Hi everyone, welcome back to Between Screenings. Uh, joined again by the lovely Tom Percival. Good morning, Neil. How are you today? Good, thanks. So we're gonna be going back and seeing if our predictions about Mandalorian and Grogu came true. Uh, we're also going to look at how, after we talked about it in the last podcast, how obsession has gone on and on and on at the box office, and how uh everyone is asking Tom, is it really that good? And then we'll also talk a little bit about backrooms, which I've just seen. So we'll add sort of sort of little modern horror section, and then you're gonna get to listen to me talk about all 18 films I saw in Cannes. So I hope you've got a can-do attitude when Neil talks about Cannes Film Festival. Yes, I certainly won't be doing in-depth reviews of each one. It'll be a uh whistle stop tour of the seven, 18 films I saw when I was in Cannes. So, Mandalorian and Grogu, Tom, you've finally seen it? Yes. So I was very lucky. I got to see it a few days earlier at the um the uh BFI IMAX here in London. Um, I, you know, the ideal situation, I would argue, to see uh a Star Wars movie surrounded by Star Wars fans who were all very, very excited for it. I can't lie, as I walked in, there was a Mandalorian helmet, there was a little Grogu you could talk to. You know, like there was a real feeling walking into that cinema that Star Wars is back. And I mean, I'm not saying Star Wars isn't back, but I'm saying that it was exact it was exactly what I expected it to be. It felt like the fourth, three episodes from the fourth series all stitched together in, you know, to create a feature-length uh presentation. And what while some people felt really positively about it, you know, they were excited to see Mando and Grogu back. I could not help but shake the feeling that if you're going to make a man, if you're gonna bring Star Wars back, you need to do something more than just, you know, something I can probably watch on Disney Plus in a couple of weeks. Do you know what I mean? Like it just felt really uncinematic. And I know John Favreau's come out and said, yeah, we basically did retool the season four script into this movie, and it shows. It really, really shows. Um, I mean, I will give it some credit. I think it's got a really I think it's got a fantastic opening. Like I think it's got a really exciting Star Wars-y sort of plot to it, but it's just, I think uncinematic is the word, which is strange for a movie full of aliens and you know, different planets and everything. But there's just there's just this feeling that you are, as I say, you are watching a TV series glued together, and no one's really thought, how do we do anything different for a movie? Which is a real shame. It really is. Um, but no, I I I'd probably give it three stars if I had to give it anything. Good. But Star Wars needed to be great. And I think that's very much reflected in the box office, which we've been predicting for some time. Yeah, although it did it did better in its first weekend than I expected. So it did, it actually tracked slightly above what most expectations were to the high end of them. So I think it did just over 100 million, but it has now had a 70% drop in its second weekend. So it was your Star Wars fans who you were all in the cinema with who went to watch it in the opening weekend, and now everyone else just can't be bothered. And you know, it's it's now got to contend with things like Obsession, which is now grown. It's the first film since ET to have grown its box office domestically in its first three weekends of release. So it took whatever it took the first weekend, then it took even more the second weekend, and then it's taken even more again the third weekend, which is mad. It's a one million dollar budget sort of horror movie, and it is it is it it keeps growing every week. And then you've got backrooms out, you've even got things like Michael, uh, the Michael movie still going strong. You've got um back and you've got Tuna, which has just come out as well, which I'm excited to see. So I'm looking at the cinema this week and I'm thinking, right, okay, if I go to the cinema three times this week, I'll go and see backrooms, which I did today, I'll go and see Obsession, because I've still not seen it yet, and everyone's talking about it, and I just kind of want to know what the the big deal is, and then I'll go and see Tuna because it looks like a fun um thriller. And I, you know what? I'll wait. I I I've watched Mandalorian for three seasons now, slash four seasons, if you include the book of Boba Fett. I've watched them on my my TV at home. I was quite happy with that. So I'll just wait and watch this big episode of The Mandalorian at home because I'm used to watching that show at home. That's entirely I was thinking about this today when I was on my run. I was just like, have they taken the star out of Star Wars by putting it on television? Have they essentially said to people, this is throwaway. This doesn't, you know, this is this isn't cinematic anymore, this isn't an event. Star Wars is just something you just watch on TV. And I know that there were like Star Wars TV shows prior to the release of The Mandalorian, but they were animated, you know, the Clone Wars and stuff like that. And I just don't think they had as much purchase in popular culture. And I think the success of The Mandalorian season one and two, because it was, it was brutally, it was really good, has cost Star Wars something. Like, you know, I'm friends with lots of film people who were just saying, isn't it mad that we're week? This was a couple of weeks ago, you know, we're weeks away from the release of the first Star Wars film in seven years, and no one cares. Like, you know, like none of us are particularly bothered or interested in what's what's gonna happen. I think they'd have been better off waiting for Starfighter, because I think that's something that's at least different and new and could maybe get us a little bit excited. I think an extended episode of The Mandalorian maybe wasn't the thing to relaunch Star Wars in the cinemas after the absolute horrendousness that was um Rise of Skywalker. Yeah, tricky one. Not done, not done great, but like we say, in contrast to Obsession, I mean Mandalorian and Grogu has created 70% in its second weekend, and Obsession has grown yet again in its third weekend. Absolute madness. I mean, on a 700 to a million dollar budget, to be doing this well, the only you know, it brings back memory things like that from the aughts of just like showing what you can do on such a small budget. Um, it's incredible. And I'm I mean, my favorite factoid, it is now Focus Features highest grossing domestic movie after def dethroning Downton Abbey. Sorry, Downton Abbey, uh Downton Abbey fans. Um but I think it speaks to like obsession. I know you've not seen it, and I'll I'll I don't want to spoil anything for you. Obsession feels like one person's vision for something. Like, I want to tell this story, and I'm gonna make this as good as I possibly can with the money I have, and you don't feel, you know, like, and obviously it's very different because it's not