Jackie, Lion, Split Film 2017

This is the brand new sparkly series of Film 2017 and I'm Zoe Ball.

Yes, it's late, really late, but we're live and would love

to hear from you, so why not get in touch.

Our big question tonight, with a whole new year of films

coming up, what are you most looking forward to?

Tweet and let us know, details on the screen now.

Devastation in Dallas. I'm not the First Lady any more. Natalie Portman

is America's first widow in Jackie. People can see through their own

eyes. James McAvoy takes on the role of a lifetime. In twisted thriller

Split. He'll do awful things to you. It's a long way home for Def Patel.

He and Nicole Kidman star in Lion. Plus, Alice Lowe, star and director

of new Brit horror, Prevenge, reveals what really,

really makes her scared and it's not Joining me to talk movies

is the excellent Mr Chris Hewitt from Empire Magazine and our regular

super critic, Danny Leigh. Beautiful. When I'm excited I roll

out the black socks the that is how it works. We will rein in that

excitment it's early days. So many films cot coming out this year are

you like this? There could be great films around the corner. There could

be stinkers. Speaking of which... No. Coming up first tonight.

With just two days until Michelle makes way for Melania,

director Pablo Lerrain's new film, Jackie, couldn't be more timely.

Natalie Portman stars as perhaps America's most iconic First Lady

struggling to cope in the aftermath of JFK's assassination.

People like to believe in fairytales. Are you ready? Of

course. And you? I believe that the

characters we read about on the page end up being more real than the men

who stand beside us. Everyone knows my story. We know Jackie as an I

con. She had this particular style. It's one of the things she's really

remembered for. The hair, the clothes, the grace. I think

everything in the White House should be the best. It has to be beautiful.

The clothes are obviously very much a part of the facade that we know

about Jackie. Her cost umm designer did a great job recreating the

wardrobe she was wearing during particular scenes. Let them seen

what they've done. Cut. Our story started with th incredible

screenplay. It took a long time to find the director. I was like, why

me? Why are you offering this pro yebth to someone from Chile south,

South America. He didn't have the bagsage everybody else had. He said

- let me treat her like everyone else and how she must have felt.

That is why you're so in Jackie's world thaw forget it's Natalie. I I

somewhere what was real, what was performance. That's nice. We tried

to explore different layers... When men see me now, what do you think

they feel I called my mother when I was invited to make this movie. She

was like - son, you make that movie. It was the story of a mother, not

the mother of those two kids, but at some point the mother of a country.

It's our last chance. The most interesting films can come from

someone who see it is with fresh eyes. Action. He took the project in

an unexpected and visionary direction. They wanted to share my

grief. So I let them. Natalie portman, she studied Jackie,

her accent help convinced a lot of people. Has she convinced you? She

has. I don't come at it with a Natalie Portman fan. I think here

she is great. It's perfect casting. Jackie Kennedy was a woman who was

brittle and mannered playing a role all the time time nails it. More

than mimick are you. The film is more than one of those Wikipedia

with popcorn. There issing something rich and strange going on. Are you

not seeing her life story but how it would have responded in this mad and

unreal moment after the world has changed and her world was turned

upside. She was a contradiction. We think of a woman in this immaculate

pink Chanel suit covered in the blood of her husband. Two things

going on with her at once. The movie captures that beautifully. What did

you think? I will defend, Natalie Portman. She deserved her Oscar. .

May get a second one for this. She is fantastic. Pablo Larrain presents

the movie in an interesting way. It bounces around from scenes that take

place in the immediate aftermath of JFK's assassination she is covered

in blood and grappling with grief and conversation she has with a

journalist played by Billy Crudup where she is more together and in

control of her emotions. Wonderful to go across that gamut of emotion.

Two things going on at once. The woman is completely unhinged by

grief. The death of her husband. Her first reaction is they will have to

sell the furniture and she is chain smoking with a journalist. The

journalist said, I mights mention you smoking. She goes - I don't

smoke. She is shaping history. She is thinking, fiercely and eerily

focus and very in control. That is fascinating. Someone who is falling

apart and very in control. The movie reflects that. Sometimes it feels

chaotic. Other times it it's razor-sharp. You found it

convincing. I found it cold. The woman lost her husband in a gruesome

way, I thought about it in a way I never thought about it before.

