Latest / Citizen Frame / Possum

Transcript

Possum · Citizen Frame

• 0:00
  Mother, father, what's afoot?
• 0:04
  Only possum, black as soot. Mother, father, where to tread?
• 0:10
  Far from possum and his head.
• 0:14
  Here's a bag, now what's inside? Does he seek or does he hide?
• 0:22
  Can you spy him deep within?
• 0:26
  Little possum black as one alright guys welcome back to another exciting episode of Citizen Frame,
• 0:34
  yeah we decided to pop pepper this one in because we just kind of jumped into
• 0:37
  the conversation this movie when we were talking Mission Impossible with Sean
• 0:42
  Harris an actor I've always appreciated like his stuff he plays creepy good and,
• 0:49
  so we decided I brought up Possum this is a movie that came out a couple years
• 0:53
  ago I think back in 2018 and I remember thinking it was just terrible it's one
• 0:59
  of the worst films I've ever seen,
• 1:01
  and I figured at this point knowing Trevor he'd probably think it's the second coming of Christ so,
• 1:11
  and this is where he'll go it's so British and like I want to throw up when
• 1:16
  he says that but he'll be saying it trust me throughout this it's British cinema at its finest so was that,
• 1:23
  Just hold on a minute. Was that a British accent there?
• 1:28
  That's pretty good. Spot on, Governor. So I'm doing a podcast with Danny Dyer now, yeah? Writer.
• 1:35
  Yeah, pretty good, man. Pretty good. Now, Possum is directed by an actor,
• 1:40
  actually. Matthew Holmes.
• 1:44
  He's mainly known for comedic work, Toast of London, which is a pretty funny show.
• 1:49
  And then, let's just get this out of the way now. Yes, he has been in Doctor Fucking Who.
• 1:55
  He is mainly known for Garth Meringue's Dark Place,
• 1:59
  which about 20 years ago on Channel 4 was a short-lived horror parody that's
• 2:04
  developed quite a cult following over the years, though there are a lot within
• 2:09
  the horror community who don't actually like it because it's quite, well,
• 2:13
  it's quite a heavy piss take of horror but it's become quite a cult classic
• 2:19
  since it first appeared on Channel 4 about 20 years ago,
• 2:22
  Garth Moringi's Dark Place I don't think Matthew Holness has ever appeared in Doctor Who though,
• 2:29
  I don't think so but I could be wrong I know he was in the office You know what,
• 2:34
  now you've upset me He was in the office, the British office He played the computer techie nerd,
• 2:41
  There he is Doctor Who He played Eric Drazen Right, I stand corrected So there you go,
• 2:50
  Wow This is the best fucking podcast In the fucking world right now What episode?
• 2:57
  What does it say? What episode it was he was in?
• 3:00
  Oh it was a doctor who Peter Davison was doctor who it was a,
• 3:07
  doctor who the monthly adventures oh that's not the main series yeah that same
• 3:13
  thing same fucking thing no.
• 3:18
  That's not the main TV show so it is so I was yeah I was wondering there because
• 3:23
  usually I would know stuff like that no it doesn't matter no you should have
• 3:27
  known all about the podcast right Disappointed, right? Yeah. Disappointed.
• 3:31
  All right, so he wrote a short story under the same name, Possum,
• 3:36
  published under the horror, it's in a horror anthology series called The New
• 3:41
  Uncanny, Tales of Unese.
• 3:43
  So if you guys want to see the original work based on his original material, go check that out.
• 3:49
  Yeah, this is, yeah, he doesn't direct much. Thank God.
• 3:52
  I'm not going to show you as an actor just because, you know,
• 3:56
  I haven't seen his stuff, but I do like some of the stuff he's in.
• 3:58
  So i don't want to go after
• 4:01
  the man for that but i could on him for you know
• 4:03
  tackling you know both both acting
• 4:06
  and directing i always have i always have a little respect
• 4:09
  for someone who writes and directs their own work especially if they wrote the
• 4:12
  original material in a short story form first so kudos to that that being said
• 4:18
  go fuck yourself you asshole don't you ever direct another movie again because
• 4:22
  i fucking hate this piece of shit this is one of the worst fucking movies I have ever, ever seen.
• 4:28
  It is terrible.
• 4:31
  Now, during this podcast, you're going to hear things from our boy here.
• 4:35
  I won't mention his names, but it rhymes with asshole. And.
• 4:40
  He's going to say, I swear to Christ, I get it. He's going to say atmospheric.
• 4:48
  He's going to say true British grit. He's going to say,
• 4:54
  dark and bleak it's brilliant he's gonna say i mean i just keep going kitchen
• 5:01
  drama i can keep going and he knows those words i just said he's like damn it
• 5:05
  he's crossing him out right now in his notes.