an IP thing, but it just it's such a good piece of cinema. Like it's so effective, it's so frightening, it's such an interesting story, it's compelling, it's just it's fantastic in every way. And I think you put that up against the slightly bland corporate flavourlessness of the Mandalorian, and I know which one I pick every single time. I say until you before we started recording, people have asked me, like I have my non-film fan uh fan friends have been saying, do I need to go see Obsathlon in the cinema? And the answer honestly is yes, because it feels like a phenomenon, you know. I it's an incredible, it's an entertaining picture, but it's also a film that's people are talking about, and you want to be involved in those conversations. You don't want to wait till it's on now or Disney Plus or wherever it ends up. Yeah, and I'd say the same true of uh Backrooms, which I've just seen. Again, I won't, you've not seen it yet, I know you you want to go to the cinema to see it. I I've just I got home, I didn't know anything about it previously, so I just I just actually started watching the short film that he did four years ago that sort of started his little um section of films that he did multiple sort of versions of and bits of on on YouTube and grew his following. And I think the the interesting thing is, and this isn't a surprise to me because I've seen the younger generation's desire to come out to the cinema, their desire to have communal experiences and have these things that they don't often get. They, you know, they the younger generation they don't have water cooler moments in the same way we do we did every single week with TV because we were all waiting till 10 o'clock on a Thursday for Ali McBeal or whatever dark whatever thing happened to be on at the time that everyone watched because it was only on at that time. That doesn't exist now. So even if you're massive into Stranger Things, you might watch it at a different time to someone else, you know, unless you organize to watch it at the same time. So you might phone them up and be like, Oh my god, have you seen the latest episode of Stranger Things? Oh no, I've not got round to it, yeah. I was gonna watch it later. And it kind of just takes that excitement out. So they still want that ability to have that water cooler moment, have that um shared experience, but also it shows that there are young creators out there, and if you should put on in a cinema content that is relevant to them, not trying to force the cinema we grew up with on them because they're not interested in that. You do stuff that that speaks to their generation, they turn up for it. 81 million it took domestically uh backrooms, it's A24's highest domestic ri uh opening weekend ever. Double, over double Marty Supreme domestic. I think it's nearly taken internationally the lifetime takings of Marty Supreme already. Like it's not listening. It's mad. And apparently the the it the bot the audience were 85% under the age of 35 and 55% under the age of 25. This is the generation that apparently aren't going to the cinema and aren't interested. It's just they're not interested in the stuff that we wanted them to be interested in. Yeah. But like you say, like with obsession, I think if you give these creators who've proven themselves on YouTube, I mean he's only 20, the guy that did backrooms. But he's proven himself, he's built a following. His first short on YouTube has had 82 million views. He's got three and a half million people or whatever it is, follow him on YouTube, and that doesn't even include his TikTok and whatever else he's he he's got the platforms of. Those people follow him for his content, and they will then follow him into the cinema and support him and be excited about seeing what he does in the cinema. And that's exactly the same as um the director of obsessions, that's exactly the same format. And I think if you can find these uh creators who are doing really interesting stuff online with very limited budgets, and you chuck them a modest budget, still only for 10 million budget for backrooms, you chuck them a modest budget, they're gonna turn out something that their audience, and like I think, like you said, you let them keep their creative vision and you don't let the suits come in and water it down or tamper with it, because they know what their audience want. They've worked and worked to make sure everything they post and everything they create taps into what their audience responds to. So let them do it and the audience will follow them. Yeah. I think you're right. And I think, you know, it's the rise of the we had auteur cinemaker, uh, you know, auteur filmmakers. It's the rise of the create the content creator, you know, uh filmmaker, isn't it? You know, the person who's made YouTube films, who, like you say, has built up a following of their own, and then they go make a movie, and the audience goes with them. Um before we move on, though, I do want to talk a little bit about the snobbery towards Kane Parsons and Curry Barker, who did uh who directed um Backroom Zed Obsession uh respectively. Have you heard the conspiracy theory going around this? So what's this nonsense now? This is that it is impossible, like there are people saying online that these films were ghost directed because they are too good to have been made by YouTubers and first-time filmmakers. Um, very politely and uh cover your children's ears, those people can very politely fuck off. Well, it's the but again, it's the snobbery, isn't it, of saying, well, they're first-time filmmakers, they're not first-time. They might be first-time theatrical filmmakers, but these people have been making YouTube content for years. Like they know how to do this stuff. And, you know, you look at, I mean, you know, let's not let's not kid ourselves. Certainly back rooms had James Wan attack, you know, um, helping produce it had Sean Levy. You know, there are people helping these people who are experienced filmmakers. But I don't think we have to pretend that these films, you know, were these couldn't possibly be made by someone so young. It's just, it is snobbery, and I do think it reflects that they don't see YouTube and those types of videos as real cinema or entertainment. Like it's, you know, throwaway and disposable. And that's just not the case. No. And again, the with with the backrooms, the guy, you know, he had he grown his YouTube. Um, he's got his 3.19 million followers. He made the first short film. I mean, he's been making short films since before he did the backrooms one. One of the shorts he did six years ago, when he was 14, I'm assuming, played um film festivals. He's done other little short films. He the the original Backrooms was a found foot short film. I don't know if he did festivals with it, but he put it on YouTube. It's really good. And then he kept sort of working that same thing and doing more little shorts around it because it was obviously something he really enjoyed. Um, but yeah, he's not a first-time filmmaker in the sense of like you've just handed him a camera, he's just come out of film school, he's done a couple of student shorts. These guys know