:00:28. > :00:29.Hello and welcome to the first Film 2016 of the year.
:00:30. > :00:32.We'd love to hear from you, so do tweet us.
:00:33. > :00:44.Gosling, Bale and Pitt in credit crunch drama,
:00:45. > :00:51.You know you're not supposed to use this line.
:00:52. > :00:57.Sandra Bullock in political satire, Our Brand is Crisis.
:00:58. > :01:03.How far are you behind? 28 points. I'm ready for this.
:01:04. > :01:06.And Charlize Theron seeks out the truth in murky thriller,
:01:07. > :01:10.Plus, we'll take a look at award-winning martial arts epic,
:01:11. > :01:14.Joining me as ever is Danny Leigh and alongside us tonight
:01:15. > :01:17.is The Independent's critic, Ellen E Jones.
:01:18. > :01:26.Hello. Happy New Year Hello. Etc. And to you. And to you.
:01:27. > :01:29.When the US property market collapsed and threatened
:01:30. > :01:33.Credit crunch and collateralised debt may not make for easy viewing,
:01:34. > :01:41.The Big Short stars Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt.
:01:42. > :01:49.Michael, how are you? I found something really interesting. The
:01:50. > :01:58.whole housing market is propped up on these bad loans. They will fail.
:01:59. > :02:04.It's a time bomb. And then that happens. What is that? That's
:02:05. > :02:09.America's housing market. It's the story of a group of outsiders in
:02:10. > :02:16.Wall Street who saw what no-one else saw, which was the impending 2008
:02:17. > :02:21.collapse. How do you know the bonds are worthless I read them. No-one
:02:22. > :02:26.reads them. It's about the crash in 2008 in the United States. It's
:02:27. > :02:34.about a handful of people who bet against the US economy and won. It's
:02:35. > :02:39.like insurance, if it goes bust you can make 10-1 even 20-1 return and
:02:40. > :02:44.it's already slowly going busts. You were rooting for them. At the same
:02:45. > :02:48.time you're thinking - their win is everyone else's fail. They know that
:02:49. > :02:51.too. I think there's that moral dilemma that's going on inside of
:02:52. > :02:55.these characters. Everyone is walking around like they are in an
:02:56. > :02:59.Enya video. They are getting screwed. You know what they care
:03:00. > :03:06.about, the ball game or what actress went into rehab. Each one is a
:03:07. > :03:10.strange outsider character, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan
:03:11. > :03:16.Gosling, Brad Pitt. You guys said you wanted to get rich, now you're
:03:17. > :03:22.rich. I haven't seen a good debt comedy in months. This figured to be
:03:23. > :03:27.- at least the best one this year! How can you sleep at night knowing
:03:28. > :03:34.that you're ripping off working people? We made a choice to not just
:03:35. > :03:41.gloss over the financial terms but to really let people know what
:03:42. > :03:47.happened. Adam brings a unique perspective. I think he has a great
:03:48. > :03:51.quality of being outraged about something without losing his sense
:03:52. > :03:56.of humour. How did the banks let this happen? It's fuelled by
:03:57. > :04:00.stupidity. That's not stupidity, it's fraud. The banks acted like it
:04:01. > :04:06.was all so complicated. It's complicated. We'll fix it. Don't
:04:07. > :04:09.worry about it we are the professionals. It's not that
:04:10. > :04:13.complicated. They use terms to make it seem like it is. It's moving debt
:04:14. > :04:19.and capital around. That is all it is. The banks got greedy. I can
:04:20. > :04:24.profit off their stupidity. I didn't know what had happened much I didn't
:04:25. > :04:27.know the level of fraud and it's shocking and kind of terrifying
:04:28. > :04:35.while being funny at the same time. Do you smell that? What is that
:04:36. > :04:43.What? What is that smell. Cologne. No. Opportunity. No, money. That
:04:44. > :04:50.doesn't make you laugh immediately? It's fun and it's accessible. Even
:04:51. > :04:58.if you don't get every little part of it, it's fine because you'll
:04:59. > :05:02.understand the sort of over arching dilemma these guys are facing. Stop.
