The Voices
00:40:37
About
There’s a lot of films called “The Voices”; but we’re covering the best - the Marjane Satrapi directed 2014 one, starring Ryan Reynolds. A film that teaches you the value of covering cold meat, even in the fridge; that if someone shifty doesn’t want you to go inside their house, take the hint and walk away; and, in the words of Dr Peter Venkman, cats and dogs living together IS mass hysteria. A strange and compelling film, mixing humour and some very troubling drama, often to queasy effect; “The Voices” just proceeded Ryan Reynolds’ renaissance as Deadpool; and, hopefully, is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us. And if you are having difficulties with your mental health, seek help - whether that’s with your Doctor or even just talking with friends and family. Stay safe.
Transcript
Show full transcript
LeeEvening everybody, Lee here. A regular listeners will know that we recently did a supernatural stories episode, or not, depending on your beliefs.
LeeBut it seems to have gone down quite well, and we've spoken to a few people who said they've got interesting stories of their own.
LeeSo, as we tempted the idea at the end of our last episode, we're going to do a follow-up at some point.
LeeSo, if any of you have stories of your own that you think could be interesting, that you wouldn't mind us sharing with the listeners,
Leefeel free to either record them and email them over to us at info@welcometohorror.com, or otherwise, you can type them out and send them to us, and we will read them out on the show.
LeeIf you'd rather not use your name, we will use your first name otherwise, but if you'd rather go under an alias, include that in the message and we'll be sure to use that.
LeeThanks very much, and enjoy the show.
LeeGood evening, and welcome to horror.
LeeI'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
UnknownAnd tonight I will be.
UnknownJennifer. Lady Jennifer.
UnknownSinging live.
UnknownLess of the singing.
UnknownSo not Matthew, I will be Wayne Sleeps.
Leethey don't answer, right, anyway, I'm getting off before we can started.
LeeYes, there will be spoilers, there will be swearing.
LeeWe are covering a great film. We are joined by Lady Jennifer because she is both a professional in the field and a mahoosive fan of this movie.
LeeSo, as Chris has seen this film before, which we will discuss very shortly, and Adam hadn't, we are going to kick off this evening, what were your first impressions of The Voices. Oh yeah, we're discussing The Voices, ladies and gentlemen. The Ryan Reynolds movie from..
Adam2014.
AdamI think we'd better make that clear because it wasn't until I was on IMDb that I realized quite how many films called The Voices there are.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd at least three others are horror films.
UnknownOh, wow.
ChrisAre any of them worth watching? Are any of them anywhere near as possibly good as this one might be?
AdamI've no idea. I really have no idea.
AdamI just noticed it and I was like, right, can't be like those ones because they haven't got Deadpool in them.
LeeYeah.
ChrisI wait, so I I do want to know why you didn't watch it for so long.
ChrisAnd because I would have thought you'd really like this, Adam, so it would be interesting to know, to find out the truth.
AdamWell, I mean, it's I I it wasn't a avoidance thing if anything, I just didn't know anything about it.
AdamAnd presumably it was just not one that Leo or Jennifer showed me.
ChrisOh.
AdamYou know,
UnknownYeah.
Adamit was just hadn't come up on one of our film nights or whatever like that.
AdamSo, I think that's the I didn't know if you were anti Ryan Reynolds.
AdamNo, not at all.
AdamNo. I mean, and though there is that's something that I found interesting reading it, it was like looking into it was the fact that most the stuff talking about this contemporaneously only has oh yeah, he's the guy he's Van Wilder party on.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd it's like, oh yeah, this is just pre that real sort of well, Deadpool basically, but he's real sort of like stratospheric stardom sort of thing.
Adamso yeah, so I don't certainly wasn't that.
AdamI do have to ask Lee the question, do you only watch comedies about mentally ill people and conga dancing?
ChrisYes.
Leeyes, I yeah, I can see this would have also worked very well with with a perfect toast.
AdamAnd also I also would have to ask, do I only ever see Gemma Arterton in things about mentally ill people divorce from reality?
AdamBecause going into it, I was like, I don't know that name and then I was like, oh no, she's in Tom and Jerry and Inside number nine.
UnknownYeah.
AdamAnd yeah, but again, it's one of those things where just I've I think pretty much everyone in this apart from Ryan Reynolds, all the names, I was like, I know the name. I don't think I've ever seen them in anything.
Adamlike Anna Kendrick, I was like, well, I know that name. I hear that name a lot, but I don't think I've consciously seen anything.
