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A
Hello. You're about to drift into an episode of the Nightly, a podcast designed to help you unwind and relax. For the full phone free immersive light experience, visit Hatch Co. Enjoy. All right. I'm Matt.
B
And I'm Kristen. Welcome to the Nightly from Hatch, a slumber party for pop culture lovers.
A
How's it going, Kristin? Lovely to see you.
B
Lovely to see you, too. I feel like now I should just say all right every time I see you. Last time we saw each other, you were explaining all right is essentially hello, or I could come up with another greeting, top of the day to you, sir. Which in the movies is how you're supposed to talk because you're in the uk, right?
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exactly. It's either top of the day or all right.
B
Yeah, yeah. Or cheerio, Goodfellow.
A
Cheerio. That works. Yeah. See if you can remember that for the end of the episode. I'm only letting you go if you say cheerio at the end of it.
B
Oh, that's okay. It's like saying cheers. Goodbye.
A
Yeah, it's all encompassing again.
B
Got it. Got it. I learned so much from you, Matt.
A
I would not rely on it.
B
I'll teach you the Minnesota hello and goodbye, which is, well, I should let you go now. I don't want to take up any more of your time. That's how you say goodbye and then the other person drags it out for about 45 more minutes before you can finally say goodbye to each other. That's how you do the Minnesota goodbye.
A
Wow, that's polite. It sounds like it's going to be something really violent when you said, I'll teach you how to do a Minnesota goodbye. It sounds like some sort of elbow throw or something.
B
No, it's just long and it drags out forever. And then maybe you feel a little violent at the end because you really wanted to just end this conversation an hour ago. But yeah, that's the Minnesota goodbye.
A
Good to know. Very good to know.
B
But, Matt, how are you doing?
A
Very well, thank you. Yeah, busy, busy day. Had a haircut, so that took out, well, pretty much all afternoon, really. If I've got something like that in the diary, I just sort of. Everything else is blocked out. Then I feel incapable of doing anything else, despite the fact that the haircut will only take about half an hour.
B
And are you a haircut loyalist where you go back to the same person again and again and you'd feel like you were cheating if you went to a different person?
A
Oh, big time. Yeah. Yeah, big Time. I think I've had the same guy for maybe like eight or nine years now, and I've cheated on him once because he wasn't around. And I felt like I had some very difficult questions to answer when I came back.
B
So did you just tell him the truth and explain like, it's not you, it's me?
A
Yeah. But the thing was, though, it wasn't me, it was him. I said, like, you weren't open. I needed a haircut. So it was a bit frosty for a week or two, but we're over it now. I'll never leave him again. I only trust him to do it. And also, like, you know what it's like with a hairdresser. You get comfortable. Like, he knows the amount of small talk to do and where to just kind of cut it off, which is nice.
B
Yes. I feel like there's something in a good hairdresser where they are also kind of like psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists. There are like a million other things happening all at once, but ostensibly you're just getting your hair trimmed. But they have a huge skill set.
A
Oh, they do, yeah. When I used to live in a place called Nottingham, which is a bit higher up the country, but there was a barber there and we used to get on like a house on fire. He was great. And he'd sort of stock up the fridge with beers and I'd go in on a Saturday late morning and he'd cut my hair and we'd have a football on an iPad and have a beer and he'd cut my hair. I feel like that's the closest I've ever been to, like, a pampered day. Sort of like everything that you want for a relaxing afternoon. It was great.
B
It's kind of like a spa day.
A
It's the male spa day. Yeah.
B
Yeah.
A
I'll be honest, some very confusing feelings when there's another man running his fingers through your hair and you've got a beer and watching the football. It's very. I've never been happier.
B
Oh, no. Almost all my needs are being met. Oh, no. What do I do with this feeling?
A
What is this?
B
Oh, what is this? Oh. Speaking of questions, like, what is this? Listeners out there, do you have a question for us? Is there a situation in your life where you think, I could use help with this? If so, we would love to hear from you. Send us your sleep or life questions to thenightlyach co. We will also take voice memos. Feel free to send those too. We love hearing from you that'd be.
A
Great to hear, actually. Yeah. Always. Always willing to help. Probably won't get the right answer, but it'll be fun.
B
Yes. Oftentimes our answers are not right, but we try and we always have a fun time talking about the questions that come in.
A
We do. We do.
B
Also, we would love you out there to record a voice memo of you saying good night. Good night to friends, family. Good night to yourself. All you have to do is record yourself, send it to thenightlyach co and we can play it on the show. Matt, do you want to give an example of a good night you would give at the end of an episode?
A
Ooh, yeah. I think I'd say something along the lines of, hello, this is Matt Bragg calling in from my own pillow. Four in England, and I want to wish a good night to my old barber. I hope he's found another person to drink beer and watch the football with and hopefully see him soon. Good night.
