Film Reviews of Imaginary, Monster, Origin, Ricky Stanicky, Damsel and an Oscars Debrief (Ep. 55, 15th March 2024)

Bob Mann (00:18.362)
Hello and welcome to another edition of Flickering Dreams, episode 55. And I'm joined today by Scott Forbes of the Forbes Film and TV Review.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (00:39.759)
Oh.

Bob Mann (00:46.874)
Emma Sewell of Emma at the Movies on Twitter and various other platforms and the Reverend Andy Godfrey from Sorted Magazine and Konnect Radio with a K. And we are going to be looking at another films tonight. We are going to look at Imaginary, a new Blumhouse horror film that's out in cinemas. We're looking at Monster.

which was on preview this week, but it's coming to cinemas on Friday. We've got Origin, which is also out in cinemas, but on a very selective release at the moment. We've got Ricky Stanicky on Netflix, a new Peter Farrelly comedy, I use the term lightly, and Damsel, which I think is also on Netflix. In fact,

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:36.353)
Hehehehehe

Emma Sewell (01:41.16)
Netflix.

Bob Mann (01:42.906)
In fact, I tell a lie, Ricky Stinnicky is on Prime Video and Damsel is on Netflix. Yes, that's right. We're going to start just by talking about the Oscars that was on Sunday, Sunday night to Monday morning. Scott and I certainly stayed up for it. Andy, you had a good night's sleep. Emma, did you?

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:57.165)
we must.

Scott Forbes (02:02.361)
We did.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (02:05.197)
I did indeed. I got all the results in the morning. I went to London the next day. I had a really good time. I got everything I needed to know.

Emma Sewell (02:08.288)
Uh huh.

Emma Sewell (02:15.104)
I managed to stay awake until Robert Downey Jr. started speaking and then that put me into a coma.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (02:20.653)
Ha ha!

Bob Mann (02:22.372)
Okay, okay. I did remarkably well with my predictions this year. I say the best ever predictions I've ever had. I got 19 of the 23 nominations correct. But it kind of shows just how standard and expected everything was. There were just so many awards that were, I say so and on.

The guy at BBC Radio Solent said nailed on. I thought, well, they're different, but same. Um, that I actually, as per normal, I don't normally bet. I'm not a betting man, but I put five pounds on each of my nominations. So you'd think 19 out of 23, I'd be going to the Caribbean on, on the winnings. Um, so out of my 120 pound bet, and I'll explain the other five pounds in a sec, I made 15 pounds profit.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (03:17.389)
Heheheheh

Bob Mann (03:19.034)
from that. That was just how, that was just how, um, sewn on all of the majority of those awards were that, uh, I got like, I think Christopher Nolan winning best director, I got 13p I think for my five pounds bet. The extra five pounds, by the way, I actually put a side bet on The Holdovers to win Best Picture, uh, actually based on our discussion.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (03:20.363)
Every penny helps.

Emma Sewell (03:31.808)
you

Bob Mann (03:48.152)
last week, Scott, that said, you never know if enough people think The Holdovers is their second favorite film, there might just be a surprise. And the bookies were actually offering 50 to one. I thought for a five pound bet, the possibility of walking away with 250 quid, that's got to be, that's got to be worth a little side bet. Yeah. So it was very, very standard and normal and everything that pretty much everything you expected to happen did happen.

Scott Forbes (03:55.353)
you

Bob Mann (04:17.882)
I guess the only surprises to me were probably Godzilla winning visual effects. Well done to Emma for predicting that one when all of us did not. I think we all went with The Creator as the winner for that. And oh, yes, you did. That's right. But it's it's kind of nice, isn't it, that all of the VFX voters in that specialist category.

Emma Sewell (04:26.654)
Thank you, thank you.

Scott Forbes (04:28.729)
I took a punt on Napoleon.

Bob Mann (04:44.442)
kind of recognize what those guys did for their $15 million or a fraction of that $15 million. Yeah. So they're like the.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (04:47.149)
you

Scott Forbes (04:51.801)
It was just nice seeing the team, like how excited they were and bringing their little Godzilla toys. It's the kind of spirit that a lot of the cynical side of Hollywood and the Oscars, and this just looked like they were having the time of their lives just taking full advantage of this opportunity they've got.

Bob Mann (05:11.322)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to imagine that Industrial Light and Magic or Weta are going to snap up that unit, aren't they? If they could deliver that, there's going to be a bidding war to say who can snap up that unit. The only other surprise for me, I think, was Best Actress going to Emma Stone rather than Lily Gladstone. I know it was kind of on the cards, but it still came as a bit of a surprise to me.

that the Academy voters were actually turned their back on the political side and the kind of record breaking side.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (05:45.581)
was the one award of the night that surprised Mark Kermode apparently. Yeah.

Bob Mann (05:49.626)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I still thought it would go with Lily Gladstone. I do feel for the lady, I have to say. I mean, I wouldn't have rated it up there with some of the other Best Actress nominees. And I'd have put Claire Foy in that list as well. Probably ahead of Lily Gladstone for All Of Us Strangers. But I still felt sorry for her because she'd won everything to that point and then suddenly to have the rug pulled for the big one.

You have to feel for it. What did you guys think of the show in general? Those of you seen it?

Scott Forbes (06:26.521)
Well, for me, it was fine. It wasn't an amazing ceremony, but it felt like it was fairly solid and quite safe. I thought Jimmy Kimmel as the host was dependable.

His opening monologue had some gags in there, a little bit hit or miss. I actually kind of liked the controversy that he did with the Robbie Downey Jr. stuff. I found that a little bit amusing. I suppose that goes to my dark sense of humour. I thought the skits throughout the presenters were mostly miss, apart from two. I really enjoyed the Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt sort of...

Bob Mann (06:59.034)
Heheheheh

Rev. Andy Godfrey (06:59.085)
Ha ha ha ha.

Scott Forbes (07:12.153)
Barbenheimer rivalry that they were going. That was quite funny and

Bob Mann (07:13.978)
Yes, of course. And I like the message they had that they were kind of saying a big hurrah for all the stunt men. Because that's obviously hailing their upcoming film, The Stuntman. But I thought, is this a way in for the Academy to put a Stuntman Oscar on to next year's set?

Scott Forbes (07:23.949)
Yeah. Yeah.

Fall guy.

Emma Sewell (07:27.872)
Yeah.

Scott Forbes (07:38.649)
It won't be next year because we know that they've announced next year Casting will be the new category they're going to have. But it could be the year after. The other one that I liked was the Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito Batman villain section. That was kind of cool. That was fun. I think, aside from the awards themselves, everyone was interested. Andy quoted it last week.

Bob Mann (07:45.05)
Oh yes, that's right. So it'll be the year after that maybe, but who knows? Who knows?

Bob Mann (07:55.826)
Yes.

Scott Forbes (08:06.487)
It was the I'm Just Ken performance. We were all waiting to see it. And it was very good. Very Marilyn Monroe inspired set design around there. Slash coming in was kind of cool. Yeah, he's not a professional singer, but he did a solidly entertaining job.

Bob Mann (08:16.792)
Yep.

Bob Mann (08:20.216)
Yep.

Bob Mann (08:24.794)
I thought he did. I think he did pretty well, given there wasn't presumably wasn't any auto tune. Well, maybe there is live auto tune. I don't know. But I thought he was. I thought he did a pretty good performance, given it was live. Yeah. The one the one joke that hasn't been mentioned, which Jimmy Kimmel came up with in his opening monologue, which I I thought was worse than the Robert Downey Jr. stuff was his joke about Germany. He was talking about Sandra Huller and

Emma Sewell (08:34.72)
Thank you.

