March 4, 2024

Lynne Ramsay - You Were Never Really Here

Lynne Ramsay - You Were Never Really Here
Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
Goodpods podcast player badge
Pandora podcast player badge
Amazon Music podcast player badge
iHeartRadio podcast player badge
Castbox podcast player badge
Deezer podcast player badge
TuneIn podcast player badge
Podcast Addict podcast player badge
Podchaser podcast player badge
Spreaker podcast player badge
JioSaavn podcast player badge
Castro podcast player badge
RSS Feed podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player iconGoodpods podcast player iconPandora podcast player iconAmazon Music podcast player iconiHeartRadio podcast player iconCastbox podcast player iconDeezer podcast player iconTuneIn podcast player iconPodcast Addict podcast player iconPodchaser podcast player iconSpreaker podcast player iconJioSaavn podcast player iconCastro podcast player iconRSS Feed podcast player icon

Jeff welcomes Mary Kay Holmes from the Share A Sandwich Podcast to explore the complexities of trauma, violence, and redemptive behaviors in Lynne Ramsay's psychological thriller, "You Were Never Really Here." Joaquin Phoenix delivers a haunting performance as a traumatized mercenary on a mission to rescue a young girl in a gripping film that you don't want to miss.

For exclusive episodes and content, check out A Film By... on Patreon! with a FREE 7-day trial!

Check out www.afilmbypodcast.com/ for more information.
Email us at afilmbypodcast@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.
Find us on X Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @afilmbypodcast.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.640
This episode of a Film Buy is
brought to you by black Key Cooffee.

2
00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:08.359
Head over to black Keycoffee dot com
and get your favorite flavor this winter,

3
00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:12.720
I've been warming up with the Guatemala
Espresso. Not sure what you want,

4
00:00:13.199 --> 00:00:18.280
then build your own sample pack and
try several Black Key coffee. With enough

5
00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:24.079
coffee, anything is possible. Today
we're going to talk about a film by

6
00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:57.600
Lynn Ramsey, her twenty seventeen underrated
thriller You Were Never Really Here. Hello

7
00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:03.880
everybody, I'm Jeff Johnson and welcome
back to a Film by podcast. Before

8
00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.120
we get going, I do want
to shout out one of our listeners,

9
00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:12.840
Sarah Simons on Spotify. Uh left
us a really cool comment about a recent

10
00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:19.200
episode we did, our Lee Daniels
episode covering The Paperboy. Sarah says,

11
00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:23.959
so great of you to cover this. I watched it when it came out

12
00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:29.400
and since then probably five times,
the last time being today. It's in

13
00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:33.200
my top five. Still always shocks
me like I watched it for the first

14
00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:38.560
time. Laugh hell loud, Sarah. I'm already wondering, like what if

15
00:01:38.599 --> 00:01:42.040
this one is in your top five
and it is a very It's a very

16
00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:46.319
great movie. Sarah if you're listening, we gotta we gotta know what the

17
00:01:46.359 --> 00:01:51.200
other four are in this top five. Please email us at a film by

18
00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:55.480
podcast at gmail dot com because if
you do, uh, we got we

19
00:01:55.480 --> 00:01:57.400
gotta, we gotta let we gotta
let the listeners know, and we got

20
00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:01.879
we gotta send you some a film
by swag. Moving on, I'd like

21
00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:07.599
to remind to all of you back
in January, I had the privilege of

22
00:02:07.520 --> 00:02:14.639
being on the Share a Sandwich podcast, and the host and creator of said

23
00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:19.759
podcast is with me today, Mary
Kay Holmes. Welcome to a Film Buy.

24
00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:23.319
Thank you. I'm so excited to
be here. We are excited to

25
00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:28.039
have you, and I got to
ask you to do something for me.

26
00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:31.000
For our listeners who may not know
about the share Sandwich podcast, can you

27
00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:34.759
give us a little background on how
this came to be and what it is

28
00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:38.360
all about. Sure. On the
shaff Sandwich podcast, I have a guest

29
00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:43.800
every week and they vary from just
all different types of people that I've met

30
00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:47.319
or have gotten to know, and
I ask the same ten questions of everyone

31
00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:53.479
and it's been more of a social
experiment for me than anything else. I

32
00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:58.159
during COVID and coming out of COVID. I sort of go really tired of

33
00:02:58.199 --> 00:03:01.319
small talk and the basic questions that
adults ask each other. Oh you know,

34
00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:05.560
what do you do? Blah blah
blah. So I started getting really

35
00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:07.800
into icebreakers and asking people questions like, Hey, you know, what's your

36
00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:13.159
favorite dinosaur? Because it's just not
something that adults talk about. So I

37
00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:16.759
wanted to make a podcast that was
just grown people asking each other questions that

38
00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:22.280
we don't normally ask each other.
It is absolutely fantastic. It's actually one

39
00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:27.680
of my favorite new pods. Please
check out Mary Kay on the Share a

40
00:03:27.719 --> 00:03:37.520
Sandwich podcast. We have got ourselves
a pretty fantastic director to discuss today and

41
00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:39.919
a movie that I think a lot
of people have not seen and probably need

42
00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:46.599
to see. Mary Kay, can
you tell our listeners a little bit about

43
00:03:46.039 --> 00:03:51.599
you were never really here? Yes, I agree with you, and that

44
00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:54.800
I had never heard of it until
you sent it to me. But essentially,

45
00:03:54.840 --> 00:04:00.479
it is about a traumatized veteran who
is unafraid of violence and he tracks

46
00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:04.319
down missing girls for a living.
So when one of his jobs spins completely

47
00:04:04.360 --> 00:04:09.960
out of control, his nightmares start
to overtake him as a conspiracy as uncovered,

48
00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:14.800
leading to what could be his death
trip or his awakening. I like

49
00:04:14.919 --> 00:04:17.360
how you I like how you said
that. That's uh. I mean true,

50
00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:19.519
I've seen the movie. I love
the movie, and I'm already intrigued

51
00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:24.519
to watch it again just based off
of that synopsis. I mean, the

52
00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:29.160
internet is a great place to help
put together a synopsis. So it was.

53
00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:31.560
This movie was amazing. It was
different than what I was expecting.

54
00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:34.959
What were you expecting? I mean, did you watch a trailer or did

55
00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:41.000
you just go in completely like unaware. I watched the trailer and I was

56
00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:47.000
essentially braced for sort of your standard
action thriller, you know, a lot

57
00:04:47.079 --> 00:04:53.560
of gratuitous violence and you know action
and certain you know, very sort of

58
00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:57.800
hyper masculine activities happening. And the
fact that w Quing Phoenix was in it

59
00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:00.160
was should have been a little bit
of a tip off that it was not

60
00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:04.319
going to be like a John Wicker, you know, but it was very

61
00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:10.800
different than that. The trailer and
the movie itself were very different. I

62
00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:14.639
mean it's you know, as I
mentioned, it's neo noir. This is

63
00:05:14.680 --> 00:05:17.720
a it's a it's a haunting film. Yeah, and it's and it's visually

64
00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:23.160
yeah, you know, we're talking
about like city city landscapes, you know,

65
00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:26.839
New York. Mainly, it's not
like it's great to look at where

66
00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:30.839
where she's where Lynn Ramsey's shooting,
but it's still just it's it's visually stunning

67
00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:33.839
the way the way she shoots,
right, I mean it's like it's like

68
00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:38.759
slightly out of focus. Yeah,
cinematography, right, Yeah, cinematography is

69
00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:42.480
gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. It's it's
you know, you can tell that she

70
00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:46.040
probably takes beautiful photographs. Her composition
and the way she puts everything together,

71
00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:53.639
there's there's energy put into every shot. Mm hmm, absolutely so. Jaquin

72
00:05:53.759 --> 00:06:00.959
Phoenix as Joe. During an interview
with Rolling Stone, he shared that Lynn

73
00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:08.120
Ramsey gave him an audio mix of
fireworks blended with gunshots to describe what's going

74
00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:13.040
on inside this character's head. And
when you when you know that and you

75
00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:16.720
watch this movie, because he's he's
got this this thousand yard stare through a

76
00:06:16.759 --> 00:06:20.439
lot of it, he's kind of
just like, is he is he is?

77
00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:25.519
He? Is he with us?
Or where's he at? And when

78
00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:28.199
you hear that, that's what's you
know, when you when you watch it

79
00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:30.959
again and you know, like that's
what's that's kind of like his inner monologue.

80
00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:34.560
For me, it put the movie
on a whole new level. So

81
00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:39.160
I'm like, this guy is really
troubled. Yeah, no, and that's

82
00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:41.959
intense. I did not read that
one. I read different things, and

83
00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:45.480
it was the same thing with you
know, as I was going through like

84
00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:49.360
different synopsis online and reading things about
it, and they always kick it off

85
00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:53.399
with the veteran right up front,
within the first few words. And yes,

86
00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:57.399
there are moments that tell you that
he is a veteran, but I

87
00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:00.800
don't feel like there was a huge
emphasis put on it. But I do

88
00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:04.319
think that when you've been through a
traumatic situation like he clearly has in combat,

89
00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:09.079
that that is always in your mind. So knowing that she sort of

90
00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:13.480
gave him that soundscape for his thoughts, that's really that's really interesting. I

91
00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:15.800
think it's brilliant, and you know, it just it speaks to what kind

92
00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:19.720
of artist she is, I think, because this character he is, he's

93
00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:24.240
very damaged, and this is something
that we're This is a point like you

94
00:07:24.279 --> 00:07:27.439
know, mid you know, like
twenty fifteen, twenty seven, sixteen seventeen,

95
00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:31.120
this is where Joaquin's starting to take
on roles where he's playing these traumatized

96
00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:34.600
people, these these damaged people think
of him and Joker, you know,

97
00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:39.439
Todd Phillips Joker, which he'll do
a couple of years after this movie.

98
00:07:40.439 --> 00:07:44.560
You can kind of see where he
gets his inspiration for Arthur fleckin in this

99
00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:48.560
movie with with the character Joe.
He's just so damaged and like you talked

100
00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:58.079
about, like his military background.
We get very very brief flashbacks that Lynn

101
00:07:58.199 --> 00:08:01.399
Ramsey is giving us to kind of
show so who he is and why he

102
00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:05.959
is so traumatized. You know,
you know, we know he's an abuse

103
00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:09.959
child. You know he has observed
the violence, the extreme violence that his

104
00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:13.639
father has has done against his mother. You know, we talked about the

105
00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.480
horrors of war. You know,
he sees some pretty messed up stuff.