B
I love that.
A
Good night.
B
I don't know if anyone can top that. Listeners. Can you top that? That's okay.
A
Give it a go.
B
Yeah. We want to hear you say goodnight to whoever you want to say goodnight to, including old hairdressers, spa technicians, whoever. Whoever. Say goodnight to somebody you're thinking about from time to time. All right, Matt, we have a special episode today. We're going to dig into a topic that I absolutely love and I know you love, too. Movies. Going to put on my film critic hat here and we're going to talk about something called dump month. Grayson's Corner. Matt, do you know what dump month is?
A
No, I actually, I hadn't heard of the term dump month until now. So I'm very interested to know what this is gonna be about.
B
All right, well, we are in the middle of dump month right now. Dump month is another term for January in Hollywood. It's when the different film houses essentially have the worst of their movies of the year just released. Cause they're like, ah, who cares? Awards season is 10 or 11 months away. No one's gonna remember this when Oscars and golden Globe nominations come out. Let's just release all the backlog or let's just release the crap. And so they release movies that they think are gonna be forgettable or awful and that people might enjoy watching as they're just coming down from the stress of the holidays and so on. So it's a time of year legendary for bad movies. But I just want to say on behalf of, you know, people who like crap, I love a lot of the Movies that have come out during dump month over the years. And I bet you'll recognize some of my favorite titles, Matt. So shall we go through some of them?
A
Yeah, I would love to know a few more. I'd love to know any, because I've never kept on top of when movies come out anyway, particularly now when it's all sort of streaming. And I never know when anything came out really as and when I see it. That's when it came out to me. But that's got a sting, hasn't it? If you've made a movie and like poured your heart into it and written it and stuff, and then the studio says, great, we're gonna put this out in January.
B
Yeah, yeah.
A
Oh, wow.
B
Not during summer blockbuster season, not during fall awards season, not, you know, during any of the times where people go to the movies just in January, people trying to escape the stress of the holidays, you might get a few of them. That's it. That's all you're gonna get. But I'm gonna name some I love, though, from January. Okay, so first of all, a movie from your side of the pond, Paddington 2, which came out in 2017. Have you ever seen this movie, Matt?
A
I've not seen Paddington one or two or three, I think is the third one.
B
Now there's a third one which I just saw also, and which is a delight.
A
Is it? Of course it is. I've only heard good things about Paddington, to be fair. It's everywhere.
B
They are such wholesome, sweet movies, but somehow they get the most, you know, Oscar caliber actors like Paddington 3 has Olivia Colman as an evil nun who is so good. All these movies just have Oscar winners left and right and a great sense of humor, and they always make me maybe cry a little bit at the end. They're great movies. But Paddington 2, which came out in 2017, has Paddington incarcerated and in jail.
A
Sorry, what?
B
Some people call Paddington too. Just Paddington in jail.
A
What happened in the first one? Paddington got done for tax fraud in the first film. Now he's the leader of a wing in Paddington too. How did he go to prison? That seems so out of character for what little I know about him as a bear.
B
You know, I can't even remember now why he's in jail. I just know that once he's in jail, he has to learn how to ingratiate himself to, you know, all the other incarcerated folks there and find the.
A
Biggest guy, punch him in the face.
B
Yeah. Cause that's what a two foot tall bear does. Yes, but it's just so sweet and wholesome, being, you know, out of sorts, being the misfit, feeling unsafe and then building community and making good friends and making the prison a better place. And by the end, it's like, this is the best prison in the world. I want to visit this prison. It's so sweet because Paddington just does his best to bring joy everywhere he goes. So I highly recommend Paddington 2.
A
Okay, I'll take your word for it and I will watch it. But that sounds like the most insane storyline for a film.
B
For a children's film especially. Yes.
A
Yeah.
B
Okay, kids, gather round. Watch this movie about your favorite stuffed bear going to prison in the showers.
A
No Paddington.
B
I think you would love it, Matt. I think you would.
A
I'll watch it. I will give it a go just for you.
B
Yes. And you know what? You can also tell me if you cry at the end, I will totally accept that.
A
All right, deal.
B
Okay. Another dump month movie I absolutely adore is something that perhaps you've heard of because Liam Neeson has a particular set of skills in this movie. Do you know what movie I'm talking about?
A
Oh, I absolutely love this film. I honestly think this is one of my favorite films of all time.
B
It is so good. 2009. Taken.
A
Taken, yes.
B
Do not mess with his daughter or you will come to regret it. That's pretty much the whole plot of Taken.
A
Oh, he'll get you.