Bob Mann (08:52.366)
I can't remember what the joke was now, but it was something about about Germans being being murderers and kind of tying together Anatomy of a Fall and Zone of Interest and generally casting aspersions on the Germans as a race. And I kind of went <intake of breath> and the look on Sandra Huller's face as the camera cut to her meant that she was going like that as well. So that

Emma Sewell (08:53.936)
Yeah.

Scott Forbes (08:53.977)
joke now.

Emma Sewell (09:08.936)
Yeah.

Bob Mann (09:19.96)
To me, that was, if you like, even more, even worse than the drugs related stuff with Downey Jr. Yeah.

Emma Sewell (09:27.296)
think my favourite bit had to be as John Cena finished his bit on stage and you saw him meet Arnold Schwarzenegger, no the Rock, I've gone mad, saw the Rock in the back hallway going hi shaking a hand dressed in a toga, essentially that cracks me up.

Scott Forbes (09:41.785)
rock. Yes.

Bob Mann (09:48.358)
Yeah, that John Cena bit was, I think, the biggest guffaw for me in the night. I mean, it was really playing off his performance in that terrible film, Freelance, wasn't it? Where he basically comes out with his hands in front of him. He comes out of the shower at the end with the girl. Yeah.

Scott Forbes (09:52.985)
Yeah, the wrestling fan in me enjoyed that meeting too.

Emma Sewell (10:14.208)
That was good! What you moaning about?

Rev. Andy Godfrey (10:16.941)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

Bob Mann (10:17.082)
That was awful. Come on. Come on. That was awful. Anyway, so I thought it was a decent show and a decent set of results. But I look back to last year and it was again, it was many of them was just so nailed on that they were going to go where they were going to go. There was none of that. Oh, is it going to be Banshees or is it going to be <Everything> Everywhere All At Once? Blah, blah, blah. Didn't seem to be any of that tension. It seemed to be very one sided. But there you go.

Emma Sewell (10:20.096)
I like that.

Bob Mann (10:46.33)
Let's stop prattling about the Oscars and move on. Andy's not a fan. I'm going to. Yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (10:49.645)
Thank the Lord.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (10:57.195)
I'll tell you what, the best movie about a plastic doll was Barbie. The best movie about a man who invented the nuclear bomb was Oppenheimer. The best movie about kids being held over in school for Christmas was The Holdovers, et cetera, et cetera. Sorry, it's just that I see it.

Bob Mann (11:11.962)
Yeah, fair enough. Okay. We are moving on to some film reviews and the first film we're looking at is a film called Imaginary. And in Imaginary, a young girl discovers a hidden teddy bear after Jessica, played by DeWanda Wise, moves back into her old childhood home. The girl starts to pretend that the bear is a Imaginary friend called Chauncy. Here's a clip.

Bob Mann (12:14.77)
Oh dear, least threatening Teddy Bear. It's amazing, isn't it, how cinema latches onto an idea. In 2023, it was the multiverse. Last year, it was AI. This year, it seems to be Imaginary friends. As well as this movie, we've got Ricky Stanicky coming up later in this programme that we'll be reviewing. May sees the release of the Ryan Reynolds film, IF.

standing for Imaginary Friend. And later in the year, we've got Book Club Chapter 3, where the four octogenarians join Diane's Imaginary Friend, played by Tom Hanks, for a trip around the Caribbean, where lots of amusing incidents happen until the Imaginary Friend gets locked up in a prison.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (12:59.405)
Can I please skip that week? Please.

Bob Mann (13:03.802)
I was having you on about that last one, but I bet, I bet there is an executive at Focus Features listening to this podcast saying, you know, Dr. Bob, he might be onto something there. Pick up the phone to Hanks. Yeah. Anyway, back to Imaginary. I mean, it was horror-lite, wasn't it, that we've seen a dozen times. It's pretty bog standard.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (13:08.941)
Don't do that Bob, I've got a weak heart as it is.

Bob Mann (13:33.722)
stuff. It's got the requisite, requisite, stroppy teen played by Taegen Burns. It's got a young possessed girl played by Pyper Braun. I think that's how you pronounce the name Pyper Braun going into a beyond world and it's got a catchy little tune. So for me, it was very reminiscent of a very lackluster version of Poltergeist in that regard. It was also very similar.

to last year's Insidious: The Red Door, but in this case, the door was rrrrrrrr-oyal blue. There's a false ending to the film, which I thought was simply stupid. It was very lacklustre. This was kind of after my Oscar night and I was tired going in to see it. And to be honest, there was one or two points where I literally nearly fell asleep during this. I just thought it was dull.

Scott, your view.

Scott Forbes (14:34.393)
Sure, yeah, I saw this early Monday morning as well after the Oscars and...

So for me at the start of it, or the first half, I didn't think was too bad. It was very generic Blumhouse, as you said, horror-lite. But I thought there was enough creepiness in there in parts to make it watchable. I thought the little girl was quite good and the music wasn't bad either. There's one thing that they do with DeWanda Wise's character, which...

I didn't quite see coming and then when they did do it, I was like, oh, where's the story going now? This is actually quite interesting. But yeah, when they do go to this sort of like other worldly place, that second half of the movie was just rubbish. You mentioned Portageist, I've wrote down here Annabelle meets Poltegeist. It just.. it goes to some places where I thought narratively,

was just silly. I thought that it wasn't in any way scary at all. The visual effects looked horrendous, especially in that otherworldly place. Even in the dark, you could still tell it was like, that is so cheap. I just thought the false ending as well. I was like, there's more. When it kept going, I was like, really? And I kind of got the cheek to.

Bob Mann (16:01.274)
Yeah.

Scott Forbes (16:06.361)
potentially set up a sequel that isn't going to happen. I… yeah. I think from the first half being quite watchable by the end I was like, nope, that is such a disappointment.

Bob Mann (16:19.322)
Yeah, yeah. Emma, I don't think you've seen this one, have you? No.

Emma Sewell (16:23.648)
No, I have uh, I've got it in a possible plan to see tomorrow but if I'm honest like even before you guys started talking about it I was like hmm I might just skip it.

Bob Mann (16:33.394)
I think there are better things to do with your time. Andy, how about you?

Rev. Andy Godfrey (16:39.629)
Yeah, yeah, I asked Mark Kermode a question on Monday night at his show which was what was the last horror film that really freaked you out and He quoted The Vanishing which is back in the late 1990s So it just goes to show the state of horror the horror genre at the moment and Scott you say there is there may not be a sequel. Well, they did Nun 2. I don't know. They may probably be another Nun movie coming. So who knows?

Bob Mann (16:54.682)
Thank you.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (17:08.653)
It's two films in one. It wants to be a horror film and it's not a very good horror film. It wants to be a fantasy film in the second part and it's not a very good fantasy film. So as you say, Scott, the special effects are terrible. The best thing about it was the little girl. I mean, she's really very, very good in that role and very convincing and children's toys being possessed. There's always a degree of, like you say, the Poltergeist about it. But there's always a degree of that can make you feel uneasy.

Scott Forbes (17:16.569)
you

Scott Forbes (17:24.217)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (17:38.157)
This didn't. It's really two films in one and neither succeed. And I was very disappointed once again with another horror film that absolutely failed to even begin to unnerve me, you know, let alone scare me. So yeah, I was disappointed. Well, I want to give both.

Emma Sewell (17:44.96)
. . . .

Scott Forbes (17:54.133)
For me this one's a four.

Bob Mann (17:55.546)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. OK. School's on the doors then. Scott.

Bob Mann (18:05.658)
Yep, Andy.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (18:07.757)
Parts four, but that would be an eight, so I'm giving it four.

