We're back on the "Ewan Train" with David Mackenzie's YOUNG ADAM.
Ah, we're back. We're back in Scotland. I don't remember it being so "blue". Not only that, it's really dark, and moderately attractive men are acting like right twats to very attractive ladies. We're back on the "Ewan Train" with David Mackenzie's YOUNG ADAM. The "erotic" (?) drama about a bunch of folk on a barge and the lives Ewan McGregor's character basically ruins for the sake of creative inspiration. Yeah, doesn't make the most endearing of central characters but that's kinda the point. The one thing we did agree upon at least was the inclusion of custard. More custard, please! There's a bunch of sex in this but it's not as central as you'd think it would be. It just IS, so strap in, we've got a fair amount of stuff to talk about on this one.
Laura: Well, hello there. Welcome to On the BiTTE, the podcast that uncovers fullfrontal male nudity in cinema. My name is Laura, and I am joined by my co host, Ryan.
Ryan: Hello there.
Laura: Oh, hello there.
Ryan: Hello there.
Laura: I hope you're excited and just really, absolutely swimming in thrills to talk about the 2003 erotic question mark drama, Young Adam. No, me either.
Ryan: No, not really. Um, I like this film more than you do, but.
Laura: Yeah, you sure do.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: This film stars Ewan McGregor, which. What number Ewan McGregor is this?
Ryan: This is our second.
Laura: Well, that we've done that. He's Newton, I suppose, but it's the third movie that he's in that we've covered.
Ryan: Yes, the third one. Yeah.
Laura: Right. Because we had shallow grave trainspotting in this. Correct.
Ryan: Velvet, uh, gold mine.
Laura: Velvet. Gold mine.
Ryan: Oh, yeah.
Laura: Okay, so this is four.
Ryan: Oh, so it's four. All right. Yeah. Cause he doesn't get in the nip in shallow, uh, grave.
Laura: Correct.
Ryan: Yeah. Okay.
Laura: But he is in it.
Ryan: He is, innit? Yes, but it is not him.
Laura: Also Tilda Swinton, which I think also, I know that it doesn't quite count, but she's in a lot of films that we cover as well.
Ryan: Yes. No, uh, she's prominent. Love her that way. Yeah.
Laura: Uh, Peter Mullen and Emily Mortimer.
Ryan: Yes. A fairly stacked. Ah, british cast for this relatively quite humble and small budgeted scottish feature film.
Laura: Directed by David McKenzie, which you will get into after I drop the synopsis on you. Yes, which is short and sweet. A young drifter working on a river barge disrupts his employers lives while hiding the fact that he knows more about a dead woman found in the river than he admits. And the tagline is, everyone has a past, everyone has a secret.
Ryan: Ooh. Ooh, boy, what a fucking cop. Out of a tagline. That is like, what a load of shite. Well, they couldn't have thought of anything else.
Laura: We get to cover David Mackenzie so many more times as well. What a treat.
Ryan: You know what the tagline should have been?
Laura: What?
Ryan: It's the name of the baby and.
Laura: Oh, that's just it.
Ryan: Yeah, that's the.
Laura: That's your tagline.
Ryan: Well, there's not a, uh. There's not a person in it called Adam.
Laura: Correct.
Ryan: Like a tall. And that was my feeling on it, was that it's the spoiler alert. It's the, uh, name of the unborn child of the poor. Murdered. Murdered. Essay.
Laura: Not murdered. Not murdered. Well, the woman found in the river.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: There is not a murder. There's no murder.
Ryan: It's really the beginning of the movie, I think I was doing the indent for the film, and you were like, spoilers. Now it literally is the opening of.
Laura: The movie, which I didn't watch. I only looked for penises because I still want to enjoy the film.
Ryan: That's all. You're. Yeah, you're obsessed with it, just rolling.
Laura: Through, looking for dong.
Ryan: Well, even then, you watched it, and you didn't really enjoy it that much either.
Laura: No, because nothing happens. It's a non movie, and every sex scene is blue and gross.
Ryan: You know what the issue is?
Laura: Erotic. Are, uh, you joking me? I got no boners during this film.
Ryan: You know what the issue is, is that you have been. Yes. You have been, uh, tainted by the Hollywood lights.
Laura: Whoa.
Ryan: You like yourself to have a little bit of a story as opposed to having, like, a character study. Think that's what you are there.
Laura: Yeah, but there's no character development, no character to study. No one. Yeah, there's no character to study. No one learns anything. No one even really does that much wrong, except maybe a, like, latent adultery, non stop pork, and Ewan McGregor all over town because they cannot get enough.
Ryan: Well, I think. No, I do think that I, um, do think it's Ewan McGregor's character is. It's Joe, right?
Laura: Correct.
Ryan: No, um, I think he's not a very good. He's not a very good person. He has a very, um, skewed moral code, which I think he feigns as, like, well, this will make my life more interesting so I can write about it, sort of moral code, which I know we're gonna.
Laura: We have to get into. David Mackenzie. But just the fact that I did not know what this man's backstory
00:05:00
Laura: was until the last, like, the third act of the film, and I'm suddenly privy to the fact that this man's a writer. I didn't know that. The whole movie, I thought he was just some rando traveler working on a barge trying to make a living. No, he's studying so he can write better stories.
Ryan: Yeah, but it's, you know, you see the typewriter in the water before that moment, and it's timey wimey. It jumps around a fairmore.
Laura: Anyway, in an annoying fashion, in my opinion. Okay, um, you can do timey wimey, but I feel like you have to have some structure to the linear fashion of a timey wimey. You can't just go haphazardly blah de blahdy blah. Anyway, sorry. David Mackenzie.
Ryan: It's rare that I find myself defending this little film, um, that was directed by David Mackenzie. Um, I'm pretty sure we'll be coming back to him, right?
Laura: We absolutely will, yeah.
Ryan: So he's a Scott or Ewan McGregor. Yeah, of course. Well, he's a scottish film director. He's also the co founder of Sigma Films, which was, uh, quite a big thing back in. Back in old Scotland.
Laura: Um, let me just question you about that. He's scottish.
Ryan: Um, I don't think he is. I don't. He was born in England.
Laura: Correct.
Ryan: But he's referred to as a scottish film director.
Laura: Interesting.
