come along for the ride again. Can you tell me about Christopher Lloyd because he's such a unique screen presence.

Tell me about working with him. You know, I hope that someday I have the good nature that Chris Lloyd walks around the world with. I'm telling you, this guy, this guy is so smart. And any time I'd come up to him, he'd be reading the New York Times or a newspaper or a magazine. He's always reading. He's always laughing. He's, we shot, look, the scene at the end, the grand finale of this film was all night shoots for a week. And he was there.

He was there all night long. ready to shoot, ready to go, happy, big smile. He's a joy to be around. He loves being in film. He loves making stuff. And he's fully present. It's an amazing thing to see. And he's led an interesting life.

I hope he'll write a book. When we started this interview, I was paying you a compliment, but it was a very British compliment. And you said, there it is the British cynicism. Oh, listen, Mark, Mark, Mark. The reason I made the movie, and of course, everybody listening is going, yeah, for money.

And yes, they did pay me. But the reason I made it was because nobody won worked so well and made so many people happy. But I had to ask myself, what was it that connected? And I'm going to tell you the place where I thought, I've got to make this film happen. I was in Ireland. I was up north. I went on a hiking holiday alone. And I was going to hike Sleave League in the north.

And I was in a small town whose name I, sorry I can't remember, where I had a hotel room. And everyone in the restaurant wanted to take a picture with me. And I did. And they mostly talked about nobody. And I thought, I want to make this for the fans. But of course, the other thing you think, sequels so often let people down. And so then you have to ask yourself,

well, what were the qualities from the first film that we can build on and reconnect with? And it was a real puzzle. So that you said you liked it means a lot to me. I hope that the fans from the first film especially those people like this film and see what we did and feel that we respected all the things that they appreciated about it. We did, you know, take it in a few new directions. I think it's a little funnier. I think we had a little more of a comic bent to it. The duckboat fight in the middle

to me is my homage to Jackie Chan. I love police story. It's one of the reasons I asked if I could do an action film. It was one of the few films that I could watch with my kids at a time in our family's life where we were having a hard time connecting as a family and sometimes entertainment can be the thing that connects you. And police story, which I don't even know why I put it on, because why would I think they would like that? Because it's a great film. Well, it's a great film, but it's got subtitles and all that and the kids were little. They were like eight and ten. And they loved it. They loved it. And so the duckboat fight is the closest to a Jackie Chan fight that I've gotten to do. And so it's a little bit of a lighter tone than the first film. And I hope that the

people who watch the first film don't go, oh, he's just softening up the character or whatever. I really, really had a great desire to just try to do something in the order of Jackie's early stuff because I love it so much. Well, I entirely meant it when I said that you didn't drop the ball and I did go in with trepidation for exactly that reason. The night before I saw nobody too, my entire family sat down and watched nobody, won again. And the smile that it brought to our collective faces was the thing that I was hoping, don't let this,

as I said, don't let this drop the ball. And I think it didn't, because I think you are very much in that same sensibility. Yes, as you say, slightly more comedic, although I was raised on Buster Keaton and very physical comedy anyway. So that's absolutely my wheelhouse. Let me ask you a couple of other things, because I know our time is tight. I was recently doing an interview about something else with Ben Wheatley,

and Ben was very excited. And I said, why are you so excited? He says, because I'm about to work with Bob Odenkirk. And that's another project, which I believe is written by Derek Kolstad. That's normal. Can you tell me anything about that? Well, it's an action comedy. It's a quieter piece, but blows up at the end.

And it's a little more like, do you know the Coen Brothers movie, Fargo? You know it. And it's sort of got some of that DNA, hopefully, in it, because that's a great film. And yeah, it's got a suspense element. Derek is a great writer. He's a fount of ideas and concepts for films. And the Err-Colstad film is John Wick,

which is like just the most crystallized plotting you could ever do for an action film. And what I loved about Normal, which is going to premiere at TIF, is that it was, well, like I say, it has the suspense comedy element and has sort of a deeper, or more commitment to story than Derek usually wants to bother with.

And so that's what attracted me to it. Hopefully we pulled it off. There's no better director than Ben Wheatley for it. I can tell you that. I love his stuff. So just as we're drawing this to a close, I just want to tell you that I watched all of Breaking Bad and loved it and all of Better Call Saul and loved it more.