106
00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:22.000
But we again we see just just
flashes, like just quick images, like

107
00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:24.519
some like one image I had to
stop. I had to pause to go,

108
00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:26.720
did I see what I just saw? You know, because we know

109
00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:30.639
he's got a military background, we
know he has a background with the FBI,

110
00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:35.480
and this kind of all speaks to
this all kind of builds to this

111
00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:39.960
new career he has where's he's basically
saving young girls from from trafficking. Yeah,

112
00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:45.799
and I have to say the way
that she sort of shows these flashbacks

113
00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:50.159
to his time in combat, it's
very different than any other combat flashback I've

114
00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:56.559
ever seen before. It's yeah,
moments, these really sort of poignant and

115
00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:01.279
powerful moments that aren't your traditional you
know, something blowing up or something this

116
00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:03.120
happening or this happening. It's like
there's this tiny little thing that happens here

117
00:09:03.159 --> 00:09:07.919
and this tiny little thing that happens
here, and they're very specific. Yeah,

118
00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:11.759
It's it's really powerful the way that
she does it. They're specific because

119
00:09:11.799 --> 00:09:16.639
they also they force you to ask
questions because it really puts you inside his

120
00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:20.799
headspace. You know. We get
a brief, like a one second shot

121
00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:26.840
of like two soldiers just playfully dancing
together, and you know, and you're

122
00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:28.960
like, what's what's going on there? And then you see like this quivering

123
00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:31.120
foot and you're like, wait,
who is that? What's going on?

124
00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:35.519
And then when you kind of put
and she has these extreme close ups that

125
00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:39.080
are slightly out of focus. So
it really puts you in this person's mind

126
00:09:39.080 --> 00:09:43.399
because like when you think, like
you know, when we when we experience

127
00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:48.159
trauma and we we think back or
were it kind of jamsus, you know,

128
00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:50.759
kind of jams us up, and
you know, we're kind of we're

129
00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:54.200
in our own headspace. It's it's
fuzzy, and maybe we don't remember things

130
00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:58.919
coherently. And I think what she's
doing here is brilliant, honestly, when

131
00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:03.360
she's explaining who he is. I
love it. Yeah, No, I

132
00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:07.799
fully agree with you on that.
I fully agree. And what's interesting is

133
00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:13.480
that that tiny moment of him dancing
in the desert with the other man,

134
00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:15.720
if it is even him, I
don't even know if it was him.

135
00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:18.000
I think it was just two men
dancing together. There is a moment later

136
00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:22.080
in the movie that if you sort
of like draw the straight line between those

137
00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:26.799
two moments, you can make an
assumption about him and something about him,

138
00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:31.279
you know, which is not overt
and it's not discussed, and it also

139
00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:35.639
is just a thing that happens,
but it gives you just that extra,

140
00:10:35.799 --> 00:10:41.159
tiny, little paper thin layer of
who he is, very subtle layers.

141
00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:46.919
I think, as we try to
unravel who Joe is and where he comes

142
00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:50.759
from, there's a lot of questions
that you and up asking yourself. Yeah,

143
00:10:50.799 --> 00:11:00.759
for sure, a lot is co
star fourteen year old Ekaterina sampson Off

144
00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:05.840
is in the role of the governor's
daughter or the Senator. I'm sorry,

145
00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:09.039
excuse me, the Senator's daughter.
Nina, this young lady. So she's

146
00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:13.000
born to a Ukrainian mother and a
Russian father. She's got dual citizenship,

147
00:11:15.639 --> 00:11:18.519
and she did a few indies before
this, but currently she's making her living

148
00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:24.360
as a model. Her performance is
a little creepy, am I am,

149
00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:28.399
I out align with that, like, I don't know, she feels kinda

150
00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:31.440
I don't know, eth rul,
like she's just I don't I don't trust

151
00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:35.240
her. I want I want him
to save her. I want him to

152
00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:41.279
help her. But she almost doesn't
seem like the quintessential victim, even though

153
00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:43.919
she is a major victim. Yes, right, does she carry herself like

154
00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:46.240
that? Is it just me?
Or what's your take? Mary? Kay?

155
00:11:46.440 --> 00:11:52.679
Well, it's really it's interesting that
you say that because there's sort of

156
00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.440
this first of all, just side
note. She reminded me a lot of

157
00:11:56.519 --> 00:11:58.759
Hunter Schaeffer from Euphoria. I don't
know if you ever watched Euphoria, but

158
00:11:58.759 --> 00:12:01.639
from and I'm like, wait,
wait, wait is that Hunter? And

159
00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:07.960
I look it up because very similar
sort of look But what's interesting is,

160
00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:13.360
you know, we get used to
in film and television seeing these abused women

161
00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:18.000
and girls in this certain way,
right, and so there are these assumptions

162
00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:22.320
that that is how it is.
And I think that there is sort of

163
00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:26.720
the vibe that I got from her
is that she's having this sort of out

164
00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:30.600
of body experience, right. And
you've heard that, you know, I've

165
00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:33.919
read that before from people who say, when you're in these horrific situations,

166
00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:39.360
all you can do is just leave
your body because there's nothing you can do

167
00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:43.480
otherwise. And so she's so young, and if she's been dealing with this

168
00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:50.399
horrific trauma for years, it's possible
that she is just so disconnected, you

169
00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:54.279
know when they go to her eating
at the end, sitting there, I

170
00:12:54.480 --> 00:12:58.759
mean, you know, but at
the same time, like she's probably hungry

171
00:12:58.279 --> 00:13:05.440
and you know, like there's food. So it's it's an interesting disconnect that

172
00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:09.759
kind of gives us this insight into
man, how how do you move forward

173
00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:15.320
from that? When you have been
so brutalized, you know, how do

174
00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:18.240
you put yourself back together and then
sort of you know, slide yourself into

175
00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:22.639
society and move forward. I mean, that's I can't imagine it's easy.

176
00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:26.519
Yeah, I mean people still have
to eat, they still have to sleep.

177
00:13:26.759 --> 00:13:30.440
You know, slipping throats makes you
hungry, right, Mary Kay,

178
00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:33.200
It's a lot of work. It's
a lot of work. Uh, you

179
00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:39.200
know, I listeners, I probably
suld have said this, but this movie

180
00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:43.759
is streaming on Prime if you you
know, if you want to spoiler free

181
00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:48.440
type of assessment, go see it. Come back to us. But you

182
00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:50.080
know, we're not worry I I
don't think we should only think back,

183
00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:52.440
do you, Mary Kay? No, I think we should go back.

184
00:13:54.039 --> 00:13:56.759
I also think that there's like a
huge, you know, trigger warning on

185
00:13:56.799 --> 00:14:01.480
this movie for many different reasons,
so, you know, triggered by that

186
00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:03.080
type of stuff. Then maybe this
will sort of give them the opportunity to

187
00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:05.519
say, you know, I'm not
going to watch this one. Maybe I'll

188
00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:09.600
just listen to the podcast and not
watch the actual film. Absolutely, and

189
00:14:09.639 --> 00:14:15.240
it's I love the I love the
point that you made with her at the

190
00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:18.120
end of the movie and you know, sitting there eating dinner with the bloody

191
00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:24.399
razor blade and her hands are covered. Yeah, because I remember the first

192
00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:28.480
time I watched this movie. I
never would have expected that moment because we

193
00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:33.559
see you know, we know that
Joe's gonna go save this girl from this

194
00:14:33.559 --> 00:14:39.200
this disgusting brothel that she's being held
in, and that that scene in itself,

195
00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:41.480
it's I don't think it's like a
pivotal moment, but I think it

196
00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:46.879
speaks volumes to the title of this
movie, you know, of the book,

197
00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:52.039
because he never lets himself be seen
on close circuit cameras. He never

198
00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:54.639
lets him he doesn't give his name, he's his head's always down, he's

199
00:14:54.720 --> 00:15:00.840
just he's never really here. Yeah, but when you watch that moment when

200
00:15:00.840 --> 00:15:05.279
he storms this place and he's just
dispatching these guys with this ballpen hammer,

201
00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:09.639
you just see like glimpses of it
on the on the monitors. So a

202
00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:13.720
lot of a lot of inferred violence. I mean, you know, we

203
00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:20.000
don't really see a lot of gratuitous
violence like you were expecting on this A

204
00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:22.759
lots implied and lots like it's it
happens, so like, did I just

205
00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:24.840
see what I thought I saw?
It's a it's quick, And I think

206
00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:28.919
that's part of the genius of this
movie, honestly, And one of the

207
00:15:28.919 --> 00:15:33.399
things that really blew me away about
it is I'm used to bracing myself.

208
00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:35.960
You know, you see someone walking
towards someone with a ballpeen hammer, You're

209
00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:39.759
like, oh boy, this is
going to be a whole thing. And

210
00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:41.480
you have the moment where he raises
the hammer and then you splash to the

211
00:15:41.480 --> 00:15:46.799
guy on the ground, and then
you have those beautiful moments in between where

212
00:15:46.840 --> 00:15:52.639
he's sort of catching his breath,
taking a moment, remembering why he's there.

213
00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:54.399
Okay, on to the next thing. You know, the moments when

214
00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:58.720
he's driving, or the moments when
he's sort of in between, you know,

215
00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:03.480
houses while he's going on this final
mission. It's it's amazing because we

216
00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:08.840
don't have to relive or I guess, live the initial violence of it.

217
00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:11.559
We know what happens. He's got
a hammer, that guy's gonna we know

218
00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:15.960
what's gonna happen. I don't need
to see it, and I what I

219
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.080
want to know is how it's affecting
him afterwards, what's doing to him And

220
00:16:19.080 --> 00:16:22.919
and she does a really great job
with that. Yeah, I love her

221
00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:30.279
shots, nonviolent shots that tell you
something really violent just happened or is about

222
00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:33.480
to happen. The movie opens,
he's we see him kind of cleaning up,

223
00:16:33.799 --> 00:16:38.360
and he's cleaning a hammer that he's
just used. We don't we don't

224
00:16:38.360 --> 00:16:42.039
really know at that point. But
then when you see, like later down

225
00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:45.200
the road, when he's grabbing a
hammer, a new hammer, off the

226
00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:48.879
shelf at the local hardware store,
You're like, oh my god, he

227
00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:53.559
is about to unleash some some really
terrible things. You know. It's like

228
00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:57.240
it's like the senator who who hires
him? He has that question, he's

229
00:16:57.279 --> 00:17:03.360
you know, he says, uh, can you be brutal? And Joaquin's

230
00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.440
just like, I can be,
and then he just says, I want

231
00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:10.839
you to hurt them. It's just
like, oh yeah, like what is

232
00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:12.359
that? Well, and then you
discover how tangled the whole thing is,

233
00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:17.200
and it's like, ah, like
this is and the thing is that you

234
00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:21.480
see, you know, you see
Joaquin, you see Joe struggling with this,

235
00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:25.200
because I think it's easy for us
to assume, you know, like

236
00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:29.440
in a John wu type movie,
that like, oh, this guy is

237
00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:33.279
like hardcore, he's seeking revenge.
This is happening. He doesn't care about

238
00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:36.359
anybody that gets in his way.
This is what's going down, And you

239
00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:38.720
don't see necessarily those moments in between, now that there's anything wrong with that

240
00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:44.519
that's a completely different type of movie. But the fact that you see Joe

241
00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:48.000
doing these things or don't see him
doing them things, and then he goes

242
00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:51.599
home and he's taking his mom's glasses
off and putting them on the nightstand,

243
00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:57.000
and he's, you know, doing
these little things that show that he's trying

244
00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:02.359
and that he actually does have the
capacity to love and care for someone.

