So Ben, I think it's fair to say that mental health comes with its ups and downs.
Yep.
And as having a podcast with both of us who've got mental health issues,
it's quite nice because sometimes one of us picks the other one up.
Yeah.
And sometimes both of us are up.
Yeah, yeah. They're the good ones.
Yeah.
What do we do when we're both down?
Hahaha.
Drown, I guess. I don't know. Both free fall.
Let's see how we feel after this, shall we?
Let's get the show going.
Alright, yeah.
So.
Hello everyone and welcome to the Every Move Ever podcast. My name is Ben Groves.
And my name is Rob Macfarlane. Welcome to the show, a movie podcast slash mental health check-in,
a very needed one.
Yes.
The two broken brained best friends talking around their problems,
but not about their problems. I mean, we'll see.
Whilst laughing at movies.
Yeah.
Yeah. Look, look, it's a rough one this week. We're going to do it.
I had a laugh with this one.
Yeah. It wasn't a happy laugh. It was sheer rage, but it was sort of like a, it was a laugh.
There was some chuckles in there.
I, we got so much to get into. Let's, let's first of all deal with the most important thing, Ben.
How are you?
Yeah, great, mate. F***ing buzzard.
I keep sitting in, I keep sitting in my, my family house spare room earning,
when I break down my salary earning roughly seven to eight pounds per hour at the age of 36.
And then I think, five years ago, I was really f***ing close to six figures.
Swear Joe.
Oh, I'm keeping that one in. It's one.
Is this, this fine. And more my day just got better.
Yeah, it did.
So I'm looking back, Ben, sort of like I was, I was like a, a Nat's wing. There you go.
There we go.
I was a Nat's wing away from six figures five years ago.
Yeah.
And now I'm 36 sitting in a spare room and a family house earning seven to eight pounds an hour.
When you really break down my salary. It's really good. I spent all day with a, with a migraine.
Well, that was nice. I vomited in an alleyway to work.
Migraine. Well, that was nice. I vomited in an alleyway twice,
rinse my mouth out with mouthwash and then immediately went back to work.
It was, it was really fun, man. It was, it was the one. How are you buddy?
Well, I feel like I've really put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure that David
Fincher is right, that we really nail this series. And I've sort of turned it into a big
Gollum where I'm like, this, this just dominates my mind. I'm like, we've got to nail Fincher.
We've got to really do the job with Fincher. And then I've looked at our week and gone,
we've got about 45 minutes to record an episode tonight. And then we've just got a million and
one things to do until it's released. And I'm going, Oh God, we're failing. We're already
failing. And I'm just in a spiral of like the one thing in my life that I really unequivocally
enjoy with no complexity, sitting down with you, talking, talking with talking about movies.
Yeah. And we've barely got time to do that. So Ben, what are we doing this week besides
drowning in our mental health issues? Well, this week, buddy, we are back on our Fincher train.
We're covering every David Fincher movie ever. Yeah. And having nailed our episodes on alien
three and seven, we're diving headfirst into the game. The late 2000s rapper, right? Yeah. No,
yeah, no, no, no. But the reason, the reason I asked that is because very few people remember
this film. Good. I don't remember this film all that well before I started watching it.
Name a song by the rapper, the game game gone, give it to you. I don't know. I don't know any.
Right. Exactly. There we go. I think, I think the game, it's a poor title for your artistic
projects because no one remembers it. And when they do revisit, they're disappointed. I think
Fincher got got messed over on this. So he called this movie, the game writers, our generation
invented the game where I'm not sure if you remember the rules of the game, but if you think of the
game, you lose the game. You know what I mean? So we've just lost the game. All of our listeners
have just lost the game. You're welcome, by the way, Fincher, biggest loss of all, because
apparently our generation is just absolute nonsense that's just been let to survive on their own,
without carers or direction. We've got a lot to get into this week, though. We're going to get into
what David Fincher was up to after the release of Seven. We're going to get into this film is
nonsense, Rob. Yes, but we're going to get into why this film might be nonsense. We're going to
get into who am I supposed to be rooting for in this capitalist sob story about a sad millionaire?
And I'm going to rebut that with probably the human being at the center of it. Yeah. Okay. All
right. Yeah, fine. I'm excited for this one because to be honest, I watched this film and was a little
bit like, I might hate Rob, but I also might hate David Fincher. I don't know where the rage goes,
but it needs to leave. Both of those are incredibly valid things to think and feel.
However, I think David Fincher, you've been a bit unfair because he's more than a director now. He's
an institution and I think it's important with any institution, you see how it got there. You see how
the man became the myth, became the legendary OCD has to be in control at every moment. Can't let go
monster with a movie camera. Okay. Okay. I'm down for this question for you, Ben. Hit me with it.
Where Fincher at? Where that man been? What that Fincher do? What that Fincher do since Seven? So
the release of Seven saw widespread critical acclaim for Fincher as a director. The movie
pulled in $300 plus million at the box office, which is insane. And Richard Francis Bruce was
nominated at the Academy Awards for best editing. He was. Now Fincher decided to strike while the
album's hot and immediately get working on his next feature. But he did moonlight a little bit
and do a music video for a super forgettable song by a super forgettable band. He's got buzz about
him. He's had a hit, but you know, it's make or break time now for Fincher. Are you going to,
are you going to say the name of the song or the band? I am, mate, but I have to Google it
because I've forgotten. Okay. Cause I know that sounds like a bit, but I was going to say if this
is a bit that's driven me literally insane. And my skin feels like it's covered in ants right now.
It was, it was the wall flowers. Right. Yeah. Okay. Remember the wall flowers? Remember their hit
song, sixth Avenue heartbreak? No, no. See the point. Yeah, you did. All right. Yeah. At least
my skin's not on fire now. So that's nice. True. When and where, mate, when and where was this,
was this magnum opus of things that you hate in film made? Cast your mind back with me, Rob.
Ready? All right. It's 1997. Tony Blair has just been elected as prime minister of the UK.
Yes. The heaven's gate cult have all just killed themselves. Even better. Titanic is ruling the
box office as we speak. I actually quite enjoy that film. Yeah, sure. The best CGI I've ever
seen is in Titanic. Yeah. I'm going to show you some clips. It's fine for the time. It's fine for
the time. No, it isn't. It's, it's, it's melted Sims. Okay. Princess Diana dies like a phone signal
in a tunnel. David Fincher is given $70 million to make the game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How
much did it make? Stick around to find out. Cause Rob's going to be telling me it cause I don't know
it. I want to know it cause it's going to make me angry. Um, what does this for mean to you, Ben?
