Kermode & Mayo’s Take - When Simon Met Billy (Crystal)...

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

This week, Simon is joined by the one and only Billy Crystal to talk all about his starring role in the Apple TV+ psychological thriller series ‘Before’, which sees a child psychiatrist who, having tragically lost his wife to suicide, encounters a troubled young boy who seems to have a haunting connection to his past. Their conversation is intelligent, insightful and so long that we had to put some of it in Take 2. Truly, one for the K&M ages! Meanwhile, Mark reviews ‘Small Things Like These’, a period drama that sees Cillian Murphy play a devoted father who uncovers disturbing secrets at the local convent, which leads him to discover shocking truths about his own past; ‘Heretic’, a Hugh Grant-starring horror about two mormon missionaries who attempt to convert a seemingly normal man, only to find themselves fighting for their lives in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse; and ‘Anora’, the Palme D’Or-winning latest from Sean Baker, which sees a young sex worker impulsively marry the son of an oligarch, only to have her fairytale threatened when the news reaches his family. Another stellar week at the Take. We’ll have what Simon’s having! Plus, get your tickets to our Live Christmas Spectacular here: https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo Timecodes (relevant only for the Vanguard - who are also ad-free!): Small Things Like These Review: 08:53 Billy Crystal Interview: 26:26 Heretic Review: 42:23 Anora Review: 53:24 You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts To advertise on this show contact: [e-mail] And to find out more about Sony’s new show Origins with Cush Jumbo, click here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey Mark, I found that I've been thinking recently about merch. Merch? Yes, merchandise, especially all those goodies we have for sale online, you know, branded mugs, t-shirts, water bottles, you name it. The torch, the director's chair, the full works. I wish someone had told me about Shopify, the all-in-one commerce platform to start, run and grow your own business. I know all about that. So Shopify is the commerce platform revolutionising millions of businesses

worldwide, whether you're selling herrings or Harrington jackets with the take logo on the back. Shopify simplifies selling online and in person so you can successfully grow your business. Shopify even gets you selling across social media marketplaces like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok with industry leading tools. Get Shopify today. Sign up for a £1 per month trial period. Can't we fix this? Shopify.co.uk slash. Curmode. All lowercase. I mean, what is wrong with Kermode and Mayo? Why can't it be Mayo just for once? Easier to spell Curmode. They've gone for Shopify.co.uk slash, let's say it together, Kermode. Imagine if you could go through life having muted people you just didn't need to hear

from for the next hour or so. That would be an interesting thing. We've just muted the redactor. Either he's redacted himself or he's been muted. I think that would be a great thing. Imagine if you're sitting in a meeting and you think, no, I've heard enough of you and I'm just going to mute you. I'm just going to click a button. Anyway, he was coming down. Our headphones were a bit hot, wasn't he? He was a bit powerful. Raging.

A bit raging, yes. Raging hot. Now you sound a little bit different from the acoustic of your normal burrow. You mentioned last week that you've been out gigging. Yeah, I'm not in my cupboard. I'm in a boardroom in a hotel in Liverpool because yesterday it was the premiere up here of Midas Man, the film about Brian Epstein, depending on which period of the group. Anyway, and as I said, there is this really weird thing that they needed a skiffle band to play in the cavern when Brian walks in and then sees the Beatles. And so Joe Stevenson, who's the director, who's the guy who made Chicken and made

films I really like, had got in touch and said, you've got a skiffle band, can we borrow them? So we said yes. And then that all happened. And then anyway, finally the film got finished and I really like, had got in touch and said, you've got a Skiffle band, can we borrow them? So we said yes. And then that all happened. And then anyway, finally the film got finished and they had the premiere in Liverpool yesterday, which was lovely. It was really good. And so we did a lunchtime set in the cabin and then we did the arts club afterwards.

Because I couldn't get back from Liverpool to Cornwall in time. They put me in a boardroom, but it's a slightly echo-y boardroom. I'm talking quietly in order to keep the echo down, but it's not really working. Will Barron Once HS2 is sorted, I'm sure you can get from Liverpool to Cornwall in half an hour. I think that's the plan. Paul Fearnley I can. I can. From London to Liverpool in like two hours and 15 minutes. It's unbelievably fast. I mean, to get from London to Penzance takes five hours.

Will Barron Did you say that Epstein changes depending on which part of his career you're looking at? I think the story is that he adopted a pronunciation that defined his case, as far as I understand. As you know, there are as many stories as there are truths. It was really good fun. It's on Amazon Prime from today and we'll talk about it in the second half of the show. But as I said, full disclosure, because I'm in it for 1.7 seconds and I mean literally less than two seconds.

Wow. Well, anyway, your IMDB page is bigger. I remember when Scala started, now Magic Classical, being told very clearly it's Leonard Bernstein, Carl Bernstein. And Elmer Bernstein. So E for Elmer Bernstein. Some people are Horowitz, some people are Horowitz. It's just what the person would rather you say, basically. So here we are with another tip top show with Mark in his boardroom on his own. I hope sandwiches are brought

in very shortly and I'm in my normal spare room. What are you reviewing later on in this year pod? Mason- We've got a really exciting show. We have reviews of Anora, which is a new film by Sean Baker. I think I'm right in saying that you interviewed Sean Baker for Red Rocket, is that right? Mason- Sounds familiar. Mason- Yeah, I think you did. That was his last film. Also Heretic, which is a new psychological horror film starring Hugh Grant, and Small Things Like These, which is the new film with

Killian Murphy. So it's a good week. Mason- The special guest today is Billy Crystal. I say special guest, he's the guest. All guests are special. Billy Crystal, he's in a thriller, horror, psychological thing, series. I've seen all 10 episodes. When was the last time you saw Billy Crystal in anything? Yeah, I mean, presenting Leoscus. A long time ago. I haven't seen him in anything for a long time. I imagine he's been doing stuff, but I haven't seen him in anything for a long time. I imagine he's been doing stuff, but I haven't seen him in anything for a while. Mason- Anyway, Billy Crystal is going to be talking about before this

new TV series. Plus also, I shall remind him of the fact that the last time he was on a version of this show, which must have been mid-90s, so like two decades ago, three decades ago, there was a running joke on the show about we were only booking guests who had kissed Meg Ryan. He was quite enthusiastic in talking about that subject. Anyway, Billy Crystal later, and in our premium bonus section for The Vanguard, what happens there as far as you're concerned? Mason- There's a very good documentary called Superman, Christopher Reeve's Story, and we'll be talking about Minus Man. I'll tell you everything about what happened at the premiere last night.

