From the dungeons of Morningstar, my name is
Clint. You happy with that take? Yep. An arm
stretch. And this is Prevailing Strange. I'm
keeping that. Welcome back, guys, to our Week
in Review, a segment of Prevailing Strange where
we talk about some of the content that we've
checked out this week. Like Sasquatch Summer.
What have we watched this week, buddy? I want
to watch Sasquatch Summer next week, but we're
not going to. But I did watch a movie that I
honestly, for all money, thought I was going
to hate. Man, all the buzz around it, I probably
wouldn't have watched it unless that was the
case. Honestly, dude. chased or sought out. Baz
Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet is basically the
only sort of interaction I've had with William
Shakespeare. Steph loves it. It was weird. It
was stunning, dude. But that weren't the book.
That weren't the story. That was just the way
the bloke made it. It was beautiful. We're talking
about Hamnet. Yes, we are. Or, as I found out
at the start. Hamlet. I didn't know that. Yeah.
Oscar nominated Best Picture. Didn't get it.
It was also nominated for Best Costumes. Didn't
get it. Directing by Chloe Zhao. Didn't get it.
An original score, which I didn't get. But Jessie
Buckley. Mate. Got Best Actress for it. Hands
down the best part about this movie. She was
incredible. And I've never seen her in anything
before. No. She was incredible, dude. And she
backed it up with Bride. Is she the Bride? Bride
Frankenstein, yeah. There you go. I'll probably
check that out as well. But, yeah, this movie,
it left me broken. Yeah. Well, all right, here
we go. I'm going to read you my review. Okay.
All right. So going into Hamnet, I'll be honest.
I was expecting a bit of a slow, artsy slog,
you know, at the time. Lots of staring into the
distance, not much happening, and at the start,
yeah, you kind of feel like that. As soon as
it started, I'm like, I'm not going to like this.
And I don't like the main actor. I don't like
the lead male actor. He is one of the poorest
excuses for an actor I've ever seen, and the
only time I liked him in this was at the end.
The biggest letdown early on is definitely Paul
Muskell. I don't think he's a good actor at all.
He plays William Shakespeare. I didn't know that
that was Will Shakespeare because they don't
mention him by name until right at the end. Yeah.
Had no idea. Anyway. So it didn't grab me at
all. His performance didn't grab me at all. It
felt so flat and it just felt like a different
movie. But stick with it anyway. The rest of
the cast absolutely carried this film. The real
MVPs was definitely Jesse Buckley as Agnes. Straight
up phenomenal. Emily Watson, man, in such a small,
small role. Impactful though. So impactful. So
impactful and just absolutely kills it. Brought
so much emotional weight to it. Jo Alwyn, solid
support cast, but Buckley especially. She's the
reason this film works. Just her veracity in
the opening bit when it's just her in the forest
with the falcon and that. Fantastic. She really,
really, really killed it. So the film follows
William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, dealing
with the loss and how grief eventually leads
to the creation of Hamlet. I had no idea. I've
never watched Hamlet, never read Hamlet, never
let anyone that's ever spoken about Hamlet be
around me because I don't want that sort of negativity.
Well, you have. Do you like William Shakespeare?
You've watched Sons of Anarchy. It's based on
Hamlet. Hamlet. Shush. It's not based on Hamlet,
is it? Yeah, it is. No. His mum didn't betray
him. In Sons of Anarchy, the mum was the betrayer.
The son lived. The father died. It's literally
from the old mate's mouth. He based it on Hamlet.
He hasn't read Hamlet because he's a mong. About
halfway. About halfway through the film, something
clicks, and you stop worrying about whether it's
boring and start actually feeling the emotion
these characters are pulling in through this
whole movie. Critics have called it emotionally
shattering, and I 100 % believe that. So, yeah,
the director, Chloe Zhao, I think absolutely
smashed it. I think she'd done an incredible
job. And you've got to think about the movies
that she's made before this. Completely different.