AdamBut I mean, I'm I don't know how I feel about The Voices.
AdamIt's I think it's a lot sadder than I thought it was going to be.
AdamYeah. Or, do you know what I mean?
AdamIt's a lot bleaker. I think I was too hooked up on horror comedy, which I it's got funny bits, but I don't think it's a comedy.
UnknownThat makes sense, Adam, as Chris will explain later, I'm sure.
AdamYeah.
LeeYou do the dance number at the end, so you leave on such a high, you go, oh, that was great fun.
LeeAnd it is and then you watch it again and go, oh yeah, but it's really there are some details. Yeah.
AdamI saw someone, I saw someone call it a karaoke version of Red Dragon.
LeeWow.
AdamAnd I get that where it's the sort of versus the reality of it.
AdamAnd but yeah, it's it's a just it's a very strange beast of a film.
AdamIt's sort of it's neither fish nor fowl.
AdamIt sort of, yeah, I couldn't I don't know, I certainly it's left me thinking, which is always good.
AdamAnd there were bits of it that I really enjoyed.
AdamAnd there were performances and everything that I really enjoyed.
AdamBut I just can't quite I still haven't skewed it in my head.
ChrisAnd I wonder if us talking about it will have any change.
AdamWell, that's the thing is because I haven't had that opportunity, usually a lot of the films are sort of ones that we've
ChrisGone through.
Adameither excitably because we've just seen it or it's ones that have been around for a while.
AdamYou know, like for example, the last one we did Session 9 is a film that I knew and really enjoyed that one time that I'd watched it and it was sort of there and I'd got a grip on it.
AdamBut I think with this, it's it's too new for what it is for me to even say what I liked about it or yeah, it's just a a very odd beast.
AdamBut I think also I would like to rewatch it just on the point of view that I now know where it's pitched.
UnknownOh, as well. I think there's bits that you don't notice the first time, but by the fourth or fifth time, you kind of appreciate, you know,
ChrisI think you're expecting my my difficulty having just watched the brand new film of when it has especially when it is a comedy horror and it's like how funny is that necessarily. Because you yeah, it's knowing how am I meant to feel about this? Like is it actually something that's being funny but really is dark and potentially sad.
ChrisWhich this certainly does have a strong element of.
AdamBecause I because I think it was like when we watched when we watched my Bloody Banjo and as we said, there was very much you know, the first half of it is actually quite a kind of a difficult watch, but everything is so heightened and so obviously in a daft world.
AdamWhich I don't think this is, even though it's essentially basically, it's really weird because it's the serial killer a serial killer film told from the point of view of the idealized delusional reality of that serial killer.
AdamYeah.
LeeThat's why I loved. It's just which should hit so many fucking buttons for me.
AdamYou know what I mean, but it's sort of like I'm still sort of like processing in a way. I think.
UnknownIs it because it's Ryan Reynolds and you're like, oh, but he's sexy and cute and he dances and it's like, whoa.
AdamI don't know if it's that because curiously enough, I didn't really like Jerry.
UnknownNo.
UnknownWell, you're not meant to, I suppose, are you?
AdamI mean, quite quite worryingly, I really like Mr. Whiskers.
UnknownOh, cool.
UnknownWho doesn't?
AdamAlthough absolute absolutely negative points, he should have been called Frank.
AdamThat's all.
AdamIt shouldn't have a comedy name.
UnknownOh, no, it should.
UnknownI like that.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut although obviously friend and friend of the podcast and sometime guest and Mosly Happy Hour alumnus Mr. Wesley Smith does always say that cats should have a prefix.
UnknownYeah.
AdamThey should be Mr. or Miss, you know, that and then they're nine.
AdamSo, you know, it follows the Wesley Standard, which is always good.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo, but yeah, I just sort of yeah. It's just bizarre. So.
Leeand got you thinking. I think that's definitely a
AdamThat without a shadow of doubt, that means I'm I'm not dismissing this film whatsoever.
AdamThat is it's not I don't like this film. This is like, I need to pour over this. I need to process and think about this.
AdamAnd like I say, it probably is like if I rewatch it, I think I'll find it because I've watched it the once for the show.
Adamlike the other night, but that you know, I need to sort of
Unknownnow how Chris for the second time.
ChrisYeah.
AdamSo, yeah, so Chris as as your second viewing, please tell me where you are.
ChrisYeah, and it was a few years ago now that we watched it first.
