Nocturnal Animals, The Light Between Oceans, La La Land Film 2016

Welcome to the autumn run of Film 2016.

Tweet us what tickles your ivories when it comes to musicals,

Dark hearts and psychopaths, Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal stars in

Tom Ford's tale of revenge, Nocturnal Animals. Your number is

up, maths and murder with Ben Affleck in the action thriller, The

Accountant. Who is he? The Accountant. Like a CPA accountant?

And Damien Chazelle talks about musicals. Everything is up to 11th

and sugar-coated and over delivered and that's not what a musical has to

be. And we'll also be chatting

about Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander's new weepie,

The Light Between Oceans. And joining me to talk

movies is the doyenne of London film critics

Ellen E Jones and south London's In flannel, looking delightful. Glad

to be back? I am, I am busting some moves later on. That is a real

promise. Very excited. Can't wait. Right, kicking off the series

is fashion designer-turned-director, Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals

starring Amy Adams It's been seven years

since his supremely stylish debut, A Single Man,

so is his study of alienation, angst and lost love in modern

America worth the wait? And can he avoid

the sophomore slump? I am worried about you. Are you

sleeping? Sleeping the last time we talked. You know me. I never sleep.

This is a story about a woman played by Amy Adams who is a very

successful art dealer. She lives an incredibly privileged life but she's

very unhappy. Out of nowhere she receives a manuscript from her first

husband of a book he has written. My ex-husband used to call me a

nocturnal animal. What ex-husband? I have been thinking about him and he

has sent me this book that he has written, violent and sad and he

titled it Nocturnal Animals and he dedicated it to me. It brings us

into a journey between the present, the story, and the past, which got

her to where she is. What are we going to do? It's a question of how

serious you are about seeing justice done. Tom takes a lot of time to let

the shots breathe. He had this beautiful visual reference that he

created that helps me to understand what Tony was going for. I thought

of it in terms of look, three different stories. Amy's story in

the present is quite cold, so it is not saturated, it is Gerrish, strong

and sharp. She's remembering a time which for her becomes quite

nostalgic and those colours are saturated, the 90s when she was

married to this man. And then she is reading a book which is quite

horrific and set in West Texas. It has a level of crime to it, it is

very alive, the opposite of Amy's life, which is quite dead. What have

you got to say about this man's wife's murder? What can you tell me

about Ray? Who? Who? I think there's a bit of myself in

each of those characters. Amy's character in particular, she

inhabits a world of incredible luxury and of course in my other

life as a fashion design I have helped create this world, this

stream of products that consumer led culture tells us we need to be

happy. However having grown up in New Mexico and Texas, I come from a

place of greater simplicity and I often struggle with the value of our

contemporary culture. He's killed people. Should try it sometime.

