The Revenant, Room, Creed The Film Review

whose other passion is oil painting. That's all on Sportsday at 6. 30pm.

Now it's time for the Film Review. Hello and welcome to

the Film Review on BBC News. To take us through this week's

cinema releases is Mark Kermode. They're not bad. We're in awards

season. We're getting all the awards contenders. We have Room, an

adaptation of a novel. We have Creed, Rocky is back... Again! We

have The Reverend Peyton's the Revenant. Room I think I'm seeing it

tomorrow night. It's a wrenching story, actually. I have to begin by

saying Room is not the film many people expected it to be. It's not a

horror film about captivity or crime. It's adapted by the novelist

from her own novel. Brie Larson stars Ayrad young -- as a young

woman raising a child in a ten by ten enclosure. To the child, it is

the whole world that goes, as he says, it goes in every direction

right to the end. He's just turned five. She, having protected him for

the whole of his life from the horror of their situation, is

finally starting to tell him about the world beyond room. Here's a

clip. Do you remember how Alice wasn't always in wonderland? She

fell down, down, down deep in a hole. Right, well I wasn't always in

room. I'm like Alice. I was a little girl named Joy. Nah. I lived in a

house with my mom and my dad. You would call them grandma and grandpa.

A house. House! It was in the world. There was a backyard. There was a

hammock. We would swing in the hammock and eat ice-cream; a A TV

house? No, are you listening to me? When I was 17, I was walking home

from school. Where was I? Still up in heaven. There was a guy, we call

him old Nick. What's the dog's name? There wasn't a dog... Basically, the

film is about her trying to explain to him that there is a larger world.

So, I think things are important to say, firstly, it's not a horror

film. It's not the distressing - there are things in it that are

distressing. It's the kind of film that makes you say words like

uplifting and life affirming. Fantastic performances by Brie

Larson. It is directed by Lenny Abrahamson. I think the key

directorial style is an acute eye for truthfulness. Whilst watching

this film, we see the world through those two characters' eyes. We see

through the child's eyes what the world could be. We see through her

eyes what the world is. It is and this sounds like a strange thing to

say, it's a-story about a mother-son bond. I think it's really

remarkable. I've seen it twice now. I have been quite overwhelmed by it

both times. It is genuinely one of those films that proves you can

approach any subject matter in any number of different ways. It is

wholly unexploittive. It is a film that seems to get to a profound

humage truth. -- human truth. The phrase that I come back to, it's not

the film you think it is. This is not a horror movie. This is not

Michael. This is something completely different about a mother

and child. I commend it to you very heartily. The book on which it's

base issed very moving. -- based is very moving. See the film. It's

something. Now, Creed. Just when you thought there was no life left in

the old punch bag, the Rocky franchise is back directed and

Crougal. They've taken a left turn. Michael B Johnson is the son of

Apollo Creed. He goes to Rocky Balboa to say I want you to train

me. Rocky initially says no. Of course, Adonis won't take no for an

answer. What I liked about the film, firstly, it's made by people who

have a reference for the -- reverence for the original series.

But they aren't scared to move it on. Great performance by Michael B

Jordan and Sylvester Stallone who has got his first Golden Globe after

all these years, playing this wounded, lonely bear, who is dealing

with his own legacy and dealing with the legacy of having been this

champion. Then brought back into the ring by this young, Rising Star in

whom he sees something of himself. You know, I really enjoyed it. I

like the characters. You can't quite believe it. I haven't heard anyone

wax so lyrical about a Rocky film for many years. It's really good. It

will give Rocky fans what they want and bring in an entire new

generation. It's smartly re-invented a franchise. Now the Revenant.

Leonardo DiCaprio is a dead cert for on Oscar. There is a lot of

suffering in this movie. It's based on the legend of frontiersman and

fur trapper glass Glass who - Hugh Glass who was left for dead after

being mauled by a bear. The movie is more physical than verbal, due not

least to some spectacular cinematography. Let's see a clip.

Wow. You know... The star of the show was the American west. You just

look at the scenery and it's extraordinary. It's beautiful. The

whole film was shot in what they like to refer to as magic hour. It's

the hour-and-a-half that you actually get when the light has all

the natural light. There was little filming they could have each day.

They had to chase the snow as well. It's muscular film making. It's film

making that's very physical. You could smell them actually. They

didn't wash! Interestingly enough, it almost has a mondo tinge to it.

You feel that you are really seeing those people doing this stuff. It's

really Leonardo DiCaprio going into freezing water, he's chomping down

on raw bison liver. There are concessions to artificiality. I have

to say, I don't think it's quite the master piece that some people think.

I have always been slightly concerned about some of the films

he's done. But the performance by Leonardo DiCaprio is at the centre

of it. If he doesn't win the Oscar, nothing will. The Bear might win.

Worth saying that as far as supporting performances, a lot of

attention for Tom Hardy, but Will Poulter is fantastic. He's really,

really good. See it on the big screen. See it on the biggest

possible screen. It's a film in which the virtue that it has, it is

the immersive cinematic experience. It starts, it goes. One final point,

I love Birdman too, but the dialogue is everything. I couldn't make most

of the dialogue out. I don't think it matters. And there's not much of

it. It is a physical film. It is a film in which it's all to do with

the physicality. I liked it, I've seen it twice. The first time I

didn't see it on a big enough screen. The second time on the big

screen, oh, OK, now I get this. I have to perhaps do that. Your best

of the week is, as you predicted, this is the Best Film about mops

I've ever seen. This is the Best Film out at the moment. This is Joy.

It is the story of the woman who invented the miracle mop, with the

central performance by Jennifer Lawrence. The film is all over the

place. But you've seen it. I have. You really want her to succeed. Guys

on television demonstrating the mop on the home shopping channel, you

want people to go, that's a great idea, I'll buy that. Any film which

makes you involved in whether or not somebody adequately demonstrates a

self-wringing mop is doing something that not many movies do. Robert

DiNero wasn't half bad either. No, working for a director who doesn't

think what he should do is rest on his laurels, but actually do

something. Good. Your DVD, another contender for the best. Oscar

nominated, ram Charlotte Rampling. This is a drama about 45 years of

marriage, coming up to an anniversary, where the spectre of a

past love appears. It's the beginning of a fracture in the

relationship. Brilliantly played by Tom Willem Coertzen and shore -- Tom

Kourtney and Charlotte Rampling. There is a touch of Michael Hanniker

about it, that icy chill to it. You've seen it, right? Yeah. It's

really good. It's really good. It's the Best Film about a 45 year

marriage fracturing I've seen in a very long time. We've got mops,

bears, everything this week. The one you have to see is Room. You have to

see Room. Quick reminder before we go. More film news and reviews

online, including all our previous shows, at bbc.co.uk/markKermode.

That's all for this week. Thanks for watching, goodbye.