Jackass: I thought Jonny Knoxville was an a***

Summary

Kermode & Mayo’s Take

Episode: "Jackass: I Thought Johnny Knoxville Was an A***"
Release Date: June 25, 2026
Main Theme:
Essential film and TV reviews, listener correspondence, and a featured interview with Minions creator Pierre Coffin, plus a deep dive into the final Jackass film, festival previews, box office chatter, and more.

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Episode Overview

This episode finds Mark Kermode reporting in from Croatia, where he's attending the Pontelopo Film Festival, and Simon Mayo sweating out London’s heatwave. The episode covers a broad spectrum: in-depth film reviews, particularly "500 Miles," "A Private Life," and "Jackass: Best and Last"; chats about the cultural impact (and disappointment) of "Toy Story 5"; and a lively interview with the creator and voice of the Minions, Pierre Coffin.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Warm-Up: Festival Reports & Weather Woes

[03:11-07:13]

• Mark explains his presence in Croatia for the Pontelopo Film Festival, raving about its intimacy and focus on filmmakers (“It’s my idea of a film festival... small and compelling, packed and intimate, and everyone gets to spend time with each other.” [06:50])
• Mark laments losing his luggage but wisely brought his podcasting equipment as a carry-on ([05:00-05:12])

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2. Reviews of the Week

A. 500 Miles

[13:53-19:17]

• Summary: An adaptation of a YA novel about two Sheffield brothers escaping to rural Ireland to see their grandfather after their parents' split, starring Bill Nighy and Maisie Williams.
• Key Points:
  • Mark admires the children’s performances and Irish locations but finds a pivotal plot twist tonally jarring (“It makes it sort of too traumatic for the younger viewers and too just trite for the older viewers.” [18:05])
  • Some gentle mockery of ukuleles and musical choices.
• Quote:
  • “There were moments in it when I was swept along...but it’s got a tonal shift that it doesn’t know how to manage.” — Mark Kermode [18:57]

B. Box Office Top 10 & Toy Story 5 Discourse

[24:29-33:45]

• Simon and Mark read out (scathing) listener reviews of Toy Story 5; widespread disappointment is voiced, with many feeling the series has lost its magic and emotional core.
• Notable Quotes:
  • “‘Can we go home and watch the proper one now?’” – Jim’s Child #3 [32:09]
  • “The plot is all over the place…the emotional bits are button pushing.” – Mark Kermode [32:41]
• Listeners debate deeper themes—nostalgia, tech vs. toys, millennial perspectives—but Mark ultimately feels the sequel “isn’t adding anything” and laments its lack of subtext compared to predecessors [29:13].

C. A Private Life

[52:26-59:26]

• Summary: A French satirical mystery/psychodrama starring a French-speaking Jodie Foster as a psychiatrist embroiled in her patient’s suicide.
• Key Points:
  • Mark finds it “very entertaining,” loves the performances (particularly Foster), and admires its blend of satire, mystery, and dysfunctional romance.
  • A critique of comedies crossing language/cultural boundaries and thoughts on Jodie Foster’s versatile career.
• Quotes:
  • “Jodie Foster. Does Jodie Foster do bad things ever? Can you remember the last time she was actually bad in a film?” — Mark Kermode [57:08]
  • “The whole thing is predicated on the idea that all of this might be nothing…physician heal thyself.” — Mark Kermode [58:12]

D. Jackass: Best and Last

[66:46-77:14]

• Summary: Review of the (alleged) last Jackass film—a greatest hits/farewell blend of new and classic stunts, featuring original cast and new faces, with “spectacular” opening and closing sequences by Spike Jonze.
• Analysis:
  • Mark finds much of it “profoundly stupid,” but not without merit: “I think of all the Jackass ones, this is the one that I enjoyed the most.” [75:14]
  • Finds the relentless, diverse male nudity oddly refreshing compared to the rest of mainstream cinema.
  • Underlines themes of male friendship/camaraderie, comparing it tongue-in-cheek to "Project Hail Mary" and noting the “weird thing about blokes.”
• Memorable Exchange:
  • “Can men be friends? Yes, but only if you allow one of them to be lowered onto the face of another one with a winch.” – Mark Kermode [75:50]
  • Simon: “These are the people I have avoided my entire life.” [76:12]

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3. Feature Interview: Pierre Coffin (Minions Creator)

[34:53-49:24]

• Background: Coffin on making "Minions and Monsters," reluctant at first until pitched the idea of Minions making a monster movie in Hollywood’s golden age.
• Themes & Process:
  • Friendship between two minions, Henry (practical) and James (creative)
  • Making comedy for adults and kids—“This thing is more of a timepiece, so children maybe will not get that aspect, but I tried staying faithful to what makes the Minions, Minions.” – Pierre Coffin [37:48]
  • Writing in ‘Minionese’ and then converting to English for storyboard and production clarity.
  • Adjusting “Minionese” worldwide to avoid accidental swearing/sensitive words.
• Quotes:
  • “At the core of this movie is just friendship between two minions…that’s the lot of anyone being creative, I think.” – Pierre Coffin [39:27]
  • “It’s a multi step process…you get what everyone is saying with the animation.” [41:50]
  • On the gelatinous orange monster: “No, never. You’re the first one to bring it up.” (when Simon alludes to a Trumpian resemblance) [46:22]
• Mark’s Praise:
  • “It is probably the most cine-literate film you’ll see this year.” [51:40]

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4. Listener Correspondence & Miscellany

A. Animal Noises, Legends, and Film References

[12:22-13:40]

• Banshee legends, “Banshees of Inisherin” discussed; Mark likens odd cries and peacock imitations to “Exorcist-adjacent” territory.

B. Viewing Habits and Cinema Etiquette

[62:15-64:44]

• Letter from James Heron: Japanese cinema audiences are lauded for cleanliness and respect—staying silent and seated through credits.
• Anecdote: Simon and Mark match Negroni orders [65:57-66:34].

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5. Box Office Highlights

[24:29-26:04]

• Extended top ten rundown, chatting listener opinions (notably for “Evie Blaina”/“Fe a Blaina” and “Night and Day”).
• “Backrooms” praised as an accessible horror hit.

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6. Standout Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On reviewing comedies cross-culturally:

  • “French comedies that aren't funny and German comedies that aren't funny because you're not French or you're not German.” – Mark Kermode [58:30]

• Describing "Jackass":

  • “There is frequent comic genital and buttock nudity…There is crude humor throughout, including the sight of people defecating, vomiting and being covered in feces.” – BBFC summary, read by Mark Kermode [74:09]

• On Toy Story 5:

  • “Can we go home and watch the proper one now?” – Child 3 of a listener family [32:09]

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7. Recommendations & Film of the Week

[81:00]

• Mark’s Film of the Week: A Private Life.
• Next week: reviews on "Supergirl" and the new "Minions and Monsters" film.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Pontelopo Film Festival report: [03:11-07:13]
• 500 Miles Review: [13:53-19:17]
• Toy Story 5 Listener Backlash & Analysis: [26:26-33:45]
• Pierre Coffin Interview: [34:53-49:24]
• A Private Life Review: [52:26-59:26]
• Jackass: Best and Last Review: [66:46-77:14]

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Notable Quotes with Attribution

• On Toy Story 5:

  • “The plot is all over the place. The emotional bits are button pushing… Can we go home and watch the proper one?”
    — Mark Kermode & Listener Jim’s Child 3 [32:09, 32:41]

• Describing "Jackass":

  • “Can men be friends? Yes, but only if you allow one of them to be lowered onto the face of the other one with a winch.” – Mark Kermode [75:50]

• On Minions’ comprehension:

  • “The original scripts were written in Minionese and nobody else could understand them, so now they write them in English so that other people can understand.” – Mark Kermode [50:43]

• On Jodie Foster:

  • “Jodie Foster. Does Jodie Foster do bad things ever?” – Mark Kermode [57:08]

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Conclusion & Tone

In their trademark playful, whip-smart banter, Kermode and Mayo serve up a full course of movie criticism—zesty, opinionated, with deep affection for cinema and the minutiae of audience experience. Mark is especially animated (and divided) in his reviews this week, while Simon supplies warmth, skepticism, and a wry running commentary. Listener mail is lively, with both hosts reveling in readers’ wit and experiencing cathartic validation from the Toy Story backlash.

Episode’s Takeaway:
A packed and satisfying episode—balancing serious criticism, film festival insights, an illuminating interview with Pierre Coffin, and the inevitable bodily fluids and chaos of Jackass—woven together with the hosts’ enduring chemistry.

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Transcript

[Simon Mayo]

Hello?

[Mark Kermode]

Hello, Simon Mayo. It's Mark Kermode.

[Simon Mayo]

Password.

[Mark Kermode]

Sorry?

[Simon Mayo]

State the password.

[Mark Kermode]

What password?

[Simon Mayo]

Exactly what an imposter would say.

[Mark Kermode]

Simon, it's Mark. We. We host a podcast together.

[Simon Mayo]

Public information.

[Mark Kermode]

No. You've been watching Mission Impossible again, haven't you?

[Simon Mayo]

Maybe.

[Pierre Coffin]

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[Mark Kermode]

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[Simon Mayo]

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[Mark Kermode]

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[Mark Kermode]

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[Simon Mayo]

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[Mark Kermode]

Hello, Simon Mayo.

[Simon Mayo]

Hello Mark.

[Mark Kermode]

I see your lovely new bookshelves haven't buckled yet. There's a particularly weighty and wise looking one by name Kermode on there too.

[Simon Mayo]

True, but getting them up nearly buckled me. Even giving up and hiring someone was a full time job.

[Mark Kermode]

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[Simon Mayo]

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[Mark Kermode]

That's taskrabbit.co.uk, code take terms and conditions apply.

[Simon Mayo]

Before we begin, a quick reminder that you can become a Vanguardista and get an extra episode every Thursday, including bonus

[Mark Kermode]

reviews, extra viewing suggestions, viewing recommendations at home and in cinemas, plus your film

[Simon Mayo]

and non film questions answered as best we can in questions you can get

[Mark Kermode]

all that extra stuff via Apple podcasts or head to extratakes.com for non fruit related devices.