She made a superhero film. Well, I was going
to say, from the opening, I could tell it was
Chloe Zhao because of, like, the scenery, the
scenery shots in that forest, the way the symbolism
of that hole throughout the movie. Still guessing.
I have no idea what the hole meant. That's the
veil. That's the crossing over to the other side.
That is death. The afterlife. Right. And the
whole time, Jessie Buckley's character, Agnes,
kind of flirted around with her witchcraftery.
Yep. And you always see that black doorway. And
then right at the end, he walks out of the black
doorway. You view him when he's on the other
side through the curtain. It's very symbolic,
this movie. Yeah. Yeah. Well done. Holy shit.
Never really connected that. Chloe Zhao, she
directed Nomadland, which won Best Picture, Eternals.
This one feels more like Nomadland. Quite emotional,
character -driven. Based on the best -selling
novel by Maggie O 'Farrell and filmed mostly
in England and Wales. Won a People's Choice Award
at the TIFF and was a big Oscar prediction. Made
$100 million worldwide on a $30 million budget.
And I legit think, mate, that this should have
done a lot better at the Oscars than it did.
I'm not really an art film kind of person, but
this made me feel things like Marrowbone did. I
was thinking at the end, I kind of had that feeling
at the end of Marabone that, whoa, that just,
I experienced that movie. I didn't just watch
it. 100%. Experienced it. I don't think it was
best picture, definitely. I don't think it was.
No. Costume fell short, like didn't fall short,
was well done. Yeah. However, though, I honestly
don't think one battle after another should have
been best picture neither. That's the truth,
man. I don't know how that won. Yeah. It was
good. I'm not taking away that it wasn't good.
It was a good film. Yeah. If I was to put that
and this beside each other, I'd pick this any
day. This had this, I was a wrung out towel at
the end of this, man. I was just exhausted. Yeah,
I feel that. The difference between them two,
I think, is there's a whole lot more better performances
in one battle after another where there's one
super outstanding one in Hamnet. Don't get me
wrong, there is plenty good about it, but like
your Leo. You've got – Yeah, but Leo and Sean
Penn were the – Sean Penn. Oh, no. Benicio Del
Toro was also great in that. And his girlfriend
was fantastic as well. Yeah. And his daughter
in the movie, Chase Infinity, all great. Yeah.
Great cinematography. There's a whole lot more
kind of going for that movie than Hamlet, which
is a great story and emotional punch. It just
– One Battle After Another had a whole lot more
kind of, it had more quantity over quality of
one thing. You know what I mean? Right. I don't
know. I don't know. I guess I just didn't feel,
like you said, you experienced this movie. You
didn't just watch it. I just watched One Battle
After Another. Yeah. I mean, you felt contempt
for Penn. You felt that movie in a different
way. I hated him. Yeah. But he hated him. I loved
him because he'd done such an insanely great
job. Well earned. Well, I love Jessie Buckley
in this because she broke my fucking heart. Hard,
dude. Yeah. So, like, I think they've both got
chops. Okay. So now we're going to delve into,
we're going to spit some spoilers at you. When
she reaches her hand out at the end. onto that
fucking stage. Sorry for swearing. And the first
thing she does when she meets Paul Mescal's
character is she grabs him on the hand and sort
of pushes like this. And you don't really know
until maybe midway through and he's like, when
you did that, you could see who I was and what
I was going to do, didn't you? At the very end,
the person playing her son, when she grabs his
hand and she does that, mate. So, you know, there's
a whole symbology. You know how she assaulted
Hamnet in the courtyard of their little house
when Will had gone away and how he's going to
be on stage and doing the sword fighting. And
at the end, his character is based on him sword
fighting. Yeah, there's a whole lot of introspective
kind of symbology in this whole movie that, yeah.
I think the reason why the only redeeming thing
for me with Paul Mescal, his character, even
his job in acting in his film, it wasn't the
acting that he was doing that was making me feel
emotional. It was my son that was making me feel
emotional. I was bringing me into it. It wasn't
him doing a great job. It was me bringing Logan
into it and feeling all that stuff. Like, how
would I feel? Oh, my God. I don't know, man.