I'm desperate to know cause I you've, you've seen this before, right? No, this was my first time
watching it for this episode, right? It's my very first time. I didn't even know that this film
existed. And to be honest, that's probably a blessing because if I had have seen this film
before, it would have been once and once only, right? Cause this film made me hate Fincher a
little bit. No, no, no, no. Okay. I'm, I'm, I'm coming off strong and it's because I'm in,
I'm in a bit of a pout. I'm coming off strong. It didn't make me hate Fincher a bit. The, the
film is gorgeous. It's shot incredibly well. It's, it's a super, super delicate, beautifully
well-made film. It's just, the story is absolute waffle for me, man. There is nothing for me in
this story whatsoever. All of it's nonsense. All of it's stupid. Right. The worst thing about these
films, right. Is I get that it's supposed to be like the twisty turning. Who can you trust?
Yeah. I called it immediately and then just watched it play out. And I was thinking, oh,
I can't wait for Fincher to prove me wrong. I'm going to feel like such an idiot. And then when
the ending came around and I was like, I hate, I hate that I got this. I hate it because I said
something stupid because I was like, oh, this is going to be like a stupid thing. No, it was it.
That was it. I think I saw this film many, many years ago. Okay. And I think I remembered it as,
oh, it's kind of interesting. It's not the greatest, but it's, you know, it's a bit paranoid.
It's a bit delusional. It's a little bit like, oh, what's real. Okay. I rewatched it thinking
I knew what the film was and I was struck by how incredibly dull and slow and predictable it was.
Yeah. But then I looked around at what it meant to everyone else and that there are people who
truly love this. They go, oh, it's a classic. It's this, that or the other. Yeah. And I think
I know why. We're going to get into it. But before we do, for the people that have seen this film,
I want to be reminded a little bit of, you know, maybe people like me who thought they knew what
they were getting into. We're going to remind you, we're going to break down the plot. For
people who are planning to watch this and haven't yet. Now's your chance to pause and see. All right.
Now's your chance to kind of go, I'm going to pause there. It's just spoiler warning.
But immediately come back, immediately return to us. Come home. Come home. You know, welcome in.
The water's just right. Settle in. Oh my God. We sound like Heaven's Gate now.
Drink the Kool-Aid. We've got new Nike shoes.
I think Heaven's Gate were a bit chirpier though. I think they were like, yay,
come with us and drink the Kool-Aid. We're a little bit more like, oh, fucking hell.
Swear jar, Rob. Swear jar. Well, that's one each now. All right.
All right. There we go. I'm not happy about it, but that's fine.
Shall we play the jingle?
Having a breakdown.
We are having a breakdown. What are we doing on air?
I don't know.
Why are we doing this? I just want to take a romantic bath with a toaster.
New York Times. He's a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
Oh God. Even my toaster left me. You know what I mean? That's how it's done it.
Nicholas Van Orton is a wealthy investment banker living a cold, isolated life. On his
48th birthday, his estranged brother, Conrad, played by Sean Penn, re-enters his life and
very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
very, very, very, very very good for you.
After undergoing a series of psychological and physical tests, he is told that The Game will
soon begin and will transform his life in unexpected ways.
The game starts subtly, with seemingly minor disruptions to Nicholas's orderly life,
but soon escalates into a series of increasingly surreal and dangerous events. His bank accounts
are drained, his house is vandalised, and he is pursued by unknown assailants. At first,
Nicholas believes the game to be a cleverly orchestrated form of entertainment, but as the
danger intensifies, he begins to lose control and becomes increasingly paranoid. He suspects that
CRS is a front for a criminal conspiracy designed to ruin him. This sets up the central
theme of the film, the dissolution of Nicholas' sense of control, then his descent into chaos,
a journey that mirrors the unravelling of his carefully curated life. As Nicholas' paranoia
peaks, he becomes convinced that everyone around him is part of the conspiracy, including his brother
Conrad. He believes that the game has blurred the lines between reality and fiction, pushing him
towards psychological collapse. The game forces Nicholas into situations that strip away his rationality,
echoing the idea that his carefully constructed identity is just a facade. The film suggests that
true growth can only come from experiencing vulnerability, a stark contrast to Nicholas' rigid
adherence to power and dominance. In the climax, Nicholas seemingly reaches his breaking point when
in a final confrontation with CRS, he accidentally shoots Conrad. Overwhelmed with guilt and grief,
he jumps from the roof of a building, apparently intending to end his life. However, he crashes
through a glass ceiling into a stage setup, where he learns that everything, including Conrad's death,
was part of the game. The final revelation is both shocking and cathartic.
Luke
I've written this specifically to trigger you.
Sam
Because that was sheer rage bubble that just hit my throat. That wasn't stomach acid. That was rage.
Both shocking and cathartic, as Nicholas realizes that the game was designed to break him down
emotionally in order to rebuild him. Like some sort of weird toxic ex. The orchestrated nature
of his downfall suggests that, paradoxically, Nicholas had to lose everything to gain a sense
of personal freedom and self-awareness. So just a quick recap, multi-multi-multi-millionaire,
who owns hectic acres of land in downtown San Francisco, is a hedge fund investment banker,
is a bit sad and lonely, so the entire world bends to him to make him learn a lesson of
you should really take a look around and appreciate what you got buddy.
Luke
Yeah.
Sam
Yeah. The end? Yeah. Fantastic. Excellent film. This film is nonsense.
Luke
It is.
Sam
This film is pure nonsense. It's incredibly well shot. It's a beautiful film to look at.
The acting is insane. It's incredible. The thing that gets me is that at every point the film asks
you to suspend disbelief, it then immediately increases the nonsense tenfold and is like,
we've done it a bit. Just come on, just do the next bit. Just see how you feel at the next one.
And then it increases its nonsense tenfold. And it's like, well, you've done it before.
Just do it again. You know what I mean? And at the end of the film, I felt like I was Nicholas,
because I was just going along with it, not knowing if I could trust Fincher anymore. And I was still
doing the stuff that he was telling me not to do. Okay. That's fascinating. I was going to bring
this up earlier, but part of, I didn't enjoy this film either. I found it dull. I found it unbelievable
and I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for all sorts of things. You know, Godzilla X Kong, love it.
Luke
Tremors best film I've ever seen. You know what I mean?
Sam
This, it just didn't do it. It didn't do it. I get that some people suspended their disbelief,
enjoyed it. I didn't. But the thing that I found interesting about what you said is that you were
left like Nicholas. You didn't know if you could trust or enjoy David Fincher. And David Fincher
says again and again in his interviews that what he wanted to do with this film, not what he
achieved. He doesn't claim that. Okay. Or what he was attempting to do was play with the mystery
genre. He does that. He does do that. He constantly goes on about like, whenever I shoot something,
I have to, I'm telling the audience that they have to pay attention. If I just throw a shot of a
draw into the middle of a scene halfway through, the audience is now going, there's something in
that drawer. Oh my God. The amount of times, dude, there is so much, there are so many tiny
details I paid attention to for no reason because they meant nothing, but they were so prevalent.
There's a, there's a reoccurring theme with flowers and it's one bouquet of flowers that
I spotted in a hotel lobby, just some woman carrying a jar of flowers. And I was like,
that's going to come back. But it doesn't mean anything. They came back twice, same flowers.