Ryan: Probably because his school there. Well, no, he might have scottish parents. He, um, also has a brother who's definitely scottish or Alistair Mackenzie. Um, but going back to his films, um, his films have been described as not fitting neatly into any particular genre or type. And I find comments on that about filmmakers to be incredibly trite and, uh, yeah, ill founded. Personally. Um, I think that's fine. But I don't. I don't hate his films, but certainly I don't watch them and go, oh, my God, like, this is breaking the mold. Um, you know, so I don't really like statements like that. Um, because it's. Yeah, I just find it to be less like, you could say that about a whole bunch of filmmakers that you're just like, I don't understand this. Wow, this is deep. Um, but anyway, uh, like I mentioned before, his brother, uh, Alastair Mackenzie, played Archie in the very popular BBC drama monarch of the Glen.
Laura: Wow.
Ryan: So, yeah, I mean, David Mackenzie, you know, he comes from a, you know, he comes from a family, a very successful family. Um, so it's a little bit easier for him to transition into this sort of thing. But, uh, yeah, here, let's get into some stuff. So he's made some shorts, he's made some tv. You can go look that stuff up yourself. He, in 2002, made the last great wilderness. We could say that's his, uh, directorial debut. Then he made young Adam in 2003. And I remember young Adam, it was the opening film of the film festival that year. And that was my graduating year from high school. Oh, but I never. Yeah, I never saw the film. That was when I was going to workshops and trying to garner some level of, uh, like, trying to pave away for myself in the film industry. And then kind of later when I found out it was a complete waste of my fucking time. But, uh, yes, uh, in 2005, he made asylum hallam folk. In 2000. Um, seven spread in 2009. Perfect sense. In 2011, you instead, from 2011 as well. Stardup 2013, hell or high water from 2016, the outlaw king from 2018, relay from 2024, and fuse, which is, uh, to be announced that is in production right now. So, uh, he is a busy boy getting busy things done with his busy, busy self.
Laura: I know we're at least going to do perfect sense and probably start up an outlaw kingdom. I can't remember if we were gonna do Hallom foe at some point.
Ryan: Hall and foe, we confirmed, does not have, uh, any Jamie Bel end in it. Yeah, we confirmed that one because I thought it did.
Laura: Oh, dear. Ya.
Ryan: But it doesn't. Um, but that's another middle class fantasy set in Edinburgh, Hallam foe.
Laura: Um, I look forward to watching it.
Ryan: It's fine. I mean, I've watched it a couple of times. Um, no, we've watched it together. I thought. I mean, I don't know how rememberable it is. Yes, there is outlaw king. I remember you getting into a fight with someone online about all outlaw king.
Laura: What did I do?
Ryan: It was something to do with, like, it was a blink and you miss it sort of thing.
Laura: Um, it was, yeah,
00:10:00
Laura: it is. Everyone was going on about Chris Pine's wingus in that film, and I'm like, it is super far away. And you're lauding him for getting naked in that film.
Ryan: I'm like, okay, yeah, congratulations.
Laura: Like, I appreciate it still. But the camera was like, 100 yards away.
Ryan: Yes. I think the argument was that even though he's far away from the camera, he's technically still in the buff. Like, he's still completely naked. So I think that's where the argument stems from.
Laura: Wait, so I was arguing the other way. I was arguing that he was naked and we should be happy about it.
Ryan: No, there was a girl who was kind of going on about, like, well, yeah, there it is. Of course that's where it is. She was being very condescending towards you, as usually a lot of these. These self. Self appointed critics online tend to. Tend to be IMDb critics for short, I would say.
Laura: Oh, dear. Yeah, I don't mess with that.
Ryan: No, you don't. We don't fucking bother with that garbage. Um, but, yeah, no, we will. We will return to him and his stuff. Um, and some of it we've seen, some of we've not. And some of it. Some of it I actually look forward to seeing. I think I'm being a little bit. I feel like I'm being a little bit, um. Um. Because I'm grumpy. I think I'm. I think I'm coming across as a little bit of a grump. I don't really dislike his films. I think it. Yeah, just you. You, uh. Young Adam's a bit of an outlier for me, I think it's an important film because, uh, you know, at the time, it was getting quite a lot of press and films in Scotland, you know, when they get made and when they're made with independent production companies and there's plenty of money behind them and stuff like that, and then they get lauded and they get screened and people like them. Um, you know, m maybe that praise ends up being a little bit misguided. Uh, because certainly, I don't think young Adam is bad, but it doesn't really. To me, it doesn't really break the mold of very kind of doer, very grey, uh, depictions of working class Scotland really is kind of just a bit. It's just that it's another one of those, unfortunately.
Laura: Yeah. Scotland doesn't have a filter on it. It's pretty beautiful. You know, it's not blue, but it's not gray.
Ryan: That's what night. Unless you're in, um, that's what night looks like in films.
Laura: Yeah, but this was during the daytime.
Ryan: This is the moon. Yeah, I mean, I guess so. It's just. It's just that it's a little, like, to me, it's a little underwhelming. Just the way the film looks and just the way the film is.
Laura: You can be positive about it, because I'm not gonna be as positive. Doesn't mean anything. My opinion means nothing. I just am gonna tell you a little bit about the film, and then we will continue on our journey.
Ryan: What a journey it will be.
Laura: This film is based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Alexander Truckey. It's also set in 1954, where Ewan McGregor's character works on a barge that operates from Glasgow on the River Clyde, along the Forth and Clyde and Union canals to Edinburgh. So, uh, apparently, shooting on the barge was an absolute nightmare. No surprises there, because they were working on two different canals that had different gauges. So they found a barge to use, but it was four inches too wide for the narrowest point of the narrower canal, so they had to build an entire barge. And the canals in Scotland had not been functional, kind of like, apart from pleasure purposes, for almost 40 years. But the year before production started, the canals were actually renovated, so that allowed them to actually shoot in the canals where the novel is based.
Ryan: Okay. That's cool. Yeah. Cause. Yeah, they're only. Yeah, they're only. They're only really kind of. You don't. Yeah, you don't see a lot of barges. You don't see a lot of those sort of vessels on the canals anymore. Like, that just doesn't. Just doesn't really happen.
Laura: It seems like more of an english thing to me when you think about those kind of, um. I don't know. I'm thinking about peep show or Alan Partridge and stuff where they've got the kind of river boats.
Ryan: Yeah. No, I would agree. Certainly they serve the exact same purpose in England as they did in Scotland as their thoroughfares for, uh, goods and services.
Laura: Correct. Yeah.
Ryan: You know, because little vessels like that, they can go from point a to point b relatively, quite easily just using the canal ways.
Laura: So I think they were transporting coal in this film.
Ryan: Yeah. There's a lot of, uh.
