Nish Kumar (The So On Time It's Almost Early Films Of The Year 2O25 Special • Part 1) • #390

Summary

Films To Be Buried With – Nish Kumar (The So On Time It's Almost Early Films Of The Year 2025 Special • Part 1) #390

Release Date: April 15, 2026
Host: Brett Goldstein
Guest: Nish Kumar
Location: Studio recording in Brooklyn, NY

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Episode Overview

This special episode marks the annual "Films of the Year" discussion, with Brett Goldstein and returning guest Nish Kumar embarking on a lively, irreverent, and heartfelt review of the cinema of 2025. Rather than the show’s standard format of death and a life-in-films interview, Brett and Nish run down their year: career milestones (including film releases and stand-up specials), festival travels, and—true to form—their most personal, hilarious, and often moving takes on everything they saw on the big screen. The episode remains fast, funny, and packed with insider quips, genuine affection, and memorable digressions.

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Setting the Scene & Catching Up

[00:57 – 10:40]

• Brett and Nish are recording for the first time in a professional studio in Brooklyn (“Upper Gal’s Anus,” as Nish can’t resist).

• Nish is in New York for a string of stand-up gigs and Moon Tower Comedy Festival, plus the US version of “Have I Got News For You.”

• Brett’s 2025 included releasing his own film All of You, which had a UK cinema run before landing on Apple TV and is described as an emotional, debatably sad film. Nish mentions attending a screening:

  “I saw it at the Curzon…packed house, people loved it...two people were really drunk.” — Nish ([08:14])

• Brett teases a big-budget, “happy ending” rom-com coming soon with Jennifer Lopez, Tony Hale, Amy Sedaris, and others:

  “I thought, well, I’ll do one with a happy ending.” — Brett ([09:49])

  “It’s a big budget rom com, heavy on the comm...a deep bench.” — Brett ([10:33])

• Nish discusses filming his own stand-up show at Hackney Empire, inspired by iconic concert films, and how it is being released on platforms soon.

  “Did anyone ask us to do it? No, Brett. Did anyone finance it? No, I had to pay for it myself...This was my megalopolis.” — Nish ([06:13])

• Brett wholeheartedly endorses Nish’s show:

  “One of the best stand-up shows I’ve ever seen.” — Brett ([05:07])

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Projects, Podcasts & Acting Adventures

[10:45 – 15:00]

• Nish has dipped into acting: a sitcom called Austin (BBC/ABC) and The Sanctuary (ABC NZ), the latter featuring Nish with blow-dried straight hair (“more handsome, like Ron Burgundy”).
• Nish covers Pod Save the UK (“weekly pick-me-up: despair, horror, no hope”), and Brett gently ribs the podcast’s tone.
• Both discuss the ongoing popularity of Shrinking (Apple TV).

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Cinema in 2025 – Trends & Rules

[16:50 – 20:00]

• Both agree that 2025 was a strong, crowd-engaging year at the movies, with “proper American epics” squaring off at the Oscars—drawing comparisons to No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood.

• Brett insists on their “UK release rule” for eligibility: only films released in UK cinemas between Jan 1 and Dec 31 count, even if it means discussing films much later than their US release.

  “It’s quite a good test...when you’re blown away by something and a year later, do you still care?” — Brett ([18:53])

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Death, Reincarnation & Mortality

[20:02 – 25:23]

• Brett performs the signature ritual (“you’ve died…again!”), allowing for a comic aside on reincarnation and IBS/ADHD diagnosis.

  “Every year I… in the context of this podcast, I’m living out the Hindu idea… of reincarnation… But I’m living my life in exactly the same way every time and being reincarnated as the same mat every single time.” — Nish ([20:38])

• Nish reflects on his changing relationship with death, especially after his grandmother’s passing:

  “You have an ability to appreciate that a person’s death… is an opportunity to show gratitude for the life they’ve lived. But that doesn’t mean that I’m okay with it.” — Nish ([24:56])

• Favorite thing in heaven? “Going to the movies and talking to you about movies.” ([25:02])

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The Films of the Year: Highlights & Deep-Dives

First Films of 2025

[27:16 – 31:23]

• Nish: The Assessment

  • Sci-fi, “chilly but emotional”—Himesh Patel, Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander.
  • Praises performances, especially Olsen moving away from Marvel roles.

  “Chilly but also at its core, very emotional, cerebral science fiction. And the world building...is really, really great.” — Nish ([27:21])

  • On a provocative scene:

  “Could I have lived a long life without seeing a scene where he was sucked off by the Scarlet Witch, Brett? Yes, I could have, but that’s not available to me, that life.” — Nish ([29:09])

• Brett: Nosferatu (Robert Eggers)

  • Impressed by the opening’s fear, “well made,” funny riffing on the vampire’s horniness.
  • Brett relates most to the vampire, and both praise the film’s scares.

Scariest Film of 2025

[31:45 – 35:01]

• Both immediately agree: Bring Her Back (Danny & Michael Philippou, “those two fucking Australians”)

  • Sally Hawkins stars. Naturalistic, Mike Leigh-esque approach, “worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
  • Discuss how the film is about a grieving mother using deeply questionable methods.

  “It felt like it was shot like a Mike Lee film… as naturalistic as possible, which just made it even more absolutely awful.” — Nish ([32:47])

  “I did find myself wanting the bad person to achieve their goal.” — Brett ([33:16])

  • Favorite line:

    “I’m going to drown you in the pool now, love.” — Brett ([34:07])

  • On the technical achievement:

    “Knife through his teeth...a character chews a knife and the sound of it is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.” — Nish ([34:28])

• Honorable Mention: Presence (Steven Soderbergh):

  • Entirely from the POV of a ghost.
  • Emotional ending; Lucy Liu is praised; subtle release, perhaps overlooked.

  “The camera is a ghost...the ending is really smart and emotional and kind of really got me.” — Brett ([36:05])

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Most Cry-Inducing Films

[38:25 – 47:01]

• Nish:

  • Sentimental Value: Story of two sisters; moving dialogue.

    “The older one says, ‘why didn’t our childhood ruin you?’... [the younger] says, ‘there’s one difference...I had you.’” — Nish ([39:05])

  • Nickel Boys:
    • Harrowing POV drama about reform schools and historical Black trauma, “devastating and beautiful.”

    “It is frustrating because it feels like a film like that needs to win awards… and command the attention that it should.” — Nish ([42:30])

• Brett:

  • Wicked For Good:

    • Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s musical performances.

    “Cynthia Erivo, I truly believe, is channeling God.” — Brett ([42:57])

  • Come See Me In The Good Light (dir. Tig Notaro, produced by Notaro):

    • Documentary on poet Andrea Gibson living with cancer.

    “Life is beautiful. The small things are the thing… it is the most, like, visceral version I have ever seen…” — Brett ([44:46])

  • On the emotional toll:

    “I did take nine days to watch it because I was crying so much.” — Brett ([46:08])

  • Also, We Live In Time: Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh’s drama hits far too close to home for Nish.

    “So Garfield and Pugh, take a fucking running jump. At one point I was literally like, why have you done this to me?” — Nish ([46:48])

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Hidden Gems & Divisive Picks

[47:24 – 51:25]

• Brett:

  • Christie (dir. David Michôd)
    • “Good story, well told and moving and powerful.”
    • Praises Sydney Sweeney and Ben Foster.

• Nish:

  • Mission Impossible (not universally acclaimed, but a fun time even with the “Windows 95 screensaver” AI villain).
  • Die, My Love (dir. Lynne Ramsay; Jennifer Lawrence & Robert Pattinson):

    “It’s almost like Taxi Driver in that it situates you...in the mind of the protagonist… time sort of disappear[s] suddenly...a really extraordinary, brilliant film.” — Nish ([50:07])

  • Brett: “It’s really good.” ([51:24])

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Meaningful Movie Experiences

[51:27 – 55:34]

• Nish:

  • Most meaningful: A Complete Unknown (Bob Dylan film) with a fellow obsessive friend.

    “You go with somebody...who it means as much to as it meant to me that there was a movie about Bob Dylan.” — Nish ([52:29])

  • But also: seeing All of You (Brett’s film)—special to watch a friend’s project come to fruition after years of work.

    “It was very special for me.” — Nish ([55:34])

    • Anecdote about seeing Brett’s “arse out” at a test screening and Brett’s sister’s reaction.

    “I didn’t like seeing my brother go down on someone...we’ll take that on board.” — Brett ([53:59])

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The Year’s Most “Relatable” Movies

[55:50 – 65:04]

• Nish:

  • A Real Pain (dir. Jesse Eisenberg):

    • “How do you be a middle-aged man?” The balance between having “no filter” (Ciaran Culkin) and too many (Eisenberg).

    “It was an amazing thing...to empathize with people...who’ve grown up around that [Holocaust legacy] and how difficult that is.” — Nish ([57:12])

  • Funniest moment: Will Sharpe’s hilarious line delivery as he exits a fraught group scene.

• Brett:

  • Two picks:

    • Blue Moon (dir. Richard Linklater): The story of composer Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke).