And I've watched all of Better Call Saul twice. And I want to say on behalf of the family, thank you very much. That gave us many, many hours of great viewing. pleasure. And I wish you all the success with this. And the best compliment I can give you is at the end of Nobody 2. I thought, well, I could do with Nobody 3, frankly. Oh, wow. That's so nice to hear. Thank you, Mark. Thank you so much. It's good to meet you. I do read your stuff in the Guardian, right? Well, that's kind of you. Thank you very much, Bob. Yeah. Yeah. Well, lovely to speak to you.

And that was Mark talking to Bob Odenkirk about Nobody 2. Getting on with Bob almost as well as you got on with Celine's song. I should say that the very It's become a competition, though. Yeah, become a competition, Sange. I should say at the beginning of that interview, the first thing he said was, he said, I know you from your YouTube videos, which are the videos of this show. I was very delighted about that. And then, because when he said, Guardian, that's because the observer used to be on the Guardian website.

Incidentally, I haven't written for the Observer for a year or so, but I will take a compliment wherever it's thrown. He could have been like royalty when they're sort of briefed. Yes. If I'd been interviewing him, he might have just said, hey, you know, I really loved you in the goodness, that gracious us show. Listen, Sanj, I will take a compliment wherever it is given, okay? Somebody once said, you know, your problem is you don't fish for compliments, you troll for them.

And that is absolutely, I say somebody, my wife said that. Anyway, so nobody to, if you're watching this review on the YouTube channel, as Bob Odenkirk himself probably will be, do listen to the interview. So I don't want to just repeat everything he said. But basic setup is it picks up sometime after the first film. And the first one, the gag was that Hutch is stuck in this drab nine to five routine. And he's completely trapped in it. The gag here is that he's stuck in a nine to whenever routine.

But the routine now is that he's back to being a secret agent. But that kind of keeps him from, you know, he's in the middle of some terrible fight. And he has to send a text to his wife saying, I'm sorry, honey, I'm not going to be home for dinner because I'm too busy involved in fighting people. So he needs a vacation, decides to take the family, Connie Nielsen's Becker, his kids, to this place where he had a great time as a kid, which I think has echoes of going to Wally World from National Lampoon's vacation. Christopher Lloyd is back as David, his dad, who once took the young hutch to this very place, this same resort. The Rizzer is also back, more of whom in take two.

and we talk about Ghost Dog, as is Michael Ironside. They get to the resort town. They immediately hack off the locals. They get into a confrontation with the local sheriff, played by Colin Hanks. And something happens in an amusement arcade. Hutch would have walked away, but as they leave, somebody smacks the back of his daughter's head. And the next thing they know, they're in the middle of another crime syndicate squabble, this time led by Sharon Stone's ultra-feindish bootlegger Lendina.

And so inevitable confrontation, the whole thing is around an amusement park. So immediately we're thinking of, you know, there's loads and loads of horror films which are set in amusement parks, whether it's, you know, Toby Hooper's Fun House or whatever. The idea of the family going on vacation, well, that is very, very familiar to sequels. You know, what are we going to do now? I know let's send them abroad. There's a very smart tagline for nobody to, which is nobody ruins his vacation, which is a very good pun.

Nobody ruins his, as in he is nobody and he ruins his own. vacation. The first film had a real simplicity to it. He's this guy stuck in this nine to five, but he's got this killer past and it comes out. So, you know, hints of long kiss, good night. By necessity, the sequel doesn't have that simplicity. What it does is it tries to flip that scenario is that the drudgery is now he's out doing all the actiony stuff and it's making him late, so he needs to get away from that. And I, as I said in the interview, I did go in thinking, please don't mess this up because I enjoyed nobody one so much and we did watch it the night before and thought this really, really good. So I think the honest thing is that it, as we were saying with

Celine Song and past lives, it doesn't have the simplicity, it doesn't have the clarity, it doesn't have the immediacy of the original setup. However, I really enjoyed it. And here's like 10 reasons why I think it works. Firstly, Bob Odenkirk. So he said that thing about, you know, He once said that the inspiration for Hutch was, if you took Saul from Better Call Saul, he was somebody who always survived. And Bob Oakencock said, well, what if he always survived because he was a really good street fighter? And I like that idea that there's kind of Hutch's sort of soul slipping Jimmy.