ChrisAnd I I don't remember being told much about it.
ChrisSo, I don't know that I knew exactly what to expect. And it it's it is quite an experience. especially if you haven't seen many others, you know, of of similar genre.
Chrisbut I got to say, I I definitely remember liking Ryan Reynolds, I'm fairly certain it was the first time I'd seen him.
ChrisAnd I thought when we first watched it and this time again, I do think he plays the character well.
Chris
Chrishe he's a like he's very awkward, you know, he doesn't have any friends and he doesn't really know how to socialize with people and yet there is something still charming about him.
Chriswhile also very creepy. And he he does get all of that across in different ways at different times.
ChrisAnd I think that is effective.
ChrisAnd I suppose it's it's hard for me not to like a film that is potentially trying to.
ChrisOr this is a debate I have with some people occasionally about.
UnknownWhen the voices.
ChrisWell, possibly that, yeah. No, when when comedies appear to be being very offensive potentially and laughing at something. I think sometimes the comedians are doing it in a way to potentially get the people who otherwise wouldn't care whatsoever about that particular topic to first laugh but then maybe get across something a bit extra where they're like, okay, you know, I kind of see something there.
Chrisso so in this, it's like, are we just laughing at someone with a mental illness.
UnknownNo,
UnknownI'm laughing. I feel sorry for him.
ChrisOr or the purpose is to to perhaps capture an audience that wouldn't necessarily always think I'm going to be interested in watching a documentary about mental illness. But I'll watch this film, oh, and actually it's going to be a few things to think about where yeah, you know, I never really thought somebody growing up who has inherited a genetic mental illness.
UnknownLater and later.
ChrisIt would appear and also traumatized by
Chrishaving to kill their mother, probably going to have some impact on them. We'll yeah, and so and so, you know, what like I'm sure there may be somebody like that. And yeah, what sort of things they go through. I mean, he he's he is essentially trying to get on in life.
ChrisAnd and then things happen.
UnknownWell, I like you feel sorry for him.
ChrisAnd you probably do, yeah.
UnknownAnd he's almost stark.
UnknownBut I also think if he wasn't as attractive, if like it wasn't Ryan Reynolds playing him, you probably wouldn't feel quite as much pity and
Chriseventually. Well, he's he's got a very boyish.
UnknownYeah, and that kind of and charm.
UnknownIt's like he hasn't grown up.
AdamMaybe maybe when they have those snatches where he goes back to when he stops when he starts taking the medication and sees the world for as it is.
ChrisThe way it really is.
AdamYeah. Nothing talks, he's got a rot in the fridge, the place is covered in pet shit and bleak. Everything is like, maybe he shouldn't have looked maybe he shouldn't have been played by Ryan Reynolds.
LeeOh, yeah, change a different actor.
AdamIt's almost like Ryan Reynolds is his idealized expression of it's like, yeah, I'm a bit goofy, but you know, I'm I'm attractive.
ChrisAnd then actually it's It turns out.
LeeYeah.
UnknownIf he were to play him, Adam, which actor would be suitably.
AdamI I don't know. I think I I've
LeeI've got this.
ChrisI think I could give it a good go.
UnknownWell, I'm gone, Chris.
Chrisyou can personally.
ChrisI could pull it off.
UnknownFair enough.
ChrisA miserable version of Ryan Reynolds.
LeeAll right.
LeeLee's going to find someone, are you?
ChrisOh.
UnknownOh, dear.
UnknownWe'll wait.
ChrisWell, while we're, well, yeah, while while Lee's processing.
AdamCuz because that was the other thing as well is that kind of there's I think there's a obviously, I think in terms of it being about mental health.
AdamI think that there is basically, I found Jerry selfish.
AdamIn so much as it's like, yes, I know that everything's shit.
AdamBut you haven't taken your pills and now people are dead.
AdamAnd it's not like you're not receiving help. You've gone to a psychiatrist to a medical professional to seek help for it. She has told you to take your medicine and you're not doing it because it's better if the cat's if the dog's talk to you.
ChrisWait, wait, was he did he choose to go to? I thought that was part of his president.
AdamOh yeah, it's part of his president.
AdamBut that's the thing is that you can't argue the case.
AdamA lot of the time when especially when you read about like not so much now but sort of older cases with serial killers and things like that, is it's clear that the world just did not have any form of infrastructure to try and help mentally ill people.
ChrisBut it's this is one now.
ChrisWell, so I thought the point of this was that yeah, there is some infrastructure but it's still not working.