Bob Mann (18:10.778)
I've actually not been so generous. I've given that one a three. So that is going to be a 3.66 for the Flickering Dreams score for Imaginary, which makes it a Miss... unstuffed Miss. Right. We are going to do a little bit of this now, something a little bit different.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (18:16.139)
Definite miss.

Bob Mann (18:45.722)
Right, we're going back to a new round, a new game, I should say, of our movie quiz. And I'm mixing it up a little bit in this season in that we're going to have some slightly different variants of the game. The basis is still the same, that you have to try and guess the film. And there were going to be five clues as to what the film is. And the film is selected at random.

from the top 1000 box office films of all time. So what this one is going to be, "Dialogue, Smialogue", is I am going to give you five pieces of dialogue from a film and you have to try and identify the film. As always, if you get it on the first go, you'll get 50 points and so on down to 10 points for the fifth and final.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (19:24.493)
you

Scott Forbes (19:30.841)
No

Emma Sewell (19:36.864)
Thank you.

Bob Mann (19:43.962)
piece of dialogue. But if you do a long guess in any of those five slots, then it would be minus 10 points. So let's see how you get on with this.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (19:48.729)
you

Rev. Andy Godfrey (19:57.981)
you

Bob Mann (20:06.586)
Okay, here is the first piece of dialogue. And the good news about this quiz is that the audio listeners can also play along and try and guess the film. So I'm going to read each piece of dialogue as it comes up. Here's the first one. We all believe we'd run into the burning building, but until we feel that heat, we can never know. You do.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (20:08.939)
you

Bob Mann (20:36.47)
Anybody writing anything down?

Scott Forbes (20:40.825)
Is there any chance you could do it in the accent of the person saying it?

Bob Mann (20:46.362)
We are believing... No, I can't. That would be cheat... that would be cheating. Right, here comes line number two. I assume you're familiar with the Soviet -era secret cities.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (20:46.381)
And the sound effects as well as in the background

Scott Forbes (20:53.273)
You

Rev. Andy Godfrey (21:05.961)
I'm really tempted to write something down I've taken it I've taken a leap I've written something down

Bob Mann (21:12.216)
Are you? Are you going to?

Emma Sewell (21:12.416)
How do we feel if we all do really badly at this, making a completely new type of quiz next week?

Bob Mann (21:19.33)
Well, it will be a completely new type of quiz next week. Don't worry.

Emma Sewell (21:22.88)
Oh!

Bob Mann (21:25.978)
I've got a number of variants to play with. It's not all going to be this this season. You've taken a leap. Oh, there you go. Here comes line number three. "Stalsk 12, hidden from the world, a city where anything can happen. And today, gentlemen, for 10 minutes, it most assuredly does."

Emma Sewell (21:32.544)
Bye me.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (21:35.965)
Probably going to regret this.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (21:52.269)
I'm not confident with my guess at all Bob.

Bob Mann (21:52.346)
Are you still confident with your guess, Andy?

Okay. Okay, we're going to move on to line four.

"None of which explains how or why you sold him inverted munitions".

Rev. Andy Godfrey (22:06.029)
you

Emma Sewell (22:18.676)
I mean, unless the next one has the name of the film in it, I'm fairly certain I've got a zero.

Bob Mann (22:24.076)
Are you? I am pretty, pretty sure that you've seen this film. Here we go. Final line coming up. "One of these bullets is like us travelling forwards through time. The other one's going backwards. Can you tell which is which?"

Emma Sewell (22:29.856)
Oh no.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (22:48.013)
Can I write something else down? Was that the rule? Yeah, I've written something dead on the fifth one.

Bob Mann (22:53.946)
Yes, you can write as many as you like. You writing anything down, Scott?

Emma Sewell (22:55.52)
Yeah, go for minus 20 points, Andy.

Scott Forbes (23:02.105)
There is something I want... I want to write something but I am not confident in the slightest.

Emma Sewell (23:06.664)
I mean, I have one. Yeah, I have like one thing in my head and I don't want to write it down, so.

Scott Forbes (23:13.721)
Yeah I'm going to save the points this week just in case.

Emma Sewell (23:15.904)
Hahaha!

Rev. Andy Godfrey (23:16.779)
I'm the only one who's going to be minus 10. Start from a losing position that's okay. Right well that's true.

Emma Sewell (23:19.582)
Ha ha ha!

Scott Forbes (23:20.865)
It could be, well, if you get one right and one wrong, then you're going to be even anyway.

Bob Mann (23:25.562)
Okay then.

Scott Forbes (23:27.225)
So I'll be in zero. That'd be pointless.

Emma Sewell (23:27.296)
Ha ha ha!

Rev. Andy Godfrey (23:32.301)
I still don't understand how this works if I'm honest. Yeah. Okay, so for number two, after number two I wrote down Bridge of Spies. And then at the last one I wrote down Tenet.

Bob Mann (23:32.314)
Okay then. Show me what you've got then.

Emma Sewell (23:34.716)
I'm gonna go.

Scott Forbes (23:35.609)
But I feel that one's right, I mean.

Emma Sewell (23:39.52)
Oh, that's a big fat zero. Nothing.

Bob Mann (23:44.162)
Right?

Scott Forbes (23:47.897)
That's what tempted me.

Emma Sewell (23:49.28)
That's what tempted me as well.

Bob Mann (23:49.69)
Yeah. Did you, did you write anything Scott? Well, I mean, Brownie points go to Andy for getting the right answer. So it is indeed Tenet. I don't know how I go, how I progress this to.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (23:52.269)
you

Rev. Andy Godfrey (23:59.981)
Which is Tenet.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (24:06.665)
It was the Berlin stuff that made me think Bridge of Spies the Soviet stuff So I've on zero or am I on minus 10, oh, all right

Bob Mann (24:15.962)
Yeah, don't know where my window's gone.

Scott Forbes (24:21.401)
Zero.

Bob Mann (24:21.498)
No, you're on zero. You scored minus 10 and then you crawled your way back up with an inspired guess to zero. Yes, yes. Wasn't it?

Rev. Andy Godfrey (24:27.639)
I'll take that. I'll take that.

Emma Sewell (24:30.144)
I think... I think we can both not worry about not getting the 10 points we would have got if we went with our instincts.

Scott Forbes (24:31.041)
Well that was a success.

Scott Forbes (24:35.577)
Yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (24:39.117)
Were you inclined to go for Tenet? Yeah, it was the backwards and forwards line, yeah.

Scott Forbes (24:41.625)
The backwards and forwards line made me think Tenet.

Emma Sewell (24:41.632)
That's... yeah... yeah...

Bob Mann (24:44.184)
Mm.

I thought that one was quite a giveaway, but there you go. Yeah. Okay. So that's a grand total to start off this new game. Zero, zero across the board. Yes, indeed. You can claim the moral 10 points. Yeah. Okay. We go back to the films now and a film, which is out in cinemas from Friday. And this is Monster.

Emma Sewell (24:53.312)
hahahaha

Rev. Andy Godfrey (24:53.997)
I'm claiming the moral ten points because I actually wrote it down.

Scott Forbes (24:54.233)
Hahaha!

Bob Mann (25:15.226)
Scott, can you introduce the clip for us?

Scott Forbes (25:18.233)
Sure, so Monster is a Japanese film from the director Kore-eda who we talked about last year with his film Broker. He has come back with a Rashomon type story about a boy who may or may not be getting bullied and a teacher who is accused of abuse, which he may or may not have done. Here's a clip.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (25:42.221)
you

Bob Mann (26:24.734)
Scott, carry on.

