Russell Brand is joined by The Critical Drinker, a man who has a unique perspective on contemporary cinema and pop culture that you're unlikely to see in the mainstream. In this episode, Russell and The Drinker discuss the controversy surrounding the new Indiana Jones movie, 'The Rise of Skywalker' and why it's causing so much controversy. They also discuss the loss of creativity in pop culture, and the impact of technology on our ability to create new and innovative pop culture. Russell Brand is an actor, comedian, writer, podcaster and podcaster. He is the host of the podcast Stay Free With Russell Brand and is a regular contributor to the New York Times and the Hollywood Reporter. He is also the co-host of the pod cast on the BBC Radio 5 Live show 'Good Morning America' and hosts a podcast called 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' which he hosts with Tucker Carlson and Ron DeSantis. See it on Amazon Prime and Vimeo. See it first on Rumble. Subscribe to stay free with Russell Brand on stayfree.co.uk and get 10% off your first month with discount code "STAYFREE" when you shop online at Amazon Prime or VaynerMedia. You can also get a free copy of Stay Free with Russell on all major podcasting platforms including Audible and iTunes. If you don't already have a membership, use the discount code STAYFREE at linktr.ee/STROKEPODCAST at checkout and use the promo code STROKEPRODCAST to get 20% off the entire months of the show, plus free shipping throughout the rest of the year, plus he'll send you an extra $10, plus an additional $5 off your membership gets you an ad discount when you buy a copy of his book, and he'll get a complimentary copy of The New Year's Day, and you'll get an ad-free version of the book, too! You'll also get 5% off his new copy of the new issue of his new book, Sticky VIP membership starts next month. Stay free with Sticky Fingers! and get 15% off The New Yorker, The Critic's Notebook, The Audible course starting next week. Learn more about the book he'll be getting an ad free, The New York Reviewed edition of The Criterion Collection, Hurry up and get a discount on The New Paperback, starting on 7/27th, and a free shipping starts next week!
00:00:07.000For the first 15 minutes I'm going to be on YouTube and that's going to be relevant to you 6.5 million Awakening Wonders over there because you surely love the critical drinker.
00:00:17.000A man who has analysed and critiqued contemporary cinema with a perspective that you're unlikely to see in the mainstream.
00:00:24.000I think We are definitely stuck in a rut as a culture when it comes to just relying on the past.
00:00:32.000As you say, the motivation behind these IPs and these franchise movies is no one's willing to take a risk.
00:00:40.000What they lack with these modern characters that they try to do is that they're not willing to take that step of have them fail and be vulnerable and have flaws and weaknesses.
00:00:48.000We're going to talk about Sound of Freedom.
00:00:51.000Why is this movie causing so much controversy?
00:00:54.000I'm also going to start referring to the Critical Drinker by his actual human name, and I'm going to ask you to remove them aviators.
00:01:36.000One of your most recent videos that I enjoyed watching was your analysis and review of the latest Indiana Jones movie.
00:01:45.000It seemed you kind of reached a, in a sense, a zenith of your analysis in itself, or what Lynch might call the duck's eye, the point within the point.
00:01:56.000It seemed to me that what you were saying is that our culture is incapable of coming
00:02:01.000up with new and novel and innovative content, and it's kind of like a Tomb Raider dragging
00:02:08.000cadavers from the soil, reanimating them and then not even respecting them.
00:02:13.000Is that the essence of your perspective on mainstream movie franchises?
00:02:18.000What do you think that tells us more broadly, if indeed that is your perspective, Drinker?
00:02:22.000I think that's wildly wrong, because that metaphor you just gave me would have at least
00:02:44.000Kind of humiliating them on screen and trying to use them as this weird springboard to launch a new generation of characters, but they're never any good.
00:02:52.000They're always unlikable idiots who just bore people to tears.
00:03:29.000That's very interesting that you take it to something as essential as the spirit of creativity itself.
00:03:34.000I've got young daughters, they're five and six, their favourite band is the Spice Girls.
00:03:40.000Like we listen to the Spice Girls and then like some other kids were getting dropped off at the school, like similar age, they were listening to the Spice Girls.
00:03:47.000It doesn't even, even something in the culture which I think at At the time, I would have certainly regarded as a sort of a commodity, even though it had a great deal of spirit, and there's aspects of the Spice Girls that I liked.