what, you know, they know what they're doing. Um, and yeah, I think that's incredibly patronizing to try and claim that they've been ghost directed. Um, I think these guys are talented and they've proved themselves first. Yeah. You know, I do not think there's any other way to put it. Um, I think it's it's an exciting time. Uh, you know, I'm very uh Curry Barker in particular. I mean, he's working on anything but ghosts next, which is about some ghost hunters who find who find out uh oh crap, ghosts are real. Uh it's got Aaron Paul in it, so basically I'm there. And he's working on the next uh Texas Chainsaw Massacre, uh, which I'm very intrigued to see considering some of the love, the violence we saw in Obsession. So, yeah, basically, again, cover your children's ears. Go fuck yourself if you don't think, if you think young people can't make films, because they can. Yeah, of course they can. And again, I'd like what would you if I was an investor wanting to put 10 million quid into a film, do I want to give that money to someone who's made a pretentious short that played Venice? Or do like a drama, pretentious short drama that that played Venice, or do I want to give it to a exciting young filmmaker who's made a short film and it's had 80 million views on YouTube? I'm going with the 80 million views. Yeah. Not entirely. You prove an interest in something. Yeah. It it's, you know, it you you you want if if it was a business plan, oh, I've got 80 million people who are interested in my pro my product, you're gonna go, oh right, okay. You've proven the market exists. I played Venice, that is good. Don't get me wrong, playing Venice, playing one of the big film festivals. I as a someone who runs a film festival, I'm not gonna denigrate them. But it doesn't mean you're gonna make something that's commercial. Maybe you're gonna make the next really good drama that's gonna get awards consideration, or maybe it's gonna go to a do a nice festival run, but it ain't gonna do 81 million in its opening weekend. Certainly not. And you know, it goes when we're at Manchester Film Festival this year, and we were doing our talk our panel on um film distribution and you know, like the business side of films. Everyone was saying that genre, if you have a hook, you know, a unique hook and you can break through like obsessions, like back the back rooms, you can do really, really well out of it. And like sales mark um, you know, sales agents are interested in these films, you know, and people who prove they have a built-in audience. So yeah. And I'm I'm interested to see what he does next with backrooms because I think a sequel is probably in the works. There's a lot more it sets up the end of the film, it sets up a lot more that they can do. Um, and I think that liminal space thing, I think Severance kind of did the liminal space concept really, really well, and it kind of taps into that kind of severance-y like vibe, um, especially at the end of the film, but it's obviously a lot more um it's a lot more genre than than say Severance's in terms of its horror leanings. So I won't say any more because I don't want to ruin anything for you. It does get a bit silly and I did find some bits quite amusing. But just it go in expecting to have fun and be a little bit unnerved. It's certainly not flat out horror. It's certainly not flat out horror, and I think, like you say, I'm not a massive fan of horror, but I'm not a massive fan of the sort of big, horrible, jump scary um films. And this has got a couple of kinder little mini jump scares in, but it's not it's more I'd say it's closer to being a horror in the way some of the episodes of Severance are a horror. Yeah, I I mean, so I got a text from uh a big horror um fan friend who said, This is the scariest film I've seen all year. And I was like, Oh wow, okay. And then I had a friend, a text from another big horror fan uh who said, It's really creepy, but it is not scary in any s in any way. Uh so it's interesting you say that. That's like I've I'm it I'm expecting it to be more cerebral than I am, you know, gory or particularly. Oh, there's shocking. There is very little there I I can say there is very little gore. So it's not uh it's not your sort of hostile type horror film, which is the exact type of horror film that I'm not a fan of. Although I will speak, I will defend hostile slightly in that that first one, if you don't know the twist, is alright. Anyway, but that's it, that's a topic for another podcast. Topic for another podcast, but the sort of gore porn type of horror is the stuff I'm not the the biggest fan of. Right. Should we get into it? Should we get into what I saw at Cian? Let's let's start, I feel, with just telling us a little bit about this. Is the longest you've ever stayed at, you've been to Cannes plenty of times before, but this is the longest you've ever stayed. Just tell us a little bit about the whole experience before we start getting into any of the movies. Yeah, so it's interesting. So I had a much more subdued can in a lot of senses than I normally do. So I didn't do um I didn't do the parting as much as I normally do. I had uh I still had meetings, but I had them spread out over a week now instead of sort of crammed into two days, so it felt a lot more chilled from the meeting point of view. I watched a lot of films, so like I say, I watched 18 films uh while I was there. We didn't really do much part many parties, um, just wanted to be able to get up in the morning and go and watch eight o'clock screenings, and I've kind of done the parties and the fun. We had there was a couple of parties I could have gone to, but I got to too late and there was a big queue, and I couldn't be bothered standing in the queue. Um so you know, I I think it was a much more relaxed vibe. It was interesting seeing the sort of market wind down and the festival itself get a lot quieter. So the first weekend of the festival tends to be the really busy weekend for sales agents and deals and meetings and all that kind of stuff, and then everyone kind of leaves by the Monday-Tuesday. So watching the town and the festival itself just get much quieter as the week went on was interesting. So it was nice seeing the back end, and it was also just nice, like I say, being gonna really get stuck into the programme this year and really see what what um what films were were gonna be ones that people would be talking about afterwards and what ones I just thought, meh. So that was yeah, it was quite interesting. But yeah, I didn't I didn't do many parties, so you can be slightly disappointed with me if you want, because I didn't really party it up this year. No hangovers. We've said this before, Neil, we're getting old now. We don't have to be partying every night. We'll save it for one or two nights at a festival these days. We don't need to be, you know, the the you know, tearing it up. Yes, I think as well, I think the the years I've gone partying hardest are where I've gone by myself. So it's kind of like, right, I need to meet people, I'm gonna go to a party, I'm gonna have a good time. Um whereas I was with Carl this year, so I could just sort of head back to the