:05:03. > :05:09.Dude, talk to the director, he asked me to do this. I would never do
:05:10. > :05:12.this. Danny, what did you think? Funny, back in 2008 when the
:05:13. > :05:18.entirely global financial system was melting down around us, I can't
:05:19. > :05:24.claim that I sat there and thought - I know who I need to explain it is
:05:25. > :05:34.the director of Anchorman. He was the perfectman for job. The Big
:05:35. > :05:38.Short is unusual. It's wildly entertaining and does a good job
:05:39. > :05:44.than the media do in how we got in the mess and how many of us have
:05:45. > :05:47.been eating cold beans out of a tin. It's smart about a stupid moment in
:05:48. > :05:51.human history. It will also, as well as being very, very funny, it will
:05:52. > :05:54.make you furious. Hollywood, it is's interesting, Hollywood has been
:05:55. > :05:59.taking a bit of a beating, rightly so, I think because of what we could
:06:00. > :06:03.call a traditional approach to the Oscars, this is what Hollywood
:06:04. > :06:07.should be doing. This is where they earn its stripes. The movie is great
:06:08. > :06:12.and Audley important. I thought it would be impossible to do. Lots of
:06:13. > :06:17.us read the book. We were like - ah, they said they were turning it into
:06:18. > :06:21.a movie with the guy who made all of these - go what, how? Cleverley
:06:22. > :06:27.done. It's not just the big names that make it an Oscar contender,
:06:28. > :06:40.it's the format. It has fun breaking moments, the dialogue is punchy.
:06:41. > :06:44.There are these archive clips about pop culture. It works on lots of
:06:45. > :06:48.different levels. When you are watching that clip, all three of us
:06:49. > :06:50.weres like - we want everybody to see this film whether you are
:06:51. > :06:54.watching at home, everybody in here, you go - you need to see this and
:06:55. > :06:59.pass it on. It's one of those, isn't it? It's really smart, smart way of
:07:00. > :07:02.approaching it. The more crazy and slap stick it gets, the more it
:07:03. > :07:05.feels like it's getting to the heart of the matter what was going on in
:07:06. > :07:12.Wall Street and the City at that point. A giant children's party with
:07:13. > :07:18.a mountain of Haribo and the other side sub-prime mortgages. It's the
:07:19. > :07:25.Messi, manic genius of the film is identifying that. We have seen a
:07:26. > :07:29.smart films about the financial crisis, inside job, 99 Homes, came
:07:30. > :07:36.out last year. Great films, the only film about big money I have seen the
:07:37. > :07:42.audience whoop for was Wolf of Wall Street. He has gone in with that
:07:43. > :07:48.approach, a wild roller coast of a film. Because the subject matter is
:07:49. > :07:53.so serious, I'm ancient, I didn't find it a comedy. They say it's a
:07:54. > :07:56.comedy, funny? There are laughs in it because the performances are so
:07:57. > :08:01.good. They bring out the laughs in it. They are jarring laughs.
:08:02. > :08:03.Ultimately, this is a story about a situation where some people were
:08:04. > :08:07.laughing all the way to the bank and other people were having their lives
:08:08. > :08:11.destroyed. How comfortable do you feel laughings about that? That is a
:08:12. > :08:17.question the movie asks you about it. It is lovely it has so many
:08:18. > :08:21.Oscar nominations. We should talk about individual performances and
:08:22. > :08:26.Christian Bale. He has the hardest job of all, he has a drumstick and
:08:27. > :08:30.in a room by himself? Exact bely. Everyone is bouncing off each other
:08:31. > :08:34.and it's this comedy. Christian Bale is acting opposite a white board and
:08:35. > :08:40.a computer screen most of the time. I'm glad he is getting the
:08:41. > :08:43.recognition and I'm gladded aam McKay is getting the recognition.
:08:44. > :08:48.It's very difficult to make a period piece about a really recent time
:08:49. > :08:53.inries, 2006. We look the same. How do you do that? There is a Nokia
:08:54. > :08:57.phone here - Spot on. That kind of stuff that is the craft of it.
