April 18, 2025 • 7 mins
The Penguin Lessons
An Englishman experiences personal and political changes after adopting a penguin during a turbulent time in Argentina's history.
Warfare
A surveillance mission goes wrong for a platoon of American Navy SEALs in insurgent territory in Iraq.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at B.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Twenty two to ten. You were Jack Taime on news stories,
he'd be Jack. How about that amazing Crusader's crowd last night?
As an aucklander, I watched that rain soaked atmosphere in Envy. Yeah,
it did look like an incredible atmosphere that Crusader's Blues
match last night. Thank you for your feedback. We'll get
to more of your messages very shortly. Right now, though,
time to catch up with our film reviewer Francesca Rudkin
(00:52):
for her film picks this Easter weekend. Hey Francesca, Hi Jack.
Let's start off with a little listen to the latest
film starring Steve Coogan. This is The Penguin Lessons. Where
is it from? Is yours?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I rescued him from an oil selector.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I know he thinks he's my friend.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Okay, if you girl, not my penguin.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I don't like penguins.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
And why did he save his life?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Because I was trying to impress a woman. I have
to go now now I ended up in a penguin. Okay,
that's Steve Coogan having adopted a penguin he has.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
The film is called The Penguin Lessons. It's an adaptation
of Tom Mitchell's memoir and Stephen Steve Coogan. He's kind
of in philameno mode. Here we are in nineteen seventy six.
He plays Tom. We're in Buenos Aires and Peron has
just been ousted by a military coup. He is an
English teacher at a private boys' school. There's a lot
(01:49):
of privileged young men whose parents are all kind of
caught up in what is going on at the moment politically.
Tom is not a hugely inspirational teacher, jack or man.
He's in South America on the run from a family tragedy.
He is not a huge interested in the job. He
just earns a living. He does enough so that he
can go on. You can go away for weekends, take
(02:12):
a little holiday. He can have a few drinks, meet
a lady or two, avoid the world. He is just
on the run from life. He's just trying to live
his own life and looking for escapism. And on one
of these holiday weekends he's in Uruguay. He to impress
a woman. As you heard him trailer, he saves his
penguin from an oil slick and they clean it up,
(02:33):
and then he tries to return it to the beach.
And then how this penguin ends up back at his
school and what his areas is kind of unbelievable. But
if you can accept that when a problem becomes too
difficult for people to deal with, sometimes they just find
it easier to let a man smuggle a penguin across
the border, you'll understand how this has happened. Right. The
(02:53):
penguin kind of becomes everybody's best friend. The boys that
Tom teach suddenly become more motivated to learn English. His
colleagues find the penguin a good listener. He's just this
distraction that they all kind of need at this point.
But the film also acknowledges that what is going on
at this particular point and in time politically, and so
(03:15):
you've got this quite sweet story and then it sort
of turns a little bit more political, and one of
the school workers has taken and Tom sort of finds
the courage to put his head about the pulpit and
stand up for something. Look, I think Steve Colegan, he
totally nails the comedic side of this. It's kind of
a little quirky and a little unusual, and I think
(03:37):
he does that really well. I wasn't hugely convinced that
he'd sort of went on this kind of emotional journey
to become this better man and to overcome maybe the
issues in his own life. Not quite sure whether the
performance kind of got me that far. And I think
it is very difficult when you set a film at
a time when there is something so large and important
(03:59):
happening politically. You know, you have tens of thousands of
people being disappeared, and you're trying to kind of balance this.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's of the old story with a with an incredible year, and.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I'm not entirely sure they're balanced that well. But look, uh,
this is a nice kind of Sunday afternoon, like a
if you're interested in penguins.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Very good well Steve Kokan and never thought they'd be
on screen together. So that is the Penguin Lessons that's
showing in cinemas now. Next up another film showing at
the flicks and probably when you want to see on
the big screen. This is Warfare.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
We use Burke to pick an improvement, speaking with serious
intent to prove Alpha two. You might have guys starting
to move on our position. We're getting build up of
activity here too. Ye see weapons at this point. Yeah,
we have a definite messager.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Dun't dunt dawn. That's warfare. Sounds like a bit of
blood and guts and popcorn.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Look, I'm really glad that we started with the pleasant
light comedy because Warfare, I Apologize is not easy watching
for an Easter weekend. It's directed by a former seal,
Ray Mendoza, along with Alex Garland, who you will know
as the director of Civil War and ex Machine Or
and Things. And at the beginning of this film, instead
of saying this is based on a true event, they
(05:24):
say that this film uses only their memories and that's
really important to note. So this is basically it's based
primarily on Mendoza's memories of this one day in Iraq
when a seal to turn creep into an Iraqi town
to do surveillance ahead of ground troops surviving the next day,
they pick a home. They take over this home. They
put the family who lives there that's sort of in
(05:46):
a room, and then they start surveilling the street. And
during that surveillance they realize that there was some suspicious
movement going on, and they prepare themselves for action. This
is a film about the nature of war. It's quite
a political it's an anti war film. There is nothing glamorized,
nothing dramatized. There is no creative license here, Jack. They're
not trying to entertain us. They try to say, this
(06:07):
is an ordinary day in the life of a soldier,
and they are trying to take you into that world.