    “You wait till we talk about Hamnet next year—that poor woman.” — Brett ([62:19])

    • A Complete Unknown (onstage failure deeply relatable to stand-ups)

  • Blue Moon:

    • Hawke’s character, washed-up compared to his old partner’s (Oklahoma!) success.
    • The film’s meditation on bitterness, missed connections, the fear of misreading people—“the fear of relating to it.”
    • Nish on its beauty:

      “That’s the hallmark of great art: levitation. When your spine glows and the whole apparatus of songwriting suddenly breaks free from gravity…” — Nish ([64:16])

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On their annual rules:

  “We need to have consistency to make people feel safe. I think if we broke that rule, and I did think about it, it was tempting...No, I want to be able to sleep at night.” — Brett ([19:35])

• On British careers in the US:

  “I have always been a staunch supporter of the President’s agenda...I’m actually a white guy called Nick Cooper who thinks low tax, low regulation, economy is fantastic and immigration should be controlled.” — Nish ([04:40])

• On comedy and life:

  “My favorite things are going to the movies and my other favorite thing is talking to you about the movies.” — Nish ([25:02])

• On film appreciation:

  “Cinema is the great empathy machine.” — Nish ([57:12])

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Timestamps: Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-------------|--------------------------------------------------| | 00:57-03:37 | Studio intro and guest banter | | 03:54-09:08 | Nish and Brett’s year: Shows, films, festivals | | 09:11-10:45 | Brett’s upcoming rom-com with Jennifer Lopez | | 11:02-13:39 | Nish’s acting gigs | | 13:53-15:02 | The state of podcasts and TV | | 16:50-20:00 | The UK release rule & Oscar-year trends | | 20:02-25:23 | Death ritual; mortality; stand-up digressions | | 27:16-31:23 | First films of 2025: The Assessment, Nosferatu | | 31:45-35:01 | Scariest movie: Bring Her Back | | 36:05-37:50 | Hidden horror gem: Presence | | 38:25-47:01 | Crying at movies: Sentimental Value, Wicked | | 47:24-51:25 | Divisive / hidden gems: Christie, Die My Love, Mission Impossible | | 51:27-55:34 | Most meaningful filmgoing experiences | | 55:53-65:04 | Relatable films: A Real Pain, Blue Moon | | 65:04-end | Closing, thanks, teasing Part 2 |

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Tone & Style

The episode swings between silly, affectionate banter, deep cinephile appreciation, and moments of raw emotional honesty. Brett’s dry wit and Nish’s self-deprecating warmth create a joyous and safe-feeling conversational space, even as they discuss grief or the anxieties of creative life.

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Summary

In this first part of their 2025 film round-up, Brett Goldstein and Nish Kumar demonstrate why Films To Be Buried With stands out: the mix of nerdy seriousness about films, the candid self-awareness about their own careers, disarmingly funny sidebars, and a celebration of both art and friendship. Their lists and reminisces capture the cinematic year’s emotional extremes—from pants-shitting horror (Bring Her Back) to radical, transcendent documentary joy (Come See Me in the Good Light) to the unique bittersweetness of seeing your friend’s arse on a big screen.

Tune in for:

• Hilarious impersonations and inside-baseball comedy riffs
• Thoughtful discussion on loss, legacy, and what it really means to watch movies together
• Recommendations for films both blockbuster and underseen (with no spoilers, and UK cinephile precision)
• Teased continuation for Part 2, where their Top 10 lists await

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Transcript

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[Brett Goldstein]

Look out. His only Films to Be Buried with the frankly Early End of the Year Film Special. Hello and welcome to Films to be Buried with the frankly Early End of the Year Film Special. My name is Brett Goldstein. I'm a comedian, an actor, a writer, a director, a bucking bronco and I love films. As A.A. milne once said, you can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them. Sometimes you can see cinders in all kinds of formats, but you really should see it in 70 mil at the IMAX. Every week I invite a special guest over. I tell them they died. Then I get them to discuss their life through the films. The men, the most of them. But not today. Today, in two parts, myself and the brilliant Mr. Nish Kumar will be talking about our our top films of the year 2025. You can get all the extra stuff on [e-mail] Brett Goldstein where you get a fancy video because we recorded it in the studio, me and Nish. You get extra questions, you get extra chat about our Films of the year, all kinds of stuff. Check it [e-mail] BrettGoldstein. You know how this works. Me and Nish meet up, talk too much about the films of 2025. We finally caught up on all of them and everything. I I really think you're going to love this one. So that is it for now. I very much hope you enjoy the frankly earlier than ever Films of the Year Films to Be Buried With Special episode. Hello and welcome to Films to be Buried with the Films of the Year. It is I, Brett Goldstein, and I'm joined today by by an actor, a writer, a showrunner, a quiberton, a podcasting toileter A stand up legend, a touring comedian, a traveler who goes far and wide. He'll tell the truth, dammit. And he's here. He's back from the dead. I've brought him back for a special occasion because it's April and it's time to discuss the films of 2025. Please welcome back to the show. It's the brilliant. It's the one and only. It's nish groomer

[Nish Kumar]

lot to unpick from that intro.

[Brett Goldstein]

Brett, welcome. Where are we? We're in a little tiny. But we're in a proper studio. We've never done this in a studio.

[Nish Kumar]

I can't believe we're doing this. We're actually in a studio in New York.

[Brett Goldstein]

In New York. In Brooklyn. Are we in Brooklyn?

[Nish Kumar]

We're in Brooklyn. We're in a place called Guanas, which is how you pronounce it, but let's not beat around the bush. It's spelled Galanus.

[Brett Goldstein]

Here we are in TV's Galanis.

[Nish Kumar]

Here we are, Upper Gal's anus.

[Brett Goldstein]

What are you doing in New York, young man?

[Nish Kumar]

I'm in New York because I am doing some stand up shows this weekend and then I'm going to LA to do some standup shows and then I'm doing the Moon Tower Comedy Festival in Austin and I also did have I Got News for your sa. So have I Got News for your very famous panel show in the United Kingdom and now there's an American version of which is, as I've been repeatedly told, not called have I got News for usa. It's just called have I Got News for you usa Which I think is a real missed opportunity.

[Brett Goldstein]

Such a waste. Why have you been allowed back in the country,

[Nish Kumar]

Brett? I don't know what you're talking about.

[Brett Goldstein]

I came to see your stand up show last time in America and I thought I'll never see him again. And yet somehow you'll hear, I don't know how, Brett.

[Nish Kumar]

I don't know what you're talking about. I have always been a staunch supporter of the President's agenda. I've always been. I've always been a huge fan.

[Brett Goldstein]

You've been vocally been a fan of that. That's true. Yeah. I guess what you do is irony.

[Nish Kumar]

It's a character. I'm playing a character. I'm actually a white guy called Nick Cooper who thinks low tax, low regulation, economy is fantastic and immigration should be controlled.

[Brett Goldstein]

Actually, Brett, thank you, Nick. Now, it was Fanta. The show I saw. Oh my God. Was one of the best stand up shows I've ever seen. And then you filmed it like a film?

[Nish Kumar]

Yes.

[Brett Goldstein]

Tell us. Tell the listener about your cinematic adventure.

[Nish Kumar]

Well, Stu Laws and Al Clayton, who direct all of my shows, have done all the Acaster specials. We decided to film the show at the Hackney Empire because there's material in the show about me seeing comedy for the first time in that room and how much of an impact it had on me. And so we decided to film it in the theater and. And then just listen. I'm a big fan of movies, Brett. We love the movies.

[Brett Goldstein]

Me too.

[Nish Kumar]

And so when Stuart Laws and I started talking about it, the three of us, Stu, Al and me, got very excited about films like Stop Making Sense, the Jonathan Demme Talking Heads concert film, and the D.A. pennebacker concert movies where he films Bob Dylan and Otis Reddick and Jimi Hendrix at Monterey. And so we decided to shoot it big. And so we ended up screening it at the Ritzy in Brixton, which is an incredible cinema. I think it's 115 years old. It's an amazing cine. We had a special screening, me and James the Genie Acaster did a little chat about it afterwards. And yeah, it was really great. Did anyone ask us to do it? No, Brett. Did anyone finance it? No, I had to pay for it myself. Did at points it feel like I was living my own megalopolis? Absolutely it did, Brett. This was my megalopolis.

[Brett Goldstein]

Did you bat kid yourself?

[Nish Kumar]

I didn't even have any vineyards to sell, Brett.

[Brett Goldstein]

That's really cool, though.

[Nish Kumar]

But, yeah, people came. People came to watch it, and people can now watch it. 800 pound gorilla are going to release it on all Video on demand platforms, YouTube and all audio platforms for the album as well. And that'll be.

[Brett Goldstein]

I would highly recommend it. And I'll say this for the real comedy fans out there, Flanny at Largo said it was the best show he'd ever seen, which is really hurtful to every other comedian that's ever existed, but so I would recommend it.

[Nish Kumar]

We love Flatty. We adore Flatty.

[Brett Goldstein]

I love him so much, but I realize he forsook me.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah, that's mainly what I did with my year. What did you do with your year, Brett?

[Brett Goldstein]

2025. Yeah, a lot happened, didn't it?

[Nish Kumar]

A lot happened, Brett. A lot happened.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah. What happened? Made a film, made a film, put film out. Film came out. All of you made a film.

[Nish Kumar]

I feel like I'm. I feel like I'm Seth Meyers or Colbert doing a really difficult Interview. It's like we. We've had this chat. We. You know what you're here to promote. Brett. Brett. We do a film podcast once a

[Brett Goldstein]

year, so if anything happened.

[Nish Kumar]

We do film podcasts once a year, and at the start of every single one of these, we update each other and the listeners on what we've been doing in that year and this year.

[Brett Goldstein]

You.