:08:58. > :09:01.Because this movie is completely deranged it would be easy to miss
:09:02. > :09:04.the craft that is going on there. Yet, it's interesting because you
:09:05. > :09:08.have to root for these characters who, yeah, as you say, will be, the
:09:09. > :09:13.rest of the world burns, they will get rich. That is fascinating about
:09:14. > :09:17.the film. It's not like a movie like Trading Places, you get these toxic
:09:18. > :09:25.old guys, everything goes back to normal. It's not rotten apples, this
:09:26. > :09:30.whole farm is screwed. I have one mini gripe. The most exciting female
:09:31. > :09:39.role is of the woman in the bath. It's not like there was no women
:09:40. > :09:43.involved in the book. There is a real person profile called Meredith.
:09:44. > :09:47.They could have done that. That was the casting. .
:09:48. > :09:52.Sandra Bullock stars as a burnt-out spin doctor persuaded to come back
:09:53. > :10:00.She is the brightest and most innovative... The best campaign
:10:01. > :10:09.strategist in the game. Responsible for the greatest political upset in
:10:10. > :10:13.history. When we fist meet Jane boat Bodine she has had to remove herself
:10:14. > :10:19.from the world she spent most of her life in. She's fragile. She has some
:10:20. > :10:25.instability issues. What are you doing here, I thought you retired or
:10:26. > :10:30.gave up or something? No. Not retired, working. They have a
:10:31. > :10:36.history. They know each other. She... It's like, here he he comes.
:10:37. > :10:41.I'm like, oh, good there she is. Action. Are you sure you are OK, you
:10:42. > :10:45.look like you're about to have a panic attack. Billy Bob is the right
:10:46. > :10:47.person because he can say the thanksest things and you still love
:10:48. > :10:52.him. That hes a a specific thing that comes with a great actor that
:10:53. > :10:56.has specific type of charisma. All is forgiven when he had gives you
:10:57. > :11:01.that Billy Bob smile. What happened to your hair? You've still got a
:11:02. > :11:10.great sense of humour. It's a great relationship. I love these sort of
:11:11. > :11:15.relationships that have just a hint of affection. I don't believe this.
:11:16. > :11:22.I don't believe it. That's Candy's bus. You see that bus, overtake that
:11:23. > :11:29.bus. How do you say overtake? How do you say overtake? Jane, what are you
:11:30. > :11:39.going to do when you catch up? You cannot let him get ahead. Go, go!
:11:40. > :11:45.Hey. She doesn't care how she gets the win as long as she wins. You're
:11:46. > :11:50.going down. She will use any tactic that she needs to in order to do it.
:11:51. > :11:55.These people are not educated. I'm sorry. "These people" why can can
:11:56. > :11:59.can you not say what you're supposed to say. Because I'm not just a
:12:00. > :12:06.puppet? Of course you are. Of course you're a puppet. We're just pawns. I
:12:07. > :12:10.wanted to make sure that the movie that deals with politics, that deals
:12:11. > :12:16.with poverty, that deals with some difficult subject matter is
:12:17. > :12:20.approached with a respectful wit. If you fight with monsters for too
:12:21. > :12:24.long, you become a monster. You should feel something during the
:12:25. > :12:31.interview, tears. Look at him. This is it. Yes. Oh... You know there are
:12:32. > :12:37.so many films that fit so cleanly into a genre, but this one here,
:12:38. > :12:43.it's like - you have a story that is at its heart dramatic and yet it's
:12:44. > :12:47.very funny. Everyone... I'm guess if you had to you would say it's a
:12:48. > :12:55.comedy drama about the world of political consultants. Oh. No, no,
:12:56. > :13:00.Marco! It's like he killed himself rather than be in one of our
:13:01. > :13:04.commercials. I start off by saying that basically I'm looking for
:13:05. > :13:10.Sandra Bullock in most films. It could be a documentary. There is
:13:11. > :13:14.somebody who looks like Sandy? So were the producers of this film her
:13:15. > :13:19.character is Inamoto vented for the film much. You can tell that. She
:13:20. > :13:28.has quirks that only exist in movie characters. Stuffs crisps in her
:13:29. > :13:33.mouth and obsession with ceramics. Somebody in the immediate meeting
:13:34. > :13:37.said - maybe I should just eat - no, don't that.