Laura: Maybe other things, but coal for the most part.
Ryan: Dirty couple of boys from the black stuff, so to speak. Um. Um, yeah, they. They are shoveling coal for the most part.
Laura: I did like when they washed each.
00:15:00
Ryan: Other with a very scary Peter Mullen. Peter Mullen strikes me as someone who's. Oh, yeah, he seems terrifying to me.
Laura: I thought he was probably the most attractive thing in the film.
Ryan: No, I mean, you think he's the most. Well, I mean, that. I mean, that's. That's fine if you think that. Uh.
Laura: Yeah, I did think that.
Ryan: I mean, he's. I think he's a fantastic actor. He just terrifies me slightly. He reminds. He reminds me of people I've met in Scotland. Um, and it's just.
Laura: Yeah, fun to me, not his character.
Ryan: Okay. Yeah, he seems like a lot of fun.
Laura: He does.
Ryan: He's a, uh. Yeah, he's a major patron for the acting community in Scotland in general. Uh, Peter Mullen. So I haven't got anything bad to say about him.
Laura: Good. So Ewan McGregor got involved with the project after he was sent the script, he said, I thought it was one of the best things I'd read in a long time. It was a blinding script, and due to its lack of dialogue, it's very sparse. It struck me as very different and brave.
Ryan: Right. So I've got a couple of things to say about that statement. Sounds very kind of pr light. Like, very much. Kind of just like, could I give. Here's a standard statement I would give about a film script that I have been given to. For a film that I am about to play the lead role in. Um. So, yeah, he. Yeah, I mean, maybe it was a script.
Laura: There's a lot of dialogue.
Ryan: There is plenty of dialogue.
Laura: I don't know what I wrote and did all of my notes before watching the film, so it spoils it a bit. So I looked at that, read it, and I thought, wow, okay, so this is probably very quiet, very introverted, but it's not.
Ryan: This is also. He made this also after he made, like, trainspotting and stuff like that. And trainspotting, to me, is still, like, one of the finest examples of, like, where you can take scottish filmmaking. So, like, that's how I kind of feel about it.
Laura: This is dark and fun.
Ryan: This is dark, and it's really dark.
Laura: It's not. It's also just kind of, like, dark, and it's kind of like, muh muh. Uh.
Ryan: It's a film that feels like it has a. Has a gray cloud above it.
Laura: I remember the entire time laughing so much at one scene that we'll talk about later. And you go, I think she's crying. She is not laughing. And I went, oh, it was the one part I thought was quite funny.
Ryan: I fucked up, I think. Yeah, I think it's. Yeah, I think it's a just, uh, grasping at straws. Yeah, we'll get to there eventually. We'll mention it.
Laura: Um, Ewan McGregor also said, this is possibly the most introverted and complicated part that I've ever played. I shouldn't laugh so much.
Ryan: I know.
Laura: It's just like, okay, sure, yeah.
Ryan: I also wanted. I don't want to shit directly into Ewan McGregor's mouth, but it's like, it's like, okay. I do, like, I do feel like it's a lot of lip service there. I don't know if I really fully get it. I mean, to someone out there, this film is amazing. And to be honest, any films of this caliber, I guess, um, yeah, I think they're good for the scottish film industry. I no longer live in Scotland. I have no idea what the scottish film industry is like anymore. I worked in it, and it was. I was fucking pathetic. But, yeah, I mean, yeah, I just don't, um. Yeah, I just don't. I don't. I just don't know. I just don't know the film.
Laura: You know, this will all come back around at the end, but I don't. I don't have a problem with the film. I just think that it. The film feels like it's more important and more dangerous than it is. This film got an NC 17 rating, and there. And I have a lot of information about that later, but they brush it off like it's a badge of honor. And I really don't see how it even necessitated an NC 17.
Ryan: I don't know how it gets to an NC 17.
Laura: It's not that risque. And it certainly is not erotic.
Ryan: No, we've seen far, far worse. Yeah, there is. There is a massive, um, amount of sex in the film. It's not sexy. But then also, that's kind of diluted a little bit by the fact we watched the making of. And is it Trochee? Yeah, Trochee. Um, when he originally wrote his story, all the sex stuff was added in after. And it's kind of just like, well, does the sex stuff. Does the sex stuff work in that story as well? Because to me, like, personally,
00:20:00
Ryan: you know, his character, uh, is like, well, for me, if his life experiences are that to become a better creator, to become a better writer, he's basically wandering into people's lives and kind of dismantling them by shagging the matriarchs of those family units that he kind of latches himself onto.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: You know, obviously the difference being is Emily Mortimer's character, uh, Kathy, who's perfectly lovely. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, beautiful. He was blessed to be with her because, yeah, she's, uh. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't think I had a thing for Emily Mortimer until we watched it in this.
Laura: And I. Yeah.
Ryan: I'm like, yes. I'm like, all right, he's a trash.
Laura: Bag and she's a queen. She should have been treated as such.
Ryan: But the thing is, is that, like, if you think about, like, what the story is and there's, like, meant to be a level of nuance and it's kind of meant to be, like, this delicate, like, character study. Like, to me, Ewan McGregor's character feels a little bit. Feels a little bit shallow. And it's kind of just like, when it all kind of comes together, you're just like, well, all you're doing, mate, is you're just kinda. You're wandering around, you've got a pissy attitude, you can't write for shit, you're annoyed at it, and you're dismantling these family units that you kind of latch yourself onto. And then when you feel like you've had enough or you're getting too close to those particular women, um, you're like, well, fuck this, I'm gonna go. And to me, I don't know if that's, like, there's no. There's not a characteristic there that feels particularly endearing or engaging there. So I don't know what he's really getting at. Ah. Or is it another one of those occasions where it's just like, well, Ryan, you're too stupid to understand the subtle nuance of what we're doing here.
Laura: Um, I don't know. I'm on the same page as you for once. I don't, it doesn't feel deep. Uh, it does not feel nuanced to me. He seemed bored and he just didn't seem like he knew what he was doing and he was going along with emotions.
Ryan: It did, yeah, it did feel like, yeah, it just, it felt like. I think I agree with you in a certain extent that just like, it felt like it wasn't going anywhere, which is, ironically, exactly what's kind of happening with him as a person anyway, is that he's not really going anywhere for sure. But I feel like he's like he's stilted primarily by the fact that, uh, his moral code is kind of, uh, it's disjointed, it's warped. Ah, really? Um, because you can be bored, but keep that boredom to yourself. Just be self destructive. Don't be a destructive force.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: With other people.