apartment and chill and have a chat with Carl after uh the films had finished, or we'd just go for a beer and bump into some people we know um randomly from Manaf in bars in in in France and stuff, but without having to go crazy. Uh so that was nice. Um and the weather was lovely, which was good. Well, I'm very I'm delighted for you, but we probably should talk a little bit about the movies that you saw while you're out there. So should we start with what was the best thing you saw while you were out there? Okay, we're gonna do that we you want to do it that way round, or I was gonna I was gonna potentially do it chronologically, but but the best thing, I think the best thing I saw when I was out there was the most talked-about film of the festival, the one that sold to A24 for $17 million. It was Club Kid. It was the third film I saw while I was there. Uh so we went and saw it at an 8:30 screening on the Saturday morning, and it was absolutely brilliant. It is, I think it will do fantastically when it comes out. I think it appeals to lots of different demographics. It's a fantastic story of a man discovering he's got a child that he didn't know about and having to reassess his life and the way he lives his life in relation to that. It happens to be a gay man who only had sex with a woman once, but uh And is involved very much in the sort of gay club scene in New York. So it has that spin on it. But ultimately, it's a story about growing up and taking responsibility for yourself and for um for this child that's come into your life. But it was, it was brilliant. It was heartfelt, it was funny, it was ri yeah, really good. Uh, I'm not surprised there was a bidding war for it, and I'm I'm sure it will do amazingly when it comes out. And again, it's another film. He's not a content creator, but he's very much a social media sort of star, the director of the film. So I'm sure his audience will follow him uh to see what he's done because he's also the lead actor in it. Um I'm sure he'll be promoting it like absolute crazy when it gets comes out, and I'm sure it will do really, really well. Um Yeah, I mean, it's his first theatrical, his name's Jordan Firstman. His first theatrical release, and it sells to A24 for 17 million. He had a rough can, didn't he? You know, he had a headache one morning. I imagine he probably did do some partying. He probably did do some partying. So yeah, that was probably the best thing I saw. Do you want the worst thing I saw? I do, I do. Because I think that's how you can choose. It's a tie. It's a tie between Nicholas Weining Reffin's Her Private Hell, which was the most pretentious, self-indulgent piece of nonsense I've ever seen. Uh, and had so many walkouts during the screening in Cannes. People were leaving left, right, and centre. There it's beautiful as you expect from Nicholas Weining Reffin, although some bits are kind of slightly tackily, beautiful. Um, there's no real story, it's kind of an avant-garde, experimental, two-hour-long, very slow piece of nonsense. Um, not his best. Like, I I like Nicholas Weining Reffin. I I I I've kind of I forgave him for only God forgives. Like I didn't mind only God forgives. It was slow and not a lot happened in it, but it it had a lot more going on than this film. It it was I put my tux on, I sat there in my tux till midnight. I'm a impressed I didn't fall asleep. It was it was painful. Yeah, not a fan. You are not alone there. I think it's got like 42, 44% on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment. Um is too high. I have heard that um Sophie Thatcher, the main lead, is pretty good in it. I read at least one review where they were like, oh, it's like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. And I was like, is that a good thing or is that a bad thing? Because the way you described it to us as barely coherent. I was like, is that intentional? I like I I like her in it, and I think it's one of those weird films where you can kind of make it better in your head afterwards. Like the actual viewing experience was dull, but sort of looking back on it and I can romanticize it and make it better in my head afterwards. Um, but the actual watching of it was was was pretty dull. Uh, and the other film that was just absolutely terrible and do not watch, and it was badly acted, badly produced, bad VFX, creepy, weird nonsense was Propeller One-Way Night Coach, the John Travolta. I'm awful. I'm so annoyed at this because I really wanted this to be well, if not good, I wanted it to be entertaining at the very least. So is it like is it bad funny or is it just terrible? No redeeming quality. It's one hour long, and I checked my watch while I was watching it because I was uh wanted to know that it was surely going to end, and it was only half an hour in. Um, it is he basically John Travolta reads his book while you watch some people act it out. Yeah, it sounds I I mean I can't lie, it sounds absolutely terrible. Um and it's the most nepotistic film ever. I think everyone in it's family members of his. Including his daughter, who plays the Air Stewardess, he fancied. Ooh. Yep. Ooh, no. Yep. Um, again, I I will watch that. This is one of those films that I will go out of my way to watch when it eventually ends up. In fact, it might already be on Apple. It might already be on Apple. I'll have to check. Uh the only thing I know about it beyond the text you sent me and Emily saying that it was dreadful, followed by some things I can't say here, was Robbie Collins' review in the telegraph where he gave it one star and said it was like watching a toddler walk into a lamppost. Which I just found hilarious. I agree with Robbie Collin. Although toddler walking into a lamppost, I would at least laugh. At least that's more dear. Okay. Um was there anything that surprised you? I feel like is a fun question. Anything that surprised me? The black ball surprised me. So we hadn't didn't know much about it, went to see it all La Bala Negra, uh, the Spanish title. We booked it for the final Friday before we came home. We had uh time to pop one last film in before we and head to the um headed to the airport, and it was absolutely fantastic. Again, it's had slightly mixed reviews, which really surprises me. It's an it's an epic. So it is a gorgeous, very attractive film, it but it's an epic story set across sort of three time periods, um, all connected by this play, which is uh La Bala Negra and the family members involved in preserving and passing on this play, which supposedly was the first play by a very famous Spanish um playwright or n novelist, and it was his first play to have an openly queer character as the protagonist. So it is kind of a queer story tracking the sort of the history of um uh of queer culture within Spain, but it doesn't bog itself down with that. It's a it's a story about families, it's a story about um connection between generations and people finding out who they are, and I just thought it was absolutely brilliant. It was it was gorgeous. There's an amazing cameo by Penelope Cruz in it. Um she's absolutely fantastic, and I I just loved it. I thought it was joyous and heartfelt. If it was in English, I