:13:38. > :13:43.It is just a random collection of character traits that don't really
:13:44. > :13:55.belong to a real person. And there is some slapstick, almost like Miss
:13:56. > :13:59.Congeniality. They are just waving around for 20 minutes at one point,
:14:00. > :14:03.and you don't see what the point of that is in the context of the film.
:14:04. > :14:09.She is a blessing and a curse, Sandra Bullock. She is so intensely
:14:10. > :14:15.likeable, you forget George Clooney who produced this film. You can't
:14:16. > :14:19.help rooting for her. So that puts this really intriguing spin on that
:14:20. > :14:24.by having her as this amoral black-hearted spin doctor, and then
:14:25. > :14:27.the film loses its nerve, and I don't know if that is down to her or
:14:28. > :14:35.the film, but she has to have redemption, so punches get pulled,
:14:36. > :14:42.and it all ends up feeling touchy-feely. There is a time for
:14:43. > :14:50.that, but this wasn't it. Christmas! Exactly. Her comic timing is
:14:51. > :14:54.fantastic, whether she is coaxing a suicidal llama onto screen or being
:14:55. > :14:59.sick in a bin, but you wish the film had messed with our expectations a
:15:00. > :15:05.bit more. She should either have been funnier or darker. And
:15:06. > :15:09.everything we know about spin doctors getting terrible people into
:15:10. > :15:17.power, it makes you want to watch Wag the Dog. But it doesn't delve
:15:18. > :15:21.into that enough. They decided to make it a story of personal rivalry
:15:22. > :15:26.between Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton. The script isn't funny
:15:27. > :15:30.enough to make that work on that level, and it means we are omitting
:15:31. > :15:32.deeper global political things that they touched on just enough to make
:15:33. > :15:38.us curious, but doesn't follow through. Yes, it doesn't feel like
:15:39. > :15:43.it deals with anything. Billy Bob Thornton is good fun as well, his
:15:44. > :15:49.tongue could flick out and catch a fly on the wall at any moment, but
:15:50. > :15:52.they are not interested in that really, so this film has space to
:15:53. > :15:56.fill, see you have scenes where they think, we have ten minutes, what
:15:57. > :16:01.will we do? Bus chase! And it ends with Sandra Bullock mooning out of
:16:02. > :16:06.the bus window, and some people will like that. Wag the Dog is an
:16:07. > :16:14.interesting comparison, but it doesn't have that edge, or even the
:16:15. > :16:20.edge of something like the Big Short. People this week in what
:16:21. > :16:23.Donald Trump ongoing campaign, and that is a lot darker and more
:16:24. > :16:27.frightening than anything you will see in this film. You are totally
:16:28. > :16:29.right, they should have pushed it more.
:16:30. > :16:32.A hit at the Cannes Film Festival last year, Taiwanese historical epic
:16:33. > :16:34.The Assassin follows a female killer hired to kill
:16:35. > :18:00.She is amazing, the main actress, I could just watch her. I sort of fell
:18:01. > :18:05.in love with this. Did you? I am a real admirer of The Assassin, but I
:18:06. > :18:11.think people and do need to be aware that it is a film that very much
:18:12. > :18:16.moves at its own pace. It is gorgeous and hypnotic and very slow.
