Woman of the Hour

00:23:13 [SPEAKER_03]: where Cheryl's coming from is good to understand. [SPEAKER_02]: Do you think it's quite bold for Anna Kendrick to make that move though considering her like cast type as well? [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's quite interesting for her to like [SPEAKER_01]: I think probably what happens in Hollywood is that women very rarely get offered roles that they actually want to play. [SPEAKER_01]: And also they get past a certain age and suddenly they're finding that they're not getting roles at all. [SPEAKER_01]: So that sometimes the only way that you get to make movies that you would want to see and feel like it kind of speaks anything is to go, well, if no one else is making them, then I'm going to make it myself. [SPEAKER_01]: And it just kind of feels that

[SPEAKER_01]: A few actresses have maybe kind of gone that way, like Maggie Gyllenhaal has kind of not really acted anymore and has gone off and kind of is making her films. [SPEAKER_01]: And I just kind of feel that the way kind of you get the impression of Hollywood and like Angelina Jolie as well did some directing that a lot of the time the films that maybe you feel kind of speak the most or align with what you want to say. [SPEAKER_01]: No one's making them or you're not getting the opportunity to play those parts. [SPEAKER_01]: So make them yourself. [SPEAKER_03]: Twilight.

[SPEAKER_03]: Anna Kendrick was in Twilight, which we had on there. [SPEAKER_03]: I can't remember which Twilight we had. [SPEAKER_01]: I thought you were going to Twilight the feminist classic that every female director wishes they'd made. [SPEAKER_01]: Although, interestingly, that was started with a female director and then men came along and took the franchise away. [SPEAKER_03]: And then went really bad. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, two moons or new moon was very boring in comparison to the first one, I thought at least. [SPEAKER_03]: Shall we head to the scores, guys? [SPEAKER_02]: Let's do it. [SPEAKER_03]: Let's do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Sam Clements, host of the 90 Minutes or Less Film Festival, another podcast in the Stripped Media Family, a podcast that celebrates movies under 90 minutes long. [SPEAKER_00]: Each episode I'm joined by a special guest who selects a movie to join our prestigious lineup. [SPEAKER_00]: Past guests have included fellow Stripped Media family members Martin and Sam from Song by Song and Kobi from Flixwatcher and Dave from The Wire Stripped. [SPEAKER_00]: Search for us now on the app you're currently listening to this podcast or join us at 90minthilmfest.com.

00:25:26 [SPEAKER_01]: So welcome to our Flixwatcher scores. [SPEAKER_01]: They are always out of five and you can have decimal places if you wish and we'll start with you please Montana with your recommend ability. [SPEAKER_02]: I am going to be out there and go for five for this because I feel like every man needs to watch this film as well to kind of see how it feels to be a woman sometimes or what girls are for. [SPEAKER_03]: How much do you think this will be turned deaf to a lot of men? [SPEAKER_03]: Will they not realise what's going on? [SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's just that it kind of felt like the substance. [SPEAKER_02]: It's almost like so over the top ridiculous, but it kind of has to be to be communicated clearly.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes like... [SPEAKER_03]: I'm actually kind of saying it seems a bit subtle. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay. [SPEAKER_03]: Obviously there's the killing bits. [SPEAKER_02]: But every man in this is like not good to a woman. [SPEAKER_03]: They're not good, but also they are, I think, a lot, certainly like in, if I was thinking about when I was at university, the things, I don't know if it was an age thing or just back in the 90s and lad culture, you'd probably say a lot more than you would do, then and then it would do now. [SPEAKER_03]: And I don't think they would see it as necessarily being like a bad thing. [SPEAKER_03]: When people talk like that around me now, I'm like, where the fuck have you come from?