Scott Forbes (26:26.713)
So when I saw the trailer for this one, the first thing that came into my head was the Thomas Vinterberg Danish movie starring Mads Mikkelsen The Hunt, which is for me a 10 out of 10 amazing movie about a teacher who is wrongly accused of something and faces the wrath of everyone in the community. From this, there is a certain extent where that is in play in this film.

but that's not what the film fully is like I expected. Instead, we see the impact of this child who the teacher thinks is bullying someone else. And there's, it's difficult to talk about this film without giving away anything, but there's a lot of truths and untruths, a lot of secrets and they're...

There's a lot of trying to work out if what we're seeing is actually what we're seeing or not. And basically one of the things that this film does is play out some of the events and then I don't know if it's halfway through, maybe a bit before halfway, it sort of cuts and then you start seeing the same things again but from a different perspective. And that reveals more information, makes you think about some of the things you saw earlier and what...

were true then and were different now. And it's all about friendships in the end. And...

Thinking about sort of where it goes, I'm really struggling to get my words about without saying too much. Let's just say that it goes to interesting places with the storytelling where it keeps you guessing and you're not fully sure what is real and what isn't real. Now, what I would say about this one, generally from filmmaking point of view is I think the performances across the board are really good. There's...

Scott Forbes (28:34.841)
nice supporting role from the headmistress who has her own whole subplot that's going on there. I think that, I think the editing is really good. Once I figured out what was going on I thought it was quite clever the way they went back and forth with it. I really liked the score which was subtle when it needed to be and I think towards the end really picked up in a nice way when there was some dramatic scenes.

I know that in our sort of group chat, when I mentioned I was going to see this, you'd said that you were interested about what I'd make of the ending. Obviously, we can't talk about the ending and what our opinions are of it. But I'll say that it was bold and I think it was. I enjoyed the ending of where it went. We can have a debate afterwards when we stop recording about what actually happened or not, but I was.

Bob Mann (29:13.88)
Nope.

Scott Forbes (29:33.005)
pleased with how it ended and part of me was pleased it did end because it was quite long as well. So yeah, I had a hard time with this. I'm in between. We don't do 0.5s of a score here, which is very annoying because I'm very much in the middle of two scores. But while you chat, you might tip me over one way or the other.

Bob Mann (29:38.786)
It was quite long. Yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (29:45.389)
you

Bob Mann (29:48.646)
Yeah, well, hold on that because I've, yeah. Okay, okay. I'm the only other one who's seen this. I think you were out on Monday night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was intriguing as a film. As you said, the Rashomon style perspectives, different perspectives on the same events was really good. I mean, it reminded me of my time on jury service.

when if the prosecution were were laying into the defendant, you thought, oh, well, he's guilty of sin, isn't he? And then the defense lawyer would stand up and present a different version of the events. And you think, oh, bloody hell, he's innocent. Right. And you'd be flip flopping in your mind until you until your mind came to a sensible kind of balance.

But this film had the same kind of, I had the same reaction to this film that as you saw events from the different perspective, your sympathy suddenly flip -flopped from one kind of version of the truth to the other version of the truth. I thought it was really clever. There were some neat twists in the story that kind of Scott indicated, including a lovely tribute, I thought, to Lady Bird, a particular scene in Lady Bird.

Scott Forbes (31:13.337)
Oh yeah.

Bob Mann (31:15.354)
is done at one point. And there are some scenes that kind of tease your expectations as to where it's going to go before the film just veers off in a completely different direction. So I thought it was a genuinely clever bit of script writing. And I thought the ending and again, we can't talk about it, it was it was mystical and perplexing and, and one to talk around the water cooler about.

anybody who's seen it. I also agree about the music. This was Ryōchi Sakamoto's final score before he died and the piano piece of music over the end titles is just a wonderful way to end your career, indeed your life as it turned out to be. Only negative for me was it rather lost my attention a little bit with that perspective of the school principal's viewpoint. I thought that was...

It was a long film and I thought that rather over-egged the pudding for me. That particular blowing your troubles away scene was great, but for me that segment rather detracted rather than added to the piece. I've actually given this one a nine out of 10. I thought it was, I actually saw it at the London Film Festival and it has stayed with me since October or whenever it was I saw it. I thought it was a cracking film. Scott.

Scott Forbes (32:39.161)
Well, it's going to be a hit because I'm somewhere between a six and a seven. But I think it's one of those that I don't, I hate saying that a film needs a second watch. I think a film should be able to stand on its own on a first watch. But I feel like if I watched this a second time, my gut instinct is I would like it more. And so I'm going to give it the benefit of doubt and go seven on this one.

Bob Mann (32:43.488)
Okay.

Bob Mann (33:04.122)
Okay, so that's a Flickering Dreams score. Nice and easy maths of eight out of 10, which makes Monster a hit. Okay, sticking with the films now, we're going to look at a film which I haven't seen. I don't think Emma's seen it either. This is called Origin. And I've seen some comments, some cryptic comments from the two of you guys about this film.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (33:30.093)
Yeah.

Bob Mann (33:33.626)
but try and let us have it without spoilers. I really struggled to find this film. It's on at a Cineworld, but the one in Poole, which is a hell of a trek for me to get to. I'm gonna have to maybe dig it out, depending on what you say about this film. Andy, can you introduce the clip for us?

Rev. Andy Godfrey (33:53.593)
Yeah, sure. So Origin is a harrowing, powerful drama based on a bestselling book by an author called Isabel Wilkinson called Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents. She basically proposed that racism, slavery, the desire for national supremacy all relates to caste systems in various societies. We see the book is

dramatized, we see her writing it against a backdrop of some very personal tragedies in their own life. Here's a clip.

Bob Mann (35:04.666)
I have to say I was very confused by that trailer. It seemed to be police drama, bit of romance going on and then flashes back to historical events. I had no idea what this film was going to be.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (35:09.471)
you

Rev. Andy Godfrey (35:20.237)
The great joy of the film, Bob, is that it all makes sense once you see it. So it really does come together like pieces. I mean, the poster has got pieces of a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing. And it really is that kind of film where we're in the past one minute, we're in the present the next. We're in India one minute, we're in the concentration camp in Germany the next. We're in the deep South one minute. We're way, way back in the past on board a slave ship. So it's like pieces of a puzzle.

And what the author of the book is about Wilkinson was trying to do is bring all these kind of pieces together, asking the question, what causes racism? What's the root cause of racism? What's the root cause of slavery? What's the root cause of national supremacy? Of course, illustrated by the Nazis wanting to wipe out the Jews in the Holocaust. And she says it's all down to caste systems where people are put in their place and kept in their place and have no opportunity for advancement up the social ladder.

I found this incredibly thought provoking, I found it incredibly harrowing that I defy anyone to sit through the last 25 minutes of this film. And yeah, Scott, you're right, not either burn with anger or cry and do both at the same time. There is one particular scene, and I don't really want to spoil it, but there's one particular scene involving a little black boy, which really happened in real life where he was ostracized and kept apart from his friends at a celebration.

And it is just, it is disgusting, it's vile, it's horrible, it's humanity at its worst. But the film holds you, you cannot take your eyes off the screen for a single second because all these pieces of this gigantic puzzle are falling into place all around you and slowly they begin to click. If I have a complaint, it's a little bit too long, it kind of makes its point and then makes its point again at the end.

I think it should have finished about five minutes earlier than it actually did. But other than that, I have no complaints because this is one of those films that you know how people sit reverentially through end credits at the end of certain films. This is one of those so nobody moved in the screening I was at until the lights came on. I think it is powerful. I think it's exceptionally well directed. It's exceptionally well put together. I think and you I'm going to pronounce the name wrong... Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Bob Mann (37:28.974)
Yep.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (37:46.285)
who plays this author, Isabel Wilkinson, is absolutely fantastic. She's in, apart from the flashback, she's in virtually every scene. The scenes where we see her traveling to Germany, to India, to the deep South of America, to investigate her theories are really well done. The time travel bits are really well done. I could not fault this, but as a film, I think it's a must see for the fact that it is harrowing, it is disturbing, it is distressing.