[Simon Mayo]

There's never been a better time to become a Vanguardista. Free offer now available wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're already a Vanguardista, we salute you. So there was I slightly concerned that the, that the fan that I've got running in this small bedroom was going to be all noisy and would get in, in the way of people's enjoyment. And then I see that you have air conditioning.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay, well, to be clear about this, Simon, I don't have air conditioning because as you know, I live in an old chapel in Cornwall. But I'm not there. I'm in Croatia because I'm. It's the same as last year. It's the Pontelopo Film Festival. So I'm in a hotel room which has got the most delicious air conditioning. And also outside, the temperature is not what it is in London, which I've just looked on the app and it says that London is basically on fire.

[Simon Mayo]

Yeah, well, that's not quite, it's not quite right, but it's certainly, it's certainly tropical. When are you back?

[Mark Kermode]

Back on Monday. Back on Monday for, you know, for screenings. First thing, 10 o' clock Monday morning.

[Simon Mayo]

My guess is when you land, it's still going to be pretty, pretty steamy because the thing is the, the nights are very hot and the days are pushing 40, so it ain't no fun. And when we, you know, the, the heat wave of 76, which people talk, and I do remember the heat wave of 1976, but I remember it only as a wonderful thing, you know, because it was just like a summer that went on forever. And now, because we know and understand more, it just feels scary, that's all.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah, I know, I know. If only there was some way of explaining it in terms of global change. I mean, is that. I don't know.

[Simon Mayo]

Anyway, I suppose Croatia is a great place to follow the World cup because as you know, Croatia in England's group. So what, what do you make of the, the World cup so far from Croatia?

[Mark Kermode]

Well, as you know, I'm not watching any of it.

[Simon Mayo]

You're in Croatia, where they, they love their football in Croatia.

[Mark Kermode]

I only got here. Look, I only got here last night. Right. Okay. I arrived at one o' clock and they lost my luggage. So. So so far that's been the thing that I've been, been focusing on. Can I tell you about the film festival because it's really exciting.

[Simon Mayo]

What have they Lost then?

[Mark Kermode]

Well, my. Well, the bag with all the clothes. I course I carried with me all the recording equipment because having had. Having been in a lost luggage situation before, I know to take with me all the recording equipment.

[Simon Mayo]

But all your pants are in your luggage.

[Mark Kermode]

Please don't put that image into any of the listeners minds.

[Simon Mayo]

Well, just saying they're thinking about it. Anyway, by the way, my door is open, as you can actually, you can see that the door is open because it has to be. So if it may well be that child 3 who's moved back in because it's cooler here than his flat and the good lady ceramicist may well appear at some stage as well, thinking, why have you got your door open?

[Mark Kermode]

Well, it can't. It can't. It can't be cooler. Well, I mean, the upstairs room in your house is the hottest place I've ever been in my life. Yes.

[Simon Mayo]

And you stayed there on the. On the UK's hottest day a few years ago, which was 40 something. You walked from the tube wearing exactly the same clothes and you slept fine as I recall, so.

[Mark Kermode]

No, it was fine. It's because I was always felt very calm. Anyway, thank you for asking what I'm doing here at the festival. I'm doing a thing about, you know, the role of the critic.

[Simon Mayo]

Yes.

[Mark Kermode]

And talking to filmmakers. There's a whole. There's a whole brilliant music thread here that Susanna Perry is running. They're doing this thing about Morricone's music and they've got the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra performing the music of Anya Marconi. That's on Sunday night, which is going to be brilliant. And what is the point of a critic? I don't really know. I think to sort of, you know, to sort of swan to turn up at festivals and say hello, you know. How interesting. Let me talk to you about some films. And now let's have some food. Got screening of One Love with the director Ronaldo Marcus Green. Anyway, it's all going to be great. It's going to be fabulous and I'm sure everybody else will be talking about football, but not me.

[Simon Mayo]

Are you going to be on stage?

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah, well, I mean, I mean on stage it's like it's in rooms and you sit around with other. It's a very. It's a very intimate film festival. It's very much for filmmakers and, you know, to discuss filmmaking and have this practical workshops and all that sort of stuff. It's great. It's really good. It's my idea of a film festival because it's, you know, it's very small and compelling, packed and intimate, and everyone gets to spend time with each other.

[Simon Mayo]

When we finish talking, I'm. I've just decided I'm going to go and stay in your chapel because.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay.

[Simon Mayo]

The hottest it's Getting today is 24, and so I think that would be quite a nice place to be. So.

[Mark Kermode]

But in Cornwall, have you left the.

[Simon Mayo]

Yeah.

[Mark Kermode]

In.

[Simon Mayo]

In your particular part. Okay, so have you left the keys under the doormat like normal?

[Mark Kermode]

It's. It's in the. It's in the key safe. And you know that. You know the combination.

[Pierre Coffin]

That's right.

[Simon Mayo]

30127. I think that's the one.

[Mark Kermode]

Like that. Yeah.

[Simon Mayo]

Okay, that's good. So I'll be in there along with everybody else. What are you reviewing later when you get to. Do, you know, when we work out what the role of the critic is? What are you going to criticize?

[Mark Kermode]

I'm going critique. I'm going to be reviewing 500 miles, which is an adaptation of a Y novel, A Private Life, which is a French language film starring Jodie Foster, who has that annoying ability to be brilliant in more than one language. And. And I know you've been waiting for this, jackass. Best and last. Now, I should say that Supergirl opens this Friday, but they didn't screen Supergirl until as late as possible, which was last night, Tuesday night, at which point I was in the air. So we will review Supergirl next week and we will reserve judgment as to why it is that they held back screenings of Supergirl until the last minute.

[Simon Mayo]

Our special guest is Pierre Coffin, creator of the Minions, and the writer and the director of the latest in the franchise, Minions and Monsters. Exactly. A conversation with Pierre Coffin. On the way.

[Mark Kermode]

And in take two, the last Viking with. Now give me a correct pronunciation on Mads Mikkelsen. You always say it better than I do.

[Simon Mayo]

Mads Migelson.

[Mark Kermode]

Mads Migelson and How to Live on Earth, which is a documentary presented narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, who doesn't get to say the word Penguin.

[Simon Mayo]

Oh, okay. That's a shame, really.

[Pierre Coffin]

So.

[Simon Mayo]

And just. You probably know all this anyway, but you can get Take two ad free by heading to our Patreon page. And it's the last week of our frankly scandalous and unapproved 90% off promotion, which runs until 23:59 hours next Tuesday. Just use the code June90SISTEROFJOE at checkout and acquire the ability to watch the production team read out the most insane Comments about us from the YouTube channel. Plus loads more discussion of film and non film stuff. Why would you not?

[Mark Kermode]

We should also point out that immediately after this we are doing a live ultra, which will have. Which will have happened by the time you're listening to this. But we haven't done it yet.

[Simon Mayo]

Yes. In which case Brother Jim, our monk will have emailed in about a few things and then we'll take it from there. Now as an email from Judith, and there's a. There's a typo here and unless I'm being really dumb and I'll blame it on the heat, I'm not quite sure what she means. Anyway, Judy says, Dear street cat, Bob and Mabel the Hawk. Many thanks to the discombobulators on the team for their reverse peacock which we played last week, has elicited nothing more than mild irritation. Okay, Millie the tabby, who is mildly irritated by everything. And moderate puzzlement from Kip the Graham white loaf who meets the world in a permanent state of moderate puzzlement. Loaf.

[Mark Kermode]

Loaf.

[Simon Mayo]

Kip the gray and white. Could that be soul? And it's a typo.

[Mark Kermode]

Oh, what?

[Simon Mayo]

And I looked at a loaf, only, I mean, obviously it's a loaf of bread, but I. Sloth.

[Mark Kermode]

Sloth.

[Simon Mayo]

What is it? Kip is the gray and white.

[Mark Kermode]

What?

[Simon Mayo]

It can't be a loaf.

[Mark Kermode]

So Simon Poole has written it's the name for a cat pose where they tuck their paws underneath. So a gray and white cat. So they look a little. They look like a little loaf, apparently.

[Simon Mayo]

Okay. New to me anyway. Thank you, Judith. Who says. Longtime listener, including Mark's Audiobooks. Fourth in the under. Just Mark's Audiobooks. Fourth in the Under 13's Backstroke at the Parramatta High School Swimming Carnival, 1977. Vanguard Easter, who can't find where to put the code to get the Patreon discount and one of two pins on the map. Now, I would say Launceston, Tasmania on the Iwitter app, but apparently because they're foreign, they say Launceston. Oh, Launceston. But if. But obviously, if you have any knowledge of British geography, you know it's Lawnstone.

[Mark Kermode]

Yes. Yeah.

[Simon Mayo]

No, in Tasmania, it's Launceston.

[Mark Kermode]

Launceston instantly. Can I just say, don't be annoyed about her only listening to my audiobook. She would listen to your audiobooks if you read them. But you don't.

[Simon Mayo]

No. Well, it's because I'm not an actor.

[Mark Kermode]

No, I know, but that's fine. So it's not. There wasn't any snub involved in that

[Simon Mayo]

that it might not be intended, but it was certainly taken okay. As such. Evan, dear. Dancing at the disco, bumper to bumper. Wait a minute. Where's my missing Rembrandt? And he's not even the best Jared in the movie. Greetings from Dublin, Ireland. Thank you for helping us out there.

[Mark Kermode]

In case you were thinking it somewhere

[Simon Mayo]

else, on the recent thread of animals sounding like infants in distress.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah.

[Simon Mayo]

Simon mentioned the cry of a fox sounding like a baby. Well, in Ireland, there's the Banshee, a female spirit who acts as the omen of death. Legend had it that if you heard the cry of the banshee across the fields, this was a harbinger of the fatal demise of your nearest and dearest. In reality, it was a fox. How is this film Adjacent? Well, there's the Banshees of Inisherin. Of course, the fox's cry of Inisherin doesn't really have the same ring to it, but the banshee also features at the end of Darby o' Gill and the Little People, which scared the proverbial out of me as a kid. Have you heard of Darby o' Gill and the Little People?

