hello and welcome to the film review with me mark kermode, reminding you that while cinemas may be closed, there is still plenty of new movies to enjoy in the comfort and safety of your own home. in grimur hakonarson�*s deadpan 2015 gem, rams, two feuding sheep—farming brothers in a secluded icelandic valley are forced into common enterprise when scrapie threatens their ancestral stock. look at you, my dearies, you are beautiful. you are beautiful.

but you're the best. now in directorjeremy sims�* remake of ram, which is available on a range of digital platforms, the chilly vistas of iceland are replaced by the sunshine of western australia with sam neil and michael caton playing colin and les, neighbouring sibling rivals who haven't exchanged much more than a grunt in years. clicks tongue. when a cull of their prize stock is ordered to prevent infection, colin decides to bend the rules and hide a few of his sheep in his house. sheep bleating. but when the authorities come calling, can the estranged brothers bury their differences? bring her in... get behind, get behind! dog barks. good dog. there you go... bring her in, yeah, good, good dog. oh, come on, stop mucking around! this is a much warmer, jollier and ultimately frothier film than its predecessor,

replacing the sometimes piercing truthfulness of the sublimely morose with a more amiable but less memorable feel—good factor. dog whines. miranda richardson and wayne blair make the most of broadly written supporting roles while neil and caton last of the challenge of characters whose beardy silence often speaks louder than words. it's all entertaining enough, but if you want the real deal, check out hakonarson�*s original along with his follow—up, the county, both of which are available on disk and streaming services. now, for viewers of a certain vintage, the name robert lloyd holds special significance. the front man ofjohn peel favourites the prefect and the nightingales, lloyd is something of a folk hero. a musician whose lengthy career has been untroubled by fame and fortune but still touched by greatness. so this pub, the eagle, in balsall heath, that was the offices of vindaloo records... it was, yeah. so you had an office above it or in the back? no, it wasjust — the back bar was where...

you mean, you were in there a lot? in director michael cummings�* affectionate and insightful documentary king rocker, comedian and fan stewart lee draws a parallel between lloyd and nicholas monro�*s giant statue of king kong, both of which were rejected and then later reclaimed by the city of birmingham and the wider world. i thought, "right, i'll make a song out of that," which i did... capturing lloyd in his natural surroundings, be ita pub, a curry house, or a gig, king rocker does a brilliantjob of exploring what makes lloyd so special and why his music is beloved by die—hard fans while still remaining unknown to so many. but i begin to worry that what if i peg it and they still don't buy the record! now, i have said many times that the true test of a documentary is whether it engages you in a subject in which you had no previous interest. but for me, the idea of a documentary about rob lloyd presented by stewart lee was always going to be a slam dunk. but the real triumph of cummings�* anti—rockumentary is that

even if you�*ve never heard of lloyd, i guarantee you�*ll come out of this wanting to track down his back catalogue. eschewing the talking heads clips and interviews format, king rocker is closer to an andrew cotting—style collage, finding moments of truth and apparently chaotic happenstance making connections that are more intuitive and emotional than factual and historical. then you go, "no, that�*s not true! "who told you that?" you did at an earlier date. it helps that both lloyd and lee are masters of witheringly self—deprecating humour. neither seem set on winning any popularity contests. a quality that simply makes the stock all the more likeable. like the real—life tragi—comedy anvil: the story of anvil, king rocker has its spinal tap moments, not least when lee takes the subject to visit some standing stones with which lloyd is impressively unimpressed. you seem to want the nightingales to be remembered in some way, maybe not unlike this! i hope they're remembered more fondly than this!

like that statue of a giant cinema ape, king rockerfinds beauty, heroism, and even a whiff of transcendence in the most unlikely places. i loved it. king rocker premieres on sky arts on saturday at 9pm with subsequent screenings and catch—up options and even hopes for a cinema release later in the year. laetitia dosch was the mesmerising star ofjeune femme, aka montparnasse bienvenue, a portrait of a young parisian struggling with the fractured shards of her personality. dosch is equally impressive, although dramatically less well served, in simple passion, aka passion simple. she plays helene, a literary scholar and single mother involved in an obsessive and somewhat self—destructive affair

with a married russian embassy official played by ballet bad boy sergei polunin. what are you doing? i�*m just filming you so i can remember you when you�*re gone. their relationship is almost entirely physical, with aleksandr, who has a wife and family in moscow, giving little of himself other than his heavily—tattooed body, while helene wants more, even travelling to moscowjust to be able to breathe the same air as the object of her obsession. adapted from an early �*90s novel by annie ernaux and directed by french—lebanese film—maker danielle arbid, this is heartfelt but also rather hackneyed fare. a film that requires us to care about a doomed relationship between two people who have apparently nothing in common and neither of whom does anything of interest other than behave badly, to themselves, to each other, to their families, and ultimately to us the audience.

while dosch, who carries the movie, can breathe inventive life into any character she takes on, polunin just seems to be playing himself as a boringly mono—dimensional heavily—tattooed macho putin fan. what helene sees in him, other than his pert backside, is a mystery. add to this a soundtrack full of perky pop covers that might be ironic but mayjust be plain bad, and simple passion, or passion simple, left me longing for this dreary relationship to be over. you can judge it for yourself on curzon home cinema. for something altogether more invigorating, let me point you in the direction of greenland. no, not the country, but the apocalyptic disaster movie which pits gerard butler against an approaching comet that threatens to wipe out life on earth. on radio: this is | an emergency alert. small molten debris expected to fall in upstate new york... _ isn�*t that where we are? yeah.