It paints humanity at its worst with no redeeming features really, other than the fact that a lot has changed, thank goodness. But I found this a really powerful, I would be surprised if this is in Oscar territory next year. But I thought it was absolutely riveting in a way that, you know.

It shouldn't be riveting. It's a really harrowing experience. And I thoroughly, I got so much out of it. And I got to think about so much. And this film is going to stay with me for a very long time. Particularly those last 25 minutes. And again I defy anybody not to sit through those last 25 minutes and not run the full gauntlet of emotions. Because it really is that powerful. I hope Scott agrees but I saw him sort of, Scott.

Bob Mann (38:56.186)
Right.

Bob Mann (39:00.598)
Okay. This is written and directed by Ava Duvernay, isn't it? Yeah, who did Selma many years ago.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (39:09.449)
even too many yes it is yeah yes it's oh i mean it's much more powerful than that it's much more distressing and disturbing than even yeah so

Scott Forbes (39:22.073)
Yeah, this one, this one broke me a little bit. It's so difficult to watch, but in the best possible way. I thought, yeah, like Andy's right, he's covered it so well in terms of narrative of where it goes and what it covers from representing what caste is and teaching the people around her about it and.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (39:29.293)
Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was trying to say. Yeah. Yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (39:42.731)
you

Scott Forbes (39:49.913)
in turn us as the audience more about it as well. This is one of those where as someone who history was my favourite subject at school, I knew little bits and pieces about what they covered. But what this taught me was so much more on top of what I knew already that I was just glued. Like we talk about edge of their seat. There was so many times throughout this film where I was literally like sat forward in my seat, just absolutely.

Bob Mann (40:14.49)
I'm just gonna talk more to my people. Absolutely. You'll love what I've got.

Scott Forbes (40:19.833)
in love with what I was watching. It sounds bad to say in love with what I was watching because it was so horrible what was happening but as a film this one the stuff that they tell you about and how it's all connected with America with Nazi Germany with the dullets in India and how she's trying to find a way to connect them all for a book as opposed to them being three separate cases of discrimination.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (40:21.877)
Thanks for watching!

Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Forbes (40:48.153)
and her investigations into finding that link. And when she does find some links, it's amazing. There's one sort of scene with a group of people in a meeting in Nazi Germany where they're discussing American laws. And I was just blown away by this and it made me want to learn more. And although Andy said it's long and to some extent you could say that, part of me actually could have done with more. And I was thinking to myself,

Rev. Andy Godfrey (41:16.173)
Okay.

Scott Forbes (41:16.953)
I could have done with like a six part mini series where they're going into even more deeper detail about some of these things. It just hooked me on so much to that. Obviously, just with the subject matter, it is going to be difficult for people to watch. And as Andy said, that scene with the boy towards the end was the one that brought the most tears out of me. Just so powerful.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (41:19.405)
Yes, well that's true.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (41:41.093)
you

Scott Forbes (41:46.105)
almost to the point where I was looking away from the screen just for a split second of relief because it was like, I can't believe I'm watching this. The performances were amazing. Ensemble piece, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, as Andy says, was brilliant. But we've got other people, John Bernthal playing her husband. Fantastic. There's a few other cast members dipped in here and there. One supporting performance that really stood out to me and it's a smaller role.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (42:07.725)
Excellent.

Scott Forbes (42:16.089)
was Audra McDonald. She has a speech in this film that is such an easy Oscar clip that it's just, I was watching her and I could not take my eyes. I was like, this is incredible. The screenplay, if I haven't seen a screenplay like this for so long, it is astonishing. We see it partly played out as well through narration. So our lead character, especially towards the end of the film,

Emma Sewell (42:24.864)
you

Scott Forbes (42:45.625)
I think where Andy's saying where it tells its point and then tells it again, it tells it again in a way where it's told through narration just to punctuate what we see. Just writing things in a whiteboard. It probably is. I. OK, well, yeah, either way, it punctuated it for me in a way that was just the cherry on the cake. Again, it's a little bit difficult, the fact that.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (42:52.845)
I think it's actually a direct quote from the book, isn't it? The final few minutes of the ending of the actual book. I think so, Scott, yeah.

Scott Forbes (43:11.769)
we see this main character in the interracial relationship and how that plays with her personal life and what she's learning about from a social side of it. And as someone who's in an interracial relationship as well, I came away thinking about my own relationship in relation to this film. And it was... Yeah, I came away not quite shaking, but I had a lot of adrenaline when this film finished. And I'm not one that stays through credits, but this is one where I stayed seated through the credits and just until the lights came on.

I'm not 100 % sure I read somewhere that it could have been eligible for this year's Oscars, but it didn't get enough support in America. So I'm not sure actually whether it's eligible for next year or just completely missed this year. But either way.

Bob Mann (43:54.8)
Hmm

Rev. Andy Godfrey (43:56.365)
I think a lot of Americans particularly would find this very uncomfortable.

Scott Forbes (44:00.089)
I would say that is certainly true. But yeah, for me it would be a huge awards worthy film if it's eligible. But yeah, you guys can make your own minds up for it. I get the feeling you're going to agree with us.

Bob Mann (44:00.716)
So that is exactly what I was

Rev. Andy Godfrey (44:02.477)
Yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (44:07.757)
Yeah, absolutely.

Bob Mann (44:16.73)
Okay, good. Scores on the doors. Scott? Oh.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (44:20.215)
I would say it's a must see and I would say it's a 10. It's in my top five of the year without any question at all. Yeah.

Bob Mann (44:26.394)
Mm -hmm. And Scott.

Scott Forbes (44:29.497)
It doesn't happen very often but for me it's another 10.

Bob Mann (44:33.314)
Whoa double tops, so that's a Flickering Dreams score of 10 out of 10 for Origin. That doesn't happen very often around here. That's a huge hit Okay, um, let's now look at the box office for uh this Um week I am going to uh

Rev. Andy Godfrey (44:41.495)
Yeah, no question.

Bob Mann (45:05.466)
Oh, hang on a second. That's not right.

Bob Mann (45:18.074)
Need another screen.

Bob Mann (45:26.426)
Talk amongst yourselves.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (45:27.661)
Ha ha ha.

Scott Forbes (45:30.233)
So Andy, you were asked on radio to talk about Oscars. That must have been a nightmare for you.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (45:34.029)
No, it was great. I loved it. They asked me what I thought. I said the best film about a plastic toy was Barbie. The best film about a man who invented the nuclear bomb was Oppenheimer. The best film about kids being held over at school over Christmas was The Holdovers. The Best Actress was Lily What's Her Name for Killers of the Flower Man because she gave a great performance. The Best Actress was Emma Stone because she gave a great performance in a totally different role. I absolutely loved it, Scott. Talking about the Oscars was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Scott Forbes (46:02.681)
was the best film by at all, not Megan.

Bob Mann (46:05.05)
I did like Megan though, I have to say.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (46:05.293)
Uh, no.

Scott Forbes (46:06.585)
You

Emma Sewell (46:07.52)
Ha ha ha.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (46:11.053)
I thought Megan was okay. And of course I did mention the one film that didn't get any nominations at any of the awards ceremonies and should have won them all.

Emma Sewell (46:20.576)
Of course she did, of course she did.