[Mark Kermode]

I have, yes. I don't. I'm just trying to remember what. What the cry sounds like, though. And in Banshees of Inisherin, there is a character, isn't there? There's a character who appears to be the banshee, the harbinger of death.

[Simon Mayo]

Well, it's a fox. Anyway, Evan says, how is this Exorcist adjacent? I'm not sure. I'll leave that one to Mark. It probably isn't.

[Mark Kermode]

Well, any kind of weird cry or voice thing is obviously Exorcist adjacent because so much of that is to do with the weird voice of Mercedes McCambridge. I bet you Mercedes McCambridge could have done a brilliant impression of a peacock.

[Simon Mayo]

And probably the peacock backwards as well.

[Mark Kermode]

Exactly. In fact, a possessed peacock.

[Simon Mayo]

Yes. And a tortured fox and all of those. Okay, so it's correspondencecodemeyor.com that is our email for you to participate in this charade. What else do we have? Oh, yes. Let's do a movie.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah. 500 miles, which is a bittersweet, tragicomic adaptation of what I think it must be a young adult novel by Mark Lowry. The novel was entitled Charlie and me 421 miles from. From home. And here the 421 miles is rounded up to a kind of Proclaimers Friendly 500 miles Script by Malcolm Campbell, directed by Morgan Matthews. He's got a background in documentaries, award winning documentaries. Feature credits include X plus Y, Brilliant Young Mind and Railway Children Return. So on the poster, big face, Bill Nighy. So Bill Nighy is this Westfaland grandfather whose Sheffield based grandchildren, Finn Roman Griffith Davis and Charlie Dexter Sol Ansell run away from home after hearing that their parents played rather well, I think by Claire Dunn and Michael Satcher are splitting up, risking splitting them up. And they have run away to go to see their grandfather in rural Ireland, which will involve a long trip. We learn through the voiceover that Charlie was born prematurely, has health issues and Finn has always felt fiercely protective of him. And this is putting a great weight on Finn. And it's his idea to run away in order to prevent them being split up. So the, the film flits backwards and forth in time from the present day in which they're doing this journey, this 500 miles to memories of the past, being in Dingle, having a great time with their grandfather, everything being happy. But somewhere in between the grandfather has done something terrible. We don't know what the terrible thing is, but we know that it means that the boys are no longer allowed to speak to him. So basically it's a kind of time traveling ya coming of age road and water movie in which the methods of transport will, will involve trains and boats and inevitably horses. And you know that it's an emotional journey and that the miles travel are psychological miles rather than just physical. And of course the destination of all of this will have to be some kind of form of family reconciliation. En route, Finn meets up with a ukulele brandishing busker played by Maisie Williams. Now I like Maisie Williams a lot, but I have to say it, it is a hard role not to be toe curling in. We first meet her on a train with the ukulele murdering the passenger and then later on she takes a very. For clarification, she's not, no, not murdering a passenger.

[Simon Mayo]

Train.

[Mark Kermode]

I am the passenger. Yes, exactly. So not murdering a passenger, but murdering the passenger, which is of course a crucial plot difference. And then later on she takes an enthusiastic swing at Road to Nowhere. And I have to say it's funny because she says, yes, I've been playing the ukulele all my life. And you think it's funny because you sound like you've been playing it five minutes. And then elsewhere there's this kind of very tinkly piano score with strings coming in to underscore tragedy. And there is a lot of kind of fairly straightforward fiddle de dee music choices. And for the most part, it's kind of amiably morkish, sort of, you know, family adventure with darkness fare. But at the heart of it is this thing about what is the thing that happened. And when we get to the thing that happened, it turns out to be the film's biggest problem because it's. It's a sort of. It's a plot wild card which. Which in order. Which I have to be honest, really doesn't work for me and provides the biggest tonal challenge. And the reason it provides a big tonal challenge is that essentially I think that what happens is it's. It. It makes it sort of too traumatic for the younger viewers and too just trite for the older viewers. So it's like there is a film going on that's sort of derailed by the ambition of what. Of what the revelation needs to be. That aside, the location work is. I mean, obviously the locations look absolutely fantastic. It's a sort of. It's a somewhat cozy vision of. I mean, you remember we were talking before about it's impossible to have Irish pubs that you go into in which there isn't somebody standing at the bar and immediately somebody else starts playing and everybody's playing music. Yeah, there is a little bit of that and there's some magical dolphins and, you know, that I'm not entirely happy with either, I think.

[Simon Mayo]

Tricks.

[Mark Kermode]

No, no, no. It's just. It's just an appearance of aquatic life that's. That's. That kind of becomes symbolic of, you know, of. Of the possibility of future redemption. So I think the problem is that it's tonally trying to balance two different things. One of them is sort of, you know, actually well played sentimentality, and the other is something deeper, something darker, which I think, which may. May work in the source novel, which I haven't read. I think it doesn't work on film. I think in the end it kind of. It makes it fall apart. But there are some nice performances and. And to my, you know, to my sort of slightly jaded sensibility, there were moments in it when I was swept along by. I mean, particularly the young kids. They're great. I mean, they. They're really good and I really like being in their company. I just think it's got a tonal shift that it doesn't. It doesn't know how to manage and doesn't.

[Simon Mayo]

Okay. Correspondencecodermay.com if you see that and want to take issue with Mark or just agree with him.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah. Or disagree.

[Simon Mayo]

Yeah, yeah. Jobs and email take issue exam still to come after the break, Mark is talking about Jackass Best and Last and a private life. And our special guest is Pierre Coffin, the inventor of the Minions button.

[Mark Kermode]

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[Pierre Coffin]

known as the Poet stalked Ruth Findlay.

[Mark Kermode]

He sent her letters, gifts, and poems. The Wichita police put everything they had into Ruth's case, but got nowhere.

[Pierre Coffin]

The Poet was always two steps in front of us, and we just didn't know why.

[Mark Kermode]

And the city was already living in fear under the watch of another monster who called himself btk. And he also had a thing for poetry.

[Pierre Coffin]

Could we really have two different people?

[Simon Mayo]

But no one could have guessed how this would end.

[Mark Kermode]

That's one of those Hitchcock endings that

[Simon Mayo]

we did not expect from Sony Music

[Mark Kermode]

Entertainment and New Metric Media. This is the Poet.

[Simon Mayo]

I'm Rachel Brown.

[Mark Kermode]

Coming July 1st to the Binge search for the Poet. Wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today, subscribers to the Binge can

[Pierre Coffin]

listen to all episodes all at once.

[Mark Kermode]

Ad free.

[Simon Mayo]

Righty ho. Box office top 10.

[Mark Kermode]

Hang on. Before you do that, can I just say that in. In the very quick, what would have been an ad break for anyone who's hydration break? Yeah, yeah. Child three made an appearance and I have to say, child three, it's like the old Morgan wise joke. Open the fridge, light goes on. He'll do five minutes. Never knowingly undersold.

[Simon Mayo]

Yeah. No, also he'll only do 10. Now 5 is. He doesn't do 5. 10. He'll do it that 5. No, I don't think so. That's for the up and coming. Right at number Throuble T12.

[Mark Kermode]

Yes.

[Simon Mayo]

Right. This is Gareth in Birkenhead. After listening to Mark's review of Evio Blainey. Did we settle on that?

[Mark Kermode]

Well, what we said was it is pronounced different ways depending on where you're from. I had the director and star on the MK3D show at the BFI and they said, it really depends whether you're from there or from somewhere else. I said, well, how would I say it? And they said, well, you should probably say Fe a Blaina like that. And I said, well, I can't do that and sound convincing. They said, no. Well, just in that case, just you know, just take a punt fio Blaine.

[Simon Mayo]

Then I had to search it out, even though that meant finding a place to see it during a business trip. And I saw it at home in Manchester on Monday. That's as in home capital, not at his home. At the end I first thought, is that it? But it stayed with me. So much so that when I woke up at half past four in the morning, it suddenly clicked. The opening felt overwhelming, almost like an assault on the senses. And the whole film is a roller coaster. The lead chapeau to Lisa Gwen Gwentian is brilliantly conflicted, a real Jekyll and Hyde. You're constantly torn between empathy and frustration as Evie stumbles through situations many of her own making and somehow finds a conclusion. It also felt personal. My grandfather left Tanagrishi in the 1920s for Liverpool rather than face the slate mines, the kind of difficult choice people there still face. Evie feels like part of that same story. The music and shifting cinematography added to real depth. A wonderful film. Down with the down stuff and up with the uppity stuff, but it just. Oh, and thanks for blah, blah, blah. Keep a good work from Gareth. So Gareth, thank you very much indeed for Blaine, but it's not, it's not in the chart as far as.

[Mark Kermode]

No, but I'm. I'm really glad you sought it out. I'm really glad you saw it because I think it is. I think it is a remarkable film. I think it is one of the films of the year. That central performance by Lisa and she was. She explained to me that it's Gwenlien like that, which I can't do easily. But Lisa, Gwen Clean, she is fantastic. I mean it's based on a. On a one woman play and although obviously there's an ensemble cast in the film, she really carries it and she is amazing in that role.

[Simon Mayo]

So the rest of the chart we'll zip on through to number one, which is what most of the correspondence is. Then there'll be more in the overflow car park and take to. Anyway, number 12 is Virginia Wolf's Night and Day.

[Mark Kermode]

Check out our interview with Tim Spall from last week who was in very fine form was also on his boat which was made the. Made everything very exciting. I mean I think Night and Day is really good. I think it works really well. It's. It's called Virginia Woolf's Night and Day. Although. Although it departs very much from the text and goes off in its own ways. But I thought. I think it's really well directed by Tina Gravi and yeah, I encourage people to seek it out. It's a small release but well worth checking out.