Pulling herself together and go through horrendous grief in the

public eye, she was only 34. So much going on. In their own private lives

there was a lot going on. Of course. It left me strangely cold. I found

myself looking at her wig. It might have been Natalie Portman's hair and

wondering off. I wanted to have empathy. I was really disappointed?

I can see that. There is a coldness to it. A veneer. A surfaced movie.

Than reflects what life was like for Jackie Kennedy in that moment shechl

couldn't be the grieving widow, falling apart at home. She had to be

this incredibly composed figure we see behind the veil famously. She

had to... It was an act. She was so good at it. She keeps saying, "I'm

doing my job" that is how she approached it. Very much as First

Lady and an occupation as well. She was going through something no-one

had gone through for a long time before that. Impossible to know the

emotions she went through. Good performance. The camera is in her

face and our face face for a lot of it. Interesting you didn't feel. It

I felt the emotion come through the screen. It forces you to engage.

It's hard to play an iconic role. People will pull it apart if it's

not right. Imagine the weight on her. At 3.00am in the morning you

can hear the scream of Nico Kidman playing Princess Grace of Monaco.

The roles crush actresses. Natalie Portman runs with it. I'm devastated

that Lady Ga Ga is not playing Cilla Black. We are all devastated.

Writer director M Night Shyamalan first made his name 17 years ago

with the shockingly twisty The Sixth Sense.

Now, he's back with another high concept,

psychological thriller, Split.

It stars James McAvoy as a man with 24 personalities,

some of which are good and some of which are very, very bad.

Hey, pardon me, sir, I think you have the wrong car. Three girls that

get abducted. What are we doing here? They are brought to this

windowless room. Open the door! I think u think you are in a movie

like Saw. Three people have to escape and out wit the captor and

that stuff. The next time they see me I'm someone else. I happen to be

a woman called Patricia. I will talk to him. I'm not the person who

abducted them I'm a boy called Hedwig. I have red socks. They

understand they are being held by somebody has a disorder known as

DID. Now I see. That's clever. Three of the 23 personalities that live

within that one body have gone back. Dennis is very unstable. I'm not

Dennis. I've been fascinated by this condition. He's not allowed to touch

you. He knows that. It's one that people in the field don't really

believe in. I believe in it. I believe it does exist. I think there

is documentationation which proves it without a doubt. It's still

controversial I've never seen a case like this before. 23 identities live

in Kevin's body. The trick of this film is to balance that comedy with

the tension and you want the audience to feel frightened, laugh,

you want them to feel sad and sympathy. You want them to hate and

love you. We play with all of that all the way through. He's done awful

things to people and he'll do awful things to you. Humour works against,

tension works against. Emotion. When the audience wants to laughed and

not, it's very difficult to do. In fact, I'm trying to do almost like

this moment when it's really uncomfortable laughter. That's what

I'm pushing towards. Help me get out of here. An individual with multiple

personalities can change their body chemistry with their thoughts.

Someone's coming for you. Who is coming? The Beast. Firstly, can I

say I ray tore James McAvoy as an actor and human being. He is working

his pants off here I'm glad you are saying this now. I am. As Barry,

Dennis, Patricia, head wing. What did you make of it. A lot of roles?

You may have a split on the sofa. We may have to divide ourselves. Let us

not be hasty. Is it I liked this film. Danny is it with aing for a

return to form from M Night Shyamalan.

