TRASHFUTURE - *PREVIEW* Britainology 63: Layer Cake (2004)

Episode Date: June 25, 2023

For this month's first Britainology, we watched the 2004 UK gangster movie LAYER CAKE, featuring a much younger Daniel Craig, a very Essex'ed-up Sienna Miller, and a very unknown-at-the-time Tom Hardy. And it's a good movie! Which we enjoyed! And had a lot of fun talking about, especially as regards it being a snapshot of peak Blair years Britain. Get the whole episode on Patreon here! https://www.patreon.com/posts/britainology-63-85010160 *STREAM ALERT* Check out our Twitch stream, which airs 9-11 pm UK time every Monday and Thursday, at the following link: https://www.twitch.tv/trashfuturepodcast *WEB DESIGN ALERT* Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/ *MILO ALERT* Check out Milo’s upcoming live shows here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows and check out a recording of Milo’s special PINDOS available on YouTube here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRI7uwTPJtg *ROME ALERT* Milo and Phoebe have teamed up with friend of the show Patrick Wyman to finally put their classical education to good use and discuss every episode of season 1 of Rome. You can download the 12 episode series from Bandcamp here (1st episode is free): https://romepodcast.bandcamp.com/album/rome-season-1 Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and Alice (@AliceAvizandum)

So this is definitely an early 2000s film. There's a degree of like the way that it's shot, the way that it's edited primarily, that has a kind of like, I mean, it's not, what's the right word? Like, it's not jarring, it's not confusing, but there's a stylistic choice of like the fading shots, the juxtaposing shots, like showing scenes

that are happening with other people. While like, for example, you're following Daniel Craig's narration of his own life, and yet it's also kind of showing the counterpoint of, like, dumb flash keys or idiot gangsters, et cetera. Yeah. To me, like, the shots with, like, their fucking on, without skipping ahead in the plot, like, a scene kind of gliding into the next where, like, it focuses on an object, and then that then immediately transitions to another It's like another yeah

Other characters stuff like that to me that's the only thing that made it seem really dated Other than that and of course a version of London that's not falling apart, you know That's true and and also even of 2004 probably like kind of you're getting to the point where it's like High watermark of Quality of life in Britain maybe where it's like high watermark of quality of life in Britain, maybe. Like it's that kind of era. Well, much like love actually, you see them building. What is it? 33 St. Mary Acts, the Gercan. It's under construction in some of the like the setting shots that take place, establishing shots of London. So maybe that implies that by building the Gercan,

they incurred God's wrath, that it was too erotic of a building. And as a result, Britain had to be punished. Yeah, it was a very erotic building. You can't have something that phallic in the city of London. Come on. When they had the Don't know, don't tell policy in the banks. Exactly. You have to build more heterosexual buildings, like the walkie-talkie building that melts cars. Exactly, yeah. What could be more heterosexual than melting a car? Exactly. Yeah, no, it's very, it's very 2004 in a lot of ways.

I think it's kind of, yeah, it's like it's aged, but in like a cool way. Yeah, in a very cool way. Yeah, I want, you know, the Audi RS6 2004 wagon, like they're driving around in, it's sick. The bright yellow Range Rover, but the last, it must have been, well I think they brought in the new shape Range Rovers in maybe like 03, so they would have been around then, but like that, the Duke and so on and still driving around in the bright yellow 90s look Range Rover.

Lariously my friend, the one who got the phone call for me because they messed up the one digit. His mom was English and very English, like moved to America's in adult. And she had like a red ranger over of that style. You just jogged my memory and like, where did I see that? I was like, oh yeah, I got driven back from swim practice

by Sebastian's mom who was just British to know and English. I think she was from Liverpool to know end. Fucking in one of those cars. Like, yeah, they were cool. The new ones just, I have a negative association with because it's always like guy screaming at me when I'm on my bike, fucking driving those things. Yeah, I think like, yeah, design wise, Range Rover Mercedes and BMW

most notably like peaked in the 90s. Like they had the real like iconic. Like the fucking, the boxie Mercedes coupes and the boxie Range Rover's. And it's also like, I will also say the Audi TT was a very cool car when it first came out. When it first came out, it wasn't, we didn't know that it was gonna be doomed to be the car that you drive

if you, all you do is get cheated on in Vottery. But it's like when they built the Twin Towers, they said these will be iconic. Now, they didn't know why. They just knew. But for time it had to have an Audi T.C. I mean, what an error we could be living in. Exactly.

Or maybe he did, and that's why it put him down the wrong path. If he had just driven a Fiat 500, then maybe he wouldn't have gotten delusions of granted. Exactly. He could have gone to brunch instead of paradise. You know? Is there a difference? Much to think about. Paradise in a way is the bottom of this brunt.

So should we do like a plotted summary? Was it a plasome or a book? He pulled it up here. Oh, fuck me. It's a long one. So our unnamed protagonist played by Daniel Craig. I'm trying to say it the English way. I realize that in America we say Daniel Craig, and that drives British people nuts the way that we say that name. It sounds like it. It sounds even weird when it's the surname.

I think when you're just calling a guy Craig, I think we've heard that enough. But then when you're calling him Daniel Craig, just feels really wrong. It relief to me when I have to say it the way that you guys say it. I'm reminded of Tony soprano's sister being like, you're lag? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wonder what happened to your leg. I don't know what happened to your leg.