00:03:58.000Details I certainly won't be going into right now.
00:04:02.000What I'd like to say is that it's odd that even something that's commercial, you know, we're not talking about, like, Joan Jett.
00:04:33.000And of course, I know those two things are inextricably linked, but what do you put it down to?
00:04:38.000Yeah, I mean, I think the last movie star that we have still active really now that's relevant is Tom Cruise and he's got Mission Impossible coming out soon.
00:04:45.000That's probably going to do really well this summer.
00:04:50.000But yeah, like, There's a problem now in movies, particularly, where we don't have movie stars anymore.
00:04:59.000We have characters that people are excited to see.
00:05:03.000Particularly with comic book movies, with all this superhero stuff, it'll be a case of, hey, we're going to go and see the new Captain America movie.
00:05:09.000We're going to see the new Thor movie.
00:05:11.000We don't care about the actor that's playing him, really.
00:05:14.000It's just the character that we're going to see.
00:05:17.000Then doesn't translate into a star who can sell movies, who can get people to go to the movie theater and see his latest film.
00:05:25.000You know, back when probably you and I were kids, the dominant forces at the box office were like, oh, I'm going to go and see the latest Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
00:05:33.000I'm going to see the latest Stallone movie, the latest Bruce Willis movie.
00:05:53.000We don't want to take the risk now of inventing new things because one, movies are massively expensive and so they don't want to take the risk of investing 200, 300 million dollars on something that's completely unproven.
00:06:06.000And so all they'll do is say, well, what's a surefire hit?
00:07:00.000I've got a few things I want to run by you.
00:07:04.000I used to think, it's like a little hypothesis of mine, that American movie stars somehow embody how they regard how that nation in particular, and let's face it, it's still the nation that defines our planet, like how it sees itself at a particular time, like when it was Schwarzenegger and Stallone, it was a kind of rebooted 1980s America with heft and, you know, an overt masculinity.
00:07:27.000Adam Sandler, who I did a movie with actually, and who I think is a really interesting and brilliant performer and comic, and he, like, At a time when we were starting to learn, for example, that there weren't actually weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Adam Sandler had this kind of, oh shucks, I didn't mean it, kind of mentality that aligned neatly with an America that's trying its best and erring sometimes.
00:07:50.000Now perhaps what we have is an America that doesn't know what it's trying to sell itself anymore.
00:07:57.000Trying to present a kind of ethical and moral face to the world while clearly being backed by commodity.
00:08:02.000As you say, the motivation behind these IPs and these franchise movies is no one's willing to take a risk.
00:08:10.000Matt Damon says that you'd never get a Good Will Hunting type movies no more because no one will back a $30 million movie like that.
00:08:20.000But what I want to get into just before, while we're still on YouTube, before we leave YouTube, so do bear that in mind, Drinker, that we're still in a place where censorship is possible, is how do we marry together the idea that you don't want movies all to be big, buff, white movie stars.
00:08:40.000You want, as a father of daughters, I want What do you think is the concession that should be made to make movies more, for want of a better word, more diverse?
00:08:50.000I do for my girls. I want them to watch films and not always to be it's just guys and blokes
00:08:55.000and you know, I want there to be diversity. But how do you marry that? What do you think
00:09:00.000is the concession that should be made to make movies more for one of a better word, more
00:09:07.000diverse? Where do you stand on that mate?
00:09:10.000What is it like? Yeah, interesting points you've made there because it's like when you
00:09:13.000talk about the stars of their different eras, like the 70s was like De Niro, Al Pacino,
00:09:18.000Dustin Hoffman, like the interesting character actors, The 80s was the big buff muscle men.
00:09:24.000It was the time of, like, American confidence.
00:10:00.000So I think I was- yeah, it's a self-evident point of, like, it doesn't even know what it wants to be anymore.
00:10:05.000So that's kind of really sad to see because we always- you know, as a Brit, I always looked up to America as, like, the model of the world.
00:10:12.000Like, this is the country that leads us, the free world.