Laura: Because he ruins marriages and. Well, I guess there is kind of a murder in the movie. If you think about it. He kind of does do a murder at the end.
Ryan: Mhm.
Laura: An inadvertent, lazy murder. Because he's a lazy dude.
Ryan: Um, yeah, he's like, I don't want to get in trouble, but this person didn't do it because I can prove that I was there at the time. And it's like, that's the sum total of his involvement in trying to save this poor man's life, which to me, like, even in the film, in the course of the film, I'm not convinced by his behavior because seeing his head, like in his hands and he's like leaning on the pew and he's kind of like watching the court case where, uh, I'm like, I'm sorry, Ewan, but I'm not convinced that you fucking care them much. Like, it really kind of like, like, I wish that if it was gonna go a certain way, it just went right over, like right over the line with it, where you're just a total piece of shit. Like even further than what it is. Not this kind of little bit of like, oh, uh, you know, maybe I do love you, but like, no, hold on. It's going on for too long. I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going for a walk, you know, I'm like, okay, whatever. You just don't know what to say.
Laura: I really don't. I really don't. Like, I have a lot of notes. I have a lot of notes about the film, but it just seems. I don't know, it just seems pointless.
Ryan: And that's the thing.
00:25:00
Ryan: Like, I don't, I don't hate the film, but like, when you start to dive in a little bit into the storytelling and stuff, it does make me interested about the actual novelization. But then the, you know, the actors were saying, you know, it's, it's quite faithful to the original source material. So then I'm just kind of like, oh, uh, well, I don't know if I'm. That I'm not interested. But the thing is, is like the translation from this text to obviously, the cinematic adaption, um, obviously the book would do a very good, it would do a good job of vocalizing, um, his internal thinking, which I think is just not. It's just obviously just not, ah, present in this film when maybe it probably could have been.
Laura: Yeah, I'm actually. It's weird because I didn't. Although I didn't like the film. There's the part of me that goes like, I still want to read that book because I'm interested to see if it's any better, you know?
Ryan: Mhm.
Laura: I don't know. We've kind of explained the story. It's a little timey wimey. He. There's a dead girl. Ooh, what's going on there?
Ryan: I mean, we can truncate it relatively, quite simply. Is that the girl he finds in the water is someone he's had a relationship with for probably the best part, on and off for about a year. And he pretends that he doesn't know her.
Laura: Correct. It's because he was there, because they porked. And she said, oh, I'm pregnant, and let's be together and let's get married. And he goes, ugh. Uh, ridiculous. And then she falls into the canal, gets sucked under the water and perishes. He had nothing to do with it. She literally just tripped. Right?
Ryan: Well, he's like on the edge of the, the pier, and she kind of runs over and she pushes him a little bit and then she just falls.
Laura: Because it's fully post coitus. Right. And so she's only in. They keep calling her petticoat. It's like a slip. So she's not wearing her bra, she's not wearing her underwear and she's just wearing this little slinky slip. And it's funny because at the beginning, it's clear when they pull her out of the water, he knows who she is. As the audience, we don't know that yet, but you can definitely make that assumption.
Ryan: You can tell. Yeah.
Laura: They have this whole conversation about how she ended up in the river without her underwear on. And he's saying, oh, you know, like, she took her bra off before she committed suicide. And I'm like, why would you take your underwear off and then put on the petticoat before jumping into a river? It's cold. It makes no sense.
Ryan: And, well, I mean, if you're trying to kill yourself in that manner, you would probably take your clothes off. So the cold gets to you quicker.
Laura: You're probably gonna drown before you freeze.
Ryan: Yeah. You'll tire out before. Yeah. Because the shock of hitting that water at that temperature. Yeah. All the air would be rushed out of your body pretty quickly.
Laura: Well, the barge, husband and wife, Les and. Oh, goodness, what's her name? Ella. Their son falls into the water at some point, and Joe's character. And Joe saves the kid and he's fine.
Ryan: Yeah. But that's slightly different. That's in the canal, like a shallower patch of water. The danger.
Laura: So where did she fall?
Ryan: She fell.
Laura: And it was so different.
Ryan: It was a pier. It was like a dock. It's like out to, uh, it's out to open sea from there. So it's slightly different. Also, the way the waters work in docks and, uh, in piers and stuff like that, they're quite turbulent, and they create their own kind of like micro tides and stuff like that. So you can get sucked down into the water pretty quickly. It's very dangerous.
Laura: And then he mentions when they find the body, oh, maybe she killed herself because she was pregnant. But he literally is a cream pieing bastard. And he'd just done it.
Ryan: He dead? Yeah, he dead.
Laura: What a. What a. What a butt head. What a genuine butthead.
Ryan: Yeah. He's not. Yeah, I, uh. Just, like I say, I wish, I wish there was a little bit more. Like, if he's gonna be a total dick, just take it to the next level. Like, just take it as far as it can go. Because here he's kind of a little bit like a petty dick. Like, it seems very petty. You know, it's like, I can't be creative in this environment. I must do this. And it's like, well, I can't be creative in this environment. And then I'll go do this.
Laura: So it just seems like he's terrible at life.
Ryan: It just. To me, m. Like personally,
00:30:00
Ryan: it just feels like it's been written by someone who's making some level of an approximation of like, you know, the struggling artist.
Laura: It just so bothers me, Ryan, that we didn't know he was a struggling artist until the end of the film. Yeah, pretty much when that happened, you'd gone through the whole film. And he's a drifter, a loner, working on the barge, sleeping with everyone's wives. And then at the end you see him with Kathy in a flat and he's all frustrated in a sweater because he can't write a story.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Get real.
Ryan: Yeah, no, I understand. Like, I get it. I understand.
Laura: Would you like to understand and get the penis scene?
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: So this happens about 15 minutes and 48 seconds into the film.
Ryan: So you would expect for an NC 17. We did seen a lot more of him.
Laura: So much more.
Ryan: Yeah, so much more. Because there's literally only the one.
Laura: Correct.
Ryan: And that's all it is really.
Laura: Goodness gracious. And we saw the man who fell to earth. Yeah, I mean, come on.
Ryan: Yeah. But just to kind of give, um. Um. Just to kind of give like a little bit of backstory to this. Um. Um. So Ella and Joe have just finished having sex and they've fallen asleep. And obviously.
Laura: Whoopsie. Les.