[Nish Kumar]

There was a small matter of you having a film that was in cinemas.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yes, I had a film in the cinemas called all of you, which was very exciting and a real treat. That film came out so good. Thanks, Niz.

[Nish Kumar]

But also, not just it was a great movie, but also I saw it in the Curzon. Yeah, that's one in screen One at the Curzon, which is a great cinema in the middle of Soho in London. Packed house, people loved it.

[Brett Goldstein]

Oh, great.

[Nish Kumar]

Two people were really drunk.

[Brett Goldstein]

Oh, yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

If you remember that.

[Brett Goldstein]

Qr. I do remember. I did a Q.

[Nish Kumar]

They asked you some stuff about, but they couldn't quite get Roy or Kent out fully. And as I was walking past their seats, there were two empty bottles of wine that they managed to polish off.

[Brett Goldstein]

I think what happened was. I think they were upset that the film has a debatably sad ending. I don't think it's such a sad ending, but they think it was sad. And they were trying to say, Roy Kent wouldn't have ended it like that, I think is what they were trying to say.

[Nish Kumar]

But it must have been so exciting.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, that was really exciting. I'm very proud of that film. And it was really good that it had a little cinema release and now it's on Apple tv. You can watch it every day.

[Nish Kumar]

You can watch it every single day

[Brett Goldstein]

of your life, which is what I do every day.

[Nish Kumar]

And there's some time codes which we'll get to later.

[Brett Goldstein]

And then I made another film last

[Nish Kumar]

year, so this is also very exciting.

[Brett Goldstein]

I made a film with Jennifer Lopez. Ever heard of her?

[Nish Kumar]

It's nice to give newcomers a chance.

[Brett Goldstein]

Listen, I found Harrison Ford and then I was like, you know what? Now I've got a taste for newcomers. I found this. This Jennifer Lopez. And I was like, I think she's got something. And. And we made a film which is coming out fairly soon.

[Nish Kumar]

That's very exciting.

[Brett Goldstein]

It was very exciting.

[Nish Kumar]

It's a good film.

[Brett Goldstein]

Very exciting. Not a sad ending. I can say that. Yeah. I think it's just for the people who were sad about the other ending. I thought, well, I'll do one with happy ending.

[Nish Kumar]

It's a Big. It's a big, big rom com.

[Brett Goldstein]

Big old rom com.

[Nish Kumar]

It's a big old rom com.

[Brett Goldstein]

Happy ending rom com.

[Nish Kumar]

Funny.

[Brett Goldstein]

Funny.

[Nish Kumar]

Sexy.

[Brett Goldstein]

It has got sweet, funny cast.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

Fucking hell. You kidding me? We got the best of the best in this.

[Nish Kumar]

Tony Hale.

[Brett Goldstein]

Tony Hale. Amy Sedaris.

[Nish Kumar]

The small matter of Tony Hale and Amy Sedaris.

[Brett Goldstein]

Bradley Whitford. I mean, that's Betty Gilpin. The list goes on.

[Nish Kumar]

But that's what's exciting about it, is

[Brett Goldstein]

that it's Edward James Olmert.

[Nish Kumar]

It's a big budget, big budget comedy. Big budget rom com. And like the heavy on the comm. Yeah, it has the deep bench, I

[Brett Goldstein]

think, in a way. I don't want to say who all the people are in it, although you can look it up, but it is like a deep bench. As in as the film goes on, you're like, oh, my God, they're in it. And then at like 50 minutes, you're like, oh, my God, they're in it. Yeah, it's really cool.

[Nish Kumar]

That's very cool.

[Brett Goldstein]

It's very dreamy.

[Nish Kumar]

What a year. What a year for Brett Goldstein in film.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, good year for Brett Goldstein in film. Now, Nish, you famously done some acting recently?

[Nish Kumar]

I've done. I've done two small pieces of acting. Brett.

[Brett Goldstein]

That's very exciting.

[Nish Kumar]

I know why you're delivering this with a smirk.

[Brett Goldstein]

Why?

[Nish Kumar]

Because the first one of them is Austin, which is a BBC abc, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation co production. And I played a small part in a sitcom and it was great. And then the other one is a thing called the Sanctuary, which is an Australian Broadcasting Corporation slash New Zealand television sitcom. And it's coming out at some point soon. The concept of it is amazing.

[Brett Goldstein]

Go on.

[Nish Kumar]

Austin is a series that's been on for ages. It's very funny. People should check it out. The Sanctuary. The concept of it is an American tech billionaire has made some legal snafus and is forced to live on the private island that he owns in New Zealand, like all of them do. And he strikes a deal with the New Zealand government that he has to turn it into a bird sanctuary. So it's like this brash tech billionaire coming up against very nerdy New Zealand conservationists. And the reason you're excited is the reason a lot of people are excited, Brett, and it's because they blow dried my hair straight. I'm in one episode and they blow dried my hair straight, and I sort of look like Ron Burgundy in Anchorman.

[Brett Goldstein]

And you look. I think the problem is you look even More handsome.

[Nish Kumar]

I think that's true.

[Brett Goldstein]

I didn't realize it was an option and when I saw it, I was like, dear God, that's the most beautiful man I've ever seen.

[Nish Kumar]

The costume department note seems to have been one phrase. MeToo backlash. That's the vibe of this character. He's a very unpleasant character. And Joseph Moore and Laura Daniel, who are brilliant comedians who created and wrote this sitcom, cast me because they thought it was funny to put me in a show as the worst, most unpleasant billionaire that they could think of. I'm in it to make the main billionaire look so more likable.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, you're like the Nazis in Breaking Bad.

[Nish Kumar]

That was the note they gave me every day. You're like the Breaking Bad Nazis.

[Brett Goldstein]

What about sort of genuinely happy with sort of the state of the world? Obviously you've got your podcast, Pod Save the uk.

[Nish Kumar]

Pod Save the UK I listen to

[Brett Goldstein]

every week and then self harm afterwards. What? You know, thanks for the weekly pick me up. What it goes every week you listen to and it goes, dear, dear, dear, dear. It's quite an upbeat tune. And then it's like this week. Despair, Horror. No hope.

[Nish Kumar]

Listen, it's not been a great decade century in the news, but Cococard and I on Pod Save the UK are still trying to excavate the hope from that situation.

[Brett Goldstein]

I do like when you have on a guest who says things like, you know, I think things are looking up. It doesn't happen often.

[Nish Kumar]

I text you when there's one coming up.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah. You're like, you can handle this one. I'm like, fucking hell. The problem is I love your podcast, but I'm not sure it's a great. What you want is your listeners every week just before they press play. Go. Fucking hell. Okay, here we go. Let's get this over with.

[Nish Kumar]

You make the noise you make just before you get a lift up. Heavy embracing your body.

[Brett Goldstein]

Okay, Pod Saving uk, let's do it. Yes. I'm going to learn stuff. Thank you. Ish. No, it's fantastic.

[Nish Kumar]

And shrinking also rolls on.

[Brett Goldstein]

Shrinking rolls on. By the time this comes out, probably the finale has just come out.

[Nish Kumar]

The finale has come out.

[Advertisement Voice]

Wowee.

[Brett Goldstein]

Can you imagine the finale?

[Nish Kumar]

And what are you doing in New York, Brett? Are you allowed to talk about what you're doing in New York? Yeah, I'm working on something, but you're working on something.

[Brett Goldstein]

He's up to something.

[Nish Kumar]

He's up to his old tricks.

[Brett Goldstein]

He's working on a new thing.

[Nish Kumar]

He's probably discovered a new a New style to put in that. Ever heard of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts? You will have done after Brett's latest project.

[Brett Goldstein]

I found this guy, Tom Hanks. I think he's got something. I've written him a little comedy.

[Nish Kumar]

One of the great jokes in the sitcom Parks and Recreation is when it's established that Nick Offerman's character, Rod Swanson, hears the name Julia Roberts and says, is that the toothy gal from Mystic Pizza? He has heard of no other Julia Roberts films other than Mystic Pizza.

[Brett Goldstein]

Hi there.

[Maureen]

It's Brett's neighbor Maureen here. There's something about spring that makes me look at my wardrobe and think, right, who invited all of this? I've been trying to keep fewer things, but better things. Pieces that are easy, well made and just work without a fuss. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. They do those everyday essentials that feel a bit more elevated. Premium fabrics, thoughtful fits and nothing overly complicated. Their linen pieces especially are perfect for this time of year. Lightweight, breathable and just the right mix of relaxed and put together. I picked up the 100% European linen long sleeve in pinstripe and I've been living in it. It's incredibly comfortable. The fit is oversized in that very flattering, effortless way. It's perfect for a beach day, cheeky little brunch, or, you know, gentle bit of neighborly observation from the window, if

[Brett Goldstein]

you know what I mean.

[Maureen]

Keep things breezy. That's it. Refresh your wardrobe with quince. Go to quince.com Brett B R E T T for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too, go to Q-U-I-N-C-E.com Brett for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Brett thank you, girl.

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[Brett Goldstein]

How was 2025 in cinema?

[Nish Kumar]

2025 in cinema was.

[Brett Goldstein]

What are we thinking?

[Nish Kumar]

It was a good year?

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, I think so.