seek shelter immediately. do not stand in the open. explosion. oh, my god! butler isjohn garrity, an atlanta—based structural engineer attempting to rebuild his broken marriage to estranged wife allison, played by deadpool�*s morena baccarin. the couple�*s young son nathan is thrilled by news stories of clark, a cluster comet due to make the closest flyby in history. but whenjohn receives a presidential alert on his phone announcing that his family have been chosen for shelter, it becomes clear that bits of clark are headed straight for earth. while fans of butler�*s action movies may be expecting him to just punch the comet out of existence, greenland instead casts him asjust another ordinaryjoe caught up in the same chaos as everybody else, trying to save his family whilst facing trafficjams, angry neighbours, and failing phone signals with surprisingly nail—biting results. despite the spectacular scenes of destruction you�*d expect from a film that looks

like a relative of deep impact or armageddon, what makes greenland special is the degree to which it trades on tension, anxiety, and a really palpable sense of rising panic. yes, the fire falling from the sky is scary, but not as scary as the sight of terrified crowds running riot, or ofjohn getting separated from his wife and child, leaving them to fend for themselves in a hostile world. i�*m going to get my family into that bunker. based on a sharp script by chris sparling, who wrote the stripped down horrorfilm buried, and directed by angel has fallen helmer ric roman waugh, greenland is a real treat. a grippingly—executed genre pic that punches well above its mid—budget weight to deliver top drawer popcorn thrills. it�*s available now on amazon prime. i�*ll leave you with news of a glitch in the matrix, the new documentary from director rodney ascher, whose room 237 took a deep dive into the mysteries of stanley kubrick�*s the shining. there are fundamental

metaphors about reality waking up from a dream. we have this cognitive experience of shifting between realities. there�*s another world behind this world. ok, so, this is going to set the tenor for everything. investigating simulation theory and its relationship to the wachowskis�* hit movie franchise, ascher�*s latest asks whether we are all living in a computer—generated reality, with clips of writer philip k dick, who asserted that reality was an illusion back in the �*70s, and elon musk, who argues that the speed of technological progress makes simulation theory much more than a fantasy. if you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality. we also hear from professor nick bostrom, author of the 2003 essay are you living in a computer simulation?, along with a collection

of gamers and internet philosophers, who appear as 3d fantasy avatars. for the most part, this is breezily conceptual fare, an engaging riff on modern what—if theories, illustrated with clips from movies and minecraft. but there�*s a darker side, too, asjoshua cook recounts how his own obsession with simulation theories played into his ongoing mental health problems, with fatal consequences. at the heart of a glitch in the matrix is a simple question. even if you do believe that reality is simulated, which i don�*t, would that actually change the way that you behave? and if so, how and why? you can ponder the answers to those philosophical questions at dogwoof.com and on other streaming platforms. that�*s it for this week. thanks for watching the film review. stay safe, and i�*ll see you next week. whistling. fine ram, all right. he's going to be a busy boy, i reckon! what do you mean?

good evening. it has been a wintry start to a new week, bitterly cold and snow showers, and by weather warning still remains in force across parts of east anglia and the south—east. we have some accumulations causing road closures in kent, as you can see by that picture. we have also had a keen easterly wind whipping up the north sea, making it feel a bitingly cold at times and actually this easterly flow is set to stay with us for the next three days, so yes it is a beast from the east, the question is how long will it stay? it has been driving in snow showers across eastern scotland and north—east england through the day, more persistent snow across the south—east due to the legacy of a weather front here. that is where the amber weather warning remains throughout the night. and into tomorrow lunchtime. as you can see,

plenty of snow showers are set to continue. it will be a cold start to monday as well, with temperatures just below freezing. we will start off monday with plenty of isobars on the chart, that easterly wind a notable spool feature and i will continue to drive in the threat of further snow showers. we could potentially see funnelling of these snow showers merging fur longer spells of snow at times and those could start to bring some accumulation of further inland, but sheltered western areas should stay relatively dry and quiet, but it will be a cold and blustery afternoon for many. that would just exacerbate that wintry feel at there. temperatures in your thermometer will just sit there. temperatures in your thermometer willjust sit a there. temperatures in your thermometer will just sit a couple of degrees above freezing, but factor in wind strength and direction of that wind, it really is going to feel quite cold indeed. moving into tuesday, the isobars openjust moving into tuesday, the isobars open just a touch across central and southern england, lighter winds, open just a touch across central and southern england, lighterwinds, if you are showers here and we need to keep an eye on this weather front to the south—west. it mayjust bring

the south—west. it mayjust bring the threat of snow showers to the isles of scilly by the end of the day. the snow showers will remain across north—east england and up into eastern scotland, sheltered western areas again seeing the best of the drier, sunnier moments and temperatures are still likely to struggle. from wednesday onwards it looks likely to stay relatively quiet, perhaps not quite as cold as we head towards the weekend.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the moment a glacier washes away a dam in northern india. at least nine people are dead and scores are missing. rescue teams are at the scene — one man has been pulled out alive from under the rubble. a trial reveals the oxford astrazeneca vaccine offers limited protection against the south african variant of covid—i9. and — the protests against the military coup in myanmar have become the largest for more than a decade.