hello and welcome to the film review with me, anna smith. i'm filling in for mark kermode to review this week's releases. first up, the one we have all been waiting for — tenet, christopher nolan's action epic which was delayed due to the pandemic.

and it's finally, hopefully, coming to cinemas this wednesday, the 26th. we all believe we'd run into the burning building. but until we feel that heat, we can never know. you do. many multiplex opening dates have been decided by this release. it's the first major blockbuster to debut on the big screen since lockdown, and it's coming out in the uk before the united states. i've been lucky enough to see it in 70 mm imax, and after months of small screen viewing, it felt really special — and a little bit eerie — to be watching this on a huge screen wearing a mask. welcome to the afterlife. tenet stars john david washington, son of denzel, as a spy who is recruited to a top—secret mission to prevent a disastrous world event. after a spectacular opening establishing his fabulous skills,

he's let in on the secret of inversion, a method of reversing the flow of time that can be harnessed by criminals and operatives. his code is tenet, a word that opens doors around the world. you want to crash a plane? well, not from the air. don't be so dramatic. he teams up with robert pattinson‘s debonair spy to infiltrate networks and stage daredevil heists, where they witness the effects of inversion. bullets fly backwards and there's a great deal of discussion around cause and effect. nolan is, of course, already the king of the intelligent blockbuster, and i think this is one of his most ambitious films to date. it's very heavy on verbal exposition and demands your complete concentration. he is effectively asking the audience to play at being spies themselves while providing the vicarious thrills of a slick, globetrotting mission. how would you like to die? old. washington is excellent and handles drama, action and a smattering of comedy with aplomb. he may be american, but this is the closest we've come to having a black bond. he even comes up against a classic bond villain — who's overplayed by kenneth

branagh — as well as the man's glamourous, unhappy wife, who is portrayed by an underused elizabeth debicki. in many respects, this plays out like an old—school bond film that's both elevated and complicated by a fantasy element. christopher nolan is known to be a bond fan — and if you're in the market for a visually dazzling, big screen spy movie, with fantastic music and gripping action scenes, this certainly delivers. for me, it's not christopher nolan's most involving piece of work, though. i didn't find the concept as fascinating as i did interstellar or memento, but its dense plot should bring rewards for fans keen to decode it over multiple viewings. buzzer rings

the fragrant french comedy—drama perfumes stars emmanuelle devos as a former perfumer who now works as what they call a nose. anne's job is to sniff out problems in products and create a scent that customers don't turn their noses up at. from luxury leather handbags to cat litter, corporate jobs keep her busy enough to hire a chauffeur, guillaume, played by gregory montel. as a cash—strapped divorced father, he's reluctantly prepared to put up with a client who's both rude and demanding — which anne certainly is — but guillaume begins to take an interest in anne's work, and an unlikely understanding develops. cut from the same cloth as driving miss daisy and green book, perfumes pits two opposite characters against each other on journeys, making humourous work of their differences and tugging on the old heartstrings as they change each other‘s lives. there are moments of sharp comic timing. i definitely laughed out loud more than once. but generally, the film isn't quite witty or emotive enough

to merit the leisurely pace. still, ifound it interesting insight into the job of a perfumer, which is a fabulously french job if ever i saw one, and it definitely doesn't stink. perfumes, or les parfums, is in cinemas and on curzon home cinema now. god created sex with boundaries and for a purpose. does anyone want to take a stab at what that boundary is? yes, wade. marriage. very good. and does anybody know the purpose? to have children. perfecto. on to the american midwest and yes, god, yes, a comedy set in a catholic retreat starring natalia dyer from stranger things. just as i suspected. over two and a half inches above the knee. dean's office. it's the ea rly—noughties, and 16—year—old catholic alice is browsing the nascent internet when a chance encounter in a chat room turns her on.

alice? dinner! meanwhile, there's a false rumour going around that she "tossed someone's salad" at a party. both episodes fuel her confusion and curiosity about sex. do you think she thinks that i actually tasted wade's salad or whatever? i don't know. when alice attends a residential religious retreat, she's the focus ofjudgemental gossip, which is very painfulfor her. secretly using the priest's computer to find out what salad tossing really is only makes things worse. awesome! this is a funny, entertaining satire that highlights the blatant hypocrisy of its sanctimonious characters. it's a classic case of those in authority preaching abstinence while secretly indulging, and it's also a warm, nonjudgmental portrait of a smart young girl with raging hormones. while it doesn't tackle lg btq+ themes directly, this reminded me of two great films set in christian gay conversion centres — the comedy—drama the miseducation of cameron post and the more outrageous but i'm a cheerleader. like both of those films, yes, god, yes has a female director,