Mason- Also, a recommendation feature. We can watch list, we can not list TV movie of the week, where to find the best and worst movies over the next three days. Plus, your question's answered as best we can in questions, Shmestians. Plus, also the trouble with the question of Shmestchens is, I answered a question last week. The answer is printed in the Times Diary today, which I should have thought about before I answered the question. But anyway, all that and Apple podcast, head to extra takes.com for non-fruit related devices. There is a seven day free trial, which is incredible. And if you are already a Vanguardista, as always, we salute you. Okay, that's very good. That's almost together. We're just going to begin our time together

because of correspondence and reference to this book, which Mark, you can probably see. The Meaning of Lift, which is the book that we've been talking about, which includes words like shoubariness, which means the slightly uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a bus seat still warm from a previous passenger. So, the meaning of LIF, this book will change your life, it has as a little star thing, and there is the, just saying,

it's the signature of Douglas Adams. Oh, look at that. So, an email from Alastair Myers, BSC, BM, MSC, FRCS, ED, brackets, Gensurg, LTL, STC, that's a lot. Further to the description, shoubriness, the commonly considered unpleasant awareness of another's recently vacating a seat. May I propose the opposite, much more pleasant sensation of moving a leg into a cool part of the bed when you've been slightly too warm under the duvet. As it is an opposite,

somewhere opposite Essex should be chosen for its name, maybe somewhere in Pembrokeshire. Perhaps Freshwater, which also invokes the sensation of a nice new place to be. I think that works, Alastair. Also, not sure if you've seen it, but the new Count of Monte Cristo is just superb. A masterclass in swashbuckling, ripping yarns. I took child three, 17, male, mainly interested in football, with his friend to see it at the corn exchange in Wallingford, and they absolutely loved it. But before we stray too far from the meaning of Lyft, Anna says,

Dear Crawley and Weim, I am writing regarding your recent discussions of Douglas Adams' great book, The Meaning of Lyth, which he did with John Lloyd. Because one word from it is firmly in my family's lexicon. That is, gooseneag, meaning something left over from preparing or eating a meal, which you store in the fridge, despite the fact you know full well you will never use it. Fridges up and down the country operate at various goose-nog levels. When one in my parents' home gets too high, my dad announces that he's going to de-goose-nag the fridge, throwing out the contents of all the little pots and tupperware that have accumulated over recent times. That was the genius of

the book, is that everyone goes, yes, that's right, I have half a portion of pasta in the fridge at the moment, which I know someone's going to chuck out in two days. But at the time it feels reckless to chuck it out out so you keep it just in case. Anyway, what a great book. Just to keep everything in the in-joke section, you mentioned Count of Monte Cristo. Count of Monte Cristo, famous book, which is referred to in Shawshank Redemption, when he puts in motion the mobile library in order to increase the wellbeing of everyone. And the guy gets the book off the shelf and he looks

at it and he goes, the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Very good. Correspondence at Kermit and Mary.com. Thank you, Anna, and thank you, Alistair, for the emails and more of those to come. If you want to join in any of these conversations or you've seen a movie or got anything to tell us, drop us an email and we'll go and see a brand new film which Mark is now going to wax lyrical about, or hate, who knows. No, this is Small Things Like These, which is a very low-key Irish drama from Tim Mylons. Now you may remember Tim Mylons because I reviewed his film Patrick. He's a Belgian filmmaker and he made an existential deadpan nudist comedy drama.

Oh, okay. It's not leaping to your mind, is it? No, not really. Okay, well we did review it and I did say I bet you don't see any other existential deadpan nudist comedy dramas this year. That was a prediction which came true. Completely true. He also worked on third series of Peaky Blinders, which is relevant because small things like the stars, Killian Murphy, who's also a producer alongside Matt Damon,

who he co-starred with in Oppenheimer, and Ben Affleck gets an exec producer credit. So it's adapted by Andrew Walsh, who wrote Disco Pigs and so from connection from way back, from a text by Claire Keegan who of course is the author who effectively gave us The Quiet Girl. So this is quite the pedigree. So Ireland, 1980s, Killian Murphy is a coal merchant, Bill, and he very stoically goes about his job. He provides for his family. We see the ritual of his life. He comes home at the end of the day, he comes into the corridor, he hangs up his coat, he goes into the bathroom, and he very methodically washes his hands before he goes to join his wife and daughters at the table. He has demons in his past, which we see in flashback, about his mother who was in a terrible position when pregnant with him and was taken in by

kindly soul. Anyway, one day near Christmas, he's delivering to a convent and he stumbles across an abused woman who seems to have been locked in the coal shed. The mother superior, who is played by Emily Watson, assures him that the whole thing is a misunderstanding, he should leave it be. And she then very sinisterly asks after his daughters, whose school the church runs. And Bill tries to turn his back on what he's seen and to kind of put it out of his mind. But being a warrior, he is completely unable to do so. So then what happens is, as I said, there is this very low-key drama, and the very title of the thing suggests just how low-key it is, in which he has to face up to this reality that he's stumbled upon. And he has to decide whether or not he's going to act on his, on his

instincts or whether he's going to be able to just put it to bed. It's no great surprise which way that goes. So unlike films like Peter Mullen's Magdalene Sisters in 2002, and to some extent Philomena in 2014, this is,omena in 2014. It's about a subject that we've heard about in the news and through movies. But there aren't any great, terrible revelations or grand quests. Instead, the whole thing is about this character who's on the brink of some kind of life crisis facing up to a simple question, which is whether to look or walk away or whether to do something. As with Patrick, which I really liked, the director's got a real eye for the incidental. Also, as with Patrick, the central figure is

somebody a few words for whom expressions speak volumes. We've talked about this before, there is something about Killian Murphy's face. There are few people that can do an intense range of emotions through so little. He's got the most piercing eyes, yes mean, I don't even know how to describe what facial acting is, but there is something about the expression on his face throughout this drama that makes him look like he is a man who is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. And the fact that he says so little is, you know, this like sadness and regret and it eventually turns to something else. I mean, as always, the devil is in the detail. The scene between him and Emily Watson, who's also in Minus Manus certainly, is a real

masterclass. I suspect it may be too low key for some people. I don't think it's going quite a quiet girl, but it is a film that goes, it whispers its story to you. I found it very, very moving and I found it very engaging. I found a lot of it just watching Killian Murphy's face and thinking, I'm almost forgetting this is Killian Murphy. I just believe he is this character who is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He's doing it through so little. I mean, it's minimalist performance made flesh. I think you'd like it. I think it might prove too low-key for some audiences. We talked about face acting last week when Tom Hardy came up in the conversation in, was it the Dunkirk scene where he's actually wearing a flying mask?