245
00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:08.519
He's not just this calculated robot.
Yeah, And speaking of caring for someone,

246
00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:14.480
I think what really turns this movie
on its head is the idea that

247
00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:18.960
you know, there's events that are
going to happen where she's going to be

248
00:18:18.960 --> 00:18:22.480
taken a second time. He's going
after her a second time, and you're

249
00:18:22.519 --> 00:18:25.839
just like, okay, I get
where we're going here, and to find

250
00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:30.319
out that it's really it's her that's
going to save him in a way,

251
00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:36.160
I thought it was brilliant writing because
let's not forget you know, Lynn Ramsey

252
00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:40.960
writes this, you know, she
adapts this from the novella, So the

253
00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:45.000
writing's brilliant here. The idea that
this fourteen year old girl ultimately becomes the

254
00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:49.200
hero of the movie. I absolutely
love it. I just love it.

255
00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:53.240
Yeah, because you see him the
entire time. I mean, he's he's

256
00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:59.519
struggling the entire time. You know, he's struggling with his history in combat,

257
00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:03.240
he's struggle with his childhood trauma.
He's struggling with his day to day

258
00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:07.279
he's struggling with how he feels about
himself, how his body feels, his

259
00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:11.279
aches and pains. You know,
it's just I mean, one of the

260
00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:15.920
greatest greatest moments is him, you
know, lying in bed and he's sort

261
00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:19.480
of you know, dangling this knife
over his throat considering doing something, and

262
00:19:19.480 --> 00:19:22.920
then the other room, his mom's
like Joe, and he's like, what's

263
00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:26.640
the knife down? It's like what
is happening? But it's so like he

264
00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:30.279
just goes back to being like,
Okay, I'm a beautiful son. I

265
00:19:30.279 --> 00:19:32.720
got to go home my mom with
this thing and then just toss my knife

266
00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:36.039
on the ground and go do this. Yeah. The way the way he

267
00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:41.039
the way he balances his suicidal tendencies
with the care he has to provide for

268
00:19:41.079 --> 00:19:45.119
his mother, and I love the
relationship by the way, you know this

269
00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:49.119
is it's so it warms you.
It's like you're like, you're like,

270
00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:52.920
Okay, this guy's brutal, he's
cold, blooded. No, he's not.

271
00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:56.400
Like, look, he's he's at
home. He's there to take care

272
00:19:56.440 --> 00:19:57.440
of his mom. You know,
they have they I love the banter that

273
00:19:57.480 --> 00:20:02.000
they have where they're they're kind of
like they're more like roommates, like old

274
00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:07.559
old roommates. You know. I
think it's fantastic. I love a Walter

275
00:20:07.640 --> 00:20:11.920
White. I mean I love a
complicated character. So he fits the bill

276
00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:14.920
right. You know, he's a
guy that does awful things, but he

277
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:18.799
kind of doesn't for a good reason, and he kind of doesn't do bad

278
00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:22.880
people. And also he takes care
of his mom. So like you know,

279
00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:26.240
it's it's again like you said earlier, it's layered. Yeah, let's

280
00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:29.759
I want to ask you something.
So we got, you know, on

281
00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:37.880
the on the subject of brutal,
cold blooded mercenary type type guys that are

282
00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:41.119
that are out to take care of
people. This movie has a you know,

283
00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:45.559
critics kind of pointed this out,
this movie has a real taxi driver

284
00:20:45.160 --> 00:20:52.799
comparison happening. And I didn't think
about that until maybe the third or fourth

285
00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:56.960
time I watched it, and and
it's there because like you know, I

286
00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.680
think I think he's better than Travis
bickele I mean, and I don't mean

287
00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:03.839
better as a character. I mean, he's a better person than Travis Bickel,

288
00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:10.359
but they're you know, they're doing
the same thing, right, I

289
00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:15.200
can definitely see that. I have
not watched admittedly Traffic Taxi Driver in many

290
00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:18.839
years. So now, as soon
as you mentioned that earlier, I thought,

291
00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:22.079
oh man, I got to go
back and watch that now because I

292
00:21:22.119 --> 00:21:26.039
live for that, you know,
the comparison and sort of where the nuance

293
00:21:26.119 --> 00:21:30.279
is between the two different characters,
because yeah, I mean, nobody's all

294
00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:36.799
good, nobody's all bad, and
different people have different things that inspire them

295
00:21:36.839 --> 00:21:40.000
to make the world a better place
and a different place. Where the line

296
00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:44.200
is between what's good and what's bad
and what they're willing to do to make

297
00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:47.480
the world a better place in the
way that they choose. I'll tell you

298
00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:51.200
right now, Like, yeah,
watching this you met you kind of pointed

299
00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:56.200
out those those moments, those really
nice moments we have with Joaquin just sitting

300
00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:03.240
in his car waiting or observing or
you know, preparing. It really puts

301
00:22:03.240 --> 00:22:06.400
you in that that Travis Bickel frame
of mind where he's just driving the taxi

302
00:22:06.440 --> 00:22:07.960
and you're in his head for a
little bit and he's talking, you know,

303
00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:11.680
he's you know, Denaro's kind of
narrating, like what his thoughts are,

304
00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:15.880
what his feelings are, and the
idea that they're both out to save

305
00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:22.279
a young, damaged, you know, female that's that's been kind of forced

306
00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:27.279
into a world of prostitution, who
ultimately maybe doesn't need saving. It says

307
00:22:27.319 --> 00:22:32.680
a lot about about what this movie
is. Yeah, Yeah, and it's

308
00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:37.400
interesting, you know, it's it's
also it changes your definition of saving,

309
00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:41.920
right, So we initially think of
the hero sort of swoops in and is

310
00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:45.240
saving her. Obviously, yes,
she's being saved from an terrible, terrible

311
00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:49.440
situation that she maybe physically is not
capable of getting out of, right when

312
00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:56.119
you're you know, surrounded by giant
adult men. But then in the end,

313
00:22:56.799 --> 00:23:00.279
she's saving him from himself. She's
saving him from this dark hole that

314
00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:04.599
he's living in, especially after you
know, what's happened to his mom and

315
00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:10.680
what happens you know, from that
moment forward. I think I think that

316
00:23:10.759 --> 00:23:14.920
it's it's interesting how we can sort
of redefine saving. Yeah, I mean,

317
00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:19.960
just because someone's not trapped in a
building by by terrorists doesn't mean they're

318
00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:25.960
not trapped in their emotions and maybe
they need someone to save them emotionally or

319
00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:29.519
save them mentally. And I think
that's what this girl, you know,

320
00:23:29.559 --> 00:23:33.279
that's what this character Nina, that's
what she's all about. Especially at the

321
00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:37.279
end. It's it's so I mean, the way she takes care of him

322
00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:41.039
at the end, it kind of
washes over like a just an awesome wave

323
00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:45.440
of calm as far as but at
the same time, she's just so hardcore,

324
00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:48.079
you know, she's like, all
right, come buddy, here's what's

325
00:23:48.119 --> 00:23:52.799
happening. This is what we're doing, and time to get up. Also,

326
00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:56.480
like the song that's playing in that
diner at the end, the Cake

327
00:23:56.559 --> 00:24:00.720
song, while they're saying really dark
moment, it's sort of every you know,

328
00:24:00.759 --> 00:24:04.400
sort of processing everything that's happened,
and then there's this song about cake

329
00:24:04.519 --> 00:24:10.799
playing. It's genius, Yeah,
genius and a little discombobby lighting. For

330
00:24:10.839 --> 00:24:12.920
me, yes, yes, I
mean it's to me, it's similar.

331
00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:18.680
It's the same sort of interesting moment
like when he you know, goes home,

332
00:24:19.079 --> 00:24:25.400
discovers what's happened with his mother,
goes downstairs and he you know,

333
00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:29.359
attacks this man who's questioning and he's
laying on the floor with this man,

334
00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:33.359
knowing that this man is going to
die, and there's music playing. It's

335
00:24:33.559 --> 00:24:37.240
the whole you know, I've been
to Paradise song playing yea, and the

336
00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:44.480
guy who reaches over and holds Joe's
hand and he lets him and he sings

337
00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:47.519
the song to him and he holds
his hand, and it's like, you

338
00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:48.880
know, on the one hand,
you're sitting here going what is happening?

339
00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:52.799
But at the same time, you're
like, this is a real human moment,

340
00:24:52.119 --> 00:24:56.960
Like this is you know, two
humans, not two people fighting against

341
00:24:56.960 --> 00:24:59.480
each other, two people on the
opposite sides of things, but like two

342
00:24:59.559 --> 00:25:03.880
human be and one of them is
about to end his life and he just

343
00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:06.400
wants comfort and he wants someone there
with him, and this is the person

344
00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:08.799
who's laying next to him. And
so that's what's happening. And that's really

345
00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:15.039
interesting. It's an odd moment and
brilliant because when you find out that whole

346
00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:18.920
thing is ad libbed, with the
singing and the closeness that they have.

347
00:25:21.079 --> 00:25:25.039
I love the fact that the guy
is a obviously he's a terrible he's a

348
00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:27.680
scumbag, and he's he's dying.
He's dying out right there on the on

349
00:25:27.759 --> 00:25:34.240
the kitchen floor. But he also
reveals to Joe like it was in her

350
00:25:34.279 --> 00:25:37.880
sleep, she didn't feel a thing
right. And I kind of feel like

351
00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:42.240
that gives Joe comfort and maybe that's
why he is with this guy in his

352
00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:45.200
final moments, like you don't have
to die alone. I'm here for you.