karen maine, and you sense that this comes from a very personal place. and as someone who went to several catholic retreat as a teenager, i've got to say, it rang true for me. now to a young woman struggling with a more oppressive regime. ava is the story of a schoolgirl living in tehran. sadaf foroughi's film stars mahourjabbari as ava, a bright, characterful student who bets her friends that she can land a date with her male violin partner,

nima. she begins finding ways for them to be alone together — something that's strictly forbidden. but nima is very much in the background of this story. most of the action takes place at home or in the girls' school, as ava continues her rebellion with a series of infractions. these might seem minor to western eyes, but they really worry her parents and they enrage her imperious head teacher, a universally recognisable character played with relish by leili rashidi. in terms of visual style, foroughi takes a painterly approach, often using fixed frames that show portions of her actors as they move around a room. she refers to the cinematographic aesthetic of a country in which there are restrictions on portraying women, which is a very interesting idea, and she's also clearly influenced by ingmar bergman. in some respects, the cinematography keeps the audience at arm's length, but there are rewards for patient viewers and thought—provoking insights into the intensity of teenage emotion and a society

determined to quell it. ava is on curzon home cinema now. finally, back to the states, where krystal sutherland's young adult novel our chemical hearts has been adapted for the screen. you are never more alive than when you're a teenager. your brain is flush with chemicals that can turn your life into a story of epic proportions. and yet by the start of my senior year, nothing interesting had ever happened to me. then, something finally happened. hi, guys! come on in. simply called chemical hearts, the film stars austin abrams as henry, a 17—year—old romantic who longs to fall passionately in love and to be a writer. both his dreams mightjust come true when he's asked to co—edit at the school paper with a transfer student, grace, played by lili reinhart. i just couldn't find the words. it's funny. because i can't find the words when i talk and you can't find the words when you write. grace is troubled but straight—talking, intelligent and far better—read than henry.

he's instantly smitten. the pair's teenage angst is fairly by—the—book, though. i was much more interested in the supporting characters, personally. henry's friend la, played by kara young, is openly queer and attracted to cora, played by coral pena, who's a new character introduced by screenwriter and director richard tanne. an attraction between two non—white, same—sex characters is still relatively rare in mainstream teen fare, and the fact that it's such a positive depiction makes chemical hearts quietly ground—breaking. it's on amazon prime now. thanks for watching the film review with me, anna smith. i'll be back next week. meantime, i will leave you with a clip from a kitsch ‘90s sci—fi that's coming to 4k and blu—ray on monday, luc besson‘s the fifth element. # the right size, right build, right hair, right on # right on, right on # and he's got something to say to those # 50 billion pairs of ear

out there # pop it, d—man! # er...hi. unbelievable! hello. the last few days have brought some very windy weather across many parts of the country. on friday, we had winds well over 60 miles an hour in the south—west of wales and the south west of england and we saw the strong winds pushing through the english channel as well, leading to some very dramatic weather watcher pictures taken earlier on in the day. for the weekend it's not going to be as windy. that's because the deep area of low pressure that brought unseasonably strong winds is moving away into the norwegian sea. already the winds are dropping. we are going to continue seeing sunshine and showers on saturday. there could be heavier ones moving down into scotland for a while. actually some longer spells of rain for northern ireland and the showers pushing into england and wales. the driest weather, the sunniest weather likely to be across the southern counties of england, perhaps into east anglia. for england and wales in particular, still a blustery day, not as windy.

still gusts of 35 to 45 miles an hour, to take the edge off the temperatures, which may be lower than we had on friday. top temperature 22 degrees. further north and west quite a few degrees cooler than that. the heavy showers continuing into the evening before tending to fade away overnight with the wind continuing to drop as well. as we head into the second half at the weekend, a brief sign of this ridge of high pressure in from the atlantic. all it is doing is it is changing the wind direction to a cooler north—westerly. again the wind is continuing to drop on sunday. sunshine and showers for scotland. heavier ones for northern ireland, putting it is changing the wind direction to a cooler north—westerly. again the winds continuing to drop on sunday.

into the early part of next week, first of all, we had a weather system coming in from the atlantic. it's quite a weak affair and the winds are light on monday. we are looking at a lot of cloud. maybe heavier for a while across parts of southern england and wales. dry weather in the north—east of scotland. only 13 in aberdeen and 19 in cardiff. on tuesday and wednesday, another deep area of low pressure heading our way, threatening to bring some more very strong winds across the uk. a spell of rain probably will be followed with sunshine and showers.

this is bbc news. welcome if you re watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. our top stories... a german air—ambulance carrying russian opposition leader alexei navalny has taken off from russia's omsk airport. it is heading to berlin where he's to receive treatment there after falling into a coma. lightning strikes spark several hundred more wildfires in california including some of the biggest ever seen in the state. protestors in belarus form a human chain across the capital, as the opposition leader tells the bbc the campaign against the president goes on. just we have no right to step back now because... ..if not not, we'll be slaves.