I've got goose bumps even watching that. Danny, seven years since A

Single Man, is this the follow-up that we were hoping for? Like that

film it is very pristine and perfect and everything looks gorgeous and

just so and I have no problem with that. You like the look of things

and the surface. What I've struggled with is that everything looks

gorgeous, everything looks gorgeous. This black, minimalist kitchen, and

also these bodies left in the desert. I found that strange. There

is a lot they liked about the film. I don't think Tom Ford likes the

character that Amy Adams is playing, the centre of the movie. Because of

that, it feels a bit mean-spirited. It feels like one of those fashion

magazines you crack open and you get heady on the scent of the paper, the

expense of everything but I'm not sure I want to buy what it is

advertising. I love the idea of you with a thick fashion magazine! What

was your take? I agree with some of that but for me it has a depth to

it, it has moved on from A Single Man. It is still a beautiful film

about shallow people but there is more depth. It is good value for

money. Going to the cinema is expensive but we get three films for

the price of one. Almost grotesque over the top LA lifestyle film, the

safari around their lives, and then you have this West Texas

emasculation revenge thriller, which is pared back and then there is

another level, the New York Roman, come when they first get to know

each other. -- the magic coming -- mantic comedy. I think they

interweaved quite perfectly. They reflect off each other and they make

you wonder which one is the real one, the fiction of the fiction or

is her real life so fake? Tailored is a cliche because he makes clothes

but it is tailored. I think that the stories are lopsided. There is a

sequence where Jake Gyllenhaal and his family are being chased off the

road, this empty highway, the middle of the night and if you've seen a

horror movie, you've seen that before but somehow he makes it come,

you are getting short of breath -- the way that he executes it. It is

grotesque and funny and Michael Sheen pops up and you want to follow

him through the door. It feels strange to me because you can't take

Tom Ford out of the equation. Every second of this screams Tom Ford and

for him to make a film that is pointing the finger at people for

their Charlotte senator, they are his customers, these the people who

allowed him to become for -- pointing the finger at people for

their shallow obscenity. These people are going to wear Tom Ford

cardigans. I don't know if it is some kind of cry for help. That's

what I liked about it, it is bold and brave, almost a self hating

film. Assuming that's how he lives. There are some incredible cameos in

the film as well. We can talk about Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Michael Shannon. Amazing, he's playing a part in a film within a

film. Michael Shannon is a bit like Christopher Walken, he is 5 degrees

to the side of the film everybody else is in so it makes sense for him

to be in this role. My pick of the performances, airing Taylor Johnson,

who plays a scary West Texan hick in the central narrative but what I

like about him, there's something slightly unreal about it so you get

the impression he is playing a New York writer's idea of what is a

scary Texan. I like that idea. There was some critique for A Single Man

for being style over substance. I think that works in this film

because she hates her life and what she's become. I don't think that's a

fair accusation for the film. You can say that about A Single Man but

this film, what is clever about it, it has a depth to it. I preferred A

Single Man, style over substance isn't a problem, I'm OK with that,

there is substance here. It is the substance I have an issue with. It

is like going to a very expensive restaurant. Part of that is what

going to a restaurant is like, the waiting staff are beautiful and it

is lit like a Tom Ford movie but then they bring you the food and the

food is cold. Maybe the opulence of the restaurant is enough to have a

good night but I want a decent meal inside me. I loved it and it held my

attention to the last frame. I thought that the editing was superb

and the score, I walked the streets afterwards still slightly in the

mood. Next up, the most unlikely title

for an action thriller ever dreamt up, The Accountant,

starring Ben Affleck as a mathematics genius,

who's great with numbers, Your son is a remarkable young man.

He has highly advanced cognitive skills. He has more in common with

Einstein or Mozart than he does with us. I'd like to work with your son.

Help him develop the skills he'll need to lead a full life. Not going

to happen. The world isn't a friendly place and that's where he

needs to learn to live. Essentially I play a guy who is autistic and is

very good at maths and numbers, he's kind of sensitive and he spends his

life using a combination of his skills doing accounting work for

criminals. Do you like puzzles Western Mark tell me what you see.

-- do you like puzzles? That's the same person. That's the question of

the movie, who is The Accountant, is Christian Wolff, how has he become

this person? We see that over the course of the movie. I'm not wearing

a mask so it is harder to get the stuntman to do the scenes but I

ended up having to do a lot of my own stuff. A lot of work but

satisfying, you rehearse a lot and when you get there on the day, you

don't have much time to do it. We put a lot of work into it so it's

satisfying when it comes together. I would come onto the set to watch the

beauty and grace and majesty of men, you know, flooring themselves at

each other and the walls. Fulfilling for me personally!

We should go. I just think it's a really unique, smart take on what

you would think is your standard thriller. There's nothing standard

about it, it feels very smart and different. The protagonists of The

Accountant, really inspired choice, the different characteristics that

make up who he is. In my mind, I can't think of another character

like this. I had heard some less than

favourable reviews of the film before I saw it, so I had low

expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. I think it's quite daft.