353
00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:48.319
And he kind of because like when
you first see that that hand,

354
00:25:48.359 --> 00:25:52.720
that that hand, take that other
hand, and you're like what, and

355
00:25:52.759 --> 00:25:56.400
then I thought, wait a minute, it's kind of a mutual respect in

356
00:25:56.440 --> 00:26:00.039
a weird, really twisted way.
And a Lynn Ramsey, it's really it's

357
00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:03.880
messed up. It's a messed up
scene, but it works, especially when

358
00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:07.880
they're kind of sharing this moment where
they're singing the song together. Yeah,

359
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:12.000
and I think Joe probably has guilt
that his mother died alone and that he

360
00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:15.359
wasn't there, and he probably,
because of her age and because of everything,

361
00:26:15.400 --> 00:26:18.960
always just envisioned that she would get
sick or she would get old and

362
00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:22.519
she would pass away and he would
be sitting by her holding her hand and

363
00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:26.319
she would die. And that is
not what happened. But that's what he

364
00:26:26.359 --> 00:26:30.519
did for this man, and so
it's it's just an interesting exchange that happens

365
00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:37.480
in that moment that's both bizarre and
yet heartfelt at the same time, very

366
00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:41.960
very heartfelt. We're gonna take a
quick break and when we get back gonna

367
00:26:41.960 --> 00:26:48.279
we're gonna talk a little bit about
this film's background. We are back with

368
00:26:48.599 --> 00:26:55.759
Mary Kay from the Sherry Sandwich podcast
talking about Lynn ramses, you were never

369
00:26:55.920 --> 00:27:03.160
really here, Mary Kay. It's
based on the Jonathan Ames twenty thirteen novella

370
00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:07.079
of the same name. He is
a big fan of the film, was

371
00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:14.200
one of the producers actually, and
Lynn writes and directs this adaptation. Now,

372
00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:18.799
we talked a little bit about the
score and the music. Obviously,

373
00:27:18.839 --> 00:27:22.880
we talked about that cake song just
being a weird choice but also kind of

374
00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:30.079
fitting. Something that kind of surprised
me. Was the guitarist for Radiohead,

375
00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:36.039
Johnny Greenwood scored this film, and
it just so happens it's the second time

376
00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:40.720
they've worked together because he also scored
her twenty eleven film. We need to

377
00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:45.799
talk about Kevin. Oh, that's
really interesting. I didn't know that.

378
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:48.440
I'll tell you if you're a Radiohead
fan, first off, it's you know,

379
00:27:48.440 --> 00:27:53.640
they're a fantastic band. They are
truly a great band. This score

380
00:27:53.799 --> 00:28:00.599
has what I would call a chaotic
feel to it. It's messy, and

381
00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:06.160
when you realize that it's all about
being inside Joe's head, it makes the

382
00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:10.799
score perfect. Yeah, And you
know what's really interesting is in the very

383
00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:15.279
beginning there's sort of the sound mixing
of the whispers and the sort of talking.

384
00:28:15.400 --> 00:28:18.680
I had to go back and watch
it twice. It reminded me a

385
00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:19.519
little bit of zone of interest.
I don't know if you saw a zone

386
00:28:19.559 --> 00:28:23.640
of interest, but before I saw
a zone of interest, I hadn't ever

387
00:28:23.720 --> 00:28:29.720
really had a strong opinion about sound
mixing as far as like winning an award

388
00:28:29.720 --> 00:28:32.640
for sound mixing. After I saw
that movie, and I did see it

389
00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:34.160
in the theater, I left there
and I thought, this movie has to

390
00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:38.200
win something for sound mixing, like
the way that they sort of like juxtapose

391
00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:42.039
these awful sounds and birds tweeting and
whatever. And it was the same thing

392
00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:45.480
that was happening in the beginning of
this There's these moments of sort of like

393
00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:52.160
inaudible whispering and clearly terrifying music playing, which, now that you mentioned Radiohead,

394
00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:56.400
makes complete sense. Yeah, the
way that it blends together and you're

395
00:28:56.440 --> 00:29:00.519
kind of going whoa, what's happening? This is heavy. I'm already scared

396
00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:06.279
and nothing has happened, and that's
amazing. Like, I love kicking it

397
00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:10.200
off that way. Yeah, I'll
tell you what I love kicking off with

398
00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:14.240
this movie. We open in Cincinnati, Ohio, and you know, hey,

399
00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:18.640
I am a hometown since I kid
so uh. When that cab door

400
00:29:18.759 --> 00:29:22.279
shuts and I see Cincinnati, I
was like, all right, we're in

401
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:26.240
Sinsey, you know, let's stop
at Skyline. But that's right, He's

402
00:29:26.319 --> 00:29:32.240
quickly on his way to New York. This film, this blows my mind.

403
00:29:32.279 --> 00:29:34.839
By the way. This film was
unfinished when it was submitted to the

404
00:29:34.920 --> 00:29:40.599
can Film Festival. Oh and it
still wins Best Actor for Waquin Phoenix,

405
00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:47.039
Best Screenplay for Lynn Ramsey, and
was nominated for the Palm Dure and almost

406
00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:51.200
took it. Wow. Yeah,
yeah, there's a lot going on here.

407
00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:55.680
Yeah. Yeah, I do want
to ask you this because I love

408
00:29:55.720 --> 00:29:57.839
the title of this film, because
it immediately when you hear the title,

409
00:29:57.880 --> 00:30:04.640
you're you're already asking questions. It's
released in France and Germany under the title

410
00:30:04.960 --> 00:30:11.000
A Beautiful Day, which is a
reference to the last line of dialogue given

411
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:12.160
in the film. From Nina when
she says, Joe, wake up,

412
00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:18.240
it's a beautiful day. What what's
the better title here? Mary Kay,

413
00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:21.279
you're there, you're you're a writer. Let me know, like we go

414
00:30:21.319 --> 00:30:22.400
on with the book title, We're
going to go with a beautiful day.

415
00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:27.920
That's really interesting. And I you
know, I'm big on words and saying

416
00:30:27.960 --> 00:30:32.160
words that mean something and saying what
you're meaning. And I think that especially

417
00:30:32.200 --> 00:30:36.000
in a title, very carefully choosing
words, they all mean something. And

418
00:30:36.039 --> 00:30:38.920
I always think that's interesting when things
are translated and you read what the translation

419
00:30:40.039 --> 00:30:41.400
is versus what it is in English
or what you know, what it says

420
00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:47.319
in German or whatever. A beautiful
day, I think I think you were

421
00:30:47.359 --> 00:30:52.400
never really here as a better title, because I think that that reference is

422
00:30:52.839 --> 00:30:57.240
directly sort of Joaquin's life, right, or Joe's life. Joe was in

423
00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:02.880
combat and he was never there.
You know, we go in, we

424
00:31:02.920 --> 00:31:06.960
go out, we were never there. He goes into these situations, he

425
00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:11.039
helps these people, he was never
there. It's and it's also sort of

426
00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:14.799
this greater existential thing that I think
we all go through, right, which

427
00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:19.000
is we all come and go both
from people's lives and from life itself,

428
00:31:19.160 --> 00:31:23.759
and so it's it's kind of a
kind of a deep phrase. If you

429
00:31:23.799 --> 00:31:27.359
think about it. A Beautiful Day
can also do the same thing, but

430
00:31:27.640 --> 00:31:30.759
I feel like you were never really
here. It hits more for me.

431
00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:34.759
It definitely hits more, especially when
you think there's a there's a major theme

432
00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:41.400
of loneliness and isolation that I think
tracks through this film. And maybe it's

433
00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:45.920
it's it's Joe's character telling his father, his mother, the people in his

434
00:31:45.960 --> 00:31:51.960
world you were never really here because
he's so alone. Or again it's maybe

435
00:31:51.960 --> 00:31:55.559
it's the it's the people that hire
Joe and we know you were never really

436
00:31:55.559 --> 00:31:59.000
here. I think it's I think
it's way better if you told me,

437
00:32:00.039 --> 00:32:01.039
Hey, I need you to go
over and pick up this movie for me

438
00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:05.640
off the shelf. It's called A
Beautiful Day, and there were no titles

439
00:32:05.720 --> 00:32:07.200
and I just saw pictures. If
you told me to go pick up A

440
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:10.359
Beautiful Day, I'm expecting to pick
up a box that has like George Clooney

441
00:32:10.440 --> 00:32:15.200
smiling at Joy Roberts or something of
that nature on it. You know,

442
00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:20.799
I'm not not what quing phoenix staring
menacingly at me, you know, from

443
00:32:20.839 --> 00:32:23.720
a thousand yards away, just like
and you you could go back to you

444
00:32:23.759 --> 00:32:28.319
know, life is beautiful, right, the movie about World War two?

445
00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:32.039
And you can. And that's also
I always wonder it actually reminds me.

446
00:32:32.039 --> 00:32:36.519
I wonder what that translates to in
other languages. I wonder what titles they

447
00:32:36.599 --> 00:32:39.680
used for that film and other languages. But I remember at the time thing

448
00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:43.799
and this is a really interesting title
for this movie because it's not what you're

449
00:32:44.200 --> 00:32:50.200
expecting when you're, you know,
getting a movie about Nazi war camps.

450
00:32:50.440 --> 00:32:52.880
But it's so you know, you
can make it work. But it's this

451
00:32:52.920 --> 00:32:55.759
one you were never really here,
you immediately know kind of what you're on

452
00:32:55.799 --> 00:33:00.680
board for. I think so too. Yeah, there are some really great

453
00:33:00.799 --> 00:33:05.480
moments in this movie. We've already
discussed several of them. But let's talk

454
00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:08.039
about the pivotal scene. Mary Kay. I'm not talking about the moment that

455
00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:10.839
you saw on the trailer. I'm
not talking about the climax of the film.

456
00:33:12.519 --> 00:33:15.359
I'm just talking about the scene that
you see it and you go,

457
00:33:15.400 --> 00:33:19.599
you know what, Without this moment, this movie is less. Is there

458
00:33:19.640 --> 00:33:22.079
a pivotal scene for you? Is
there something that comes to mind for you

459
00:33:22.759 --> 00:33:25.920
when you watch you were never really
here. Oh yeah, the moment that

460
00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:31.000
he walks into his mother's bedroom and
sees her with the pillow over her face.

461
00:33:32.359 --> 00:33:38.480
That like, I just gave myself
chills that moment. I audibly gasped

462
00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:46.920
because I thought they got him exactly
where it hurts, and this is the

463
00:33:47.079 --> 00:33:52.240
last thing he has. That's it. His mom is really if you think

464
00:33:52.240 --> 00:33:55.759
about it, she's the last thing
tethering him to this world. So now

465
00:33:55.799 --> 00:34:01.079
he's just totally unhinged. He's got
nothing him back. He's got no reason

466
00:34:01.119 --> 00:34:07.319
to hold back because who cares.
But then you get the beauty of him

467
00:34:07.319 --> 00:34:10.360
sort of taking care of the men
downstairs and then going back up and having

468
00:34:10.679 --> 00:34:15.199
this really beautiful moment where he's taking
his mom and he's putting on a suit

469
00:34:15.320 --> 00:34:21.039
and he's taking her to the car, and you know, taking a body

470
00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:24.480
out to a lake has never been
so moving. Honestly, it was really,

471
00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:29.760
you know, and I wrote it
down because it was amazing to me.