B
Yeah, he will get you. And then as the movies progress, you can only kidnap his daughter so many times, so then it turns into other people who are. But people keep getting taken from Liam Neeson. But it all started with this movie. And it's so enjoyable to just watch Liam Neeson kick ass. And I forget, how old is he now? He's like 70 now. Something like that.
A
He's getting on.
B
Yeah, he's getting on. But Taken, I mean, technically, he's still middle aged in the first Taken and just watching a middle aged guy kick.
A
Butt, it's a great watch.
B
Especially Liam Neeson, who? I usually think of Liam Neeson as quite classy, but in this movie, he's just trouble. I find him so fun to watch, so funny.
A
He's a real, real street fighter in that as well. Oh, yeah, it's great. Also, there's weird, you know, sort of collateral things that you get from it. Like I still know how to say sugar in Albanian because of that film.
B
Say it.
A
Is it Albanian? You know, the. When he's trying to figure out if the guy's Albanian or not, and he says he wants Sugar for his tail or something. He says, how do you. How do you say sugar? And the guy goes, church. And he finds out he's Albanian because he knows the word for it. Something like that. Wow. But the sh. Shirtshe shirtshay. Something like that. Sorry to any Albanian listeners if I screwed that up. It's along those lines.
B
This is so great because I just think of Taken as entertainment, but clearly it's also an educational film for all of you out there.
A
It's the closest I've come to learning a second language.
B
Another dump movie I need to talk about because I love it so much is M3GAN, which came out in 2022. I think you pronounce it Megan, but there's a 3 that's backwards. M backward 3G, a N. Do you know this movie, Matt?
A
I am aware of it. I think you're right. I think Megan M backward 3 Gan is. It rolls off the tongue a little less than Megan, but yeah. Isn't it like sort of doll movie? One of those creepy doll things?
B
Yes, but is she really creepy? She just wants to protect the child that she's been assigned to. She's a companion robot. She's there to help a child feel less alone, to help the child feel more connected and socialized with the world. Is it really so bad that she loves the child and just will protect the child against anybody, including their own family members? Is that so wrong? Maybe Megan's not such a bad robot. Or maybe she is.
A
Oh, okay. It's starting to sound like A. Like Paddington 4 trying to look after people.
B
Paddington versus Megan. Yeah, that's like in the next.
A
That'd be a great one. Yeah, like Sharknay does. Yeah. Or what's. What is it like, what's the mad one? It's like Shark versus T. Rex or something.
B
Oh, yes.
A
Anyway, Megan versus Paddington. Get that made.
B
Oh, yes, please do. Huggable, scary. Yeah. But one thing I really love about M3gan is it gives me the same feeling as some of the smart episodes of Black Mirror. You know, has technology gone too far? When is technology a comfort and when is it crossing lines? But Also, I think M3gan's just a funny movie. I find it pretty hilarious.
A
And is it supposed to be like that? Like a kind. Like a bit camp? One of those sort of horror films? Yeah.
B
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's making fun of horror movies. It's making fun of itself through the whole thing. So I think it's just a rollicking good time.
A
Okay, that does sound up my street as well, because I do love Black Mirror as well. I think Black Mirror is one of my favorite series ever.
B
Well, then I think you like Megan, because I always have felt like Megan is almost like a. An extra long episode of Black Mirror. You know how Black Mirror has some of those episodes that are almost like feature length films.
A
Okay, cool. Well, that's interesting. Pretty prescient at a time like this, isn't it, with AI and whatnot.
B
Yeah, yeah.
A
Something to think about.
B
I just wanna shout out one other Dump Month movie that I absolutely love and that belied all expectations because it did end up being an Oscar winner. Get Out. Did you ever see Get Out, Matt?
A
Yes, I did. Yeah, I loved it. It's great. Really enjoyed it.
B
So great. So get out came out in 2017. The movie follows a young black man who's invited back to the childhood home of his white girlfriend to meet the parents. But once he's there, it's clear that something sinister is going on. It's a movie with great social critique, with some great creepiness, some great scares, and also some good laughs as well. Highly recommend. And again, gotta mention, it's an Oscar winner. It was nominated for four Oscars and it won one of the Oscars. It's a great movie. Really, really fantastic. And so that's not a dump movie, in my opinion. That could have come out any time of year and people would have loved it.
A
Oh, I agree. Did you take the chance on it when it first came out? Because I think I didn't watch it until probably like two years ago. So it was already once I knew it had won things. That's when I watched it. But did you watch it? Cause you love a dump movie.
