tv The Film Review BBC News April 30, 2022 11:45pm-12:01am BST
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thank you very much will end there. thank you very much indeed, matthew stadlen and aletha adu, it has been a pleasure, enjoy the rest of your weekend, good night. and good night to you as well. thank you for watching. for myself and the team, goodbye. hello and a very warm welcome to the film review on bbc news. i'm glad to see mark kermode is back from his holidays. hello! what have you been watching? well, we have a new downton abbey movie. i'm assuming that you're familiar with downton abbey! oh, yes! we have we're all going to the world's fair, which is an eerie internet horrorfilm. and casablanca beats,
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which was the moroccan entry for the academy awards. ah, downton! ah! it's like slipping into a warm bath, isn't it? i've been humming the theme tune all day! so, downton abbey: a new era. new? so, the stately home's roof is leaking, so they have to allow the cinema to come to downton, to make a film — i think they call it "practising colour photography" — in order to make some money to fix the roof. and dominic west and laura haddock are the two screen icons screen icons who turn up. meanwhile, half of the cast are sent off to the south of france, because maggie smith's dowager has magically inherited a villa, although no—one is quite sure why! here's a clip. enjoy your stay. he clears throat |your butler lends a welcome air|
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of splendour to the proceedings. he can stand down if you prefer. why, when the villa already - belongs to your granddaughter? lady bagshaw. — please, come and sit here. i am so sorry. i laid down forfive minutes, shut my eyes, and that was it — i was gone! welcome to the villa of the doves. you must come here a lot. we d0~ _ or, rather, we did before you entered our lives. always in the winter, - for as long as i can remember, but now coming into warmer months, it's catching on. - i'm planning an article on that. you're a writer? more of a journalist, i'm afraid. i have a magazine and i'm taking back control of it. what's your article about? 0h, ah, scott fitzgerald, zelda, coco chanel — all the people that got the hotels to stay open injuly. can i publish some pictures of the villa? might that be possible? of course — if we can see the images before you use them. _ ah, you're obviously not the firstjournalist he's met! so, downton fan? i enjoyed it. i didn't see every series.
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i saw a lot of it. it does exactly what it says on the tin. yes. and this, despite the word "new" in the title, carries on doing it. here's the strange thing, 0k — they send half the cast to the south of france. that's basically a tradition of british television programmes that transfer to the big screen, particularly in the �*70s, like are you being served? i remember that! send them all off to spain — that's what you do, because suddenly it's the cinema. meanwhile, where they're making the movie, it's silent, and actually, there's a brilliant maggie smith line — "the best thing about movies is you can't hear them. how much better it would be if you couldn't even see them." and then, of course, sound arrives and it turns out that the star of the movie does not have the voice to match the face, so somebody is going to have to dub her. and you're thinking, "i'm sure i saw singin' in the rain several times before i walked into the new downton movie," so there is nothing in it that's new at all. but i think nobody who goes to see a downton movie wants to see anything new, what they want is the thing that they like. and so maggie smith gets all the best lines...
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yes, you preempted me. i'm assuming that's the case? 0h, of course. she's splendidly sort of withering about the film's leading lady — "all the charm of a verruca." and when somebody else says, "oh, this is what we do in the movies," she says, "i'd rather earn my living down a mine!" that's what you expect from downton. what's interesting is maggie smith's character's disdain for movies obviously hearkens back to something that happened in gosford park, when there's that wonderfuljoke about the character she plays in gosford park... also written byjulian fellowes. exactly, which is kind of where this all came from in the first place. there's somebody there making a movie — he says, "i can't tell you the end because it would spoil it," and she says, "none of us are going to see it!" so there's something kind of self—referentially withering about how much they're all disdainful about movies, but it is, "how many yards of this would you like? there you go!" there are some lawns and there is a church and here is some strings and here is some piano! it all looks beautiful. everything is marvellous. the sun shines. yes, jolly good show. it does what you'd expect it to do. and i don't think anybody would expect anything different. very happy with that — very happy with that. it would be huge.