ChrisAnd then the scene where he tried to jump to the film.
AdamBut but she chooses not taking them.
ChrisNo, yeah, but.
LeeI think this is the discussion I had with Jennifer.
LeeAnd what she said quite rightly, as an expert in the field, yeah, is that unfortunately, the side effects of the meds, they make people feel unwell, etcetera.
LeeSo as soon as you start feeling better, your immediate thing is, well, I'm fine now, so I can just stop saying.
ChrisI think there would actually be a lot of people that would do that.
AdamOh, there's a lot of it's a very difficult thing because basically you're asking people who have a unstructured mind to do something structured.
LeeYeah.
UnknownYeah.
AdamAnd it's not a it's not a good system.
AdamBut I just found that it was because even down to that where it's like, he basically spends an afternoon cult to well, cult turkey of his illness essentially.
AdamOr no, hot turkey because he's on the drugs. So he spends an afternoon hot turkey, then just chucks him away and makes himself sick because it's.
ChrisBut but the but it's like you said though, the meds are not what you would call perfect.
ChrisSo, and especially some people I think respond really badly to them, others not so badly, so that's really hard to say everyone gets exactly the same result.
ChrisSo, if they really do make you feel awful.
ChrisAnd plus he has no support network, there is got no friends, no family.
AdamBut but the only thing that they show you in there the side effects of the drug for him are is that he sees the world as it truly is.
ChrisYeah, no, but I think, I think.
AdamThey show it that way. They don't spend too long on it, but I'm sure that inside he's still going to be feeling a lot of pain.
AdamOh yeah.
AdamBut it's And I agree. I completely agree.
ChrisYeah. I agree. Ideally, he should. But I I still think if he felt but then yeah,
ChrisJennifer said as soon as your as soon as you feel better, it would be tempting to go, I'm fine now, so I don't have to.
ChrisI must be cured.
ChrisWell, it could you. pink jump suits and you know, the sun's shining, or yeah, you got to see the doll grayness, you can see why. But I mean, even just thinking of people. But but if people if people end up dead because of that.
UnknownNo, I'm laughing. I feel sorry for him.
UnknownOr or the purpose is to to perhaps capture an audience that wouldn't necessarily always think I'm going to be interested in watching a documentary about mental illness. But I'll watch this film, oh, and actually it's going to be a few things to think about where yeah, you know, I never really thought somebody growing up who has inherited a genetic mental illness.
ChrisYeah, but he's on his own though.
ChrisI think, I think if he had.
UnknownIn his mind. None of it.
AdamJust just so you can watch, you know, forklift ballet.
UnknownYeah, well, exactly. I think that's a fair trade off.
LeeSorry. Just to cut in and cheer this off. The person I was thinking of and couldn't think of his name is Eddie Marsan.
AdamOh, fuck yeah, he'd have been perfect.
LeeBecause he plays like uncomfortable and socially awkward, perfectly.
LeeLike if you dropped him in in the points when he actually took the meds, that would be perfect and then you say to go, oh yeah, no, he's nothing like that.
UnknownYeah.
LeeThat charisma and like he'd be amazing.
AdamBut also would that then also skew the movie in the way that we've been talking where it's like, yeah, do you want to be Eddie Marsan or do you want to be do you want to be Ryan Reynolds, you know, and the obvious answer.
AdamBut it's no offense to Mr. Marsan, I'm sure he's a fine man and a fucking incredible actor.
LeeThat's why he came straight to mind. I've seen him in three films in the last two weeks.
LeeAnd both times I've been like, he gives such a stellar performance, like, an awkward performances.
LeeYeah, where he played he played someone who was kind of not in their comfort zone and and was kind of in a really awkward position. Yeah, and that was why it just lept to mind. I was like, he would just be absolutely perfect for this.
AdamYeah, I think and I
AdamI have someone close who has a skizoid I don't know what the term is but it's basically a skizoid
AdamIt's not schizophrenia because schizophrenia is permanent.
AdamNow, the interesting thing was is a lot of the stuff I'm seeing, people saying schizophrenia, which they obviously never say in the film.
UnknownNo.
AdamAnd I think that's very key because I think a lot of people have got hooked up on that sort of side of it.
AdamBut it's so Claire has schizo effective disorder, which is essentially periodic schizophrenic sort of moments.
AdamNow, she takes her meds and it's touch wood is being kept in check and everything else like that.