00:10:16.000But yeah, when it comes to marrying you talked about there, like the, rather than just having
00:10:22.000straight white guys as like the movie stars, how do we, how do we include people of different genders,
00:10:29.000ethnicities, all that stuff. I guess what I would say, hey, we did it 20, 30, 40 years ago, we
00:10:36.000just didn't make such a big deal out of it like we have to do now. And that's the thing that annoys
00:10:41.000people, that's the thing that turns people off, when you make the identity of the main
00:10:45.000character, the main actor, the sole focus of everything. People are just like, well, why are you making
00:11:42.000Yeah, it offends you because it's, in a sense, hasn't got any art or care in it.
00:11:49.000So you're contrasting the character like Ripley from Alien or Sarah Connor from the Terminator movies with, say, an example off the top of my head which I know will go over well on these platforms, Captain Marvel and the way that Captain Marvel was kind of presented as a hero.
00:12:07.000It offends you, I think, Because I'm, as I've said before, I'm a fan of your content, that you don't get to see a vulnerable character evolve, a vulnerable character learn lessons, a character that is flawed and has to overcome obstacles.
00:12:19.000In a sense, this is the function of story that precedes the medium of cinema.
00:12:25.000We need to see that a character in position A at the start of the film is unable to achieve something but by, you know, they go through catharsis, challenges, whatever, and at the other side they're able.
00:12:38.000And you think that this new ideology that's about presenting figures or characters in a particular way is unable to serve story and the function of story.
00:14:10.000That's why nobody watches these movies anymore.
00:14:12.000That's why the box office returns just go down and down.
00:14:16.000Yeah, because when we meet, let's take the example of Sarah Connor,
00:14:20.000we find her as a waitress, drifting through life listlessly.
00:14:25.000But down the line, we see that this character is going to be a revolutionary figure that's met the challenge of knowing that she's carrying perhaps
00:14:35.000the most sort of significant thing that a character could carry like the you know the
00:14:38.000Essence or a symbol for the future. Hey, listen, we're gonna come off of YouTube now
00:14:43.000And here are the reasons you should join us on rumble. We're gonna talk about sound of freedom
00:14:48.000Why is this movie causing so much controversy as it appears to be beating Indiana Jones in the box office?
00:16:45.000I mean, honestly, you'd think it would be a no-brainer.
00:16:47.000I think we can all Come to the same conclusion that children being sold into child sex trafficking is a terrible thing and should absolutely be stopped at any cost.
00:16:59.000And so a movie about trying, you know, a main hero who's trying to prevent that is trying to rescue children from the most horrifying situations imaginable.
00:17:08.000Wow, that should be the sort of thing that you should really have no qualms about supporting.
00:17:11.000And the fact that so many people in the mainstream media are against this, Wow, it really makes me question what their values are.
00:17:23.000Yeah, I don't, because I... Look, we're all familiar now with like the Jeffrey Epstein story, and it does appear that paedophilia is, let's say, more popular than I'd imagined it was as a young man, blessedly.
00:17:37.000But it's odd that a film like this, where, as far as I can understand it, the only roots for saying that there's a connection to QAnon or conspiracy theories is that once maybe Jim Caviezel, am I saying his name right, the lead actor, Yeah, Caviezel, I think it is.
00:18:02.000Maybe the lead actor commented on it, and I know it's funded by the same people that made The Chosen, and I knew the guy that played Jesus in that.
00:18:10.000The guy that played Jesus in The Chosen, Will, body doubled for me, I think, in Ballers, an HBO show that I did.
00:18:26.000So, you know, do you think, this is a question I want to put to you as an expert in movies, or at least an authority on movies, do you think that what actually, you know, of course there's the idea that, oh wow, is there actually, is there something to hide around all this paedophile network stuff?
00:18:40.000Let me know in the comments, guys, I know that's a subject you lot get into.
00:18:43.000Or is it, or additionally, is it because of, this is a funding model And I distribute not necessarily distribution model, but PR model that's bypassing a lot of the gatekeepers.
00:18:54.000You know, they're going on podcast that you're promoting it.
00:18:57.000Tim Pool I've seen talking about it, but you know, it doesn't seem to have to go through that.
00:19:03.000Green tomato, red tomato, fresh or whatever stuff.
00:19:09.000First of all, the movie doesn't try to make any connections to some ring that's operating at the top levels of American society or anything like that.
00:19:19.000It's very much like, this is stuff that's going on in Colombia, Mexico, that sort of thing.