Yeah, so Daniel Craig. That's one of the things I'm always quite angry people who haven't seen the soprano. I was like, what, I don't know what happened to your leg. Daniel Craig, Daniel Liggs character is explaining that it's bad to be a loud mouth idiot in the drugs trade, and that he makes money quietly with people he trusts, and that he is very successful

and he's kind of explaining his lot in life. He gets coke, they cut it mildly, they turn two kilos into three as he said. They don't take the piss. They have his assistant, Clarky, he's got a chemical engineering degree from Cambridge played by incredibly twinky Tom Hardy. Exactly.

As our pre-Bull Cup Tom Hardy. As Tom said when we were talking about it earlier, that it's basically, this is exactly the era when he would have been taking the thought my space photos of him and like, whity tighties and stuff. Real heads no. Real heads no what I'm talking about. So real fans of cranking hog will not.

So basically, he sells Coke, he's a distributor, or rather he is, he is a middleman, and he gets it from his supplier. The supplier has two, like, head lieutenant goons who are his security eyes. One of them is a black guy named Morty, who did 10 years. So he knows apparently that if you fuck around, you can go to prison. And to prison and he's the guy who is later involved in the Givo group chat Of course exactly. Yeah, absolutely and and then there's the sort of lieutenant that is the guy that the head dude that he deals with for the actual boss that he buys cocaine from played by Kalmini That is Gene Irish is supposed to be an Irish guy isn't it?

I can't yeah, I call me neat is always playing Irish gangsters and or playing. You could definitely say he was Irish based on the performance, I think. Oh, was it Chief O'Brien in Star Trek? All right. But I think, yeah, I mean, Colmeanie a very Irish man. So it makes it make sense. In Gangster, he is also an Irish guy who's a gangster. So he's just, he's like a Irish he's Irish Bob Hoskins in a way.

Yeah, yeah, that's right. And so basically he has been asked when making a payout to join, to go meet his employer for lunch. And there's a little bit of alarm because it's sort of like, is something wrong and it's like, no, maybe it's just for a job well done. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then this is when we meet one of the films, First Real Guys.

Yes. Jimmy Price. Oh, fuck, what is it? Jimmy, the Jimmy Price actor, his name I always forget, is in so many things. Oh, that's it. He's in fucking Rome. He's in HBO's Rome.

Oh, okay. As Pompey. And it's so weird when I was something, because I was watching HBO Rome, and I'm like, I know this guy from somewhere. And then suddenly in my head, he went, fucking good gear and all. And I'm like, oh, yeah, it's Jimmy Price.

So he's a Cockney villain basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he is like a moron, that's the big thing, Jimmy. But he's done well in the crime world, and he's meeting him at the Stoke Club, which I don't know where this is, but it's, yeah, Stoke Park, it's like, it's like in Surrey, I think. There's definitely a Surrey country club.

It's either West or Southwest of London, yeah. It's loud that way, yeah. And basically, he's told that he's got a mission. He's being asked to do some business and also a special mission. The special mission is to find the daughter of a friend of his who's on drugs and has run off with someone she met.

They absconded from rehab. And he has a cracker called kinky. Yeah, I mean, some of the lines are just, yeah. Yeah, I can't imitate it. There's some really, some really perfect sound. Sometimes some were asked to do something above and beyond the call of july. Yeah, Daniel Craig really doesn't want to take on this.

Not at all. Daniel Craig is not, he's not happy about this job. No, he would prefer to just be in his room with Twink Tom Holland or Tom Hardy rather. Twink Tom Holland is a different Twink. Twink Tom Hardy making money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And his whole suspicion, which is sort of eventually proved correct ultimately, is that he's like, you know like a hundred guys who could go and find a guy. And like, I'm the guy who does the cocaine. Like, why are you asking me?

You've got, you know so many dudes who would do this cheap. I'm like, what is this? Yeah. Basically, the Trash Future podcast limited equivalent of this is you need a computer built and some network cable installed and so you ask Riley to do it. The expense is alone with crushes. Well, you know, it's actually,'s actually been proven that you cannot successfully terminate a cat 6A cable without a fancy dinner.

It's just how network engineering works. So basically, he takes this job and he goes to some guys he knows who are, he meets them in a club where they're, they're, you know, impressing some American girls by pretending to be posh. They're just geyser gangster guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And um, tells them what they need to do. And uh, did to go off and fucking find them. However, intercut with this is a, the flip side to his, you know, low profile, keep your mouth shut. Do you be good at your job and beast discrete criminal Affect which is some geezers in Amsterdam doing crime shit So what we understand watching them fuck around slowly is revealed to us

Yeah, we sort of go from like Guy Richie style gangsters like Jimmy Price and then we're then we're moving down the rung to like, why would call like the hard guy any stenders level of gangster, which is sort of the guys we're dealing with now. Yeah. Flash chains, complete morons, can't read a map, get lost in the Netherlands. Yeah, golden jook.

Yeah. So basically a guy in a track suit who goes by the duke is the jook is, we think he's doing a du is we think he's doing a drug deal and then we come to discover as the film reveals it to us that they went to the Netherlands to rob a place like a factory run by a Dutch guy who's also Serbian but he's got a Dutch accent. Um, who you ever heard of Shreber Nietzsche? Hahaha. Fuck. Hahaha.

God. I wouldn't fuck with me. Hahaha. Yeah, I'm Shurbian Dutch. You heard of Pennsylvania Dutch, that's not the same thing. Let's just, let's just shade it, bring in Shurbian guys to the Netherlands for quite a while. Shum come more consensually than others.

Hahaha. and show being guys to the Netherlands for quite a while. Shum come more consensually than others.