think it would be 100% a contender for um awards season. I think even though it's in Spanish, I think it will, I think it will go on to be a contender for awards season. It got the longest standing ovation uh during its actual premiere at Cannes of all the films that premiered at Cannes. So the audience certainly connected with it and and really loved it, but critics seem to have been been a bit mixed on it, which is a good thing. But you know, critics can get it wrong sometimes. They can. They can. Um I have to ask, did you watch the Palm Dor winning film Fjord? Well, I missed Fjord. Uh Carl saw Fjord, he's I think he said it was fine. It certainly didn't set any it didn't set the world on fire. We should get Carl on the podcast one day so people can understand what a fine from Carl means. Yes, yeah, we should. Uh right, I'll quickly rattle through the other stuff I saw just for fun. I saw a random French horror movie called Species or Sanguine. Um it was fine. Uh tonely weird, started off quite funny, started off quite absurd and quite funny. Um there was a scene where a magpie got run over, a dead magpie got run over, and the French people in the audience thought that was hilarious. Classic French joke. Yep. Uh but it started off really like weird and and quirky and sort of uh a specific style, and then it just went really dark and um sort of deep and dark and whatever else. And then it kind of went weird and quirky and thingy at the end. So it was it was slightly weird tonely for me, but it was yeah, it was fine. It was some good body horror in it. Um so yeah, I enjoy I I kind of enjoyed it, but it was, you know, it was fine. Uh I saw Gentle Monster, which I thought was uh pretty dull. I think there was a review I saw on Letterboxd, which I completely agreed with. There's like the main film, which is Leah Sadoo dealing with the fact her husband's been arrested for um having loads of indecent images on his computer, and that's the story, that's the whole story, her, how she deals with that, how she comes to terms with it, how he lies about what why it was there and and all this sort of stuff. And then there's this weird side story about the policewoman investigating her, but it's completely pointless, it's got nothing to do with the main story, and every time she comes on playing a like EDM in a car or whatever she's playing really loudly, you're just like, oh no, we'd have to listen. Like it never comes back and ties together at all. It's just I didn't need it. So it could have been a nice hour and a half banger, um, but instead it's like nearly two hours because there's half an hour's worth of extra content you didn't need. So yeah, it wasn't Leah Sadu's was fantastic in it, although I thought the performance was fantastic. Um, one to look out for, I think, um possible award season um sort of talk, maybe, but we'll see. I saw Full Fill, which was an absurdist French film, so by a French director, but it's in the English language, starring Woody Harrelson and uh Kristen Stewart. Uh, absolute rubbish. I mean, I could tell from your tone you were gonna say it was absolute rubbish. I thought it was absolute rubbish. It was I think there's a thing about having a film written in the English language, acted by English actors, but written by someone who that's not their first language. It was mad. They're obviously two fantastic actors, and I love Woody Harrelson and uh Kristen Stewart, I think, is also fantastic. Yet they were I I was watching the first half an hour and I was like, ha why are the acting so bad? Why am I watching such awful acting? And I think I I don't know, maybe it was the fact it was a French writer writing in his non-native language, but yeah, it it was it was kind of fine. It was a midnight movie, so I was watching it at half twelve at night. Um, with Woody and Christian in the audience not far from where I was sat. But um yeah, it was it was just nonsense. See, if you'd have gone to the party afterwards, you could have told Woody, Woody, I'm sorry, mate, you made a steamer. Uh, I mean, he must have been watching it thinking, I don't I don't know. Just the acting was bad at the start. I didn't really get it. It was very odd. Uh I saw Paper Tiger, which is obviously the big, the only sort of big American film. It is good. It is really good. It is I I think if you go into it knowing it's a family drama rather than like a gangster movie, then you will enjoy it more. So yeah, it very much is a family drama. I I really enjoyed it without it being particularly exceptional. Um, yeah, I'm sure it will do fine. I saw Colony, which was a Korean zombie movie. Oh, is this by the guy who made uh Train to Basan? Is this the train to Basang? Yes, it is. Uh yeah, so it was fun. Uh the zombies were good. Uh the protagonist, the the sort of lead protagonist who you think is going to be the protagonist gets murdered by the zombies pretty early doors. Um so yeah, it was fun. It's a zombie movie. It was fun. It was maybe a little bit long, but it was fun. Well, I will say Young Sang Ho, uh maybe uh no, Yon Sang Ho, sorry, I might butchered his name there. Uh he made Trans Perçange, one of the best, most innovative zombie movies I've seen in years. And then he made the follow-up to that, which is like Peninsula, which is a direct sequel to and it's absolute trash. So I'm glad to hear that he's on the road to zombie redemption. Yeah. No, it was good. Uh if you like a zombie movie, this was a decent zombie movie. It was kind of um um a zombie movie meets uh Plorobus. Okay, okay, yeah, I'm into that. So yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting take. Uh I saw Hope, which was the again uh South Korean uh movie about I mean, ostensibly about an alien invasion. Um, but it kind of starts off like a rogue Bigfoot action movie. Like it's the action scenes in it are absolutely brilliant. Um and it's kind of you you think maybe it's like a rogue type big Bigfoot type monster that's come from the woods that is uh attacking this town, but you find out at the end of the film that it's aliens and they're the within the like in the last like five minutes of the film, you find out the aliens have a huge backstory that somehow we're setting up a sequel and uh a cinematic universe and it makes no sense whatsoever, and you don't care. You're just like, no, just leave it as a cool creature feature, and I I would have been loving it. Um so yeah, I think that's been the main consensus with it. Creature animation's also a bit fairly marmite. It's kind of like it's they're like filmed in a different frame rate, like they're from a like from a naughty's computer game or something. Um they're they're slightly odd. I'm not sure about the creature design. But the the action in it's very good, and there's some absolute laugh-out loud moments in it. It's it's very uh funny with its action and it's um very silly. And if you don't take it seriously, you'll have a great time. Brilliant. That's well, sounds fun. In contrast, I watched the Samurai and the prisoner, which we we were excited to go into a samurai movie. They just talked for two and a half hours. Damn, no. The problem is, I think if you are