AdamAnd it's not a permanent state, it is a state that you can go into.
AdamBut so I sort of like if anything, I've used her as a scientific advisor on it as well.
UnknownSo you signed off on it then? You'll say goodbye, so what happens?
AdamI thought we've got we've got both sides. We've got we've got both the medical side and the experience side of of the the sort of thing.
AdamAnd but she said that the the stuff like the forklift ballet is accurate because it's that pastel effect and that sort of everything's vivid.
UnknownYeah, and you say it.
AdamYeah, and it's and she said that those bits or like when he goes and finds Fiona's body, and there's no blood and it's very beautifully sort of laid out. It's still he's still a dead body, but it's kind of sanitized, if you like, and sort of snow white sort of feeling.
Adamand also but also the bit where the voices in the fridge were arguing and the the sing song music, like the Jerry and Fiona, Jerry and Fiona.
Adamsort of she said that those were the bits that most reflected those states.
Adamthe one thing that I think she found was the thing with it though is that the dog and cat good versus evil hallucination.
Adamkind of doesn't gel with the rest of it because the rest of it feels right because it's kind of messy, whereas that is that feels too much like a conceit, if you see what I mean.
ChrisYeah, very contrived.
AdamThat's it. That is some of the best dog and cat acting I've seen.
UnknownThat's it. Dog and cat.
LeeOh yeah, I knew that you'd love and like, yeah, just the way both of those are.
Leethat the and it's funny because I I genuinely forget about the dog and like, how can you forget a film in which you've got a talking dog and a talking cat and the dog is encouraging and loving and the cat is an absolute shit ass, how can you forget that it's part of this film.
LeeBut you easily can because there's just
Chrisis is that is that dog and cat stereotyping though. Yeah. So you so you don't think that the the issue here is its representation of mental illness but its representation of stereotypes of feline and canine behavior.
UnknownDefinitely. Yeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownI do.
UnknownI do.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownI do.
UnknownI do.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownI do.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownI do.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownI do.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownI do.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownYeah.
UnknownNo, I feel like the mental health issue, yeah, it's not supposed to be a perfect example of a specific disorder, because I think there isn't one, is there? That's sort of the point. Everyone experiences it very differently, so I guess for some people that element of the devil and the angel is really big in their mental illness. Other people obviously have hallucinations, other people might hear the voices or so I guess I sort of took it as a, you know, yeah, broad rush strokes of mental illness and how it might affect someone.
AdamWell, it's also a perfect conceit for describing someone like for describing a murderer.
UnknownYes, yeah.
AdamThat's it. Because, you know, he's and you know, I think apparently like they said that they were going to do it, they wanted to get actors in to do the voices.
AdamAnd then Ryan Reynolds sent the director him doing the voices like as a voice message or something like that.
UnknownBrilliant.
AdamAnd then, but but yeah, then the director, she said that it then made perfect sense because obviously everything's coming from within his mind.
AdamSo it makes sense that the voices are him apart from people who have a voice, as it were.
UnknownAnd then I didn't realize it was him, so tell me that.
LeeYeah.
LeeI mean, like they don't sound like him.
LeeI'm sure most of my first watch to suddenly it's not until the point where you see him doing the dog's voice, that's what Oh shit. No, like that is him doing those voices. And that was when I finally realized because he just,
Leeyeah, they sound so different.
LeeI don't know why, in my mind, doing different accents or whatever is so difficult.
LeeSo for him to do like the Scottish accent that well, I was like, no, they've obviously dubbed that over the cap.
UnknownHe's an actor, didn't you know that?
LeeWell,
UnknownYeah.
UnknownThere's people that didn't know that.
UnknownThey paid a lot.
AdamYeah, but yeah, but there's also there's also I would refer you to the actor Sean Connery.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, accents or something not Scottish accents, he's very good at them, but others are a bit of a.
LeeI mean, we could have a whole there.
AdamYes.
LeeAnd talking about the performances here, you mentioned Anna Hendry.
LeeI'm the same. I I always think, I've definitely recognized her.
LeeSo she's the second girl he kills, who actually fancies him and goes on the date with.
UnknownActually fancies him.
UnknownOh.
LeeThe first one didn't. No, it's all right.
AdamLisa.
LeeYes.
LeeBut I I like she's the same, I sort of recognized her face and I'm like, I've definitely seen her in stuff, but she was so good in this.
ChrisLike, I thought. Yeah, when she turns, when she starts to realize.