I want to stick up for Ben Affleck because he makes lots of good films

but he makes one real stinker every couple of years and this might be

it. I don't want to stick up for him too much where I think this isn't a

bad film, because it is. I don't think that the premise is a problem,

the idea of a Bond movie with the anti-bond as the hero, they could

have done something interesting but they gave up with the premise

halfway through and it becomes a different film. At the beginning we

find out that this character has autism and that is dealt with in

quite a sort of clumsy way. It is tasteless, kind of tasteless because

you don't need that. The Eureka moment for the script writer, an

accountant who is also a killer and the autism stuff is not dealt with

very well and it doesn't need to be there dramatically. You can see the

script writer getting excited about it and the producers getting excited

but I think they forgot to write the script and when it came to that

moment, it was a very hurried state. What you get is the Bourne identity

made of jelly, it is ridiculous. He's very good with a gun, I have to

say. You bring in Anna Kendrick and it is like they tried to bring in a

bit of romance. There is a whole storyline that is extraneous to

this, and especially with the romance, it is awkward because they

are established the character as someone who struggles making

emotional connections but for the sake of the plot, he has a long life

-- love life and he starts having these long looks with Anna Kendrick

which don't make sense. I used to work in a video shop in 1996 and

every second movie was just like The Accountant, there were shelves given

over to films like this. If the budget had been big enough it would

have had Bruce Willis. Maybe one of the Baldwin brothers. John Lithgow

would be playing the same character. I had a better time with it than

you. It is terrible but I found it warm and fuzzy at the same time.

There are flashbacks and back story and you find yourself getting quite

confused but when you get to the Indonesian martial arts flashback it

is John Claude Van Damme. That is what is strange. They made

everything yellow and then it is like the karate kid. You have JK

Simmons as well. Does he save it? He's another one of these wasted

characters coming from this extraneous plotline that we don't

need. It could have been more pared down. I would have liked to have

seen a film that didn't have the assassin, just a film about making

accounting interesting. You don't need to make it sexy and exciting by

writing on the wall. It's to borrow from his own film

Good Will Hunting. He writes in a chalk board on that. There is an

awful lot of window to clean up. It's an action filler whether it's

flashback, another flashback and dudes shooting each other. They

leave me thinking I've missed something in a plot. You imagine a

dog's experience of watching a film. That is how I felt watching that.

It's not unpleasant, it's confusing. There is a moment where they say,

"what's happening?" Yeah. There were times when it wasn't tide up.

Characters disappeared for an hour in the film. They went on holiday.

Not missed. A-a plot twist where the ability for the actors not to fall

about laughing. The audience will fall about laughing. It's fun to

spot the obvious twist plot coming. Good luck with that at home.

Two years ago drum-drama, Whiplash, trumpeted the arrival of a hot

new directing talent, Damien Chazelle.

At 31, he's now king of the hill, top of the Hollywood heap and he's

But can he breathe new life into the Musical?

# Here's to the ones who dream # Foolish as they may seem... #

Damien Chazelle, hello. Hi. Did La La Land have to be a muse cull? It

was always conceived as a musical. What came first was a musical in Los

Angeles and the barest story that it would be a love story and the ups

and downs of love. But it was always inseparable from the genre and from

what I wanted to do with the genre which was again trying to invest it

with real-life as much as possible. # There's so much that I can't

say... # Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Does

every muscle have to have this great double act it the its heart or is

that every movie has to have a great double act? Every love story. It was

one of the lucky strokes of casting. The tricky thing chemistry, an actor

Haying to know when to listen, stop talking, when to take over, when to

lead and follow. It's like dancing. It helps Ryan and Emma had worked

together before. They are able to ground it and make it human and make

it feel real. That was the most important thing of all. Do you

remember the first musical that you saw and how you felt about it? It

depends on what you call a "musical". Thericals Disney's

Cinderella. I think that was the first movie I saw - period.

# Put them together and what have you got... #

I wanted to make movies since I was a little kid.

I drew a lot. I think I was into animated movies. I just watched all

the Disney musicals. # Put them together and what have

you got... #

That was my first taste of, I guess, the genre. It's a different kind of

take on the genre than Fred and Ginger and the movies I came to love

later. # Heaven, I'm in heaven... #

It was the audacity of it that wound up making an impression on me.

