hello and a warm welcome to the film review on bbc news. to take us through this week's cinema releases is jason solomons. good to have you with us, jason. what have you been watching? this week we go to sacramento, an ordinary town where saoirse ronan stars as lady bird, dreaming of romance and not serving coffee anymore. we go set sail on the oceans with colin firth single—handedly taking on the world in an around the world yacht race, starring as donald crowhurst in the mercy. and there's more water, as sally hawkins stars in guillermo del toro‘s fishy fairy tale the shape of water, and an unlikely relationship with an aquatic alien. it is a very interesting week. oh, i loved lady bird, i loved it! well, i'm glad you did. of all the films that are out this awards season, lady bird has given me more pause for thought than any of the other ones. i've seen it three times and it has taken that long for the subtleties and

emotions to sweep over me. i think it's because it's a film told from greta gerwig's point of view, the writer and director, and it stars saoirse ronan. women crew the film. i think it is a film told from a very fresh feminine perspective. it is a film we have seen hundreds of times before, a high school movie with cliques and drama and mothers and best friends and house parties and prom night. it is everything simple on the outside but inside it is sweet and beautiful. really, it is about a mother and daughter relationship, between lady bird — that is her name, given to her by herself — her mum wants to call her christine. the mum is played by laurie metcalf, who you remember from roseanne all those years ago. she has not been on the big screen ever, really. she takes her opportunity brilliantly. anyone who has been a daughter and had a mother, i think this film will resonate beautifully, movingly and hysterically. here they are arguing, as they do throughout the entire film, about which college christine — lady bird — should go to. i want to go where culture is, like new york.

how did i raise such a snob? or at least connecticut or new hampshire. you won't get into those schools anyway. mom! you can't even pass your driver's test. because you wouldn't let me practice enough! the way that you work, or the way that you don't work, you're not even worse state tuition, christine. my name is lady bird! well, actually, it's not and it's ridiculous. call me lady bird, like you said you would. you should just go to city college, with your work ethic, go to city college, then to jail, and then back to city college. then maybe you'll learn to pull yourself up. we both laughed at that line, "then go to jail!" it is for anyone. i don't want to say it's a female film in some stereotypical way. i think lots of people will love it. and there's an interesting twist on the male characters, which i won't give away. it is so well observed, the writing. that is the thing about this film. its charm accrues through its details. its observations of small—town life, though it's not that small town, sacramento is the capital of california, actually, but for lady bird it represents a prison that she wants to break out of.

here she is with timothee chalamet, who's oscar nominated for call me by your name, and plays a pretentious pseudo—indie band rocker in this, who she falls for, of course. it builds up all the stuff we have seen before and gives it this very fresh, gentle, subtle and clever take. it breaks your heart quite often. it's about stuff that's not said. it's a film of noncommunication. all the frustration that her and her mum have, where her mother passively aggressively nags her and says, "mmm, is that dress maybe too pink?" it's all that stuff that is left unsaid and never talked about. people i know who have seen the film have written to their mums and said, mum, i actually really love you, i'm sorry we don't say it enough. there are many hollywood films about fathers and sons, they always climax with the dad saying "son, i love you." well, this is the opposite of that. it starts with the mum and daughter saying "i love you", and then not doing it for the rest of the film until it breaks your heart at the end. i think it's divine, this film, absolutely gorgeous.

it is a delight and greta gerwig's first, astonishing. herfirst on her own. she is the fifth to be nominated for the oscar. if you are a betting person, which around the oscars i am, i would have a discreet flutter on lady bird taking best picture. it is small but perfectly formed. i'm with you entirely on that. what did you make of the mercy? the mercy stars colin firth. you remember all those years ago him emerging from the lake wet in pride and prejudice. in this one he gets a right old soaking. he plays donald crowhurst, an eccentric from devon. he invented his old boat and is about to enter a round the world yacht race. he decides to do it on his own, although he has a happy marriage with rachel weisz and kids and he decides to do this in an ealing—esque spirit of the little man taking on the world.

so he's inventing it and getting sponsorship from a local car dealer played by ken stott and getting sponsorship from tinned soup firms and rum firms, and then he sets sail up off on his race and it becomes a totally different movie. it becomes profound and moving and mystical and perplexing. why is this man taking on this challenge? and then, i mean, it's a true life tale so i do not want to tell people what happens, even though they can look it up and find out, but what happens is extremely strange. the film struggles to take that on board. meanwhile, colin firth does some of the best acting in years. he's really challenged by this. it might be something to do with the water. it brings the best out of colin. fascinating! i'm sensing it wasn't quite the film you expected it to be? it is a film of two halves. david thewlis is good.

rachel weisz does not have much to do apart from answer the phone and look worried a lot. but colin firth is tremendous, really, until he gets too wet and then the film gets bogged down in its own mysteries, but they are true mysteries. no one knows what happened in this movie. it drifts rather to a climax, to use a nautical phrase. we won't give anything away. the shape of water, now this is a curious film and i mean this in a good way. i really enjoyed it, but you do get to the end and think, i'm not sure what it is about. i'll try to tell you what it's about. it is about sally hawkins who plays a mute cleaner called elisa and she has a job in an american underground nuclear facility which i think peppered the us in the cold war in the ‘50s and ‘60s. we're setjust on the cusp of then. then this creature is brought in, rather like the roswell incident. they bring it in in a tank to do experiments. they suspect it can help them defeat the russians somehow and win the space race. it's never clear.

