tv The Film Review BBC News August 7, 2021 11:45pm-12:01am BST
11:45 pm
ah... hey, hey, hey, look inside. what's this for? respect. first up, a crime comedy based on a twitter thread that went viral. zola is inspired by the 148—tweet rant by a'ziah �*zola' king, who is played here by taylour paige. zola is working in a detroit diner when she meets and flirts with a customer called stefani, played by riley keough. stefani is an exotic dancer and invites zola to join her for a fun and lucrative weekend in florida. it turns out that stefani is not only bringing her hapless boyfriend along for the ride but her pimp, too. this is messy, you are messy. your brain is broke. what follows is a wild and witty tale of reckless and manipulative behaviour that will have yourjaw
11:46 pm
on the floor. zola is often laugh out loud funny, mixing the hilarity and hedonism of the wolf of wall street with the edgy anarchy of spring breakers, but it also functions as a frank expose of the sex industry. writer—directorjanicza bravo weaves in disturbing details about the commodification of women, showing how stefani's pimp exploits and threatens the girls with a chillingly casual air. the director also makes a statement by the way she shoots the sex scenes. it's a far cry from your typical hollywood hooker story. it's easy to compare this to thej—lo starred hustlers which was based on an article about strippers and was also helmed by a woman. but i think zola is an even better film than hustlers, partly because it's based directly on the words of its brazen heroine and partly because it so smartly paced, scripted and performed. rising star taylour paige follows up her turn in ma rainey�*s black bottom with another sparky performance. and american honey's
11:47 pm
star riley keough, who incidentally is the daughter of lisa marie presley, is an absolute riot. oh, god! like, why you on my twitter? why are you on my facebook, why are you on my... why are you damming me? sis, why are you tagging me in photos? let me know. yes, sis! but you're innocent, - so we've got to keep fighting. it doesn't matter that i'm innocent, dad. it's not about justice. it's about finding peace. from the station agent to spotlight, director tom mccarthy always delivers great character—based dramas. his new film stillwater is more
11:48 pm
of a hybrid of drama and thriller. i loved her. i know you did. but everybody thinks that i killed her. we have exhausted every possible legal action. is a lawyer not helping you? i'm doing it myself, for now. matt damon stars as bill, a gruff, old—fashioned oil worker from stillwater, oklahoma, who checks into a hotel in marseille. it transpires that his daughter alison, played by abigail breslin, is in prison in france, convicted of the murder of her classmate and partner, lina. alison is convinced that a new lead could get her out ofjail and bill decides to investigate himself, with the help of a local that he meets at the hotel. virginie is a liberal bohemian actress portrayed by call my agent's camille cottin. she also happens to have a cute little daughter who bonds with bill. and so an odd couple friendship plays out alongside the drama of a father trying to clear the name of his incarcerated daughter.
11:49 pm
both are involving but they're an odd juxtaposition. on the one hand, there is an arthouse character piece about a culture clash relationship. on the other, a crime drama. when this plunges headlong into thriller territory it's a bit of a jolt. but damon and cottin are great together and this has something to say about personal politics, the media and prejudice. while it's not mccarthy's best work, stillwater is eminently watchable. what did you do? you just have to trust me. you have the perfect life. the rich, handsome - husband who adores you... deaero'hare, there's neverenough time. - never enough of you. dear mrs stirling, know that you hold my hopes, my heart in your hands.
11:50 pm
features? it's rory from archive. i think i've found something you'd want to come and take a look at. uh, is that gum? mm—hm. we don't allow gum in the reading rooms. i swallowed it. great. now to a romance set both in the 1960s and the present — the last letter from your lover. felicityjones stars as ellie, a journalist who finds old love letters in the archives of the newspaper where she works. aided by mild—mannered archivist, rory, played by nabhaan rizwan, she investigates a romance from the past. as they discover more clues, flashbacks reveal the star—crossed letter writers. a married amnesic socialite called jennifer, who is played by shailene woodley, and callum turner's charming journalist, anthony. at least, i think he's meant to be charming. there's very little chemistry or credibility in the �*60s scenes, despite decent costumes, props and production design. a muttering woodley seems uncomfortable with the dialogue, perhaps with good reason.
11:51 pm
the banter between the pair feels artificial and the attraction too sudden. this is the kind of film where you only know the characters love each other because they say so repeatedly. the last letter from your lover is based on a novel byjojo moyes, whose adaptations have had some success on the big screen. me before you was a big hit with audiences and like that film, this has plenty of melodrama to tug on the heartstrings. but the dual timelines hamper the tension, and i would've been happierjust watching the excellent felicityjones as ellie. she's the best thing in this film, though it's a sad reflection on the industry when you can just tell an actress is pregnant in real life simply because they don't dress her in figure—hugging clothes. the thing is, if you're going to elope probablyjust send a text. "hey, babes, meet me at the station if you're interested, #comewith if you want to change your life forever, smiley face, aubergine, road sign, sausage."