So we can actually only see half of his face. So it's just eyes and eyebrows and I suppose a little bit of his nose. And still he manages to act extraordinarily. But Cillian Murphy, even in Oppenheim, maybe this was the film he did after Oppenheimer. That was huge and vast and explosive, clearly, and this wasn't. Although the interesting thing with Oppenheimer, the poster for Oppenheimer is just a picture of his face. His face in Oppenheimer is completely different to his face in small things like these. I don't mean like, oh, he's wearing different makeup or he's got different hair. I mean, it's almost as if the

whole set of his face changes from role to role. I think he's one of the most brilliant actors of his generation. Also, the other great thing about him, when was the last time you read a story about him in the newspaper? Just never. Just never. He just keeps himself to himself and gets on with the work. I think he's great. He's got his life sorted out.

He certainly has. Box Office top 10, before we get there, Emilio Perez is not in our chart at all. However, Thomas Andrew Clifford on our YouTube channel says, Mexican directors are begging to tell stories about their country that aren't about narcos, and yet every American, British, French, Canadian director is so committed to only telling stories about Mexico that border on the cartoonishly stereotypical. I have lived as a British man in Mexico for the better part of a decade, and this country deserves so much better than the non-stop cartel-based stories from people who have clearly never set foot in the country. Do I have to start calling it mexploitation films at this point?

Which is very good. I haven't seen that. Very good. But Emilio Perez not being in the char, what's that about? Well, I presume it's because it's Netflix and we've talked about this before. Netflix have a thing about not issuing box office figures. So I think it comes to Netflix on the 18th of November. And so I suspect therefore that it's not in the charts because it hasn't taken money. It's not in the charts because we haven't been told the box office figures,

which seems daft to me, but there you go. Number 15 here, number 41 in America, The Front Room. Yeah, The Brothers Eggers, but not that one. I thought it was pretty decent. I mean, it's got a great central performance by Catherine Hunter, who just dominates the screen. I did say at the time that I think, when we reviewed it last week, that I think it's one of the films that people will bump into late night and go, oh, this is really interesting, but I didn't think it ever had the power to be

a particular hit on its opening. It's a decent, intelligent chiller. Number 10 here, 12 in the States, Joker, Folly Hadda, still hanging on? Yeah, I'm still a big fan of it. Actually, as I said, both you and I think it's better than the first one. And I've now met a few people who agree with us, but it's amazing how divisive it's proved to be. The substance is at number nine, number 11 in America. I mean, arguably the most exciting film of the year. I mean, just full-on, proper filmmaking. I think that Coralie Fajard did a brilliant job. I think it's one of Demi Moore's most remarkable performances. I think Margaret

Qualley is great. And I have spoken to so many people who have come out of it and just gone, wow, Simon, it will be available for you to watch at home in the not too distant future. I trust that you will do so. Mason- The room next door is at number eight in the UK. It hasn't charted in America. It's a new entry. So a couple of emails on this. Someone who appears to be called OxxonTierner69. Can I just call you Oxxon? Alright, Oxxon, thanks very much. The translation is bad, full of direct translations like, I don't want to abandon the party, which is a euphemism in Spanish for I don't want to die, and I don't want to complicate your life, again, Spanish for what I don't want

to get you into trouble. In general, the dialogue is wordy and stilted and almost never colloquial. The way of coming up with English language scripts without hiring a writer or giving a credit is all the rage in Spain. Anna Watson in Clapham, given the subject matter, I went prepared with tissues in my pockets expecting to be a weeping mess most of the way through. I think with any other director, those actors could have produced tear-jerking performances. I realise now this is typical with Alma Dover that even deeply emotional lines are delivered in a rather soap-operatic style. The slightly slow editing adds to the effect with odd pauses. It's an interesting film worth seeing, but not at all the weep-fest you might imagine. In fact, there were quite

a lot of laughs, often stemming from the abruptness of the delivery or the incongruity of the blank tone and dark subject matter. Perhaps that will encourage more people to go when it's on general release. That's The Room Next Door number eight. Yeah, I mean, as I said, when we reviewed it last week, I think I expected to be more emotionally involved. But of course, it being a number of our film, it has that kind of theatrical archness to it. I mean, I think more so than in his best work. And I don't think this is his best work by any means. I love those actors, I think they're both absolutely brilliant. But they did feel something, it felt stagey, it felt performative. As far as the laughs are concerned, I don't think that's a negative at

all because I think it's, you know, although it is a film, it's about confronting death, it is a very lively confrontation with it. But I stand by what I said last week, which was that most of the film plays out in this very weirdly constructed building, which is a series of boxes that are connected to each other, but not quite connected to each other. And to me, that's what the film felt like, particularly in its final act,

in which it sort of turns into a police procedural. But, you know, I've never seen an Elmodovar film that I thought was a waste of time. So I think the performances are good and I like the design, but I don't think it has the emotional heft that one would expect it to have considering the subject matter. Mason- Number seven in the UK, six in the States, Terrifier 3. Gill- It's done very well and has done exactly what it set out to do and I'm no fan of it and I know there are going to be more Terrifier movies because we now have an

emerging sort of Terrifier universe. Not for me at all, but it does do exactly what it sets out to do in a very unpleasant way. Number six is Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. Better than everyone could have expected. I know some people have been a bit sniffy about it, but I think it's a very decent film. The Apprentice at number five. There was a thing. Interestingly, number 17 in the States. Somebody said, I can't remember who it was, and listeners will write in, I love political satire, particularly all the political satire in the early 1930s that so brilliantly stopped the rise of Hitler. The thing with The Apprentice is that the story

that it tells is one of the creation of a monster. Because of where we are, I can understand people not wanting to see it because we're in a very, very strange period in history. I like the film and I think that all the complaints from the Trump camp that it's, well, he just screams lies at everything, doesn't he? So I thought it was pretty decent, but it doesn't surprise me that some people have just said, I just can't, I can't go and spend two hours in the company of Donald Trump. By the way, I have mentioned this to you before, but it might be worth mentioning in the last few days before that thing happens. If you are still on Twitter, Simon Rosenberg is a democratic strategist and he uses social media an awful lot. If you want the most optimistic take that

you could find in the next few days, he's the guy to hunt out because he's very good. He kind of knows his stuff. He's one of the people who spotted that there wasn't a red wave two years ago. He has some merits behind his name. Number four here, number 10 in the States is Transformers 1, which I enjoyed. I thought it was a decent Transformers movie and remembered that this is a kids toy and made a film that kids of all ages can enjoy. Smile 2 is at three. Terrific central performance, the kind of thing that doesn't get Oscar nominated because that doesn't happen with horror movies. But good to see this done well. It's had a really popular opening and I really

enjoyed it. Perfect Friday night popcorn movie. Our number two film is The Wild Robot. It's number three in America. Chris Wright says, myself and my family recently had a bad run of luck. Firstly, I was off from work with flu. Then my dad was hospitalized with a fall. The day after we brought him out, my mother was rushed in with severe abdominal pains, this all during my week of annual leave. One day after visiting her,