[Nish Kumar]

It was a really exciting year. We'll get to all of it as we go. But certainly people went to see some movies. This year there were a couple of big American heavyweights that ended up duking it out at the Oscars in a way that reminded me slightly of Paul Thomas Anderson's less successful outing at the Oscars. It really reminded me of no Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood. In that you had these two sort of properly American epics that were sort of ambitious in their scope, but also reached a large audience. I mean, I think There Will Be Blood might have been his most successful film commercially before this, but these were two movies that people went to see, Sinners in one battle after another. And that's always exciting because we always, every year there's going to be movies thrown up that we absolutely, absolutely love. That with love 12 hipsters see that are watched by us. And I think it's the line from the studio. A bunch of pansexual mixologists from Bed Stuy. I think that's the line from the studio. I think it's an Ike Baron Holtz line in the studio. But these were movies that commanded large audiences. Very exciting.

[Brett Goldstein]

Very exciting. For those of you who've never heard Always On Time Film of the Year special, there's rules and they're frustrated. I'm getting frustrated by my own rules.

[Nish Kumar]

You nearly. You nearly encouraged us.

[Brett Goldstein]

You thought you were breaking it. The problem is the rules.

[Nish Kumar]

You're going to have to break your one rule.

[Brett Goldstein]

The problem is the rule is it has to have been the UK release date between January 1 and December 31. But the problem with that is it means that stuff like the Brutalist, which you've all forgotten existed, we now, only a year and a half to two years later, we're talking about the Brutalist. It's not the best system, but in a way it does. What is good about the system is it makes you go. A year later. Do you still care about the Brutalist?

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah, that's right.

[Brett Goldstein]

And I do. It turns out I do.

[Nish Kumar]

That's. That's.

[Brett Goldstein]

But it's quite a good test when you go, like when you're blown away by something and he gives you a year and a half. Given our schedules, I must.

[Nish Kumar]

I must have told you this, but, you know, anytime I on Instagram post about a film that I've enjoyed, I will get at least one response saying, great, Well, I look forward to hearing you and Brett talk about this in three years. It's not the exact wording and the time frame varies, but the sentiment is always the same.

[Brett Goldstein]

But then. So I nearly broke the rule. Cause I thought, I want to talk about, like, if I had legs, I'd kick you.

[Nish Kumar]

The secret agent.

[Brett Goldstein]

But we're not breaking the rule. We're not breaking the rule because otherwise, who are we?

[Nish Kumar]

This is not a time for rationalization between UK and US ideas.

[Brett Goldstein]

We need the US to stay clear. We need to have consistency to make people feel safe. I think if we broke that rule, and I did think about it, it was tempting.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

Like handing out a pardon. Do I pardon this episode? We can say whatever. No, no. I want to be able to sleep at night.

[Nish Kumar]

Someone has to show some respect for the rules based international order, Brett.

[Brett Goldstein]

Someone has to. So. Oh, Nish.

[Nish Kumar]

Yep.

[Brett Goldstein]

I've forgotten to tell you something. Uh. Oh, God, this is mad, actually. You've died again. You're dead again.

[Nish Kumar]

Every time you.

[Brett Goldstein]

I don't know what goes on with you. What happened?

[Nish Kumar]

Hinduism, baby.

[Brett Goldstein]

Hinduism strikes again. What happened?

[Nish Kumar]

The sequel to my blockbuster hit, Hinduism. Hinduism Strikes Back.

[Brett Goldstein]

Hinduism, it's all.

[Nish Kumar]

We talk about this every year, but every year I. In the context of this podcast, I'm living out the Hindu idea and Buddhist idea of reincarnation. But morally, the idea of reincarnations is you're supposed to move through a process like you're either punished for things that you've done, whereas I'm living my life in exactly the same way every time and being reincarnated as the same mat every single time.

[Brett Goldstein]

You're always ending up back here with me.

[Nish Kumar]

You're going to be a middle aged stand up comedian and IBS suffering hipster this time. Try and do something different.

[Brett Goldstein]

Guys. I told you I'd get an exclusive today. It's the first I've heard about the ibs. If we need a headline for the art course, I'm sorry to hear about the ibs.

[Nish Kumar]

Oh. It still remains undiagnosed. The ADHD has been diagnosed. ADHD has been diagnosed in the ongoing fight between me and my own brain.

[Brett Goldstein]

Congratulations.

[Nish Kumar]

I had to get it diagnosed, Brett, because audience members kept shouting it at me during my comedy gigs.

[Brett Goldstein]

You've got adhd? Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

THEY CHAT and during one, I'd say fairly memorable incident, a woman shouted, you've got adhd. I said, why you? How are you qualified? How are you qualified to say that? She said, I'm a mental health professional and I have adhd. And I said, that's pretty qualified.

[Brett Goldstein]

What was the context? They SHOUTING? They're just annoyed at you running around the stage shouting.

[Nish Kumar]

There's a story that I told that I tell in the show in Nish. Don't Kill My vibe. Available on YouTube right now. Or go to my website. It's available somewhere. Go to my website, nishcommar.co.uk for more information. There's a story where I talk about leaving my passport in a taxi that then is used as sort of evidence that I have adhd.

[Brett Goldstein]

Oh, yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

And I said to my therapist, do you think I have adhd, or do you think everyone thinks everyone has ADHD because of the Internet? And she said yes to both. So she said, yes, it is over diagnosed, but you do have it. And like, audience members have said to me, one person said to me, I knew you had ADHD from the second I saw you on television. So I don't know how I've died this time.

[Brett Goldstein]

I guess in your next tour, people will be saddled. You've definitely got ibs?

[Nish Kumar]

Well, if people shout, you've definitely got IBS in a gig. Something bad has happened.

[Brett Goldstein]

What makes you say that?

[Nish Kumar]

The big pile of shit you just did in the corner of the stage, the way that you're squatting whilst holding the microphone has given us a clear indication that you've soiled yourself. And so I guess I wonder how I died this time. I guess this time I'm gonna say I was cut down in my prime for telling the truth on stage. Either that or I ate some unbelievably suspect street food. Because I'll be honest with you, Brett, I got no discipline when it comes to street food. So it's either righteous assassination or street food.

[Brett Goldstein]

Do you know who did? If it was the righteous assassination, who pulled the trigger?

[Nish Kumar]

Ever heard of the Man?

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

The Man.

[Brett Goldstein]

I knew it.

[Nish Kumar]

The man got me.

[Brett Goldstein]

I fucking knew it.

[Nish Kumar]

The fucking man got me, man.

[Brett Goldstein]

Tragic. So do you worry about death still? It's happened a lot. I guess you're used to it.

[Nish Kumar]

I think I do. I don't know. I'm sort of having. I'm sort of trying to wrap my mind around how I feel about it as I get older. We've got. We've been doing these shows for over quite a long period of time now.

[Brett Goldstein]

Brett, have you got better or worse?

[Nish Kumar]

Don't know. It's hard. My grandmother passed away this year.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yes. I'm sorry.

[Nish Kumar]

And you find space. I think when something like that happens to have gratitude for the life that she had, you know, she was 93 years old. She sort of lived quite an extraordinary life. You know, she sort of grew up in a small village in Kerala. She used to get the news by going to their neighbour's house because they had like a wireless radio. And by the end of her life, she was using an iPad to FaceTime her grandchildren in Australia. So you' like we can sort of come back to it when we talk about the brutalist. But I was thinking a lot about her life and those big 20th century lives, you know, that involve continental migration. You know, she lived one of those big lives and I think when something like that happens, you have an ability to appreciate that a person's death like that and their funeral is an opportunity to show gratitude for the life that they've lived. But that doesn't mean that I'm okay with it.

[Brett Goldstein]

Well, you're back in heaven with your favorite thing. What is it?

[Nish Kumar]

My favorite thing? Here's my two favorite things. My favorite things are going to the movies and my other favorite thing is talking to you about the movies.

[Brett Goldstein]

Oh, Nish, this place is perfect for you. Well, here we are.

[Nish Kumar]

Also, if people are watching this on video, they'll be aware of this. But for listeners, it should be pointed out that I've turned up to this podcast wearing my Spike Lee T shirt.

[Brett Goldstein]

It's really nice.

[Nish Kumar]

And you might be thinking, did you do that on purpose? No, I'm a 40 year old man who doesn't.

[Brett Goldstein]

Well, we can tell. It says on your, it says on your T shirt.

[Nish Kumar]

Now, I do believe that's a reference to 48 because of the oldest production company name.

[Brett Goldstein]

I thought it was your age,

[Nish Kumar]

Spike, you shouldn't have.

[Maureen]

Hello there, it's Brett Snape with Maureen here. I had a moment recently where I realised I do quite a lot online these days. Banking, shopping, watching telly, the whole lot. And I thought, Maureen, perhaps let's add a bit of protection to this situation. So I started using NordVPN and honestly, it just gives me peace of mind. It encrypts your online traffic, so what you're doing stays private. No prying eyes, no unnecessary snooping, just little old Maureen getting on with her day. They also have this dark web monitor that alerts you if your email shows up where it shouldn't. So you can act quickly and stay ahead of things. And it works across up to 10 devices, which is ideal because everything I own now connects to the Internet. It's one of those things you don't think about that much until you have it and then you're very glad you do have it.

[Brett Goldstein]

You know what I mean?

[Maureen]

To get the best discount off your NordVPN plan, go to NordVPN.com. brett our link will also give you four extra months on the two year plan. There's no risk with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee. The link is in the podcast episode description box. That's NordVPN. Thank you.

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[Brett Goldstein]

I got some questions for you for our films of the year and then we'll have to end with the top 10.