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it'll be huge. there could be another one even, maybe! left it open, possibly! never say never again. never say never. change of gear. yes, we're all going to the world's fair. this is a total change of gear. very low budget internet horror fable from the trans writer—director jane schoenbrun. this is like a cross between eighth grade and there was an internet lockdown hit called host, and a little bit of paranormal activity. so a young woman joins an internet game, an accult game, in which what you have to do is say, "i want to go to the world's fair" three times and you have to prick yourfingers — so, shades of candyman. and the idea is that then you'll start to change somehow. and we start to see videos that she's posting about her life, and does she start to change or is it alljust in her mind? meanwhile, somebody else gets in touch with her. she can't see the man, but we can. and on the one hand, it is a creepy horror movie. it's also very much a film about the way in which young people relate to the internet,
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the way in which it can be isolating but can also be a community. it's interesting that jane schoenbrun describes themself as somebody who grew up and understands the internet, rather than a film being made by somebody who's outside of it. so that's why i say it reminded me very much of eighth grade. fantastic score by alex g. and it is creepy, but it's also very melancholy. great central performance. and, 0k, not for everyone, but if you are a horror fan and if you're interested in the way in which people relate to the internet, i thought it had interesting things to say, and i think it's a real indication of great work to come. yes, and better than usual — i managed about a third of it. and "creepy" is the word i would use, creepy above anything. and i'm not great with that, so that was enough for me, but i did think she was terrific, the young actress. and i think it's her debut, and she was very good. in face, she was introduced in the credits as "it's the debut by..." now, i have high hopes for you and casablanca beats. ok, so moroccan entry to the academy awards, it was palme d'or nominated,
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about a rapper—turned—teacher who turns up at an art centre to teach hip—hop. at first, the pupils find him very tough, then they find out that he's bringing out their authentic voices. they start to love him, but the authorities don't and neither do some of the parents. here's a clip. rap music plays
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what i really loved about this is, on the one hand, it has a documentary feel. it looks like it's a documentary. and actually, it's shot in the art centre that the director had co—founded. and those are nonprofessional actors playing characters that are very close to home, fictional characters, but characters that relate to home. and the main character is in fact a rapper—turned—teacher. what i liked about this was, it has a lot of those cliches — the inspirational teacher, it's a bit dead poets, a bit blackboard jungle, the strength through music stuff, which we've seen a lot of times before — but it felt gritty and grounded, because i believed in the characters. and i did think it was uplifting, and i thought its target audience, which is the age of the characters
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that we're seeing on screen now, i thought it could play really well to a young audience as well as an older audience, and they like it. i mean, the music's smart. and i love it when they discover their own voices and they start rapping about stuff that's really important to them. did you like it? this is in the category of, "there are lots of things i like about it." and i thought the youngsters in it were all terrific, and i liked the debates. there was lots of debate about very punchy issues — fundamentalism, should women have to cover up when men don't have to? all these debates, and these are all people having ferocious... in that sense, it could be a documentary, and i mean that in a good way. or it could be like a ken loach film, like land and freedom, in which they're having those political arguments. and didn't those arguments feel real to you? 0h, absolutely. you felt that they were actually happening, they weren't scripted, they were actually having those discussions. and i... did you like the music? i am neutral on that one — neutral. 0k. see, i loved the music, and i think maybe that helps it
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a little bit. there is a touch of west side story in there as well. i was really charmed by it. i've watched it a couple of times now. and i thought it was... i think it's really uplifting, and the director said that he wanted to do it too, to lend voice to young people and i think he's done it. he certainly managed that. definitely. best out this week? look, the northman... i'm going to flag this up because... 0k, there's a lot of things wrong with the northman... it sounds like a caveated best out. it is a caveat. it's robert eggers' film. he made the witch and he made the lighthouse — very, very low budget. then he made a $90 million viking epic. it is in the process of tanking at the box office. however, there are things in it that are adventurous and it is original, and if you want to go and see it in a cinema, go now, because it isn't going to be in the top ten for much longer, as far as i can tell. and i never thought it was going to be a hit. some people have been surprised by how poorly it's performed financially, but it's a $90 million art movie about vikings! of course it's not going to make a huge amount of money! but it's adventurous
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and it's got its own vision, and it's not a franchise. and it looks like it needs to be seen on a big screen. oh, yeah, yeah. you need to see it with the full... the landscapes are wonderful. and quick thought about dvd, streaming? 0k, moonfall is out on dvd. i told you about this when it came out in the cinema. this is one of the very few examples of a film that is genuinely so stupid that it's actually brilliant. and usually, bad films are just bad, but moonfall, in which the plot is "the moon is falling," because it's made of cheese or something... there's a film called iron sky, the plot of which was, "in 1945, the nazis went to the moon — now they're coming back." and that film looks like a documentary compared to moonfall. it's just... take your brain out, leave it by the side of the sofa and enjoy moonfall. it is the dumbest film i've ever seen. brilliant! and if you can, go back into the archives and find mark's original review of that — because it's one of my favourite moments of all our time together. but it's on dvd. thank you very much. see you next week, mark. good to have you back.
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and that is it for this week. enjoy your cinema going, whatever you choose to watch. see you next time. bye—bye. hello. well, april as a whole was a very dry month, but in its final day, we actually got a decent dose of rain, particularly in north—western areas of the country. and indeed, on sunday 1st may, we will have some rain elsewhere, but it's going to be quite overcast wherever you are on sunday. and you can see the weather systems streaming in off the atlantic here. that's the low pressure that brought the rain to north—western parts — to northern ireland and western parts of scotland. now it's a weak area of low pressure on sunday, meaning that the rain is starting to fizzle out and, if anything, it is going to be mostly an area of cloud spread across the uk. so this is what it looks like early in the morning, some dribs and drabs of rain around the irish sea and wales. it's also very mild first thing — 7am, ten degrees in belfast,
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ten in london, and elsewhere it's typically around seven to nine degrees. so let's pick up on that rain. a soggy morning in parts of wales, damp around the irish sea. very slowly that area of damp weather will spread into the midlands and perhaps other parts of england too, but also in scotland and northern ireland it's actually going to brighten up and this is where the best of the weather is going to be on sunday. in fact, in glasgow, our highest temperature's expected — 17 degrees celsius. compare that to cardiff and plymouth, between i! and 13 degrees with that damp weather. now, monday is going to be a brighter day. we still have the remnants of that weather system over us, maybe a few showers across parts of england, but quite a chilly day in northern scotland in a northerly wind — seven in lerwick, ten in stornoway. but in the south of the country it's going to be a good deal warmer — 18 degrees, but again, not a sunny day. sunny spells, though, expected. so here's the forecast for the week ahead.
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tuesday, wednesday, we have some rain heading towards us. but from around about thursday onwards, high pressure is expected to build across the uk. that means settled weather and also around this area of high pressure, we will have this current of warmer air spreading in all the way from the azores, so the temperatures will start to rise across the uk towards the end of the week. so here's the summary — bank holiday monday, a rather overcast day. in fact, the first half of the week will be fairly changeable with showers possible, but then from thursday onwards, it's turning warmer.
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