[SPEAKER_03]: When I see someone smoking in front of me, I don't actually understand what's happening is. [SPEAKER_03]: It's that kind of weird disconnect. [SPEAKER_03]: But I think there'll be a good bunch of people who won't see the bad apart from Rodney, who's out there. [SPEAKER_03]: He's the bad guy. [SPEAKER_03]: The other guys are just like people who are just talking away and are a bit tone deaf maybe. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_02]: What do you think, Tommy?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Tommy. [SPEAKER_02]: What do you think? [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it's interesting because the scorer gave it on Vika, I should have given it a higher recommended view ability now because it's quite interesting because I perhaps need to look at the film in that wide sort of context, some of the things that we've been discussing about. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think that's vitally important. [SPEAKER_03]: And so in terms of recommending the film, I think you're dodging the question. [SPEAKER_03]: It does in the question that Montana says last year. [SPEAKER_02]: Sounds like common behavior. [SPEAKER_03]: Common behavior. [SPEAKER_03]: For example, when they're in the break in the general recording of the TV show and the guy in the middle, suit number two says anything less than a C cup is a waste or what's some like that.

00:27:43 [SPEAKER_03]: That is 100% something that could easily have been said anytime when I was growing up and it not been considered to be a thing. [SPEAKER_02]: But is that when you were growing up or when you were an adult? [SPEAKER_03]: Well, through to mid-twenties, it would have been like something that easily someone would have said, and it wouldn't really have registered in my head as like, don't say stuff like that. [SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_03]: It's not, but then there would have been people saying LGBT things would be, yeah, not necessarily being anti-gay, but they'd say, oh, gay without even really, for me, it wouldn't register as like, don't say that. [SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's things like that where it's age or a different era, but now that's what I'm saying where people, I'm sure there'll be a huge subset of people if they were to press play in this.

[SPEAKER_03]: wouldn't recognize the term deafness or wouldn't recognize that that's not what you say, especially to people, well just anyone really, why I say that out loud to people. [SPEAKER_03]: I know Tommy, does that make sense to you? [SPEAKER_03]: Sorry. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, there's two things that we could have a discussion around like contemporary lad culture and like conversations and what lad culture looks like now to when [SPEAKER_04]: there was like a reference to the Bible, like what conversations happened to where like if I was in secondary school back in 20, oh my gosh, 20 cents of a rose to then having the conversation to playground now and I'd say that, again there's other conversations to have regarding linguistics but there's still things that I'm sure that are said that are absolutely horrible, like not only, you know, like perhaps around like students around your friends or at houses but then

[SPEAKER_04]: Again, we could always talk about acts of violence as well. [SPEAKER_04]: And with the film, you know, it's very violent at times, very violent. [SPEAKER_04]: And I know when we're watching the film and like in preparation for the podcast, like of this chat as well, like one time I had these really interesting observations about like, you know, the violence is sort of seen from an angle. [SPEAKER_04]: It's sometimes it's sort of hidden, you know, but some of the, these sort of conversations that I have with, and things you might overhear, they're not very subtle as a lot of the violence as well within the film. [SPEAKER_04]: mean then again another thing you could argue is that like you know people will watch the film and they'll think oh it's the context of the 70s and it was a different time so I've certainly heard that you know for particular behaviors when you look back at you know people of the past some people got was a different time as a different generation it's still a piece of violence isn't it whether it's verbal or physical you know so I think there's something interesting sort of still starting to be spoken

[SPEAKER_04]: about there and then again if we're going to talk about sort of the aesthetics of the film the realistic nature of the film and how it looks or how realistic it isn't and it's like well you know how can that sort of frame conversations a bit more you know around these particular topics of the film I have a sort of different take on or a particular take on like the look of the film like the game show sort of the show sort of style it's like there's a whole genre of film that you know that would cement themselves around that like that horror film

00:30:35 [SPEAKER_04]: Late night with the devil yes i mean watch that the other week i was like this is going to make my brain go weird yeah yeah and it's shot within that you know the square frames and the grain and the noise you know and and this particular film when it gets those moments it sort of doesn't really activate that kind of setting so i ask questions of you know what effect. [SPEAKER_04]: would that have as a fewer? [SPEAKER_04]: And there were times when they did use it coming back from that break from a different section of the past. [SPEAKER_04]: But yeah, again, I'm sorry. [SPEAKER_04]: I think I'm going around about way of answering the question really quite straight. [SPEAKER_04]: But I think there's no doubt that these like, you know, these moments of violence, be it physical and verbal, they still take place, but just the setting, you know, changed.