And they're trying to show that it doesn't matter what
side you're on, or whether you're a civilian or just
an innocent bystander. There is absolutely no way that you
could walk out of an environment like this without being
seriously damaged. And I'm not saying this physically, I'm saying mentally.
(06:28):
It is absolutely grueling. The dialogue is all military jargon.
There is no lovely soundtrack here. The sound is actually
what is happening on the day. So as they're waiting,
it's silent, they're waiting that you're very patiently. You can
feel that kind of tension building, and then once the
action does caken, it's just gunfire. It's just horrific screams
of injured soldiers. It's an incredibly visceral film, very intense.
(06:52):
You will be relieved when it is over, but I
was incredibly grateful for the experience. It's quite exraordinary.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh superb Okay, yeah, that sounds really interesting, but one
you probably just want to watch at the right time,
in the right frame of line. Right. You want to
be strateg you don't just want to turn up at
the movies looking for some relaxation and decompression and then
all of a sudden find yourself twenty minutes into Warfare
this week, not that film. Yeah, yeah, okay, sounds yeah,
(07:19):
sounds really interesting. Okay, cool. So that is Warfare that's
showing in cinemas now. The Penguin Lissons is the one
with Steve Coogan and is on at the flicks as well.
Thank you so much, Francesca. The details for those films,
of course, we'll be up on the news talks. He'd
be website and don't forget Right after the ten o'clock
news this morning, our feature interview hot off his nomination
for an Oscar am Bafta for his performance in Belfast.
(07:41):
Irish actor Kieran Hines is going to be with us,
so make sure you stick around for
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen
live to news talks he'd be from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at B.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Twenty two to ten. You were Jack Taime on news stories,
he'd be Jack. How about that amazing Crusader's crowd last night?
As an aucklander, I watched that rain soaked atmosphere in Envy. Yeah,
it did look like an incredible atmosphere that Crusader's Blues
match last night. Thank you for your feedback. We'll get
to more of your messages very shortly. Right now, though,
time to catch up with our film reviewer Francesca Rudkin
(00:52):
for her film picks this Easter weekend. Hey Francesca, Hi Jack.
Let's start off with a little listen to the latest
film starring Steve Coogan. This is The Penguin Lessons. Where
is it from? Is yours?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I rescued him from an oil selector.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I know he thinks he's my friend.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Okay, if you girl, not my penguin.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I don't like penguins.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
And why did he save his life?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Because I was trying to impress a woman. I have
to go now now I ended up in a penguin. Okay,
that's Steve Coogan having adopted a penguin he has.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
The film is called The Penguin Lessons. It's an adaptation
of Tom Mitchell's memoir and Stephen Steve Coogan. He's kind
of in philameno mode. Here we are in nineteen seventy six.
He plays Tom. We're in Buenos Aires and Peron has
just been ousted by a military coup. He is an
English teacher at a private boys' school. There's a lot
(01:49):
of privileged young men whose parents are all kind of
caught up in what is going on at the moment politically.
Tom is not a hugely inspirational teacher, jack or man.
He's in South America on the run from a family tragedy.
He is not a huge interested in the job. He
just earns a living. He does enough so that he
can go on. You can go away for weekends, take
(02:12):
a little holiday. He can have a few drinks, meet
a lady or two, avoid the world. He is just
on the run from life. He's just trying to live
his own life and looking for escapism. And on one
of these holiday weekends he's in Uruguay. He to impress
a woman. As you heard him trailer, he saves his
penguin from an oil slick and they clean it up,
(02:33):
and then he tries to return it to the beach.
