lam iamso times. hi viz vests... i am so disappointed we were not given special vests to our. we are not allowed to wear them in here.” special vests to our. we are not allowed to wear them in here. i like the idea, boris johnson, allowed to wear them in here. i like the idea, borisjohnson, pandas, high visibility vests and leaf lowers, all in the same story, which is extraordinary to get those in. —— leaf blowers. workers at edinburgh zoo leaf blowers. workers at edinburgh zoo have been told not to wear high visibility vests because that may put off the pandas. they don't know that it will put off the pandas, but it may put off the pandas having sex, and also they cannot blow believes away because the noise of that might put them off as well. thoughtfully, we have a cartoon of two pandas, who say that these high visibility vests should be tried on borisjohnson. so visibility vests should be tried on boris johnson. 50 getting visibility vests should be tried on borisjohnson. so getting all those elements into a front—page story, i think, is absolutely brilliant. elements into a front—page story, i think, is absolutely brilliantm is genius. it is lovely. you do wonder what you have to do with these pandas. there is this rather euphemistic quote, that sunshine is apparently unreceptive to natural mating. pandas just

apparently unreceptive to natural mating. pandasjust don't want apparently unreceptive to natural mating. pandas just don't want to have sex. pandas don't want to have sex? well, these two don't, do they? i think david attenborough is out of a job. simon i think david attenborough is out of ajob. simon macauley is i think david attenborough is out of a job. simon macauley is absurd the pandas stories he can't get enough of them. —— simon macauley is obsessed. that's it for the papers tonight. don't forget you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you, seven days a week at bbc.co.uk/papers. and if you miss the programme any evening you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you, nigel and jo. next, it's the film review. hello, and a very warm welcome to the film review on bbc news. to take us through this week's releases is mark kermode.

hello, mark. hey. what have you been watching? a very interesting week. we have crazy rich asians, which, as you know, is proving to be a huge international hit. we have the rider, a very melancholic and very touching tale of rodeo. and lucky in one of harry dean sta nton's last roles. yeah, this is quite a week. what did you think of crazy rich asians? 50, adapted from the novel from kevin kwan, which i confess i haven't read. no, likewise. so, constance wu is rachel chu, she's a chinese—american economics professor at nyu, who is dating a guy called nick, who she doesn't know is filthy rich until the moment he says, look, you know, there's a wedding in singapore. i will be there. you should come with, you should meet the family. they get on the aeroplane and turn left. she says, we go that way. he says no. suddenly they are in super first class and people are offering champagne. and she goes, what is all this about?

he says, well, my family a comfortable. she then arrives and meet the family and she is pitted against a series of ex— and wannabe—girlfriends, and a grandmother who is kind of in charge of everything. and eleanor, the mother, who has no intention of letting her son marry whoever he wants. here's a clip. it'sjust great seeing you guys all like this. when i was growing up, it wasjust me and my mum. but we didn't really have a big family like this. that's a beautiful ring, auntie eleanor. nick's father had it made when he proposed to me. how did you guys meet? actually, they met at cambridge, both studying law together. oh, i didn't know you were a lawyer. i withdrew from university when we were married. 0h! i chose to my husband run a business and to raise a family. for me, it was a privilege. but for you, you might think it is old—fashioned.

but all of this doesn't just happen. it's because we know to put family first. i don't think i'm going to mess with her! but isn't that great? it is a really terrifically steely performance. what i liked about the film, i mean, there has been a lot of talk about how culturally important it is, that we haven't seen a major hollywood studio produce a movie with this kind of cast since thejoy luck club, which is, you know, two decades ago. oh, yes, long time ago. and that means immediately the film comes with a lot of cultural baggage and a lot of roles that it has to fill. but the main question is, does it work, is it funny, is it engaging? and looking at some of the trailers i was worried it would be like sex in the city with all the wealth and consumerism. i actually found myself rather enchanted by this. firstly, there's a very a likeable cast. i mean, when they need to be funny, awkwafina is very, very funny, michelle yeoh is very not—funny, which i think works really well. the second thing is, that, although certain bits of the construction of the drama are a bit creaky, i mean, if you know rom—coms,