AdamAlthough although that did watching it with Claire, that did make me laugh is when he was just outside and he's going, no, I'll get in through the skylight and everything. Claire just went, look, just fucking read the room and go, mate. They don't want you.
UnknownYeah, but she should have as well.
UnknownRun away, love.
AdamYeah.
AdamCuz actually and that was that was something that did that I thought was very true.
AdamAnd another thing Claire pointed out and she said, imagine it gender swaps though of a woman shows a vulnerable moment and then a bloke picks her up and then goes to HR and asks for her address.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah, it's just it'd come over a lot worse in a very different film.
AdamIn this it's kind of a cookie comedy sort of, you know.
AdamBut it's
AdamBut no, I think I yeah, I think all the fucking performances in it.
AdamI mean and even the two like the two guys who like the two workmates who just go around there and it's like when he says, well, I'll wait here.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, you're a hero. You're a real hero. Thanks, man.
LeeYeah.
AdamBut it's but yeah, and apparently the the cat voice is a friend of Ryan Reynolds. It's like an impression he's been doing of him for 20 odd years.
AdamAnd obviously was the first thing you thought of when it's like, I really need someone quite insulting.
ChrisYeah, does he say similar thing. Yeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamSee, I actually quite I like I liked the bits of the sort of typical dog cat stuff as well.
AdamWhere it's just like, where have you been, you fucker? I'm hungry.
AdamAnd you know, sort of And just the sort of the the general. And like when the dog, when the doorbell goes and the dog's just like, it's an intruder, I'll take a bullet for him.
LeeYeah.
LeeDon't you worry.
LeeAnd I think that's the thing. I think this, I know we, you know, we've we've said about it like it's quite a hard film to handle. I was discussing it this weekend with former former guest, Danny.
Leeyeah, and he's he, you know, I sort of said to him, yeah, it's one of those films because he'd used the the phrase earlier in the day, it was an amazing film. I can't work out who the fuck they made it for.
LeeAnd I was like, that's exactly how I feel about The Voices. And he said the same thing. He was like, it works on every level, but I can't understand how they knew it was going to work for so many people.
LeeBecause it's such a difficult it's a very difficult concept to do, and it is extremely dark, it's extremely funny. yeah, it's just a lot to squeeze in.
LeeI don't get how they got an elevator pitch together and got this film made, but they did.
AdamAnd
Adamapparently, the script was going around Hollywood for ages.
AdamAnd there's a thing called The Blacklist, which gets published every year and it's all industry insiders like producers and directors and stuff like that and they basically list the best unmade scripts of that year.
AdamAnd this was in the list for 2009, I think it was.
AdamSo it was knocking around a lot before it actually got picked up and at one point the guy directed one hour photo was going to do it and it was going to be Ben Stiller instead of Ryan Reynolds.
UnknownOh, dear.
UnknownWhich.
AdamWhich I think would have been like, I think that would have potentially made this Ben Stiller's cable guy if it had have stuck to its guns of just one of those ones where it puts people off them for ages.
AdamBecause all the Ben Stiller fans going to see it, probably interesting enough because Ryan Reynolds wasn't a you know, he was famous but he wasn't like a draw in the do you know what I mean in that it's oh it's a Ben Stiller film. It's a Will Farrell film or something like that.
AdamSo, I think yeah, I think it would have been yeah, we we could have suffered.
UnknownAnd especially with the audience that he normally has, you know, like the whole romantic comedy, can you imagine, you know, his 20 something female fans who are all massive fans of all his all his romcoms coming and seeing this and just being like, what the shit.
UnknownBecause it starts, as you said, it starts off because it's all from his point of view and it's all his delusions.
UnknownIt starts off so nice. So that point where he actually murders Jennifer Arterton, again, like that still gets me.
UnknownLike the fact that it's an accident to begin with is bad, but then when he just keeps stabbing her, that is really bad.
AdamThat was one other thing that occurred to me when I was watching it though. Is I was like, everything is from his point of view and everything is sanitized by his point of view. Are they accidents?
UnknownOh, yeah. Yeah.
AdamDo you know what I mean? It's like I when I when I went down there, I was like, fuck this is taking it down a fucking dark path.
AdamYeah. Because then it was like, especially when it's like, you know, it's a mercy killing but as said by Jeffrey Damer. It's like, you know, oh, I slit I I had to slit his throat after I I strangled him because he hadn't really reacted well to me drilling a hole in his head and putting acid in his brain.