[SPEAKER_04]: But [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: So what is your recommendability? [SPEAKER_03]: I know you wanted to give us a number around the entire topic. [SPEAKER_04]: Didn't go straight to my number. [SPEAKER_04]: So I wish I had asked him. [SPEAKER_04]: I'd recommend it. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_04]: A strong four. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: It's really interesting. [SPEAKER_01]: So I kind of like did a little bit of a scouring of letter box. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's interesting when you kind of know which profiles are male and which ones are kind of female identifying. [SPEAKER_01]: And there were quite a lot of low scores from male identifying profiles in that. [SPEAKER_01]: They took issues with maybe like the structuring and it was just kind of like what I've sort of said about the, you know, the, the Netflix occasion of that and also and then it just, I guess men get so many films that are made for them and that they can see themselves reflected and their experiences reflected.

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe if you're a man watching this and basically there's no redeeming men in this, you might feel a little bit put out. [SPEAKER_01]: And that this film really feels like she is making it for women and going, I see you. [SPEAKER_01]: These are all your experiences. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm putting them all up on screen and I'm not even going to give like... [SPEAKER_01]: A pass for a redeeming man like they're all awful these are all scenarios that you've been through and made that film that doesn't give the male experience any kind of gratification or warm fuzzy feeling inside and that if someone's watching it and their takeaway is that all Rodney was awful then. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, but if a man watches this and goes, well, hang on.

[SPEAKER_01]: So who was the good guy here? [SPEAKER_01]: Because if Rodney... Maybe the janitor. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, maybe the janitor. [SPEAKER_01]: Because if she picked Rodney as the best of those guys and he was the worst, then what does that kind of say about men? [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah it's really interesting to have this discussion and for me obviously watching it kind of feeling all of those feelings and seeing like

00:33:16 [SPEAKER_01]: It was like, even though it's quite fictional in how it looks and sort of feels in that the game show doesn't quite feel like you're behind the scenes in it, like you were saying, Tommy, but all of those experiences feel real. [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to give it a 4.5. [SPEAKER_01]: I think more people should definitely watch it. [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I mean, it's on Netflix. [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's done very well. [SPEAKER_01]: And it definitely be one that will probably spark a lot of conversations for people. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'm going to go with you Helen with a 4.5. [SPEAKER_03]: I really enjoyed it. [SPEAKER_03]: I think it's an important film. [SPEAKER_03]: I think one thing I'd like to say is like with like LGBT with people of colour with female filmmakers, hopefully we just make films which are just like, hey, this is fun film I want to make, not have a story or agenda behind it.

[SPEAKER_03]: And there's that film of war of the worlds, which is recently the ice cube one, which is terrible. [SPEAKER_03]: But I liked it because Ice Cube was just allowed to be terrible in this terrible film. [SPEAKER_03]: And that was fine. [SPEAKER_03]: It didn't have to be like anything else. [SPEAKER_03]: It was just like, fuck it. [SPEAKER_03]: There's many, many terrible films.

[SPEAKER_03]: and it was just happy that it was kind of nice that he was just in a terrible film. [SPEAKER_03]: Why not? [SPEAKER_03]: Why not let that happen? [SPEAKER_03]: I hope Anna Kendra gets to make awesome, like just fun films, like Booksmart for example, without really an agenda behind it, just like female lead, women having fun and just that kind of thing as well. [SPEAKER_03]: But I think it's definitely important we need these films with a story behind them that can hopefully penetrate and hopefully get ideas across and feelings across and sentiment across. [SPEAKER_03]: Repeat being score. [SPEAKER_03]: Montana went quite deep there.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's good. [SPEAKER_02]: Repeat. [SPEAKER_02]: So this one, you know what? [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I'd want to see it again, even though like I would recommend it to everyone to watch. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: That's fair. [SPEAKER_03]: It's like, what's this once? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it was tough. [SPEAKER_02]: And like Tommy said, the scenes of violence in there were quite uncomfortable, even if they were done through some kind of lens, whether it be a window or a camera or piece of material. [SPEAKER_02]: So I would say two repeats from me.