And then how this penguin ends up back at his
school and what his areas is kind of unbelievable. But
if you can accept that when a problem becomes too
difficult for people to deal with, sometimes they just find
it easier to let a man smuggle a penguin across
the border, you'll understand how this has happened. Right. The
(02:53):
penguin kind of becomes everybody's best friend. The boys that
Tom teach suddenly become more motivated to learn English. His
colleagues find the penguin a good listener. He's just this
distraction that they all kind of need at this point.
But the film also acknowledges that what is going on
at this particular point and in time politically, and so
(03:15):
you've got this quite sweet story and then it sort
of turns a little bit more political, and one of
the school workers has taken and Tom sort of finds
the courage to put his head about the pulpit and
stand up for something. Look, I think Steve Colegan, he
totally nails the comedic side of this. It's kind of
a little quirky and a little unusual, and I think
(03:37):
he does that really well. I wasn't hugely convinced that
he'd sort of went on this kind of emotional journey
to become this better man and to overcome maybe the
issues in his own life. Not quite sure whether the
performance kind of got me that far. And I think
it is very difficult when you set a film at
a time when there is something so large and important
(03:59):
happening politically. You know, you have tens of thousands of
people being disappeared, and you're trying to kind of balance this.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's of the old story with a with an incredible year, and.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I'm not entirely sure they're balanced that well. But look, uh,
this is a nice kind of Sunday afternoon, like a
if you're interested in penguins.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Very good well Steve Kokan and never thought they'd be
on screen together. So that is the Penguin Lessons that's
showing in cinemas now. Next up another film showing at
the flicks and probably when you want to see on
the big screen. This is Warfare.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
We use Burke to pick an improvement, speaking with serious
intent to prove Alpha two. You might have guys starting
to move on our position. We're getting build up of
activity here too. Ye see weapons at this point. Yeah,
we have a definite messager.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Dun't dunt dawn. That's warfare. Sounds like a bit of
blood and guts and popcorn.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Look, I'm really glad that we started with the pleasant
light comedy because Warfare, I Apologize is not easy watching
for an Easter weekend. It's directed by a former seal,
Ray Mendoza, along with Alex Garland, who you will know
as the director of Civil War and ex Machine Or
and Things. And at the beginning of this film, instead
of saying this is based on a true event, they
(05:24):
say that this film uses only their memories and that's
really important to note. So this is basically it's based
primarily on Mendoza's memories of this one day in Iraq
when a seal to turn creep into an Iraqi town
to do surveillance ahead of ground troops surviving the next day,
they pick a home. They take over this home. They
put the family who lives there that's sort of in
(05:46):
a room, and then they start surveilling the street. And
during that surveillance they realize that there was some suspicious
movement going on, and they prepare themselves for action. This
is a film about the nature of war. It's quite
a political it's an anti war film. There is nothing glamorized,
nothing dramatized. There is no creative license here, Jack. They're
not trying to entertain us. They try to say, this
(06:07):
is an ordinary day in the life of a soldier,
and they are trying to take you into that world.
And they're trying to show that it doesn't matter what
side you're on, or whether you're a civilian or just
an innocent bystander. There is absolutely no way that you
could walk out of an environment like this without being
seriously damaged. And I'm not saying this physically, I'm saying mentally.
(06:28):
It is absolutely grueling. The dialogue is all military jargon.
There is no lovely soundtrack here. The sound is actually
what is happening on the day. So as they're waiting,
it's silent, they're waiting that you're very patiently. You can
feel that kind of tension building, and then once the
action does caken, it's just gunfire. It's just horrific screams
of injured soldiers. It's an incredibly visceral film, very intense.
(06:52):
You will be relieved when it is over, but I
was incredibly grateful for the experience. It's quite exraordinary.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh superb Okay, yeah, that sounds really interesting, but one
you probably just want to watch at the right time,
in the right frame of line. Right. You want to
be strateg you don't just want to turn up at
the movies looking for some relaxation and decompression and then
all of a sudden find yourself twenty minutes into Warfare
this week, not that film. Yeah, yeah, okay, sounds yeah,
(07:19):
sounds really interesting. Okay, cool. So that is Warfare that's
showing in cinemas now. The Penguin Lissons is the one
with Steve Coogan and is on at the flicks as well.
Thank you so much, Francesca. The details for those films,
of course, we'll be up on the news talks. He'd
be website and don't forget Right after the ten o'clock
news this morning, our feature interview hot off his nomination
for an Oscar am Bafta for his performance in Belfast.
(07:41):
Irish actor Kieran Hines is going to be with us,
so make sure you stick around for
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen
live to news talks he'd be from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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