And they're, they're sort of degrading as time goes on as flowers would. It meant nothing,
meant nothing to no one. There was no reason for it to be. There was no reason whatsoever.
The only thing that I got from it was I was like, okay, so all that's told me is that the woman with
the flowers is in on the game. And then that was it. That was the, that's the end of my investigation.
I'm back being a little kid with a German pocket dictionary, pretending it's a mystery novel. Do
you know what I mean? Like that's, that's just it. The thing, the thing that really got to me about,
about the, the nonsensical story is suspended belief is entirely fine. Like I, I can,
I do it daily. Whenever I watch a film of my choosing, I suspend my belief indefinitely.
Yes. The only thing with doing that is that it comes in sort of a broad sense. It's never,
it's never laser focused suspended disbelief. The, am I allowed to talk about the end of the
film where he, we've mentioned it in the breakdown, but you know the bit where he's, he's struck with
grief at shooting Conrad. There are two moments here that snapped me out of it wildly because
he's on top of a massive, massive building. Oh yeah. It's like 90 stories. Yeah. And he's
surrounded by people, right? There is, there is a whole roof for him to choose of where to jump from.
He's got 360 degrees of freedom as to where he throws himself off this building. CRS have planned
the exact point that he is going to throw himself off. Not just the point of where he's going to
throw himself off, but they've also pre-calculated the velocity, the depth of everything, the distance
that he's going to fall. And he essentially falls onto one of those big blow up stunt man mattresses.
And it happened and I was like, okay, all right, listen, all right, that's, that's ridiculous.
But maybe they have some sort of like weird minority report, three cognitives, like in a swimming pool
in the bathroom. They're trying, they're trying, they're trying to hint that with the testing at
the start. They know him better than he knows. Right. Okay. They know everything about how he
thinks and how he makes decisions. And the second bit of that scene that broke me out of it, Rob,
is that it's brother Conrad makes it down 90 floors in the same through conventional mesh measures.
He, there is, there is lifts and stairs that are available to him. Right. Yeah. There is him and
two actors that make it down to the ground floor in the same amount of time that Nicholas does.
And Nicholas is free falling. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. It's the fact it's either time travel
or it's some sort of like enormous slide that was built into the building. So there are people
that are going to say like, Oh, you're just thinking about it too much. You know, it's just a film,
you two are nerds. And it's like, yeah, but we're not the ones, we're not the ones who've set out
the stall of think about this. Right. Finch has gone, apply real world rules and try and figure
this out. And then when we do, and it doesn't make sense, you can't then pull the rug and go, Oh,
we shouldn't be thinking so much. It's literally a mystery film. Yes. It's like someone saying,
do you want to come to the cinema with me? And then they drive you to a field and just throw eggs
at you for six hours. And you're like, this isn't a film. And they're like, no, just don't think about
it. I didn't set myself up for this. You've given me a premise that I've like gone into thinking
this is what's happening. And now I'm covered in eggs. I've got reasonings for all of this, but,
and why I think it, it's like this. Okay. But as a contemporary viewer, I think we've changed
habits a lot. And there were just little bits of it where I was going, can you imagine trying to
get insurance? Oh my days. For this game. Yes. Like if I just, if I just, like you be the CRS rep,
right. I'm trying to get insurance. I'll be the insurance company. Hello. Hi. Um, is this,
is this public liability? It is. Yes, it is. Yes. Well, hi, how are you doing? My name is,
my name is Derek. I'm phoning from a company called CRS. Um, brilliant. How can I help you
with insurance today? Right. So we need insurance. So essentially, um, there's a multimillionaire
in San Francisco is a bit sad. So what we've planned is the entire world is going to come to
a standstill and we're going to shoot live rounds of ammunition at him through, uh, walls, through
windows. Right. We're going to chase him down in cars. There is one part of our plan that involves
hiring an actor to pretend to be a taxi driver. The taxi driver is going to lock him inside a taxi
with child locks on. So obviously he can't escape. Um, but I'm hoping, I'm hoping that he has a crank
for a window that we've laid out somewhere previously, just in his, in his pocket. He hasn't
put it down anywhere before getting a taxi, cause that would be silly. And we're going to drive that
into a river and then just hope that he gets out in time. Okay. Um, also we're going to convince him
that he's killed his own brother with a gun that we hadn't planned for. We have, we've planned for
the gun. Don't worry. There's blanks in the gun. I don't want to cause a public insurance nightmare.
There's blanks in the gun, but he's, he's not going to know that he's going to think that this is new
information to us. He's going to shoot his brother. We're going to pretend that he's killed his
brother. He's going to be so grief stricken that he's going to throw himself off a building. It is,
there is no railings. There's no point of like jump here. It's a complete free will choice, but
what we've done is we've pre-cogged the exact point that he's going to be jumping from. And
we're just going to put a mattress there. Also, we're building an enormous 90 story slide to make
sure that his recently not shot brother can get down to the ballroom just in time for when the
man who's committed suicide lands on the mattress. Buddy, I would have hung up 20 minutes ago.
Yeah. Same to be honest. I would have been like, why is this my job? Why is this my job? Why do I
have to make this call? So yes, it is nonsense. It is nonsense. There are two things that I think
are going on. I think there's the way it was meant to be seen, which is long gone, right? I think
it's long gone. We'll get back to that. But I'm going to offer you a little olive branch here, Ben.
I agree with you. The film's not good, but it's more enjoyable if you choose to watch it this way.
Okay. What if you and I have had our issues about mental health, you know, the whole show is
structured around the fact that this is good for us to chat. Yeah. Who does Nicholas have to chat to?
His paid cleaner, his housewife. But he's not choosing to, right? He's not talking to anyone.
He's at the same age that his father was when his father killed himself by suicide.
He's under an extreme pressure, but he's also not happy. You and I have both been in situations
where we're just going through the motions, not because we enjoy the motions, but just because
that's kind of the easiest thing to do. Yeah. And then we got more and more unwell and we began to
lose touch with the reality a little bit. And I'm wondering if CRS is a sort of allegory for
accepting with open arms the consequences of not looking after yourself.
Oh. And then the whole film is him having a paranoid breakdown, ending with his suicide,
which the second he hits the ground, everyone's there, everyone's happy.
And everything's better. And everything's better because it's all fixed now.
Okay. That's terrifying because I hadn't thought of it that way. And also we were both massively
career driven. I sacrificed all of my relationships. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, hate that.
It makes the film make sense because all of the idiocy that happens in the plot,
it does look at it as an allegory for this man didn't take care of himself. And now,
because all of the stuff that happens to him is proper rich guy paranoia. They're going to take
my money. Does she want to fuck me? No, she wants to kill me. But also, swear to God, but also.
Three. That's three. But also the whole point of the world coming to a stop and him being
the literal main character of everything makes perfect sense. Attention, because it's his
breakdown and it's here. Oh my God. That's yeah. Is Fincher a genius? Is this what this film is?
