hello and welcome to the film review on bbc news. to take us through this week's cinema releases is mark kermode. mark, lovely to see you. what have you got for us? interesting week. we have late night which is a new film staring emma thompson as a chat show host. the new x—men movie, dark phoenix. and gloria bell. a remake of sebastian lelio‘s gloria. you're a bit gravelly today. i know, it's my tom waits throaty voice. sorry about that. well, i hope it lasts. let's start with late night, shall we? this is a writer that people might know from the us office. yeah, so, mindy kaling, and it stars emma thompson, she's a chat show host, katherine newbury, she's been there for ages, she's a proper host, she's smart, she's intelligent, she interviews proper,

smart, intelligent guests, but it turns out her ratings are on the slump and she decides that the problem is that she has a writer's room that is not doing theirjob, more to the point, they're all white males and she doesn't know any of them. here's a clip. uh, if i may, ijust wanna say, it is such an honour to meet you, ms newberry, i'm chris reynolds. uh, my name is eugene mancuso, and when my parents got divorced, this show... i don't know who any of you are. i don't know who any of them are. um...oh, well, ah...tom. i'm tom, i write the monologue. i'm actually the youngest monologue writer in the history of the show. no, no, no, don't care. do you know what, i'm not going to remember any of this so here's what we're going to do. you're one, two, three, four. hi, katherine. 0h, burditt, thank god! how's your baby? she's 27. her baby's doing well, she's just started pre—school, she's, uh...

z—z—z—z! never mind, i don't wanna know. i don't know why i asked, actually, you're five, six, seven. that is what i am going to call you all from now on. it's just easier. are we allowed to call each other by our own names? just learn the numbers, reynold. imean, two... can one and i switch? i'mjust — i'm the most senior writer. i'll take seven. lucky seven. 0k, can wejust get into it now and see if we can salvage anything with taping? oh, i love it already. exactly. you were laughing all the way through it, as was i. i mean, i do think emma thompson does that kind of thing — "z—z—z—z— i don't care, don't care." "just move on." and so what happens is, she says, right, i have a woman in the writer's room, and mindy kaling who plays molly applies, she has no comedy experience at all, she'd been working in a chemical plant. but because they have to make the signing, she immediately gets signed up. she's referred to by the other writers as a diversity hire, but of course, what happens is she starts turning the programme around. she gets katherine newberry to start talking about subjects that interest her, to make jokes that are political and more edgy than they would be in the past. and, slowly, fortunes start to change. so i think, you know, very much like, did you see

booksmart? booksmart is really funny. there's booksmart and bridesmaids, what this has done as it has demonstrated that we have actually been seeing only one half of mainstream comedy for quite a long time. there've been so many movies that have shaken up the gender balance. for a long time people thought women—led comedy movies would never work. and they're working terrifically well. emma thompson is terrific. mindy kaling is very good. the script is very sharp. the problem to some extent is, in the third act the comedy kind of narrows down and becomes more dramatic, i mean, it is a blend of drama and comedy. and i think from my point of view, i wanted a bit more broadcast news meets 30 rock, a bit more network, and you actually end up with something which is closer to the devil wears prada meets soapdish. but that said, it is consistently funny. though not quite as tough as i wanted it to be, it is consistently funny, and the performances are very good. and it's worth watching just for those scenes in which emma thompson literally

and the performances are very good. —— in which emma thompson literally tears the writing rooms apart. but it's making a serious point at the same time, isn't it? it is, absolutely. it's making a very serious point, and that's what i'm saying, the world has changed. you remember when bridesmaids came out and everyone was saying, "well, it can't possibly compete with things like hangover..." and of course it did. and i think this will do very well. as i said, my only reservation is ijust wanted it to be slightly harsher about the media, but then that's my own prejudices coming into play. next one, x—men, dark phoenix. how many more x—men do we need? well, this is an end of sorts, in the same way that avengers: end game was an end of sorts. sophie turner isjean grey who become dark phoenix after an encounter with a solar flare which may or may not be a solarflare, which gives her hidden powers but also unlocks the trauma. and she's a divided soul, is she an asset or is she dangerous? the film starts with a car crash. i have to say that narratively, an awful lot of the film continues in that way.