I checked the films at my wonderful local kursen and found a perfectly timed screening of The Wild Robot. I really needed an escape from a bad week. From the very start, I was absolutely enchanted. It looked absolutely beautiful. Fortunately, it was a very polite cinema. No noise. I was totally transported. I was really moved by the film, choked up at multiple times and left the screening feeling almost cured. It hammered home a fact that I already knew. Film when it's truly great can absorb you in and for a few hours take you away from the troubles in life." Yeah. I mean, it is interesting just how we were talking about how the Elmodovar wasn't

reaching people emotionally. The wildar wasn't reaching people emotionally. The Wild Robot absolutely does reach people emotionally. In the same way as films like, I suppose, Big Hero 6 to some extent, but actually, Silent Running and Warly, which are the two things that I keep studying, and of course, The Iron Giant. Those stories, when told well, really do get you in the fields. Wild Robot, it's a joy to look at. I mean, it is beautifully designed, but it's also very, very, you know, it tugs at your

heartstrings in a way, which is very well done. And I haven't yet met anyone who's seen it who hasn't teared up. Number one here, number one in the States, Venom, The Last Dance, MrBeast85 would like to say this. Saw it this Friday, left me stone cold. The humour appears aimed at children, pitched at about the same level as a head coming out of a toilet, singing skibbity bop bop, notwithstanding a sprinkling of adult themes and some swear words. On the whole, I think the film is best summed up as a live

action cartoon in which some stuff happens. Okay. A less than enthusiastic review, but it's finding big audiences here and in the States. Venom is number one. It is. I mean, it'll drop like a stone, I suspect, in the next couple of weeks, but the franchise has proved very successful. I mean, I've never really understood it. I thought the second one was decent. I thought this was a car crash. I like Kelly Marcel very much as a filmmaker and I'm very glad that the film, for her, that the film has done well. There is something so weird about making a movie which has got basically 15 certificate material in it, but has that email quite rightly says the humor of aimed at an 11-year-old.

I think that's the thing which I don't really get about Venom is who is it for? But it's a big, wide blockbuster opening. It'll go to number one for one week. It won't be at number one next week and it's now closed the loop and it has done financially very well, which is more than can be said of Joker, Folly, or Durr. Although obviously if you put those two films next to each other and say, which one do you want more of, the studios will go for Venom because it's done better financially, which is such an upside down world. Correspondence at cobitomeo.com once you've seen something or you just want to chip in. We're going to be back in a moment with Billy Crystal and also Mark will be reviewing these

films. Heretic, which is a horror film starring Hugh Grant and Anora, the new film from Sean Baker, on the way. Hey, it's Ben here. Now you know The take is sponsored by BetterHelp, well this month is all about giving gratitude. So how about this, the person who found my daughter's bag that had her debit card and cash in it and went out of their way, completely stranger, to make sure through the bank, through various means she got that bag back, you are appreciated, you get gratitude. And we should not forget to give ourselves a little bit of

gratitude whenever we can because you know the world's an overwhelming place at the best of times. And honestly like BetterHelp gave me the tools to help me be nicer to myself, gentler to myself, helps make me more content and confident out in the wild. So look if you're thinking of starting therapy you could try BetterHelp. It's totally online, it's convenient, it's flexible, suited to your schedule no matter how crazy that gets. With over 5,000 therapists in the UK already When Henry III chose his royal advisors, he ended up with some very untrustworthy power grabbers which led to poor management decisions, rebellions and at least one person in prison. Why didn't he use Indeed? Well Indeed wasn't around back then but it is today.

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to hire, you need Indeed. This episode is brought to you by MubBI, a curated streaming service dedicated to elevating great cinema. MUBI is the place to discover ambitious films by visionary filmmakers, all carefully handpicked so you can explore the best of cinema streaming anytime, anywhere. So Mark, what can people find on MUBI this October? Well, one of the highlights in October is Occupied City, the Steve McQueen film. This is an extraordinary portrait of World War II Amsterdam, which uses testimony from World War II, but interspersed with footage from modern day Amsterdam to create this really

kind of strange disparity. I really like the film. I think you did too. That is Occupied City, which is on Mubi UK from October the 11th. You can try Mubi free for 30 days at mubi.com slash Kermode and Mayo. That's m-u-b-i dot com slash Kermode and Mayo for a whole month of great cinema for free. So this week's guest is Billy Crystal. Little point really in giving him more of an intro than that, but he's here to talk to us about Before, a new psychological thriller which is on Apple TV Plus in 10 episodes. He stars as Eli Adler, a grieving psychiatrist who encounters a tortured, silent boy in his

house one night. In his case, Eli is asked to take on. Anyway, you'll hear more about the story and more from Billy Crystal after this clip. He understood me last night. He definitely understood me. How would he be able to speak Dutch? I don't know. But listen, we need a full workup. Blood work, scans, rule out ADHD, intimate and explosive. I need to check all of his files, all of his placements. Oh, slow down for a second.

I'm a little more focused on legal next steps here, Eli. He assaulted another child. All right. How's the other boy doing? Physically he's going to be okay, but he's pretty traumatized. Apparently, there was an impressive amount of blood. That is a clip from before, and I'm delighted to say you've been joined by its star and executive producer, the legendary Billy Crystal. Legendary.

How are you, Billy? Thank you. I'm good, Simon. Nice to be with you. It's very nice to see you. I actually spoke to you about 20 years ago or so. And I remember it might have been for Mr. Saturday Night. I'm not sure.

That would be longer. That'd be longer. All I remember is there was a running joke on the show that they kept on booking guests who had kissed Meg Ryan. And that was like the running joke. And you leant into that, as I recall. Yes, I did. I was one of the first.