Have I come into this like iron heart for the wrong thing? The worst thing is, right,
is you've known this. I've been texting you, being so like, I hate it, Rob. It's this.
I wrote and you've been sitting on this the entire time. Oh buddy. I don't think it's the intent. I
think it's an optional way of watching the movie that makes it tolerable. You still struggle with
the fact that you cannot sympathize with this character. No, I hate it, but it makes him more
relatable because you know, when, when I was going through this stuff, I hated myself too.
Do you know what I mean? It kind of makes it more relatable at this point. I don't, I'm so
conflicted right now. I, I I'm unsure how to feel. This is actually making me spiral. Are you in on
it? Is this the game? I genuinely, for this episode, I didn't have, you're lucky I didn't have the time,
but I know some of your friends. Yeah, you do. And so I was going to message them and ask them
to ask you like the same question, but from different angles. Rob, you know, all my friends
because I have like six, if you would have text the small group of friends that I have, and they
started asking me these questions, I might have killed myself. Right. So this is why I didn't,
because of what I was going to do is I was going to get friends from Control or Critique and a
couple from the Boardroom Gaming Cafe. That's all my friends. Thank you. Get them to ask you
what time Telford train station closed. Cause that was just like a standard thing. Like, oh,
I'm thinking, you know, right. And then the game at the end of the episode, the last question of
the quiz would be what time does Telford train station close? I'd have flipped my desk. I'd have
flipped my desk and set myself on fire. I wouldn't know how to handle it. The only reason I didn't
is cause I realized that like there's such a thing as too far. Yeah. I did never trusted you again.
The next episode, it would have been the most straight cut. Hello, I'm Ben Groves and I am alone.
I can trust no one. I don't understand what's going on. And you'd be like, and I'm Ron Buckford.
And I'd be like, are you? Right. And I feel like it would have, it would have gotten in the way
of people's ability to sympathize. When I was like, yeah, I've struggled with my mental health and
they're like, yeah, but you do torture your best mate. You are a puppet master. There we are.
Yeah. I was trying to think of a replacement and the only thing that came to my mind was more
swear words. And this is why we're doing a swear job, Ben. It's for our betterment. Yeah. It's for,
it's for a broader vocabulary. I've already learned three words. Right. Puppet master,
puppet master, two pastiche. There's three pastiche. This is genuinely making my day.
Thank you so much for this. This is the best idea. Like honestly, we were dreading it earlier. This
is the best. Yeah. Yeah. Um, the, my main problem is, well, it was my main problem. The whole show's
ruined now because all of my notes and now, now my notes are the nonsense because you've switched
the film around and it makes perfect sense to me. My next thing, my next rant, which is a paragraph
and a half long rub. Thanks for that. It's only took like 40 minutes to write the next rant that
I'm now not going to be able to make any sense of is, but who am I supposed to sympathize with?
Like I don't like the film because the character is an absolute tosser. Toss is not a swear word.
It's a person who throws things. He tosses. Yes, he does. He tosses people out like garbage. And if
you've watched the game, you'll know that he tosses at least one book. Right. Exactly. And at least
one lady. She injured herself in that, in that throw. Really? Yeah. So, so she jumped from the
thing into the trash can and took, got a very severe injury. She was wearing no underwear.
At the time. Well, she fractured a bone in her foot. Wow. And it wasn't a prop dumpster either.
It was a real dumpster and it had real rats in it. Why was it? Okay. If you're shooting it for a film,
move the camera a bit closer. Maybe don't do it from 30 feet in the air. Right. But maybe it's a
game then. Don't do this to me. Cause no, no, yeah, no, yeah, he is. He is, he is a cock,
but I will say this. Fox not a swear word. It's a, it's a male chicken. What I find fascinating
about your and my reaction to this film is how and why things date. So there's the obvious ones,
right? Where you'll look at say a 1950s romance film. Yeah. Well, like the Wolfman, like 1930s,
40s universal monsters. Yeah. Uh, where his behavior with women is just predatory. Yes.
It's all, and you think as a, as a contemporary view, you're like, Oh, this is why he's the Wolfman.
No, it's just an also ran. It's just, yeah, that's how men were with women. They used to,
men used to buy telescopes to perv on women. And that was completely fine guys. That was a thing.
That was just like, Oh, and we, everyone just carried on living their lives. What a quirky guy.
He's just got four telescopes pointed at four different women's windows. The Wolfman,
the Wolfman pre-bite sees a woman from across the town working in a shop that he thinks pretty.
So just turns up at her work every day until eventually he gets to kiss her. I think this is
why we're single force of pestering. I mean, we can't afford telescopes and B we're just not that,
just not that determined. It's cool. Yeah. We're not willing to be predators.
I think this film has a similar, similar issue, right? In that that's a T-shirt right there in it.
We're not willing to be predators. Single taken, not willing to be a predator.
I think this has a similar issue. And I think it's interesting. It's only now that we've sat
down to watch it and both hated the protagonist that I've kind of realised how much of a sea
change in society it was, but we never used to hate investment bankers. No, this is pre the crash of
2008. This isn't the big, it's called the nineties boom, the 1990s economic boom, which was the
largest economic expansion that happened in the West until 2019. Clinton's economic policies meant
huge increase in wealth, a decrease in inequality. Everybody was loving Wall Street. I don't think
the casting of Michael Douglas in, uh, in this movie is an accident seeing that he played Gordon
Gecko in Wall Street. Greed is good. We're in an era of the nineties thriller, right? So you've got
Harrison Ford running, running around asking for his family back. You've got Richard Gere apparently
being watchable. Yeah. A Richard Gere is phenomenal. Don't ever say a bad word about him again. He's
fantastic. Uh, if by any chance he ever hears this adopt me immediately. He's got one face, Ben,
and it's the George Clooney look down, smile to oneself with a little giggle and then look up.
Works on me every time. Every time, every time I see that happen. Goosh. Right. Goosh. But that's
the era of thriller we were living in. We're living in kiss the girls. We're living in that
kind of nineties seven for God's sake. It was a deconstruction of this genre. And I think this
is Fincher taking it so far. It breaks. It's gone full circle. This is him. This is, this is him
doing psycho Billy where we had rock and roll. Let's just make it so fast and so outrageous and
so silly that it's not that anymore. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm with it. And I think, I think perversely
we are expected, uh, and it is understood that we're going to sympathize with his character.
And what this film was doing at its time was presenting the very new idea that maybe this
guy wasn't someone you wanted to look up to. That was new information. Okay. That whole thing of
like, yeah, he's got it all, but you weren't expecting this. He's lonely and unfulfilled.