Like that part where he comes home and he gets
there late and he comes in the door and he sees
his daughter and he thinks like he thought he
was late. You could see the weight on him. And
then he sees his daughter and he's ecstatic.
And then he sees somebody. But still. And then
the next week he goes, I can't go back to London.
See what I mean? And I know they're trying to
tell a story of this and people's grief is subjective.
Everybody goes through something differently
and all that sort of stuff. That annoyed me.
Yeah. Because that little boy did exactly what
you told him to do and now you're just going
to go back to work. Yeah. But at the same time,
the way I looked at it, I'm going to try not
to cry. The fact that he goes away to work, it's
kind of reflective of the way that I spend a
lot of time away from home working every day
and I only have a certain amount of time with
my kids during the day and that I can understand
his whilst not only is he following his talent
because he was no good at anything at home. No.
He couldn't do gloves. Couldn't do all that kind
of crap. But he could write and direct and see
stories and stuff like that. And she saw that
in him early on. And that's where he needed to
go for it. But she couldn't leave the forest.
No. Well, she didn't want to leave that house
because that's where Hamlet died. She didn't
want to leave the forest. Yeah. But that was
in the end because that's where he died. with
that grief. It's not like he's going there to
live it up and they show that when he's living
in that little hole. Yeah. But in the same thing,
you've still got two children. Just because you're
sad doesn't mean you get to abandon your family
and you abandon your kids. I don't give a shit
what your path is. If you're a dad, your path
is to be a dad. Mate, mate. No offence, it's
only in the last kind of generation where men
have actually been fathers. Yeah, you're right.
Yeah, you're not wrong. Back then, they would
sire a child and they would do their work. See
you later. Yeah, there was no real place for
that. It was a different time. You're looking
at it subjectively from our point of view. You
are right, yeah. I'm putting myself in it instead
of. And, like, it wouldn't have been easy for
him. Well, that's the thing. You think that he's,
the whole way, the tail end of this movie, you
think he's not grieving. But that story that
he wrote that has transcended time and space,
we're still talking about it, what, 140 years
later? We're still talking about Hamlet. And
they're making shows based on it, like Sons of
Anarchy, which I just looked up, and that is
the case. So you think about that play at the
end there. So his dad, who died, is his ghost
in the first season of Sons of Anarchy. He is
the prince. He dies in the end. He's the king.
He's his stepfather. He's Ron Perlman. The queen
dies. Does she die? No, she doesn't die on the
TV show. He said it's based on it. Like it's
loosely based on. Yeah, right. I was going to
say because, yeah, the mother didn't betray her
children in there. And like the king's court,
the knights, like it's all, it's Hamlet. And
it's a story that. Well, I guess that wasn't
Hamlet that we watched anyway. That was the making
of Hamlet sort of thing. Well, that was the first
showing of Hamlet. Yeah. So you're probably right.
That probably was based on it. We didn't watch
Hamlet. We watched Hamnet. We watched Hamnet.
So you're probably right. No, the. No, no, no.
No, no, no. I'm agreeing with you. I'm like the
movie Hamlet or the story Hamlet probably does
have that story in it. Yeah. I'm thinking of
Hamlet. Oh, no. The movie we just watched is
not. Not based. Exactly. There we go. The stage
play that was written. There we go. Yes. That's
probably where I'm jumping off the deep end and
going, you're a fucking liar. You're a fucking
liar. So this got 87 % from 336 critics on Rotten
Tomatoes. It's 7 .9 out of 10 on IMDb, and it
is 4 .2 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd. So Letterboxd
is more people, where that's the critic score.
It got a whole lot higher score, I think it was
93 % on Rotten Tomatoes, from people who have
watched it. I think it resonates with people.