Japanese and you're watching it, you probably get a lot more out of it. But you lose quite a lot of the poetry and the nuance in subtitles. So I think some films just don't work that well translated because it even English subtitles, when you're watching English subtitles, they don't translate every single word they're saying, they often translate context, and it can really change the sort of tone and and meaning of the film. So I think it I think it was let down by that. And there's there was one battle in it, but he showed it from uh in a big wide shot and it was over in two minutes. Yeah, I mean, I this is probably gonna get me thrown out of film critic club, but I must admit, like, I when I was playing to Japan very recently, I decided I was gonna watch some Kurosawa movies on the flight there, because I thought, oh yeah, that'll get me in the mood mood for it. And I watched uh Rashimon for the first time. Um, and it was very clear to me that this is an incredible film that has informed so much of like what cinema is, but Christ Alive, it was not a film for me, if you know what I mean, because the style of acting is so different from what I'm used to. Like, I don't understand what they're saying and the tone they're taking. Clearly, it's you know, like you read the subtitles and you're like, well, he seemed very angry when he said, Yeah, I'm absolutely fine. So is he is he lying? Like, what's going on? So I can sympathize with you when you say that sub subtitles can, in some cases, not always like well, they can tell tell you what's happening, they can't always let you feel what's happening. Yeah, so there that was uh also Biss of Christmas, the new Pedra Amadava one. Uh meh, it was about I didn't I didn't like it. Let's let's just leave it at that. Let's leave it at that. I just thought it was it's not his best work. Uh I like a lot of his films. This was bland and um unexciting and like if you're gonna do so, like come on. You can do what make whatever you want, make something interesting and provocative. It wasn't even remotely provocative, which upset me. Um I saw Victorian Psycho, that was fun. Absolutely loved Victoria, you will love Victorian Psycho. What's it about? Uh it is about a young girl who um is a governess. So she moves to a big stately home in uh England in the Victorian times to become the governess and look after the children. Just turns out she's a psycho. Uh uh. Right. I mean I was hoping it was gonna be that simple. Yeah, and I'm I'm happy you don't really need to know too much more. There's a lot more goes on, but that's pretty much it. And she's it it it's really good. It's really good. It's got Micah Monroe in it as well. She's fantastic. Micah Monroe is the lead in it, and she is brilliant as the slightly unhinged um psychopathic uh governess. You're really good. All in. Yeah, really good. I saw The Man I Love, the new Ira Sachs film with Rami Malik. Meh. Yeah. I mean, listen, my feelings on Rami Malik are well known at this point. Was he the worst thing in it, or was it just meh in general? It was just meh in general. They're just uh it was just pretty bland. I think, you know, it's about it's a film kind of set in 80s New York, going through the the sort of um all the issues uh surrounding being homosexual at the time, without dealing with any of the issues surrounding being homosexual at the time. So Roman Manic's about AIDS and is slowly dying of AIDS, but they don't, you know, they kind of tackle that from the point of view of the the partner he's got and him. I just I don't think it for me, you didn't see any per like persecution towards them for being homosexual. There was no like homophobia that they were having to deal with within the film that I could really see. There was you kind of needed to know a lot of context around it and the situation they were in to get a lot of it, before without them having showing that in any way on film. So it it and it was very slow and uh pr I yeah, not I wasn't a fan. Sounds a bit ponderous. Yes. I saw Minotaur, which is a film by Russian dissident. It's basically again, it's like a uh kind of a it takes a bit of a turn halfway through, which is fun. Um so it's it it's about a businessman who is you know kind of struggling with the fact that everyone that works for him's got the frickin' hell out of Russia after they invaded Ukraine. They've all absolutely fled and got out of there because they don't want anything to do with it. He's handed down conscriptions that he has to um meet, so he has to suggest a load of people from his company to go and fight in the war. Uh obviously doesn't want to do that because he values his people and he cares about them. Um, but it's also about corruption within the Russian system and how rich people get away with whatever they want to get away with. Um so yeah, it was it was it was an enjoyable watch. Uh I enjoyed that. It was it was pretty good. I saw I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning. So the last two I saw were the two sort of British films of the of the festival. I really enjoyed I see Buildings Fall Like Lightning. Um it's by Chloe Bernard, um, who directed Alien Ava. Um I really enjoyed the film. I it's about a group of friends from Birmingham who are kind of dealing with being in their twenties. One of them's moved away to London because he's either inherited or made loads of money. It's never quite clear how he got all his money, but he's made loads of money and he lives in a posh soulless apartment in in London and has a posh girlfriend that they all call Kate Middleton. Um, and him that's sort of the friends he's left behind and and them going through what what they're going through as young working class people living in Birmingham. So I kind of enjoyed it watching it. Um there were some bits of it that I thought just didn't quite work, but overall I I enjoyed it. And then we had a Q ⁇ A with the director afterwards. And this um pissed me off, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to say. Um someone stood up in the audience and asked a very good question. They basically said um the one of the the most articulate young man in the film who is very anti-capitalist and pro kind of workers' rights and and the rights of the the working classes, he went away to university to to Leeds as a thing in the film. He went away to university to Leeds and and stuff happened while he was at uni that that becomes contentious in the film. But so he's got a degree from from Leeds Uni. So the her question was why did you put this character who's the most outspoken against the capitalist system? Um why did you have him working in the most oppressive possible job as a delivery uh driver on a bike, like a essentially a delivery driver? Yeah. And the director look looked absolutely blindsided by this question. And she said, um uh um well uh uh that's I think that's a that's all that was available to him. And I just thought bullshit. Yeah. Bullshit. A university educated white young man isn't driving Deliveroo bikes. That is not that and and also at no point in the film did we see him going to the job center or trying to get a different job. He just for the