[Simon Mayo]

At number 10 is the Devil Wears

[Mark Kermode]

Prada 2, week 8 in the chart. So this is probably the last time in the top 10.

[Simon Mayo]

UK number nine is cocktail two.

[Mark Kermode]

So this wasn't press screen. This opened last week. This is an Indian Hindi language romantic comedy drama. If anyone's seen it, send us a review.

[Simon Mayo]

Eight here, seven over there. The Baby Yoda film.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah. I mean, what else is there to say other than that your child one, who's a huge fan, quite liked it but thought it was TV episode strung together.

[Simon Mayo]

UK number seven. Number 10 in America is Michael, apparently

[Mark Kermode]

now the most financially successful or box office successful music biopic, pop music biopic of evs, which it just, just goes to show it is, it's, it's a bulletproof movie. You know, it's not a very good movie, it's a very functional movie, but it's has a gaping hole at the heart of it. But it has been hugely successful.

[Simon Mayo]

Masters of the Universe is six here and six over there.

[Mark Kermode]

Right. Shiny, shiny, colorful, not much substance, but entertaining. Number five is Backrooms, which has done terrifically well. I mean, I really liked it. You don't need to know anything about the web series beforehand. A couple of people have said to me, do I need to have any of. No, you don't. If you do, this won't contradict anything in the web series, but you can go in completely blind, as I did when I saw, I only saw the web stuff afterwards, but I think it's great.

[Simon Mayo]

Scary movies at number four.

[Mark Kermode]

I mean, I, Yeah, I, Yeah, no,

[Simon Mayo]

the top three in America is the same as the top three in the uk.

[Mark Kermode]

Three is Obsession, which is fantastic and cost trumpets and has done terrifically well.

[Simon Mayo]

Disclosure Day is at number two, which

[Mark Kermode]

didn't cost trumpets and has done, you know, reasonably well, but obviously in comparative terms has been outstripped by these sort of younger, cheaper directors and the box office number one.

[Simon Mayo]

And once again, it is very number one. It's like 15 million as opposed to 1 million for disclosure day. Toy Story 5.

[Mark Kermode]

Yes.

[Simon Mayo]

So let's zip through some of these.

[Mark Kermode]

Go ahead.

[Simon Mayo]

Tom Stewart, as someone who has watched Toy Story in real time, beginning with the first film when I was 10, I am so very disappointed in what I just watched in Toy Story 5. I avoided Mark's review comma until after watching the film. Agree completely. It didn't even feel like Toy Story 5. It felt like a side story in the mold of Rogue One. In the Star wars universe, Woody and Buzz was supporting characters. You got a friend in me was barely used. Perhaps I could have been more forgiving if it had been advertised as Jess's story, rather than being part of the almost impeccable Toy Story lineage. It didn't even really pick up where Toy Story 4 left off. I thought we were going to see how Woody makes it back to the rest of the group and ultimately finds his way back to Andy and then emotionally hands Woody to his son. I went to the cinema on Father's Day with my wife and two children with tissues in my pocket at the ready, expecting this to be the tale to be told. But I'm saddened to say it was more a case of trying to stay awake. I now feel I have a messy, snotty toy story 3cr built up inside of me, and I'm gonna need to find another outlet. I don't even remember laughing in the film. More than sad, more than disappointed, more than angry, I feel grieved, says Tom Stewart. Carl says Dear Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head. On the topic of Toy Story, and after hearing Mark's thoughts on the pod last week, I wanted to share my take on the theme of tech versus toys. Yes, it felt like an unnecessary sequel at times, with a thin plot and more confusion than laughs. But as a mid-30s millennial, I wondered if the film isn't really for children at all, but for those of us returning for nostalgia while starting families of our own. As teenagers, we were the first left alone on the early Internet, an odd, fascinating space our parents didn't understand. Somewhere along the way, we felt that we left that version of the Internet behind. Now, as we raise children, it's becoming something darker and more addictive, something we barely recognize. Watching Toy Story struck me how much the adults seem to be tethered to it. Combined with the film's muted tone and loose logic, it feels less like a children's story and more like a reflection of a generation still trying to make sense of what we created. Down with heat waves and up with Kings of the North. How many Kings of the north do you want, Carl? They can't be. You're either King of the north or you're not. There can't be more than one in which. Because if there are more than one, they'll have to fight anyway. That's not what you're writing about, but an inch. But an interesting point from a mid-30s millennial.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I. I can I just say, on the subject of that. I wish that I felt that that was what it was about. But my problem was I didn't, I didn't even think it was about that. I thought I. I have a real problem with, with how little I think Toy Story 5 is about, which you cannot say of any of the previous ones. Even Toy Story 4 had more subtext than this.

[Simon Mayo]

It is something to explain to those of us had children of a certain age that the Internet, when it started was that place that Carl.

[Mark Kermode]

No, that is, you know, he is absolutely right. And that thing about which our parents didn't, you know, prepare, which parents didn't understand and it's. There was the analogy used, wasn't it? Which was just like. It was like, you know, opening up a highway and saying, go and wander across that and see how it goes, you know. Yeah, just very, very strange. But I think the problem with Toy Story 5, particularly with where, where we are in that debate at the moment, is that it isn't adding anything. It feels like a very, very old fashioned discussion of an inverted commas. New issue.

[Simon Mayo]

Jim from Southampton. This past Thursday, we went en masse as a family. 10 in total, right. To see Toy Story 5 at the showcase in Southampton. First of all, wow, fantastic that there is something that you can go.

[Mark Kermode]

And this, I would say would be the perfect environment for which to find all the good. I know, I don't know what this email is about to say, but this sounds to me like the ideal viewing environment to see all the best in the movie.

[Simon Mayo]

We took over the back row of a packed screening, all excited to see the latest installment. The ages that attended were 71, 43, 39, 19, 16, 14, 8, 7, 5 and 3.

[Mark Kermode]

Wow.

[Simon Mayo]

I wonder if the 71 year old or the 3 year old was the most trouble. But both needed feeding just to keep going.

[Mark Kermode]

That's less of a family outing, more of a focus group.

[Simon Mayo]

That is incredible, isn't it really? Okay, well, first of all, Jim, I'm impressed.

[Mark Kermode]

Yes.

[Simon Mayo]

Second point.

[Pierre Coffin]

Here we go.

[Simon Mayo]

This excitement quickly turned into utter confusion. Within the first 10 minutes, the opening felt like it was going to be an in movie advert for the new Buzz Lightyear toy. But no, this was the actual start of the movie. This confusion continued amongst us grown ups with an all over the place narrative more confusing than tenet. Add in the Are you crying yet? Are you crying now? Emotionally forced moments and the complete extinction of any soul or magic. I left feeling genuinely grumpy. The exact opposite of how I'm supposed to feel at the end of a Pixar movie. Maybe at 43, I have finally outgrown this franchise that I'd grown up with. Maybe this is what the next generation wants. Well, all I can say is that I saw multiple children walking around, going to the toilet and a complete disengagement with what was happening on screen. The most scathing review came from My Child. From my child 3. Quote. Can we go home and watch the proper one now? Love and miss the show, Steve. Thank you, Jim.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay.

[Simon Mayo]

Can we go home and watch the proper one?

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah, that, that in a nutshell is, is exactly it. Well, two things. Firstly, I'm so, I'm sorry that, that your family outing was not better than that. I have to say I'm kind of slightly relieved to hear this because, you know, when I reviewed the film, I had no idea what anybody else thought of it and I was very down on it. And I felt the same thing about, you know, disappointment, turning of crossness. But to have gone with an age group that goes from 30 to. What do you want? 71 was the top 71.

[Simon Mayo]

Three to three.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah. And, and, and to, and to come away with that. Yes, exactly. The plot is all over the place. The, the, the, the emotional bits are button pushing and. Can we go home and watch the proper one? There, that's it. That's the perfect review.

[Simon Mayo]

Finally, Andy Silman. Just wanted to share with you something that my daughter told me.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay.

[Simon Mayo]

About, about her taking my 7 year old grandson to see Toy Story 5. He said it was 10 out of 10. But what was more interesting was that he initiated a conversation about how much time he was spending on his tablet or on his games console. He said that he thinks he should be spending less time on those and more time playing with the other toys. I thought that if that message gets across to more younger children, then that's not a bad thing. Keep up the good work. Down with the usual nonsense and up with everything that's positive. Okay, Absolutely. Well, there's a, there's an interesting take from someone who liked the film and was, you know, determined to spend more time with other toys.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah, well, that is an entirely good thing. And if, if the film provoked that reaction in somebody, then good for it.

[Simon Mayo]

More discussion on current films, including Toy Story 5 in the overflow car park intake 2.

[Mark Kermode]

Available.

[Simon Mayo]

Available via Patreon. And in today's take Ultra, available exclusively to Patreon Ultras. Unless I've melted, which Mark won't. He might have to do it on his own because he has air conditioning.

[Mark Kermode]

It's lovely and cool here. It's just really. It's refreshingly crisp.

[Simon Mayo]

It'll be time for Carpe Stream, your guide to all the things you can't miss out on streaming services this July. Please don't use the June 90s discount code to get 90% off Ultra tier membership until the end of the month because we'd be making a loss and you wouldn't want that. So our guest this week is Pierre Coffin, the French animator, voice actor, director, producer and writer, and best known for co directing four films in the Despicable Me franchise, as well as being the voice and creator of the Minions. You'll hear my conversation with Pierre Confin after this clip from the film. By the way, I'm Gary Orkam.

[Mark Kermode]

Oliver Magma.

[Simon Mayo]

Ichabod the Deceiver.

[Pierre Coffin]

But my friends just call me Goomy for short. Oh.

[Mark Kermode]

So James. James.

[Simon Mayo]

Rolls off the face tendrils.

[Mark Kermode]

James.

[Simon Mayo]

Is that it? Henry. Hey, Bello.

[Pierre Coffin]

Henry.

[Simon Mayo]

Oh, I like it. It sounds tough and rugged.

[Mark Kermode]

It's like, oh, look out, Here comes Henry. E.L. ed. Ed.