472
00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:31.239
Again with the sound mixing, you
know, his mom in the back

473
00:34:31.280 --> 00:34:35.519
of the car, she's wrapped in
bags, and he rolls the window down

474
00:34:36.039 --> 00:34:38.639
and he's driving and you can hear
the plastic rustling in the wind in the

475
00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:45.239
backseat, and I thought, oh, man, like, what imagine,

476
00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:50.320
you know, driving down the street
being the guy that you are, and

477
00:34:50.360 --> 00:34:53.679
you're doing this and this is this
is the last thing you ever wanted to

478
00:34:53.719 --> 00:34:58.840
do, the last thing that could
possibly have broken you. And that's why

479
00:34:58.840 --> 00:35:01.119
it's amazing, you know, when
he does fill his pockets with rocks and

480
00:35:01.159 --> 00:35:06.119
then he thinks about Nina and he
takes him out, you know, that

481
00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:10.679
big moment. Also, how does
how does such a morbid moment in the

482
00:35:10.679 --> 00:35:16.360
film become such a such a heartfelt
moment though, you know, I just

483
00:35:16.400 --> 00:35:21.639
don't get it, because like the
first time I watched this, I was

484
00:35:21.719 --> 00:35:23.840
I was really I was shocked,
and I was a little appalled that his

485
00:35:23.920 --> 00:35:30.480
mother is wrapped in black plastic and
duct tape in the back seat, and

486
00:35:30.519 --> 00:35:32.280
I was like, what what kind
of monster are you? But then when

487
00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:36.960
you see how tender he he is, you know, preparing her and then

488
00:35:37.360 --> 00:35:42.400
and then taking her out, it's
it's really it messes with your mind because

489
00:35:42.440 --> 00:35:45.360
you're like, this is this is
I think this is abhorrent, But at

490
00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:49.360
the same time, this is what
he knows and this is the best he

491
00:35:49.400 --> 00:35:52.039
can do. Yeah, And in
that and that, in that regard.

492
00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:55.119
It makes it a beautiful moment for
his character. Yeah, I mean,

493
00:35:55.159 --> 00:35:59.039
and there's a certain amount of professionalism
that comes with what he's doing, right,

494
00:35:59.079 --> 00:36:02.880
you know, it's sort of where
his expertise meets his emotion and he's

495
00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:06.000
like, the best way to take
care of this is to do X,

496
00:36:06.079 --> 00:36:07.599
Y and Z. So that's what
we're doing. But I'm gonna put on

497
00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:10.400
a suit while I do it,
and I'm going to take her to a

498
00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:15.599
beautiful place. And he very you
know, gently picks her up, and

499
00:36:15.639 --> 00:36:20.360
he is very delicate with her.
And I think that it's it's hard because

500
00:36:20.360 --> 00:36:22.440
it's the two parts of its his
brain fighting against each other. You know.

501
00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:27.599
He obviously can't call someone and have
a proper funeral for his mom after

502
00:36:27.719 --> 00:36:30.559
everything that's happened. It's just not
real. Who would he call. He

503
00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:35.800
has nobody who'd he call, no
one to call, so he has to

504
00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:39.480
make his own moment. And you
know, the thing that I thought was

505
00:36:39.480 --> 00:36:45.480
actually really beautiful that I think moved
me the most is he doesn't take her

506
00:36:45.519 --> 00:36:47.760
to the lake and drop her in. He walks her in, and he

507
00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:52.639
sinks with her, and then he
releases her at the bottom and comes back

508
00:36:52.719 --> 00:36:59.239
up and that is not something that
most people in a situation of disposing of

509
00:36:59.280 --> 00:37:04.480
a body would do. So it's
it's there's it's an extra layer because it's

510
00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:07.800
his mother and he needs to do
it in the best possible way he can.

511
00:37:08.039 --> 00:37:12.880
And I'll be honest, we're we're
actually this kind of this scene tethers

512
00:37:12.880 --> 00:37:16.519
to yours because this is my pivotal
moment, him bearing his mother and his

513
00:37:16.599 --> 00:37:22.679
attempt at suicide by intentionally drowning himself. Because up to this point we've seen

514
00:37:22.760 --> 00:37:25.679
we've been inside his head and we've
seen these these uh, these suicide fantasies

515
00:37:25.719 --> 00:37:30.360
that he's had, and this is
the point where he's like ready to go,

516
00:37:30.119 --> 00:37:32.440
all right, this is it.
I'm now, I'm me and my

517
00:37:32.480 --> 00:37:36.519
mom. I'm gonna go with her. Because when you're watching it, like

518
00:37:36.559 --> 00:37:37.760
the first time you see him picking
up these these stones, you're like,

519
00:37:38.320 --> 00:37:42.440
oh, is he gonna bury your
And then you know when you see him

520
00:37:42.440 --> 00:37:44.960
walking into the water, you're like, wait, what's the stones for?

521
00:37:45.360 --> 00:37:52.559
And he just kind of sinks this
this really slow, beautiful moment where he's

522
00:37:52.559 --> 00:37:54.800
sinking and just looks so at peace, and you got to think, like,

523
00:37:54.840 --> 00:37:59.159
this is the one time in his
in his in his world where there

524
00:37:59.239 --> 00:38:02.400
is no noise, right, there
is no there is no pain. But

525
00:38:02.440 --> 00:38:09.039
we get that brief glimpse of Nina
in his mind and then Okay, I've

526
00:38:09.039 --> 00:38:12.599
got more work to do. I've
got a purpose. And he takes the

527
00:38:12.679 --> 00:38:15.800
rocks out and he allows himself to
resurface, and then it's let's go get

528
00:38:15.880 --> 00:38:21.320
Nina. Yeah, because I think
originally his mom was his final purpose and

529
00:38:21.360 --> 00:38:25.199
then with this mission, he added
another one. And so he couldn't when

530
00:38:25.239 --> 00:38:29.360
he thought about it, like,
am I really going to leave this person

531
00:38:29.679 --> 00:38:34.719
out in the world to just fester
or whatever? Like he can't do it.

532
00:38:34.840 --> 00:38:36.840
He can't do it because at the
end of the day, he's a

533
00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:40.239
good person. He is. Let's
talk about another good person. Let's talk

534
00:38:40.239 --> 00:38:47.239
about Lynn Ramsay for a minute.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland. She studied

535
00:38:47.400 --> 00:38:51.519
fine art and photography. You mentioned
that her she would have been a great

536
00:38:51.519 --> 00:38:55.480
photographer. She studied it. And
here's here's what I love about her.

537
00:38:57.559 --> 00:39:04.000
She applies to film school on a
whim after seeing Maya Darren's film Meshes of

538
00:39:04.039 --> 00:39:07.639
the Afternoon. Mary Kay, I
have to I have to know, have

539
00:39:07.719 --> 00:39:10.559
you ever seen a film that that
inspired you, that moved you so much

540
00:39:10.639 --> 00:39:15.920
that you decided to change the course
of your career. Oh boy, that's

541
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:21.840
a big question. That's a that's
a very good question. I would say

542
00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:25.519
there have been films, there have
been TV shows there. I mean,

543
00:39:25.559 --> 00:39:31.320
I would say there's a heavy emphasis. What's interesting about Lynn Ramsay is that

544
00:39:31.400 --> 00:39:35.719
because she is from the UK,
I have a special place in my heart

545
00:39:35.719 --> 00:39:42.639
for UK writers, because any UK
crime show is probably better than most American

546
00:39:42.679 --> 00:39:45.760
crime shows. And I know you're
not lying. It's a very controversial thing

547
00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:49.360
to say, and a lot of
people will argue with me about it,

548
00:39:49.880 --> 00:39:54.159
but it says something about her.
I mean, I can think back on

549
00:39:55.559 --> 00:39:59.519
I mean, look, I'm gen
X. I grew up watching cable when

550
00:39:59.519 --> 00:40:04.199
I wasn't. I saw The Shining
when I was probably seven, which is

551
00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:07.920
not great. But that moment when
I saw the Shining for the first time,

552
00:40:08.400 --> 00:40:13.239
I was like this, I want
to do this. And I've been

553
00:40:13.239 --> 00:40:17.400
a huge Stephen King fan ever since
then, And so I would say that

554
00:40:17.440 --> 00:40:23.039
I would say it should have ruined
me, but instead it sort of inspired

555
00:40:23.079 --> 00:40:25.199
me, like how did he come
up with this? You know? And

556
00:40:25.239 --> 00:40:29.199
over the years I would go back
to it, reading Firestarter and reading these

557
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:31.719
other books and thinking, you know
how he crafts these worlds, and he

558
00:40:31.760 --> 00:40:36.840
does it so efficiently. So yeah, I'm going to say I'm going to

559
00:40:36.920 --> 00:40:40.519
go with the shining interesting that you
would pick a Stephen King project, because

560
00:40:42.360 --> 00:40:47.480
Stephen King will come up again here
later on in our conversation, but for

561
00:40:47.519 --> 00:40:51.880
now, let's talk about her.
We'll keep talking about Lynn. She graduates

562
00:40:51.920 --> 00:40:54.519
in nineteen ninety five from the National
Film and Television School in England. She

563
00:40:54.559 --> 00:41:00.480
goes on to direct several award winning
short films on the festival circuit, and

564
00:41:00.519 --> 00:41:06.559
she's known for using non chronological storytelling
and often chooses projects that center around children

565
00:41:06.679 --> 00:41:09.760
and individuals going through trauma. And
if you know anything about her filmography,

566
00:41:12.119 --> 00:41:17.079
that definitely tracks. So let's talk
a little bit about her filmography with this

567
00:41:17.159 --> 00:41:21.639
caveat. We haven't done this before, but I kind of want to talk

568
00:41:21.679 --> 00:41:25.280
about some several projects that she was
supposed to do and did not. Oh

569
00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:30.960
yes, please, because admittedly I
have not seen a lot of her catalog

570
00:41:31.719 --> 00:41:36.440
I want to now, but I
just haven't. So yeah, No,

571
00:41:36.519 --> 00:41:39.079
there's a short film on IMDb that
I was looking at that I was really

572
00:41:39.079 --> 00:41:43.840
hoping I would have time to watch, and I did not, so it

573
00:41:43.880 --> 00:41:45.599
will be one of the first things
that I watch, probably this week when

574
00:41:45.599 --> 00:41:52.400
I have time. So her feature
film debut, Rat Catcher in nineteen ninety

575
00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:58.199
nine, all about a naive young
lad navigating the dirty streets of nineteen seventy

576
00:41:58.199 --> 00:42:04.400
three Glasgow and the poor youth around
him. Definitely an independent film. I'm

577
00:42:04.440 --> 00:42:09.159
not familiar with anybody in it,
although it looks like she's got some family

578
00:42:09.159 --> 00:42:14.679
in it, so this this was
probably an indie But I don't know.