six months or so that the film was set over, just cycled around on his bike for deliveroo and seemed perfectly that was that's what he did. He wasn't looking for another job. That's just what he did. So so it wasn't a plot point in the movie, like because you can see the arg I could see the argument being made of, you know, like with the with the the way the world is without getting into politics of like graduates and the lack of um opportunities for people, you know, for new gr uh for people just coming out of the unit. I could see that being a powerful point for a film to make, but then like you say, you you feel like the film has to address that a little bit and can't just go, why is that happening? Yeah. You need to see you need to see him lose his job and then have to, but that was all that he could do for the time being while trying to find another job. You needed you you at the bare minimum, you needed him trying to find another job. Um, but this is a university educated young white man. Like he's from a working class background, fine, but it doesn't matter. You don't see those people drive cycling around for delivery. So it didn't make any sense in the film to have him do that. And the fact that they didn't have an answer just made me think, and I looked into who the writer of the film was, the original book, I think, that it's Based on was probably, I'm assuming the guy that wrote that was from a working class background. But my guess is the screenwriter definitely wasn't, uh, and the director definitely isn't. And I'm just guessing they just haven't got a bloody clue how working class people actually live. And there's just assumptions made. Oh, what should we have him do? Oh, he can be a delivery uh delivery driver. That seems like something people like that would do. And you're like, nope, not a chance. That's not he wouldn't do that. And he would at least be constantly looking for another job. Because he was the sole wage earner in his house with two young daughters. Yeah, yeah, no. Seems weird. So uh I really liked the film. Other than that, really pissed me off. Other than the QA. Yeah. Just put some thought into why you're doing things. An important, an important lesson to any directors listening, just won't work prep for your QA. Yeah, well, just what when you make decisions in your film, have a reason why you're making that decision. So strange. Yeah, really odd. So that that annoyed me. And then the other one I saw was uh The End of It, which stars Rebecca Hall as a 250-year-old woman. Okay. Um, she lives in a society where basically, for the certain select few who are rich enough, aging doesn't exist anymore. Um they have their they have weird things where they they sort of plug themselves in and their blood goes through a machine and they take certain pills and things like that, but they don't age um and they will live forever. All of her bones are now composite materials because they've been replaced over her lifetime. Um and she has her she keeps all the other bones and she's an artist and she's got like a skeleton, her own skeleton, um as an art exhibit. Uh it's about her sort of dealing with the fact that she doesn't actually want to live anymore. She's kind of bored and fed up. So she decides to end her life, which everyone's very shocked at um because they're all happy living forever. And all her friends are very funny and moronic and um classic. It's good it's a good tone to the film. Um and she decides to she she's gonna end herself, but she also decides that she's going to make that an art piece. So she's gonna end her life as an artistic piece. And um this obviously gets a lot of traction, and a lot of people turn up to sort of count down to her um her taking her life. So you're sort of like, oh wow, if she wanted to back out of it now, it's gonna be tricky. She really can't, yeah. So it doesn't deal uh massively with that, but it was fun. I'll be really interested to see what the director does next because I think they've got a really, really there's really clear style, a really clear sort of vision from the director in it, which I thought was really um cool. Um yeah, I enjoyed it, and Rebecca Hall was fantastic in it. So that I really enjoyed. No, fantastic. And it wasn't ruined by a direct QA not managing to answer a question. They didn't ask at any point what does the skeleton mean? And she went, Dr. No, no QA after that one, so we didn't we didn't get to know. But um, yeah, I really enjoyed it. I think um it'll be, you know, it's Black Mirror-esque in its sort of story, and I think that the fact that Black Mirror-esque has become a genre is is is tricky for a lot of films like that. Um, because the comparison is often to those fantastic episodes of Black Mirror, but it I think it stands on its own. I think it's got enough it's trying to say on its own without um to to escape that comparison. Fair enough. That one sounds that one sounds interesting. When you started talking about it, I was reminded of that terrible Justin Timberlake movie about time, where the um he's that they trade years like money and it's absolutely woeful. And I was a bit like, oh god, are we heading in that direction? Yeah, this definitely isn't that. Good. Good. Yes, sorry, that was a quite a long uh tour of what I saw at Cannes, but I did see a lot. You did? I'm very proud of you. We were there for 10 days. Can you give us your review of this year's can in like, do you think it was a successful can? Because obviously, like um there's been a lot of ink spilt on people saying it's a smaller can than usual, you know, like more indie films. Deliberate move on the festival's part, obviously. Um, what did you make of it, considering you've been a few times now? I think it's it was it it was different in the fact there wasn't quite the same level of excitement around some of the films that you didn't have a Mission Impossible and a Tom Cruise jetting and things like that. But I think you still had enough star power there to make it exciting. Uh you had Miles Teller, you had Adam Driver, you had um enough sort of Hollywood celebs who were there to lend that weight and that star power to things. You had Rami Malik, you had, you know, these are A-list celebs who are still turning up. 100% to present their films. I think the films were um, I've seen a lot of competition films at Cannes uh across the years, and um I think these that they stood up against stuff I've seen in previous years. I think last year was more exciting across the board. I think you had films like Cirat, you had films like Sentimental Value, you had It Was Just an Accident. Um, I think you had some bigger hitters last year in terms of exciting films from the competition that that broke out. I don't know this year that you're gonna have as many films that that break out in from the competition in terms of in the same way they did last year. Um but I I enjoyed everything I watched. Um, even if I didn't like it, I still kind of enjoyed it. And I've missed a film, I've missed a film, Tom. The first film I saw when we got there, we raced to the cinema and watched Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. Of