22/10/2016 The Film Review

More news at the top of the hour. Coming up next, 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.

We have I, Daniel Blake, which as you know is the new film

by Ken Loach which I know you have seen as well.

Ouija: Origin of Evil, does what it says on the packet.

And Queen of Katwe, a very interesting family film.

Yes, I think he has proved once again he is an incomparable talent.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley in 2006 was his first

This one star is a 15 a new joiner who has had a heart attack at work,

played by Johns, who is told he cannot go back, he has to work,

At the start of the film see him taking a questionnaire asking

if he can walk, move his arm to hold something in his top pocket,

and he then scored 12 points which means he is not eligible

for employment but to get his Jobseeker's Allowance he has to slip

in his CV around town, looking for jobs that do not exist

and which he cannot take any way because his doctor has told him

He cannot manage computers, so he gives up, and he sees a single

mother, played by Hayley Squires, who has been homeless for two years,

she's given a home hundreds of miles from anyone she knows

and as a result she turns up late and is not being treated,

I tried to explain to the woman, I have never been to

We just moved up from London, I don't know where I am going.

What I want you to do is listen carefully.

There are rules here we have to stick to.

And I am explaining why I wasn't here on time.

I understand but what I gather is the decision maker will send

I have about 12 quid in my purse all because you cannot calm down,

If I was going to create a scene you would know about it.

Jesus Christ, who is first in this queue?

Do you mind if this young lass signs on first?

There you go, go back to your desk, let her sign on and do the job

This is brilliantly written by Paul Laverty, one

Ken Loach said this is partly about the deliberate use

of bureaucratic inefficiency as a political weapon,

to basically punish people and stop them from claiming benefits

On the one hand it is a very angry film about people at the sharp end

of austerity, however it is also, and this is overlooked,

a film which celebrates unbreakable bonds between people

What happens is Daniel Blake takes her under his wing,

he is a carpenter, starts to do up her flat, is impressed

that she wants to go back to the Open University to make

I think the film does a brilliant balancing act of counter posing that

compassion with the lack of compassion of the system

which demands somebody fills out a form online when they do not have

He has never seen a mouse and when someone says run the cursor

up the screen, he literally runs it up the side of the screen.

I have seen it a couple of times now.

There is one scene in a food bank which is one of the most profoundly

moving things I have ever seen on screen.

The great thing about Loach and Paul Laverty together,

because they are a great double act, is they find a way of humanising

people on the margins of society which goes right back

to Cathy Come Home and so on, which makes people who may not be

sympathetic, sympathetic or empathetic.

It lets you see the world through their eyes.

As I said, the thing that sometimes gets overlooked,

it is a kind of absurdist tragic situation, like Kafka,

but the bond between them and the way that contrasts

with the facelessness of the situation they are dealing with.

It is a personal story, like all of Loach's stuff,

You come out feeling enraged but saddened.

The performances are terrific and you believe in the characters.

I think it is a really important film.

Any decision makers in Ouija: Origin of Evil?

If there are, they are on the other side.

The story is there is a woman with two kids, running a fake seance

session, and she is surprised when she gets a Ouija board

and is surprised that her daughter is speaking to spirits.

The funny thing about it is although it was digitally projected

when I saw it, it has these blemishes built in.

It makes it look like an old film, this kind of nostalgic retro thing

going, which is quite charming and seems to behave quite well

It loses its nerve in the second half, turning into all that

silliness from Poltergeist, Exercised 3, and also a film called

Screamers which nobody remembers any more, I think it owes

I wished it could stay that drama from the beginning.

You heard the shrieks of enjoyment watching it.

The moral is, if you are a phony psychic, don't mess around

Do not mess around with Ouija board under any circumstance!

Yes, true lif story of Phiona Mutesi who grew up in an impoverished area

of Kampala was discovered to have a great skill at chess.

David Oyelowo thinks this is fantastic talent and wants

to take her away to competition is about which she is very worried.

When you're going to be beaten anyway?

Coach, I do not think you come from here.

When I was a child, my mother left me.

But it was a good thing I did not take my life then,

otherwise I would not have seen my daughter,

I would not have met the pioneersthem or you.

Do not be quick to take your king, Phiona?

This is a Disney film in mainstream cinemas.

Telling a story perhaps you may never have seen before and it does

that thing old family films used to do, suitable for everyone,

I think the whole family can get something out of it.

Really uplifting, a true story which apparently sticks pretty close

You feel you are with those characters.

It is clearly made with passion, very well directed by Mira Nair

I went in with very little expectations and did not know much

And when everyone mentions chess on film, you think...

There have been a few good chess movies but it is a hard sell.

This was really vibrant, engaging, and as I said,

it is that rarest of things, a family film.

From Rocky to Slum Dog Millionaire, we love the underdog.

Any story of aspiration, very cinematic, but also very easy

to make that stuff cheesy, and the real clemency is it is not

Yes, Andrea Arnold's best work I think since Red Road.

She is 18, on the road, shot in the old square Academy

ratio, and it is the most perfect use of that ratio.

It is long, two hours and 40 minutes, and I tend to be really

picky about long films but it did not feel long to me.

I think it is a really engaging film.

Andrea Arnold makes a certain type of film I think nobody

And you were the world's biggest fan of this DVD,

It is built on the audio tape diaries of his compassionate account

It develops this kind of soundscape world.

I think it is genuinely spiritual, I think it has transcended

On the other, it is a real sort of voyage of exploration,

and the greatest compliment to give it is that I cannot think of another

film that does what it does in the way it does it.

Again, if it is not on my list of top ten films at the end

And he is a theologian, and having to deal with,

Yes, and he raises that sort of question and the conclusion

There are moments of genuine revelation and you hear this stuff

Yes, and the weather is getting cold so a good time to get DVDs!

You can see all of The Film Review online, including all

That is it from The Film Review and Mark Kermode.

If you are just off to bed wondering what is in store for the weather

tomorrow, more of the same.