• 5:09
  This oh let's just just jump into it okay uh there's two there's two people
• 5:14
  right but first of all first of all i i want to ask you why you don't like it
• 5:18
  you know just just generally before it will start. It's terrible.
• 5:23
  It's boring. It's boring.
• 5:27
  It's boring. And I have left this point out.
• 5:30
  Completely boring. All he does is film different sequences of scenes,
• 5:36
  peppers them together, and then puts them into like a montage.
• 5:40
  And then every scene is elongated. That fucking bridge scene when he's drowning
• 5:46
  the puppet and the scene with the fucking, I can't, the fucking looking at the door at 25 minutes.
• 5:54
  He tries to build, he tries to build this tension what's beyond the door and
• 5:59
  there's nothing. Just open the fucking door.
• 6:02
  There's no, there's no, there's nothing. It's not so much about the tension.
• 6:07
  It's nothing here. There's nothing here.
• 6:09
  There's nothing. No, there's actually a lot of subtext, you know,
• 6:14
  and you know, there is, it's very, you know, to quote that.
• 6:18
  You know what, you, you know what, you sit there and you, you,
• 6:22
  you always say, I'm not elevated horror. You are. You're a snob.
• 6:27
  You people, at least you're the exact same people who love elevated horror.
• 6:31
  And they find, this isn't elevated horror. No, it's not elevated either.
• 6:35
  It's not even harder. It's not even harder.
• 6:38
  No, it's not harder. It's horror. It's a drama. God. No, it's not.
• 6:42
  It's a drama at its finest.
• 6:43
  It's a drama. It's a bleak, really, pretty kitchen sink drama. You fucking ass.
• 6:52
  Let's just jump into this. Go ahead.
• 6:56
  People, this is a spoiler-filled. Who gives a fuck? Because there's nothing
• 7:00
  to spoil here. It's predictable. It's terrible.
• 7:03
  You know what's going to happen next? It's bland.
• 7:07
  Oh, my God. It's like having a bowl of Weetabix without milk or sugar.
• 7:12
  That's a good one. That's a good one. I like that one. Are you far to predictable?
• 7:16
  Oh, my God. It's the most predictable film. I knew right away.
• 7:19
  I knew right away where this thing was going.
• 7:23
  Oh, did you see that again? Oh, no. No. Give me a fucking break.
• 7:28
  All right. Let's just jump into it.
• 7:30
  Go for it. Mother, father, watch your foot.
• 7:33
  Only possum black is soot. Mother, father, where to tread? Here's your bag.
• 7:39
  Now what's inside? Little possum black is soot. Little boy, don't lose your way.
• 7:45
  Mother, father, we believe that you'll save us and we'll leave.
• 7:49
  That's pretty much the poem. This film is written around. It keeps being repeated
• 7:53
  by our boy, Philip and Maurice.
• 7:56
  The uncle. Maurice.
• 7:59
  We would call it Maurice. Right, well, fair enough.
• 8:03
  How do you pronounce that guy's name? Alune Armstrong? Is it Alune?
• 8:07
  Alan, just Alan. Oh, it is Alan? It is Alan? He's a very well known actor.
• 8:11
  Oh, I know. I know, I liked him since Kroll.
• 8:16
  Oh, yeah. About 20, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, he was in Kroll of Liam Neeson.
• 8:20
  I wish we were talking about Kroll.
• 8:23
  Yeah, he was also about 20 years ago.
• 8:26
  He was in a biopic on the life of Mary Whitehouse the British censor back in
• 8:32
  the sort of 60s, 70s and 80s, he played her long suffering husband,
• 8:37
  he's a great character actor, yeah I'd like to see him, there's nobody else
• 8:42
  really to mention here, that's it, there's only two characters which is another movie Townfall,
• 8:47
  The Possum is the title is the protagonist puppet our protagonist here is Philip
• 8:53
  Possum is the name of the puppet A couple things.
• 8:56
  Who the fuck could create a puppet like this? Fucking freak.
• 9:00
  Now, I'm sure you had a hard-on in the opening sequence here.
• 9:04
  Why? Because there's trees in it. Well, I love my trees, you know.
• 9:08
  My possessed trees, especially.
• 9:13
  You're probably like, oh, my God. The tree.
• 9:18
  Do you see where he puts the bag down between the tree, the two branches?
• 9:22
  Yes. And the branches look like legs spread out.
• 9:25
  Yes, like the spider's legs of the puppet. Yeah, it's almost like it's an extension
• 9:30
  of the puppet and or the tree's giving birth to the puppet kind of thing.