Ryan: Les. So Les has gone. Gone to the pub they've been doinking whilst he's been away. And they've fallen asleep. And then they wake up to hearing les on top of the barge kind of like stomping his feet and making his presence known. And, uh. They kind of just continue to lie in bed thinking about like. And discussing like, how are they going to approach this issue? And Joe's kind of just like, well, I'm not in any rush. I'm going to finish my cigarette. And at that point, that's when Ella flicks away the bed covers. And. Yeah, we just see a, uh. Cock.
Laura: Yes. Yes, indeed. And it's blue again. And I don't know if I mentioned this enough before, but all of the sex was also at night are blue. I know, but it doesn't need to be that blue. It's just gross movie magic anyway. Magic. Hilarious movie. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, she steals his blanket and then he's naked. So, uh. Yeah, that's absolutely. That's absolutely what happens. And it's pretty.
Ryan: I mean, it's pretty full on. It's right there, front and frame and stuff like that. But the thing is like, by the time it happens. I mean, you've seen. You've seen an awful lot of fucking. I mean, unfortunately, the balance is kind of off as well in this movie.
Laura: Yes, they've definitely had sex quite a bit. And you have seen Tilda Swinton naked quite often. Yeah, a lot.
Ryan: Quite a fair amount. And there's almost like. And it doesn't really happen, but there's even a flash of, like, uh, Peter and Mullen as well while they're trying to have sex too. And you don't see anything from his side of things, but, yeah, you see a lot more to him.
Laura: He's having erectile problems.
Ryan: Well, because he drinks too much. I think that's what the problem is.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: But either way. Um. Yeah, I mean, there's that shot with the fly on her nipple as well at one point.
Laura: Oh, my God, I forgot about that. It's gross. Uh, all of the sex scenes are gross. He, you know, Joe and Kathy, when they have sex, they're on the pier and it's in the dirt. Filth. Gross. When Jo and Ella are having sex in the barge, it's blue, there's flies on her boobs, and I. It's just icky erotic. You've gotta be kidding.
Ryan: Yeah, it's pretty. It's pretty nasty. The places he decides to have have sex. Like that alleyway with Elle's sister.
Laura: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Any hole is a goal, am I right?
Ryan: Uh, touche. Yeah, I guess so.
Laura: So regarding the sex scenes, Ewan McGregor had said, this story is about a guy who uses sex to kind of fill a gap, I suppose. I don't know exactly what he's doing. There's a lot of it going on in life. So there's a lot of it going on in cinema, I think. I think it reflects life. It's gotta be in there.
Ryan: That sounds a little winter baltimy to me.
Laura: That's right.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: He also said that the sex was such an essential part of the story, which is funny considering the fact that it was added into the story later from the original novelist.
Ryan: It was shoehorned in as a prerequisite for publication.
Laura: He said, in the same way that in Moulin Rouge we were using music to tell the story. Here we're telling the story through sex.
Ryan: Not even comparable, because I would say that even though I don't particularly like Moulin Rouge that much, that film's sexier than this film. Yes, because there's a predominantly, uh, quite stark absence of sex. But that doesn't mean there's not any sexuality in that film, because that's the main difference. Sex and sexuality are two very different things.
Laura: Yeah. He goes on to say we were intent on pushing the sex as far as we could go into an area that was really realistic for the audience. So it was a load of crap.
Ryan: Like, how is he pulling this stuff out of it? Like, I don't really understand. Like, what was nothing happening in 2003? Like, we've spent.
Laura: It's gonna get worse.
Ryan: Oh, God.
Laura: So it wasn't movie sex anymore, but it was sex. Like, we all have sex where you don't always come together, which, in my experience, is the case.
Ryan: Was he talking about?
Laura: I don't know.
Ryan: Was he, like, so broken up by the fact that he had to be in a Star war that he's like, he's like, I need to be an artist now. Uh, and I need to just, like, hitch my wagon to the first thing that comes. I don't know. That just all sounds like nonsense.
Laura: There was also this goofy interview where this man was asking him, oh, is it in your contract to get naked in a film? And Ewan McGregor is just over it, because that's also and obviously a really stupid thing to ask.
Ryan: Yeah, it's a dumb question from a fucking stupid ass journalist.
Laura: Exactly.
Ryan: Yeah. It doesn't make any fucking sense.
Laura: So Ewan McGregor watched Bertolucci's last tango in Paris in preparation for the movie.
Ryan: Yeah. Cause that's fucking real. Yeah. Because that's. That's also a fucking shining example of how people have sex also.
Laura: Gross. That movie is gross.
Ryan: Yeah, there's some pretty.
Laura: So it's probably not far off.
Ryan: No, no. But that film. That film, I feel like, has a little bit more merit than. Than this one. Like, I'm not. I don't want to on young Adam super hard because my ratings, not particularly low, but at the same time, it's like, guys, like, show a little bit of modesty when it comes to, like, describing the film that you're making, because you're literally sounding like a, uh, like. Like a stuck up arsehole.
Laura: I feel like we're just shitting on you and McGregor.
Ryan: It just, uh. The things he's saying just don't make any logical sense. Like, I don't. I don't understand where he sees the value in that. And then the. There's very little justification for the said value that he's putting to these things, because it sounds like, to me, that, like, this is. He's never seen sex in a film before, so, like, here's here's the. No, this is the real shit, you know? Just wait.
Laura: Just wait till we do pillow book.
Ryan: Yeah. Or just. Yeah, just wait until you see nine songs. You get to see. You get to see some real stuff, and then you're equally. Or even. Or you're even more fucking disgusted by the fact of what you're watching.
Laura: I assume everyone listening has watched nine songs. It's like having sex yourself with headphones on.
Ryan: It's like having sex yourself. But you're doing it in front of your mirror and you're just, like, watching everything. You know what I mean? It's like, nah, pull the curtain, please. Or switch the lights off. Do it in the dark, you know, because nobody's. Nobody's wanting to watch themselves do it, you know?
Laura: Do you remember that scene where the little boy, the little barge boy was watching? Was he watching Joe and Ella have sex through the little crack in the door?
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: So, uh. So gross. But if I ever caught a glimpse or heard my parents having sex, I certainly wouldn't keep watching or investigating that situation. You would just take a walk?
Ryan: Yeah. It's kind of hard on a barge, though, to go take a walk.
Laura: That barge is massive.
Ryan: Cause, like, if you.
Laura: No, you go outside.
Ryan: No, no, on the top.
Laura: You
00:40:00
Laura: go out to the top and you take a walk.