Bob Mann (46:21.086)
Of course you did. Of course you did. Okay, let's take a look at the top 10 box office for UK and Ireland. I think this is to some time around the 11th of March, but I put question mark, question mark, because the website has actually got the 1st of March there, but it's definitely not the 1st of March number. So they've made an error on their website. So I have pointed that out to them. But the...

Scott Forbes (46:21.209)
Shabbat le'

Rev. Andy Godfrey (46:22.549)
Shivalya, yeah, exactly.

Bob Mann (46:47.258)
Dune continues to be at the top of the charts. That's two weeks at number one. It's...

Emma Sewell (46:50.072)
Ugh.

Scott Forbes (46:53.433)
I thought that number would be higher though actually.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (46:55.111)
Loved it.

Bob Mann (46:56.068)
Oh, come back. Yeah, loved it. And so added another 6 million, which pretty good. So that's 19 million quid. So Mr. Chalamet has added 81 million quid to the coffers with his two films, which is going somewhere. I can see Dune staying in the top 10 for quite a while to add to that total. I don't think he's going to get anywhere near Wonka, but we'll see.

Emma Sewell (47:03.762)
you

Bob Mann (47:23.866)
At number two, we have Wicked Little Letters, third week in release. It's still doing pretty good business in terms of holding up there. In fact, the illustrious Mrs. Mann and the saintly Sarah Shaw have gone to see that film again tonight. So they're adding to those coffers a little bit more. That's over six million pounds at the box office. At number three, still hanging in there as well is Bob Marley One Love, which I have still to see.

It definitely seems to be holding up in the charts as well. 15 million pounds. And number four are the ducks in Migration Six weeks in the charts, still at number four. So again, this is a kids film that is almost bound to be in that top 1000 list again, isn't it? We were commenting previously on how many kids.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (48:15.117)
So will the dialogue quiz simply be quack?

Bob Mann (48:18.074)
Quack. Oh, it'll be you're L'Orange. No, you're with Laurence on top. It's you with L'Orange on top. That's the quote in there. At number five is that film we talked about at the head of the show, which is Imaginary, first week in the chart. At six is a film called Shaitaan, which I must admit, I don't know anything about. Is that familiar to any of you guys?

Emma Sewell (48:23.198)
Ha ha ha ha ha!

Scott Forbes (48:45.337)
It is an Indian film but I don't think it's been received that well from what I've seen of it online.

Bob Mann (48:57.114)
Seven is one of these theatre events, which is Titanic: The Musical where were you.

Scott Forbes (49:02.905)
I was so tempted to go to that.

Emma Sewell (49:04.486)
Yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (49:05.709)
I was tempted.

Scott Forbes (49:06.297)
I didn't because it's like the uplift price is a lot but I was very curious.

Bob Mann (49:08.57)
Yeah, the uplift prices of these things is ridiculously high. Yeah, that's that's why I think these things do such good business at the box office because the price is so high. Probably not that many people go to see them. But at number eight, still in the chart, 14 weeks is Wonka slowly adding another one hundred and seven thousand pounds to the sixty three million total now. At number nine is that Polish film Sammy Sami Swoi. Poczatek.

Emma Sewell (49:08.798)
Yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (49:08.813)
Yeah, yeah exactly.

Yeah.

Emma Sewell (49:22.578)
you

Emma Sewell (49:33.312)
you

Bob Mann (49:38.394)
tech, posatech, maybe. And again, I'm not going to say anything bad about the Polish film or the Polish people in general. We'll get all sorts of shit. And at number 10, oh, who's out there, out there, who is continuing to go and see Madame Web? Five weeks in the chart, still hanging in there at number 10. Not doing.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (50:01.101)
We had a review of that on the Kermode Appreciation Society Facebook page. Somebody liked it and had seen it three times.

Bob Mann (50:09.35)
Yes, that's right.

Scott Forbes (50:10.137)
Oh, yeah, I remember seeing that.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (50:11.213)
And you just went, what?

Bob Mann (50:13.37)
What? What? How did that happen? Anyway, there we go. Talking of films we might rant a little bit about. Next up, we've got Ricky Stanicky. Scott, can you introduce that to us?

Scott Forbes (52:26.142)
Sure. Ricky's Throne the Key is a film about a group of three friends who have been friends since childhood and they've made up an Imaginary friend who as they grow up they use as an excuse for basically lads trips and if anything goes wrong they'll blame it on their Imaginary friend. Here's a clip.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (52:33.087)
you

Scott Forbes (53:27.422)
Yeah, I don't know why I watched this apart from it was on and we do a film podcast and I thought I should watch the film that was out. Yeah, this one. Oh, wow. Peter Farrelly is a director who his comedies, for the most part, have been atrocious. There is that outlier in his filmography of Green Book.

Bob Mann (53:28.378)
basic plot. Scott.

Emma Sewell (53:36.544)
Pfft.

Scott Forbes (53:56.99)
the Best Picture winning Green Book, the deservedly Best Picture winning Green Book. But then he goes back to this and you're like, are you sure you directed Green Book? Because every piece of evidence suggests that you're not a good filmmaker. So this one, yeah, we see them making this imaginary friend and for reasons they need for this person to then appear at an event.

Bob Mann (54:00.)
Yes.

Bob Mann (54:05.986)
Yep, we agree.

Scott Forbes (54:26.75)
And so when they were out partying on one of these trips, they happened to meet an out of work actor slash rock tribute performer that does crude versions in sort of weird Al Jankovic, but it's rock songs with masturbation lyrics.

how you describe what this person is without all that. Anyway, he's played by John Cena. He's played by John Cena and they hire him to play their imaginary friend Ricky Stanicky. Yeah, this is not a comedy. Like, it's pitched to be a comedy but it's not funny. Or at least it isn't to adults. I think I said in my written review something about it probably appeals to like 13 year olds.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (55:01.389)
Or four with one word.

Bob Mann (55:11.212)
you

Emma Sewell (55:20.452)
I'm gonna watch it now just purely for the description.

Scott Forbes (55:24.478)
with very mature sense of humour. And by that little snigger I'm guessing Emma as well. I'm sure you'll love it. Yep.

Bob Mann (55:35.258)
Emma hasn't seen it. Emma hasn't seen it.

Bob Mann (55:40.73)
And yeah, I was watching it today when my son popped in and said, Oh, me and the wife watched that last night. And we liked it. So yes.

Scott Forbes (55:44.93)
Yeah

The acting is so bad from every, well pretty much everyone. I thought William H. Macy did okay in what he was given but John Cena, I've seen some people online thinking he saved the movie, he was great. For me he's Razzie worthy, I absolutely hated him in this. And I have trouble with John Cena because he's got this place in his career now where he's definitely better in comedic roles. While he walks this line of where...

Rev. Andy Godfrey (55:49.901)
Okay.

Scott Forbes (56:17.278)
It's silly. Sometimes he goes over the line and I think it's too silly. Sometimes like in The Suicide Squad, he just stays on the right side of it where it's brilliant. This one is so far over that line that I just could not take it. I just, I really hated it. And I was thinking, I know he's a talented person and I know he can act and I know he can be funny. And yet...

Emma Sewell (56:39.904)
Hahaha

Scott Forbes (56:45.95)
I was cringing so much. The only thing in this film that made me laugh, it really shouldn't have as well, but the bar was so low, was a scene with a duck and a dog and the duck kind of tried to murder the dog, but I won't say any more than that. It shouldn't make me laugh, but in a film that had so little humour, it was a little bit that mildly amused me. But I am more of a cat person.

Emma Sewell (57:09.76)
you

Scott Forbes (57:14.302)
person and I'm sorry if that makes us lose viewers. This yeah I don't know what more to say about this it was just bad it was just really really bad.

