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Amanda Seyfried is our special guest this week. She’s starred in Mean Girls, The Housemaid and Mamma Mia!, but she’s never been a Mancunian... until now. She joins Simon alongside writer-director Mona Fastvold to talk about The Testament of Ann Lee, in which Seyfried stars as the titular leader of the Shakers. You might not have heard of her and the 18th century radical religious sect she founded—and we promise you’ve definitely never seen a musical about her. Seyfried talks about her struggle to crack a Manchester accent for the role, never mind all that ecstatic song and dance—and we hear from Fastvold about he old-school filmmaking techniques that helped her and co-writer husband Brady Corbet bring this unique story to the screen on shoestring budget.

Mark will review The Testament of Ann Lee next week, but we’ve got four more movie reviews for you in the meantime—it's a packed show! First, The Secret Agent, where paranoia and deception collide as an ex-academic gets caught up in South American political turmoil. Then there’s If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, a darkly comic tale of maternal burnout pushed to surreal extremes. We also have Wasteman—a gritty prison drama starring Rye Lane’s David Jonsson. And finally, Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die, a genre-bending evil-tech adventure starring Sam Rockwell.

Plus all the usual delights: the box office top 10, the unpredictable joy of the Laughter Lift, and your tip-top correspondence. Don’t miss it.

Timecodes

00:00:00 Show starts

00:10:09 The Secret Agent review

00:22:02 Box Office Top 10

00:39:24 Mona Fastvold and Amanda Seyfried interview

01:01:24 If I Had Legs I’d Kick You review

01:07:35 Laughter Lift

01:12:09 Wasteman review

01:19:13 Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die review

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Amanda Seyfried… as a Mancunian?