B
I think I watched it a few weeks after it came out. I didn't go opening weekend, but I did watch it pretty early on. And I just remember thinking, this is brilliant. This is not what I think of Key and Peele being. Because Jordan Peele is the maker of this movie and he and Keegan Michael Key used to have this comedy show together. Key and Peele, that was their act. And it was so silly and, you know, it was smart, but it was also dumb at times. So I was just so surprised that coming out of this team, we get Jordan Peele making this movie. And it just completely blew me away. I was not expecting the movie to be that smart and that funny and recommend to everybody out there. So, yeah, everyone seek it out. It's great.
A
You should. I had a quick look into Dump Month movies. I found out that one of my other favorite films was actually a Dump Month movie as well.
B
Which one?
A
Did you ever see Snatch?
B
Oh, gosh, I think I saw it when it first came out. Isn't that movie, like. That's gotta be at least 15 years old by now, right?
A
I think it's 2001. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
B
I've lost track of time. So I'm just 25 years off. Yeah, it's.
A
Yeah. Oh, my God. That's depressing, though, isn't it? That was. Yeah, 25 years, quarter of a century ago. Oh, my word. What a great film, though. I. Absolutely. It's got everything. Snatch. And I think it's still. I think it's probably one of those. That. Would you say it was maybe more for the viewer than the critics when it first came out? I assume, because it's a real. It seems like a. More of a cult hit than a.
B
Critical hit, and yet it has so much talent in it, and it's so fun.
A
That's the weird thing. It's an unbelievable cast, isn't it?
B
Yeah. I love me some Jason Statham. Brad Pitt's in it. Benicio Del Toro, who is an Oscar winner, I believe. Definitely an Oscar nominee. So it's star packed and it's just ridiculous. And it's a lot of fun.
A
It's fun. Yeah. Alan Ford as well. He's one of my favorites. He plays Bricktop. It's the real sort of old London gangster. Gangster look.
B
Yeah. And that's pretty much what the whole movie is. It's like London gangster guys getting into fist fights and getting up to no good, but in a really, very snappy way. I feel like when this movie came out, the editing and the way it was put together, people were like, oh, this is so propulsive and high energy. And it was just a different kind of version of a movie. It wasn't like, slow ambling in the same way that Godfather was at all. This was just like, snap, snap, snap. That's how I think of Snatch being.
A
Yeah. Sort of like a cartoon. It's really over the top and silly. It's a real Guy Ritchie, like, dark comedy. Yes. It's just great. If you've not seen it, you should watch it.
B
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Oh, that's so great that there's a Dump movie on your list you love, too.
A
Yeah, I had no idea.
B
Also, just want to shout out a few others for any listeners out there who may still be doubting us. Some other movies that came out during Dump Month over the years, Waiting for Guffman in 1997. Tremors in 1990, which I love. The original Paddington, which I mentioned. MASH, which came out in 1970. Bad Boys for life. The penultimate bad boys movie. Silence of the lambs before sunrise. Dr. Strangelove. So even though a lot of folks out there consider January the worst of all movie times, I'm just saying it's not. And. And even if the January movies you see really are just crap, they're still fun Sometimes. Sometimes the movies are so bad you'll Forget about them 15 minutes after you leave the theater. But that's okay. Sometimes that's all a movie needs to be, in my opinion. Yeah.
A
And you never know, you might end up watching the next Silence of the Lambs. And then you can tell everybody that you saw it before it was big.
B
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Bragging rights.
A
Yeah.
B
You were in the movie theater in January ahead of it all. Yeah. So, Matt, that concludes my mini tutorial on Dump month. And with that, shall we call it a night? Matt, I'm pretty tired.
A
We probably should, I think. Yeah.
B
All right. Well, good night, Matt.
A
Night, Kristen.
B
Cheerio.
A
To learn more about our phone free light and audio experience, head to Hatch co. You can also follow us at HatchPodcasts.
The Nightly – “Paddington in Prison & Other January Classics”
Podcast by: Hatch Podcasts
Hosts: Matt & Kristen
Date: January 28, 2026
In this cozy, pop culture-infused bedtime episode, Matt and Kristen sink into “dump month” (aka January)—the period Hollywood notoriously reserves for its least-hopeful releases. They explore why these “bad movie” months are unfairly maligned, share their love of so-called January classics, and debate the highs, lows, and downright weird premises of some memorable releases. The conversation wanders through their own quirky rituals, with friendly banter about haircuts, cultural greetings, and the joys of finding comfort in unexpected places—including the world’s most wholesome bear serving hard time.
Relaxed, witty, and gently nostalgic, this episode champions finding comfort and joy in low expectations—whether from a dump month movie or a routine haircut. Kristen and Matt’s playful banter celebrates pop-culture oddities while encouraging listeners to see January in a new light. It’s proof that sometimes, the movies meant to be forgettable are the ones you remember most fondly.
Good night, and enjoy your next “bad” movie. Cheerio!