Well, it's a great detail. Anyway, but before, which is a 10-part series on Apple TV Plus. This is not that Billy Crystal. This is a very, well, it is Billy Crystal, but it's a very different Billy Crystal. Anyone who's seen the trailer, anyone who's seen the first couple of episodes which are out already will know that we're into sort of, I think for the viewer Uncharted Territory,

introduce us to before and how it came to you as a project? I came to the project. It was something I created the idea for with Eric Roth, who's a fantastic screenwriter. For your audience, Forrest Gump, Dune, Killers of the Flower, Moon, Mank and on and on and on. And I had this notion of a show that was called Deathbed originally. And it was inspired by tapes that my grandmother had made before she passed away about her life and how she came to America with the family and how the family then dispersed across the United States and became who we are. And it was fascinating stuff, really interesting.

So I thought about this person dictating his life to this gerontologist who he's working with and a list of names of people that he wanted to see. And there was a mystery about who are these people, who was he. So the show was like sort of decades of this man's life and it would be like a romance novel And it could be fascinating and we can never break through and in the interim Sorry, what do you mean? What do you mean by that? When you say you couldn't break through? We couldn't break through the reason why he was asking these people. What was the mystery?

What was in it for them when they came? asking these people what was the mystery, what was in it for them when they came, except storytelling and events. So you really needed to have a why about it, you know, a reason. And in the interim, my grandson was looking for an interesting book to read and I suggested, I said, well, this is something I read when I was like an eighth grade that I found very interesting because I've always had this sort of fascination with is there something after? Is this just going to be it, our lives? Is this it? And it was a book called The Search for Bridie Murphy, which you may recall was a story of this 28-year-old woman in

the United States who goes under hypnosis. And in hypnosisnosis she describes her life as Bridey Murphy in Ireland 200 years before I think it was. And when they did the research into everything she had talked about, all the relationships that this Bridey Murphy had, they all panned out that something did happen. There was this Bridey Murphy. So it was this mystery about did she have a past life or was it a gimmick? How did she know all this stuff? So it was fascinating. And then my son-in-law said, well, that's interesting because I did this research into kids with past lives when I was a student at the University of Virginia. Here's this wonderful book called Life Before

Life, which I devoured. I loved it. So one day, Eric and I were in a writing meeting with these two young writers from Fargo that we were working with, and we just couldn't find the why of it. And I said, so, all right, wait a sec, what if he's not a hundred years old? What if he's eight and he's got these memories of that and can't explain it? And it's really freaking him out. It's traumatizing him. And he doesn't know what to do with this, you know. This all came to you like in a moment.

Yeah. Okay. Then Eric said, oh, okay, I know what this could be. And I know who could write it. Her name is Sarah Thorpe. And he'd worked with her before. He said, she has a delicious dark mind, was how he described it. And so Sarah took our basic premise of this young kid with fascinating memories that are

freaking him out and a pediatric psychiatrist. And then she pitched it in such detail after two weeks. It was amazing what she came up with, the levels of grief that Eli was experiencing, this late wife, this who is this kid, this feral young boy just shows up out of the blue one day. Who is he to Eli? What does it mean? Who is he to the late wife? Is there a connection with, where are we going with? And it was dark and wonderful and I said, Sarah stop. I want to play him. I want to, I just have a few, I want, and so that was, that was how it began. And Sarah really then created from what we had come up with and just took it to the place that

you've seen, which is, I think, kind of extraordinary. Was the original scripts when they came in, was there humor at all? No. Actually, the first one did. The first one had some... Because you're Billy Crystal. Yeah. But then you have to say, no, it's not right for the tone, the overall tone. There was, he banters with his late wife.

He can't shake her, it's his grief. He can't, and here's a man who is a very, very good pediatric psychiatrist who can't deal with his own problems. And so there was some funny stuff, sort of funny stuff, teasing between Judith Light, who's amazing actress, as his late wife, Lynn. And when we made the first cut, it just didn't seem right. It didn't get us off the ground right. Because if it was that, then it sort of lessens

the tension that is about to happen. So we just cut, it was like three or four lines, but there was something. There's a couple of sharp moments of sarcasm where I'm thinking, oh, just a little bit. Nice timing. Yeah, just a little bit. And it was more with my little dog, my little pug, Larry.

It was more of a contentious relationship. So then you have to find the eight-year-old boy who is your co-star. I mean, you're in pretty much every shot. He's in pretty much every shot, he's in pretty much every shot, and you're asking him not to learn a lot of words, but you're asking him to act big time. So tell us about how you went to find Noah. We interviewed and auditioned about 700 kids across the United States and Canada. And we found a few that could handle the silence that would also have the menace

that also could be an eight-year-old kid. So he's kind of mute when we meet him. Yeah, because he's traumatized. He's not even sure why he comes to see me. He's compelled to. And then we got this audition tape of this young actor here in London named Jacobi Joop. He was in a Disney film playing one of

the darling kids in a Peter Pan remake with Jude Law. He's fine, but on the tape he's great. So we auditioned over Zoom, because we couldn't be together. So he was here, I was in Los Angeles. And he was amazing. Just on the Zoom. Being silent. Well, no, we did them. It's a game we play in therapy called the Mad Game. So when you see the show, it's building blocks and each one, you have to say something that makes you mad,

and you get madder and madder, and then basically knock them over and release the anger. And we did that together and just talked. And I just found him to be instinctually brilliant. I've worked with some fantastic actors. He has the same instincts as a veteran actor does. It just comes to him. And he's the sweetest guy, and he can play the rage.

He can play the cunning as the show goes on. He can play the this the fierceness of him and the vulnerability of him and ultimately the release into becoming back is Pinocchio becoming a real boy and You know, he's a godsend for us you don't have a show unless you have an you know Where we gonna find this kid and we found him. Yeah, and it's kind of tough for the fact that he doesn't have many words. He has to do it all with his face. Yeah. It's all in his eyes. It's all in his heart, his fears, his traumas, his horrors. And the camera's seven, eight inches away from your face. It's not easy.

And being on, relocating from London to New York, with a crew of people you don't know, and just me. And I didn't want to spend a lot of time with him when I first met him. He came seven days before we started shooting once we got all his visas straightened out and everything. And I just rehearsed with him one day and I told director Adam, I said, I don't want to spend a lot of time with him.

I want it to be as real as we can make it, that we're sort of finding each other, I want it to be more rawness. And it worked. Benedict Cumberbatch was on the show a few months ago, talking about his show. Eric on Netflix, where he's working with a kid about the same age, and we just talked about the pressures of working with a young child when bad language happens or bad things happen. You have a kind of a responsibility on the set to a young child.