[Nish Kumar]

Bang. Tough one.

[Brett Goldstein]

Tough one. So what's the first film you saw in 2025?

[Nish Kumar]

So the first film I saw in 2025 I actually didn't see in 2025 because of the way that we're doing this podcast. We're having stuff. Hangover. So the first film I saw in 2025 was actually a preview screening of a film called the Assessment, which I liked very, very much. It's a science fiction film set in a kind of dystopian future where there's been some kind of unspecified crisis. That means in order to have children, you have to undergo a seven day assessment. And the couple in question is Himesh Patel and Elizabeth Olsen. And Alicia Vikander is coming in to do their assessment. And it is chilly, but also at its core, very emotional, cerebral science fiction. And the world building it does around these kind of unspecified incidents is really, really great. And the three central performances are fantastic. Like they're all so, so brilliant. And I think Elizabeth Olsen is, I mean, the first thing I ever saw her in was Martha, Marcy May Marlene.

[Brett Goldstein]

Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha May Marlene.

[Nish Kumar]

I'm really glad you went back to that because I could see you mouthing mother.

[Brett Goldstein]

Martha, Martha, Martha, Mother. I love that film. I genuinely love Martha, Martha, Martha Mather.

[Nish Kumar]

And I think her being in fewer Marvel films means that I think we're gonna get way more of these sort of really spicy, interesting performances. And she's great in it. Vikander is great. Vikander is sort of almost in ex machina mode.

[Brett Goldstein]

Great.

[Nish Kumar]

And I wouldn't give more away than that other than to say that people should go and see it. And I went to see it because I went.

[Brett Goldstein]

I wouldn't give more Away than that. But she is a robot.

[Nish Kumar]

Or is she? She is. No, she's not. And Hyvesh Patel is, you know.

[Brett Goldstein]

What a wonderful boy.

[Nish Kumar]

This is a sort of theme of this year's podcast, but I am obviously biased because I love him, but he's. Yeah, he's really great in it. Could I have lived a long life without seeing a scene where he was sucked off by the Scarlet Witch brat? Yes, I could have, but that's not available to me, that life.

[Brett Goldstein]

That's good.

[Nish Kumar]

Maybe the next time you reincarnate me, I could be reincarnated as someone who hasn't seen their friend get sucked off by the Scarlet Witch. If. Pass.

[Brett Goldstein]

If I could have a request. Wouldn't change anything else. Just that.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah. See the assessment. I think. I think it's really good.

[Brett Goldstein]

That's great.

[Nish Kumar]

What was the first film you saw?

[Brett Goldstein]

The first film I saw was Nosferatu.

[Nish Kumar]

Oh, Nosferatu. Have you ever heard my impression?

[Brett Goldstein]

Good.

[Nish Kumar]

I got fixated on how horny that vampire was. Because the thing is, before he turns up, there's like. He's this elemental terror. And then he turns up and he's like, oh, man, that girl is so hot.

[Brett Goldstein]

I would like to kiss that girl.

[Nish Kumar]

Oh, boy. I want to see her boobies really bad. She's got really nice boobies, man. Oh, man. And then everyone's like, do you want to sort of do anything else, Domino man? I just got to see the boobies and that girl. Oh, my God. And then right at the end, he's like, the sun's coming up. I'll hide that. The way I left thinking about that girl's boobies. If I had to have a choice between looking at the boobies and dying in a fire, I pick boobies.

[Brett Goldstein]

It's also the film I most relate to.

[Nish Kumar]

Did you enjoy it?

[Brett Goldstein]

I did. I liked it very much. I also would have possibly put it in my best opening to a film.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

Beginning really fucking scared me. Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

And I thought it was great. And I like the ending. And it was really well made. Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

You like the end?

[Brett Goldstein]

I did like the endings.

[Nish Kumar]

It was like, happy ending in every sense.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah. For everyone. It was a really like. Yeah, everyone gets what they need. Although she.

[Nish Kumar]

She does.

[Brett Goldstein]

She's dead.

[Nish Kumar]

She's dead.

[Brett Goldstein]

I forgot that bit. It's not happy for everyone, but he goes out on a high.

[Nish Kumar]

He goes out on a high. If anyone hasn't seen the movie and thinks that we're exaggerating in any way, we're not even vaguely.

[Brett Goldstein]

I Liked it.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah. I think Robert Eggers is a troubled individual, yes. But he makes very stylish and stylized movies. I would say that I probably enjoyed this one less than I enjoyed the Lighthouse, which I loved, and the Northman, which I thought was kind of mad and brilliant. But I will always. Whatever Robert Eggers has out, I'm definitely there. I'm there always.

[Brett Goldstein]

What's the film that scared you the Most, Brett? In 2025 UK releases.

[Nish Kumar]

Listen, do we need to. Do we need to talk about this question? Can we just not just move on? We all know, like, some years it's difficult. Some years it's really complicated. Some years there's a lot of films that scare you. And then some years those two fucking Australian weirdos make a fucking movie. It makes me shit my fucking pants.

[Brett Goldstein]

And.

[Nish Kumar]

And we don't need to discuss it any further. Yeah, Bring Her Back is.

[Brett Goldstein]

Bring Her Back is really scary.

[Nish Kumar]

I think it might be the scariest film I've ever seen.

[Brett Goldstein]

Listen, I've had those boys on this

[Nish Kumar]

podcast and first question should have been, what the fuck is wrong with you two cunts?

[Brett Goldstein]

Well, you think that, but also the film is so well made and such brilliant writing and it's so deep. They're just brilliant. And then you meet them and you're like, I don't understand.

[Nish Kumar]

We should say it's Danny and Michael Filippoor.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, we should.

[Nish Kumar]

Australian lads.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, they're so funny and I love them. I loved them so much. And they're like bouncing off the walls and they seem crazy and really fun. And then you watch that film and you're like, dear God, this is some heavy shit. It's so heavy.

[Nish Kumar]

It's also shot again to bring another movie. We'll talk about. It felt like it was shot like a Mike Lee film. Like, it felt like the technique. They made a very, very stylish film. Like, Talk to Me is very stylish. I love the way it was shot, this movie. It felt deliberately, like it was almost like a Mike Lee observational movie. And also I think. Cause Sally Hawkins plays the lead in it.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

It felt like they deliberately made it almost as naturalistic as possible, which just made it even more absolutely awful.

[Brett Goldstein]

I, maybe similar to Nosferatu, did find myself wanting the bad person to achieve their goal. And my only complaint, really, at the end is that she didn't get to finish what she's. I genuinely. I was like, well, I'm really invested in her journey.

[Nish Kumar]

I'm sorry, I completely forgot about this. It's all come Back to me because this was our correspondence.

[Brett Goldstein]

I really wanted her to finish the job that she's. Yeah, yeah. There's some morally questionable things going on on the way to the. Achieving her goal, but it's about a mother's grief. Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

And she's a grieving mother. She's lost a child.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

Trying to bring that child back.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

But then

[Brett Goldstein]

it does.

[Nish Kumar]

Some of her methods are questionable.

[Brett Goldstein]

It has my favorite line of the year.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

I'm going to drown you in the pool now, love,

[Nish Kumar]

Whatever that boy's fucking name is. That kid was creepy as a scary kid. Also, just in terms of the technical stuff.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, the technical stuff. Come on.

[Nish Kumar]

Like, design of it.

[Brett Goldstein]

Knife through his teeth. I don't know how he's doing it. Oh, God.

[Nish Kumar]

There's a scene where a character chews a knife, and the sound of it is one of the worst things I've ever seen in the cinema. I saw my friend after that and she said, was it good? And I was like, I honestly don't know if I can recommend it. It's brilliant. It's a brilliant film, but it's one of the scariest things I've ever seen. There's a knife chewing and kitchen countertop chewing.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah. It's very. I think they're fascinating, those two.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

It's really serious film. It's really, like, heavy about grief. Yes. And there's something about the video that she's watching that feels really unsafe because

[Nish Kumar]

the video's the first thing you see. And I. Sometimes it popped up on Sky Movies in the UK and we were going through it, and sometimes I'll put the start of a film on, and my partner, Amy Annette, will. If it's a horror movie, she'll be like, I'm not gonna watch this. And I said, I'm not even putting it on. I'm not even putting the start. Because the thing is, you don't even get the credits. You don't even get the opening credits because it starts by showing you some footage from a V, like VHS that she's found on the Internet. And within 10 seconds, I was like, that's the worst thing I've ever seen in the film. That's the opening scene. That's the worst thing I've ever seen in a film. And then by the end, you're like, that first two minutes, that was basically It's a Wonderful Life.

[Brett Goldstein]

I said it to them when they was on this podcast, but they're writing. It's a masterclass. When you introduce the main Characters. The scene that introduces them is a masterclass in exposition and character without sounding fake. It's funny. It's really. I would study that. I would make film schools study that.

[Nish Kumar]

Sally Hawkins is incredible. Incredible. Because you're never in any doubt that something is off about this woman from minute one, without her necessarily.

[Brett Goldstein]

You're gonna kiss him on the Mac. You should kiss him on the mouth. She's very good.

[Nish Kumar]

Oh, Papa. That's horrible.

[Brett Goldstein]

I would also like to give a little shout out to a film called Presence.

[Nish Kumar]

I haven't seen Presence.