Ryan: Two thirds of it is storage. And no, you shouldn't. He's trying to sleep and his mum's like, can he. Can he keep her fucking knickers on? Because fucking fucking dill boy with the fucking typewriter. He's, uh. Leave it alone. He's like that guy in, uh, unfaithful. He won't leave dirty Diane alone.
Laura: Every time.
Ryan: Every time she gets dressed, he's, like, constantly trying to take her clothes off, and he. And she's just like, I just want to just wear my clothes.
Laura: Yeah. Just. I have errands to run. Stop. Tired.
Ryan: Having sex with me. He's just, like, fondling our boobies and stuff. Uh, that's my favorite bit in the movie, though, is like, when they've just finished having sex and she's fully dressed, and he then just starts undressing her again immediately. And she looks like defeat.
Laura: I love that movie. Unfaithful. So good. Dirty Diane. I love it. Um, okay. Getting back on track.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: I was gonna say that Joe as a character isn't even interesting. He's just the only mildly attractive man under 50 in a ten mile radius.
Ryan: Yes. Uh. Um, yeah, it's just a bit like. Yeah, no, I mean, there's not much else to kind of say about it. And he does, like, he finds himself in the company of some relatively quite attractive women for the most part.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: You know, obviously here's something I had an issue with as well is like, you have, you have the ladies who are like the single ladies, like the career driven women like Emily Mortimer. And, you know, he saw, he saw a couple other ladies who are obviously not in relationships and don't have children and stuff like that. Like kind of more business oriented women, um, who are wandering the streets and stuff like that. But then when you see, when you see the women who are married to and have children and obviously seem to have led some, you know, led a life, let's put it that way. The film does not treat them kindly, like they make them look rough. And that's Tilda Swinton's character, unfortunately, specifically.
Laura: Her character because she's so gleeful. Tilda Swinton is from another, uh, existence, another planet, another universe. She just doesn't exist on this plane.
Ryan: Yeah. And she's like the acting world's David Bowie.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: She's incredible. She's beyond beauty. You cannot put into words.
Ryan: She is transcendent.
Laura: Absolutely.
Ryan: She is no longer man nor woman.
Laura: She's just everything. She is all encompassing.
Ryan: She is Swinton.
Laura: She is Swinton.
Ryan: I am Tilda. That's what their book should be.
Laura: I am Tilda. Hear me.
Ryan: I am Tilda.
Laura: Uh, fucking roar.
Ryan: Hear me. Hear me. Scream.
Laura: And then they put her in that sad lighting and she's quite greasy and I still think, bitch, you're amazing. But, yeah, again, the lighting does not do her any justice.
Ryan: But, yeah, I just don't think the film looks great either. I feel like it's a little bit. It's a little bit. One note. I just. Yeah, I just don't know if I'm a particularly big fan of it.
Laura: I did think, mentioning Bowie, that this is a pretty good companion piece in a way, to the man who fell to earth because Ella's sister, who Jo ends up having sex with, obviously, because he just can't keep it away. Her favorite drink is gin and she goes, just gin.
Ryan: Just another sweaty fox. A cup of gin, which is still something you've yet to see. Maybe we can watch some clips of it.
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Ryan: So the sweaty fox.
Laura: I do want to talk about the custard scene because I do know that this is probably the most famous part of the film. There's no weiner in it.
Ryan: I guess it's the most controversial scene. It's also, tonally, a little bit all over the place.
Laura: This is the scene that when it started going on, I thought, this is the first sexy thing I've seen in this film. And then I also thought it was quite funny until that is what I was referencing earlier, where I thought that Emily Mortimer's character was laughing. And then I realized she was crying.
Ryan: It's also a little rapey. Yeah.
Laura: Uh, yes. Well, that's when she was crying. I realized, oh, no, this has gone south. I thought she was laughing because she got a bunch of food slapped on her.
Ryan: Cause the thing is like, I wish this was more of a custard podcast. Cause we could like, we could like, really dive into this scene. Because the thing is, the thing, the issue I have with this scene is also to the film's
00:45:00
Ryan: benefit, but it's also to the film's detriment is because most of the film is a little bit. Is a little bit. Bleh.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: But then this scene kind of. You're just like, holy fuck. Because you wish explodes. Well, you wish the rest of the film was like this. And this is the line that I wish the film crossed a little bit more often.
Laura: Totally.
Ryan: But then also this scene feels like it's a little out of place because the rest of the film is relatively quite dour and a little bit uninteresting. And this is like, at least this kind of weird tonal shift where it's like, oh, I'm having fun. I made some custard. Well, I've put a lot of effort into this custard. And I was like, you're gonna eat it. And she's like, well, I don't want to eat the custard. And then he covers her in condiments and custard and rips her clothes off.
Laura: Yes, well, she's just.
Ryan: And then effectively, uh, I don't know if I want to use the word rape, but it kind of feels like it, uh.
Laura: He forces himself upon her while she's covered in food.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: And again, I was quite confused as to, like you were saying the tone of that whole situation, because it is. You're absolutely right. It does feel. It's such a huge shift. The colors shift, and you're really stuck on this barge most of the time. It could be a play. The whole thing could be just a stage play.
Ryan: It could have been a stage play.
Laura: And then it shifts to where you're in this whole other room, you're in this flat and they're wearing different clothes, and it's a whole other timeline.
Ryan: And you're barely even there.
Laura: You're barely there. And it's so different to the whole rest of the film where you're learning about, uh, Kathy and Jo's relationship, which we really didn't know anything about it before. A little bit of. But you learn a little bit about his backstory and what's going on in their relationship.
Ryan: He's a big, lazy bastard.
Laura: He's terrible.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: And she's very supportive and she's kind of getting to the end of her rope about it.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: And then. Yeah, it gets a little rapey and quite sad.
Ryan: Yeah. But I do wish there was more of that in the film, though, because, uh, that's where I'm like, oh, there you go. If there was more of this than the NC 17, I would feel like it was justified. And I think the film would be a lot better. It'd be more interesting.
Laura: Yeah, they laid it all out on the line and Emily Mortimer had said, there's something really liberating about letting it rip and just going for it. There's no way letting it rip. So she said, she goes farting.
Ryan: That's what that reminds me of.
Laura: She goes, there's no way in real life you'd ever be allowed to get up to all that unless you were really into kinky stuff. And Ewan McGregor said, well, I mean.