Bob Mann (57:16.634)
Yeah. Okay. Andy, would you agree? I think you would.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (57:18.829)
100 % let's be clear about this. This is absolute rubbish. The humor which is meant to be disgusting is not funny, it's just disgusting. There is, it is painful to watch, it is agonizing, it is

Terribly acted terribly scripted William Macy is a fine actor to see him being given such degrading things to do in this particular film Just made me weep and quite clearly. He's only there for the paycheck. This was absolute Piffle of the highest order. I thought that the the music was inappropriate The score was inappro... everything about this film was inappropriate. It just doesn't work on any level whatsoever. I

Unless as Scott says you're a prepubescent 13 year old boy with a very immature sense of humor. It's rubbish. End of.

Bob Mann (58:24.666)
Okay, Andy has made his views clear. I mean, I found this one really frustrating because I started watching this film and got the had the pre title sequence with the young boys effectively creating Ricky Stanicky. And I thought, this is this is this is quite good. It's it made me laugh. I thought this has got legs this film. And then we come up to the modern day and Zach, I

It made me laugh. I thought this has got legs this film and then we come up to the modern day and Zac Efron and and co and It just just lost my man. It's just a single joke really in the film That is that is Extended I actually laughed more than once there was I can't actually I can't actually remember what it was that made me laugh Spontaneously now and I'm not gonna watch it again

Rev. Andy Godfrey (59:03.341)
one joke film and I laughed once.

Bob Mann (59:17.546)
find out. But there was something which which actually caught caught me by surprise and made me laugh. But it certainly didn't meet the six laugh test for me as well. And like you said, William H. Macy, I thought did a really good job at acting a stupid role. And in terms of post credit scenes, there's a basically a viral tik tok thing of of him in the meeting at the end of the titles.

Scott Forbes (59:42.494)
Oh yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (59:46.961)
Yeah.

Bob Mann (59:48.032)
song which which I thought was quite funny in a Peter Farrelly sort of way. But yeah I gave this one a four out of ten and I think I might have been being quite generous. Andy? Scott? Okay so that's four eight nine and that's a Flickering Dreams score.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (59:56.717)
I said it's a one joke film and I laughed once and I'm giving it one.

Scott Forbes (01:00:02.878)
Yeah, I think for the William H Macy stuff, I'm being a little bit generous and I'm going for 4 as well.

Bob Mann (01:00:16.636)
3.0 making Ricky Stanicky a miss. Yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:00:16.885)
Thank goodness Really really what about rotten tomatoes, what's he got on?

Emma Sewell (01:00:22.592)
I thought I'd have a look at the scores online and it's got 6.2 on IMDB!

Scott Forbes (01:00:30.27)
How many votes are that from? That's still quite a lot to get that score.

Emma Sewell (01:00:37.728)
as 14k.

Bob Mann (01:00:38.368)
It's it's number one in the Netflix chart, isn't it? It's number one in Oh, Amazon Prime. Yes. So we shouldn't say Amazon Prime Prime video. Yeah, number one. People are watching. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Our our final film tonight is Damsel. Emma, you've seen this one.

Emma Sewell (01:00:41.406)
Yeah?

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:00:45.107)
Amazon is it on Prime is it yeah? Yeah?

Emma Sewell (01:00:45.992)
Prime, yeah.

Scott Forbes (01:00:47.134)
I mean it's got John Cena and Zac Efron so people will watch it. Doesn't mean it's good.

Emma Sewell (01:01:03.904)
I've finally seen something! Woo!

Bob Mann (01:01:05.216)
Finally seen somebody. Yes. Would you like to introduce Damsel? I have not seen Damsel, I have to say.

Emma Sewell (01:01:10.93)
So she's a damsel, but she's definitely not distressed in the traditional sense of the phrase. Here's a clip.

Bob Mann (01:01:54.368)
Looks like a shit deal to me. But there you go. I haven't seen the film.

Emma Sewell (01:01:59.136)
So I actually quite enjoyed this. Basically Elodie's parents are rulers of a kingdom that is not doing well. They're plagued by all sorts of problems. So her father does a deal with another kingdom to marry off his oldest daughter to their son.

And we see this unfold, they meet, everything's fantastic, but we're aware something is happening, sort of in the background that Elodie and the rest of her family aren't aware of. And obviously, as you can guess from some of the pictures and bits of the trailer,

Bob Mann (01:02:35.232)
We're aware of something happening. So it's in the background that Elevee and the rest of my family are aware of.

Emma Sewell (01:02:55.296)
Yeah, she gets the rough end of the deal and they sacrifice her.

Bob Mann (01:02:58.944)
It sounds like your regular Disney and Princess story.

Emma Sewell (01:03:02.784)
and it does like it pans out like your sort of regular Disney -esque princess story you know she meets a handsome prince and they fall in love and blah blah blah blah and and then and then he throws her into a pit with a dragon and then from that point

Scott Forbes (01:03:14.472)
What's wrong with that?

Bob Mann (01:03:18.908)
Bloody blah.

Bob Mann (01:03:28.192)
That's not on, is it?

Emma Sewell (01:03:32.896)
you're fully aware that Elodie is like really self -sufficient and you know she can stand on her own two feet she doesn't need a man especially one that lobs her into a pit as I say and basically then we see her battling to get out to not quite get revenge but you know

I'm not sure what the phrase is. Just to rub it in their faces. Well, yeah, yeah. I did enjoy it. I thought the action was quite good. The effects weren't terrible, which is always a concern with some of these sort of action -adventury films. Yeah, and although I'm not a massive fan of Millie Bobby Brown, I thought she...

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:04:06.975)
Justice.

Emma Sewell (01:04:31.424)
was very good in this and I did like the fact that they have made it not the fairy tale ending they just have gone the way that as you watch it you're like oh I know how this is going to end and it does not end that way and that was actually very pleasing.

Bob Mann (01:04:50.496)
okay

Good. Good. Andy, have you seen this?

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:04:57.357)
I've seen this and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's kind of film I think that you could gather the family around on a Saturday night on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn, turn the lights out and just have a lot of fun with. I thought the dragon was really well rendered. I thought the story was different. We get a clue in the opening dialogue where the opening dialogue is basically, you've all seen stories of damsels in distress being rescued by knights in shining armor. This is not that story. And as Emma said, it certainly doesn't end in the way you expect it to end.

Bob Mann (01:05:08.736)
you

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:05:26.765)
I thought the whole cast was really good. I thought Millie Bobby Brown was excellent. Ray Winston's in this. I thought he was fine as the girl's father. Really, really good. Angela Bassett was terrific, I thought, as well as was Robin Wright. Sorry? Well, yeah, given the accent. But I really thought that... Exactly. David Fleming produced a really good score.

Scott Forbes (01:05:32.572)
Thank you.

Emma Sewell (01:05:33.728)
Yeah

Emma Sewell (01:05:38.56)
Apart from that accent. Apart from Angela Bassett's accent.

Bob Mann (01:05:43.168)
Winston. You're not gonna chuck my girl into the dragon's pit are ya?

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:05:54.605)
For once we've got a Netflix production that actually surprised me and that I thought was well worth spending the money on. The dragon was beautifully rendered. It's a Game of Thrones style dragon. It was up there with the quality of those dragons. I thought the story was different. I thought it was an unusual twist on the Princess in Distress story. And I thought it worked really well. I was thoroughly entertained for the entire, what is it, 110 minutes. I really enjoyed it.

Bob Mann (01:06:23.104)
Good. Sensible length as well, isn't it? Yeah. Scott.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:06:26.153)
My daughter is the world's biggest Disney fan and she put me onto this and she loved it and I have to say yeah really really enjoyable.