00:19:24.000It's just a guy trying to rescue kids from a hostile situation.
00:19:39.000It was made for well under $20 million.
00:19:42.000This isn't like an Indiana Jones job where it's like $300 million plus of God knows how much on marketing and stuff.
00:19:48.000And so they don't have the budget to do TV commercials and all the fancy advertising that you can ask for.
00:19:55.000They do this grassroots stuff where they just make themselves available to talk to podcasters and stuff and sell the movie on its own merits.
00:20:07.000Imagine a movie that's just actually good and people watch it because, hey, it's actually a really rewarding experience and it's tackling an important issue that we should learn more about.
00:20:18.000It's almost like that's foreign now to us.
00:20:20.000Yeah, therefore it's an example, isn't it, of it's quite guerrilla and quite radical because it doesn't have to go through the processes that typically a movie would do.
00:20:32.000The amount, as you've described, that's typically spent on advertising.
00:20:35.000And, you know, you work in independent media, I work in independent media, and sometimes what I start to feel, and I wonder if you feel the same, is they're attacking the content.
00:21:14.000And that's the thing that they hate, where you've got news networks and you've got studios
00:21:19.000with dozens if not hundreds of employees, they've got huge expenses that they go to,
00:21:24.000and they get a fraction of the viewership that people like us get because people just
00:21:29.000don't care about them anymore, because they know how fake they are.
00:21:32.000I've heard it said before, it was a very smart man named Robert Meyer Burnett who said, the currency of our current age is authenticity.
00:21:40.000And it's so fucking true. People care about presenters, whoever it is, who care about the
00:21:47.000subject matter they're talking about, who actually are authentic. They might not be as polished,
00:21:51.000they might not have the big production values, it doesn't matter. They're talking about things
00:21:55.000that they care about and that they're invested in. That's what people want, honesty.
00:21:59.000Yeah, in a sense that's the Joe Rogan superpower isn't it Will?
00:22:03.000Like whether he's talking about mixed martial arts or whether he's talking about politics or psychedelics or hunting or diet or supplements or whatever you get the impression because it in my opinion it's true that he's saying what he believes and he's saying what he cares about and that seems sufficient to stand up against you know clear attempts to take him out around the Ivermectin horse pace time Which I, again, similarly, like, I reckon as well, there, they just don't want that.
00:22:31.000You know, Carlin famous, George Carlin says it's like a, you know, you don't need conspiracy where convergent, where interests naturally converge.
00:22:38.000And the mainstream media don't want powerful, independent voices that are able to just bypass their models.
00:22:44.000Because like you say, you've got zero overhead, you can operate on your own.
00:22:48.000And plainly, you're in a position where if you like a movie, you say you do.
00:22:51.000And if you don't like a movie, you say that even more.
00:22:55.000Yeah, and nobody pays me to do this as such.
00:22:59.000I don't have relationships with studios that I can damage by slagging off their movie, and that's the thing.
00:23:20.000And that's why they watch my videos, because I'll give you an honest opinion about things.
00:23:23.000In the Indiana Jones one you listed movies where you sort of where you were wrong you said like I thought Dungeons and Dragons wouldn't be any good and you were wrong about that and I feel like even some of the Disney TV shows you've sort of gone oh actually that's pretty good and you've you know so you've I guess to your point about authenticity being the currency, and in fact this is a broader point we find ourselves continually making on our channels, you need principles.
00:23:46.000If you have a principle, then sometimes that principle is going to cost you, sometimes it's going to support you, but it remains consistent.
00:23:53.000When you're just like, oh when I'm talking about this, you know, when cluster bombs, here's an example from the news this week, when cluster bombs are being used by Russia, they're bad.
00:24:01.000When cluster bombs are being used by America, They're good!
00:24:06.000You know, so that means, you know, that is the opposite of what you're discussing in terms of, sort of, veracity and an ability to trust.
00:24:13.000Yeah, humane cluster bombs, I like that idea.
00:24:15.000But, yeah, I mean, it's like, yeah, sometimes I'll watch the trailer for a movie, I'll give my thoughts on it and, like, make some predictions about what the film's going to be like.
00:24:24.000Sometimes I'm right, or most of the time I am, but sometimes I'm wrong.