00:35:18 [SPEAKER_04]: Tommy. [SPEAKER_04]: I went for free on this one because after watching it the second time, that's sort of got more things from it. [SPEAKER_04]: And I think it should be higher because when people start to begin to talk about this film, the more we talk about this film and you know, it's just surrounding film, the conversation that we've had already is like it frames the film differently. [SPEAKER_04]: I think that's really important. [SPEAKER_04]: And I don't think enough conversations have been having surrounding this film. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_04]: So I give it a free Helen. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I only watched it last night, so the idea of watching it again is not high on my list. [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I think I probably kind of got what I wanted, but maybe if someone was like, oh, I don't know what to watch, I've quite fancy watching this, I would probably watch it again, so maybe a two and a half.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not against watching it again, it wouldn't be the top of my list, but I did look for some documentaries or more insight on Rodney and also wanted to see if I could find some actual footage from the woman of the hour and put that in a bit more context from the side. [SPEAKER_03]: Couldn't find much that was clear, but I'd like to see that, I'd like to understand that story a bit more because the audacity of this guy taking that many lives and then appearing on TV is just like, [SPEAKER_01]: Apparently there is a three-part television documentary made by Sky Crime called Dating Death, which is an awful headline, but I don't know where it's available. [SPEAKER_03]: So what is your 2.5, Helen?

[SPEAKER_03]: Let's level Peg with you for the first two rounds at least. [SPEAKER_03]: Montana, small screen score. [SPEAKER_02]: Small screen score. [SPEAKER_02]: So I know the other Helen and Tommy touched upon it about the way it was shot and it not being kind of within that authentic 70s

[SPEAKER_02]: format, and it's not shot in film, I don't believe. [SPEAKER_02]: So I would say it doesn't really matter where you're watching it, because the story is quite strong as well. [SPEAKER_02]: So I wouldn't watch it on an iPhone, but I would also maybe watch it on like a 17 inch laptop. [SPEAKER_02]: That's about that. [SPEAKER_03]: A really big iPad. [SPEAKER_02]: A really big iPad. [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to give it a 17 inch. [SPEAKER_03]: 17 and a half.

00:37:22 [SPEAKER_03]: That's crazy huge laptop. [SPEAKER_02]: That's my size of my laptop. [SPEAKER_02]: I've got bad eyes. [SPEAKER_02]: But anyway, I would give it a four. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, Tommy. [SPEAKER_04]: I got confused with the scoring system for this one. [SPEAKER_04]: So that's perhaps probably up for the last couple of questions. [SPEAKER_01]: It does happen. [SPEAKER_01]: So essentially, if you would have really, really liked to have seen this at the cinema and think that it deserves a big screen experience, then it would go low. [SPEAKER_01]: And if you feel like, you know, this was just perfect on TV, I'm happy I would not have made the trip to the cinema, then it goes quite high. [SPEAKER_01]: That's how we do it. [SPEAKER_04]: I was going to say, I can sort of change my score now because I had it the other way around.

