Francesca Rudkin: Here and A Different Man

Here   

A generational story about families and the special place they inhabit, sharing in love, loss, laughter, and life. 

A Different Man  

An aspiring actor undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. However, his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare as he becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at me.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
That is Lady Hawk. She's done an amazing thing. I
think Lady Hawk, she's really kind of captured the essence
of eighties pop, given her a little twist, and yeah,
she writes some extraordinary music. She is our feature interview
after ten o'clock this morning. She is going back to
her first ever album as Lady Hawk, and she's going
to be performing that live, So we're going to talk

(00:53):
to her about that after ten o'clock.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Very much.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Looking forward to that right now, those twenty two minutes
to ten. Francisca Runken, our film reviewer, is with us
this morning. Morning, not good morning. Okay. Both of your
films for us this week are showing in cinemas at
the moment, so let's start off with the one starring
Robin Wright and Tom Hanks. This is here.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Hey, dad'd like you to meet Margaret.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Nice to meet from Margaret.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Nice to meet you, mister young. You know, if you like,
you could spend the rest of the night here. I
can spend the rest of my life here.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Okay, that is here, tell us about it. Francisca Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
So this is directed by Robert Zemeckis and he reunites
with his Forest Gump cast, Tom Hanks and Robin Wright
in this film. And the gimmick here is that the
film is set on one piece of land which then
becomes once a house is built, one living room of
a house over decades, and we take a look at

(02:05):
the different piece people who have lived in this house
and on this land, so we kind of travel through
time capturing all these historic moments. It's one locked off
shot inside this living room, Jack. And it turns out
I find that hugely frustrating to watch, probably because it

(02:29):
sets the film up as a piece of theater. It
creates a theater environment. So the cast, which is exceptional,
amazing names in this cast, they all have to act
towards the camera, but of course can't look at the camera.
So it's like a group of actors on a stage
and they're all over acting. There's fake laughing. It's just

(02:53):
it did my head. And there is nothing natialistic about
this film at all. So they're all performing while avoiding
this camera, and you've got this locked off shot. I
hadn't quite realized how that locked off shot can distance
you from what is going on. It made this film
quite cold and really hard to kind of interact with it,
and I was just begging for that camera to move.

(03:16):
So I think because of the setup, because the way
it's kind of designed. This would be so cool if
it was a visual display in a museum kind of
taking you through history, but as a drama that we're
supposed to sort of engage and get this feeling for
time and these historic events and family and place and

(03:37):
how generations have changed but still say the same all
these really interesting ideas, but it's just so frustrating to watch.
Thanksgiving is coming up, of course in the US, and
I wonder whether it is kind of more to appeal
to that audience a bit of you know, being grateful
for family and home and where we are. Yeah, I'm
not sure. I just thought this was such a waste

(03:58):
of a great cast and just I mean, we go
through everything we have. We have a Native American courtship,
we have the the the Franklin family during the Civil War,
there's the inventor of the lazy Boy. I don't know
why he made the cut, and then we sort of
had this family, which is where Tom Hanks and Robin
Wright come in and they use that anti aging software

(04:20):
they have that we've seen used in films before.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Jack.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
So they play these characters very young, growing up, but
actually they're just really just a very normal, boring marriage.
I didn't really get anything for it. So yeah, I
was just a bit disappointed in this little number.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
A glowing review, A glowing review of here.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Ah.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
That's a shame, though, because when I saw Robin Write
and Tom Hanks, I was like, oh my gosh, that's
so exciting. Yeah, but okay, in fact, I was actually,
you know, I'm here in Washington, d C. I went
for a run last night past the Lincoln Memorial, you know,
which is the one that looks yes, the reflecting poor.
Every time I go past there, I think about Forest Gump,
and I think about that moment.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
She dives in runs up. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah yeah, but it sounds like it sounds like Here
doesn't really have the same kind of icon.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well I suppose, yeah, Jack, I think of you. Maybe
if you do really enjoy theater, then you'll enjoy the film.
That's fine. The positive there we go.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, very good. All right, So that
is here that is showing in cinemas now also showing
in cinemas. This is a different man.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
What's your word? Oh hey, neighbor. The people can be
cruel imagic.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
This drug seems to have the potential to actually heal you.
The implications for life changes and I.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Believe my eyes and word remember me all I Okay,
that's a different man. Tell us about it, Francisco.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
So this film stars Sebastian stan who is doing a
really interesting body of work at the moment. Most people
will know him as the Winter Soldier from the Marvel
films and sort of after spending fifteen years in the
Marvel universe and getting those wonderful pages, it's given himn
opportunity to kind of pick some edgy independent films. And
he's currently starring this film and also playing Trump in

(06:13):
The Apprentice, which is on at cinemas at the moment
as well. And he is a want to be actor
and he has a condition that means that his face
is covered in tumors. He's got this very disfigured face
and he gets the opportunity to join an experimental medical
study and he jumps at this chance because there's a
possibility he could be cured it's incredibly painful process, but

(06:35):
it works and it transforms his appearance into a good
look and average guy. So he changes his name from
Edward to Guy and he gets on with his life.
But this is sort of a film that takes the
lock at the idea of identity and beauty and sort
of being your authentic self and being physically beautiful isn't

(06:58):
all sort of it's jacked up to be. He feels
he's lost his identity, and this becomes really apparent when
he discovers his old neighbor who had a bit of
a crush on when he was Edward, and she has
written the play based on him, about a man who
lives with this disfigurement. So he goes and he says,
I have to play this part. So it gets the part,

(07:19):
only to end up losing the part to another gentleman
played by Adam Pearson, who is actually disfigured. So he
has this huge kind of crisis of identity. This is
out there, This is out there. It's a black comedy.
It's really edgy. It's very clever, really interesting things. It's
very unique. I love the fact that something a little

(07:39):
bit different and tackles a really interesting topic in a
different way. And Sebastian stan is fantastic enough.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Okay, great, that sounds like a bit of me. Thank
you very much for that, Franchisca, So that's a different man.
Francisca's first film, the one with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright,
is here, and of course both of those will be
up on the News talks 'DB website. They're showing cinemas
at the moment.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to newstalks 'B from nine am Saturday, or follow the
pot cast on iHeartRadio