[Brett Goldstein]

No one really talked about. Or if they did, I didn't hear them talk about it. And it was a Steven Soderbergh film

[Nish Kumar]

where I'd like to completely reframe that breath. Here's how little. No one's talked about it. I saw that movie. I saw that movie and I completely forgot. I watched it. It was really good.

[Brett Goldstein]

That's a bad sign.

[Nish Kumar]

I really liked that. It's really good, isn't it? It's really good. Yeah. I really.

[Brett Goldstein]

The premise is the camera is a ghost.

[Nish Kumar]

Yes.

[Brett Goldstein]

So you are watching the whole film from the point of view of a ghost that is in. And it's just set in one house. And it's very simple. And there's the cameras sort of following people around, and none of them can see it.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

But then the ending is really smart and emotional and kind of really got me. And I thought it was great.

[Nish Kumar]

I thought it was brilliant. And I don't know what the situation is that has led to this, but David Kep.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

Who wrote Jurassic park, adapted Jurassic park and has written loads of big movies.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

He's written two films, both directed by Soderbergh this year. So it was this. And Black Bag.

[Brett Goldstein]

And Black Bag.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah. And, yeah. I thought you can feel the, like, Soderbergh intellectual exercise at work. Like, you can see why he's made this, because I don't think he's done a movie that's like a straight horror movie like this. And also, you can feel the technical interest of horror and POV film.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

And so you can understand why he's sort of drawn to it. But I thought it was really good. Lucy Liu was great in it. I love seeing Lucy Liu in a movie. It was fantastic.

[Brett Goldstein]

It was really good. I liked it.

[Nish Kumar]

I'm glad you shouted that film out. I hope people go and see that, because I do think it's. And as for.

[Brett Goldstein]

It's a really satisfying ending.

[Nish Kumar]

As for Bring Her Back, those two fucking Australians need to go to therapy. They're from Australia. Go and sit in the sun. Look at a picture of Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie. That's you.

[Brett Goldstein]

They're not making stuff like this.

[Nish Kumar]

They're not making stuff like that.

[Brett Goldstein]

They've been in the sea. Get in the sea.

[Nish Kumar]

Get. Go for a swim. Put a shrimp on the barbie. Not a knife in a boy. Let's stick another knife in a boy.

[Brett Goldstein]

Right, here's a. Here's the part that, you know, you and me, a couple of tough guys, obviously probably struggled to find some answers to this. It's not like I've got a really long list. What's the film that made you cry the most in 2024?

[Nish Kumar]

Oh, man. Brett. You know, every year, this is the bit that goes for the longest because you just. Once we start listing films that made us cry, I mean, I will say that sentimental value kind of broke me. Sentimental value really broke me in a way that I was. I hadn't really expected.

[Brett Goldstein]

Cause you're a daughter who has issues with communicating with your father. He's trying to reach out to you.

[Nish Kumar]

I don't have either of those things. Yeah, it really. It really did something to me. There's a bit at the end where the two sisters are talking, and one of them says. The older one says, why didn't our childhood ruin you? And the young one says. And you know what she's gonna say. You know what she's gonna say. She says, there's one difference in the way that we grew up. I had you. And it just. And it was like. Yeah,

[Brett Goldstein]

it's such a good film. It's such a good film. I like. The beginning of that film's fucking amazing.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

The opening scene where she's got. She's not gonna go out on stage. Fucking amazing.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

And then there's so much going on in it, and I love that it's about film. And there's a bit in it that I think is so interesting that's like. You know what it reminded me of inside? Llewelyn Davis, when he does his.

[Nish Kumar]

One of my favorite films.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah. And you go, I think that was good. Yeah. And so when he is doing a rehearsal with Elle Fanning.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

And she's crying. She's sort of technically crying. And. And he's looking at her and you can't quite tell what's going on. But basically it's like, this isn't great. This isn't what? This isn't the feel of that. He's trying to get. And yet she is crying. You know, she's doing.

[Nish Kumar]

She's doing the thing.

[Brett Goldstein]

The thing.

[Nish Kumar]

She's doing the thing she's supposed to be doing.

[Brett Goldstein]

But the thing doesn't have the thing in it. And it's a really. It's so hard to capture that. I think it's such an interesting, like from an artistic point of view going like, here is someone technically doing the thing and it doesn't have soul.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

Which is what his daughter has.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah, it's great. Also I liked it because obviously it's great. Stellan Sarsgaard is sort of playing this like kind of Bergman y y so beloved Scandinavian director. And then Renata Rensvie. I mean, the run that she's on with Joachim Trie, who directed this and Worst Person in the World is like. It's so exciting, you know, when you see a director, actor collaboration that is clearly so fruitful for both of them. But the thing that I really liked about it was the idea that they didn't solve everything through art. In the end, they could do the art, they could make their film together, but only after they'd sorted out their real life stuff. And that I found very, very powerful. And I should also say the other thing that made me cry the most was Nickel Boys. Nickel Boys, I thought was just. I really hope people go and see that film. It's not an easy watch. It's based on a novel by Colson Whitehead. And the most horrible thing about it is that novel is based on real cases. There are real cases of these reform schools around the United States of America where they found the bodies of black kids that had been murdered and they find the remains of them. And the novel is a kind of fictional story that's set in that very real nightmare. And the whole thing is pov. It's another POV film. And I thought when I heard about it, because with Presence, it feels of a piece with the story. But when I heard that he was filming the Remmel, Ross was filming it like this, I thought, oh, that'll take us out of it. We'll be too distracted by the technique. But it worked completely on me. It worked. It was so immersive. And there is a scene where you're looking in your point of view and one of the kids aunts hugs the other one and it's a POV hug. And it's just sort of. It's so warm and so beautiful. And that film I thought was sort of devastating and beautiful. And it is frustrating because it feels like a film like that needs to win awards, to really command and convince people to go and see it and command the attention that it should.

[Brett Goldstein]

Well, it's got Luke Tenney in. If you need any excuse to see it. Yeah, that should help. If that's not pushed her over the edge to see it, I don't know what will.

[Nish Kumar]

The performances are just incredible and it's. It's just a really, really special bit of filmmaking. What made you cry most?

[Brett Goldstein]

Well, I'm going to give you two. One is Wicked for Good. I loved Wicked. Wicked for Good. I may have said this before. Cynthia Erivo, I truly believe is channeling God. Yeah, we talked about this.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Brett Goldstein]

So when they sing Wicked for Good and Ariana Grande, phenomenal. These are two powerhouse monster talent. When they sing Wicked for Good, which is a Boston anthem,

[Nish Kumar]

That's song one gone from my Good Will Hunting musical.

[Brett Goldstein]

And I, if I'm completely honest, I don't fully understand the story. And it was the same when I saw it on stage. Right. Act one, I was like, this is brilliant. Act two, I was like, hang on, what's going on? And I felt in the film, I also was slightly confused, plot wise.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

What. What was going on? And yet I was crying. Yeah, I wasn't crying because I was confused.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

I was crying because there was a lot of God channeling going on and it was so beautiful. And they're just fucking incredible. So that would be one.

[Nish Kumar]

What was the other one?

[Brett Goldstein]

But my biggest one, which I have talked about on a podcast before, was Come See Me in the Good Light.

[Nish Kumar]

Right.

[Brett Goldstein]

Which is. If you haven't heard this episode, listen to the episode that did with Tig Notaro. She produced it. It's about her friend Andrea Gibson, who is a poet and was dying of cancer and had a documentary crew kind of live with them and partner Megan for a year. I think it is. And it sounds horrendous, you know? Yeah, it sounds horrendous. I put off watching it for a long time because I thought, this does not, you know, I want to see this. Yeah. And it is genuinely like. I think it's fucking amazing, this film. And it is the most. And this is me repeating what I said on the podcast before. So forgive me, but it is the most, like, visceral version I have ever seen, I think, ever of this idea of life is beautiful. The small things are the thing.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

Like leave. Like in the film Soul, the end is it wasn't about the big dream. Leaves. Leaves are what matter. And in this film, they're just fucking Incredible. It's really funny. There's loads of really funny bits, but it's like. I don't know what the word is. Radical living. It's like having had this diagnosis, the joy in getting mail out of the mailbox, the joy in lying together and just. There's so many scenes where it's just the two of them lying in bed, laughing and talking bollocks and making each other laugh. And you're like, that's it. That's the best bit. That is the best bit of life. And all the rest doesn't really matter.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

And you see. You see it and you see. And because you're kind of living through them and it's this incredible love story. You're also seeing, like, you feel how joyful it is just to fucking step outside and look at the sun. Just to. I don't think I've ever seen it that intensely portrayed. Not portrayed, lived that. You're watching it and you're going, yeah, you're absolutely right. It's just this. This is it. And this sort of. There's so much joy in it. And their love story is so beautiful. It's a really, really, really beautiful thing. But I did take nine days to watch it because I was crying so much. I had to watch it in 10 minute. In 10 minute intervals.

[Nish Kumar]

You had to quibi it.

[Brett Goldstein]

I had to quibble. I turned it into a quibi, which is obviously not. I'm sure how it was in Zenith we watched, but I couldn't go back. But it's such. It's really special. And I. And I know it doesn't sound fun if you haven't seen it, but it is. You'll laugh a lot more than you think. And it's a real good one.

[Nish Kumar]

Oh, that's great. I should also briefly say that Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh can go fuck themselves. Okay, okay, I went. I paid to watch. We live in time, right? About a slightly ineffectual man in a relationship with a mouthy bisexual woman and they both live in South London. And then she dies, right? I paid to watch my worst fucking nightmare, Brett. It's shot so near my goddamn house.