• 9:34
  Yeah, well. It's certainly intentional, but for no fucking reason at all.
• 9:38
  Yeah, well, for me, the puppet may not even be real.
• 9:42
  There is a lot of this that isn't even real, including potentially the puppet,
• 9:47
  because the reason being essentially is because the puppet is a metaphor for
• 9:52
  his trauma of being both an abused child and also a pedophile himself.
• 9:59
  This is what this film is about. Yeah. And it represents his trauma and guilt.
• 10:03
  You know it right away. The opening scene, he's carrying this big bag.
• 10:06
  He's pretty much carrying a bag.
• 10:08
  He's carrying all this baggage his whole life. That's pretty much what it's for. Yes.
• 10:12
  Yes, exactly. He sees a kid on a train and he's staring at him. What are you drawing?
• 10:16
  And he ran away. He was molested as a kid. Yeah. He's a pedophile himself.
• 10:20
  He's been blacklisted. He used to be a puppeteer, supposedly.
• 10:23
  And he's been blacklisted for obviously violating with kids. Yes. So...
• 10:28
  There you go. I knew right away. It was an abused child. He kidnapped the kid.
• 10:32
  Okay, I got another hour and 15 minutes left. Oh, fuck.
• 10:36
  I would say, to sort of back up what you're saying, I'm watching this while
• 10:40
  I think it is indeed greatly atmospheric and pretty bleak and tough drama.
• 10:47
  In fact, it is quite harrowing overall. But I would say, whenever I was watching
• 10:51
  this the first time, I was thinking
• 10:54
  to myself that this would maybe have worked better as a short story.
• 10:58
  I didn't know the first time watching this that it was based on Wholeness' short story.
• 11:02
  And so that actually sort of backed up what I was saying when I returned afterwards
• 11:06
  that he had actually based it on his own short story.
• 11:09
  So watching this, I was saying, this actually feels like a short story and would
• 11:12
  maybe be better as a short story as it is a little too maybe extended out and
• 11:20
  that maybe as a short film it would have worked better.
• 11:23
  I do think it is directed over the hour and a half that it's on.
• 11:27
  But yeah go ahead yeah no you're right i mean it is it is too long it's definitely,
• 11:31
  something you would you would see from an anthology series like
• 11:34
  it's based off of so i think it would have been better as tell
• 11:37
  us from the crypt or something like that whatever those shows yes a half hour
• 11:41
  episode or whatever yeah but i mean i was thinking about this and you're gonna
• 11:49
  you're gonna love me for this comment here trevor it was gonna be possible What's he going to say?
• 11:55
  There's a couple of directors who could have pulled this off.
• 11:57
  The big one would be Darren Aronofsky, who did Record for a Dream.
• 12:02
  Yeah. I think he could pull something like this off. And believe it or not, I would even say Lynch.
• 12:07
  And the reason I say Lynch is because the big thing this movie is missing,
• 12:12
  all it is is a fucking downer. All right? And I understand.
• 12:16
  I understand. No, no, no. I'm not.
• 12:19
  I haven't. No, no, no. You'll see. You'll see what I'm saying here. so
• 12:22
  it's nothing but a downer there's no ups it's just down down and I don't want
• 12:29
  to hear well is that the intent of the filmmaker should you feel like Philip
• 12:33
  fuck off I don't want to feel like a kid of bile alright I don't want to want
• 12:37
  this let me finish hold on.
• 12:43
  The reason I say Lynch is because,
• 12:46
  as much as I don't like a lot of his stuff he has very
• 12:50
  dark tones very the main
• 12:53
  heart of his work is dark and disturbing we talked
• 12:56
  about that with fire walk with me the film is yeah pretty much about a woman
• 13:00
  a pre-teen well not pre-teen sorry 17 year old we'll say being molested by her
• 13:05
  own father as wrong and with the seedy underbelly of a town that pretty much
• 13:10
  rapes and manipulates the girls of this town that's what that's what fire walk with me is about.
• 13:16
  However, what Lent does right is, well, not right in my eyes,
• 13:22
  but I understand him now.
• 13:25
  Is he'll pepper in fucking dancing midgets or some really quirky,
• 13:30
  odd characters to let you know this is just a fantasy or just, you know, it's a film.
• 13:37
  He'll pepper in quirky characters. So when you leave the theater.
• 13:41
  Yes, you understand the main heart of the story, but you're also talking about
• 13:45
  the plucky characters and what the fuck was this?
• 13:47
  This has none of that. This is just drab, drab, drab.