00:24:28.000If a movie, I go and watch it and it's better than I expected, I'm a happy man because I got to watch a good movie, so that's okay as far as I'm concerned.
00:24:36.000So yeah, for me, there's nothing wrong with admitting that occasionally you call it wrong.
00:24:40.000That's okay, as long as you're honest with people.
00:24:44.000What about, do you sometimes get a bit, let's say, supercharged by the Like, you know, if something isn't, for want of a better term, woke, do you think, oh my god, do you think it almost gets an extra bit of juice because of that?
00:24:57.000I'm talking about films like maybe, um, you know, Maverick, or even the Mario Brothers movie, just by virtue of the fact that it's not pushing that message.
00:25:07.000Or do you think that by not having the kind of, the sort of gravitational lag That wokeness can apply because it prevents, to use but one example, a character from having a meaningful arc because they're already presented as perfect on the basis of identity, which shouldn't be what's presented at the centre of a film.
00:25:28.000And if it's freed of that, it's a little bit better.
00:25:31.000Or do you think that you're sort of like, oh, thank God, bloody Mario Brothers isn't doing that, and you get a bit excited?
00:25:36.000There's the initial emotional reaction of, like, hey, wow, this movie doesn't fucking hate me because I'm, like, a straight white man.
00:25:54.000So you try to be a bit more objective about it.
00:25:57.000But it's also possible, this is an interesting discussion about, it's possible for something to be woke by the normal standards but also be good if it's well written.
00:26:08.000The example that I've given before is a TV show called Arcane.
00:26:12.000Which puts forward a lot of what we would consider to be woke politics, like extremely diverse cast, gay relationships front and center, a class struggle at the heart of the plot that's driving it forward, very strong female characters, all that stuff.
00:26:30.000Um, that might be considered woke in other movies because it's badly handled, but it's extremely well integrated into a really good story in that TV show.
00:26:38.000And so I was happy to say, hey, this is an example of, say, progressive politics or progressive ideology done well.
00:26:46.000It can be done, but you've just got to write it well.
00:26:48.000That's what we look for, a good story.
00:26:51.000Right, don't use it instead of structure.
00:26:53.000I suppose another film like The Matrix, Matrix is a good example, I'm talking about the first one obviously, of how sort of different ideals and identity transcendent of homogeneity and heterodoxy is presented as aspirational and cool and then the Wachowskis of course, Wachowskis?
00:27:13.000Like uh like they had a sort of uh obviously they changed gender during like you know the trajectory of those movies like that maybe that's something for you to touch upon but I also like again with my personal uh position as a father of girls and also as a person that do I do believe there should be stories for everyone there should be stories for everyone but I think I agree with you as a aesthete or as a critical thinker you know to sort of use the phrase from which your name is derived Like, I want things to reward me and to make sense, I suppose.
00:27:48.000So, um, would you touch on, like, you know, sort of the Matrix and the Wachowskis, if I'm saying the name right, and also what films would I direct my girls to?
00:27:57.000Sometimes if I watch an old Simpsons and Bart goes, girls are shit, or whatever, I'm like, oh, I don't want my daughters watching that, you know what I mean?
00:28:03.000So, sort of touch on that sort of side of it as well, if you could.
00:28:06.000Yeah, I mean, in terms of, like, if you're looking for movies with good female role models, like, damn, where do I begin?
00:28:12.000Like, you've got the Terminator movies, I suppose, like we mentioned before.
00:28:18.000You've got Ripley from the first two Aliens films.
00:28:21.000You've got Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
00:28:27.000You've got Gina Davis from Long Kiss Goodnight.
00:28:30.000Like, all of these, these are very interesting characters that kind of You know, they've got flaws, they've got weaknesses, they've got problems along the way, but they overcome those things.
00:28:39.000So yeah, there's been movies all throughout cinematic history that have given us this stuff.
00:28:47.000It's just, really, in recent years, in trying to highlight this stuff and in trying to correct a problem that didn't really exist in the first place, they've made it infinitely worse.
00:28:58.000What about that analytic tool like I only know because I saw it in Rick and Morty where they say like an analysis of a feminist a movie from a feminist perspective is are there two female characters that have names that are talking about something other than a man like and also like There is an imbalance between films that, uh, don't you think?