it does take all the familiar rom—com traits, it's not sort of breaking new ground in terms of narrative. but it's being played with... it's breathing enough new life to make it work. and the narrative was going off into areas, into darker areas than i expected. because on the one hand there is all of this wealth and stuff going on. but the whole attitude is, this is not a great thing. these people are scary people. and, you know, there are battles that have to be fought. and also, as the characters reveal their back stories, there were surprises. there were genuinely things, i genuinely thought they weren't going in that direction. so i confess i went in with my slightly sniffy critics's hat on thinking, yeah, 0k, impress me, make me laugh and it did. and not only did it make me laugh, towards the end it made me cry. and as you know... that's the perfect film! you laugh and you cry. i laughed and i cried. it is mark kermode‘s perfect film! no one was more surprised than me, so, you know, go along and... i'm really looking

forward to it, very much. as, in fact, i am the rider. a very different film. very different. so, this is chloe zhao, who made songs my brothers taught me. it is a film about rodeos and the people that work on rodeos and it is using nonprofessional actors playing very, very close to home. the central character brady, who we first meet, he is recovering from a fall, a terrible fall, which has left him with a metal plate in his head, and he has been told he cannot ride any more. he cannot go back to the rodeo. his sister and father play versions of themselves, so their interaction is very realistic. on the one hand it is a film about pursuing your dreams and what it means to follow your dreams, and what it means when those dreams throw you. and it has a touch of the melancholia of that film lean on pete, which i liked very much... i liked that, yes. ..but also a tougher edge, a harder edge, a little bit perhaps of the florida project in terms of the kind of the realism. you know, it is about what dreams mean and it's about the kind of down—to—earth reality of the situation, but it's done

with real compassion, real conviction, and you absolutely believe in these characters, not least because, as i said, they are playing so close to home. and it achieves a kind of poetry. it's very, very moving. it's slow. you know, which it needs to be. it takes is time to tell its story. i thought it was really beautifully done. slow is not always bad. it can be hugely enjoyable. no, absolutely! now, lucky. yeah. one of the last films made by the great harry dean stanton. it's a melancholy film about an old—timer on his last hurrah. on his last hurrah. he's called lucky. we see him. he gets up and does his exercise. he has a cigarette. he smokes constantly. he goes to the diner where he does his crossword. he goes to the bar where he hangs out with his kind of misfit group of buddies. at the diner, he meets up with another ex—veteran, another veteran, pardon me, with whom he starts having a conversation, which appears to be about nothing, but is actually about everything. here's a clip. marines, huh?

yessir. you? navy. 0h, 0k, ok, you guys are great, you always give us a lift to the fight. i read somewhere that the marines didn't have the mental capacity to understand the inner workings of a ship. world war two, huh? pacific. yeah, same here. did you ever get around the philippines? yeah, i spent a couple of years in that slice of heaven. yeah, me too, but i never got off the boat. consider yourself lucky. now, that scene is kind of reminiscent of a similar scene from the straight story, the david lynch film, and it's no surprise that david lynch himself plays one of the characters, he plays howard, who lucky meets

in a bar, who is very distressed because his tortoise, who he's had for ages, has run away. and there is a long philosophical discussion about his friendship with the tortoise and what it means that the tortoise has left. and he gets...he says to people, you don't understand, a tortoise is really, really important. what the film is about is, on the one hand, it's about facing the inevitability of death, and it's also about the fact that, even if life itself appears to be meaningless, we should approach it with a smile. it's quietly philosophical. it's often quite funny. it's very touching. it has an odd theatrical quality to it, particularly in the bar scenes, there are some sequences in which you think, are they acting stiffly on purpose, or is that part of a device? it reminded me of some of the films ofjim jarmusch, you know, that observational, you're looking at something slightly off—kilter eye. and, as i said, it's very charming, very touching, very gentle. there is a darkness behind it. because he has these dreams of the void. but it's a film which will wins you over because it is such strange company to be in but actually

