26/09/2014 The Film Review

attacking us. We will have a look at the front

pages of the newspapers just before ten o'clock. But now it is time for

The Film Review. Welcome to The Film Review. What

have we got? We have got the new film by David Cronenberg.

We have the equaliser, the big`screen spin off of the 1980s TV

show. Maps to the stars, about the Andy

Perry of Holyrood. There have been loads of movies that satirise

Holyrood. `` satellite Holyrood. This is a story with the Greek

tragic narrative. It also has the feel of a poisonous sitcom. The

central character is neurotic and self obsessed. What she wants to do

is start in a remake of a film that was made famous by her lover who

then died in a fire. She is the epitome of somebody who is on the

line between being funny and being a horrifying. He is a clip. I thought

that Garry Marshall would be fair. Then they gave me the wrong drive.

And then the casting director did not even acknowledge me. She what I

like seeing a word. Then she told me she did not even know if Gary

Marshall was coming in. I know Gary. Then she said she would put me on

tape. Then she said I could either take or not, like it was a pointless

exercise. I cannot take it any more. That is one of her more lovable

moments in the film. The rest of it has got real bite, real assets. The

thing I like about it is that David Cronenberg moved into psychological

travellers from body horror movies. What I love about this is that it

has all the psychological bite of the later films but it has the

fleshy feel of the best David Clement Bergh movies. It provokes a

response. You do not know whether to laugh or to scream. What he has

managed to do is to take a scalpel to this kind of sick and to society

and open it and show it to society and open it and short any way giving

as the impression that he wants to be invited to these kind of parties.

David Currie Bergh is the perennial outsider. I like his sense of

standing back. It is a dark comedy. It is on the borderline between

comedy and horror. There are moments when you will not know whether to

laugh or scream and you will probably do both.

It also has Robert Pattinson in a very small role. He was the starring

role in Cosmopolis. David Cronenberg does get the best out of his

Julianne Moore is fantastic. I have always been a huge fan of hers, but

this is a brilliantly performance by her, and I mean sick

in the bad sense, not sick. OK. You're down with the kids now,

aren't you? The Equaliser, I remembered the first time around.

Yes, the 1980s TV show. Whatever subtleties of character were in the

original, throw them out the window. The story is, Denzel Washington is

the ordinary, everyday guy, working in a home supplies store. You know

that he has a past, and that he has passed, because he is weird, he

reads literature, but wishes it with a stopwatch. Then somebody he cares

about gets badly hurt, and the next thing, it is time to

Russian gangsters. That is pretty much what happens in the

hours. Being based in a home Depot store, you know that what is going

vengeance comes, it is going to be DIY. It is

sensibility with the 1980s video nasty attitude

It is way too long. It is over two hours. It should be 95 minutes at

tops. When Denzel Washington worked with Antoine Fuqua before, on the

film Training Day, he won an Oscar. That is not going to happen again.

It will win the award is a war `` no awards at all. All I can say is that

I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed walk among the tombstones, the Liam

Neeson film everybody seems to like. balderdash. It is kind of a guilty

pleasure for about half its running time. You use the words Death Wish.

That is a guilty pleasure, and it is not the world's greatest film, but I

rather enjoyed it. Charles Bronson's character in Death Wish is

fantastic and veggie Washington in this. It is not a

subtle film. You leave your brain on the counter and pick it up on the

way out. "Less subtle than Death Wish". Yes, that will go on the

poster. Now, Ida is a story set in Poland. It is about a woman about to

take her vows, and she is told that she needs to go out into

and meet her only surviving relative, wonder, who is a hard

be a very fearsome communist state prosecutor,

about her family, not least of which that she is in fact Jewish. Here

The director describes the film as being about a number of things.

Religion, politics, socialism, Judaism, com unison. It is a very

interesting blend of the personal and the political.

that clip, the visual style is very austere. It is that square frame,

the faces of the protagonists are at the bottom of the screen or

as if they are fighting for their place in the

that tends to do is suggest this story is bigger

characters. It is actually a story that has much wider implications

I think he does so brilliantly is he enables a

tragedy story, about the aftermath of a war,

that sort of stuff. But he reduces it to

personal level. Terrific performances. You can see from this

beautifully off`kilter compositions, Austria,

yet there is one thing there. There is real human compassion in there. I

also thought there was a spirituality in

other critics have perhaps not found.

where you can decide for yourself to take away from it. It not didactic.

Just looking at these clips you are a film set in the 1960s. It looks

like a film shot in of the frame, and partly to do with

the monochrome. like a restoration of a film made in

the is really terrific watching a film

shot in white, in an age when everything is

colour or 3`D. This has such a mesmerising, beautifully

really intelligent and actually very moving. Your Best Actor this week,

Pride? Yes, I love Pride. You have to say, do I love it because I agree

with the politics? It is the lesbians and the game in supporting

the miners. I think it is actually a film that works for anybody. I know

seen it and didn't know this story, but have

it. Terrific performances, many reports coming in from around the

end of the screening. Mike with the King 's

a really important story and it puts a smile on your face. 1984, the

minor's strike, and people in the gay community don't support them.

Yes, supporting the would not necessarily be that

natural allies. The movie finds great comedy in that situation,

it also finds pathos and truth and it is ultimately uplifting.

that disparage groups joining together for a common cause.

Although not successfully, in the end. Well, not in one of the common

causes. You should see the film. It manages a happy ending. Your DVD,

the 1920s? Cavan not of Doctor Caligari. We talked about this when

it was issued in the cinema. It is now out on Blu`ray. It is an

extraordinary piece of work. It is so influential. It is one of those

films where you have almost seen it even if you haven't seen the film.

So many images from it have become iconic. It is Expressionist, it has

got this very, very start angular black and white quality. Many people

have influential horror movie. I think it

goes way beyond that. I think it is an influential film that

the face of cinema throughout the 20th century, and into the

century. And to see it in a lovely, pristine fashion is really

something. It is an extraordinarily powerful piece of cinema. Mark,

thank you very much. A reminder before we go that you can

find more film and reviews from the BBC online, including all of our

previous shows. That is this week. Thank you for

watching, and goodbye. It is nearly time for the BBC News

at ten. A quick reminder that at 10:30pm we will tell you which

stories will be making the front pages of tomorrow's newspapers.