[Simon Mayo]

I shant. That's a clip from Minions and Monsters. It was written and directed and voiced a lot by Pierre Coffin, who is our guest. Hello, Pierre. How are you? Hello.

[Pierre Coffin]

Good, good. Very nice. Thank you for having me.

[Simon Mayo]

Well, it's very nice to talk to you again. Congratulations on a joy filled 90 minute cinematic experience. Everyone's going to have a hoot, I think. And that. And also intriguingly, I think it's going to get to the end of people are going to say I need to go in and see that again because I think I missed half the gang. So anyway, that's my opening statement. Introduce us to Minions and Monsters. Where are we with this film?

[Pierre Coffin]

So this film comes from a place of me not wanting to do Minion movies anymore. Yeah. Because, you know, I've done three Despicable Me's one Minion movie and then I sort of helped out on the others in terms of voicing. But I really, you know, I didn't want to do one more of the same. But one day Chris Maldandri, the producer, called me and said like, okay, you're gonna say, no, I know, blah, blah, blah, but hear me out and if you could help me, that would be great. And so he pitched me the idea of like Minions wanting to make a movie, a monster movie, summoning a monster or building one, or wasn't quite sure. And then the monster would turn against the Minions and start destroying Earth. And the Minions would have to sort of correct that blunder. Once again. And he had me at Minions wanting to make a movie, because from that moment onwards, I sort of knew that I wanted it to. If I was doing it, I wanted it to happen in the Hollywood in the 20s, when this film became. When film became an industry. And I could reference, like, you know, people coming over from East Germany and building studios and making films. There was so much context that I knew that I could get inspiration from just to nourish, just to surround the Minions. And putting the Minions in that context would provide me with sufficient matter to make this new movie, hopefully original and hopefully a little bit less like the others.

[Simon Mayo]

And did you make the right decision, Pierre? Having decided that you didn't want to make any more movies, were you always convinced that you made the right decision to make? Are there any moments when you thought, what have I done?

[Pierre Coffin]

Well, I'm asking that myself now that the movie is about to come out. Yes. Just because I'm wondering, is it funny enough this thing is more of a timepiece, so children maybe will not get that aspect of things, but then I tried staying faithful also to what made Dominions. Dominions. So I guess it's more a question for you than for me.

[Simon Mayo]

Okay, well, like I said, I think I want to go and see it again, because the gags come so fast that you need to sort of go back just to write them all down, I think.

[Mark Kermode]

Who.

[Simon Mayo]

It starts with a group of people being shown around one of the Hollywood studios. And then the tale is told of the two original Minions around which this whole story. Who are the main Minions that we follow through this story? Pierre?

[Pierre Coffin]

So the main protagonists of this story are two Minions called Henry and James. And James is the creative one. I really wanted to. At the core of this movie is. The core of this movie is just friendship between two minions. They meet, they befriend, they become best friends. And then because of James creativity, he likes to draw, sculpt. And ultimately, when he discovers cinema, he wants to make this movie. Well, that sort of breaks, you know, their friendship. But then in the end, obviously, their friendship is gonna be back again, and in the process, they're gonna save the Earth and the universe. So there is this silliness on top of that very serious thing.

[Simon Mayo]

James, the minion who is drawing all the time, is that you, Pierre? Because that's what you used to do?

[Pierre Coffin]

I don't know. Well, yeah, that's what I used to do. But it could be, I think anyone with a creative knack, I guess, like a musician or sculptor, whatever. I Think lives, that sort of thing. Like lives for his passion, but not sure that he's going to be ever recognized one day and gets in the way of like friendship or marriage or whatever. I mean that's the lot of anyone being creative. I think. Yeah, I've read stuff that this was movie about me, but I don't think it's. I don't think it's me.

[Simon Mayo]

And the making of the voices which. And you are the voice of the minions. What is just take us through the mechanical process of that. Do you speak in the same way and then it's adjusted later on or how do you go about voicing these different.

[Pierre Coffin]

It's a multi step thing because. And on this movie I got to write. So I put them directly in a context where the context would be helpful to understand what the dialogue would be about. So that was what we learned over almost a couple of decades now. So it's a multi step process where I write a scene in this particular instance. I know what the scene's about. I know what if there is a conflict, I know what it is about. And so I know that I need to find like a little music to say like, okay, well there is a minion who as for instance is a leader and doesn't want. They've been fired from making films. And that minion wants to go back to finding like a new boss. But there's our three minions who want to continue making a movie. So there's this argument that's just dialogue based. We found a little bit of physical comedy, but it's mostly dialogue based. And hopefully you get through the melodies of each character's dialogue that there is a conflict about this and that and that there is going to be a bridge that's being cut at that particular moment.

[Simon Mayo]

But do you do different voices for Henry and James or is that altered? Yes.

[Pierre Coffin]

No, no. I mean in the process of things it's just me being recorded in slow motion play back in real time. And that's when the pitch sort of appears, the high pitched voice. And as for recognizing different characters, I need to modulate and act I guess differently for each character. Like we have this Dick character who's a minion and the minion antagonist. And he's stern and very not really nice sounding. Obviously every word that comes out of his mouth doesn't seem like a compliment. And the other guys are more pleading and so there's that contrast also that helps out and in the way I guess I perform, hopefully. And with the animation you get what

[Simon Mayo]

everyone is saying, what does a screenplay for a film like this look like?

[Pierre Coffin]

Well, it's all written in English. That's one of the things also, we learned, because initially I started writing directly in Minionese, like, all the dialogue, but then we quickly noticed that no one else could read it except us, which was nice and not nice at the same time. And so in this one, we went directly to English and then went gradually to Minionese as we went to storyboards. And the script is constantly rewritten for three years up until, I don't know, like, four months before the end of the movie. But it gets constantly tweaked and. And massaged.

[Simon Mayo]

Maybe it's because I've just got the World cup on the brain, Pierre. But did I pick up reference to Mbappe and Platini?

[Pierre Coffin]

Yes.

[Simon Mayo]

Okay, so.

[Pierre Coffin]

But it's not heavy.

[Mark Kermode]

You're having a lot of.

[Simon Mayo]

You're having a lot of fun here.

[Pierre Coffin]

Yeah, I mean, it's not. It's not really. I'm not sure you go to football directly. I'm not sure people know Platini anymore. So it's all about. It's. It's all about, you know, finding a word that sounds minionese. I'm saying dua lipa also, by the way, like, at the very beginning of the movie.

[Simon Mayo]

And does the minionese change in any different regions around the world? Does it alter?

[Pierre Coffin]

Yes, it is altered, and it's altered by me because I heard what people did in all these different countries, and I asked them to stop doing it because it felt like they were not understanding the process properly. And so what happens at the end of each movie is that apparently I say a lot of swear words, like, in different languages. So all these different countries tell me that I shouldn't not say that. So I have to find this little alternative, because somehow I name unnameable body parts here and there and whatever. And then I spent two other weeks just. Just saying words appropriate to each country where. Like, plot points. Like, in this instance, I have the Minions say a lot. Big Boss, Big Bus. Because, you know, they're searching for their ultimate boss all the time. But in South American countries, they preferred that I say, like, grande jefe. Grande jefe. So I have to. Do we do all that in all these different languages, except Chinese, because I really can't. Chinese. It's.

[Simon Mayo]

And why do the Minions constantly look for the most evil person to work for? What's that all about?

[Pierre Coffin]

That's called retro engineering. Because we did Despicable Me and we sort of discovered that the minions were working for this character, Gru, in that first movie. And so we found it with Brian lynch, my co writer. We found it'd be funny to have them to create this mythology of them wanting to always serve the most evil master they could find. And we established that with the first Minion movie as a short opening credit sequence where we see these yellow little cells following this black cell which is clearly eating all the other ones. And then we go from there and show the evolution of them yellow creatures following the bigger and baddest creatures.

[Simon Mayo]

Yeah, and speaking of baddest creatures, we end up with a huge blubbery orange beast.

[Mark Kermode]

I wonder what you're trying.

[Simon Mayo]

Yes, you. Well, you call it Irene. I think most people might be thinking you're trying to say something else.

[Pierre Coffin]

What am I trying to say about

[Simon Mayo]

another orange beast who lives in the White House?

[Pierre Coffin]

Oh, my God.

[Simon Mayo]

It never occurred to you?

[Pierre Coffin]

No, never. You're the first one to bring it up. No, no. Really not.

[Simon Mayo]

Oh, I won't be the last. Let me tell you. I won't be the last to mention it. So what are the things that you. Or maybe one thing that you would like us to know about this film that you wish we did. Right. Because I'm sure that this is a labor of love. It's taken you many, many years. What do you think we should understand that we probably don't understand about the making of a minion's film?

[Pierre Coffin]

Man, that's a hard one. I mean, the thing I think that people should know is that the script is in constant evolution. Because again, when you make these sort of films, you sort of asking the audience to pay a little attention to what's happening. Otherwise you don't understand. Like, you know, it's not something where you could start, you know, cooking or doing something else and then you're listening to the movie. That doesn't work because the voice and the understanding of the action goes through multiple aspect of the filmmaking thing, like the camera angles, what the characters are actually doing with their bodies. And so sometimes I write a scene where, well, it's not working. I can't convey what the script is needed to convey. So I need to change everything. Like the context, the characters that are talking about, prop them. That's how at a certain point, there's a Minion antagonist called Dick, properly named Dick.

[Mark Kermode]

Yes.

[Pierre Coffin]

And he's. We needed to have. We realized at the middle of the movie that we needed to recognize him. So that's when we started giving him a stick or pipe because he loses his stick at some point. And so this was a figure of authority. And so we had to retroactively put a stake back in his head at the beginning of the movie and just has to recognize him. So it's a constant. It's. The chance that we get making an animated movie is that we have three years to do it and we have a relatively comfortable budget to be able to swivel things around and change things to make them better, hopefully.

[Simon Mayo]

Last question. Pierre, Imagine for the moment I'm the head of Universal and I'm in the hotel there with you, and I've got a great idea for another Minions film. What does Pierre Confin say?