11:52 pm
screaming a man struggles to make a film about his alcoholic father in the venezuelan doc, el father plays himself. a documentary about the making of a feature film, this comes from mo scarpelli, the partner of the director at the centre of the story. her fella, jorge thielen armand, is tearing his hair out as he tries to direct his own father, who is — as the title suggests — playing himself. making a film in the amazonian
11:53 pm
jungle is enough of a challenge, and it proves even harder to stop dad from sinking a bottle of rum every time his back is turned. el father is certainly a character, with his wild eyes and colourful past. but you need to actually watch the film that this is about to find out more about that past. viewed on its own, el father plays himself is frustratingly enigmatic. you're best off catching this in a double bill with the original film, la fortaleza, and that's happening at london's ica this weekend.
11:54 pm
some things are older than science. older than god. the earth has its own secrets... and if you get close enough, you'll hear it. finally, an irish horror that owes a debt to everything from an american werewolf in london to shaun of the dead. boys from county hell centres around an irish town you might typically call sleepy, but when construction work disturbs
11:55 pm
a legendary ancient vampire, a group of survivors wake up fast. forced to admit that the stories they've been telling tourists are actually true, eugene, played byjack rowan, and his father francie, played by nigel o'neill, battle to survive the night and outwit an ancient bloodthirsty foe. a low—budget horror from writer—director chris baugh, this has some puzzling editing decisions and while it's spin on the vampire myth is original, it's not desperately engaging. this is at its best when going for the comedyjugular and there are some amusing moments, thanks to sarcastic humour and judicious use of very strong language. boys from county hell may not be up there with the best blokey rural comedy horrors but better than 2009's atrocious lesbian vampire killers, in which james corden and matthew horne faced a village of sapphic bloodsuckers.
11:56 pm
oh, come on, like, whatare we supposed to do about this? thanks for watching the film review with me, anna smith. i will be back next week. in the meantime, stay safe. hello there. low pressure brought a very unsettled day on saturday. we saw lots of showers around, some torrential downpours in places, but there was some good spells of sunshine, too. and sunday is a repeat performance — some of the showers will be heavy and thundery once again and slow moving across the north of the uk. that's because in the centre of the low, the winds will be later but you'll notice across its southern flank for southern england through wales, quite a squeeze in the isobars there. so, it's going to be breezy. so, we'll start off with maybe some sunshine across eastern areas but the showers will get going. they'll rattle through fairly
11:57 pm
quickly across something areas because of the breeze but they'll hang around across the northern half of the country — slow moving torrential downpours, an area of more persistent rainjust pushing to the far north—east of scotland and orkney there. so the wind is lighter — you'll notice these are the mean wind speeds. further south though, it will be blustering guests higher than this particularly around coasts and over hills. so in the sunshine, we could see temperatures reach around 21 celsius. otherwise — like the last few days for most places — will be the mid to high teens, and it'll feel particularly cool when the showers come along. now through sunday night, the showers continue across northern areas, turn drier for a while for england sunday night, and wales but we'll see this feature run across the south bringing some wet weather for south wales and a southern england through the night. again, it'll remain fairly breezy in the south, later winds in the north. overnight temperatures 11—14 celsius. so into monday, then, we're starting the new week off with this area of low pressure but it's going to weaken. fewer isobars on the charts, so the winds will turn a bit lighter. we'll start off quite wet across the south—east.
11:58 pm
that feature clearing away. and you'll see quite a bit of sunshine around and i think general thinking is for monday, there will be fewer showers around but still dotted around, there will be some torrential downpours in places. top temperatures, again, 20—21 celsius. closer to 17—19 for most. that area of low pressure eventually moves away as we head on into tuesday and a ridge of high pressure builds in across the country from tuesday onwards. this area of low pressure will continue to affect more western parts of the country but i think high pressure will try and dominate for much of the south and east through the course of the week. so, temperatures will respond. we'll see southerly winds, more sunshine. it will turn much warmer. there will always be the chance of some showers further north and west closer to that area of low pressure.
12:00 am
this is bbc news, i'm rich preston — our latest headlines. hundreds of wildfires burn out of control in greece. ferries carry people to safety as they flee the infernos. screams for help as residents in the northern suburbs of athens desperately try to beat back the flames. the fires are still raging out of control. the air is full of the smell of burning smoke and ashes are falling through the air rather like snowflakes. gunfire. three secs of gunfire + long—range us bombers carry out air strikes in afghanistan — in a bid to stop the taliban seizing more cities. riot police in thailand fire tear gas at anti—government protesters calling for political reform and changes to the monarchy.
28 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
BBC News Television Archive Television Archive News Search ServiceUploaded by TV Archive on