[Brett Goldstein]

Really?

[Nish Kumar]

So. Absolutely. Garfield and Pugh take a fucking running jump. At one point I was literally like, why have you done this to me?

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[Brett Goldstein]

what's the film that wasn't massively acclaimed? But you loved it.

[Nish Kumar]

What was yours?

[Brett Goldstein]

Mine was Christie.

[Nish Kumar]

Christie. I didn't see Christie.

[Brett Goldstein]

It's great. I think it was genuinely great. Yeah, I went see Christie. I went with Ed Gamble.

[Nish Kumar]

Indeed.

[Brett Goldstein]

We went to a Q and A where everyone was there. I love the director, David Michod.

[Nish Kumar]

Michod, yeah. Yeah. Animal Kingdom, baby.

[Brett Goldstein]

Animal Kingdom. It's such a good film. I didn't know the story. I think that was. It's a great story and it's just a really good story. Really well told and really well acted by everyone. Sydney Sweeney's a fucking good actor. Your boy Ben Foster. Yeah, Ben Foster is unbelievable, innit? It's just like a good story, well told and moving and powerful. And I really liked it.

[Nish Kumar]

I like the fact that Ed and I both played the same part of man who goes with Brett to see movie, who then has to be escorted to the backstage area and then meets famous people.

[Brett Goldstein]

What was it? When did that happen?

[Nish Kumar]

In January. We went to see Is this thing on?

[Brett Goldstein]

Oh, yeah. Fuck.

[Nish Kumar]

We watched the movie. We can't talk about it. We can't talk about the movie. UK release in January.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, let's save it for next year.

[Nish Kumar]

We can't talk about it. But what we can talk about is the fact that we saw Laura Dern play her greatest role as woman. Who has heard of the comedian Ish Kumar?

[Brett Goldstein]

Let's be clear for both of us. We had been told, come backstage, they'd love to say hi. And then we got backstage and I was pretty sure no one. No one had asked us to come,

[Nish Kumar]

but Laura Dunn pretended she'd heard of my comedy and that's really all I needed.

[Brett Goldstein]

She's a very good actor.

[Nish Kumar]

She's an incredible actor. Now that I've seen it up close, I was already a fan. I'll give it. She's the greatest actor of our generation. The movie that I liked, there's two here. Listen. I liked Mission Impossible, okay? I know that people didn't. I know that everyone got annoyed. I know that people were upset that the villain was basically a Windows 95 screensaver. That's how they rendered AI.

[Brett Goldstein]

It was like the paperclip. It seems like you're trying to take over the world, but even the visuals of it.

[Nish Kumar]

Younger people will not be familiar with this. So I just have to reassure you that the way that the entity is expressed on screen in Mission Impossible looks like a screensaver from a computer from about 1996. But at the end of the day, it was still fun. I had a really good time. But the real film that I like that others didn't, as I have found to my cost conversationally, is Die, My Love, which I thought was extraordinary. I thought it was. I think Lynne Ramsey is incredible. I thought Robert Pattinson was great. Really, really nice. I think Jennifer Lawrence was astonishing.

[Brett Goldstein]

Sensational.

[Nish Kumar]

I thought it was a sensational performance.

[Maureen]

Sensational.

[Nish Kumar]

And I think that it's interesting. Obviously, we can't talk about if I had legs.

[Brett Goldstein]

No, we can't, but we can't.

[Nish Kumar]

We can't talk about it. We'd love to talk about it.

[Brett Goldstein]

It would be so convenient to be able to talk about these two films

[Nish Kumar]

together, to talk about motherhood as horror, to talk about the ways that the two movies express that idea. We can't talk about what we can say. Lynne Ramsey, I believe, shot everything in daylight and then color corrected at night to give the whole thing this kind of slightly. I apologize if I'm wrong, but I believe I've read that. But it makes the whole thing seem like a hallucination. It's a movie that I think is almost like Taxi Driver in that it situates you. If you ask what the location of that film is, you can say, oh, it's a cabin in the middle of nowhere. But really the location is in the mind of the protagonist. And you feel time sort of disappear suddenly in the way that she's experiencing it. It really feels like you're situated inside a mind that's fragmenting. And I thought it was a really extraordinary, brilliant film. I think Alice Birch and Edna Walsh did an amazing job with the adaptation of it. I love the fact that Scorsese read the book in his book club, I think, called Jennifer Lawrence and was like, you got to make this movie. I'm extremely thrilled to see Lynne Ramsay making movies.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yes.

[Nish Kumar]

More. Lynne Ramsey's good for all of us. I would really urge people to see Die, My Love. And if you're one of the many people that has told me how much you hated it, I think you might be wrong.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, you're right. It's really good.

[Nish Kumar]

It's really good.

[Brett Goldstein]

What is the film that means the most to you because of the experience you had seeing it?

[Nish Kumar]

Well, a couple of big ones. I mean, listen, I loved seeing a complete unknown. I loved seeing the Bob Dylan movie Because I went to see it with my friend Gabriel. We went to see it in the imax. Your friend of mine, James Acaster, who has actually come to see a bunch of music gigs with me and Gabriel, refused to come and watch A Complete Unknown with us because Gabriel and I are such Bob Dylan obsessives. And when I asked James why he wasn't coming, he said, because either I'll enjoy it and you'll both destroy me for enjoying it, or I won't enjoy it and you'll destroy me for not enjoying it, or I'll enjoy it, but you'll enjoy it in a way that's so esoteric that I end up hating it. I think he's right and he was 100% correct. Gabe and I went to see Bob Dylan Live at the Albert Hall a couple of months before we went to see Complete Unknown. And so, you know, it's like the perfect example of you go with somebody. I went to see the Bob Dylan movie with somebody who it means as much to as it meant to me that there was a movie about Bob Dylan.

[Brett Goldstein]

That's nice.

[Nish Kumar]

But the real answer, Brett, has to be all of you.

[Brett Goldstein]

Oh, come on.

[Nish Kumar]

For you and you. Yeah, it has to be, surely.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yes. That was a very. You know, it's hard to make films, they take ages. We've been trying to make that film for, like, eight years. So, yes, it was very nice to see that in a cinema.

[Nish Kumar]

It was so special.

[Brett Goldstein]

It was special.

[Nish Kumar]

It was special for me because I got to watch, like, a cut of it that.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, you saw it without any of

[Nish Kumar]

this, without the special effects. And it was great to see how you reworked bits of it, re edited bits of it, reshot a couple of bits of it, and what that looked like. The chemistry between you and Poots was amazing.

[Brett Goldstein]

She's amazing.

[Nish Kumar]

I will say, a heads up about the arse would have been helpful, but not for me, Brett, for the person sat next to me who was. Let's not be around the bush. Your sister. And I had the audacity to say to your sister, can't believe you didn't warn me about the butt. And she said, I can't believe you didn't warn me about the butt.

[Brett Goldstein]

I. When, yeah, your ass was out, you went to a screening. I believe what happened was you went to, like, a test screening when it was like, very early cut and my sister was there and Will Bridges, the director and co writer, was, like, there at the front. And afterwards there was, like, a little question, you know, how did you all enjoy it. Anything you didn't like. And apparently my sister said, I didn't like seeing my brother go down on someone. And Will was like, okay, we'll take that on board.

[Nish Kumar]

I don't quite know what we're supposed to do with that information.

[Brett Goldstein]

That feels. That feels quite specific to you. I don't know if he has any other siblings.

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[Nish Kumar]

We have been working on this movie for a long time.

[Brett Goldstein]

We have been working, but the concept

[Nish Kumar]

of it has been around for a while. And seeing it in the cinema must have been amazing. It must have been such a. Such a moment of satisfaction for you.

[Brett Goldstein]

It was really good.

[Nish Kumar]

And Will and Poots.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

I mean, I've never met her and I've just jumped straight to calling her Poots.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yes. I'm very proud of him. It was. And also it's like, I'm really proud of those two. I really mean it. Like, she's so incredible. She's one of the best actors I ever worked with. And Will, who is, you know, it was his debut.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah.

[Brett Goldstein]

And we'd spent so many years talking about it, and he really did an amazing job and he fought for everything we wanted. And that edit was really long and him and Vicky and I just was sort of very proud of everyone. Yeah. I really liked the film, but it was. Everyone did a really good job.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah. So it was very special.

[Brett Goldstein]

Thanks, Nish.

[Nish Kumar]

Watching it in the Curzon screen one where I've seen so many movies that we've talked about on this show. That's really special. That was really special for me.

[Brett Goldstein]

Thanks, Nish.

[Nish Kumar]

He's not comfortable, folks.

[Brett Goldstein]

Thanks, Nish.

[Nish Kumar]

Just for the listeners. Brett hadn't planned to talk about that, and I've now made him do it.

[Brett Goldstein]

What's the film you most relate to?

[Nish Kumar]

The film I most related to this year. This is a strange one because on the one hand, it presented me with something that I have no way of relating to, I. E. Being the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. But it also presented it in a way that I found incredibly relatable which is, how do you be a middle aged man? So a real pain, I thought was just wonderful.