00:29:47.000No, it was created by a woman, but she just did it as a bit of a laugh and it was meant to poke fun at the feminist critique of movies and stuff.
00:29:56.000So it was never meant to be taken seriously, but it's become the benchmark across the industry for how movies are rated.
00:30:05.000It's a meme that became reality, I suppose.
00:30:16.000I suppose part of the reason is, like, it depends what genre of movie you want to look at, and how mainstream you want to go, because the biggest movies at the box office tend to be action movies, they tend to be superhero movies, all those kind of things, but they're generally very male-oriented movies, and so the natural result is you tend to get a man in the lead, because that's what guys look for.
00:30:39.000But if you're looking for other stuff, you just have to go into different genres.
00:30:43.000It could be dramas, it could be romance, it could be historical epics, whatever you want to be.
00:30:48.000There's plenty of movies with characters like that in it, they're just not the big blockbusters.
00:31:12.000So this is the same thing with movies.
00:31:14.000And so maybe this is what, perhaps, this is a question.
00:31:17.000Like maybe what offends you is like they still want their cake of Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, a powerful IP from the 80s or 90s, but they also want to sort of attack, you shouldn't have these figures as the dominant figures, so they sort of live out their own dilemma almost in the movie of attacking and deconstructing the archetypes that they resent but rely on.
00:31:41.000Is that a good bit of made-up analysis?
00:31:44.000Yeah, what they want to do is use them as a springboard to launch their own new characters, but it's like trying to take a character that you've bonded with over a period of years, if not decades, like you grew up with and stuff, like Indiana Jones being a great example, or Luke Skywalker, for example.
00:32:03.000Characters that you've really come to know and love, and then what they'll do is present them as old men who are Sad and lonely.
00:32:13.000They are broken down and they're kind of pathetic now.
00:32:16.000And they use that as an excuse to say, hey, they were never that good in the first place.
00:32:20.000And then what they'll do is they'll bring in a new diverse female replacement who is stronger than them.
00:32:26.000Smarter than them, more capable than them, doesn't have any of their weaknesses, and it's like they're trying to say, hey, see this guy that you really liked?
00:32:34.000Well, we've got a new and improved version here, so you have to like them even more now.
00:32:38.000Of course you do, because that's how human emotions work.
00:32:44.000And so, the more you try and slot these, like, fake pod people replacements in to, like, supplement these classic characters that we loved, the more people reject it.
00:32:56.000And that's why Indiana Jones is fucking tanking at the box office.
00:33:09.000There's a really funny line, this line from Seinfeld reminds me of you.
00:33:15.000There's an episode of Seinfeld where he's dentist converts the Judaism Seinfeld offers so that it affords him to make Jewish jokes.
00:33:26.000And Seinfeld's rabbi says to Seinfeld, does this offend you as a Jew?
00:33:31.000And he says are more real to you Luke Skywalker's more real than like maybe your teacher or people that you know these are people that you know and that you're they've been vessels for your own personal development and your own understanding of your own darkness and your own aspirations and to see those things commodified when perhaps they don't even care about identity issues anyway it's um insulting maybe is that a good way of describing it?
00:33:57.000Yes and it's uh I best described it as like a lot of these franchises are are things that have been created by geniuses and inherited by morons and that's the problem because they don't have the this creative skill to be able to make stuff like this by themselves like if you want to you want to make a shit movie with shit characters like oh fine I don't care like you're maybe you're just not very good at this stuff I'm not going to get offended by it though but if you want to cannibalize These existing characters that were made by someone way more intelligent and way more creative than you and humiliate them and try to use them to launch the shit things that you've made, that's when I've got a problem because you are exploiting someone else's work.
00:34:39.000You are raping someone else's creativity.
00:34:43.000That's what you're doing, but you're not adding anything productive to it.
00:34:46.000You're creating something worse to try and replace it.
00:34:49.000That as a writer, as a storyteller, that really offends me because I hate to see other people's work get taken advantage of.
00:35:03.000Do you think there'll be a time in the future when Hollywood is making great movies again?
00:35:06.000Or do you think that that time has passed and something else like gaming will take its place?
00:35:11.000I think we're going to see a lot of gaming adaptations.
00:35:14.000The Last of Us was a real benchmark for that.
00:35:17.000I think we're going to see a lot more movie or TV show adaptations of video games because it's a massive, massive market.