• 13:53
  I would say that it is in the
• 13:56
  fine tradition of really super
• 13:59
  bleak british kitchen kitchen sink dramas
• 14:02
  as they're known going right back to the 60s where a lot of them would have
• 14:06
  been set up the north of england and also there's a lot of sort of heavy influence
• 14:10
  apparently here with in the 1970s and 80s there was british public information
• 14:17
  films which were pretty terrifying You had like Donald Pleasance playing the Grim Reaper,
• 14:21
  trying to tell children, you know, not to go anywhere near sort of,
• 14:24
  you know, like, I don't know, rivers and swamps and stuff.
• 14:27
  Also warning us about things like, you know, incoming nuclear holocaust.
• 14:32
  So the whole field of this is definitely for me like a combination of the tradition
• 14:37
  of pretty bleak British kitchen sink drama.
• 14:42
  This isn't even a horror to me. And also the public information films of the 1980s mainly.
• 14:48
  I could care less. I mean, we talked about Dead Man's Shoes.
• 14:54
  Yes, Dead Man's Shoes. And that was a perfect example.
• 14:57
  One of the most depressing films I've ever seen. I gave it a rave review,
• 15:02
  but I'll never watch it again.
• 15:03
  But he was able, the director there was able to pepper in quirky characters,
• 15:10
  like the villains are kind of stupid.
• 15:13
  And with all this ugliness we're about to see, and the outcome of that film.
• 15:18
  But at the same time, you couldn't help enjoying it, which you felt guilty doing.
• 15:23
  That's almost like what Lynch does.
• 15:26
  And so, at least there's a structure to those, to where you can still be entertained,
• 15:34
  but at the same time be thrown back as well.
• 15:38
  A good director will do that. This is just taking a camera.
• 15:43
  He tries to do that he does try
• 15:47
  to pepper in it's a very it's almost it's almost shot
• 15:49
  black and white almost and he'll pep
• 15:53
  there's a nice little shot actually when he has all it
• 15:55
  is he's yellow and red balloons right and in
• 15:59
  this ugly house and all
• 16:02
  of a sudden he pretty much yeah all the smoke he's
• 16:05
  all the balloons are getting engulfed in this gray and dark black smoke and
• 16:10
  that's pretty much the director pretty much saying hey this isn't going to be
• 16:13
  colorful this isn't going to be you know hollywood-esque this is going to be
• 16:18
  dark and bleak and that's pretty much what he was saying when he did that i
• 16:21
  got that i think that's what he was trying to say with that shot.
• 16:24
  Possibly. I don't know. But yes, it is actually a very good shot and again, quite creepy.
• 16:31
  I would say as well, on top of the whole Kitchen Sink drama stuff,
• 16:35
  there is a certain type of film that's quite big.
• 16:41
  Again, it all ties in together with the Kitchen Sink drama stuff.
• 16:44
  But essentially, there's some recent Irish films have been quite in the same vein.
• 16:49
  You know essentially what what they're known as as well
• 16:52
  is misery porn because you know they're so
• 16:55
  bleak they're essentially you know they're too
• 16:59
  bleak for sort of mainstream audiences let's just say
• 17:02
  and they address very very heavy topics and this is pretty harrowing stuff i
• 17:09
  know what you're saying and i take that on board what you're saying about you
• 17:11
  know shane meadows with dead man's shoes and there's other films like this is
• 17:15
  england and stuff as well and also
• 17:17
  lynch where there's a sort of almost quirkiness and a dark humor there,
• 17:21
  whereas this, there's no, I don't think there's any humor or attempts at even
• 17:26
  dark humor whatsoever, unless this is pure misery, you know?
• 17:31
  There's one shot that I enjoy.
• 17:36
  And unless there are too many actors in this, especially Sean Harris, is wonderful in it.
• 17:42
  The acting is wasted, really, unfortunately.
• 17:45
  But there's a nice shot where he's walking down these stairs.
• 17:48
  And these two guys are smoking little punks and they say hey pervert you know like a badass,
• 17:55
  all he does is be sean harris stops turns around and stares at him and these
• 18:01
  guys are so creeped out by his stare they're just like let's get out of here
• 18:03
  man let's get out of here they say you needed more stuff like that you needed
• 18:08
  what what makes cinema work good cinema is that you pepper in other characters.
• 18:14
  You need, he needs. Conflict.
• 18:16
  You need, yeah, you need something else to play off of. Not the uncle.
• 18:21
  I'm talking more outside the box. There's a scene where he goes to the school
• 18:25
  and the principal goes, can you please leave? You're just staring at the school. It's kind of creepy.
• 18:29
  Yeah. You needed more of that because you need to give him more of a human side
• 18:34
  that he can be some kind of, you can relate to somebody here because we don't get that.