Second thing is that Timo Chijanta, who directed this, is a very accomplished action director, horror director, knows how to choreograph an explosive, elegant fight. I mean, much as the director of the first one did as well, the choreography. is really good, and it was interesting that, you know, Bob Odenkirk was singing the praises there of Jackie Chan. That's very much an inspiration. Thirdly, there is an entertaining kind of straw dogs, it's a home alone DIY thing about what happens in the finale. I mean, I always enjoy that sort of stuff. I always enjoy the, I know, let's make a whole bunch of booby-trap stuff and then watch it go off. That's great. The carnage is very slapstick. You know, Sam Ramey once said

the evil dead was basically the three stooges with blood and gut standing in for custard pies and it was lovely when Bob Oakenkirk said the thing about, you know, sometimes we want to act out, you know, that's why we do it in a movie because you know what, in a movie? It's not real at all, and it is not real at all. The BBFC rating is 15 for strong violence,

injury, detail and language, but it should be bracket, but it's not real at all. It isn't. The pop music cues are really sharp. There is sharply comedic as they were in the first film. I remember watching the Matthew Voge. thing, Argyle, which I like, nobody else did, and liking the fact that they had used the pop music in the action sequences in the way they did.

Connie Nielsen, who is great in almost everything, is great because Connie Nielsen is. The returning characters don't feel like a chore. You genuinely think, oh, good, Christopher Lloyd's coming. Oh, that's really, really glad that's happening. And the whole thing does exactly what it says on the tin, and it's 89 minutes and 15 seconds long. Now, I'm sorry, but that should not be understated. It does exactly what it says on the tin, and it does it in a compact, get in, do the stuff, and get out. And I was so genuinely anxious about it's not going to work a second time.

And I meant it when I said that I came out at the end of the second one and thought, well, I could do that again, actually, because I really, really like the character. I mean, I know where you could go from here. They flipped the scenario when it's head from the first one. I don't know where you would go from here. But I enjoyed myself hugely. And just the moment that the daughter gets slapped on the back of the head and you see Bob, you think, okay, here we go. Strap in. And then it's, you know, and then it is what it is.

And that is nobody too. It's the ads in a minute, Mark. Excellent. And I clear my throat because first it's time, once again. to step into our laughter lift. Thank you. Hey, Marr. Hey, Sange.

I took last week's laughter lift to crash landing to heart, and I've decided on a career change, inspired by Curry House Corner. Full-time screenwriting. The writer's strike affected us all, creating not only a gap in the market, but an abundance of mint,

yogurt and cucumber on the shelves. So here are my ideas. Okay. An epic story of a lone frontiersman discovering the simple place, of sharing prawn dishes with the Lakota tribe, Danzac with Wolves. Sam, please tell me you wrote these jokes.

I didn't write them. Okay. There may be a couple that might throw in. Okay. A moving tale of a divorcing couple attempting to win their son's love with a classic chicken dish. Can you get it?

No. Cormer versus Cormer. Hey! Adam Sandler's, a curry house owner with a temper and a soft side. Jalfreasy, stupid love. A Claude Barras inspired. stop-motion remake of Mike Lee's film

following a cauliflower and potato's journey through the terrible events in Manchester in 1819. What? Pete Alou, goby. Lassie. Writes itself, really. But the best ideas come in moments you don't expect. Imagine a romp of a musical about two gamblers

upping the ante to see who'll try every lentil dish out there and make out rich guys and dolls. Hey! And the final two, what about a remake of a 1930s classic about a fast-talking newspaper man and his daily curry order? Here's Jalphrasi.

And finally, Mark, I tried to organise a Vindaloo and Film Night for my friends. I thought Spice World would be an apt choice, but we ended up with blazing saddles. Let's cancel the film. Okay, the last two were mine. Yes, I've got rather obviously.

A great bit of Curry House Quarter coming at the end of the show as well. That was a very high hit rate, for a laughter lift. Well, well done, Sange. Well, I mean, only two of those were mine and not necessarily the good ones. Yeah. Were you, were you, whilst you were eating those curries, were you listening to Madonna's greatest hit, Popper Don Preach? Very good. Thank you. That was, in fact, when I first started in this business of show with my friend Knitin Sawney, the composer, yes. We were called the secret Asians. You were. And our show was called Popadon Preach.