we don't know what it is, really, and they mistrust this creature entirely, except for one mute outside cleaner played by sally hawkins, who strikes up a strange relationship immediately with this creature in the tank. how was your trip? fine. just one moment, please. security, who's security? i'm head of security. moaning noise get them out!

there is michael shannon's agent strickland glowering as only michael shannon can do. that clip gives the impression it is all foreboding and dangerous and scary, and actually a lot of it is not. it's an unbelievably beautiful film. the production design is extraordinary. which is why it's got so many nominations at the oscars and the baftas, i2 and 13. because it looks great — the design is good. the music is great and the cinematography. there is a lot of great stuff in it. i mean, there's a lot. i think there's too much in it. it is a busy film. it pastiches b—movies which the director guillermo del toro was watching as a kid and he thought, wouldn't it be nice if the girl and the creature get together, like they do in king kong and splash?

and yet it is entirely unique of the director's vision. any hint of cynicism will ruin the spell of the film. you have to watch it entirely spellbound, like sally hawkins does. and she's terrific in it. but if you enter with an outside thought you will say, this is a bit silly, i think someone is dancing with a fish. i know it will not be for some people. very interesting. i think it's worth seeing in a curious way. we have not managed to see black panther yet, much to my other half's disgust, but we are trying to get there! it is such an important movie. i have to mention it as the best film out there. i think it'll be huge, it is brilliant. for a marvel movie it packs so much thought into it.

it is about wakanda, this african country whose borders have to be protected by the new king. people have compared it to the lion king. if that's cute, this is the cool version. everyone in it is fantastic. culturally, it has an all—black cast. so that's an important thing. it's a black blockbuster, which there's never been before. but watching it you forget connotations of race. you are just watching a movie which transcends race which i think is so important about it. and everyone in it is amazingly hot and sexy so wakanda was the hottest place in the marvel universe. michael bjordan takes his top off and everyone was swooning. colin firth has nothing on him! that's saying something! and a quick mention of a dvd? a strange film that went under the radar — most beautiful island. it's a mystery set in new york and is about immigrant cleaners and au pairs who work in new york, the black economy. it's the nether world they can get sucked into it,

the sex world. it is made by ana asensio who stars in it and directs it. i thought it was fantastic. the little details seeping in. a fresh new indie film that i can recommend, because you have never seen it before. jason, thank you very much indeed. a really, really interesting week. thanks for being with us. enjoy your cinema going, whichever of those interesting films you decide to take on this weekend. thanks for being with us, bye—bye. hello there. the weather for tomorrow looks different to what we have today after the sunshine, turning chilly out there. we did have a fair bit of sunshine around. this is one of many lovely weather watcher pictures sent our way. if we look at what is heading our way,

looking at the atlantic, all of the cloud thickening up and spilling its weight eastwards. some has already arrived across the of england and wales stop cloud is guys, milder, —— spilling its way. some patchy fog forming chiefly through the vale of york. also a touch of frost here and there and with lower temperatures, forced more likely in scotland and the eastern side of england but it depends on how much clout they will be. as we head through the day, a couple of weather fronts to keep an eye on. —— cloud. this one will arrive first. it will begin cloud in the west and bring more rain and drizzle. in between the weather fronts, and envelope of mild air, south—westerly winds and that will tend to tuck its way across the uk. chilly start the northern and eastern areas on sunday. maybe early sunshine for eastern england. best of the sunshine for north—eastern

scotland. much more cloud around elsewhere. more than today. thickening up in the west, especially northern ireland in the afternoon to bring rain and drizzle. here, temperatures ten or ii degrees. cooler north and east where we will have the brighter skies. mild airyet to we will have the brighter skies. mild air yet to arrive here. it arrives eventually. we will see the thicker cloud with rain and drizzle pushing eastwards tomorrow evening, tomorrow night. it will be a much milder night. no frost on monday morning. this time, the damp, drizzly weather down the eastern side of england and scotland. if there is any sunshine, it is more likely on the west coast. it is ahead of the rain from the atlantic. the areas of rain squeezing together. in between, milderair. it doesn't last too long. it is pushed away, squeezed away, instead, temperatures will be dropping and it will be getting that bit more chilly. as we head into tuesday, we are chilly. as we head into tuesday, we a re left chilly. as we head into tuesday, we are left with an area of rain across eastern england. not far away from eastern england. not far away from eastern scotland. the rain heavier in the morning, petering out in the afternoon but leaving us with a lot

of cloud. it will be chilli, i suspect. in the west and northern ireland and scotland, we should get some sunshine. temperatures here still pretty good for this time of the gear. but, it will be turning colder. as the week goes on. —— this time of the year. bridges were dropped and there is a chance for easterly wind. everything is slowing down, higher pressure is building in and because of that, it will turn a bit colder. at least it should be dry, not much rain at all, after tuesday. goodbye for now. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: tough words for some us leaders, as students from the school targeted in a mass shooting demand tighter gun controls.

if all our government and president can do is send thoughts and prayers, thenit can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it is for the victims to be the change we need to see. president trump's national security advisor calls for action over what he says is syria's continued use of chemical weapons. thousands turn out to show their respects in zimbabwe, as the body of opposition leader morgan tsvangirai returns home. i was the best figure skate in the world at one point in time. she was famously linked to an attack on a fellow skater, now the story of tonya harding gets the hollywood treatment.