Ryan: It'S not the first food oriented sex scene that's ever been depicted in cinema, because, I mean, last tango in Paris is definitely. This steals from, like, last tango in Paris, the butter scene. Um, and then you had nine and a half weeks as well, like, before that, where it's the scene with Mickey Rourke and I think it's Kim Basinger. The food sex stuff in front of the. In the fridge with the fruit and things. Things are kind of like that. And that's. That's very. That's a very famous sequence. So, yeah, this isn't. This isn't original anyway. Shape or form. The thing that makes it interesting is the custard. It's. Well, yeah, maybe the custard, but it's also. It's the, um. It's the dynamics between the characters that, you know, because for a very long time. Ah, your interactions with these pair as a couple have been relatively quite moot and they're not particularly interesting. It's kind of a little bit like, oh, I met this lassie on the beach. I'm now hanging out with this lassie I met on the beach. I'm m now having sex with this lassie that I met on the beach.
Laura: Mhm.
Ryan: And then supposedly they had a long relationship, and then the next thing you know is they're not together, then she's dead, and then the next thing you know is like, well, there was this custard thing that we did, but it's.
Laura: Also back and forth. It was not linear like that. The first thing you know is she's dead. And then you go, oh, they fucked, and then blah de blahdy blah, they had a relationship, and then someone's on trial. Uh, it's ridiculous.
Ryan: It's just. Yeah, I just wish it was more. If it was more of that. I don't like that. That's more interesting also.
Laura: It needs to be spoon fed to me. I get it. Just saying I don't, uh, like it.
Ryan: I, uh, think the way that it's put together makes something that feels painfully uninteresting. Not any more interesting. Yeah, I think that's what that is. You're not talking about a Christopher Nolan following situation
00:50:00
Ryan: here or a memento or anything. It's not as clever as that. It just, you know, it's like if you're gonna flash back from your original origin, like your story, which is effectively the story is he's on the barge and they find the body, make the stuff that you're jumping back to interesting.
Laura: I just would have liked. I mean, I feel like it makes more sense to make it link up in a linear fashion, you know, to where eventually, when you have the trial, it all, you know what I mean? Start with a meeting and then having the relationship and then her falling in the water. It just kind of went back and forth in a weird way, where you have the two timelines, one of them is completely linear and the other one jumps back and forth.
Ryan: But I think the point of them doing it this way is so that you're like, oh, so he did know the person who was in the water. That's the only reason that they do this.
Laura: I'm m not going to beat a dead horse or, um, a dead cathy.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: The last note I had about the custard scene is that Ewan McGregor said, emily and I played it from start to finish in all the takes, almost like we were on stage. That's all.
Ryan: Cool.
Laura: Start to finish. Many m bowls of custard were ruined.
Ryan: Many balls of custard were ruined. I. Yeah, uh, it's a shame because. Yeah, it would have been. It would have been more interesting if there was more of that sort of stuff in the film.
Laura: Absolutely. A couple of accolades here. I have a little bit more tidbits that I saved for the end, but I could tell you that Baf to Scotland named Young Adam best film and named Ewan McGregor as best actor in a scottish film, Tilda Swinton as best actress in a scottish film, and David Mackenzie as best director. And they were all also nominated at the British Independent Film Awards.
Ryan: Good. Best.
Laura: Many lauds. Yeah, many lauds.
Ryan: Mhm.
Laura: So we were earlier talking about the NC 17 rating, and I was reading an interview where David Mackenzie said that essentially, we were fine with the idea. We made a grown up film for grown ups. But there's a certain stigma fucking hell in this states about it. It's a pity if people are somehow led to believe that it's a bad film as a result of the fact that it's got that rating. But we've had a lot of support from a lot of people. There are rumors that even theaters may be encouraging more NC 17 films, saying that we've done enough films for children. There are plenty of films out there for children and teenagers. Let's finally do films for people who are over the age of 18 as well. There's a huge kind of constituency out there that the distributors might want to go for. Um, that was in 2003.
Ryan: Yeah. Things have.
Laura: We are in 2024. To be fair, this year has been a pretty good year for M. I don't want to say more explicit, but just maybe more nudity. In a way, it's kind of interesting how you have this discourse between people saying they want less sex or less nudity. But then we've had so many films recently, we have poor things that was new this year or last year, and Saltburn, things like that House of the Dragon and all these type of things where you're getting more full frontal nudity. So, I mean, maybe it's a thing. Not NC 17, though.
Ryan: Well, the thing I have, and I think is what he's grossly, um. He's either misinterpreting or he's completely ignoring is the fact that, like, an NC 17 is pretty much a kiss of death for a distribution company to market your film. If it's an NC 17, that's less people going to the cinema to go see your film, which is why, like, an r rating and stuff like that. Like, that's far more desirable. Um, it really comes down to your audience. But to me, like, personally, you know, there were plenty of r rated, you know, erotic thrillers by that time. I don't see why young Adam has to be the. The flag bearer for the NC 17, which, again, like, we look, historically, that never came to pass, and it never will, never will come to pass. I think people are interested in slightly more explicit content, but I think it's more down to the fact that society is caught up with the honesty of cinema and the honesty of certain filmmakers and the way that they want to tell their story.
00:55:00
Ryan: So, generationally, we are looking at a generation now who, for the most part, aren't as. They aren't as interested in sex the same way that, say, our generation was interested in sex, or at least the way that sex was sold us through media and through tv and through publications and stuff. So I would just say that, like, it's going down. It's going down the right path. But to me, personally, I think, like, things have just opened up just a little bit. But I still don't. Yeah, I still don't think that whatever he thinks was going to come to pass. Like, that was never. That was never going to happen, correct. Never in a million years.
Laura: I mean, I honestly don't see why not. NC 17 only means that you have to be 17 or older to go. And it's stupid. The whole rating system is a yemenite fucking joke anyway.
Ryan: Yeah. Uh, certainly the UK. The UK system works. But then the UK realized that they could get more out of their cinema going public by creating the twelve a rating, which was kind of more m. As a guidance rating. Kind of taking nods from the american rating system where like, you know, an r rated movie, you can go see it if you go with your parents.
Laura: Correct.
Ryan: You know, so it's a slightly. Slightly different. That's when you saw fucked up things like, you know, families go to go see, like Gone girl and stuff like that. We were just like, hold on. Um. But, yeah, no, I think it comes down to marketing. And certainly films have only just gotten more expensive to make now. So the idea that you would. I think the thing is, is, like, because things have gotten far more expensive to make. The bridge for the NC 17 doesn't really need to exist anymore because the lines have been pushed further and further and further, that you're getting audiences who are interested in slightly more explicit content. So you don't need to fear that NC 17 as much anymore because you do have slightly more independent distributors, like a 24 and neon and stuff like that, who will put out those slightly more different counter, um. Like counterpoint films that are kind of outside of the mainstream. Because it really like the mainstream cinema as it is right now. It's probably in its most dire state than it's ever been.