And people were like, Oh my God. Really? He's just like us, but instead of me crying into an
empty bowl of porridge, he cries in a Mercedes Benz. Exactly that surrounded by lavish hookers
and champagne. I think the film is teaching us information that is now basic film, basic,
basic social literacy. Okay. So looking at it through that lens, it does, it does give it a
slightly different, a slightly different tinge of color that I was unaware was there. Still,
it still sucks to be a contemporary viewer and be like, yeah, great. It's yeah. You know,
watching it for the first time this time around. I watched it surface value as well. I didn't,
I didn't make the allegory that we've just discussed. It was, it was a case of me taking
it very literally and trying to digest the story. Yep. Which I don't feel like I did
necessarily as well. I have a thought on an allegory that I made that made it palatable for
me, but not necessarily true. I'll get to that shortly. I think my main issue was the fact that
it's because he's rich. You just don't like him because he's rich. It's not rich though. It's
not rich. It's uber rich. This is like the creme de la creme of the 1%. And it's like, I'm not
going to feel bad. You've got your massive, you've got your massive chip on your shoulder because
that's not the person anymore. Right. I don't, I do have a chip on my shoulder, but it's not for
that reason. Right. And I used to have one too. Like I went to a grammar school man. I was the
poor kid at the grammar school. It was like, oh, where did you summer? And me being like my mum's
house where I live. If there wasn't a bomb threat at our school, at least once a month, it was
because the one guy that would always call in bomb threats was off for that month. Like the fire
brigade used to, the amount of times we'd get like evacuated from school, the first bomb threat,
we were miles away. We were miles away. By the sixth or seventh that year, we were in a building
that was seven feet away. All looking at the windows, watching the firemen climb to the roof.
That was it. That was the experience. Let's just keep the walk show. Everyone was like,
we're not going all the way over there. We know who it is. We know what's going on. The fire
brigade are here. They're already bored. They're ticking it off as they're going along. They're
showing up with the forms pre-filled out now. Do you know what I mean? But that's the thing. So
my thing is like, I don't, I don't have a chip on my shoulder per se because the Uber rich and
like the rich, I feel like there's a difference between rich and wealthy. Right. And I don't have
a chip on my shoulder for wealth because I feel like I've met a lot of wealthy people in my life
that have made my life better just for knowing them. An old boss that I used to work for was,
and it still is to this day, an incredible source of inspiration. I won't mention names or anything.
Right, right, right. An incredible source of inspiration. He like finished university
with a degree and had like a little, a little egg that he'd been building up every few years. And
he used that to start a business. Okay. And what he did with that business is he was like, right,
I don't know as much as I could do about this business. And rather than punish himself for
that is, is he found other people who knew it inside and out and went, I've got some money.
Worked together. Yep. And everyone was like, sure. Okay. And then he started making more money.
And then what he did with that money was invest it in the people. And the way that he did it is it
was incredible. He wasn't showy. He wasn't this, that, and the family was a huge thing to him.
That I know you get these are weird companies that like, we're a family here. Oh yeah. It's
always exploitation. Yeah. It's always exploitation. Right. This guy used to have us around to his
house and he'd spend three or four hours cooking stuff on a barbecue just to make sure that everyone
was fed and you know, feeling good. And then would genuinely listen to your insights and act on them.
Right. So he's reinvesting in the people that he's invested in. He's doing, he's doing it right.
Right. His wealth, his family's big. He's not giving back running around in Ferraris and all
this stuff. He's got a Tesla, he's got a nice house, but that's it. Everything else is invested
in places that it needs to be invested. And it's put to good and he's a better person for it because
you can see how much of a different it makes to his life, which positively impacts everyone around
him. And I'm like, dude, this is, it made me hate him a little bit more because I was like, oh, okay.
So you're a multi multi hundred millionaire, but also you're incredibly nice. Your personality is
fantastic. And you've got all the correct morals. Whoop dee doo. Fantastic. Well done. Okay. Yeah.
But he was incredible. My problem with this film is that the character isn't wealthy. He's rich.
He's an absolute cock to everyone that he comes into contact with. He destroys a man's life in
front of his family and then walks away like nothing. Like it's nothing. Just water off a
duck's back. Yeah. He's being Mr. Rootsless. He's being Mr. Efficient. He's being business's
business. Why do I care about your sub story if it's affecting my profits for the shareholders?
Okay. So you can cripple a man's entire livelihood for like a stock. All right. Fine. You do that,
but that doesn't make me ever want to be like, aw, are you a bit sad?
Okay. I mean, there's some extenuating factors there in that, you know, the guy he's crippling,
he's basically buying the company out. So he's leaving him millions of pounds better off. He's
just stopping the business that the man does because the business is failing. I think what
I find interesting though with the chip on your shoulder is the sentence that this film is,
is I'm rich, but I'm not happy. Right? Right. I'm not happy. And you see the resources that
this man has and you go, well, I don't have those resources. And if I had those resources,
here's what I would do with it. I'd build a company. I'd reinvest. That would make me happy.
Sure. And the assumption there is that they haven't tried that and they haven't found out already
that that doesn't make them happy either. A thousand percent. The guy's already employing
people. It's not shown that he's actively doing this out of the other, but he's got the shareholders,
got this. I find the interesting thing about the chip on the shoulder about the ultra rich
is I look at someone who I, I hate Elon Musk with a passion, but when I look at that man and I go,
he's doing what he feels is necessary to feel like he's all right, like he's happy.
And he's just gone super wrong about how he's going to get that. But that doesn't invalidate
the fact that the start of the sentence is I'm not happy. Yeah. A thousand percent. And on a
human level, you have to go thousand percent. I do. I can disagree about how you're re spending
your resources. This, that or the other, but you're still a human being. Right. I agree with you
wholeheartedly. Like Vladimir Putin, an unequivocal villain of the fucking this took a sharp, but
let's continue. Right. Vladimir Putin from my perspective, a disgusting human being,
but I don't want him. I want him to be able to find a way of being all right. Cause if he's
all right, he'll probably stop trying to invade people. Right. Maybe, maybe I don't, I don't feel
like happy well, people go, I'm going to invade a country. I don't feel that happy. Well, people go,
I'm going to buy Twitter and turn it into a race website. I was trying to think of examples of
someone that's invaded the country and just been super happy about it. Like how would that even
look? I mean, boys, guess what I've just done. Have you seen the news? Italy's at war. Yeah.
Right. Guess what I just did. Bud, bud, I need to ask you one question. Where's our army?
Right. This is, this is the funny one. You ready for this one? Italy. It's in Italy.
Right. Exactly. Why'd you do that? Don't know. But you don't see the Dalai Lama being like,
mate, do you know what I need to do? I need to fire some people.
Do you know what I need to do? I need to hold freak parties with hundreds of bottles of lube
in my mansion. Maybe, maybe I mean, I feel like, I feel like these people having a reset,
yeah. Michael Douglas in this film having a reset and going, oh, I was going a little bit mad there,
wasn't I? That's a good thing. Right. And just cause he started from a position of being a tosser,
doesn't mean that him not being a tosser anymore is a bad thing. I'm not saying it's a bad thing.