generous and benevolent. in the end the message is, keep smiling because it is all you can do, which i think is a good message. i love it, i love it, from everything you have said, i absolutely love it. good! and your film of the week, i also loved, even though i spent 1.5 half hours feeling very angry, it was beautifully made. the miseducation of cameron post, which is desiree akhavan's adaptation of emily danforth‘s novel about a teenager in the ‘905 sent to a christian gay conversion therapy centre, where, you know, we will tell you all this stuff and somewhow it will change your same—sex attraction! ‘cause there's no such thing as homosexuality, there'sjust sin. i thought the triumph of the film was, although the subject matter of the film is very dark, and it doesn't shy away from that, it's also, there is a lot ofjoy in the film, this lovely irony that chloe grace moretz‘s character is sent to this place where actually she meets the very group of friends that everyone is trying to keep her away from,

so i thought...but i understand that there are times when it does make you angry. but there is more humour in it than i anticipated and that's what makes it work as a film. and it's set in the early ‘90s, but boy does it seem relevant to the politics of today, which again i thought was very important, like spike lee's black kla nsman, it's a period setting, but it feels very, very urgent and contemporary. yes, and they started filming before trump was elected. the election happened mid—shoot. it would have been an interesting rap party, that night. —— wrap party. yeah, you have to see that to get that, but it is extraordinary. it feels contemporary, doesn't it, even though it's set in the ‘93. and dvd? so, very quickly, this is zama, which is the superb film made by lucrecia martel, who made headless woman, it is an isth—century story about the titular character who is in a south american colony longing for reassignment to buenos aires. it is a film which, on the one hand, has a very down—to—earth political story. on the other hand, it has a dreamlike quality to it. it's very, very poetic. it's also, you know, the best movies are those which tell their story

through images rather than characters sitting down and explaining what is going on. you could watch zama and take away seven different stories. what i really like about it was, like the best cinema, it is a visual storytelling. it is a film which is a film, not just an argument. i really liked it. really, really liked it. it is called zama and it is on dvd. excellent, and i love it when you bring something i know nothing about and then i can think about it for the weekend. you're welcome. and a quick reminder before you go that you can find all of the film news and reviews from across the bbc online, there's the address... all our previous film review programmes are on the iplayer as well. really cracking week, i think, and enjoy your cinema going whatever you choose to see. thanks for being with us, goodbye. the hello. after sunshine in places

today, we have wet and windy night gci’oss today, we have wet and windy night across northern ireland, scotland, parts of northern england and parts of wales as well. a few wins as well. maybe a scattering of showers but most places dry with clear spells. it is the strength of the wind we are focusing on the overnight, particularly irish sea coast. these are average speeds but gusts will be even higher, perhaps 40 gusts will be even higher, perhaps a0 or 50 mph. gusts will be even higher, perhaps a0 or50 mph. a mild night gusts will be even higher, perhaps a0 or 50 mph. a mild night for most of us, tojust a0 or 50 mph. a mild night for most of us, to just dropping to ii and 1a. of us, to just dropping to ii and ia. through tomorrow, a band of rain sinking south and east that running into an area of high pressure so the rain will stop slowly fizzle out through the day. we are left with some cloud and the odd spot of rain stretching down to the south—west of england through the afternoon. some sunshine on either side at patchy drizzle for the isles of scotland where the wind will be used gusty. elsewhere, a breezy day but potentially very warm across east anglia and the south—west. temperatures here up to 22 or 23.

elsewhere, ia — 20 celsius. that's all from me. this is bbc news. i'm samantha simmonds. our top stories: at least ia dead as typhoon mankut wreaks havoc in the phillipines. the full scale of the destruction is still unknown. warnings in the us that storm florence is "farfrom done". president trump declares a disaster in north carolina. the british prime minister defends her brexit plan, but dismisses talk of a leadership challenge. this is where i get a little bit irritated. this debate is not about my future. this debate is about the future of the people of the uk and the future of the united kingdom. and the american space agency launches a laser into orbit to measure the condition of earth's ice sheets.