579
00:42:14.679 --> 00:42:15.519
No, I don't know a whole
lot about it. Have you did you

580
00:42:15.559 --> 00:42:20.079
happen to see Ratcatcher? I did
not know. I kinda I kind of

581
00:42:20.119 --> 00:42:24.559
feel like we're gonna move quickly through
dough her hormography and and and with apologies

582
00:42:24.559 --> 00:42:29.159
to to miss Ramsey, but you
know, but we're also gonna, you

583
00:42:29.199 --> 00:42:30.559
know, I feel like we're gonna
do we got some homework when this is

584
00:42:30.599 --> 00:42:36.880
all said and done. Two thousand
and two, she has another small budget

585
00:42:36.920 --> 00:42:43.079
film, Morvan Calor, and again
I'm gonna say these are probably like UK

586
00:42:43.920 --> 00:42:50.440
based projects without without digging too deep, I know Samantha Morton is the star

587
00:42:50.519 --> 00:42:54.960
of this one. After her boyfriend's
suicide. A morning supermarket worker and her

588
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.559
best friend hit the road in Scotland
but find that grief is something that you

589
00:42:59.559 --> 00:43:05.280
can't run away from forever. So
here we go. We're talking about traumatized

590
00:43:05.320 --> 00:43:07.280
people and this, this is kind
of like her. This is kind of

591
00:43:07.320 --> 00:43:10.199
like her jam. You know,
she's I feel like she knows how to

592
00:43:10.199 --> 00:43:15.880
tell this kind of story and maybe
that's why she's she's sticking with it.

593
00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:19.199
What do you think? Yeah?
No, And I have to say,

594
00:43:19.400 --> 00:43:22.159
you know, when I was reading
sort of about the themes that she really

595
00:43:22.199 --> 00:43:27.480
focuses on, and I actually read
a quote by a British film critic named

596
00:43:27.559 --> 00:43:31.760
Jonathan Romney, and he says she
thinks not in concepts, but in images.

597
00:43:31.880 --> 00:43:36.000
She doesn't make intellectual films, but
ones that are close to music,

598
00:43:36.320 --> 00:43:39.119
taking visuals to the point of abstraction. And I read that sentence and I

599
00:43:39.199 --> 00:43:44.039
thought, ooh, And then I
watched it and then I learned that she

600
00:43:44.119 --> 00:43:45.320
was from the UK, and I'm
like, Okay, all of these things

601
00:43:45.400 --> 00:43:51.039
mean that probably I should watch every
single one of her movies. So let's

602
00:43:51.119 --> 00:43:55.239
we definitely got to talk about her
her next one, and this is a

603
00:43:55.440 --> 00:44:00.400
very powerful movie. This is one. If you haven't seen it, you

604
00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:02.280
probably need to know a little bit
about it before you get into it.

605
00:44:04.079 --> 00:44:07.039
Talk about twenty eleven's we need to
talk about Kevin Mary, Kay, did

606
00:44:07.039 --> 00:44:12.599
you see this one? I did
not, but I do remember hearing about

607
00:44:12.599 --> 00:44:16.159
it, but I don't remember.
I don't remember exactly what it was that

608
00:44:16.239 --> 00:44:19.320
I did hear about it, So
I'm gonna need to go back and do

609
00:44:19.360 --> 00:44:22.800
some research. Yeah, this is
the one. A lot of controversy around

610
00:44:22.840 --> 00:44:28.239
this one at the time. We
need to talk about Kevin. This is

611
00:44:28.239 --> 00:44:35.199
the one where we've got a mother
played by Tilda Swinton who's going through some

612
00:44:35.280 --> 00:44:43.239
extreme issues because her child is involved
in a mass shooting at school. Yes,

613
00:44:43.639 --> 00:44:51.320
it's very hard to watch, you
know, definitely has a lot to

614
00:44:51.360 --> 00:44:54.480
say about, you know, has
a lot to say Tilda Swinton, John

615
00:44:54.519 --> 00:45:00.960
c Riley, Ezra Miller pre flashes
here. There's a lot going on in

616
00:45:00.960 --> 00:45:07.119
this movie. And it's just some
serious, serious emotions in this one,

617
00:45:07.840 --> 00:45:12.559
and it's fantastic. And that's another
one where she She's one thing I love

618
00:45:12.599 --> 00:45:16.079
about her. She's directing and she's
usually writing or co writing all of her

619
00:45:16.119 --> 00:45:20.079
stuff. Yeah, I mean,
she really, really brings it in.

620
00:45:20.960 --> 00:45:22.079
Yeah, And I feel like if
you can, that would be ideal,

621
00:45:22.480 --> 00:45:27.840
right, because you either want to
be collaborating with someone that you know well

622
00:45:28.440 --> 00:45:31.079
or doing it yourself because at the
same time, like I don't know,

623
00:45:31.519 --> 00:45:35.719
and obviously there are many examples of
people who have done it where there's been

624
00:45:35.719 --> 00:45:39.280
separate writers and directors. But I
feel like writing it yourself and directing it.

625
00:45:39.320 --> 00:45:43.480
You know, in your brain as
you're writing something, you can see

626
00:45:43.480 --> 00:45:45.599
the light coming through the window,
and you can see how this character holds

627
00:45:45.639 --> 00:45:49.440
themselves and you can see, you
know, as you're putting the words on

628
00:45:49.480 --> 00:45:52.280
the page. So I think there's
something really special that happens when people do

629
00:45:52.360 --> 00:45:55.400
that. Absolutely. Now I did
mention. I do want to talk about

630
00:45:55.440 --> 00:46:00.679
several projects that she was supposed to
do and they never never came to fruition.

631
00:46:01.559 --> 00:46:06.360
Right before she does, we need
to talk about Kevin two thousand and

632
00:46:06.400 --> 00:46:13.679
four. She was the original director
attached to The Lovely Bones. Oh interesting,

633
00:46:14.400 --> 00:46:17.719
Yeah, Now, this is a
situation where she deals with a lot

634
00:46:17.719 --> 00:46:22.159
of frustration from the studio she does. And Mary, you're Mary Kay,

635
00:46:22.159 --> 00:46:24.320
You're a writer, so I know
you can relate to this kind of frustration.

636
00:46:24.960 --> 00:46:29.519
She is handling. She's handing in
draft after draft, and depending on

637
00:46:29.559 --> 00:46:35.079
which suit she's talking to, it's
can we get a happier ending? This

638
00:46:35.119 --> 00:46:37.679
didn't happen in the book. This
should have been in the book, but

639
00:46:37.719 --> 00:46:39.840
it's not. Can you put it
in? Back and forth, back and

640
00:46:39.880 --> 00:46:45.480
forth. She's trying to adapt this
novel. She ultimately steps away, thinks

641
00:46:45.519 --> 00:46:49.320
better of it. Peter Jackson takes
her place. And I got to say,

642
00:46:49.360 --> 00:46:53.239
this film, largely panned by critics, not what you expect from Peter

643
00:46:53.320 --> 00:46:58.719
Jackson, and I think that's one
of the reasons it failed. Yeah.

644
00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:02.159
No, I mean I think it's
frustrating because especially in an adaptation, and

645
00:47:02.199 --> 00:47:07.320
I think especially with these big budget
movies, and I kind of think that's

646
00:47:07.440 --> 00:47:10.599
why there's sort of a lot of
people that are moving away from sort of

647
00:47:10.639 --> 00:47:15.320
the bigger budget things. You can
read the original script, and I've done

648
00:47:15.320 --> 00:47:19.800
this online where you can go download
the original script for a movie and then

649
00:47:19.840 --> 00:47:23.159
you can just see how it was
just absolutely decimated as it went through the

650
00:47:23.159 --> 00:47:25.559
process, and you're like, oh, why didn't they keep this character?

651
00:47:25.599 --> 00:47:28.480
Oh, it would have been so
great if they'd done this, you know,

652
00:47:29.079 --> 00:47:34.800
And you can really feel for the
directors, as you can imagine the

653
00:47:34.800 --> 00:47:37.559
frustration that they were up against,
right, and then they're getting absolutely panned

654
00:47:37.599 --> 00:47:44.119
by the media for something that genuinely
was not their fault. So yeah,

655
00:47:44.280 --> 00:47:47.360
I could see walking away from something, and I can see why she's probably

656
00:47:47.480 --> 00:47:51.239
kept it. Indie, you know, you get your money, and you

657
00:47:51.239 --> 00:47:52.480
get people on board, and you
say this is what I want to do,

658
00:47:52.519 --> 00:47:55.400
and they go, okay, great, here you go. Enjoy.

659
00:47:55.559 --> 00:48:00.199
And I'm a big lover of an
indie film, you know, and I've

660
00:48:00.239 --> 00:48:06.159
seen many that I have loved that
made no money for anyone, and it's

661
00:48:06.199 --> 00:48:10.079
a real shame that they didn't because
they were beautifully executed, but because they

662
00:48:10.119 --> 00:48:13.519
don't have, you know, the
big industry behind them, you don't hear

663
00:48:13.559 --> 00:48:15.039
about them, or you don't get
the chance to see them. So I

664
00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:19.400
can see how that would be frustrating. It would be hard for me to

665
00:48:19.480 --> 00:48:23.559
take one of my books and watch
someone just chop it into pieces and change

666
00:48:23.599 --> 00:48:28.280
the ending and change the characters and
change the motivations, and it would be

667
00:48:28.400 --> 00:48:34.000
it would be excruciating. Well after
twenty eleven's we need to talk about Kevin.

668
00:48:35.320 --> 00:48:36.719
I mean, she's got a lot
of she's got a lot of a

669
00:48:36.719 --> 00:48:39.159
lot of heat. She's got a
lot of cred going for her. So

670
00:48:39.280 --> 00:48:46.559
she partners with Nallie Portman in twenty
thirteen, and she is originally slated to

671
00:48:46.599 --> 00:48:51.840
direct Jane Got a Gun. Now, this was originally this is the Nlly

672
00:48:51.920 --> 00:48:57.599
Portman movie where she's got to you
know, get revenge on some wrestlers that

673
00:48:57.760 --> 00:49:00.280
you know, she's got team up
with her ex, her ex, her

674
00:49:00.280 --> 00:49:07.320
to you know, avenger husband,
that kind of thing. Ramsey leaves the

675
00:49:07.480 --> 00:49:12.280
day before their first day of shooting. Wow, And this is all due

676
00:49:12.280 --> 00:49:16.800
to creative differences with a couple of
the producers. Now, depending on who

677
00:49:16.880 --> 00:49:20.800
who you listen to or what what
you what you listen to, Uh,

678
00:49:20.840 --> 00:49:23.960
there's some shady stuff going on with
these with these producers. She was sued

679
00:49:23.960 --> 00:49:29.000
for breach of contract and kind of
received a little bit of a backlash from

680
00:49:29.039 --> 00:49:34.760
Hollywood, but ultimately they dropped they
dropped the they dropped the lawsuit. But

681
00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:37.239
the damage is done at that point, you know, it's like, oh,

682
00:49:37.320 --> 00:49:40.159
okay, you know, creative differences
were difficult to work with. She

683
00:49:40.320 --> 00:49:44.599
just she bails on us the day
before and again, this is a movie

684
00:49:45.079 --> 00:49:46.800
that you know, even Jude Law
walked away from that one. It's I

685
00:49:46.840 --> 00:49:50.119
don't know if you've seen it,
it is it's not a good film.

686
00:49:50.639 --> 00:49:53.000
I have not seen it, but
I can tell you that as soon as

687
00:49:53.000 --> 00:50:00.599
a woman is labeled difficult in the
industry, it goes. It really takes

688
00:50:00.639 --> 00:50:02.159
things to an extreme. You know, you hear about that, you hear

689
00:50:02.599 --> 00:50:05.920
they direct one thing, and it's
like, well, she was kind of

690
00:50:05.920 --> 00:50:10.800
difficult. So meanwhile you hear about
people who are the absolute worst on a

691
00:50:10.840 --> 00:50:15.119
film set, who are just a
nightmare to work with. But like,

692
00:50:15.559 --> 00:50:17.519
but you know, he's the guy
that does X, so we've got to

693
00:50:17.519 --> 00:50:22.000
have him back to another film,
even though everyone hates him. So it's

694
00:50:22.760 --> 00:50:25.880
you know, I'm sure that it
didn't do her any favors, and I'm

695
00:50:25.920 --> 00:50:32.400
not trying to just you know,
obviously it's not There are many male directors

696
00:50:32.400 --> 00:50:37.679
that I love and respect, but
I think that it does go a long

697
00:50:37.760 --> 00:50:42.039
way when you label a woman as
difficult, because then everyone's like, oh,

698
00:50:42.079 --> 00:50:45.159
she was the one who was X, Y and Z, Like I

699
00:50:45.199 --> 00:50:46.639
can get my friend to direct this
and we won't have to deal with that

700
00:50:46.679 --> 00:50:51.320
problem. And then you get a
movie that's just a dumpster fire because of

701
00:50:51.360 --> 00:50:52.960
it. But it makes billions of
dollars, so everyone's like, no problem.

702
00:50:53.400 --> 00:50:58.320
I'm kind of glad that the situation
happens with Jang on the gun because

703
00:50:58.480 --> 00:51:00.840
her her fix, Like when she
was like, you know what, I'm

704
00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:06.400
out of here, she heads off
and she starts adapting the book, so

705
00:51:07.519 --> 00:51:09.360
you know, for you were never
really here. So I think she was

706
00:51:09.360 --> 00:51:14.039
taking a step in the right direction
because this movie is just amazing. It

707
00:51:14.119 --> 00:51:16.840
really is. It was very surprising
for me. I was expecting, like

708
00:51:16.880 --> 00:51:21.639
I said before, expecting one thing
and got something completely different, Like this

709
00:51:21.760 --> 00:51:24.159
is something now that I'm going to
be talking about for the next couple weeks.

710
00:51:24.800 --> 00:51:29.519
Well before we talk about what's coming
up next. For Lynn Ramsey,

711
00:51:29.920 --> 00:51:31.039
I want to talk. I want
to tell you about two more projects.

712
00:51:32.360 --> 00:51:38.239
You mentioned Stephen King and that was
your inspiration. In twenty twenty, it

713
00:51:38.360 --> 00:51:43.599
was announced that she was going to
be directing an adaptation of Stephen King's The

714
00:51:43.639 --> 00:51:46.559
Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon? Oh
did you happen to read that one?

715
00:51:47.079 --> 00:51:52.039
I did not, But that's all
my fun. It's not your typical Stephen

716
00:51:52.119 --> 00:51:57.199
King book, and it's such a
great it's such a great one. I

717
00:51:57.800 --> 00:52:00.840
really would recommend that to anyone that
loves Stephen King. You know, it's

718
00:52:00.880 --> 00:52:04.239
not for everyone. I get it. It's not it's not so much a

719
00:52:04.280 --> 00:52:09.039
horror based story that that he's known
for. It's it's just it's a little

720
00:52:09.079 --> 00:52:12.519
it's a little different, and uh, I would have loved to see it.

721
00:52:12.559 --> 00:52:14.760
I don't know. I went as
soon as I've found this out,

722
00:52:14.800 --> 00:52:16.159
I was like, Okay, well, what happened to it? Where's it

723
00:52:16.159 --> 00:52:21.480
at? It's been for it's been
four years, no other information about it.

724
00:52:21.480 --> 00:52:25.239
It's just interesting that I've heard that
he's pretty hands off with stuff.

725
00:52:25.280 --> 00:52:28.840
I've heard that he's kind of like, you'd take this and you make it

726
00:52:28.840 --> 00:52:31.559
your own. You know. He
has that whole program where you can buy

727
00:52:31.559 --> 00:52:35.199
the rights to one of his short
stories for a dollar. I don't know

728
00:52:35.239 --> 00:52:38.960
if you heard about this what I
know that. So it's certain stories that

729
00:52:39.079 --> 00:52:42.760
he's available, and you can sort
of write a pitch. If you're a

730
00:52:42.800 --> 00:52:46.000
student and around you want to make
a student film or something, yeah,

731
00:52:46.079 --> 00:52:49.400
you can pitch and he'll sell you
the rights and you can do it for

732
00:52:49.440 --> 00:52:53.840
a dollar. And because he thinks
it's fun to see people take something of

733
00:52:53.880 --> 00:52:57.440
his and turn it into something.
And I'm sure, there have been times

734
00:52:57.440 --> 00:53:00.599
he's had opinions and I'm sure you
know, but in general, from what

735
00:53:00.679 --> 00:53:06.719
I understand, he's not one of
the nightmares to work with when you're adapting

736
00:53:06.760 --> 00:53:08.840
something of his. Nice. I
dig that about him. Yeah, me

737
00:53:08.920 --> 00:53:12.920
too. Let me ask you what
you feel about this one? Off and

738
00:53:12.960 --> 00:53:20.000
on. She has planned to direct
a modern adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby Dick,

739
00:53:21.559 --> 00:53:25.360
but she wants to set it in
space, A good for her.

740
00:53:28.519 --> 00:53:30.840
I don't even know what that looks
like. But I have like you got

741
00:53:30.960 --> 00:53:35.440
you got you, you have my
you have my curiosity, you know.

742
00:53:35.599 --> 00:53:37.760
Yeah, I'm like, okay,
I'm in let's see, let's hear the

743
00:53:37.760 --> 00:53:39.920
pitch. You know, I think
at a certain point when you have classics

744
00:53:39.960 --> 00:53:43.159
like that, you know, I
mean, you know, I wrote a

745
00:53:43.199 --> 00:53:45.440
book a couple of years ago that
I can't sell to save my life.

746
00:53:45.519 --> 00:53:49.599
That's, you know, about Jesus
as an alien, and it's it's too

747
00:53:49.679 --> 00:53:54.039
much for most people brain's around.
But when you take something like Moby Dick,

748
00:53:54.559 --> 00:53:59.079
right that everyone knows and it's been
around, and you know the themes,

749
00:53:59.119 --> 00:54:02.119
and it's really a book that's more
about the themes than what actually happens,

750
00:54:02.559 --> 00:54:07.320
so you could take it and theoretically
turn it on its head and do

751
00:54:07.440 --> 00:54:12.159
something with it. You know,
It's there's a million different ways to do

752
00:54:12.199 --> 00:54:15.000
it. I mean, I don't
know if you saw Garama del Toro's Pinocchio

753
00:54:15.159 --> 00:54:17.800
a few years ago, but you
watch the Disney Pinocchio, you watch that

754
00:54:17.840 --> 00:54:23.280
Pinocchio. They're very different Pinocchios,
very very different videos. It's brilliant,

755
00:54:23.480 --> 00:54:28.880
but it wrecked me for a week. So it's I would be really interested

756
00:54:28.920 --> 00:54:30.119
to hear the pitch for that.
I would love to be in the room

757
00:54:30.239 --> 00:54:35.320
to hear about that. Well,
let me, uh, you know,

758
00:54:35.480 --> 00:54:39.239
let me tell you about the three
that she's got that that are happening,

759
00:54:39.559 --> 00:54:44.000
you know, all right, because
I'm excited. I'm looking at these three

760
00:54:44.039 --> 00:54:49.159
and I am actually excited about them. So she's got two in pre production

761
00:54:49.360 --> 00:54:52.960
and she's got one in post production. So right now, she's in pre

762
00:54:53.000 --> 00:55:00.599
production on a film called Die My
Love starring Jennifer Lawrence. Actually supposed to

763
00:55:00.599 --> 00:55:05.320
start filming a few weeks ago,
and it just sounds great. In a

764
00:55:05.360 --> 00:55:10.400
remote, forgotten royal area, a
mother struggles to maintain her sanity as she

765
00:55:10.519 --> 00:55:17.079
battles with psychosis I'm in sign up
Jennifer Lawrence. Think about what she did

766
00:55:17.119 --> 00:55:22.000
in Silver Lyon's Playbook or Mother.
Yeah, let's yeah, make it happen.

767
00:55:22.920 --> 00:55:25.519
Let's go. I know, I
know you know about this one.

768
00:55:27.039 --> 00:55:34.440
We talked about this briefly of off
air Stone Mattresses starring Julianne Moore and Sondra

769
00:55:34.519 --> 00:55:38.719
o is in pre production Mary Kay, a revenge thriller set on a cruise

770
00:55:38.719 --> 00:55:43.920
ship in the Arctic. Let's go. Also Sandra Oh and Julie I mean

771
00:55:43.920 --> 00:55:49.199
again, these actresses they sign me. Yes, that's two powerhouse performers going

772
00:55:49.239 --> 00:55:53.400
head to head. Definitely will be
great. Also definitely great is the film

773
00:55:53.400 --> 00:55:57.280
that she has in post production,
So we're definitely gonna see this one.

774
00:55:57.760 --> 00:56:02.119
Uh one, This one's called Polaris. She's back with Joaquin Phoenix and she's

775
00:56:02.159 --> 00:56:07.280
got Rooney Rooney Mara with her,
who I absolutely adore. Yeah. Wait,

776
00:56:07.360 --> 00:56:10.239
isn' Joaquin Phoenix married to Rooney Mora
or did I make that up?

777
00:56:10.440 --> 00:56:15.199
Is she? I don't know.
We might check that they might used to

778
00:56:15.280 --> 00:56:19.880
be married or are married, but
I think it's see it. I can

779
00:56:19.960 --> 00:56:23.679
see it. Uh, Ramsey must
have something for for the Arctic because this

780
00:56:23.760 --> 00:56:29.880
movie is set in Alaska during the
eighteen nineties. Oh and it's all about

781
00:56:29.880 --> 00:56:37.039
an ice photographer who meets the devil. Okay, I'm in yeah, Joaquin

782
00:56:37.039 --> 00:56:39.960
Phoenix, Runey Mara, who's the
Who's a photographer? Who's the devil?