[Pierre Coffin]

Pierre Confin is at a stage where he doesn't know if he wants to make another movie again. And it would have to be like a really, really, really good pitch, because that one was. And that one really clicked at the third word that. That Chris Mel Dandry said. I. I knew that I wanted to do that movie and I knew that I could. I had so many ideas to. To flood it with that that I knew I should do it.

[Simon Mayo]

Well, congratulations on Minions and Monsters.

[Mark Kermode]

It's.

[Simon Mayo]

It's a hoot. I need to go and see it again. Pierre, thank you so much for your time. Mercier.

[Pierre Coffin]

Thank you for having me.

[Simon Mayo]

Thank you. The irrepressible Pierre Coffin. Very entertaining. Could have spoken to him for a lot longer. Had lots to say when I. When I asked a question about that, because there's this orange sort of blubbery thing that I don't think. I don't think it's a film you can spoil. Wanders through, squashing everything, taking everything over. And I said. I wondered if he had another agenda or what he was trying to say. He genuinely appeared baffled at that point.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay.

[Simon Mayo]

But listening back to it, I. Yeah, genuinely. Just the answer that he had to

[Mark Kermode]

give that a movie in which the. The baddest thing on the planet is a gelatinous orange blob eating the world.

[Pierre Coffin]

Yeah.

[Simon Mayo]

By the way, the Mbappe Platini references football. Yeah.

[Mark Kermode]

Didn't get that. What I did get, which. Which made me laugh out loud, was when he went in the scene. It's not working. And it. It's.

[Pierre Coffin]

He.

[Mark Kermode]

In his own conversation, he goes.

[Simon Mayo]

It's. What's interesting is that even though they speak in minionese.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah.

[Simon Mayo]

It's still very French. You know, maybe it's because we know that Pierre Confin is French and he's a French animator, et cetera, et cetera. But if this was Pixar, they would have done this. Their Minions would be different.

[Mark Kermode]

Yes. I mean, I, honestly, I think one of the things that you got from that conversation is just how complicated this is. I love the idea that the original scripts were written in minionese and nobody else could understand them, so now they write them in English so that other people can understand. Understand them. But I think it's so easy to. I mean, I should say I've seen the new Minions movie. We'll review it next week. I'm not meant to review it now, but it's so easy to underestimate how hard it is to do slapstick comedy and how hard it is to do absurdist verbal comedy. And the, the level of talent involved in it is astonishing. And I also, when he said this is not the kind of film you could watch while you're cooking. Well, firstly, why would you look away? Because whatever anyone thinks of the movie, and I said, we'll review it next week. And I'm, I'm trying hard not to give away what I think about it, although I think I'm not doing a very good job of keeping it under wraps.

[Simon Mayo]

Yeah, I think, you know, it is

[Mark Kermode]

probably the most cine literate film you'll see this year.

[Simon Mayo]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That's why I said to him I would, I need to go and see it again because while you're, whilst you're admiring the Chaplin and the Buster Keaton, you've missed a couple of other things.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah.

[Simon Mayo]

So.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just there, there is a gag every three seconds and I, I saw it in, in Dave Norris's screening room and I was on my own and I laughed like an idiot the whole way through.

[Simon Mayo]

So to be reviewed next week, this is the new Minions film. Minions and Monsters, a film that obviously Pierre Cofan didn't want to make, but was very easily persuaded by the. By the sound of it, correspondence@kevin mayor.com. so you can't review that this week. What can you review?

[Mark Kermode]

A Private Life, which is a satirical French mystery, romance thriller psychodrama hybrid directed and co written by Rebecca Zatovsky, starring a Luminous Lumiere Award nominated and French speaking Jody Foster. Brilliant in more than one language. How annoying. Alongside Daniel Toy, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste. So she plays Dr. Lillian Steiner who is a Jewish American psychiatrist working from her home in Paris. She's very insular. She's estranged from her husband, from her son, from her grandchild, who she refuses to even hold in the opening moments. There's a great scene in which a patient comes in and he says, I'm ending my sessions with you. So I came to see you years and years ago because I wanted to give up smoking. I didn't end up doing that. We ended up doing years and years of psychoanalysis. Well, the other day I went to a hypnotist, spent 20 minutes with them. They stopped me smoking. So I'm not going to do any more of this. And I think I'm going to sue you for the years that I've wasted coming here to be psychoanalyzed. So that's the first thing that happens. The second thing that happens is she's sideswiped by news of the death of a patient with whom she seemed to have a very good relationship. Valerie. Valerie's husband, Simone, blames her for Lillian's death because it appears to have been death by suicide. Meanwhile, Valerie's daughter says that the pills that were used for the apparent suicide were the pills that was prescribed by Lillian and that a cryptic message was left on the prescription. Now, if Lillian feels any guilt about this. Did she miss something? You know, she was. She was psychoanalyzing. Did she miss this? She doesn't appear to show it. However, she develops this weird condition whereby her eyes keep weeping. So it seems that she's constantly crying and she's fed up with this. So she visits the hypnotherapist who cured the smoking very skeptically and says, look, I don't believe in any of this, but I really need to stop this happening. And she is then hypnotized and during hypnosis, has this dreamy vision. You're going to hear a clip from the trailer in a moment, which is in French, which is why I'm having to do so much explaining. Has this dreamy vision of herself playing in an orchestra in Nazi occupied Paris with the patient as her mistress and the husband as the conductor, who then pulls a gun. Anyway, here is a, as I said, non English language clip.

[Pierre Coffin]

Kinder, kinder. Kinder, kinder, kinder.

[Mark Kermode]

So you can hear from that kind of, you know, this sort of slightly satirical tone of it all. It's, you know, it's mystery. It's all strange, but, you know, it's also. It's a kind of. It's. It's on the edge of satire and the edge of comedy, but there's other stuff going on. So what happens is, essentially she becomes increasingly convinced that there's a conspiracy, that somehow Valerie was.

[Simon Mayo]

Was.

[Mark Kermode]

Was murdered by maybe a member of the family, and she starts to go down this paranoid rabbit hole. She confides in her ex, who can't decide whether she's onto something or whether she's just going crazy. And the re. And the film then plays out as this. You know, how much of this is real, how much of this is imagined. So it's a. It is a strange mix of psychodrama, thriller, satire, but there's also this kind of rom com playfulness, her relationship with her estranged partner, which is. And which is beautifully done, and this genuinely surreal paranoia. I've read a couple of things because the film's. The film played in Cannes last year out of competition, and a couple of people call it Hitchcockian. Basically, when people say Hitchcockian now, it doesn't mean Hitchcockian. It's just kind of a shorthand for anything in which there are a couple of warring tension elements. I don't think it's Hitchcockian. I think.

[Simon Mayo]

Think it's.

[Mark Kermode]

That emphasizes the mystery element of it. I think it is much more kind of absurdist character study, like a kind of a gently satirical portrait of bourgeois navel gazing that pokes fun at psychoanalysis and pokes fun at sort of, you know, middle class values, but at the same time uses the psychoanalysis as the engine of the plot. And I think in other hands, it could have been awful. As it is, it's very entertaining. I mean, Jodie Foster. Does Jodie Foster do bad things ever? Can you remember the last time she was actually bad in a film?

[Simon Mayo]

No. And she's not. There's not a lot of Jodie Foster around these days. But no, I can't remember her being a turkey.

[Mark Kermode]

So she's great. And the relationship between her and the character played by Dani Otoy is.

[Simon Mayo]

Is just.

[Mark Kermode]

Is so nicely done and so nicely done that you find yourself going along with the preposterous plot twists because you like being in the company. These people, even though one of them is quite annoying and, and that sort of sees it through me. The whole thing is predicated on the idea that all of this might be nothing. It might just be the projection of some, you know, what's the phrase? Physician, heal thyself. So here is somebody who is telling people how to sort out their. Their problems and. And all the rest of it, but clearly has absolutely no handle on their own issues. But there is also, as I said, this thing about this estranged couple who still clearly love each other. There's one scene in which they meet up and they get kind of flirtily drunk together and Then the son sees them kissing and he's outraged. He says, your breakup ruined my childhood and now you're doing this. What are you up to? So, I mean, it's very slickly directed and that slickness adds a kind of, you know, glossy pleasure to it. So it's very, very easy on the eye. And as I said, it really shouldn't work. It really should just fall flat on its face. Particularly when one bears in mind. And this will come up again in take two, that comedy and satire are often very sort of nation specific. And, you know, we've all heard, you know, French comedies that aren't funny and German comedies that aren't funny because you're not French or you're not German. Well, like I said, this isn't a comedy. It is technically a mystery suspense psychodra thriller with a satirical edge to it. But I, I really enjoyed it and I think I really enjoyed it because it's played so well and plaudits to Jodie Foster. I just. As you just sit there and go, oh, okay, all right. She's really good, isn't she? Yeah.

[Simon Mayo]

When I said, I. I can't remember her being a turkey, I. I suspect if she was playing a turkey, she'd be very good at.

[Mark Kermode]

She'd be very good as a turkey.

[Simon Mayo]

She hadn't been in a turkey. Anyway, so I, I'm quite fond of bourgeois navel gazing. So this sounds quite precisely.

[Mark Kermode]

And honestly, as somebody who is, you know, both bourgeois and navel gazing and spent a long time in psychoanalysis, it's a thumbs up from me. Yeah.

[Simon Mayo]

Okay. So that is called A Private life. Before we get to Mark's review, Jackass Best and last, a quick reminder that in take two you can join Five question Film Club.

[Mark Kermode]

Three questions, your majesty and vote on

[Simon Mayo]

which films you'd like Mark and I to do an introduction to head to Patreon to sign up up to get that ad. Free films we've already covered include the Piano with Nail and I, the Goonies, train spotting and the Thing. So that's all happening over on Patreon now before we get to the laughter lift.

[Mark Kermode]

Yes.

[Simon Mayo]

I, I feel as though this is not suitable for miners.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay.

