Enys Men & Grange Hill

Listen in this week as we laud our mediocre achievements, and to celebrate them what better way could there possibly be than chatting about the Top 5 Celebrations.  It may have taken four hundred episodes to do so but the Dads finally sat down together in the man cave to watch director Mark Jenkin's ENYS MEN (2022). A kind of twisted lovechild of David Attenborough and H.P. Lovecraft, the film is set in 1973 on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast and follows a lone woman, played with haunting subtlety by Mary Woodvine, as she observes a rare flower in the shadow of an ancient stone monument. A study in solitude, where the most dialogue you’ll get is the scribbling of ‘No change’ in a ledger, which becomes increasingly ironic as everything on screen suggests otherwise, ENYS MEN is a film that both marvels at and fears the power of nature. It looks stunning of course, filmed on 16mm Kodak Film giving it an authentic feel of the era, almost lending a kind of found footage or documentary quality but also being dreamlike and cinematic, and the sound design helps to strengthen the sense of foreboding. That being said this is not going to be everybody's cup of tea, with the director's debut BAIT a far more traditional offering in terms of plotting and pacing than this more avant-garde follow-up.Theme tune aside, Sidey sees nothing of value in this week’s kids tv choice as we look at classic children’s drama GRANGE HILL. We look at the first episode which features wallpaper almost as mind-bending as this week’s film was. Stuff I remember from Grange Hill which traumatised me: the kid who fell off the multi-storey car park, Zammo getting into a fight at the zoo and falling into the sea lion enclosure, Michael Sheard's terrifying Mr Bronson and of course,  Just Say No when Roland discovered Zammo slumped against a wall in the back room of an amusement arcade, surrounded by drug paraphernalia, his eyes fixed in a dead-eyed stare. Good stuff, You can now text us anonymously to leave feedback, suggest future content or simply hurl abuse at us. We'll read out any texts we receive on the show. Click here to try it out!We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at [email protected] or on our website baddadsfilm.com. Until next time, we remain... Bad Dads