00:35:24.000But I think also the time of this mega blockbuster that cost $300 million is coming to an end.
00:35:30.000And I think we're going to see a lot more smaller things that they take more risks on.
00:35:34.000And yeah, they're going to have to start making better stuff.
00:35:36.000Otherwise, they will just go bankrupt.
00:35:38.000Yeah, that's interesting because that's almost like decentralised, localised movie audiences, the same way that everything is perhaps becoming federalised in that way.
00:35:50.000Alright Critical Drinker, what are your top five films and have you seen all of David Lynch's films?
00:35:56.000I have not seen all of David Lynch's films, no, but he does some good stuff, but like, yeah, he goes down some disturbing roads with his things.
00:36:03.000Top five films, it's definitely not going to be done in terms of artistic merit or anything, but probably Terminator 2, Big Trouble in Little China, I think probably The Menu.
00:36:47.000When I remade the film offer now, maybe not offer what about game today?
00:36:51.000I want to see a video by you on game to the Greek or Sarah Marshall and the last thing the last thing I want to see is alpha maybe I don't even want to see the my Like, when you were saying that stuff about reboots, I was thinking, oh man.
00:37:44.000Like that's almost, you can see another take on that, but they, because it's economically motivated, they want it to be PG.
00:37:52.000It gets softened to the point where you can't even show him drink driving, you know, like how can you, you know, and at the time I'm thinking this ain't gonna work.
00:37:58.000And also, someone should have told me, don't do that voice.
00:38:02.000Those two things could have saved us all a lot of time and trouble.
00:38:06.000I'm not going to push you to make videos on films that I've done.
00:38:55.000Um, okay, so what do you think about stuff like, um, the re-editing of the Roald Dahl books and the sort of conversation around, like, life of Brian and change and stuff like that?
00:39:09.000I hate this idea of, uh, we need to, like, soften and we need to start altering these movies from the past without the permission of the people who made them, uh, just to make them more palatable to modern audiences, because God forbid someone might get offended by them somewhere.
00:39:24.000As far as I'm concerned, yeah, these are works of art.
00:39:27.000They should be left alone as they were intended to be shown.
00:39:30.000Yeah both with like in the case of Roald Dahl and in the case like because I know that people well Roald Dahl has in interviews outside of his fiction said some like overtly anti-semitic stuff like he's said some mad shit but like I mean but like within the work he doesn't say that in like Matilda or like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory like that like and again it's what people like Do you know why that happened?
00:39:58.000I think Netflix did a deal and bought the Roald Dahl estate.
00:40:01.000Netflix was like, oh shit, we live in this sort of territory where those things are monetized and mobilized, i.e.
00:40:43.000It's what the whole culture is pulling itself apart.
00:40:46.000It's pulling itself apart without recognizing actually what you're gonna have to do if you continue down this line is you're gonna have to have a Totally different set of principles almost around everything.
00:40:56.000You can't, you know, like the royal family, our whole class structure, everything is predicated on colonialism, imperialism.
00:41:02.000You'd like, in a sense, you, as Kehinde Andrews, who's a sort of a professor of black studies that I've spoken to, is that once you start this conversation, you cannot have Great Britain.
00:42:08.000It's pretty plain that all of your work comes from a place of genuine love of cinema and storytelling and, as you say, the currency of authenticity.
00:42:16.000Thanks so much, Will, for joining us on the show.
00:42:19.000I really hope we get to do some more stuff.
00:42:20.000I'd love to come on your show if you'll have me.
00:42:22.000Thank you so much for making time for us.
00:43:03.000Cordyceps to support physical performance.
00:43:05.000Chaga and reishi to support your immune system.
00:43:09.000And cinnamon, dirty Christmasy filth, for antioxidants.
00:43:13.000It tastes like masala chai and cacao made a really healthy lolly baby.
00:43:18.000Mud water is Whole30 approved, thank God.
00:43:21.000100% USDA organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, vegan and kosher certified.
00:43:28.000Mud water donates monthly to the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics as they believe the country is in a mental health epidemic and sees psychedelics as a useful tool for individuals with depression, PTSD, anxiety and other mental health experiences.
00:43:42.000To get 15% off, go to mudwater.com forward slash community.