783
00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:44.440
I mean, there's the other that
could go either way, right, but

784
00:56:44.519 --> 00:56:46.440
I think I think it could go
either way. I'd love to see him

785
00:56:46.480 --> 00:56:51.320
as the photographer. That's what I'm
thinking, because like part of me is

786
00:56:51.320 --> 00:56:53.960
thinking, Okay, she was a
photographer, she is a photographer. You

787
00:56:54.000 --> 00:56:59.320
know, Is Rooney Mara gonna channel
Lynn Ramsey or is this is it?

788
00:56:59.360 --> 00:57:01.039
Are we gonna have some with this
and Rooney mar is gonna be the devil?

789
00:57:02.679 --> 00:57:05.480
You can go either way with it. And I think it's great.

790
00:57:05.719 --> 00:57:07.639
So well, and that's great actually, I mean, riding on the heels

791
00:57:07.639 --> 00:57:10.760
of this last season A True Detective
taking place in Alaska, I feel like

792
00:57:10.840 --> 00:57:15.400
the people are really going to be
down for that, I think. So

793
00:57:15.480 --> 00:57:17.920
I gotta everyone's talking about this the
season four True Detective. I have got

794
00:57:17.960 --> 00:57:22.199
to get I gotta get a day
off so I can watch it because it

795
00:57:22.280 --> 00:57:24.639
just sounds amazing. It's a whole
thing, but it's good. Well,

796
00:57:24.639 --> 00:57:30.320
Mary Kay, let's talk about your
recommendation for this film. You were never

797
00:57:30.360 --> 00:57:36.760
really here. What's your thoughts?
You know you recommend this one. I

798
00:57:36.800 --> 00:57:39.159
would recommend this one, I think, you know, with a lot of

799
00:57:39.239 --> 00:57:46.719
movies, I sort of recommend with
hesitation to certain people and then you add

800
00:57:46.719 --> 00:57:52.079
disclaimers for the others. You know, obviously, if you're triggered by violence

801
00:57:52.079 --> 00:57:55.760
against women, if you're triggered about
violence against children, maybe it's not going

802
00:57:55.840 --> 00:58:00.519
to be the best movie for you. But also on what's great about it

803
00:58:00.559 --> 00:58:05.960
is you don't see it. You
know it's implied, and what you really

804
00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:08.440
see is you really see, you
know, a man who's struggling with his

805
00:58:08.480 --> 00:58:14.400
mental health, who's struggling with being
alive, who's struggling with who he is,

806
00:58:15.159 --> 00:58:21.400
and watching him slowly sort of crumble
and then be built back up is

807
00:58:21.599 --> 00:58:24.039
fascinating. But I you know,
when I think about it, I think

808
00:58:24.039 --> 00:58:27.920
I can think of specific people that
I would not recommend it to and specific

809
00:58:27.920 --> 00:58:30.400
people that I would recommend it to. So it's all my you know,

810
00:58:30.800 --> 00:58:36.119
UK true crime people, one hundred
percent, all those guys absolutely like you

811
00:58:36.119 --> 00:58:38.599
know, I would I would go
online and recommend this, But with a

812
00:58:38.639 --> 00:58:42.599
blanket statement that just says, hey, heads up, if any of those

813
00:58:42.639 --> 00:58:44.599
if any of these things are a
problem for you, maybe skip it.

814
00:58:44.840 --> 00:58:47.559
But if not, you know.
I have to say, though, one

815
00:58:47.599 --> 00:58:52.760
thing that I noticed, and I
just remembered this is remember a Joker,

816
00:58:52.800 --> 00:58:54.800
how he did that thing with his
shoulder where he can kind of double joint

817
00:58:54.920 --> 00:58:59.559
his shoulder. He did it in
this movie, and I'm like, that's

818
00:58:59.559 --> 00:59:02.159
the first time he did this.
Anyway, side note, that's how my

819
00:59:02.199 --> 00:59:07.760
brain works. But yeah, I
would say also, anybody who liked Joker

820
00:59:07.880 --> 00:59:10.920
or you know, anything else tho
Joaquin Phoenix does because he's great. Yeah,

821
00:59:10.960 --> 00:59:14.559
so I would say, yes,
I would recommend it absolutely. I

822
00:59:14.599 --> 00:59:19.880
mean when you see when you see
Joe versus Joker, and you see the

823
00:59:19.920 --> 00:59:25.519
physical transformation that he does because he
Joaquin's a bit of a chameleon. When

824
00:59:25.559 --> 00:59:30.639
he slips into these roles and he
goes he goes for it. You know.

825
00:59:30.320 --> 00:59:36.000
Todd Phillips never asked him to drop
forty five fifty pounds to play Arthur

826
00:59:36.039 --> 00:59:38.320
Fleck in The Joker. He just
did it because he thought that's who the

827
00:59:38.360 --> 00:59:43.159
character is. I mean, yeah, so hats off to him. This

828
00:59:43.199 --> 00:59:46.920
film. It is I Yeah,
it's so good. This movie is an

829
00:59:46.920 --> 00:59:52.559
intense, gripping thriller that hits you
as hard as the ballpeen hammer that Joaquin

830
00:59:52.599 --> 00:59:55.960
chooses to use as his preferred weapon. It's an Amazon original, so you

831
00:59:57.000 --> 01:00:00.199
will find it there streaming on Prime. I absolutely recommend it. It's not

832
01:00:00.239 --> 01:00:02.320
the feel good movie of you know, it's not Sunday Night with the family,

833
01:00:02.920 --> 01:00:07.599
and it's not for like the John
Wick or Bust type crowd either.

834
01:00:07.639 --> 01:00:14.119
It's somewhere in between because it's got
a lot to say. Yeah, speaking

835
01:00:14.159 --> 01:00:17.400
of a lot to say, listeners, what do you think of? You

836
01:00:17.440 --> 01:00:22.480
were never really here? Let us
know on social media. We're on Facebook,

837
01:00:22.639 --> 01:00:25.599
Instagram, and Twitter. You can
check out a Film by Podcast dot

838
01:00:25.599 --> 01:00:30.719
com for all of our film and
TV articles and our entire library, which

839
01:00:30.760 --> 01:00:34.559
is streaming free. And you can
write to us at a Film by Podcast

840
01:00:34.599 --> 01:00:38.639
at gmail dot com with your questions, comments and concerns. We may just

841
01:00:38.719 --> 01:00:42.960
read your response on the show and
send you some a film by swag.

842
01:00:43.159 --> 01:00:47.960
And this Friday, our limited series
nineteen ninety six returns with Mary Rightley.

843
01:00:50.039 --> 01:00:57.400
Wait, how did we not catch
that Mary Kay covering Mary Riley? I

844
01:00:57.400 --> 01:01:02.199
should have had you for that I
will come back anytime. You just tell

845
01:01:02.199 --> 01:01:05.280
me and I'm back, all right. You might have to you might have

846
01:01:05.320 --> 01:01:07.920
to cram that one in. Uh. I know Amber Lewis will be with

847
01:01:07.000 --> 01:01:10.760
us. We're going to discuss the
pros and cons, mostly cons of dating

848
01:01:10.800 --> 01:01:16.280
your employer, especially when he's doctor
Jekyl or is it mister Hyde. We'll

849
01:01:16.440 --> 01:01:22.639
find out Friday, and next time
on a film by we'll discuss a film

850
01:01:22.679 --> 01:01:29.039
by another incredible female director. When
the conversation focuses on Greta Gerwig's twenty seventeen

851
01:01:29.119 --> 01:01:35.079
comedy Lady Bird, Mary Kay,
I cannot thank you enough for joining me

852
01:01:35.119 --> 01:01:37.960
today to talk about this film.
I know, I know. I kind

853
01:01:38.000 --> 01:01:39.760
of shot this one to you,
said hey, I'd love to talk to

854
01:01:39.760 --> 01:01:45.559
you about this movie. And this
is before I mean we had I feel

855
01:01:45.559 --> 01:01:49.119
like we got to know each other
quite well on on your pop when we

856
01:01:49.199 --> 01:01:52.840
when we when we answered your your
famous questions. But at the same time,

857
01:01:53.159 --> 01:01:57.719
I really had no frame of reference
to what kind of movies you like,

858
01:01:57.760 --> 01:02:00.199
what kind of literature you like,
And as a watching this the first

859
01:02:00.239 --> 01:02:04.960
time after I proposed this to you, I was like, yeah, she

860
01:02:05.079 --> 01:02:07.400
might say, no, I don't
know this could this could go either way?

861
01:02:07.480 --> 01:02:10.480
I don't know. I hope she
enjoys it, but I can tell

862
01:02:10.519 --> 01:02:15.199
you this, I have enjoyed having
you with us today and definitely will hope

863
01:02:15.320 --> 01:02:19.280
that you'll come back and join us
for more. Oh, I'll come back

864
01:02:19.400 --> 01:02:22.960
anytime you want. This is literally
one of my favorite things to do is

865
01:02:22.000 --> 01:02:24.760
to talk about movies. I'm a
big nerd about this kind of stuff,

866
01:02:24.800 --> 01:02:29.559
so I'm in perfect. Well,
one more time, you got to tell

867
01:02:29.639 --> 01:02:31.760
us where we're going to find your
podcast? You know, are you on

868
01:02:31.920 --> 01:02:35.320
social media links? I know you're
on social media, so can you give

869
01:02:35.360 --> 01:02:39.159
us a quick rundown? Where where
do our listeners find your show? And

870
01:02:39.159 --> 01:02:45.880
and more about Mary Kay and shaff
Sandwich Sure Share A Sandwich podcast is everywhere

871
01:02:45.920 --> 01:02:47.880
that you listen to podcasts, Spotify, Apple, everywhere you want, so

872
01:02:49.039 --> 01:02:52.400
it's there anytime you need it.
We post weekly, so it's always a

873
01:02:52.400 --> 01:02:57.199
different person, always a different type
of person talking about different stuff. It's

874
01:02:57.239 --> 01:03:04.079
fun. My latest adventure has been
discussing TV shows and movies on TikTok.

875
01:03:04.119 --> 01:03:08.360
It's my newest adventure and got really
into it during True Detective. So if

876
01:03:08.400 --> 01:03:15.079
you are watching True Detective and want
to get into some seriously nerdy conversations,

877
01:03:15.119 --> 01:03:22.000
then come over to at Mary kay
Holmes on TikTok. Listeners please check out

878
01:03:22.000 --> 01:03:29.880
Mary kay Holmes on TikTok, check
out the Share a Sandwich podcast and How

879
01:03:29.920 --> 01:03:32.320
Did You Do? How to Do? How to Do? Had to drop

880
01:03:32.440 --> 01:03:37.280
me a letter. I had to
hire the band Grand Band him the land

881
01:03:37.440 --> 01:03:40.920
had to drop me a letter.
I had to hire the ban brand the

882
01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:45.360
welcome mat for you. Oh,
I don't know where you came from.

883
01:03:46.159 --> 01:03:47.800
I don't know where you been