course. Yeah, brilliant. Um, so a meta kind of weird slasher movie um starring uh Gillian Anderson and um I always forget her name, Hannah Einbinder from Hacks. Essentially playing the same character she plays in Hacks. Playing the same character, but um brilliant film, really funny. Um slasher movie, uh sort of a meta kind of take on it, lesbian slasher movie, loads of sweets, lots of candy in it, and there's a scene where there is a love scene between her and Gillian Anderson where Gillian Anderson fingers her on a pile of sweets, which, if that's not enough to get you to the cinema to watch. I don't know what is. And that was the first thing you saw after after getting off the plane, landed in Cannes. Come on, come on, Kyle. Let's go across town with us. But yeah, really, really, really good. Um, very funny, um, nice amounts of gore. Really, yeah, that was really good. So I think you know, it can has I think Uncertain Regard is a great um section at Cannes that has really, really good films. That's where sort of Pillion and Urchin and other films like that came out of last year, and that's where Club Kid and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Masma came from. Um, so I think that I think there was loads of exciting films. I just that wasn't those one or two that got people really excited. Yeah. But overall, I think I think a strong can without being a classic year. Okay. Well, you know, it sounds like you had a good time, Neil. And ultimately, isn't that the main point? It is. I think last year I probably if I'd watched, if I'd stayed for a week last year and got to watch 18 films last year, I think they would have been a higher calibre across the board. But I don't think I'd have seen anything necessarily better than say Club Kid, Teenage Sex, Um Hope was also fun. You know, those sorts of films. I don't think The Black Uh Ball, I think they were all absolutely fantastic films. I don't think I'd have seen anything that much better. And you can always see a stinker. There's, you know, I've seen plenty of stinkers. Uh every festival, with the exception of Manchester, has its stinkers. Exactly. But my stinker might be someone else's classic, so who knows? Very true. Very true. Um, I'm very excited though, because we are now, well, we are about to start off Blockbuster season. We are about to start blockbuster season. I'm very film very excited about Disclosure Day. Yeah, I'm literally like that, I think is the film I'm most excited for, especially if these whispers and rumors about it being a secret sequel to uh Close Encounters end up being true. I'm like, oh, okay, I'm interested to see what that is. But I I think, you know, for all the uh snobbery around blockbuster movies, I think uh Steven Spielberg invented the blockbuster so we can give him the time of day when he decides to do another massive alien movie. Uh yes. And I think this might be the year where the 2026 box office, maybe, maybe this will be the year we get above pre-pandemic levels. Do you think I I think we'll do it. Let's just have a look where we are so far. 2026, box of. You know what? Actually, so we do have I mean, we've had a Super Mario movie. I mean, it's mental to me that the Super Mario movie didn't break a build. Is it still in cinemas? Is it not breaking a billion yet? No. Worldwide dress nine uh nine nine two. Well, that is a surprise. Yeah. I mean, it needs eight million more, so I guess it will cross a billion. Yeah, 100% it definitely will. But you know. Um, you know, I I listen, we've got Supergirl, we've got Disclosure Day, we've got He-Man. There's plenty coming in the next week. I can't believe you're not excited for He-Man. We've got Toy Story 5. We've got Toy Story 5. That's a billion guaranteed. Yeah, that's just you, that's just you going though, isn't it? Me going, yep. Uh yeah, we've got disclosure day, like you say, we've got um we've got a lot to come uh this year. Uh and you know, it supergirl will be interesting. There's a lot of talk about it maybe being a bit of a mess behind the scenes. Um Jackass Best and Last is also coming out at the same time as that, so I know which one I'm definitely going to see. Minions and Monsters, that's probably another billion guaranteed. I would guess so, yeah. Um, so you know, we've got a lot of films like that coming out. There's a Spider-Man movie, That'll make a billion. Easy. Yep, Spider-Man, that's absolutely neuron. Oh, yeah, Nolan. Yeah, but there's set like I'm very curious. Alright, I'm gonna be really curious to see how that Nolan movie does. It will do amazingly. Yeah, but there's just so many people seem to want to hate it. Like, I see so many people complaining about stuff in it, and I'm like, what are you talking about? Uh people don't like the dad thing, do they? But that's because people are idiots. Yeah, that is true. People are stupid. Um, but yes, I and then what have have we got have we got Doomsday? Yes, we do. And Dune 3. Dune 3, yeah. Jeez Louise. Um I'm quite looking forward to the Dog Stars as well, the new Ridley Scott one with uh Jacob Alordi. God, yeah. That looks good. Yeah, that's supposed to be good. That looks good. Another zombie movie, I believe. Yeah. So plenty to be excited about. Yeah, I think there's a lot to be excited about this year, and I think I think this will be I think we might get above 2019 level. We could talk we could talk about this in January and be like, well, we got that wrong. When Doomsday makes it a lot of people. Oh god, I'm not interested in that. Neither am I. About how Mark Zuckerberg's even more of a a-hole than he was in the first one. Yeah, remember how much you hated him in this one? Well, you'll hate him even more now. Are they really going to release Doomsday and Dune part three on the same day? That's what they claim. And uh Robert Downey Jr. is desperate to make Dunes Day a thing, like we had with uh Barbenheimer a few years ago. But sadly, I do not think that's the same. I mean, they are releasing them over Christmas, so it gives people a lot of time to go and see them. So I suppose there's no reason necessarily to split them. I'll be interested to see if one of them does blink, which one blinks first, because I think years ago we would have said that Dune would have been the one to move. But now I think with how damaged the Marvel franchise is, that might be changing. Yeah. Right. I think we're gonna need to wrap it up here, Tom, because we've been talking for nearly an hour. And if anyone has lasted this long into it, then hats off to them. Uh well done for getting this far. We salute you. Well done, Jen. Um, but yeah, so next time we talk, uh you'll have seen He-Man, I'm sure. I will have seen He-Man. We might know a bit more about what's going to play Venice, uh, see if Venice can be a starrier affair than Cannes was. Uh, I know Venice it will definitely want to be, because Venice loves celebrities. Yes, it does. Uh, and then we're into the fall season, so we'll be we'll be looking at BFI London and Toronto and all the fall festivals. So that will be very exciting. Um, but until then, uh enjoy yourselves and me and Tom will see you next time we are between screenings. Bye.