He made awful films over the last few years The Happening, what

happened there? Last year he made Visit Down and dirty horror film and

showed signs of a return to form. This cements this. It's closer to

The Sixth Sense. Closer to Signs, not quite there. For me it's a very

effective, darkly comy psychological thriller than the horror film it it

has been painted out to be. I did laugh, but the implausibility in

places that I found frustrating. Here he is dealing with the

character who has quite a complexent mal health issue. DID, of course,

multiple personalities. My own thing with it, you take something like

that at the beginning it goes to such detail of explaining why this

happened and cases of this in the past and then takes that to slightly

the ridiculous, I thought. That frustrated me a little bit. You can

use mental health as a vehicle for a sort of slap stick horror/thriller

and miss represent mental health issues if it's 1960 and you are

making Psycho. This is not Psycho. I like it a little less than you,

Chris. I thought it was the most slab dash grubby sub-standard films

I've seen. Two bad films for the price of one. A thriller with no

thrills. . Given that M Night Shyamalan is a middle-aged dude

there is footage of teenage girls in his bras and pants. Though it is the

bad guy who convinced them to do that. He likes to make sure we see

it too. He moves the camera that way. On any number of levels this is

sweaty, toxic, claptrap. disorder, I am with you. You have

three girls and once they're locked up and removing their clothes and

then giving a character who might fight back some predictable back

story and slightly unnecessary I thought. It does veer into

unexpectedly dark territory towards the end and certain things rear

their head, but we can't talk about them. There is one thing at the end

that bounced out of cinema with just a smile on my face. But we can't

talk about that. There are things you would see every week in an

episode of Law and Order. M Night Shyamalan pushed it into a darkly

funny area and you have the great performance from James McAvoy. He is

great. We see about eight or nine of the 23 penalties and he attacks it

and there is, his tongue is in his cheek, but it is a wonderful

performance. Really goes for it. I bounced out of cinema as well at the

end. We are united in that. For very different reasons.

She's starred as a homicidal caravanner, a criminal poet and now

in her directorial debut, Prevenge, actress Alice Lowe stars

as a bloodthirsty mother-to-be enjoying a pre-natal killing spree.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Lowe is a big horror fan,

so who better then to ask for her creepiest cinematic kids?

You're this force of nature now inside you. Baby know what is to do.

Baby will tell you what to do. It is just nature's way.

Hi I'm Alice Lowe the direct and and star of Prevenge, a film about a

woman who goes on a killing spree while pregnant. You're insane. I'm a

working mother. I thought I would choose some of my favourite creepy

kids in horror that inspired for this film. I love the stillness of

The Innocents and the sound design is incredible and the little boy

Mile is creepy. He has adult knowledge within him, because he is

possessed by this ghost of this evil man. Now, you're my prisoner. Myles

let me go. Why? You're hurting me. A classic is Don't Look Now. I'm a

friend. About a human drama and the best horror is the drama, it is not

the ghost that is scarry, it is what happened to the family and they have

a child who died and the father is convinced that he sees the child in

Venice running around the streets in this red coat. What I drew for my

film from that film is a sense of sadness and regret and someone who

is trapped in the past and you feel like when someone's trapped in the

past and that it only going to be a matter o' time before they meet

death. I don't know. When I first saw The

Shining, it wasn't because I saw it, it was because I wasn't allowed to

watch it and my sister enacted it for me scene by scene and it was

chilling. Red Rum. Red Rum. Red Rum. It is an interesting meditation on

family and the pressures of being a parent. Have you ever thought about

my responsibilities? I'm sure it is terrifying to anyone who is

experiencing sleep deprivation and feels they would like to chase their

child around the house with an axe. Yes the twin girls at the end of the

corridor, they're very creepy. They don't do anything. They don't even

move. They just stand there. That is more scary. Come and play with us,

Danny. Carrie I think can count as a creepy kid, because she is ra

teenager and experiencing puberty and it unleashes these powers within

her. She is able to kill people with her mind. There is a lot of blood

and he was influenced by Blues and Reds and vivid colours to help show

this hormonal intensity that arrives with this. I love the

mother/daughter relationship. I shows the psychosis that can go on

there. It is one you rarely see on screen. All of those films have

something that really beds in deeply and they're all things that stay

within you. I think it is because it goes beyond the dialogue. Kiss me

good night. And the characters, it is actually something that...

Getting hammered into the back of your retina.

And we'll be reviewing Alice's new film Prevenge

Just one of the cinematic treats on the way in 2017.

Let's see what you're most looking forward to.

Danny, Chris - what are you most excited about this year film wise?