Laura: I don't know.
Ryan: I think the quality is. Yeah, it is vivid. Uh, and it is glading.
Laura: I don't know. I'm optimistic. I'm optimistic. I typically see things that I like. Not often do I see things that I hate.
Ryan: Well, you're a big fan of moving pictures. You're kind of like.
Laura: I love it.
Ryan: You're like a cinema magpie, as I've said before.
Laura: Yep. In my happy place.
Ryan: But I will say this. Like, there's only gonna be so many films that have, like, a hundred million dollar budget and only make, like, one, like, a single percent of that budget back. Hence what we saw with borderlands this last weekend, so rough. It made less than 10 million.
Laura: Correct.
Ryan: And it's never gonna make that money back. Never in a million fucking years. So you're not gonna see. You're not going to see films of that caliber if this keeps on happening. Or at least those. Those kind of, uh. I'll say in quotation experiments. Um, we're maybe, hopefully looking at a slightly. Slightly greater resurgence in independent cinema, hopefully thanks to, uh, the dire straits of, uh, comic book movies and, uh, other weird sort of adaptations that have been occurring.
Laura: Absolutely. Do you want to get into your ratings? Do you have anything else to add before we jump into that, by the way?
Ryan: Um, I just wanted to say I've never lost money at darts. Yeah. In terms of ratings, visibility, context, I probably gave it a four. And I dock it because there should probably be more of it. Certainly for a bunch of filmmakers and stu and folk who are just like, this is really dating. This is really. And it's like, is it really that dating when there's barely. There's barely anything in it?
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: You know? Um. But I give it. I give it a four. It's there. It is present. It's just like. It's like. It just gets to that point. You like, it's too little, too late.
Laura: I gave it a three and a half. It didn't necessarily feel like an afterthought, but it kind of did when this guy. You're telling me that this man's journey and the film itself is about sex.
01:00:00
Laura: Question mark. I don't know about that. I don't think I agree with that. Uh, he is having sex all the time. So what's going on there? An NC 17 friends? I don't think so.
Ryan: Three? I don't know how it gets to that NC 17. I'd like to see their framework for how it got to that point.
Laura: Absolutely. And you have an actor who has zero qualms about dropping trow. So it's not him. So. And all the sex was added in the book. So you have it. It's there. I don't. It is unbalanced. And it's a little bit weird to me that there wouldn't be. Yeah, there wouldn't be more. I don't know. And it's just it and it. Honestly, if you really think about that scene, the way she flicks the blanket off, it's a little strange. Anyway, it's a little bit awkward. It doesn't feel very natural.
Ryan: Feels like it was a mistake. Like, it. To me, like, thinking about it now, uh, it feels like the shot wasn't meant to be as wide as it was. And it just so happened that it. That it was. And that was the one they decided to keep.
Laura: Because if you really look at all the scenes in the movie and all the sex scenes in the movie, there probably does not need to be nudity or any penis in it, uh, at all. Like, they could have. They could have done it differently. I'm glad they didn't because it shouldn't be like that. That would be ridiculous. But, yeah, it kind of feels like an afterthought.
Ryan: It does feel like maybe the fixation on the sex is really what kind of brings the film down a fair amount.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: You know, when something where certainly if you have a film that, because it's not like he's a sex addict, it's just that supposedly his world revolves around his sexual encounters with these women, but they're painfully uninteresting.
Laura: And at least try to write about it. You know, you're on the boat, maybe you have a journal. It doesn't connect for me, anything. Nothing connects anything. So go ahead and tell me your film rating.
Ryan: Well, the problem is, is that we've just kind of, like, torn it upon.
Laura: Oh, no.
Ryan: And I was like, oh, no. Because originally I gave it three, which I think is perfectly normal. Most. Most films are a three.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Um.
Laura: Go with your heart.
Ryan: But the more. Yeah, the more we. The more we tear it down. I'm like, three was probably a good start. Um, but now, obviously, the more I think about it, it's probably closer to two.
Laura: Damn.
Ryan: Yeah, it's slightly. Is it below average? I don't think we'll ever watch it again. I'm not really interested in seeing it again because I feel like. Yeah, you watch films earlier on and, like, your blossoming of, uh, becoming a cinema watcher. Um, it probably felt like it was better and more risque back then than. Obviously, I'm slightly more seasoned and more desensitized now, but, yeah, there's just not an awful lot to enjoy. That's the thing. It's not that I go to cinema to enjoy stuff, but I want to. I want it. Like. Like, I want it. I want it. I want to feel something.
Laura: Yeah. I only felt gross. Uh, yeah, but I appreciate that you made me feel gross, a little uncomfortable. You also made me feel annoyed, so I gave. I gave it a three. I'm just gonna stick with it. Probably m a two and a half in reality. I don't. I wouldn't say a two, even though it did piss me off. And I just thought it was a nothing movie. Like, it just didn't do anything. Yeah, but whatever, it's fine. It can keep a three because I'm generous. Feeling generous tonight.
Ryan: Here's the thing. This is early David Mackenzie. He has plenty of other opportunities further down the line to improve. This is not. You know, he did well with this one back in 2003.
Laura: I could see that. I absolutely could see it, and I want to give it credit for that.
Ryan: I also feel like it's maybe partly down to the fact that the scottish film industry at that time was relatively quite stagnant. So anything could have come in at that point, and it would have been like, hell.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: You know? So who knows?
Laura: Okay, well, thank you so much for being here with me, Ryan. And remember, everyone, we are on social media, so you can find us at on the beat. B I t t e. Send us a review. A nice one. Only a nice one. If you send us a mean one, I'm gonna cry. And why would you do that? That'd be ridiculous.
Ryan: Well, no, I'll hunt you down.
Laura: That's right.
Ryan: That's right.
Laura: Threats.
Ryan: Yeah, threats. That's how you endear people towards you as an audience.
Laura: I want you to think of me when you look at yourself with undying love.
Ryan: The end.
Laura: Coming
01:05:00
Laura: to you from the Atlantic, Eve, I have been Laura.
Ryan: That was the name of the barge, right? Absolutely, yeah. Um, I'm Ryan.
Laura: We will see you, um, on the next canal.
01:05:13