AdamIt's sort of.
LeeWell, I count with the deer, like when deer comes through and the deer's going, please kill me, please kill me.
LeeI was like, drag it off the bonnet, to the side of the road and cut his throat. Don't cut its throat in your car across her lap, like that's definitely going to freak her out.
AdamYeah, but he's he's not very good at social cues.
UnknownYeah.
AdamAnd it's See, that's the thing is that that that makes actually quite a lot of sense.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, it's like that's probably not going to occur at that point.
AdamBut it did sort of, you know.
AdamAnd I think there's because actually, I mean, the bit where where he kills Lisa, I think has.
ChrisWell, I'm thinking that that's much that feels like Frankenstein or something like that.
AdamYou know, where it's like, you you have you have you may have a sympathy for the monster, but it's a monster and an entirely innocent person's coming and he's going to get and he's going to die.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd it's yeah, it's just a weird sort of.
AdamSo I think that one comes over a lot darker.
AdamWhereas the
ChrisBut would he have killed her only if she hadn't gone in and seen it all.
AdamOh, no.
ChrisThat one is.
ChrisThat was
Adamjust a reading I took of it where it was like, well, if I did
Adamheightened
Chrisor
Chrisfan.
AdamIt's just
Adamlike,
Adamshit,
Adamis that yeah,
Adamdoes it kind of
Adamchange that tone
Adamas well?
AdamYou know,
Adamit's very
Adamsort of.
LeeThat's what I love about this.
LeeThis is why it holds up so well to to rewatch it.
ChrisAs you say, because every time you watch it,
Chrisyou you look at it.
ChrisBut I mean the whole thing is about perception.
ChrisI mean, whether he is
Chrismentally or not, everyone perceives things sometimes wildly differently, you know, certainly some of the things in here, I think we would all perceive equally the same. But it it like to think of that life is about perception and mistaking things.
ChrisYou'd hopefully just don't end up stabbing a lot of people from it.
AdamBut to be honest,
AdamI think I think Lee Lee pairing this with split and obviously we won't get into it now, but when we get to split, the interesting thing is is that again split is
Adamabout you view it from the point of view of everyone where it's like, oh this is the explanation for what is going on here.
AdamAnd actually there's more to it and the world is wrong, like the normal in inverted commas, the normal the real world is wrong about what's happening here.
AdamBut the real world has interpreted this way. Whereas this is the opposite where it's his has interpreted it wrong.
ChrisHis interpreted it wrong.
AdamYeah. And sort of how and it's yeah, so it's going to be an interesting I think it's an interesting pairing in that sense.
Adambut all in all, I mean, actually, and one thing I was going to say is did you spot the bloke from Ador?
Adambecause because the director Marshall Saraki, I saw an interview with her and she just said that she really wanted to do like films in England. So a lot of so obviously you've got Jenner Artton in there. but you've got quite a few sort of like English or sort of British actors in here and stuff like that. But yeah, the guy played the sheriff is a guy called Stanley Towns but he was in Ador recently as he was the fat commandant that robbed the money reserve off of.
LeeYeah.
LeeI knew I recognized.
LeeYeah, yeah.
AdamAnd and he's also the really rich Middle Eastern guy in toast of London who makes toast appear in a
Leetoast of London.
Adamfilm about hanging Prince Phillip.
ChrisOh.
AdamFor his walk.
AdamSo, but I was just like, wow, he's really good.
AdamBecause I because I was like, I know you from something, but he's just very convincingly an American sheriff in this.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd he's got that look, hasn't he?
LeeIt's.
LeeYeah, he has.
AdamHe's got the right
Leesort of
Adamfeeling
Adamfor
Adamit.
AdamAnd
Adamit
Adamwas
Adam
AdamBut
Adamyeah,
AdamI
Adamthink
Adamthe.
AdamAnd I'm I want to put it out there
Adambecause I think it's an important thing
Adambecause it's mental health
Adamand stuff like that.
AdamThat obviously.
AdamIf you've experienced if you're experiencing any difficulties or
Adamany of the
Adamanything that's heard in this film
Adamhas affected you in any way.
Adamyeah, go and fucking seek help
Adambecause I think that's that that was.
AdamI I've written it down here as my Springer's final thought.
AdamIf this film, films don't need to have a message, this film doesn't need to have a message.
AdamBut if it does have a message, it's don't be a selfish fuck,
Adamseek help and take your meds.
LeeThat's right.