there's very incoherent plotting, this script is not good, the dialogue is not great. and there are lots of those smashy, crashy set pieces in which you have umpteen different super heroes, all of who have a difference of, "right, freeze that, laser that, heat that up!" it does look very box—ticking. there are some good things about it, i think sophie turner does a really good job with the central role. i thinkjessica chastain is kind of excitingly as the nemesis who is searching for the dark power, and james mcavoy is always good. but it is very, very scrappy and it does rely heavily on special effects set pieces. and in an age in which we've had movies like logan, which is a character study thatjust happens to have superheroes in it, i wanted much, much more from this. you've not sold it to me. and you were never going to. no, but you were never a x—men fan anyway, but i think even if you were an x—men fan, you wouldn't. .. i would struggle, would i?

now, gloria bell. yes! the director has already made this film but in spanish. exactly. so, there's a film called gloria from 2013. this is sebastian lelio who made a fantastic woman, and he made it in spanish an now it's a remake in the english language staring julianne moore. the first thing to say is if you've seen the original version, there is an awful lot of this that you will recognise because it has been pretty much moved wholesale from santiago to america. however, julianne moore is gloria bell, she's a divorcee, she's looking for love in singles bars, and she meets john turturro's arnold, who is himself a divorcee, although he has commitment issues, which we see very clearly when she introduces him to her family and he walks out ‘cause he just can't face it. here's a clip. what are you doing here? can we talk? i don't have anything to say to you. i really need you to listen to me. i do. how could you be so rude, arnold? for what? i was introducing you to my family. i brought you to my son's birthday

party and you had the nerve tojust disappear? you would've done the same thing, it wasn't an easy situation! really? i searched for your eyes again and again. i didn't exist. we were in love. oh, please. we were in love. he didn't mean — he was wrong! how many times did he have to say that? it make me sick. i threw up. i don't know how you could do something like that to me. and the girls called, so... growa pair. well, i know where my sympathies lie. i know, i wish in a way we hadn't been watching the clip, we'd been watching your reaction! laughs. ‘cause when he said, "how could you do this", you went, "ohhh!" and exactly. and i actually thinkjohn turturro does a very good job of playing that character who's needy and weedling.

and from the very beginning, she wants to like him but there's something fundamentally askew. she's also terrific. because she does that thing — she has a smile, but it looks like a smile that's on a brave face. you know, there's a kind of screen that's happening behind the smile. also, one of the things i really like about this is she is a very physical performer. she goes to these clubs where she dances, ‘cause she always enjoyed dancing, and she dances in and out of date way, which is the most complicated thing to do. don‘t we all! yeah, exactly. but find me the last time somebody in a big budget movie did that. i think that‘s really well done. as i said, my only reservation here would be — if you‘ve seen gloria you may get a sense that you have seen this before. but i think it is pretty solid and i really likejulianne moore and john turturro is... whispers: very creepy. yeah, he is. very needy and weedling. yeah, good choice though. best out, rocket man. i love rocket man, have you seen it yet? not yet. do you want to see it? yeah, i want to see it more than i wanted to see queen which i still haven‘t seen. because this is a musical. queen is a biopic. not queen, bohemian rhapsody. bohemian rhapsody is a biopic, but this is a proper musical, it‘s described as based on the true fantasy.