:18:17. > :18:23.It is cinematic and ravishing and very slow. Jackie Chan would have
:18:24. > :18:29.been in, cleaned out the bad guys, gone home, had his tea, died, been
:18:30. > :18:34.reincarnated, all while we watch one scene. It sounds lazy for critics to
:18:35. > :18:39.talk about things being beautiful, but it is not the kind of beauty you
:18:40. > :18:43.see everyday. Action scenes are few and far between, and when they come,
:18:44. > :18:52.they are fleeting but exquisite. It is not even certain who has lost
:18:53. > :18:56.until the moment a body hits the floor, and everything is so quiet,
:18:57. > :19:01.you just hear word song and drums. It is a powerful piece of
:19:02. > :19:07.film-making. After the two films we have just talked about, it is a
:19:08. > :19:14.world of, quite long, world of silence. I have to disagree with
:19:15. > :19:21.both of you. The polite word I know is contemplative, but I think it is
:19:22. > :19:23.just very boring. The landscapes are beautiful, but I could have done
:19:24. > :19:27.with a few more close-ups of people's faces, and I know that is a
:19:28. > :19:34.decision the director has made, but the option it is -- the upshot is
:19:35. > :19:40.you can't work out what is going on. It has interesting characters like
:19:41. > :19:45.the vengeful kung fu none, because it sounds like something Quentin
:19:46. > :19:50.Tarantino would come up with, but she doesn't get involved in many
:19:51. > :19:58.scenes. -- nun. The problem is people will come to this wanting the
:19:59. > :20:04.Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon experience, and don't go expecting
:20:05. > :20:09.that. And that was action, that is all I remember about it, and speed.
:20:10. > :20:16.This is not that. It is not that, and meditative is the other word,
:20:17. > :20:21.that is a very personal reaction to it, but it does have still, I'm
:20:22. > :20:25.moving scenes sometimes, and this is where I might lapse into sounding
:20:26. > :20:31.unhinged, but when you have the ancient Chinese landscape, these
:20:32. > :20:33.incredibly grand interiors, after a while, you find yourself almost
:20:34. > :20:38.getting sucked into them, and sitting there thinking I am part of
:20:39. > :20:53.this now, in the fine silks and the robes and fake beards. And the
:20:54. > :20:57.lacquered wood. But it is sumptuous. Hollywood calls that immersive, that
:20:58. > :21:01.you are being drawn in. It did make me think that this is probably a lot
:21:02. > :21:04.more like what life was like in 19th-century China than any of the
:21:05. > :21:10.other films we have seen, but the problem is the answer is quite
:21:11. > :21:15.boring. When they invent time machines, I won't go back there, I
:21:16. > :21:18.will stick with ancient Rome. It is with the people who will see that on
:21:19. > :21:21.the telly, because this is something you should really see on the big
:21:22. > :21:30.screen, and that is a division treasured itself. The Big Short is
:21:31. > :21:33.something that you could watch from three seats away on summary's phone
:21:34. > :21:40.with a cracked screen, and you would still get the gist. I wouldn't have
:21:41. > :21:43.been sucked in. If there had been that speed to it, I might have
:21:44. > :21:53.wanted more action, but because pretty early on you go, this is
:21:54. > :22:03.going to be quite a long piece about miss... -- mist.
:22:04. > :22:04.Next, psychological thriller Dark Places.
:22:05. > :22:06.While investigating the murder of her family, Charlize Theron
:22:07. > :22:13.is forced to confront traumatic childhood memories.
:22:14. > :22:21.Since I was seven, I had only seen flashes of Ben, like some evil
:22:22. > :22:29.entity in the haunted house. But I had forgotten there was once just
:22:30. > :22:32.Ben, my brother. You meet with this woman, damaged, and the reason she
:22:33. > :22:36.is like that is because when she was eight years old, she was the only
:22:37. > :22:40.witness to the mass murder of her family.
:22:41. > :22:49.And as the only which, her testimony sent her brother to jail. Here comes
:22:50. > :22:56.my little sister after all these years. He is a freak. Just go into
:22:57. > :23:01.his room, he has all sorts of weird stuff. She testified in court that
:23:02. > :23:07.she saw her brother commit the murders, which kind of throughout
:23:08. > :23:10.this story you start to realise it may have been misleading her, they
:23:11. > :23:17.might have coached to get the answers they wanted out of her. It
:23:18. > :23:23.was Ben. He killed them, right? 25 years later, she is contacted by
:23:24. > :23:28.this weird organisation of geeks and weirdos obsessed with famous
:23:29. > :23:33.murderers. And despite a startling lack of physical evidence, he was
:23:34. > :23:39.convicted based largely on rumours that he was involved in devil
:23:40. > :23:43.worship. These people want to re-evaluate the crime, and she needs
:23:44. > :23:51.money so badly, she is going to get paid to reinvestigate her own life.