Oh, so I'm sorry, I literally just told you a game that you literally thought of in a previous century. I'd borrowed it myself anyway at that time. So what have we got left to look at? Coming up next, Together. And we're back after this. And we're back. Mark, tell us what else is out. So Together.

Together is a satirical horror romance from writer-director Michael Shanks making his feature directorial debut. Central couple are played by Dave. Franco and Alison Brie, who are married in real life. Here, they are long-time boyfriend and girlfriend, Tim and Millie. They're currently living in the city, but they're on the eve of a move to the countryside where she's got a teaching job. He is a 30-something failed musician whose dreams of stardom have never come true. And he feels like the move to the country is kind of the final abandonment of those dreams. At their going away party, which all their friends are gathered, she gets down on one knee and proposes to him. And he just is completely flummox,

which is completely the wrong response. And it's absolutely excruciating. Cut to them, moving to the new countryside home, which is this place in lush woodlands. And as one of Millie's new workmates tells a great trails, great trails. So they go on one such trail. They get completely lost, starts raining. They fall down a hole where they have to spend a rainy, together in this really sort of rancid pit. And when they get out, they find that after a period of being remote and distanced, you know, to the point that when she proposed he didn't know what to say, they are increasingly stuck together, literally, as the Spice Girl song that Millie loves so much, you know, two become one, with scrungy consequences, including buzz sores.

Here's a clip. Imagine what you're about to do actually happening and tell me that's not going to make things It's way worse. Whiskey for the pain. And as soon as we're separated, I'll sprint for the first aid kit. We have bandages, disinfectant, everything we need. Oh, you're right-handed. Oh, God.

Actually, maybe that's enough for that. Why? I think I can feel your whiskey. You're right-handed and drunk. Remember when you said you weren't holding me hostage? Do you think I want to do this? No. So don't.

We are out of time. We need to do this while the drug is in the system. We have to. We have to. If we don't split now, it'll be much. harder later. There's got to be another way. Yeah, there isn't another way, and the noise that you heard at the end was scrungy, fleshy stuff happening.

So, the film, it's got, look, it's got many anti-scenes. Incidentally, before anyone says this, Mark Kermode always talks about other films when he's talking about film, yeah, that's how it works. It's called contextualization, just to head that off at the past. So many anti-scenes, obviously the body horror of David Kronenberg, the fleshy shuntings of Brian Newsness Society, and clearly, more recently, the substance. It's also worth saying that, as I was just doing the

research, there's been an alleged plagiarism case by the people behind a 2023 indie comedy better half, in which a couple have a one-night stand and then find themselves fused together. You can look into that if you want to. However, there have been sort of very strong statements from the makes this from saying, you know, the cases without any merit. Anyway, I just flag it up. The most important thing is that like all great horror films and like all great horror comedies and horror satin, obviously horror and comedy are very closely related because the thing about the difference between laughing and screaming is, it's very, very thing.

In all of those things, scrunginess is basically metaphor made flesh. So the theme of the film, really, is it's about codependence. It's about commitment. It's about what does it mean to be together in inverted commas? What does it mean to find your other half, you know, like literally your other half? So while the effects of the film, you would have heard it to some extent from that clip in which, you know, you can hear that their bodies were bonding in strange ways. The certificate from the BBFC is 15 for strong horror violence, bloody images. is sex, nudity, and language. Okay, there are outlandish elements, but the story is very down to

worth and recognizable. I mean, anyone who has ever told their partner, you know, in the words of, in the words of perhaps the greatest song ever written, God only knows what I'd be without you. You'll know what this is about. It's had a without idea, but I, you know, I cannot exist without this other person. It's also, it's really entertaining. It's got a very good buildup, very convincing performances from the two leads. I mean, I know it's very reductive to say this, probably doesn't hurt that they are actually a couple because you believe in them as a couple on screen and you believe in them as a couple who've been together for a long time and who are having problems. And there's a great balance between laugh out loud moments

and absolutely hide your eyes behind your hands because, oh, you know, you're having that reaction. Apparently it's filmed in Australia. 21, it's obviously not set there. 21-day shoot moderate budget, which proves conclusively that if you have a good idea, if you have a good central theme, if a film is about something, you don't need huge amounts of time and huge amounts of money. And I thought the result was, it was a scream in every sense. And I was thinking as I was coming out of it, how great that at the moment in UK cinemas you've got bring her back, you've got weapons and you've got this all playing at the same time. They're