[Brett Goldstein]

Great film. Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

Jesse Eisenberg, just such a brilliant script. So brilliantly made. And I really related to it because there's a certain age you get to where you think, how do I actually behave? And it felt like that film presented the two ways that men find themselves behaving. I think a lot of the time when they hit middle age, which is somebody who has no filter in Kieran Culkin's character, who just says whatever he wants, he's kind of almost unconstrained. And then Jesse Eisenberg's character, who almost has way too many filters and, like, cannot and has decided that if he can't express a single emotion, so he's going to ball all of it up. And I found it very relatable as I turn 40 to watch that movie and see. Thank you, Spike Lee. But it's. I found that very relatable. But that is the great thing about the one thing we talk about every single time. I know for a fact that we do. This is the Roger Ebert quote. The cinema is the great. The big empathy machine.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

And it was an amazing thing to feel that I related to those two characters so much. But at the same time, the film is also massively about being the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor. And, you know, they went to the death camp that Jesse Eisenberg actually had family in, and they go to Jesse Eisenberg's real grandmother's house. The site of what was the scene in the film is actually, I believe, his real grandmother's house. And so they, you know, that's something that I have no relationship with. And so it was fascinating to sort of empathize with people who've grown up around that and how difficult that is. Cause how do you relate to that trauma when it's unimaginable to you, but it's still a part of you and part of your family? So it's like, it was a great film where there was half of it that introduced me to a completely new kind of emotional state and life experience. But also I felt found very relatable. Also, it has one of the funniest bits in any film, which is delivered by Will Sharp, which bit where he's right at the end when he's saying bye to all of them. He gives Benjy, played by Ciaran Culkin, this, like, really long speech. And they've had this incredibly, like, fractious relationship throughout the whole thing. And then he, like talks about how Benji's, like, made him better at his job and, like, he's really appreciative. And then he just goes, bye, David, and just walks off. He just turns to Jesse Eisenberg and just says bye to him and walks away. It was. Yeah, it was great. I really liked it.

[Brett Goldstein]

Great answer.

[Nish Kumar]

What was yours?

[Brett Goldstein]

Well, can I have two? But they're in a similar one. No, they're not similar at all. One is Blue Moon.

[Nish Kumar]

Yes.

[Brett Goldstein]

And the other is a complete unknown. Now, a complete unknown was very relatable because we've all had a bad gig and there's a bit. And I was like. This is like when I was in the comedy reserve at the Edinburgh French Festival and I was trying to do my new bit about Little Miss Sunshine to a paying audience who did not want it. They did not. They wanted shorter, tight set jokes, observations about men and women. Yeah. And I was like, I'm trying something new, man.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah. Judas. Judas. So you be the Newport scene at the end. Because obviously, as a Dylan obsessive, there are obviously things that I was watching and I was thinking. But that's factually inaccurate. That's a compression event. I understand why they do that for biopics. I will say.

[Brett Goldstein]

This is why the genie didn't want to come in.

[Nish Kumar]

This is why the genie didn't.

[Brett Goldstein]

Well, obviously, this is obvious.

[Nish Kumar]

This is actually a conflation of two separate Newport performances. And actually, obviously, Judas famously was actually shouted at the Manchester Free Trade hall, wrongly repackaged for years as the Royal Albert hall performance. But I can tell you one thing, they got absolutely 100% correct. That is what it looks like when a gig's going askew. And I can tell you, as someone that's had a few askew gigs, yes, I've been there. You've been there. Do you remember what the gig.

[Brett Goldstein]

I do. I once turned up to the 99 Club to. I believe I was to go on last. And you were in the middle and I'd come from another gig and I walked. It was a Saturday night and I thought, just come from another gig. Happy, everything's great. Walk in. I hear screaming. Shouting. I hear from the stage. I am not getting off the. I am not leaving the fucking stage. There's a crowd of people complaining, someone's at the door. This shouldn't be happening. I was like, nish is on.

[Nish Kumar]

Is he a man from the audience unplugged my microphone.

[Brett Goldstein]

This is setting up the gig nicely. This should be fine.

[Nish Kumar]

I'm a Risky booking for the middle. But that's why. That's the view of. But for real, that is what it looks like when an audience is going to.

[Brett Goldstein]

I mean, obviously a smaller scale than myself, but I. I really was like, yeah, I know this feeling.

[Nish Kumar]

Bobby's had a bad gig.

[Brett Goldstein]

He's having a terrible.

[Nish Kumar]

Hang in there, Bobby. Don't let him break you.

[Brett Goldstein]

And then Blue Moon, I guess Blue Moon is a lovely. Really, really liked blue Moon. And it's a story of a composer who is. Has. I think it's a really interesting story about. Used to be a double actor. Now his partner has gone on to do something far more successful.

[Nish Kumar]

It's Lauren's heart, played by Ethan Hawke.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

Who was walked out before the end of the opening night of Oklahoma. So it's a fictionalized story, but the real events are. Lawrence Hart was in a songwriting partnership with Richard Rogers. That songwriting partnership is on hold. That's part of what the film gets into. And Richard Rogers has now, with Oscar Hammerstein written Oklahoma.

[Brett Goldstein]

Written an absolute banger.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah. And Lawrence Hart is kind of is totally devastated and, you know, did live a very sad life and died of sort of complications as a result of his alcoholism. But the movie is, you know, what I found fascinating about it? I couldn't tell whether you were gonna like this or not because it's about the creative industries, which we're both interested in. I thought it was beautifully written. It's Richard Linklater, who we both love. But also it is a play.

[Brett Goldstein]

It is.

[Nish Kumar]

That's what I thought was fascinating about it. I thought, I wonder if Brett's gonna hate this because the wards. We know Brett hates plays. He hates plays.

[Brett Goldstein]

He doesn't like plays.

[Nish Kumar]

He hates places.

[Brett Goldstein]

You wait till we talk about Hamnet next year. That poor woman.

[Nish Kumar]

One text I received from Brett after he sees Hamnet, we'll reprise this in about 18 months time. But the one text I received is, first her kid dies and now she has to watch a fucking play.

[Brett Goldstein]

This poor woman, hasn't she suffered enough?

[Nish Kumar]

Get into that next year. But it has inside Llewyn Davis.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, it's got that. It's got the fear that I guess it's you. You watch a film like that and you. You fear it. It's too relatable. The fear of. That he's in love with someone that isn't, you know, the. The fear of misreading people. The fear of. I also think what's interesting maybe about it is the thing of he's sort of critical of Oklahoma. But Oklahoma is this populist huge hit, and he's kind of like, down on it for that very reason. And then his partner, Andrew Scott, is kind of like, I'm proud of. Appealing to many people.

[Nish Kumar]

Yeah. But also, he knows it's gonna be a hit. Like, he doesn't think it's good.

[Brett Goldstein]

He doesn't think it's gonna be. He knows it's a hit.

[Nish Kumar]

He knows it's a hit. And he keeps referring to it dismissively as Oklahoma. Exclamation point.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Nish Kumar]

And he's got this obs with a young college student played by Margaret Qualley. But he's also had relationships with men and seems quite open about that. So his sexuality is kind of undetermined, but he has this very clearly very doomed obsession with her. But it's also kind of beautiful, the speech in it where he talks about. He talks appreciatively about Richard Rogers. That, I think is one of the most beautiful things. Cause he's talking about. Even amidst criticizing Oklahoma. Exclamation point. He talks about a melody line, and he says that's the hallmark of great art, levitation. And then he sings the line. I've got a beautiful feeling with the uplift. The melody uplifts at the end. And he says that's the moment you hear that when your spine glows and the whole apparatus of songwriting suddenly breaks free from gravity. And that made me ball. It made me absolutely ball. Because I think it's the most beautiful description of what any kind of great art does. The whole apparatus of songwriting, novel writing, filmmaking. It breaks free from gravity. And it's an incredible performance from Ethan Hawke.

[Brett Goldstein]

Yeah, he's great in it. And Andrew Scott's great. And Bobby Carnevavale. Fantastic.

[Nish Kumar]

We love Bobby Cannavale. We'd have loved to talk about his wife's film. If I had legs I could give.

[Brett Goldstein]

But we're gonna have to wait. It's great. Yeah. But I guess the relate. It's not necessarily that I relate to it, but it's the fear of relating to it. You know what I mean? The fear of. And the level of kind of. That you don't ever want to be that, but we're all very capable of it.

[Nish Kumar]

It was the other one I put down for this. The bitterness and the resentment I felt that I've expressed emotions like that. And you sort of. It is, in some ways a good warning of what bitterness can do. It is corrosive. And I've definitely related to almost every frame of that film. I thought it was really, really sort of extraordinary.

[Brett Goldstein]

Good movie.

[Nish Kumar]

Well done, Richard Movie. Well done. Well done, Dicky Lynx.

[Brett Goldstein]

Well done, Richie. You've done it again. So that was the end of part one. What a cliffhanger. Can you believe it? Part two is coming soon. Check out all the extras. The video, the secrets, everything. Ad free on [e-mail] forward/brettgoldstein and I hope you're all well. I hope everything is good. You can see all of shrinking now. Season three is finished. You can see all of it on Apple tv. You can see the film all of you also on Apple tv. And you can come see me live if you want to see my stand up all over the place. Just Google it. I don't know. I hope you are all well. I appreciate you listening, but that's it for now. In the meantime, have a lovely week. And please, now more than ever, be excellent to each other. Sam, You can't reason with the sun. Trust us, we've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's Omnishade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin. The sun is relentless, but so is her. Gear level up. Your [e-mail] to spend more time outside and less time slathering on aloe lotion. You're welcome, Columbia. Engineered for whatever

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