It's just, it's hard to relate to. It's really hard to relate to. But it feels, it feels like
you would rather have him stay unhappy and stay hurting people because you'd resent him being
happy if he changed. Absolutely not. I'm super happy that he's changing and he's learning how to,
you know, cherish his loved ones and be a slightly better person. Very slightly better person. The,
the exchange between him and the guy's life that he destroyed by literally just ending his career
in front of his family. Um, even that's horrible to watch when they're, when they're nice to each
other and it's like, Oh, right. It's just, I'm glad that he did it. The only thing that bothers me
is that because he's uber rich, it's everyone else's problem. And it's, I just didn't care.
Like I, Rob, I, I'm so invested in you and I love you with all of my heart for you to do better.
Likewise. You could, you could be invading Italy right now. And I would be like, buddy, I'm with
you, but I need you to be doing better right now. And I'm invested in it because I love you. Right.
Yeah. My worst enemy invades Italy and it's like, I'm just trying to be better. I'm like,
couldn't care less. Still invaded Italy. No, I mean, I'm not there for it because I don't care
about them in the slightest. And it's the, it's this disconnect that it has where it puts me
in such a different realm of existence, where I just, it's like, I'm looking at it thrice removed
going, there is nothing here for me to latch on. Nothing. There's the disconnect of the budget.
The main character is living on. There's the disconnect of the style of cinema that was
prevalent in the nineties. There's the disconnect of the fact it's Michael Douglas and I've never
liked that guy particularly as an actor. Cause I've just never really bonded with him. He's got an
odd face. I quite like his odd face. This is the film that it hurt me a little bit. Cause I was
like, I quite like this guy, Wall Street. That was funny. You know what I mean? Right. But I,
I got to the point I was like, why did Fincher? Cause Fincher doesn't write his own scripts. He
picks them. And I looked into it and this was the film that Fincher was going to make before
he made seven. He was offered this first. Right. Sure. And in the story of Fincher,
it would be a much shorter series. Yes. If he had, cause I would not have watched seven.
Cause he'd have come off the back of alien three. Yeah. And then he'd have done this.
And I don't think this would have had anywhere near the success that it did, especially seeing
as he rewrote a lot of this script with Andrew Kevin Walker, because originally it was going to
be a younger guy playing the Nicholas Van Orton character. Right. That would have made it worse.
It was going to be a much lighter tone. And it was going to be like, it wouldn't it be fun
if a billionaire could have his thing reset, blah, blah, blah, blah, rather than what I think it is,
which is a kind of social commentary on how the ultra rich are lonely, desperately broken people.
And the only way to really fix it is for them to spend the GDP of a small nation by hiring,
you know, actors that even simple things, the ending, right? So at the end of this movie,
he's had his big fall. He comes out and then he wanders off and he meets the woman who's been
lying to him, kind of the other main character in the game and stringing him along through scenario,
through scenario, through scenario. She's about four different identities. She's like his handler.
And he stops and he's like, Oh, maybe, uh, you and I get a coffee at the airport.
Oh, yeah, maybe. And I'm like, Oh, this is gross.
No, because he's the ultra millionaire that she's been paid between seven and eight pounds an hour
to entertain. But in all fairness to her though, she's shooting a shot. She's like, this is my way
out. This is my ticket out of the seven quid, you know what I mean? But then isn't that dystopian
in its own sense? Rob, it's horrid. There's an alternate ending, which, which Fincher again
was fighting with the studio. Uh, there was an alternate ending where Nicholas leaves the party,
declines a cab and then just walks off into the night alone into the city by himself.
Okay. Leaving it open as to how he felt about the whole thing. That would have been a far superior.
That would have been an amazing ending because that would have left it open to being like,
it's done nothing for me. Now I just have shed loads of trauma that I need to deal with. Right.
And now I need to wander off on my own and live my super lonely, go fix my graffiti mansion for a
start. But Fincher himself says he's not proud of this film. I get it. He, he agrees with his wife
who produced the film that he shouldn't have made the film. And he said that they couldn't get the
third act. And it was my, and I quote, and it was my fault because I thought if you could just keep
your foot on the throttle, it would be liberating and funny. Even his wife was like, you should have
done this one. This is what I love you. But this is what it's you invade in Italy. I'm your wife
in you. Oh my God. Yeah. But here's, here's why I think he did it. Right. I think this is Fincher
proving that he can do the thing. He's had the big hit. Yeah. He's had his memento moment. Like
Nolan had memento. It was a little movie. It had a small budget, but it made a huge impact at the
box office. And it was a critical darling. Yep. And Fincher's had seven and now he needs to prove
that he can do the thing, make the money and isn't a one trick pony. This is his insomnia.
It does strike me as insomnia, right? Just not nowhere near as good. You enjoyed insomnia a
lot more than I really did. Yeah. It got you for in some way. And I'm so jealous. I don't know why.
Right. I don't know why. I was hoping that this would be the same with this first time watching
it for the show, desperately trying to impress Rob. Right. End of it being so like, wow, maybe
I'm all wrong about Nolan. No, that was just left seething at Fincher. But I think what this film
serves is it turned a profit. It had an actor from a previous generation, like say Al Pacino or
Michael Douglas. And the film is almost so barely there and so cliche written that the only thing
left that's different that you haven't seen before is the director's style. Yeah. No, it's a vacuum
in which the directorial style is the only thing left to comment on and go, oh, that's kind of
interesting. Okay. I get where you're coming from. And I agree with you wholeheartedly. Like the
way that the film shot and the way the film's presented is fantastic. And it's almost like,
I can imagine way back when, like obviously in the nineties, when Nolan and Fincher are doing these
sorts of films at roughly the same times, they're dropping similar things, Left Right, they've got
to be in some sort of like creative, whose is bigger contest. You know what I mean? Yeah. Right.
That was so hard to say without swearing. After watching the film and the rage bubble dissipated
for a little bit. And I was like, even when they're sad, they've got to make the whole world revolve
around them. You know what I mean? Yeah. Every single worker has paid an hourly wage to make
their life, to make them learn a life lesson. Between seven and eight pounds. That's what I mean.
