Ear Flush—My Mum Has Seen a Movie

The movie review podcast in which Rob Marland talks to his mum about all the films she's seen.

Like so many of the best things in my life, I have little to no recollection of how or why I found My Mum Has Seen a Movie, a hilarious UK-based podcast starring and produced by Rob Marland and his mum.

However.

If I were giving out awards for the perfect podcast, this would be my nomination and the one to which I would hand the statue.

The conceit is very simple: it is "a movie review podcast in which [Rob Marland] talks to [his] mum about all the films she's seen."

Thanks to some type of discount pass, Marland's mum has the opportunity to watch several films each week at very little cost. This is good for her, for her oft-mentioned friend Julie (is it Julie Waters? She's in the Merseyside area, so it could well be), and for us.

Each episode is between 9 and 13 minutes long, and most episodes feature two film reviews. In a refreshing twist for podcast addicts, there are no annoying ads for all the other podcasts you might want to listen to in addition to My Mum Has Seen a Movie.

Every once in a while Marland does a special review with his grandma, and sometimes he records an episode with his partner Hannah. The dynamic between the son-and-mother hosts offers listeners the keyhole-experience of an easy conversation between two people who are simply enjoying each other's company, as well as enjoying the unique opportunity they've created to spend time together.

I can't help but think that one day in the distant future Marland will be so glad to have these recordings of him and his mum talking to one another each week.

Rob Marland loves to tease his mum, especially about her inability to remember the names of actors, the names of characters, and (sometimes) the actual plots of the movies she's reviewing. To her credit (and our delight), the podcast’s Mum has stockpiled a reserve of very descriptive nicknames for the actors whose real names she can't remember. (E.g., she calls Keira Knightley “Miss Pouty Mouth.”)

She teases herself about these lapses in memory, as all mothers should. In fact, Marland’s mum is all the things our mothers think they are (or want to be) but actually are not: witty, risqué, irreverent, salty, full of common sense. She doesn't suffer fools and has no time or patience for any amount of sanctimony or piety.

There is no such thing as high-brow or low-brow for Marland’s mum. She'll watch period pieces, sci-fi, westerns, biopics, children's films, documentaries. She loves a well done drama. She loves funny movies. She loves slasher movies. (Yeah, she really loves slasher movies.)

Above all, she loves two of my favorite things in the world: Daniel Craig and Jodie Comer (whom Marland has crowned "The Queen of Liverpool"). (And I’m pretty sure she hates Margaret Thatcher, which is always a good trait for someone to have.)

The reviews are, you know, very subjective—as reviews are meant to be. Mum can have objections to a film based on artistic and/or ideological reactions, but she’s never unfair and doesn’t pan a film without good reasons. You can gain more insight into a film’s strengths and weaknesses from five minutes of this podcast than an entire collection of reviews on Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes.

Haha! Not really!

But it doesn’t matter!

The greatest thing about the podcast is how funny it is. It's the type of funny that doesn't have to try or struggle to be; it just is. The second greatest thing about the podcast is some feeling that you’re getting to know Marland and his mum as you listen week after week.

My Mum Has Seen a Movie is my Weekend Treat, my Reward for Surviving Another Monday-Through-Friday Grind. It never fails to make me laugh, and I never don't feel good after I've listened to it.

You can listen to My Mum Has Seen a Movie on any platform that aggregates podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

My suggestion is that you subscribe to it on your favorite podcast provider—you're guaranteed a big smile at least once a week when you're alerted about a new episode, and you can count on a big laugh while listening to it.

Note: if you don't like R-rated language, My Mum Has Seen a Movie might not be the podcast for you.

If this is the case, I have to say (in my best Rob's mum's voice): lighten the frick up, people! Jeeeezus shit—life’s too friggin’ short!

There's nothing wrong with a few "shites" and "fecks" here and there, especially when all the sentences containing these words are so damned hilarious.

New episodes are (nearly always) released on Fridays, and the podcast has a website on which you can listen to every episode and the entire archive (linked at the end of this Flush).

Through the website you can purchase the 'Zines that Marland draws, writes, and independently publishes, one of which is called My Mum Has Zine a Movie.

My Mum Has Seen a Movie (link)

(Moving forward, all new posts will be released on Thursdays. I made this decision after scheduling this post to be released, and then forgot to change the dates before 6 am CST. Oh, shut up! Who asked you?)

Being Flushed Soon

A review of Catherine, Called Birdy, a film whose 1990s soundtrack seems to posit that being a teenager in the 20th Century was exactly the same as being a teenager in the 13th Century. You see where that could be problematic in the 21st Century, right?

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