[Simon Mayo]

As in minors.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay.

[Simon Mayo]

So I think the redactor is taking us into difficult territory. Territory.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay.

[Simon Mayo]

Okay. So I'm just saying that if, if anybody, you know, if they're listening in the car with, with youngsters, then maybe, I mean, it may well be absolutely fine. And maybe I'm just being overly sensitive, but right, here we go into the Laughter lift. You also probably know the joke anyway

[Mark Kermode]

because it's been told numerous times.

[Simon Mayo]

But hey, Mark, you know, last week Grandpa Mayo's World War II 2 joke was very popular. So I thought people would appreciate another one of his stories.

[Mark Kermode]

Excellent.

[Simon Mayo]

For the purposes of this joke, Grandpa May was a Spitfire pilot and was invited to speak in a church hall about his war experiences. Ready?

[Mark Kermode]

Go on.

[Simon Mayo]

During the Battle of Britain in 1940, it was really tough. He said the Luftwaffe were very strong. One day, out of the clouds, these appeared. There were a few gasps from the audience and several of the children began to giggle. I looked up and I realized that two of the Fockers were directly above me. I aimed at the first one and shot him down. By then, though, the other Fokker was right on my tail. At this point, several of the elderly ladies of the church were blushing with embarrassment. The girls were giggling and the boys laughing loudly. The vicar finally stood up and said, I think I should point out that Wing Commander Mayo is referring to the Focke Wulf FW1 90, which was the name of the German fighter plane. Yes, that's true, says Wing Commander Mayer. But these were flying Messerschmitts.

[Mark Kermode]

That's a good joke. That is actually a good joke. And I didn't see it coming.

[Simon Mayo]

Yes, I. I heard that as a Douglas Barter joke, and it may well

[Mark Kermode]

be a true story, but I don't know.

[Simon Mayo]

So anyway, you didn't see that coming.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay, well, I did see that coming. Like, not like, like, like the Messerschmitts overhead. I didn't see that coming.

[Simon Mayo]

What is still to come, Mark?

[Mark Kermode]

Jackass. Best than last.

[Pierre Coffin]

Okay.

[Simon Mayo]

And we have a. We have a rogue Watts on as well on the way.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay.

[Simon Mayo]

Okay. So, Jackass in just a second email from James Heron, who as you'll know, Mark. Mark is the director and programmer of the Toronto Japanese Film Festival.

[Mark Kermode]

Oh, excellent.

[Simon Mayo]

Okay.

[Mark Kermode]

Are we being invited?

[Simon Mayo]

I haven't noticed that bit.

[Mark Kermode]

All expenses paid.

[Simon Mayo]

Hotel, business class, probably air conditioning. I'm there.

[Mark Kermode]

The air conditioning here is fabulous. How is it in your room?

[Simon Mayo]

Well, the fan is working overtime again. It's just, you know, it's recycling the fetid, stinking, moisture ridden air. But it's making me slightly happier.

[Mark Kermode]

So it's cool as a mountain breeze in this hotel room in Croatia.

[Simon Mayo]

Dear Egg, he says, Dear Ega no Ishitashi. I would just like to speak to your question about Japanese football supporters cleaning up the stand.

[Mark Kermode]

Oh, yeah.

[Simon Mayo]

Which you mentioned last week, and whether that applied to cinema audiences as well, it's because there've been many famous occurrences where the Japanese supporters stay after the match and clear up, up. Yeah, the, the stadium. I've been traveling back and forth to Japan for at least a couple of decades on cinema related business, says James, and I see many films while I'm there. I don't recall seeing Japanese audience members cleaning up after one another simply because they do such a great job of cleaning up after themselves. People take their garbage outside of the cinema and dispose of it in the correct receptacles. All very civilized and code compliant. Another interesting point is that Japanese audiences, out of respect for the filmmakers, tend to stay in their seats until the absolute end of the credits. We occasionally struggle with films at our own festival here in Canada because western audiences, at least a large portion of them, tend to try and slip out while the credits are running. We often have to explain this to visiting Japanese filmmakers so they understand there is no disrespect intended, simply a different cinema culture coming custom. Down with all the bad things and up with all the good things. Well, which is, which is good. But I have to say with Marvel films and things like that, they really do stretch that. And you know, if you are one of the persons that tends to hang around, I mean, I know they put like a little sketch at the end, but really when the credits will be going for 10 minutes.

[Mark Kermode]

I know.

[Simon Mayo]

Does anyone really stay for that?

[Mark Kermode]

Well, yes, more people probably than you would imagine. But I, I, I just, I, I love the idea of a, of, of just a cultural norm being, of course you clean up after yourself because it would be disrespectful not to.

[Simon Mayo]

An email from Oliver Morton, planetary affairs editor of the Economist.

[Mark Kermode]

Wow.

[Simon Mayo]

Dear. Straight up and with a twist. Genuinely amazed that two men of such distinction, experience and taste have not ever tried a Negroni. Equal parts Campari Italy, Italian vermouth and gin, to say nothing of its many delightful siblings. The Boulevardier swapping out the gin for bourbon, the Negroni spagliato gin replaced with Carver preeminent amongst them. Campari is integral to all of them. Martini Rosso a perfectly acceptable supporting act, though other Italian vermouths are available and to some preferable. Not sure you would get one at the ship mark, excellent as it is, but the old coast guard should be happy to help you. You not sure there's any anywhere in showbiz North London which wouldn't be available. Wouldn't be able to rustle one up for Simon. You really should try one or more so listen well, very Nice to have. Thank you. Oliver, from the Economist, which we've mentioned a lot and never ever get any advertising for. But, yes, if you want to send us a read, I'll do you a read. So maybe one of us needs to try a Negroni or a Boulevardier or the Negroni Spagliato.

[Mark Kermode]

Do you want. Okay, do you want to divide it up? Should we do. Should we do one each? Which one do you want?

[Simon Mayo]

To be honest, I. I don't think. I can't imagine that I'm going to be anywhere that will sell one of these, but if I am, I think I might go for the Negroni Spagliato, where the gin is replaced with carver.

[Mark Kermode]

All right, well, why don't you do that? And I will attempt here in Croatia. Yes. To just do a Negroni, or when I'm back, I'll just go to the Coast Guard and then I'll do it there.

[Simon Mayo]

Okay. So Oliver seems to know an awful lot about your places where you drink. But anyway, that's.

[Mark Kermode]

That's because it's a small place and there, you know, that there's limited choice.

[Simon Mayo]

Oliver, thank you very much. [e-mail] Jackass Best and last. It's finished. That's a good thing.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay, so this is the final installment in inverted commas in the Jackass movie series. A farewell love letter to the series with a combination of old and new adventures, directed by Jeff Tremaine, co produced by Spike Jones, who also, I believe, directed the opening and closing sequences. And the opening closing sequences are weirdly spectacular and cinematic. The opening sequence, which has got these moving tableau, which is done in a way which is very kind of Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman, Spike Jonesy. And then in the finale, which is basically like the end of Apocalypse now with absolutely massive explosions. The rest of the film in between those two very, very cinematic things is much more, how shall we say, rough and ready. Lots of stuff filmed in back alleys and hotel rooms and staircases. So original stars Johnny Knoxville, Steve O, Chris Pontius, Wee Man, Preston Lacy, Dave England, Danger Aaron are back, along with comparative newbies. Poopies. I know you know all these names. Simon Poopies, Zach Holmes, Jasper Dolphin, Rachel Wolfson, and also cameos by the likes of your friend and Min Paul, Walter Hauser. Here's a little snippet of the trailer.

[Simon Mayo]

Hello, I'm Johnny Knoxville. Hello, I'm Johnny Knoxville.

[Mark Kermode]

Hello, I'm Johnny Knoxville.

[Simon Mayo]

Welcome to.

[Pierre Coffin]

Jackie.

[Simon Mayo]

Welcome to the first day of our last film. What are you feeling?

[Mark Kermode]

I'm Sad?

[Pierre Coffin]

Does it make you sad, Chris? No, I'm not in touch with my emotions.

[Simon Mayo]

I would like to introduce you to our new cast member, Larry.

[Mark Kermode]

Nice to meet you all. Big fans.

[Simon Mayo]

Oh, my gosh, he got you. Give me a bucket of water so I can throw it on Larry. 25 years and we haven't learned a goddamn thing. Can someone go get the shot collar for your penis? Poopy said he wants to try it.

[Mark Kermode]

So just in case it wasn't clear, Larry is a sort of AI robot. And then I think from the rest of it, you don't need to see what was going on. You get the general idea. So, as I said, combination of old bits and new bits. So I've seen the previous films and, well, I've reviewed them. You can go back and find out. So some of the old bits in this include the Pooh Cocktail supreme sequence, which I think was in Jackass 3 with the. The. With the flying portaloo. The famous thing of Johnny Knoxville getting hit by the bull twice, from which event he was literally ambulanced away with fairly serious injuries, and which I hadn't seen before. The. The Brad Pitt abduction thing, which is from the TV series, in which Brad Pitt appears to be abducted off the streets while queuing up to buy some food. The new stunts include a prostate exam carried out by that robot Larry on one of the cast members. Someone having, as you heard in that clip, an electronic device attached to Mr. Happy, and then being asked to walk across a balance beam whilst getting electric shocks in their sensitive parts, and an escape room from hell and a whole bunch of other stuff. Now, where you stand on Jackass is where you stand on Jackass. Simon Poole, who's the producer of this show, big fan. In the past, I've found somebody of it quite challenging in terms of this. Some of it is actually very funny in an old school slapstick way. I mean, it is just funny. There's, you know, the footage, which is fairly well known now, of Johnny Knoxville being put into a cardboard box and thrown down a flight of stairs. Dangerous, obviously, but quite funny. Some of it is revolting. I mean, I. I just have to look away with the diarrhea stuff because there's a game of Twister with them wearing cellophane trousers after having taken laxatives. I just. I literally didn't watch the screen because I don't want to, because I don't, you know, because it provoke. These things, provoke vomit on and off screen, and I'm just not interested in it. And some of it, as you Heard from that thing is sort of weirdly sentimental. The fact that this is the end, I mean, they make a point. The fact that they have said that every single one they've done was the last one, but they've then gone to another one. But this did feel like this actually probably was the end the of it. And one of the things I thought when watching it is this. Do you remember when Project Hail Mary came out and I did the. The Ryan Gosling interview and the question was, you know, whether it's actually a film about friendship, you know, whether it's what. What Project Hail Mary was about. Does it raise the question of, you know, can, can, can men be friends? And in the case of Project Hail Mary, the answer was yes, men can be friends, but only if the entire fate of the planet is at stake. Yeah. And in this case, the question seems to be, can men be friends? And the answer is yes, but only if they can play ping pong with each other's privates and insert toy cars in places where they shouldn't be inserted and generally smack each other around the head, face, body parts and other unspeakables. So, yes, but only under those circumstances. I mean, we should point out that in this one, apparently, because the injuries have been sort of accrued over the years, but according to the wiki page, the. The main injury that was accrued on this film was that somebody ripped a tendon in their finger whilst attempting to dig a coin out of a place I can't repeat on the radio.