Of course that's how the film plays out. Sure. Why not? I actually started sitting and thinking
about it and I liked that it was, I liked that it's one of these films where you can switch out the
meaning almost. Yeah. So instead of an uber rich person, you know, being desperately lonely and a
bit of a broken person struggling with, you know, being the same age as a father when he commits
suicide, what about if it was an allegory for addiction? And instead of having everyone around
you paid to act out a big scenario to help you learn your lesson, you have negatively impacted
such a large number of people that now it's inescapable that you have to do something about
the crutch that you have. Right. So a hundred percent, even if you're earning the mega millions,
but you're destroying the lives of everyone around you, it's going to be a point where it hits you
in the feels and you're going to go, am I, is this it? Am I on the right one? So I was looking at it
like addiction and obviously like I tried to relate it to my scenario a few years ago where
it's, you get to a point where you're like, I don't physically think I can function as a basic human
being anymore. Right. Yeah. It's not, I can't go out and work because a 10 hour shift is longer
than my need for drugs. I got to the point where I was measuring how deserved or I got to a point
where I was measuring how much drugs and drink I could consume in an evening based on how much work
I'd done. If I'd traveled, let's say from the West Midlands to the Scottish border and back in a day,
I'm like, I've earned at least six beers. That's six beers in a couple of bumps. You know what I
mean? But if I do like a jaunt South all the way up and I'm gone for 12 hours and I get back, you
know, 13, 14 hours later, I've hit five meetings. I've done some wicked deals. I'm like, you know
what? That's a couple of lines. That's a lion, a couple of lines and it's half a bottle of whiskey.
That's how I was measuring my little reward at the end of the day for doing the bog standard
stuff at work. Trying to rationalize and ration your addiction. That's all it was. It was horrendous.
So the first two acts of this film are very much that, right? Right up until the point where he
meets his handler at the taxi and she's like, do you want to come and get a coffee at an airport?
And he's considering it because it's essentially in my allegory, she's addiction leading him through
life, sort of showing him how he's affecting all the lives of the people around him. And at the end
of the film, the addiction comes back and is like, you want to go to the airport and rail lines of
cocaine off your therapist's back? And it's, you know, I mean, obviously that's not a feasible thing.
It's not recommended. It's a fat 10 out of 10, but it's not recommended. You know what I mean?
No. Well, to take your allegory then and to take why I think this is not a film that I enjoy,
but one that I think is important in Fincher's catalog. As a film for a man to make,
who is famously addicted to being in control, going, sometimes it's good to let it go.
Fincher is famous even at this point in his career, 50 takes, 40 takes, 60 takes. Everything must be
perfect. The shot must be lined up perfectly. Everything has to be exactly this way. I will
abandon projects three quarters of the way to completion because they're not quite right.
And I'll walk away. That's pretty Nicholas Van Orton way of doing things.
It is, right. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
You're not going to do this to me because you can't because this is unfair. Right. Because in
the seven episodes you were like, I'm going to argue that it's a perfect film based on your
definition. And my definition of a perfect film is the filmmaker living a certain story and then
telling that story because they're the most qualified person to do so. So a man who's addicted
to being in control, being put in a situation where all control is taken from him. Fuck you.
He's told what he has to do and how he has to do it. And his choice is either to jump off a building
or accept that he needs to change, accept that he needs to change and go with the flow a little
bit more. Fuck you, Rob. And that's five. Is that four? Or is that five? That's five.
Our RPI inbox. Remember guys that the, the forfeit for five swears in an episode is that you get to
send a picture of an owl or a crab to our DMs and social media. So off you go, lads and ladettes.
Um, so yeah, no, Bennett is a perfect film. I think it is also a thematic tie in to a lot of
the films that Fincher makes in this era, where somebody becomes increasingly isolated because
the society around them is unwell. The society that's depicted in seven is unwell to the degree
where somebody's driven to do murder. Right. The society in this film is so unwell that even if
you've got all the money in the bank, there's still something missing. And it's apparently
that sense of isolation and dread is so standardized and normalized that capitalism has
created an industry around fixing it. That's a very interesting take. I'd like to, I'd like to
tag my little bit onto the end of that and say that the mildly attractive person that's been
leading you through the ringers and lie into your face continuously, getting you into the worst
situations you have ever been in is probably worth going to the airport for a cup of coffee with.
You know what I mean? That's an important lesson that Fincher is trying to teach us here guys.
Give them a call, drop them a text. You know what I mean? Do you want to play a game? Yeah,
I'd love to. Yeah, I'd love to. Right. It's a really, really short one this week. Okay.
Cause the whole episode is the game, but this is the game. I can't swear anymore.
You can't. But no, it's there. The sentiment's there. Did you spot? This is, did you spot?
Did you spot the cameo and Spike Jones, the director of films like her three Kings being
John Malkovich? I did a couple of Jackass movies. Cause of course. Yeah. Why not? Um, no, I didn't.
He is one of the paramedics at the end who brushes the breakaway glass of Michael Douglas's face.
Oh, hold on. No, hold on. I'm speaking. I'm thinking of Spike Lee.
That's why I didn't recognize him, but that was Spike Jones.
Weirdly Spike Lee did not direct being John Malkovich, possibly the whitest film.
This is when you said the films, I was like, I was literally like, are you, are you sure?
You sure? Did you spot Michael Massey who placed Funboy in the crow?
I feel no, no, I didn't. Sorry. I saw. No, it doesn't matter. No, I didn't. Uh, well,
this is a bit tasteless because, uh, Michael Massey plays one of the paramedics who attends
to Nicholas van Orton after he thinks he's accidentally shot someone.
Fincher might be a super villain. One of the funniest super villains that's ever existed.
And this is in 1997 as well. Do you think that there was ever a point where Michael Massey was
like, is this the game? Am I in the game? Has he been filming me this entire time? I knew my,
I knew my postman was weird yesterday. Okay. You ready for the last one? Yeah.
Did you spot Mario? Mario? Mario. Like the super Mario? Like super Mario, Mario of Mario Brothers,
the plumber, the film Mario Brothers or the video game? No. Did you spot the actor who plays
Mario? Not, not Bob Hoskins, not Chris Pratt, the real Mario, the real Mario, the real Mario.
Bob Hoskins is the real Mario. No, he's not. Who's the real Mario? When you played N64,
Super Mario 64, you were listening to the voice of Charles Martinet and Charles Martinet plays
Nicholas van Orton's father in this film. He was the voice of Mario from the year 1992 until 2023.
That's incredible. That's actually incredible. What a CV to have. So what have you done as an actor?
Well, I was in a David Fincher film, The Game, where I killed myself from jumping off a roof.
My child found me and it ruined his life forever. So next time you watch this dark, brooding,
super intense psychological thriller, that's also nonsense and ridiculous not to be taken seriously
at all. I won't be, but okay. In the opening credits, you can just go, it's a me.
All right. I might watch it just for that. And then I'll never watch it again. Ben,
I have to know what are you rating? David Fincher's 1997 film, The Game.
