the biggest release of the week is news of the world, writer—director paul greengrass's visually expensive but oddly intimate adaptation of paulettejiles's 2016 novel which comes on like the searches or true grit crossed with broadcast news. these are difficult times. bad times. captain! i shoot, you go. the setting may be post—civil war north texas, but there's no mistaking the contemporary parallels as tom hanks�*s captainjefferson kyle kidd travels the land, dramatically reading stories from a selection of newspapers and journals like a protean news feed editor.

i'm here to tell you about the 11 men who will live. with his avuncular manner and steadfast trustworthiness, he's an 18705 walter cronkite, spreading the good word with a touch of theatre. i'm not going to hurt you. yet this show is almost stolen from hanks, who starred in greengrass�*s captain phillips, by young german actor helena zengel, a mesmerising screen presence who made such an impact in system crasher, and who here plays an 11—year—old who's been living with the kiowa tribe since being kidnapped years earlier. now orphaned for second time, she falls into the care of the captain, who reluctantly agrees to take the girl, who speaks no english, to her only surviving relatives, a german aunt and uncle many miles away. and so the mismatched pair embark on an odyssey through a quasi—mythical landscape which will see both transformed by the journey.

lensed in handsome widescreen vistas by darius wolsky, news of the world cries out to be seen on the big screen, with sweeping landscapes and high—ridge shootouts to an eerie dust storm which engulfs the protagonists. yet even with the lockdown—enforced strictures of a netflix—only uk release, this still strikes a timely court, thanks to an empathetic script co—written by luke davis, which inventively addresses the contemporary spectre of truth versus alternative, alongside issues of racism, exploitation and the importance of remembering and fairly reporting one's own history. the result is a rewarding drama that reminded me somewhat of scott cooper's underrated hostiles, a change of pace for greengrass who made his name with nailbiting movies like united 93 and the bourne series, but who here takes a gentler approach to character and setting. it's available on netflix now. kristen wiig and anna mumolo

co—wrote 2011's bridesmaids, a brilliant comedy about two women battling for the affections of a friend in the run—up to her wedding day. that film was sharp, smart and laugh—out—loud funny, occasionally outrageous but also poignantly truthful. few of those adjectives could be given to barb and star go to vista del mar, a film that takes the undoubted talents of writer—stars wiig and mumolo and squanders them on an ill—disciplined mess which looks like someone took the outtakes from a middle—aged sketch comedy and decided to mix them up with sub—austin powers/sky kids romp and a bunch of sex and drugs gags, for reasons that remain unclear. i am star, short for starbara. i assume yours is barbara? no, just barb — plain old barb. wigg and mumolo are the twinset—and—pearls pair who spend their days in the midwest talking about their friendship and lost loves.

when redundancy calls, they broaden their horizons with a florida holiday where they meet and fall for 50 shades starjamie dornan, with whom they immediately have an ecstasy—fuelled threesome. really. barb. my god, she is 611. 611? we're in 124. unfortunately, dornan is working secretly for an evil villain who is born with a condition that makes her allergic to sunlight and has now developed a range of killer mosquitoes that she plans to release, via remote control, killing everyone in the resort in revenge for a childhood snub. trust me, i'm not making this up, that really is the plot, if you can call it a plot, which you can't. what is she drawing? i don't know. i hope she gives me bigger teeth. i love big teeth. she loves big teeth. you could be forgiven for thinking that such a self—consciously kooky contrivance which comes complete with musical numers and hallucinogenic fantasy sequences could crazy enough to be a cult classic. it isn't.

it's more of a car crash, flailing bizarrely between one disconnected set piece and the next, giving the impression that a drunk person is simply flipping the channels on the tv while pointing and laughing at the results. on the plus side, there are a few chuckles to be had in the well—rehearsed everyday interaction between barb and star and inside gags like the terrible songs of lounge singer richard cheese, but you'd expect so much more from wiig and mumolo, genuine comedy talents from whom this is a disappointingly whacky misfire. you can find barb and star go to vista del mar on a wide range of digital platforms now. in writer—director charlene favier�*s

feature debut slalom, noee abita plays a young teenager who dreams of becoming a ski champion. in this endeavour, she is aided byjeremie renier�*s fred, the coach who promises to push her to the limits. but despite his declaration that he's 100% focused on winning, fred has more sinister designs on lyz, calling to mind a series of headline—making scandals that have revealed the sometimes predatory nature of sports in which young athletes find themselves at the mercy of older trainers. having made a splash playing a 13—year—old in the 2017 cannes hit ava, abita, who is in her early 20s, but looks much younger, is very impressive as the talented but impressionable teen, distanced from mother and preyed upon by fred whose advances are a horrifying mix of violent assault and creepy coercion. crucially, favier strives to portray the mix of confusion,