• 18:39
  And it's just this bland box of Well he does have a sort of,
• 18:45
  this has a really sort of strangely happy ending actually,
• 18:49
  as bleak as everything is, there
• 18:51
  is a sort of, you know he does have an arc, and he does sort of yeah,
• 18:57
  but I mean there's, you know yes, I know, I mean there needs to be a bit more drama,
• 19:02
  or possibly more conflict, obviously we'll have the sort of personal conflict
• 19:07
  with Philip and also with the uncle I don't even think the uncle's alive by
• 19:11
  the way my theory my interpretation is that because whenever he first comes
• 19:16
  to the house the uncle's just subconscious.
• 19:18
  Yes exactly he's not alive yeah when he kills him at the end breaks his neck.
• 19:23
  He's releasing himself of all this burden by killing fake killing him that's
• 19:29
  all that was that was him facing his demons,
• 19:31
  yes and also it's no coincidence either that
• 19:34
  the puppet possum actually looks very like him and you know as he progresses
• 19:40
  through this film and he becomes more sort of white and sweating and all this
• 19:45
  hair and all the puppet sort of changes subtly as well and you know as he changes
• 19:50
  the puppet changes you know I believe even,
• 19:53
  the uncle's puppet which is pretty creepy looks like him you have the double
• 19:58
  it looks like a little double puppet yes you know with the eyebrows and stuff
• 20:02
  yeah there's actually a scene where,
• 20:05
  Because the uncle is always mainly in the kitchen.
• 20:09
  Yes. And he's sitting in the kitchen when he comes into the house.
• 20:12
  And he goes, come here, Philip. And he's using the puppet as hand gestures.
• 20:16
  Like, come here. The puppet's like telling him to come here. Yes.
• 20:19
  So he's trying to, you know, he's using a puppet to puppeteer his nephew.
• 20:25
  Yeah. Yes. That makes sense. Because that's the way he was abusing him.
• 20:29
  Yeah, exactly. Yes, because later on it's revealed, but you know, with his fingers,
• 20:32
  whenever Philip Is reliving Obviously It's happening in his mind But the viewer
• 20:39
  is seeing it as if it's really happening So yes that's the way It's heavily
• 20:44
  suggested Abused him with his fingers,
• 20:47
  I don't even know what I'm going to go there. Yeah, no, no, I'm just saying,
• 20:51
  but yeah, no, I don't want to go there, really.
• 20:53
  You and I are having this conversation about it. We're coming up,
• 20:56
  wow, really smart, blah, blah, blah. Guys, it's not.
• 21:00
  It's predictable and it's boring, but there is something there.
• 21:04
  I would not tear the film apart if it wasn't.
• 21:06
  There's the heart of the story is there. It's just the pathway to get there. I think.
• 21:12
  Here's another thing that bothered me, and this really bothered me a lot.
• 21:15
  Where's he getting his pose?
• 21:17
  He changes his clothes. Yeah, where does he get his clothes?
• 21:19
  He fell in the dirt. Remember, he got all the money? And the next day,
• 21:22
  he's got all new clothes. Is there a wall in there?
• 21:24
  Well, he would have cleaned himself up in the house. That house is derelict.
• 21:28
  And basically, that's the house where he grew up with the uncle and was abused.
• 21:31
  So that is, you know, he would have just got himself cleaned up.
• 21:35
  Did he kill his parents? He had clothes there. Did Philip kill his parents?
• 21:38
  I don't think so. Maybe there was an accident. Yeah, because the uncle says
• 21:42
  your parents burned alive or something.
• 21:44
  Him yeah he says why shouldn't it have been you or
• 21:46
  words to that effect i think i think there might have been
• 21:49
  some accident but maybe the accident was his
• 21:52
  fault i mean he didn't mean it i don't know it's left
• 21:55
  open to interpretation completely but obviously as
• 21:58
  a child then he was sent to live with the uncle morris and
• 22:02
  you know that's when the abuse happened you know there is
• 22:06
  a lot here and you know in terms of
• 22:09
  you know it is it's quite a
• 22:12
  powerful heavy drama of a story but is
• 22:16
  it entertaining for an hour and a half long
• 22:19
  film I mean obviously it is
• 22:21
  a short story which I didn't know the first time watching but I
• 22:24
  was thinking this would make a better short story I think
• 22:27
  it would have worked better as maybe a
• 22:31
  longer short film maybe about 45 minutes
• 22:34
  or so you know i think then it would have had
• 22:36
  much more power i do think that the
• 22:40
  the it is the central concept
• 22:43
  is extended and dragged out a
• 22:46
  bit too much over the hour and a half i mean there's only so many times you
• 22:50
  can see philip you know sean harris looking heavily depressed and traumatized
• 22:55
  you know without it becoming repetitive yeah but this is overall it does for
• 23:01
  me work in terms of a super bleak depressing drama.
• 23:07
  Whoever wants to whoever can review something like that oh yeah I'm going to
• 23:11
  watch that again whoever thinks this movie has replay value is a fucking ass clown,
• 23:17
  Well, I watched it twice for the podcast. Well, I watched it twice because I'm fair.
• 23:22
  I watched the film. To watch it, the second time, I'll take notes.
• 23:26
  So that's why we can see probably more than, you know, so we're seeing it through the podcast eyes.
• 23:32
  But the second time, oh, my God. If I had to go back to that little water reservoir,
• 23:38
  the garbage can, let's go back to the school.
• 23:41
  Oh, my God. What place is this? Is this hell? This place looks like.
• 23:45
  Well, it's meant to be a representation of Phillips Hill. Here we go.
• 23:49
  It looked like something you saw in Mad Max, one of those small towns in Mad Max.
• 23:53
  You know? Yeah. It was just, and you had like two, three people in the hall,
• 23:57
  four other people in the film. You had a cop coming to the door.
• 24:00
  And, you know, the problem is you have this bleak story.
• 24:05
  Then you have this kidnapping happen. They could have done something with,
• 24:08
  okay, we know he pretty much has the kid.
• 24:11
  We don't know where he is or what he's done with them, but we know he's done
• 24:13
  something here. and that would have been fine, a predictable find.
• 24:17
  But then give us side characters.
• 24:19
  Let's see a cop investigating the mystery of the missing kid. Give us something.
• 24:24
  You could have taken 25 minutes of him walking around to the same fucking locations
• 24:29
  trying to kill this fucking puppet, and we could have cut some of this shit
• 24:35
  out and then focus on the cops trying to find out where the kid went.
• 24:38
  You could have went back and forth, and at least you brought some more drama.
• 24:42
  You put a little more tension. Ooh, where's the kid?
• 24:46
  Because you kind of like Philip. You kind of feel sorry for the guy.
• 24:49
  So you don't want him to be guilty. But at the end, he did do it.
• 24:53
  So that would have been a good journey.
• 24:57
  He had a couple different journeys to get to the end here. But there's just
• 25:00
  one journey, and it's terribly boring.
• 25:06
  I don't think I would actively watch this again as a film, but I would like to read the story.
• 25:11
  I haven't read the story so I
• 25:14
  would be interested in reading the story obviously it's a different medium,
• 25:20
  but you know I don't want to fall back and say the phrase I get it I get it,
• 25:30
  but that's not me trying to be clever,
• 25:36
  it's me just saying that I've watched a lot of bleak shit like this So I know
• 25:41
  this type of stuff, you know, but yes, I agree that a bit more drama and maybe, maybe like, you know,
• 25:51
  additional characters are to sort of give us more to play off.
• 25:55
  But I also at the same time, I get that it's literally a kitchen sink drama
• 26:00
  and many scenes, you know, especially the ones obviously set in the kitchen.
• 26:04
  Yeah, we we know that you keep saying that, but it doesn't give an excuse for
• 26:09
  poor direction. This is poorly directed filmmaking.
• 26:12
  I don't, well, in terms of the, you know, like... The story's there.
• 26:15
  The guy obviously can write, because he's published this before.
• 26:18
  So I'm not saying he's not talented there. There's a story here.
• 26:22
  Yes. That's not for everybody.
• 26:23
  But the direction's a mess. It is a mess.
• 26:26
  I think there's some great visuals. I mean, some amazingly atmospheric visuals
• 26:31
  that do hark back to the sort of, like that sort of weird vibe of the 1970s
• 26:36
  and 80s in Britain, those public information films.
• 26:39
  In fact, Holiness himself said that this is in part based on the Jimmy Savile
• 26:43
  case, or at least he had it in his head when he was writing it and directing it.
• 26:47
  So, I don't know, see, you know, you're coming at this from a different angle,
• 26:51
  which I appreciate, in that you grew up in America, whereas growing up himself.
• 26:57
  Okay, before you go any further, you have a tendency to put down American cinema
• 27:02
  a lot. I'm not, no, no, I'm not.
• 27:04
  I'm not a new problem for American cinema. No, we don't show stuff like this
• 27:08
  in America. Only Brits do it. No, no, no, no.
• 27:11
  No, no. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying is I grew up in the 70s and 80s
• 27:17
  in the UK. Old bastard. Old bastard.
• 27:21
  Well, I know that there. Yeah, so I grew up with things like those public information
• 27:26
  films and all the rest and the Jimmy Salvo case going on in the background.
• 27:30
  So I get that he's tapping into that.
• 27:32
  I'm not attacking America or American cinema at all.
• 27:36
  Here. What were you going to say about American cinema? I was going to say that
• 27:41
  you didn't grow up with fucking Jimmy Seville as a children's TV presenter and,
• 27:46
  You're saying there was no What are you talking about? America has none of that going on?
• 27:51
  This, this, of course it does, but I'm saying this has a very British vibe that
• 27:56
  if you experienced it as a kid growing up in it in the 70s and 80s then obviously
• 28:01
  it resonates more with you. Do you know what I mean?
• 28:05
  That's all I'm saying. No, no. You grew up in a different country?
• 28:08
  No, no, no. That's what I'm saying. It has nothing to do with the country. It has nothing.
• 28:12
  You always hide behind that. It's British. No, it's true. You always hide behind
• 28:16
  that. It's not an excuse to make the poor direction.
• 28:21
  You're so blinded by a bleak, disturbing story than you are the direction.
• 28:27
  No, I think there's some great visuals. You said that. You said that.
• 28:30
  Proper atmospheric visuals.
• 28:31
  Yes, okay. But yes, it, you know, I, I, I, it's certainly, Hey,
• 28:37
  this should come from the man who likes stopping my mom and shoot.
• 28:39
  So, you know, well, I like different films and for, for different reasons.
• 28:45
  Do you know what a better film, there's a better version of this film.
• 28:50
  Now, it's probably not as bleak, but I think it's quite disturbing.
• 28:53
  It came out in 79, 1980 or something like that. It's American.
• 28:56
  It's American. Is it okay?
• 28:58
  It's American. Yeah. Are you sure? I don't want to, because Americans don't
• 29:02
  have any talent in filmmaking.
• 29:05
  I did not say that. No, he's just pissed all over David Lynch. Wow.
• 29:09
  Wow. God love you, David. Just tell me the name of the fellow.
• 29:14
  The movie's called Magic, and it's with Anthony Hopkins.
• 29:18
  Yes, I know it. This is about a man who's going through something and you don't
• 29:23
  know if the puppet's real or not.
• 29:25
  Very creepy. Yes. How he's very dependent. Yes, I know it. Yeah.
• 29:28
  It's a wonderful film. You should see magic.
• 29:31
  You want to see something that's dark and disturbing, but at the same time you're
• 29:35
  entertained by it and it's got rewatch availability to it.
• 29:39
  Watch magic. 100 million, quadrillion times better than this train wreck of
• 29:46
  a film that's pretty much him going out with the camera,
• 29:50
  taking shots of fucking Sean Harris doing a walkabout, and then- I look at the press.
• 29:56
  I look at the press, and then cutting back and showing the same shot again,
• 29:59
  and again, and again, and again, and again, conversation with the uncle,
• 30:05
  back to the water, oh, back to the bridge, and again, and I mean, it,
• 30:11
  It's a copy and paste of itself.
• 30:14
  Literally, that's what it is. And the sad thing is, you know what?
• 30:17
  Sean Harris is such a talent.
• 30:18
  And the reason I say that is because we talked about him with Mission Impossible
• 30:22
  and how he's got that face, almost like a rat face.
• 30:26
  And that sounds terrible to say, but he does. It's his look, his mannerisms.
• 30:31
  But he plays creepy well. But the cool thing about him is that he can have the
• 30:36
  same facial expression he had in Mission Impossible. and you want him to get
• 30:40
  it because he's a bad guy, piece of shit.
• 30:42
  But he'll have the same facial expression in this film and you feel sorry for
• 30:47
  him because he has that, he just, I don't know what's... Because he's a cracking
• 30:51
  actor. Yeah, he's a very good actor.
• 30:54
  So it's amazing. The same body language, he could play a vile villain and then
• 30:58
  the same body language, play a kid trapped in a man's body because of all the
• 31:04
  physical abuse he got as a kid.
• 31:05
  Yeah. I mean, that's down to sort of just great acting By Harris and the sort
• 31:10
  of You know subtleties within his acting Where he can sort of just tweak it
• 31:14
  slightly You know but yes he does Sort of creepy.
• 31:19
  And miserable very well I would say Alan Armstrong is a bit of a sort of legend as well He's great,
• 31:26
  Yeah, and then you got Sean Harrison. I think he's the villain in the new Paris
• 31:29
  is Fallen TV series. It's out for Amazon.
• 31:32
  I'm going to watch it. I haven't seen it. Because he's the villain.
• 31:34
  And it's more bubblegum action.
• 31:36
  So I like to see him play that. I like to see him play camp.
• 31:39
  You know what I mean? Because I haven't really seen him play camp yet.
• 31:42
  So you prefer then, instead of this, you prefer sort of explosions and Tom Cruise
• 31:46
  jumping off planes and stuff.
• 31:50
  Well, of course I do. What the fuck? Oh, really?
• 31:54
  Hey, guys, what do you want to do today? I don't know. Do you want to go see
• 31:57
  Tom Cruise jumping off planes, beating the shit off Sean Harris,
• 32:00
  who's trying to take over the world?
• 32:02
  Yeah, that sounds pretty good, but hear me out. Or, do you want to see a movie
• 32:07
  about a pedophile who was molested by his uncle after his parents were burned alive?
• 32:11
  Ooh, God, what do I pick? You can't compare the two, even though it just did.
• 32:18
  I know, you just did. You're a fucking idiot. Yeah.
• 32:22
  Fucking idiot. What was the green bomb?
• 32:25
  What's with the green ball spitting out the green ball? What the fuck was that about?
• 32:28
  I think the uncle was possibly they're gobstoppers and I think the uncle was
• 32:35
  giving them to him and other kids to,
• 32:39
  abuse but the uncle I don't think he wasn't just a sexual abuser I think he
• 32:44
  was just a sadistic bastard who liked torturing kids in other ways as well as
• 32:47
  sexually in terms of like he liked to make them sick and stuff you know with
• 32:52
  these gobstoppers which were poisoned or whatever. I don't know.
• 32:57
  It's sort of just suggested. Overall, this film, it really isn't for everyone. It's super harrowing.
• 33:05
  Great visuals for me, like I said. I know I'm repeating myself,
• 33:08
  but brilliant acting, I would say.
• 33:11
  But it extended a bit too much for the arm 25 minutes runtime or whatever.
• 33:17
  I would be interested in reading the short story. All right.
• 33:22
  Next up shark mom right yeah real cinema real cinema yeah basically.
• 33:36
  A snob himself he wants to watch real cinema like Jaws 3D right that's right
• 33:42
  and what a time to do it because I just found out it's the 50th anniversary of Jaws I know so,
• 33:50
  We are going to start Shark Month off with Jaws, the original.
• 33:55
  We have to. It's the 50th anniversary. How do we not?
• 33:59
  Yeah. We're going to do Jaws. Then we got one of the serial killer shark person.
• 34:05
  And then we've got Deep Blue Sea. And we'll probably put Jaws 3D in there.
• 34:10
  I don't know. We'll figure it out. But Jaws is up. That new one as well that's
• 34:14
  out. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. It's called Tartifying Creatures. Yeah.
• 34:17
  It's Disturbing Animals or something. I don't know what it's called.
• 34:21
  Disturb and create. So yeah. Yeah. It's going to be good.
• 34:23
  Sarah killer uses sharks. That's fucking awesome.
• 34:26
  Right? Yeah, okay. Jay Courtney's in it, isn't he? The legendary actor.
• 34:33
  Rumor has it, he's supposed to be good. Usually he's terrible,
• 34:35
  but we'll see. Well, that'll be a massive fucking twist.
• 34:39
  I'm kidding. The Sharks are probably better actors. Exactly.
• 34:45
  Yeah. We can actually do that recent, technically we could do that recent James
• 34:50
  Gunn, The Suicide Squad, because Sylvester's the little voices.
• 34:54
  Yeah. And it's a good follow-up, actually. Very good. Well, I do like it.
• 35:02
  We'll figure it out. We keep changing. I wrote it up. But Jaws is definitely
• 35:05
  coming up. It's the 50th anniversary. We have to do it.
• 35:08
  There's no way around it. The original summer blockbuster, the first summer
• 35:12
  blockbuster ever to get released. Yes.
• 35:15
  Classic. Is Jaws. Obviously. So that's next. Yeah.
• 35:18
  All right, guys. We're going to wrap this one up. Thanks for joining us.
• 35:22
  Check this film out. give us a shout if you actually do enjoy it and if you
• 35:27
  do enjoy this film, you might need to seek some help.
• 35:32
  Trevor's certainly going to be doing that. I've been saying that since day one.
• 35:38
  Hey, come on. It has trees in it. I love the trees, especially possessed trees. You know? You know?
• 35:46
  Wow. Alright, we're going to wrap this one up. Thanks a lot,
• 35:49
  guys. Give us a shout at citizenframe underscore podcast and Instagram and of course Facebook.
• 35:54
  That's all we got. We're out. Take care of yourselves. All the best.
• 35:58
  Music.