Did that change you or the atmosphere on the set, the fact that you have to keep explaining? Well, yeah, but you know what? He's very mature and he had, his mom was with him who's an actress and Kate is great with him. And we had a funny thing going every time I would drop an F-bomb, even fooling, he would say that's a dollar, you owe me a dollar. And then I would just do it just to get a little rise out of him. But you know what? The thing is, I mean, from the first scene, when he would leave the set, all the crew

would look at me and go, wow, special. And they respected him. You know, they really respected him. They never talked to him like he was an 11-year-old. So you're Eli, you're the child psychiatrist. He's the eight-year-old boy. Are you both in purgatory of different types? Yes. I will give you that.

And you can't escape your grief. And he can't escape whatever it is which takes us through the... Yeah, it's very much a mystery. It's very much a thriller that's not resolved until the very last shot of the 10 episodes. Yeah, so I'm not quite sure what I can say. But okay, one thing we can talk about is the kind of body horror stuff, which is not full on body horror the way other movies have dealt with it, like The Substance, which is full-on. But there's you and your neck.

Can you tell us what you do when you see something on your neck? Well, there's a fantasy in Show 2. That's early on. Where I'm getting to, I'm so, I'm in on how can I help him. Because I'm seeing symbols in what he's drawing that's making me think he's trying to tell me something. Not unlike how a good psychiatrist will examine dreams and find symbols in dreams and try to piece together a logic to it or an explanation to it.

And he's in the hospital. I can say, he stabs me in the neck with a pen. And there was a rig in my hand, there was a plastic tube that ran down my leg to this fellow off stage with like a canister filled with air that he would pump it and look like it would hit an artery and it was covered. And I had to fall backwards over a chair

and I did all my own stunts in the show too. And so on and so forth. So there is, and then he wakes up and it didn't happen and it's shocking but this is the kid is throwing me totally off kilter was the purposeful of that. Have you ever done anything like this before? No. Was that quite exciting to be? Oh I loved it I loved it you know like after that I'd be they go cut and I'm laying on the floor covered in tons and tons of this stage blood giggling going I love this job. But the thing is to play, is not to play into the horrors, it's to play the reality of it. And that's when it's more terrifying.

So that's just part of a conversation with Billy Crystal. I kept, basically he felt guilty because he'd arrived late, so I extended the conversation and he couldn't do anything about it. So, there'll be more with Billy Crystal in take two. Anyway, Apple TV Plus is where you will find before, new from Billy Crystal. And speaking of old guys who are back, by the way, I saw Paddington 3, because we're about to talk about Hugh Grant. So I've seen the new Paddington film. And I just want to be the first one to tell you that you have to stay for the credits. And not only that, I was told when I went in,

even when the credits are finished, it's worth just hanging around. Which is worth knowing because it's one of those films, obviously, what with it being Paddington, there are thousands of names that people have been involved. If you've got a spare 10 minutes. Okay. I'm staying, I'm staying, but I'm seeing it next week. Am I going to like it? I also am aware that I've signed an embargo thing. So I might have already broken the terms of the embargo, which means they can reclaim

my house or something like that. Anyway, let's talk about old guys who are back, Hugh Grant. Yeah. I just say, Hugh, if you're listening, Simon said that, not me. So yeah, Heretic, which is a semi-satirical theological chiller from Scott Breckham, Byron Woods, who were previously best known as the creators and co-writers of A Quiet Place, which Simon is one of the horror films that you actually like. Yes, correct. Yes, that's true. So this is an A24 production. You asked me, what does an A24 production mean? And you know, the shorthand is it's a production house that's almost become a genre.

People always reach for that terrible term, which we don't use, of elevated horror. Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are Mormons. They are Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton. They're out on their bikes in this rural-ish community taking the Lord's word to local houses. They haven't done very well. They need to get a couple of hits. They have the name of someone who says he's interested in learning more mystery. They go to his house, which is off the beaten track, as night and rain is starting to fall. They knock on the door. The door is opened by Hugh Grant, who seems somewhat flummoxed to see them at first. Here's a clip. Are you interested in learning more about the Church of Jesus Christ? Come on in.

We can't come inside unless another woman is present. My wife is home. Does that come? You like pie? Yeah. My wife has pie in the oven. I could tell that you are a very spiritually curious person. I think it is good to be religious, to find your faith in a doctrine you actually believe. Well, our work here is done.

I will go and... So he goes off to check on the party. Can I just interrupt to that point? Yes. I know you haven't even started, but... Go ahead. ...very brave to have a clip with Hugh Grant opening the door with it raining, and for neither of us to say it was raining, but he hadn't noticed.

But anyway, that's a very different scenario. It's a very different film. Although of course, that is the Hugh Grant that he's playing at the beginning of the film. And he says, oh yes, my wife is here and she's making a pie, so you'll all be fine. Come in, they come into the living room. But there is no evidence of his wife and there's the smell of the pie, but no actual pie. Then he starts talking to them and it turns out that he knows more about religion

than they do. He studied the Church of Latter-day Saints alongside Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and he seems very keen to get into a conversation in which he can demonstrate to them that all their beliefs are bunk and that religion is just a construct. He's polite and awkward but odd and a little bit threatening. Every time they try to leave, he keeps them waiting just a little longer. Meanwhile, the night is growing darker and the storm is getting stronger and everyone's noticed that it started to rain. The sense that this might be more than just an intellectual game grows by the minute. Now, I really enjoyed this,

partly because I do love a good argument about the origin of religion, it's one of my pet subjects, and partly because it shares with Speak No Evil that really weird horror of being too polite to leave. You're somewhere where your host is, you're okay and they seem funny and quirky, but also they seem threatening and weird, but you can't leave because it would be rude to do so. And at the point that you realize that you really want to leave it, it may be too late. And the script is very wordy, very dense. It could come off as contrived, but Hugh Grant does a fantastic job of just keeping each new revelation, each new question just tantalising enough to keep you wondering. I don't know, is he just weird? I mean, he brings out the board game of Monopoly. Suddenly he wants to play a game of Monopoly, but then he starts talking

about where Monopoly came from and comparing it to where religions came from and saying that what you see and what you believe are two different things. So he's really enjoying himself. So are they. And I think that it's a reminder that particularly in the horror genre, a good idea and basically a single location, although it's an expansive location, can be a really kind of adventurous roller coaster ride. I mean, it sounds almost like a play, the way you're describing it. Yes, except it is more cinematic than that. If you ever describe a film as being like a play, there's a kind of inherent criticism of the filming. But I think in this case, it is a wordy piece of cinema that although it may have the kind of the single