Chris as a Dorset boy and Chisil Beach and a new Cohen brothers. And

Rose looking forward to Beauty And The Beast. Will they sing the songs?

Yes. Steve sent a list. Blade Runner and alien covenant, a great year for

sci-fi. I will go for Baby Driver, that promises to be unlike anything

we have seen, a car chase movie and sort of musical. I'm intrigued. It

will be a great sound track and a heist and a chase. Sold. Moonlight.

And I will mention Elle, a revenge thriller that will blow people's

minds and quickly Jaw bone, a British boxing movie with Jonny

Harris. And Split Two. Now Lion, following a man's quest to finds the

family he was separated from as a child 25 years ago. Where are you

from? Calcutta. Which part. I'm adopted. Starting to remember. Story

of that beautiful boy. I had forgotten. Are you OK? I had another

family. What happened? I was lost. I have to find my way back home. How

long were you on the train? A couple of days. A couple of days. It would

take a lifetime to search all the stations in India. You have no idea

what it is like. How every day my real brother screams my name. I

thought I could teepest keep the family together. If they're not

there. I don't have a choice. What was she like? Beautiful. Every night

I imagine that I'm walking those streets. And I know every single

step of the way. I whisper in her ear. I'm here. Oh, I have gone

again. I am feeling overwhelmed and may start weeping. Not like when I

watched Manchester by Sea. But it is very moving. Yes the second half of

Lion I like, it is very solid with a good performance. The first half is

extraordinary. There is barely a word in it. It is this little boy

Saroo who is spirited away and lost in the bedlam of calve cut that.

Calcutta. It is a bit lop sided, the second half can't keep up. But the

first half is very good. Performances from the two boys who

play brothers, they are incredible. Yes. He was six years old when he

made the film and no training. His eyes are amazing. And he grows up to

be become Dev Patel and I agree, the second half is fine. It just treads

a lot of water. He has a decision do I look for my parents and he takes a

long time to make it. He is should I? Maybe I should. No OK I will. You

can see why the movie, there is no at lot of drama in the search. It is

difficult. I like the second half a bit more than you. We see Dev Patel

and we first met him on screen in Slumdog Millionaire, where he was a

child himself. But here he has brawned out and he is like a grown

man and he is still a bit overshadowed. But that is part of

film. His character is overshadowed by his past and it makes sense. I

still think Dev Patel is good and it is interesting when you have a role

that calls for an actor to symbolise mental disintegration with a beard.

You can end up with Iain Beale. But Dev Patel it is about the eyes. It

is a subtle and difficult performance. It his best

performance. And he is doing an Australian accents. He conveys that

anguish and there is a good supporting cast. But the second half

peoples it is putting scenes in to try and get to the end and to get to

it movie length. But sorry. There a scene where Nicole Kidman has a

dialogue and it should say, vote me for Best Supporting Actor. I did. I

was put on holds. The first half is about momentum and motion and the

boy going to Calcutta. The second half is about someone who is stuck.

What is weird is it ends up it can't help being a huge slab of product

for Google Earth. Because he is trying use that track down where he

is from. And goggle earth seems -- Google Earth seems useful if you

were spirited away as a small boy. Otherwise I'm sketchy on what its

use could be. If you choose a film of the week. Split. Jackie and the

first half of Lion. For me Lion. I loved it. That is almost it. Next

week the brilliant Charlie Brooker is here and I leave you with a brief

look at some of the films coming your way in 2017. Thanks for

watching and good night. 400,000 men on this beach. There is

no hiding from this, son. I'm home! There is my favourite. I'm putting

together a team, people with special abilities. You see I believe enemies

are coming. Stop right there. I'm in! That's Kong. He is king around

here. I was the first negroe female student. It is important, you have

got to decide for yourself who you want to be. What you looking at me

like that for? If something welcome back to happen

to you... I could never forgive myself. They're like any other

machine. I did your job once. I was good at it. Things were simpler

then. Meet the princess. What about that? What? Show time A-hole!

Everyone! I get to keep the suit? Of course, just don't anything I would

do and definitely don't do anything I would do. There is a grey area and

that is where you operate.