[SPEAKER_04]: So I'd probably score it quite high upon the guidelines of this particular one. [SPEAKER_04]: In a sense that, yeah, I think it... Again, I'm not illiterate, I'm not someone to judge. [SPEAKER_04]: Even though I might have to spoke about style and feel like, you know... [SPEAKER_04]: I'd give it quite high like it works I think for Telly and so you can watch at home. [SPEAKER_04]: There are certain and you hear it at some sort of films people say oh they're they're just sometimes they're good for streamers they're good to watch at home so it's not that this is a good film because it's a little bit violent film at times but yeah and I think to think that yeah I'd have to watch this one on Telly and then I kind of think what would I gain from watching it in the cinema

[SPEAKER_04]: Apart from the collective experience, you know, which is obviously really important with all films, but so yeah, I'll rate it quite high. [SPEAKER_04]: I'll give it a four in that case. [SPEAKER_04]: Helen. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't remember this having a theatrical run. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if anyone remembers. [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was literally [SPEAKER_01]: What we used to call straight to VHS kind of thing which was always like marked for films that were not very good. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's kind of weird that we're entering more of a which is not going to bother putting this on the cinema and you can just have it as a streamer era. [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, it does have that. [SPEAKER_01]: This is made for TV feel, which I'm not really sure I'm happy that with, but it kind of works for this.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's on Netflix. [SPEAKER_01]: It's probably going to be on Netflix for a while. [SPEAKER_01]: I probably might have gone to see it at the cinema had there been a chance, but I'm not sure. [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, if I [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think it's just a five. [SPEAKER_03]: I don't think it looks as bad from a TV perspective for yourself. [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm not sure it was a budgetary thing that's in the way it's shot. [SPEAKER_03]: Certainly the digital side of things versus film. [SPEAKER_03]: That's a budget perspective. [SPEAKER_03]: But I think she could have, I think the whole setup could have been as she wanted it to be. [SPEAKER_03]: But [SPEAKER_03]: From a collective viewing experience, I don't think you'd lose anything from watching at home.

00:39:51 [SPEAKER_03]: Soundtrack wasn't that powerful. [SPEAKER_03]: This is more leaning into the kind of documentary side for me, which I think I prefer watching a lot of documentaries at home where I can just kind of be a bit more introspective and think about things a bit. [SPEAKER_03]: So for me, this is a five engagement score on Tana. [SPEAKER_02]: I was pretty engaged throughout, to be fair, worth giving it four. [SPEAKER_04]: nice. [SPEAKER_04]: Tommy. [SPEAKER_04]: I've given it a free in the sense that was engaging. [SPEAKER_04]: And I don't remember being on my phone at all, although you hear about certain, this isn't the case, but you hear about certain films and things being made for people to go on their phones, which is absolutely wild now.

[SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely wild. [SPEAKER_01]: Double screening. [SPEAKER_04]: Was it double screening? [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: But they're now saying it like, you know, this was made for double screening. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, that's not something to be proud of. [SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely wild. [SPEAKER_04]: Made to not pay attention to it. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_04]: But I'd say, yeah, free for me. [SPEAKER_04]: It was engaging. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_04]: Helen. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm going to give it a solid four, fairly pacey for it's at one hour and 35 minutes. [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I resisted the urge to do a bit of Wikipedia into the real life crimes during it, which is, which is very good for me. [SPEAKER_01]: I was very proud of myself. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you do like a direct comparison.

[SPEAKER_03]: Did this happen right now? [SPEAKER_01]: Can't resist it sometimes. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: You didn't uncover afterwards it was he was actually, I don't wonder why did she change it from number one to number three. [SPEAKER_03]: But [SPEAKER_01]: That didn't stand out on his Wikipedia. [SPEAKER_01]: To be honest, I kind of, after reading the first couple of people, he killed in a horrific way. [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, actually, I don't really want to read any more of this. [SPEAKER_03]: That's fair enough. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to go, well, because I didn't know anything about the story. [SPEAKER_03]: I knew it was based on a true story, but I thought it was more [SPEAKER_03]: When I went into it, I just thought it was based on a random quirky dating show.

[SPEAKER_03]: I wasn't expecting it to be a murder thing, so it had me like, oh right, this is way darker than I thought it was going to be. [SPEAKER_03]: I thought it might be a standard quote, unquote, me too scenario where I didn't consider a serial killer to be part of the story at all. [SPEAKER_03]: So it had me on edge right from the start. [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah.