Blank Check: "Morvern Callar" with Emily Yoshida (Jan 25, 2026)

Podcast: Blank Check with Griffin & David
Episode: Morvern Callar with Emily Yoshida
Date: January 25, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of Blank Check kicks off the miniseries on director Lynne Ramsay, focusing on her enigmatic and haunting 2002 film Morvern Callar. Returning guest Emily Yoshida – a screenwriter, critic, and longtime friend of the pod – joins hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims to dissect one of her all-time favorite movies. The conversation weaves personal enthusiasm with a broader appreciation of Ramsay’s career, film music culture, and how Morvern Callar captures the intangible “outsider” experience. Expect deep dives into Scottish club culture, 2000s indie film history, evocative soundtracks, the art of adaptation, and a celebration of Samantha Morton’s iconic performance.

Key Discussion Points

1. Personal Connections and Guest Introduction

• Emily Yoshida’s return is likened to the “iron law” of perfect guest booking: “As something that must happen. And now it is finally happening today. Emily Yoshida, mother of blankies.” (Griffin, 07:24)
• Emily discusses her devotion to Morvern Callar (11:42):

  “It is a top five movie for me. I would say top five. ... This might well be my favorite movie that I've ever come on to talk to you guys about.”

• The crew reminisces about trying to see Morvern Callar in rare theater screenings pre-Blu-Ray and its previous unavailability (14:27–15:09).

2. Lynne Ramsay’s Auteur Signature

• The "We Need to Pod About Castvin" miniseries is thematically about “working through struggle— or…staying in the struggle” (Griffin, 05:21)

• Ramsay’s unique power to visualize inner life and emotional catatonia without falling into oppressive or didactic storytelling:

  “I feel like she represents the inner life better than anyone else.” (Griffin, 41:09)
  “She just has such a way with visuals and…is very specific about the actors that she works with. ... There is humor, there is poetry, and there is levity sometimes in the midst of absurd tragedy.” (Emily, 42:52–43:16)

• Ramsay’s work is “about outsiders,” not in the sense of subculture, but people unsure how to function, drifting through society (60:03–61:41).

3. Samantha Morton: A Generational Performance

• Detailing Morton’s tough upbringing, rise through UK youth theater, and break into film (82:51–83:54).
• Her extraordinary vulnerability:

  “She is like so emotionally, like, bracing and vulnerable where there's something a little bit uncomfortable about watching her, where you feel like you shouldn't be watching this. … She was never going to work [as a traditional studio star].” (Griffin, 32:01)

• Morton’s performance style is “translucent, not emoting overly, and so…continuity is hard to track—this is a real ‘the camera can see you think’ performance.” (Griffin, 94:27)

4. The Plot, Adaptation, and Tone of Morvern Callar

• The plot: a young Scottish supermarket clerk, Morvern, discovers her boyfriend’s suicide and appropriates his novel as her own.

• The adaptation process:

  • The source novel is written in stream-of-consciousness Scots, posing translation challenges (39:46–40:15).
  • Ramsay’s genius was to strip the film of monologue/voiceover—“which makes the movie a five star masterpiece...999 out of a thousand people would leave some amount of voiceover in if the book is this.” (David, 79:04)
  • She omits a pregnancy plot and avoids conventional “literary” narration; the film remains enigmatic, respecting Morvern’s inscrutability.

• The film’s unique opening:

  “The movie opens, she's lying on the floor lit by Christmas decorations going on and off, sort of entwined in a body... It's a Christmas movie.” (Griffin, 62:47)

  • Extended scenes of stillness, deadpan gallows humor, and the practical, even mundane, efforts Morvern makes in reaction.

5. Friendship, Alienation, and the Outsider Experience

• Emily highlights the core tension as not just being a void, but truly marginalized:

  “I think it is about truly being marginal as a person. She’s feeling alienation from the youth culture in her town...but [also] fundamental disinterest and boredom with art as a mannered thing as represented by the publishers at the end.” (Emily, 58:08)

• The “friend betrayal” plotline and the ambiguity of Morvern’s motivations:

  “I think it's all improvisational. I think it's all instinctual, moment to moment.” (Griffin, 150:10)

  • “These aren't oppressive, punishing movies. They are intense mood movies... Even you, Ben, were, like, worried... It's not what you think it's gonna be.” (Griffin, 44:36)

6. The Soundtrack as Emotional Narrative

• The mixtape left behind is positioned as the “real suicide note” (136:10, Emily):

  “James's mix for Morvern, I think, is a more interesting suicide note than the one he actually leaves.”

• Extensive discussion of music licensing, diegetic vs. nondiegetic cues, and the nostalgic art of mixtape curation (121:46–125:56).
  • “The whole thing is—whether it's diegetic or on the soundtrack, it's all the mixtape is my personal feeling.” (Emily, 122:08)
  • Ramsay’s taste: Can, Broadcast, Boards of Canada, Velvet Underground, Apex Twin, etc.

7. Escape, Hedonism, and the Limits of Self-Reinvention

• The Spain sequence’s switch to different film stock marks a tonal and visual break (147:57)
• Evocative discussion of clubbing, the search for oblivion, and the impossibility of escaping one's inner reality:

  “If I'm perceived as a novelist, does that make me a different person? If I have money, does that make me a different person?...The thing she can't escape is, like, actually her inner life. The thing that Lynne Ramsay knows how to bring about cinematically better than anyone else is just, like, her headspace.” (Griffin, 142:32–143:08)

  • Referenced Adam Sandler's SNL “Romano Tours” sketch as “one of the greatest…pieces of art about depression” (142:00)

8. The Scammer & Millennial Narratives

• The appeal of scammer protagonists, and Morvern Callar as a precursor to millennial scammer stories:

  “This is actually about the psychological state that drives one to scam. And it's a lot different than...the dishy New York mag story or whatever.” (Emily, 104:25)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Opening Banter & Scottish Jokes

• “Now I'm choosing not to do a Scottish accent.” (Griffin, 00:24)
• “We are strobing the lights in here, and we're recording in a bathtub.” (Griffin, 06:07 – channeling the film’s surreal mood)

On Lynne Ramsay’s Adaptation Style

• “She takes these books where you're like, how the fuck do you adapt that? Or why would you even try…She finds a way…that, to me, I feel like she represents the inner life better than anyone else.” (Griffin, 41:09)
• “Depiction is not endorsement. In my case, I think it is.” (Emily, 12:50)

On Depression & Processing Tragedy

• “As someone who suffers from, like, pretty extreme depression and anxiety, if I am, like, dealing with something intense, sometimes…I just need to, like, timeshift the emotions of this. I can't handle this right now.” (Griffin, 65:57)
• “For somebody who is probably just depressed all the time anyway, this horrific thing happens…[and] becomes an escape valve.” (Emily, 67:10)

On the Experience of Alienation

• “There’s no assumed normalcy… there's no, like, oh, it's that kind of person with any of her characters…that in itself is life affirming to me.” (Emily, 49:54)

On the Power of the Soundtrack

• “James's mix for Morvern, I think, is a more interesting suicide note than the one he actually leaves.” (Emily, 136:10)
• “Keep the music is like, his ultimate I… More than saying, 'I love you.'” (Griffin, 136:53)

On Millennial Scam Culture

• “It's a movie about a scam. ... This is actually about the psychological state that drives one to scam. And it's a lot different than…the Anna Delvey thing.” (Emily, 104:25)

On the Film’s Ending & Its Ambiguity

• “She’s the only outsider who is like, given a path to the inside. ... The door has been open for her. ... What the fuck happens to this person?” (Griffin, 140:54)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [11:42] – Emily on why Morvern Callar is a top-five film for her
• [39:46–40:15] – On the challenge (and pleasure) of reading the source novel
• [41:09] – Ramsay as master of visualizing internal experience
• [58:08–59:56] – Emily on the core existential tension: being an outsider among outsiders
• [67:10] – Using tragedy as an “escape valve” for depression
• [121:39–125:56] – Discussion of the soundtrack, mixtape curation, and music as emotional language
• [136:10] – “James's mix … a more interesting suicide note than the one he actually leaves”
• [142:00] – Adam Sandler SNL “Italy Tours” sketch and the impossibility of self-reinvention
• [147:57] – Film stock change when Morvern leaves the tourist hotel in Spain

Tone & Language

• The episode retains the irreverent, literate, and deeply movie-nerd tone of the Blank Check brand.
• Frequent use of wry humor—often self-deprecating—as well as honest talk about depression and trauma, balanced by a sincere appreciation for film as art and life-raft.
• The conversation moves nimbly from personal anecdote to close film analysis to silly digressions, but the love for Morvern Callar and the work of Lynne Ramsay is consistent and heartfelt.

Final Thoughts

This episode stands as both a personal love letter to Morvern Callar and an intellectual tribute to Lynne Ramsay’s singular vision. Emily Yoshida’s passion anchors the discussion, leading to rich insights on grief, alienation, the paradoxical pleasures of hedonistic escape, and why “depiction is not endorsement.” The Blank Check hosts remind listeners that films about trauma can be life-affirming, and sometimes the strangest, most specific, and most uncomfortable movies are the truest mirrors to our inner lives.

Listen if you want:

• A passionate and nuanced breakdown of Morvern Callar
• Deep dives on soundtracks and indie music culture
• Talk about scammer narratives, mix tapes, and millennial malaise
• Context on early-2000s film distribution and UK/US indie cinema
• Life-affirming yet unsentimental discussion of depression and how movies can process pain

Next week: We Need to Talk About Kevin. (Trigger warnings all around.)