It's two hours and 10 minutes. That will never get back. It's two hours and 10 minutes. It's a
punishing watch. It's a slow watch. I have a lot of trust issues. So it's a very exhausting watch
because I feel like I'm 1000% in fight or flight for the entire two hours. But after our chat today,
you asked me this yesterday, it would have been six and all of the points would have been for the
actual filmmaking itself. Cause the story lets it down massively. It would have been a six,
but now it has to be a 10 because it is a perfect film. It's not my favorite perfect film,
but by my definition, it is a perfect film. Yeah. Because your definition is a, it's a storyteller
who is most qualified to tell the story that they're telling, putting it to film. And I cannot,
I cannot fault that in the slightest. It's an incredible feat doing what he's doing. It's also,
when you've pointed it, when you've painted it in a way where it's, it's Fincher looking at how he
needs to loosen up and let go control a little bit. It's a very vulnerable film. Right. Um,
might be a little bit overinflated on how much is in his bank. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know,
I'm pretty in control, but I'm also super rich. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna rate it a
four. Okay. And, and it's because it, no, it's no, I'm not going to rate it a five. I'm exactly on
the fence. It's, it's a beautiful film. It's incredibly well put together. It's incredibly
shot. Everything about it is incredible except the plot, which is so terribly paced and dull
and nonsensical that I struggled to enjoy all the other stuff. Right. Okay. I really do know. Uh,
you've got time for comment corner. I've got a fantastic one this week. Hit me with it, man.
I'm down for it. So we got, um, we got a story. We've got story time in comment corner from an
anonymous listener. Um, and they have told us a little story. You ready? Yeah. Hit me. So I was
working with someone who knows and has worked with Fridley Scott quite well as work with this
director who they were not friends, but I had like with good colleagues. Anyway, okay. This comes
from a very good source is what I'm trying to say. Basically there was a major investor for the first
gladiator fill and he said, I'll give you all the remaining money on one condition that you take my
son on as someone that he gets to see Ridley every day. That's all I want is that he goes on there.
He gets his experience in film and he works for them and sees them every day. So they, he gets
flown over, um, leave to Malta and he's there and everyone's car. What the fuck are we going to do?
I know we'll give them to the ad's the ad's are sucking. I'm all we going to do. And one of them
has a bright idea. They go, I know we'll have him do Ridley's breakfast every day. We'll walk up to
the car, open the car, get the order and show him to the director's trailer and then bring him his
breakfast season every day. So he walks up on the first day, opens the car, opens the car door,
Ridley steps out. He goes, good morning Ridley diddly. Ridley Scott would spasms says fire that
boy. And the guy was flown back out. And the reason it's my favorite story is who the fuck
would call Ridley Scott Ridley diddly. That's exactly you. Um, that's amazing for a start.
Also weird, weird little autistic thing kicked in there. There was a Fleetwood Mac want to be
with you everywhere playing in the background very distantly. And it was a little sorry.
That's an amazing story. If I ever meet Ridley Scott, I'm 1000% calling him Ridley diddly.
There's two things that struck me there. One Fleetwood Mac. I know. No. Okay. Uh, number one,
if I'd given a substantial chunk of money to a film production and said, give my son a job.
Yeah. And he comes back on the first day fired. Yeah. He owes me that money now.
I'd be weirdly proud. I'd be like, I'd be like fair play mate. That was, that was faster than
I expected. You've outdone yourself there, sir. Right. Also grounded. Right. Right. And the second
thing that struck me is there's going to be, God forbid this happens, but if there's a string of
allegations on Twitter about Ridley Scott's conduct, there's going to be one guy who's going to be able
to say, called it. He's going to get such a payout on that as well. Yeah. I called it on day one of
meeting him and then I got fired for calling him out. You know what I mean? I hope it never happens,
but if it does, that guy's getting a payday man. Right. That's incredible. I called out P Riddy.
P Riddy. P Riddy. Oh man. I hope we never meet him. Cause it's just going to be the worst man.
We're so lucky with the people that we've interviewed so far being super cool of us being
absolute shit houses. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've, um, I've got one here.
It's an email from Jacob Claire. Uh, he has emailed in and said, hello lads been listening and lurking
for, this is me quoting. This isn't for the swear jar. All right. Hello lads been listening
and lurking for fucking forever, but I just wanted to say that I was your 100th five star review on
Spotify and you all deserve a hundred more five star, five star reviews this year. Fun fact,
I live in Toronto, so owls are everywhere because of the OV hose. Oh yeah. That's Kendrick,
Drake beef stuff. Oh yeah. I wouldn't have a clue. It's not cool enough to know about. No,
no, no. I'm still living in 1980s. Also Fincher is my favorite director. So glad you guys are
doing this series. Cheers. Jacob, Jacob, thank you so much for reaching out to us buddy. And thank
you so much more for the five star review on Spotify. And I think I do agree with you.
We do deserve a hundred more five star reviews this year. We do. So get to it. If you're listening
right now on, on Spotify, just pop your phone open, chop a little, you know, five star review
on there and then, you know, email us and then give us a little ego stroke that you want. And
this could be you. We could be reading out your email right now because Jacob here, absolute
legend. And he's surrounded by owls and isn't corrupted by the evil that that must be. You know
what I mean? Can you imagine the hellscape of being living in a place where owls are everywhere.
Then predators moving flocks. That is sadly all the time that we have for this week. It is,
unfortunately. Join us next week where we are taking another dive into the beauty that is
contemporary cinema. What we're doing. Oh, we do Joker next week. We're doing Joker with Joaquin
Phoenix. Yeah. Somebody's got a sequel coming out. Yes they do. And I cannot wait for it. It's going
to be amazing. It's going to be amazing. I've heard, I've heard conflicting reviews. I've heard
nothing. So keep it to yourself. I'm going into this one blind. I made the mistake with
Romulus. I'm going in this one blind. Do it, do it, do it, do it guys. Thank you so much for
hanging out with us. We love each and every one of you so very much. No swearing. See that one.
No, that was self-controlled. Well done. Well done. Call me Michael Douglas. Cause I have just
Nicholas the shit out of myself mate. Six. Mint. We love you so much. We really, really do. Thank
you for hanging out with us. Uh, next week, Rob said it's going to be Joker. I didn't realize this.
I need to leave and watch Joker immediately. In the meantime, just before Ben does, he is going
to wrap up the thoughts, themes and feelings of this week's film into a little Monday motivational
pep talk to thank you for spending an hour of your week with us, especially at the start of the week.
It does mean the world. And I'm just going to do what society and arguably this film tells you to
do, which is consume. Do you ever feel a little bit sad about how much success you have just
layered around your feet? You know, you're, you're, you're a little bit lonely wondering your many
hectare lands in downtown San Francisco. And you're thinking, but what really is the point of my life?
Is this enough for me? Uh, just bank on your little brother spending an absolute fortune to make the
world stand still for your needs because you're so important. Oh, you're a little bit sad. I can't
trust anyone. Boo. Fucking who? Yeah. Seven in the swear. John, you know what? Make it eight.
Fuck Michael Douglas in this film. Trust no one, but trust everyone. Apparently. I don't know what
this film is. It's a, it's a film. Mate. I feel so much better after this. Same. Also fuck venture.
Nine. This is wrong. This is wrong. We're going to get so many owls, Ben and crabs. Crabs. Um,
no, genuinely, man. I feel a lot better. Same. Me too, man. Thank you for this.
Oh, I love this. I love you. I love you too, man. I'll uh, I'll chat to you in a bit. Gay.