all really entertaining horror films, but films that are about something. Now, bring her back is really kind of quite straight-faced and weapons has a, as you and I were talking about for it, it has a kind of an element of slapstick comedy in it. And this is, surprisingly funny bit. Yeah, surprisingly. They're genuinely funny stuff in it, particularly after the arrival of a character around the midway point. And this is absolutely, it's a romant, it's a rom-com. It is a rom-com about what it means to be genuinely stuck on you, to be genuinely stuck with somebody, to say that thing,

you know, you are my other half, you complete me, and I mean that in the very real physical sense. And so the only thing I would say is don't call any of these films elevated horror. I hate that term. I hate that term because it kind of imagines that, oh, there's horror, and then there's elevated horror, which is about stuff. Yeah, all horror is about stuff.

That's how it works. That's how the genre works. And I thought this did a really good job of taking a heartfelt theme about, you know, two people joined at the hip, as it were, and going, but what if they were actually joined at the hip? And I thought it worked really well. And that's together. And this is an email, dear, press the eject and give me the tape regarding celebrity encounters in curry houses. Back in the 90s, a few of us from the office were enjoying a meal in the Sheen Tanduri. I had my back to the door when suddenly the conversation at our table went quiet.

Upon turning around, I realized why. Who had popped in to pick up a takeaway, none other than the snake-hipped shuffler that is Mick Jagger. No, no. As he left with a brown bag full of Indian tastiness, someone from our table called out, all right Mick his response given the circumstances was everything we could have hoped for and exaggerated a very vigorous flapping of his spare arm in our direction and then a loud utterance of yeah all the usual stuff people say when signing off john gledhill from twickenham um i've got a celebrity encounter that i'll i'll tell you in take too

There will be final bits of Curry House Corner also in Take 2. Fantastic. Dear Breton Parker, hi from the sci-fi hi-fi guy once more. I really enjoyed your special on Alien Earth and plowed through the first six episodes in one sitting. It's a superb series and I'll never stop writing if I start digging into everything I love about it. So I'll just leave it at that. But while I laughed at Mark wondering if Boy Cavalier's look was inspired by Jonathan Richmond of the modern lovers, fair call, It seemed clear to me that the character's aesthetic is derived from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, specifically the 1981 TV series.

With his mop of hair, odd physical mannerisms and pyjamas, he looks like David Dixon's Ford Prefect wearing Arthur Dent's clothes. To be fair, the pump may have been primed for me by hearing Noah Hawley gush about Adrian Edmondson in the young ones. Judging by my musical taste, seeing the show around the same age certainly had an effect on me. up with Video Nasty's down with Footlights College and keep on space trucking Travis Johnson. Very good. Well, I'm going to stick with the Jonathan Richmond thing because I am just, I'm basically on a mission to bring Jonathan Richmond up as often as I bring up the Exorcist. So I'm going to do that. But yeah, you're right. The Hitchhiker's Guy. I mean, I love the TV show of The Hitchhiker's Guide. I thought the film of Hitchhiker's Guide was pants, but I loved the TV show. And I thought it was just absolutely wonderful. I mean, I'm hugely inspired by hitchhikers because the 42 in the commands at number 42 was a direct reference. Sanj, it never even occurred to me.

Yeah, yeah, that's why it's there. Wow, that's very good, very good, very good. Well, and it's a timely reminder also to that our alien special with Creator No Hawley is available on the main food. Feed, food. The main food. You've got curry on the very house. Exactly. And that is the end of take one.

This has been a Sony music entertainment production. This week's team was Jen, Eric, Josh and Heather. The producer was Gem, the redacto was Simon Paul. And if you're not following the pod already, please do so wherever you get your podcast. Mark, what's your film of the week? Well, in a very strong week that included materialists, which I like very much, nobody too, which I like very much, my film of the week is together. If I had a film of the week, it would be from my new best friend, Celine Song, to be materialists. But you haven't seen together and you haven't seen nobody too.

So that doesn't count, Sanj. Yeah, of course it does. Okay. One more thing, if you're hearing this on Thursday, write in as soon as possible about any of today's films. If you're lucky enough to have seen them. We're recording next week's show this Friday. So write in with your piping hot takes and they'll hopefully have cooled down enough by the time we get to Friday morning that they'll taste just right or something. You get the idea.

I do. Write in. Bye. Thank you.