LeeI think that's what I was discussing this with someone recently actually.
LeeLike I do think it's good that in the last few years, maybe in the last 10 years, that going and seeing someone if you're not feeling like it's perfectly normal.
LeeAnd you know, a large majority of people, like it used to be very friend.
LeeI remember yeah, when we were young,
Leelike it was just not wouldn't.
AdamPresumably when Jerry was young.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah. And I think that may have a point to it as well.
LeeYeah, if you catch it tough early,
Leelike, you know, with any any illness, whether it's physical or mental, catch it early enough.
Leegot time to you've got more time to with it.
ChrisLike I remember Adam was laughing about, you know, psychotherapy and therapy as if it was some sort of a silly made up, you know, rubbish for like, yeah, it's not a real science and yeah, it may not be physics or chemistry, but it's clearly very important. And needs a lot more research.
LeeYeah. Possibly.
AdamWell, it's health and the trouble is is that it's not health that's obvious if you break your leg.
AdamYou can see it.
AdamIf you cut if you have a graze, you can see it, but you can't see those on a.
Adamon the inside.
ChrisAlthough I bet the same people that would laugh about it might still take cancer seriously.
ChrisSo, yeah.
LeeThe thing is again, it's the difficulty as well, isn't it? You know, we all say, we're all very British. People say, how are you? Yeah, I'm great. You might be having the worst day you've had in the last two months, but someone says, how are you? You go, yeah, I'm great.
LeeBut you just said you were really sad.
LeeAnd I think that's why it goes under the radar. Yeah, because he's like and he thinks he's right and thinks his view, everything he says is like sane and yes.
LeeAnd you're taking the medication, he sort of says, oh, I'm taking the medication and we know he's not,
Leehe's not quit.
AdamI have to say, that bit got me though.
AdamWhen it was just like, well, you know,
AdamBut when I'm not on my meds, I can see the universe what it is and there's huge long speech about seeing through the sort of areas of reality to find a true meaning.
AdamSo you have stopped taking your meds.
LeeYeah.
Leeyes,
Leeso we better wrap up here, ladies and gentlemen.
Leeso this is definitely a recommend from myself and from Lady Jennifer.
ChrisChris?
ChrisYeah, from me, definitely.
LeeAdam?
AdamIt's a recommend from me because I think I'm
AdamI'm curious and funnily enough, Claire Claire said it as well, which is don't know who this is for.
AdamAnd I want to find out I might be unhappy with the answer.
AdamBut I want to find out, you know, there's yeah, there's something about it.
LeeI think it's one of those I don't know who it's.
Leeequally, I would show it to almost anybody
Leebecause I think it's got things in it.
UnknownI recommended it to A-level students.
UnknownAfter I watched it the first time, when I had a sort of rose tinted view of it, and I was like, oh brilliant, teaching schizophrenia.
UnknownIt's really good because it does show that sort of, you know, opposing views.
UnknownAnd then of course, I to Chris and Shelley and they were horrified.
UnknownI haven't mentioned it to students since just in case.
UnknownI had one student blessing, he came back in like, you know, a few weeks later and I'm miss, I watched that. It was really interesting.
AdamSo, you know, yay.
AdamI I think that's the thing is the good thing is is that all of us do say we found it sad.
UnknownYeah.
AdamAnd that's that's probably the point in a in a way is that it at least it got that across.
AdamIt is I'm not going to go to the point of tragedy because I think that's when someone loses or whatever, but yeah, it's like yeah, it's just a bit, yeah.
LeeBut again, like you say, it calls conversations that we had. I hadn't seen it half a dozen times,
Leebut we still discussed it again after this watch because it still every time makes me think about it in a slightly different way.
ChrisDo these things help to make mental wellness less taboo and easier to talk about.
ChrisPossibly.
LeeAbsolutely.
Leeso in a in a very stark difference to this.
LeeAs Adam said, we'll be watching Split in a Fortnite's time.
Lee
LeeI don't think there'll be much being on the side of that character there,
Leebut we'll see how it goes.
AdamYeah.
AdamI can't wait. I haven't watched it for a while, so.
LeeNo, we saw it when it first come out
Leeand I haven't watched it again since.
LeeBut yeah, I just was blown away by it, so while I'm night is still at the top of the tree at the moment.
LeeWe'll we'll
LeeBefore he has another one of his trophs, we'll we'll be watching Split in a Fortnite's time.
LeeThanks ever so much for listening everybody.
LeeGood night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