# When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek...

# It's a simple conceit, if you feel emotional enough you break into

song. If you are feeling in love enough, you break into song. If you

feel sad enough, you break into song. The emotions dictate the

music. It's a simple, powerful, beautiful, completely timeless idea

and concept. It's why we still watch the Fred and Ginger movies today.

That the a least was the type of musical I wanted to make. Can you

sing L- and dance? Was there ever a part of you that wanted to be Fred?

A part of everyone I think wants to be Fred. There is never a part of me

that could be Fred, let's put it that way.

If you are picking one movie from cinema history to make the case for

the musical, Singing in the Rain Top Hat? Yeah, Sipping in the Rain is

hard to top. Gene Kelly and the idea of communicating love and emotion

through dance, it's one of the most important things for me.

# Everybody dance... # We are not used to dance musicals.

We are not used to musicals period any more. Dance musicals especially

are an endangered species. # Sing and dance...

# Why do you think people fell out of love with musicals? Was it the

studios that fell out of love with them? For better or worse, in the

60s and 70s audience tastes changed. The mood was more favouring realism

and a certain idea of kind of over the top fantasy, it just went out

the window. With this movie I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too.

Like take some of that fantasy, but try to actually have it be informed

by realism. In the 60s the musical becomes more

real it's all singing and all dancing? Maybe my favourite movie

made. It's one of several movies I would are would pick to showcase

what only a musical can do. It's such a simple story on paper,

you know. It's a story of, you know, a girl and boy. You set it to that

music, you film it that way and it becomes meditation on love, loss and

growing up. Sgljtsds jtsds jtsds it beingsed all

it becomes all these bigger things but by virtue of being a musical.

Can you use the language of the musical to elevate the every day.

Elevate the small things in life. You can make anything feel like an

epic with the right approach and the musical as a genre I think is just

that kind of approach. It elevates our emotions to something grander.

There will be people watching who are still even now sceptical about

the whole idea of a musical. You have this platform to persuade them,

persuade them? I think I would say that musicals are actually much

closer to real-life than we give them credit for. We all live in our

own little musical universes and we do use music and songs to score our

lives. I think that's part of what the appeal of the musical is.

I think I'm in love with that film and Damien Chazelle already. You

have seen it. I'm incredibly jealous. Danny, I'm interested, do

you like musicals? I do like musicals. Well, I like some

musicals. That surprises me. Why? I don't know. I have this opinion -

rethink your opinions Zoe Ball. Any in particular? West side Story. It's

about awkward men who are uncertain about their status in musicals say

is their favourite. You are not alone.

What is your favourite? All of them. I like all musicals - EVER.

Kale lem says, singing in the" Rain no matter what mod mood I'm in. Gene

is great. " Thank you for our tweets. She had to witness me

dancing to Ghostbusters theme from start to finish. You don't appear to

remember it. I blanked it out. Only reason you are still talking.

Next, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander team-up

on-and-off screen in period weepie, The Light Between Oceans.

They play a childless couple who find a baby

I think you can guess it ain't going to turn out well.

Janus, my island. My life. Isabel, my love. The Light Between Oceans is

a love story about a couple that lives on an island in 1920s

Australia, based on Stedman's great book. When I first saw you, I felt

like I knew you and I couldn't stop seeing my life with you. They get

married and they move to the island together. It's their own private

island, as they put it themselves. They try to start having a family.

Isabel suffers from two miscarriages. No. What can I do?