location confined cast sense of a play, actually it is a film. It is very much a film, particularly as it moves into its sort of later stages. But Hugh Grant in this part of his career has really blossomed. I mean, he was great, everybody loved him, he was a great comedian. Then he moved into some other stuff, some of it didn't work, some of it did. And then he's had this kind of, the best part of his career is now. He is right now in the absolute prime of his company, prime of Miss Jean Brodie. And he is just relishing the opportunity to take this role and do that sinister thing about smiling and laughing, that Hugh Grant way that suggests that he might have an axe

behind him. And I really enjoyed it. Really thought it was fun. Will Barron Does he have an axe behind him? Well, that would be telling, wouldn't it? It certainly would. Does it have a happy ending? Anyway, Heretic. Well, that's an interesting question about whether it has a happy ending. Okay. Maybe he becomes a Mormon. Maybe that's it. And they all go and join the musical in

the West. They all have a part. They all become Mormon. And that's the end of that. Okay. Very good. It's the ads in a moment, Mark, but first. And that's the end of that. Okay, very good. It's the ads in a moment, Mark, but first it's time to... I see I'm laughing already. It's time to... I can hardly get the words out.

Step into the laughter lift. I can't. I think the music is playing. Hey, Mark. If King Charles... Can I apologize for all the gangs? If King Charles sleeps on a king mattress and Queen Camilla sleeps on a queen mattress, where does the Prince of Wales sleep? You're right, on an air mattress.

Almost the beginning of one of your impressions, I think. A bit of a Jared Leto merely moments away. I've had an awful week at home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The good lady ceramicist who indoors accused me of ruining her birthday, which was nonsense. I didn't even know it was a birthday. How could I have ruined it? Which is crazy. Anyway, my cousin, Chad Mayo the Third, he's over from America.

When he arrived from the airport, he said, where's your bathroom at? I said, now, cousin Chad, here in Britain, we don't end a sentence with a preposition. Oh, okay, where's the bathroom at, moron? I mean, how rude. That's all I have. I enjoyed your accent. Gee, thanks. The idea of cousin Chad is truly horrific.

What have we got coming up, merely moments away? Merely moments away from a review of Anorah, the new film by Sean Baker. Okay. After this. Hey, Simon and Mark here. This show is brought to you by NordVPN. After this. and steal your data. Oh, well, it's completely coincidental, but Nord have just the solution for that. Sure, public Wi-Fi can leave your computer wide open for snoopers, trackers, hackers, and all those others to get your data, but Nord helps you keep them at arm's length by linking

you to VPNs and so hiding your data and location. Even while I'm watching Exodus Believer. Take the bad actors you like while blocking out the ones you don't. I'll tell you what's unfair. Subscription streaming services hide thousands of shows and movies from you based on your location and then have the nerve to keep increasing their prices on you. You could just cancel your subscription in protest or you could be smart about it and make sure you're getting your full money's worth by using ExpressVPN. Based on your location, you're missing out on all kinds of fantastic titles from streaming services.

ExpressVPN lets you change your online location so you can control where you want those streaming services to think you're located. For example, Mark, what am I missing out on? Films, series, back catalog stuff, absolutely anything. Tons of classics. But with ExpressVPN, there's no obstacle. You open it, click one button, you've got access. So be smart, start paying full price for streaming services and only getting access to a fraction of their content.

Get your money's worth at expressvpn.com slash Kermode. Don't forget to use our link at expressvpn.com slash Kermode to get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free. From the meaning of Lyft, page 107, Peoria, the fear of peeling too few potatoes. See? Again, it's true. It's like making pasta or boiling rice. Pathological fear of getting the amounts wrong, even though you've been doing it for decades. And you always end up making too much? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Always. You haven't learned anything over the decades at all. Chris in

Lausanne, Dear Chocolate and Fondue, As it was half term last week and I was thinking of things to do with my six-year-old for a day out, thanks to your podcast, it occurred to me that we could go and visit Gruyere. There's a relatively famous chocolate museum factory nearby, which she would like, La Maison Callier, and then we could head to the center of Gruyere for fondue, which is her favorite. Naturally, I insisted that we pass by the Giga Museum before dinner for curiosity's sake, and we happened to get there just as it was closing. As I walked up to the door, a photographer sitting nearby asked me if I was interested in going inside, which automatically sounds like Hugh Grant is about to offer you a pie.

That's right. Anyway, I declined as I was with my young daughter. It turns out he was in charge of the museum's social media, a Welsh guy called Andy, who studied art in Manchester. He told me about coming to Switzerland in 2013 specifically to meet Hans Gieger and managing to do so the year before he died and how he'd got to know the family and visited the artist's home in Zurich, which apparently is just as macabre as the museum. All in all, it was well worth a visit even if we didn't go inside, so we didn't get any pie. After our fondue, we went into the Giga bar, where I had one of their bespoke cocktails, the Nostromo, a combination of black vodka, cola, and lime, while my daughter had an ice

tea and enjoyed the big chairs that spin round. The decor of the bar most closely resembled a series of spinal columns. I asked my daughter what she thought of it. She said it was great, before swiftly changing the topic to the more important issue of when we were going to go back to the souvenir shop to buy the cuddly sheep that she saw. By the way, the subject of souvenir shops in museums, just a word of advice for people going to Reykjavik, very wisely, the Penis Museum puts the gift shop, you actually have to pay to go into the exhibition before you get to the gift shop. It's not something that you can just

go to the gift shop because they clearly realise that people would just go to the gift shop and then buy a postcard or a model and then scarper. I've never even heard of black vodka. Are you a black vodka fan? Right. Not something I've come across, I'm afraid, no. It's Blavod vodka fused with botanical black catechu extracted from the bark of an acacia tree, which to me sounds like you have it injected into your veins and then you die within three seconds. Then you wake up as Tom Hardy in Venom with a monster in your head. Precisely right. Chris, thank you very much for the email. And if Andy, the Welshman who

went out there and is still doing social media, thank you for your service. Correspondence at KevinOMare.com, what else is out there? What else should we be going and seeing, Mark? Okay, so new Sean Baker film, which is always a cause for celebration. He made Tangerine, which I think was all shot on an iPhone. Florida Project, which was one of my favourite films of 2017. And Red Rocket, for which you interviewed him. And I remember that you got on very well. So Anorah premiered in Cannes in May.