:23:52. > :24:01.Who do you think did it? There are lots of theories. It's devil
:24:02. > :24:06.worship. I'm ready for this. It is like a lot of different things. It
:24:07. > :24:11.has a lot of layers. There is a very strong plot, very strong characters.
:24:12. > :24:17.It is pulpy bit elevated at the same time, so that is what attracted me.
:24:18. > :24:25.It is time to tell the truth. I'm sad for you, little girl. You are
:24:26. > :24:33.just as imprisoned as I am all stop so, brilliant actors, Nicholas
:24:34. > :24:36.Hoult, who is always fantastic. You have a very interesting book
:24:37. > :24:45.written by the same woman who wrote gone girl, so this should be raped.
:24:46. > :24:51.Yes, I think everybody was hoping for another Gone Girl. But where
:24:52. > :24:55.they went wrong was the adaptation of the book to the screen. There is
:24:56. > :25:00.this splits timeline, and we go back and forth between when the crime was
:25:01. > :25:04.originally committed and the present day, and that makes us lose
:25:05. > :25:12.momentum. And there is a weird relationship between Charlize
:25:13. > :25:16.Theron's character and the rest of the film. You are totally right,
:25:17. > :25:24.just as you said that, she is slightly distant. It seems very
:25:25. > :25:27.still. And Gobble had that kind of playfulness, and partly because of
:25:28. > :25:34.what this film is about, it touches on this greenback history, it can't
:25:35. > :25:45.be fun. -- Goggle had that playfulness. This is the sullen
:25:46. > :25:49.teenage Goth's answer to Gone Girl. I wonder if they filmed this before
:25:50. > :25:56.or after Mad Max, but it is almost like they shared a set going to the
:25:57. > :26:00.next set. Chloe Rees Brett came out with a good performance on this
:26:01. > :26:05.film, and it is a great bridge between being a child actress and an
:26:06. > :26:09.adult actress. There are problems with it from the word go, but it is
:26:10. > :26:15.a botched job. The director has butterfingers here. These different
:26:16. > :26:19.timelines, you have to much plot altogether, and then timelines 30
:26:20. > :26:24.years apart, and sometimes that involves... And sometimes characters
:26:25. > :26:31.disappear. And different characters come on screen, and they little
:26:32. > :26:35.physical resemblance, you can't tell who is who, in sometimes it is the
:26:36. > :26:38.same actor with talcum powder in their beer to signify they are
:26:39. > :26:44.older, and Charlize Theron chuntering on in the voice-over.
:26:45. > :26:56.Nicholas Hoult does the best of a bad job, and Christina Hendricks
:26:57. > :26:58.needs to fire her agent. She needs to have a female agent.
:26:59. > :27:12.It has got to be The Big Short. I like the Assassin, but yes, it has
:27:13. > :27:15.to be. And if Room is playing anywhere near
:27:16. > :27:16.you, I say this all the time, go and see it!
:27:17. > :27:20.Playing us out tonight is one of the late, great Alan Rickman's
:27:21. > :27:22.last films, military thriller Eye in the Sky.
:27:23. > :27:25.Released in April, Rickman and Helen Mirren star as military
:27:26. > :27:27.top brass in a world of drone warfare.
:27:28. > :27:44.We have information they will be in Nairobi today. We need an eye inside
:27:45. > :28:01.that house. Well, this changes things. It is
:28:02. > :28:05.happening. We can see a suicide vest. We need to put something
:28:06. > :28:14.through that roof right now. We need a decision, Minister, right now. We
:28:15. > :28:20.need clearance from the PM. What is that? A child.
:28:21. > :28:28.Those men are about to disperse. Engage now. I will not release until
:28:29. > :28:35.this girl gets out of the way. We have a situation that could result
:28:36. > :28:38.in massive loss of life in minute s.