shame and fear that fred employs to entice and then abuse his pupil, placing her in a position that makes her feel implicated in his crimes, ensuring that she tells no—one. unsurprisingly, this makes for harrowing viewing, although favier also captures the adrenal rush of slalom skiing, which becomes a metaphor for lyz�*s own life, hurtling between obstacles, unable to stop with no way out but straight ahead. slalom is available on demand now. i will leave you with a couple of titles, both of which broadly fall under the banner of horror banner, yet which could not be more different. we'll start with sator, an atmospheric mood piece written and directed byjordan graham, who worked on the film

for as long as david lynch slogged away at eraserhead, shootings scoring, designing, producing, doing pretty much everything except starring. the slow burn scenario unfold in the deep, dark woods of northern california where particular entity haunts the variously titular members of an extended family. every once in a while, ijust wake up and he is there, he talks to me. inspiration for sator apparently came from graham's grandmotherjune peterson, whom he recorded talking about her own experience of a guiding entity which he then worked into the already developed film. the result is by turns haunting, frustrating, surprising and, ultimately, rather fascinating. yes, it's full of narrative loose ends, and raises more questions than it answers, but there is something in there, something buried in the inky blackness of the screen which at times reminded me

of the chilly tension of robert eggers' the witch. while audiences eager for scary thrills will lose patience, sator, available from monday, casts an eerie spell which lingers long after the film has finished. i'm going to feast on your face! there is nothing lingering about this week's other horror outing, willy's wonderland, a dark slice of wannabe cult trash that pits nic cage, never knowingly underracted, against an assortment of possessed mechanical toys in a murderous indoor kids' theme park. welcome to willy's wonderland. this is a nonspeaking role for cage, who lets the beard and sunglasses do the talking as he beats up an assortment of twisted playground characters,

all of which are as hungry for blood as he is for the punchy canned drink on which he seems to survive. # it's your birthday, and we want you to have fun...# written and directed by g0 parsons and kevin lewis, respectively, willy's wonderland began life as a comic short called wally�*s wonderland and it would have been better if it stayed that way. while the sight of a grown man doing battle with evil robotic teletubbies may be entertaining for a moment, it's not enough to sustain a feature film, even one enlivened by cage�*s trademark 0tt schtick. have you been listening to a word i've been saying? it doesn't help of course that we have seen all this before, in tobe hooper�*s the funhouse back in the �*80s, in videogames five nights at freddy's, a film adaptation of which has long been on the cards, and most recently in the horror—comedy the banana splits movie, in which the cuddly characters suddenly start welding axes. still, if you want to see nics cage beat a fluffy gorilla with a giant toilet plunger and beat it to death

with an axe and leave it by the side of a urinal, it is available on streaming stores. thanks for watching, stay safe, see you next week. that's coffee. the coffee packs a punch, doesn't it? it's an acquired taste. hello. the temperatures in the isles of scilly reached ten celsius on saturday evening and that's the first time we've had double figures in the uk in a week. so the sun is now setting on this spell of bitterly cold weather. for all of us in the week ahead, things will be much milder. we'll notice it by day and by night. but it means the return of spells of rain on what will be quite a blustery week. already as sunday begins, milder air is nudging into western parts. for many of us it's one last cold morning as temperatures hover close to freezing. there is a bit of wet weather moving in from the atlantic

and for scotland and northern england, there's a chance of seeing some freezing rain, rain that freezes instantly as it hits the surface and that could make things treacherously icy in some spots as we go through sunday. so, do have that in your mind if you plan on making a journey. for all of us, it will be cloudy and there will be outbreaks of rain spreading eastwards as the day goes on and it will be windy, particularly across the irish sea coasts northern ireland, western scotland and into the area, up to around 70 mph and if you're outside, you will notice it feeling much milder. where as across the eastern parts, it is still another court date ——cold day but not quite as cold as it's been an temperatures will continue to rise as we go through sunday night. cloud and outbreaks of rain still across parts of england and wales going into monday morning. elsewhere, some clearer spells and a few showers. these are the temperatures

as we start off on monday morning. many of us did not even reach out for a high in the past week. the air is coming from a different direction, low—pressure dominating things now. pulling in air from the southwest, on that flow, we will get these wet and windy weather systems at times. but this flow is from a different warmer direction and lifting temperatures above the average for this time of year still a bit of rain affecting parts of the eastern side of england as monday begins. some showers pushing from southwest to northeast elsewhere, but for many of us, a large part of the day will be dry. some breaks in cloud in the few sunny spells. 13 celsius in london, nine in glasgow. it stays mild for the rest of the week. there will be further spells of rain and it will be blustery. but what a different week from last week.

this is bbc news. i'm james reynolds with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the former president has been acquitted of inciting a mob to attack the us capitol. democrats failed to get the two thirds majority they needed. the yays are 57 and the nays are a3. two thirds of the senators at the respondent donald john trump, former president of the united states is not guilty. the charge related to the storming of the capitol injanuary. unexpected condemnation of mr trump's actions came from his fellow republican mitch mcconnell. president trump is practically and morally responsible