Wanda Palme d'Or currently shaping up as a major awards contender as we go into this award season. Written, directed, edited, and co-produced by Sean Baker. As always, he's doing everything. So, Mikey Madsen, who was the Manzanite Susan Atkins in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is anora, but calls herself Annie. That's the name that she likes. She's an exotic dancer in a Brooklyn club in the Brighton Beach area. One night, she's sent to tend to a party of Russians because she is from Russian family and she speaks the language. Although she says, I understand it, but I don't really speak it, but she does. She meets Vanya, who is a young man with tons and tons of money and loads of drunk friends. She dances for him, he takes a shine to her. He invites her to a party at a mansion, a mansion

the likes of which you have never seen, a massive sort of glass cathedral. He's the son of an oligarch, but he's a big kid. He plays video games, drinks, takes drugs, does nothing with his young life other than be faceless. They seem to have a spark. Then she agrees to make a kind of pretty woman style bargain with him that he will pay her to be his girlfriend for a week. And so they party in New York and then he flies her and his crew to Las Vegas where they promptly check into a swanky hotel where he acts like he owns the place. Here's a clip. Welcome back Mr. Zakharov. Your suite is almost ready. We didn't know you were coming and the suite was occupied. But they're out and housekeeping should be done any minute.

What the f*** man, are you f***ing kidding me? You mean I have to wait? You mean we have to wait right now, bro, yes? Yes, yes. Go on, go on. I f***ing miss you. We will stay here. It's nice to come back. Very good. Let's go up shit on this shit. Have a great time.

What the fuck are we looking for? That's an awful lot of birdsong. An awful lot of birdsong. Which I imagine will be added by the time this goes out. Yes. We just heard the unbirdsong version of that. So if it wasn't birdsonged, the production team are to blame. Anyway, so the partying continues. The bond between them sees to grow. He thinks he's fallen

in love with her. The whole thing is a fairy tale. But Vegas isn't real life. And when they get back to Brooklyn, they discover that his parents have heard about them and they want the relationship stopped. They want everything annulled. And to this end, they send Taurus to sort it out, the godfather to sort it out, along with Henschmann played by Yura Borisov, who was so brilliant in that 2021 film, Compartment Number Six, to really light. The rest of the film then plays out with the kind of breathless energy of Jonathan Demme, Something Wild and the impending threat of Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. Weirdly enough, the screwball wit of something like It Happened One Night. It's a long film, but it never feels long because it's absolutely breathless

in terms of its energy. You're pulled from pillar to post with these characters who feel palpably pulled from pillar to post with these characters who feel palpably real and empathetic. There's a number of reasons why it works. One of them is, I mean, Sean Baker has done dramas that deal with sex work before. Indeed, you talked to him about that with Red Rocket. He's made it his mission to destigmatize it and to tell stories which are universal stories. That's exactly what he does here. On the one hand, you could say, oh well, okay, the narrative is about a Brooklyn stripper who falls in love with a Russian oligarch or who gets involved with a Russian oligarch's son, but that's not what it's about at all. It's about a tough-spirited young person making her way in the world who

comes across a spoiled man-child who is still tied to his very scary mother's apron strings and the drama that then unfolds. André Wurhahn, who's a Canadian writer and actress who is best known for the 2018 memoir Modern Whore, was brought on as a consultant to make sure that any of the stuff they were dealing with in terms of the sex work in the film was done properly and responsibly. I think it does pay dividends because I think you do feel that what you're watching is a drama that actually knows the area it's talking about. It's also a film, and this is true of all of Sean Baker's films, in which characters on the periphery, and a lot of the time he deals with characters on the periphery of mainstream life, they are all drawn with the same density and fluidity so

that when somebody who is on the periphery becomes centre stage, it doesn't seem odd at all. It's like that real thing in the real world when somebody who is part of a group who doesn't seem to be the most significant character can then become a very significant character and they've already been drawn adequately enough that that's the case. It's really well shot by Drew Daniels who shot Red Rocket and also Waves and also It Comes at Night, which I loved. There's a sequence in it that's got a very direct visual nod to the French connection L train chase, which I laughed at because I thought

it was to do with the fact that it's got a real sense of its location. I mean, you really feel like you're in that world. And an absolutely brilliant, brilliant central performance by by Mikey Madsen, who is just pure cinema dynamite in terms of the way in which she brings you into the world of this character and then you barrel along with her. She is full on, absolutely like 100% energy and you can see why it is that she kind of freaks people out. Anyway, it's a wild ride. It's really well done. It's very sensitive. It's very moving.

It's also very exciting and often funny and sometimes kind of crazy in app control. And definitely, definitely one of the films of the year. Oh, wow. Okay, nevermind film of the week, which I haven't asked you about yet. One of the films of the year? I've kind of preempted that now, haven't I?

You have really. I mean, I was going to build it up with a little bit of suspense in a few seconds time. Just before we get there, a reminder, if there is something going on sort of cinematically or cinematic adjacent in your area and you want to tell us about it, you can always send us a voice note like this. Hello, Simon and Mark. It is a very excited day from Corbenkian Cinema in Canterbury. As a single screen venue,

we always get films in week three or four, except on 8th of November this year, we have Paddington in Peru. On release date, marmalade sandwiches all round. Hello, Simon and Mark. This is Ellen from Campbeltown Picture House, a 111 year old cinema on the west coast of

Scotland. From now until Christmas, all of our screenings benefit the Kintyre Food Bank. If you bring a donation to the food bank, tickets are just £3. This project has been made possible by Argyll and Bute CLLD funding. Mason- So you get the general gist. If there's something that you think we'd be interested in, it's got to have some kind of tenuous link to movies or acting in some way. Send us a voice note, particularly if there's something. So obviously next month is going to be Christmas and New Year related. Anyway,

you send your voice note to correspondence at kerbannamaio.com. That is the end of Take One. This has been a Sodi Music Entertainment production. This week's team has been Jen, Eric, Josh, Vicky, Zachy and Beth, who is off to Pastures New this week. Farewell, Beth. A little bit disappointed that you found Pastures New because I always think that this is the only pasture and there is nothing new. However, we'll put that to one side. But good luck. But good luck indeed. The producer was Jem who's shaved, which is a huge relief to everybody. The redactor was Simon Poole.

If you're not following the pod already, please do so wherever you get your podcast. Mark, what is your film of the week? Take a wild guess. I think it may well be Venom 3. It is Venom. Yeah. Anora. It's Anora.

Thank you very much indeed for listening. Take two has landed already adjacent to this podcast. Thank you very much, Adib, for listening. We'll talk to you soon.