Oh, 100%. I really think you should stop reading
critics. I hate critics, man. I'm not going on
any one thing. This is just a metric to kind
of set a baseline and we're talking about how
we feel about it. I honestly thought I was going
to hate it. Not going to lie, I'll probably re
-watch this. It was beautiful. The story was
incredible. It made me change my mind about arthouse
film. and that sort of thing. Like I was all
for money just phoning this in. I'm like, I have
to watch this, so I'm going to watch it. And
then I could really focus and sort of – I could
have stopped tattooing just to sit there and
watch it. It was beautiful, well shot. Yeah,
it was beautiful to look at. And some of the
scenery in that forest where she kind of hung
out a fair bit. Even – The way the roots hugged
her when she was laying down in the fetal position,
it was like she was in the womb and the sort
of forest was hugging her and she was on the
ground. It looked incredible. Even the funeral
for the falcon. I didn't see that bit. You didn't
see that bit? No. Okay, so you probably have
to rewatch it because that was kind of like a.
Foreshadowing? Foreshadowing, yeah. It's foreshadowing
for Hamnet's demise and then you see. a falcon
in the sky when he's coming home and he has to
change horses over because you can't ride a horse
all the way home because he'll kill it. Yeah,
there is a lot of – it's probably well worth
another watch if you weren't 100 % invested in
it in the first place. Yeah. I think when you
– when he's in the bed and he's talking to his
sister and he's like, we can trick death. Oh,
my. God. And that foreshadowing when they're
dressed up as each other, when he first comes
back home and he pretends that, oh, I couldn't
tell which one was which, and then it happens
again. Yeah. Yeah, I think it is pretty well
crafted, this movie. I think it's great, man.
I think it was really good. I'm going to give
it a 3 .8. I'm going a solid four. Yeah. I thought
this was, I thought it was beautiful. Yeah. Chloe's
out. Mate, take a bow. This was really, really
great. I haven't watched, no, I have watched
three, no, not three billboards. Nomadland. I
haven't watched Nomadland. Yeah. I really believe
she needs to come back for the Eternals too.
And someone needs to make that. I mean, I think.
I don't think they could do an Eternals 2. I
think Eternals need to show up in other movies.
They don't need to be, doesn't need to be their
own. I agree. That was an introductory movie.
Yeah, I do agree with that. Yeah, and I think
it was great. I thought it was good. I really
did. I really thought it was good. But, yeah,
this one, mate, really, really surprised me.
Thank you. No worries. Next week we're going
to check out Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die.
Sam Rockwell, sci -fi, maybe. We don't know.
We don't know. But the trailer looks insane.
It does. It looks fun. And I'm always down for
quirky sci -fi. Insanity, same. But, yeah, so
good luck, have fun, don't die. That's my choice.
What a name for a movie. Great. Yeah, kind of
one of the only notes I really had for this was
I'm glad I didn't see this in the cinema. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm glad I washed at the tattoo shop so
I can stifle my tears. Yeah, no, I was at home
and just constant tears. Yeah, that'll last.
When his sister falls ill, the tears started
then because I'm like, oh, now it's going to
happen. But I didn't know it was going to happen.
Oh, I knew it was going to happen because. The
name of the movie. Well, I thought he might have
saved the family. I thought he could have done
some good things. But it wasn't. Hamlet dies.
And it's sad as shit. And it made me feel things
that I didn't think I wanted to feel. But, yeah.
Thanks for joining us, guys, for another week
in review. The movie was so heavy. So beautiful.
Paul Mescal should quit acting now. Please,
guys, like, follow, subscribe. Tell us what you
think about Hamlet. Hamlet. We've got to say
Hamlet because Hamlet and Hamlet are the same
word, didn't it? It's like his wife's name is
Agnes, but they pronounce it Agnes because they
don't pronounce it with a hard G. Oh, right.
Agnes. Agnes, yeah. I was going to say something,
but I'm not going to. Please, guys, see us on
Wednesday. Friday. Friday? Yeah, this is the
second episode. Did you know that we've done
50 episodes already, Jeremy? I did. You told
me earlier. I did. Please, guys, like, comment,
subscribe, follow along. Tell us what you thought
of Hamnet.