What can I do? Then, quite like in a fairytale, a rowboat arrives up on

the shore of the island with a baby inside and a dead man. It can't just

be a coincidence. She's a lovely baby. You can't keep her. She needs

us. We're not doing anything wrong. Whatever decision they are making,

even if it's not a good one, throughout the film I know it's only

done with the intention of doing good. I know you're going to be

aened woerful father. For my da, da with love ever and ever. I feel in

my own life every time I make emotional choices I usually regret

them. My characters in this film they don't make logical choices

really. They make emotional choices. What's your name? Lucy. Lovely to

meet you. Hi. Hi. My sister had a terrible tragedy. Her husband and

baby daughter were lost at sea. They would have been your girl's age by

now. Stories and films kind of feed you who the protagonists and who the

villain is and what really grabbed me with this story is the fact it's

about good people who sometimes don't make the right decisions. The

realness of flawed people because I think that's just nature of human

beings. It's her mother. I'm her mother. Someone know that my girl is

alive. When I made the film I'm not trying to elicit tears, I'm trying

to tell the story as honestly as I possibly can. One day, it will feel

like a dream. I promise. I love seeing a film that is torturous on

the soul and makes you weep buckets. Sometimes it's really good when you

need to emoat. I went in to see this laden with tissues.

I didn't use one. Ellen, how was it for you I did cry. I felt those

tears were taken from me underhandledly. Brute l ay. Yeah.

Exactly. I mean, I think I might be in the minority saying this, I want

to speak for that minority. I found this film offencively inoffensive.

Lots of scene that look like a knitwear catalogue. I found it very

emotionally manipulative and Oscar hungry. You can feel they are are

trying too hard. It's not a good look. OK. This is the film where

Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander met. You think that

chemistry will be undeniable here? There is chemistry. The actors are

good. I think it's the script. The film spent the first half an hour

talking about nothing how isolate and remote and detached this island

is and the lighthouse. 100 miles from anywhere in any direction. Men

are being driven mad by the isolation. Have you a montage of

Michael Fassbender to pass the time staring out of a window tending the

goats. Bang, after that it's like Clapham Junction. Toeing and froing

for 90 minutes afterwards. He doesn't get a moment to himself. It

feels like a small point, a telling one, it feels like the film is

cheating. Like the film in contrast to what he is saying about not want

to elicit tears, the whole thing is set up to yank on the heart strings.

The thing about not having the courage of its convictions how

isolated this island is, it says a lot about the film being slightly

bogus. OK. There are scenes where I welled up. A difficult scene where

she suffers a miscarriage, he is helpless. , you would have to be

made of stone to not react to something like that? I think the

actors are good. Alicia Vikander is incredible in that stuff. It's cheap

and manipulative to use something that intense and heartfelt for a lot

of people in real-life and import it into this slightly cheap and nasty,

it's not nasty, it's cheap. It's not nasty, it's very nice. It's just

cheap. I found that a huge chunk of the film is there and then suddenly

we bring in another character, Rachel Weisz, the plot twists again.

Suddenly it's all told in flashback. It feels the next few bits are told

hurriedly. You have a drawn out emotion. It's like, hang on, and

then what, boom, boom. People behave in a way that doesn't feeling like

in the way people naturally behave to bring out tears and have the

maximum tragic situation that is possible. It doesn't feel right.

I would stick up for the actors, they make it almost worth seeing. It

is the decisions off the camera that can leave you looking... With the

exception of Fassbender, there is a bit of shifting is which you don't

get from his character, he is a kind of doormat who is trodden on by the

tragic women. We want to see him with more correct. The women are

great, Alicia Vikander and also Rachel Weisz, who comes in at a

certain point in the story. Certain other four formers -- performers

like Cate Blanchett would chew up the scenery. I have to ask you for a

film of the week out of this bunch. Mine would beam Nocturnal Animals. I

liked bits of Nocturnal Animals, so I will say bits of that. Every

single second of Nocturnal Animals. I'm with you on that one.

Next week, fresh from hosting the Bafta Brittania Awards in LA -

actor, comic, musician and all-round clever-fella Ben Bailey-Smith

But for now, we'll leave you with a look at all the films

This is the captain. Braced for impact. What?

That's a proper introduction. I love my people! I love this land. But I

love my wife. What do we do now? Do you trust me?

We suspect your wife is a German spy. This is insane. You've got

purpose. Nobody can take it away. We can't all be nice girls. I love this

company! I think he meant to swing there.

This is a rebellion, isn't it? By rebel.

Why do you want to go to Great Britain?

Because it is Great Britain, you see? Great.

Come home straight after computer club. I will!