and i thought it was a musical, the kind of thing that ken russell would have made. it‘s really well done. taron egerton is fantastic in the title role. it‘s brilliantly directed by dexter fletcher who of course famously came in and saved bohemian rhapsody when it was all falling apart. and whether you‘re an eltonjohn fan or not, and i am, i mean i grew up with madman across the water and captain fantastic and goodbye yellow brick road, but i couldn‘t believe how much i enjoyed this. i just sat there beaming through the whole thing and i‘m desperate to go and see it again. and i think you‘d love it. you would love it because it is such a vibrant, fantastic cinema experience. and it‘s not sanitised, is it? no, it‘s not, that‘s the comparison that people made with bohemian rhapsody, it is a bit sanitised. this isn‘t, this is full on. the full sex and drugs life and then some. you‘ve sold it to me just on that. best dvd. a private war. it is a narrative drama by matthew heineman who‘d made documentaries before about marie colvin, the war reporter. the film itself has some flaws.

he says it‘s not a biopic, it‘s a psychological portrait. but it has a brilliant central performance by rosamund pike who absolutely gives it iio%. and it‘s one of those films where that centre performance will see you through perhaps the shortcomings, the simplifications of the film itself. again, it‘s an important subject and she really carries it and she really does. the thing with marie colvin though, it is a story a lot of people will know the truth of it. yes, not least because we‘ve seen it done in documentary film. which is why there‘s the question about is dramatisation necessarily the way to go? and actually, i think the jury is still out on that. but if you‘re going to have a dramatisation of it, it has to have a central character who is charismatic and electrifying and can hold it, and i do think rosamund pike does that. plus she kind of genuinely looks not like rosamund pike. again, it‘s all to do with the stance, it‘s to do with the physicality of the performance. you‘ve got through it. your voice survived,

now you‘ve got to go and rest it. is that a way of saying stop talking? no! yes, ‘cause they‘re telling me. i‘ve gotta stop too. mark, thank you very much. thank you. that‘s it for this week, thanks for watching. bye— bye. heavy rain on the way. this area of low pressure is forming in northern france. rain has started to move in already across south—east england and east anglia court. it could get to it hampshire and the isle of wight. still showers left over further west. clear spells in between. looking at the weather picture over the next few days, a big temperature contrast which is a real rainmaker with warm air coming up real rainmaker with warm air coming up from africa colliding with cooler aircoming down up from africa colliding with cooler air coming down from polar regions. it is the contrast that makes an active weather front. the met office already has a weather warning out.

the amount of rain you will see on monday varying a lot. in some places, 60 millimetres, that‘s getting on for a months worth of rain, bringing risk of localised flooding. the rain will spread quite quickly across the midlands, central southern england, wales and southern england later in the day. further north of england, scotland and northern ireland, similar to sunday, sunshine and some heavy, slow—moving showers. if you look at the skies in england and wales, you won‘t see the skies twinkle but you will get a face full of rain. the rain is going nowhere fast. it will still be with us on nowhere fast. it will still be with us on tuesday as well. that will cause further problems. the main rain moving further north which ta kes rain moving further north which takes the risk of problems into northeast england. still at this stage, scotland and northern ireland are largely rain free. essentially problems across east anglia in south—east england on monday. heading through tuesday and thursday, this kind of area we could see these areas vulnerable to localised flooding. it will perhaps

stay across northern england into wednesday, maybe not reaching scotla nd wednesday, maybe not reaching scotland and northern ireland until later in the week. heavy showers following into southern parts of the uk as well. this is the area of low pressure that will be with us all week. it doesn‘t slowly fill and gets a bit less intense and drifts with —— further west towards the end of the week. you will see the rain getting into scotland and northern ireland and it turns soggy. further south, a day of limited sunny spell. some heavy, slow—moving showers and it could cause one or two problems with surface water and spray. temperatures, i6 with surface water and spray. temperatures, 16 or 17 degrees, nothing too special forjune, it has to be said. in the short—term, risk of localised flooding that we could see across parts of england as we go on through the next 2a hours. that‘s your weather.

i‘m sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: clashes in hong kong, after a day of protests against a new extradition law. earlier, as many as a million people marched against beijing‘s move to tighten its control over the autonomous region. i think it‘s the most serious challenge to the autonomy of hong kong and to the rule of law in hong kong since we left in 1997. i‘m kasia madera in london. also in the programme: one of the leading contenders to become britain‘s next prime