Scott Forbes (01:06:32.798)
I haven't actually managed to get round to this one myself, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it at some point.

Bob Mann (01:06:34.272)
Okay, good, Scott.

Oh, sorry. Yeah. OK. So Emma and Andy scores on the doors.

Emma Sewell (01:06:47.104)
Um, It's an eight from me.

Bob Mann (01:06:50.048)
8 and Andy? 8 easy maths that's a Flickering Dreams score of 8 .0 making Damsel a hit.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:06:51.297)
It's a date for me.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:06:56.205)
Ha ha.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:07:01.581)
Good, because it is.

Bob Mann (01:07:03.84)
Where did my thumbs go? There we go. Right, good stuff. Okay. We've had quite a bit. I have something on the agenda here called Rant Corner, but we've been having quite a good few rants already. So unless anybody's got anything special they want to rant about other than the Oscars and about Ricky Stanicky. Yeah.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:07:12.429)
you

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:07:16.525)
Ha ha.

Emma Sewell (01:07:20.704)
I mean, my only complaint this week, as I said, I've been trying to come up with my schedule for actually seeing films this weekend and I need them to get rid of Anyone But You, Wonka, Migration, Madame Web, no!

Scott Forbes (01:07:36.926)
Wait. Why do they need to get rid of it? You haven't seen it yet.

Bob Mann (01:07:40.224)
Have you seen anybody, have you seen Anyone But You? Have you seen Anyone But You yet?

Emma Sewell (01:07:47.036)
If it fit with something at Cineworld I would see it but I'm not paying to see it at this point but I need them to get rid of it because things like Origin and just generally like the ones that are out this week as well I cannot see them at Cineworld because I've got like 12 screenings of Migration okay rant over

Bob Mann (01:08:00.672)
Yeah, yeah.

Bob Mann (01:08:06.4)
Just stagnant. I mean, enough is enough with Wonka and all of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Rant over. Good rant.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:08:08.749)
My rant would be similar to Emma's but films like Cabrini which we reviewed last week again not widely being screened when films like Migration and others are still hogging screens and I agree with Emma I think that I yeah I mean it's not but it's a friend of mine who lives in Southampton in Bournemouth sorry couldn't find a cinema in Bournemouth showing it.

Bob Mann (01:08:27.328)
Yeah, well that's out tomorrow, isn't it? That's out this week.

Bob Mann (01:08:38.144)
Yeah, I haven't looked, but I will be in the same boat.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:08:38.157)
tomorrow. No. So I agree with them. I just wonder how long they keep showing these films are only staying perhaps in the top 10 because there's no other alternative if you want to know out the cinema, you know, move on. Yeah.

Bob Mann (01:08:52.48)
Yeah, not enough variation. Come on Cineworld, come on Odeon.

Emma Sewell (01:08:55.776)
I am very surprised as well that obviously Drive Away Dolls comes out tomorrow. That is not on at some of the cinemas that I would expect to have it.

Scott Forbes (01:09:01.97)
Really?

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:09:04.653)
We've got five screenings a day of mine, Emma. It's only 84 minutes long, that film.

Scott Forbes (01:09:06.878)
Yeah, amazing.

Emma Sewell (01:09:10.184)
Yeah.

Bob Mann (01:09:10.304)
Hmm Yeah, looks looks worth seeing looks worth seeing. Um, okay any other business and I just wanted to flag two things on streaming that have suddenly appeared or will shortly be appearing. The first is the wonderful American Fiction which is available to stream for free at the moment on Prime Video Just remind ourselves of it with a clip here

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:09:11.661)
I couldn't believe it when I saw the running time.

Bob Mann (01:10:05.248)
I love that film. I have to say.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:10:07.219)
Anyone remember the days when you had to wait years to see a film on television?

Bob Mann (01:10:10.752)
Yeah, I know this has come around indecently fast. And if anything, I would have probably after the Oscar success, I would have put it out into cinemas again for another couple of weeks. But they haven't done that. It's on Prime Video and you can watch it. And I urge all you viewers out there to watch it because it's a cracker. Certainly. Well, I won't say certainly, but almost certainly going to make my films of the year list. Another one, which is coming out to streaming on

Disney Plus from Friday, I think it is. No, sorry, next Wednesday. But before we get back on screen is All of Us Strangers, which is my film of the year so far for sure. Here's a clip of that to remind you.

Emma Sewell (01:10:41.568)
GEEE

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:10:43.501)
you

Bob Mann (01:11:19.698)
Oh, goosebumps again. I think that's just a magical, marvellous film, I have to say, and works on so many different levels and the ending and what exactly happens to the characters during the film as well, or what might be happening to a character during the film is subject to a lot of debate. So.

You could all get a chance to see that if you haven't already All Of Us Strangers. And again, I would have, I think it's a crime that that didn't make the top 10 Oscar film list, but Zone of Interest and Maestro did, but there you go. Also to flag that film that we just talked about, Cabrini coming out on Friday. Now Andy kind of reviewed that as a single voice. Scott, you've seen it in preview.

We haven't seen it. So we're gonna hold off a full review of this until next week. Well, we'll do it regardless of whether Emma and I have seen it, but we'll certainly try and see it But you really rated this film and I think you'd encourage everybody to try and find a cinema showing it wouldn't you Scott? Yeah, yeah Okay, any other any any other business from anybody? We're kind of out staying our welcome this week

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:12:20.173)
you

Emma Sewell (01:12:27.04)
you

Scott Forbes (01:12:28.358)
Most certainly.

Scott Forbes (01:12:35.23)
I'd say a couple of quick things. Sort of following on from what Bob said about things to look out for that's already been out. I noticed that The Eras Tour is also coming to Disney Plus tomorrow. Film, not film, doesn't matter. It might be interesting viewing, but I just threw that in. More of a sort of list of things that we might talk about on the podcast next week. We've talked about Driveaway Dolls coming out. I also noticed that coming to Netflix,

is Irish Wish with Lindsay Lohan. Might be a bad comedy, but we'll see. And there's a film on Apple called The Bloody Hundredth. Now, have you guys been watching the Masters of the Air TV series? Yes. OK, I think I'm about halfway through episode six just now, so I've got a few left. But I noticed that this film, The Bloody Hundredth, is a documentary that's essentially a companion piece to that series.

Bob Mann (01:13:22.656)
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:13:23.661)
I don't have apples, so.

Emma Sewell (01:13:25.296)
No, me either.

Scott Forbes (01:13:33.502)
And so we get interviews, history about the war and these people. Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg doing talking heads. Just from a little trailer of it. I think I don't know if I'll watch it this week, so I'll probably want to finish the TV series first. But if you have watched the TV series already, I would definitely keep an eye out for that.

Bob Mann (01:13:45.952)
Okay.

Bob Mann (01:13:57.664)
Yep. Yep. Well, I'm, I'm up to date with the TV series, but the final episode is, uh, comes out tomorrow or today when this podcast is released. So, uh, we'll yeah, I'll look out for that. That's good. Okay. Uh, terrific. Thank you very much to Emma, to Andy and to Scott. And, uh, we will join you again for Flickering Dreams next week. Bit of a bumper episode, uh, this week we're coming up to 75 minutes.

Scott Forbes (01:14:02.11)
Perfect.

Emma Sewell (01:14:24.448)
Ha ha.

Bob Mann (01:14:28.032)
Um, so we're almost feature film length, but not quite there. Yeah Okay. Thanks guys. See you soon. Bye

Scott Forbes (01:14:31.262)
Bye guys.

Rev. Andy Godfrey (01:14:34.701)
Thanks guys. God bless.