[Simon Mayo]

Would that be a sphincter?

[Mark Kermode]

Okay. Yes, it would be a sphincter.

[Simon Mayo]

I speak as someone who has one of the best.

[Mark Kermode]

One of the best, yes. The thing is that he doesn't know that it's a sphincter when he puts his finger into it.

[Simon Mayo]

Oh, okay.

[Mark Kermode]

That would be.

[Simon Mayo]

I think we know everything that we need to know.

[Mark Kermode]

We know everything that we need to know. Okay. So the thing is, I'm not completely down on it by any means at all. Because. Because on the. I mean, one thing that is worth saying is in a world in which cinema constantly fetishizes in inverted commas, perfect women's bodies, I struggle to think of another mainstream film that has more male nudity and also more diverse body shapes and sizes without any apparent judgment. I mean, it is weirdly, there is something weirdly refreshing about seeing this much and this many male bodies in this way, in a way that's just completely unabashed and that actually does run contrary to what an awful lot of mainstream cinema is. About that is what it is. That's what it's interested in. Because, as I said, it's, you know, can men be friends? Yes, but they need to be able to stick toy cars where the sun don't shine. The other thing that's funny is that I do think that there is a thing about friendship. And recently I was doing a program about male friendship in cinema and I was thinking about the Jackass movies. And particularly in the case of this, there is this genuine sense that whatever you think, there is this camaraderie that's been built up over the years of smacking each other in the unmentionables. The film starts and ends with a warning, which is only partly ironic of. Do not try these stunts at home. Okay? Do not try these stunts at home. They've been carried out by professionals and they're dangerous. The BBFC site, of course, is brilliant, as always, cites violence. People are punched, struck with objects and thrown to the ground. Occasional bloody injuries in the aftermath of stunts and animal attacks, including bites and cuts. There is frequent comic genital and buttock nudity. There is crude humor throughout, including the sight of people defecating, vomiting and being covered in feces. And then dangerous behavior. These are highly dangerous stunts that may cause serious injury if imitated. They include the use of guns, fireworks, cars, razors, electricity and animals. People cause themselves harm by inserting objects into their bodies and exposing themselves to dangerous materials. Now, also hilariously, at the end of the film, there are two of the usual disclaimers. One of them is that no animals were harmed during the course of the making of the film, which is more than can be said of the human beings on display. And the other one is that there's the thing at the end that says the film may not be used to train artificial intelligence.

[Simon Mayo]

Yeah. Which is happening all the time now.

[Mark Kermode]

I know, but it's particularly funny in the context of a film in which there is no intelligence, artificial or otherwise. In fact, it is, of course, proudly and profoundly stupid. I. I think of all of the Jackass ones, this is the one that I enjoyed the most. I still have Grave Reservoir. I mean, I just. The diarrhea and vomiting stuff, I just. I can't be doing with. I just can't be doing with. Because I can't be doing with it. But in the middle of all this cocktail of poo and just everything, there is this weird thing about.

[Pierre Coffin]

About.

[Mark Kermode]

Can men be friends? Well, yes, but only if you allow one of them to be lowered onto the face of the other One with a winch.

[Simon Mayo]

I mean, it does sound as much fun as a prostate exam.

[Mark Kermode]

And in a very literal sense, Simon, that's what it is.

[Simon Mayo]

These, these are the people who I have avoided my entire life.

[Mark Kermode]

I know.

[Simon Mayo]

Oh, God.

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah.

[Simon Mayo]

You know, and I interviewed Johnny Knoxville live on five Live.

[Mark Kermode]

Oh, right.

[Simon Mayo]

And after that, I thought, I am never going to see any of your films.

[Mark Kermode]

Why? What was he like?

[Simon Mayo]

He was such an ass. He just would, he just, it was like he, he thought he was still in a film, one of his films, rather than being on live radio.

[Mark Kermode]

Okay.

[Simon Mayo]

And after that, I just thought he was so appalling that I just didn't want to have anything. So, yeah, I am, I am not going to be getting.

[Mark Kermode]

No, no. Well, I, I, I don't imagine that you would. And as I said, if you've heard my reviews of the previous ones, I mean, I have struggled my way through some of the previous films, but as I said, in the interest of objectivity and being completely honest about it, of all of them, this is the one that I have enjoyed, if that's the right word, the most. There are some things that I just am not, I can't, I just can't be doing with. But there is, underneath it all, just this weird thing about blokes and I. Yeah. Anyway, there we are.

[Simon Mayo]

I mean, blokes could be friends by going to the football or by going out for a drink or by going for a walk or by doing open swimming. You know, it's, it's not a mystery. You don't have to go into space and you don't have to be lowered onto your friend's face on a winch. All which is preposterous nonsense. You can just be mates going to the pub. Yes, but that's not a film.

[Mark Kermode]

That's not a film. You know, if you and I made a film about this, like this, it would just be a series of shots of us going, all right, all right.

[Simon Mayo]

You want a pint of Kingfisher? Anyway, enough of that. Correspondencer.com hey, we've got a. What's on here? Katie is here to tell us about a screening of, quote, People's Emergency Briefing, a new film aimed at enhancing public awareness of climate and environmental risks. Or if you don't believe her, just look outside. Anyway, People's Emergency Briefing. Here's Katie.

[Pierre Coffin]

Hello, Simon and Mark. This is Katie from AG Impact in Aldalhoe Park. Just wanted to share the details to our upcoming screening on the 2nd of July between 2pm and 4pm, we're really excited to be one of a small number of businesses who will be screening the film in the workplace Place. Alderley park is a leading innovation and business campus in Cheshire. It's home to a wide range of organizations across science, technology and sustainability. So it's a great setting to bring people together around film. Love for you to join us.

[Simon Mayo]

Thanks Katie. I've heard a lot about People's Emergency Briefing. My issue with these and haven't seen it and I'm sure it's very well made and it's doing a very important job and clearly there is a climate emergency and drastic action is needed, etc. However, it's like do you remember the An Unfortunate Truth? The Al Gore film? Yes, from, from and obviously Al Gore was right, but in my experience everyone who went to see it agreed with him anyway.

[Mark Kermode]

Yes.

[Simon Mayo]

So the so I guess the challenge for filmmakers is how do you get the Jackass crowd to watch a People's Emergency Briefing kind of film?

[Mark Kermode]

Yeah, and suggestions on a postcard to Kermodenmayo.

[Simon Mayo]

You know, the people who are inclined to think it's all nonsense. How do you get them to see a film which might make them go, oh yes, you've got a point. As well as it being 43 degrees in Paris, but you know, you know that anyway. Unless you're in a Croatian hotel room where the air conditioning is perfect at 20.

[Mark Kermode]

Absolutely lovely.

[Simon Mayo]

That's it for this week. This has been a Sony Music Entertainment production. This week's team, Jen, Eric and Josh producer was Dom, the redactor was Simon Paul in Take two. We're directing you to the overflow car park. For more chat about current film releases. More on Toy Story 5 and Disclosure Day we'll have more of your missives including a surprising piece of film trivia about the Babadooks unexpected afterlife and a very surreal idea for blending entirely different films altogether together. There is also the latest round of One Frame Back featuring some of the most wince inducing on screen injuries inspired by Jackass A five Question Film Club Three questions, your majesty, as Mark ignores or accepts a democratic vote to introduce us to one of these great films available for free and on subscription streaming plan platforms. The Lavender Hill Mob, Children of Men or Gregory's Girl. Plus questions in which this week we're asked why it's seemingly still okay to kill a cat on a movie, but all dogs are sacred. Interesting. I hadn't spot I mean obviously dogs are better than cats, but apart from that. So come and join us on Patreon for all the exclusive. Good stuff. Mark, what is your film of the week?

[Mark Kermode]

Well, I know it's a small release and I don't expect it to be topping the charts, but I'm going for a Private life. Okay, Very good Supergirl review next week, of course, because as I said, it was only screened on Tuesday night and we reserve any judgment as to why that might be.

[Simon Mayo]

And minions.

[Mark Kermode]

And minions. Well, that's the. Yeah, that's the biggie of next week.

[Simon Mayo]

Correspondent of the bank next week. By the way, Olivia Wilde and Ed Norton are on the show. I think I'll bestow a Year a Year's Ultra membership to our Correspondent of the Week. It's tricky. I was tempted to give it to Oliver Mortnant, the Economist, but, you know, I don't think he needs it. So I think I did particularly enjoy the email from Gareth. Who is the guy, no, sorry, Jim in Southampton. It's going to be who took his entire family, 10 in total, to see Toy Story 5. I think that was a unique view to take 71 year olds, 39 year olds and 3 year olds to a movie. So. So it'll be him.

[Mark Kermode]

And also, thank you, thank you for that email because it, it reassured me that my judgment is not completely shot.

[Simon Mayo]

Thank you very much indeed for listening. Take two has landed alongside this one.