Moonlight, Fences, The Founder Film 2017

Hello there, this is Film 2017 and I'm Nihal Arthanayake.

I'm here because of diversity, perhaps you've noticed that so far

this year not a single presenter of this show was born

LAUGHTER I was!

So now that that box is ticked, let's carry on.

No matter which county you hail from, though,

Tonight we're talking the wonder of Denzel,

Tweet us - details on the screen now.

Right, coming up on the show tonight...

One life in three acts. Who is you? Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris

shine in coming-of-age drama Moonlight.

Ladies who launch. Taraji Henson, Octavia Spencer and are now Mornay

star as three figures. There should be McDonald's everywhere,

franchisor. Michael Keaton stands in the cap next founder.

Plus Denzel Washington puts the Pitts in Pittsburgh while directing

himself in Fences. Joining me on the Arsenal coloured sofa which is

putting me in a rash, trying to separate the Leicester of last

season from this season, our critics Rihanna and Danny.

2017 is only two months deep, but director

Barry Jenkins' intimate drama, Moonlight is already being hailed

Nominated for eight Oscars, yeah, I said it - eight Oscars -

it's the story of a Miami boy's sexual awakening, told at three very

I found him yesterday. Moonlight is the story of this character Chiron.

It's a coming-of-age story but told in three chapters. Basically, we're

kind of just watching this guy figure out who he is.

At some point you have to decide for yourself. You can't let nobody make

that decision for you. He's coming to terms with this

aspect of his identity, but as he is he's realising very quickly the

world does not accept this aspect of his identity, so he starts to crawl

within himself. What's wrong? Nothing.

It's a beautiful story. It's a story about the others, the ones who are

outside of the tribe, who are not totally embraced for who they are

and made to feel ashamed. Why you didn't, like you were supposed to?

All these kind of stereotypes and identity issues are being explored

and broken down, and the beautiful thing about this film in particular,

I think, is it just says ultimately where all the same, which all

struggling with the same issues. We have a universal desire for love and

connection and for that we have to be vulnerable, to let someone else

in. You're my only and I'm your own way.

This is a story about love in its purest sense.

What you're looking at me like that for?

I think the film is therapeutic in some eyes. Sometimes you don't know

that you need to release something, that you need to connect to someone

else's journey, so you can be informed and educated on what other

people process and deal with. And it gives you energy and life.

You can always see yourself in these characters. I've been one of the

others, I've been one of those on the outside, not totally embraced,

as so many other people have. So I think in that way, the film is

universal. So, everybody I spoke to has been

utterly enchanted by this film. Does it warrant all the hype and the

eight Oscar nominations, Danny? It absolutely does. Masterpieces is a

word that's used altogether too much but sometimes it's the only word

that fits. Moonlight is a masterpiece. It's a small film,

because $1.5 million, and that is some people's dog grooming money!

It's a simple film and lots of ways because lets a few scenes about

three different phases in the life of a boy who then becomes a

teenager, who then becomes a man but it's so alive and it says so much

and it says it cinematically. Movies are always trying to reinvent

themselves. James Cameron is in Dracula's Castle working out how to

engage people technologically. Moonlight does it with a camera and

a face. And a small budget as you said. Rihanna, can I get you to

disagree with Danny about Moonlight? I would love to disagree with Danny

because I think maybe he would implode! But I have to agree. This

is a stunning piece of cinema. This is a film that's got, I think, an

all-black cast. It's about a boy that's gay, but it never feels like

an issues movie. Does it not? Does it really not? In the current

political climate, a year on from Oscars Too White, you see this

African-American ensemble cast. This is in production before. I think

this was originally a play that never got produced. I think we can

say it's the most original film in our line-up tonight of them and it

does feel like that, and it doesn't feel like you can really define it

or put in a box and I think that's really cool. What do you think of

the three stages of his life and the three actors that playback? The lack

of physical resemblance? The movie is filled with these big,

fearless decisions that is the biggest and most famous of all.

Three actors, all quite inexperienced. There's not much

physical resemblance, but I think that's beautiful, it's a classic

example of show, don't tell. Instead of saying we go through changes in

life, you have a visual illustration, lots of us, we make

all kinds of changes to ourselves and the worlds we put ourselves in

but we're still made of the same stuff. Barry Jenkins has said this

about that casting choice, that it was all about the eyes, the eyes of

the windows to the soul and he sees that. There is a kind of coldness in

those eyes, because the vulnerability and the coldness, and

it's really, really fascinating. The camera is always moving in Moonlight

but it always ends up on someone's face. It's like that line in Sunset

Boulevard, in the days of silent movies you had faces, and you have

in Moonlight. That's why people are making such a connection with this

movie. The thing to say about Moonlight, it's not critics movie.

We're talking about it very excitedly but I've been previews of

this film the last couple weeks, and people are sitting there are very

sincerely, spontaneously in floods of tears. It does two things at

once, delicate and power. White Rihanna, what about that opening

scene? Where he is Little before he becomes Chiron and then Black. Did

he feel real to you? Did it feel genuine, did you think a drug

dealer, someone who is a crack cocaine dealer would have that and

they question up absolutely. I think the reason is because of Mahershala

Ali's performance. But he's not very in it very much. On paper you could

say this is a boy growing up in an all-black neighbourhood, his mum is

a drug addict and the only father figure he has is a drug dealer. Yet,

there is something so much more real and human about this than so many

other films. This is an social realism or gritty, this is so

beautiful to look at. The cinematography. The sound, the music

is extraordinary. That use of the chamber orchestra, but then going to

the people who wrote the score and saying, can you make something that

is very, very different? It's almost as if someone producing track beat

that using a chamber orchestra and reinventing it that way. It's not

what you expect from this kind of film. OK, we need to move on.

Next is Hidden Figures, the real life story of three

African American female mathematicians who helped Nasa shoot

Taraji P Henson, Janelle Monae and Oscar nominee Octavia Spencer

play the human computers dealing with prejudice.

Bringing a whole different meaning to the term Space race.

You have a identification only customer Nasser. I had no idea...

Quite a few women working at the space programme. She can handle any

number you throw at her. This was an empty glass like. I'm sorry, I'm not

feed... She should be an engineer. I'm a black woman, I'm not going to

entertain the impossible. We need a spaceship, we are living the

impossible. The IBM data processing system. Hit it, girl. Nasa doesn't

commission females that the space programme to stop every time we have

a chance to get ahead... There's no protocol for women attending. You

should all be thankful for your jobs at all. I don't even know if I can

keep up. You're better with the numbers than anyone in that cabinet.

You've been gone for 300 hours. You're not where I needed to be,

where'd you every day? The coloured bathroom is a mile away. It's good

to know Nasser hasn't given up on good old-fashioned brainpower.

Friendship seven has experienced some sort of malfunction. It's

getting a little hot in here. We are in the fight of our lives, people.

Hidden Figures, made for some $25 million. Took that in its opening

weekend at US box office and has gone on to take more money than La

La Land so far. Why do you think a film about three African-American

mathematicians, female African-American mathematicians, has

done so well and connected with such a big audience? I think that's

precisely why it's done so well for all the reasons you said. Didn't you

all know about this? Without anyone didn't know the story? It's talking

about these incredibly smart women and bringing them to the fore. They

become role models for young people growing up, not just in America and

not just black little girls who I'd seen dressing up as their heroines.

These women, although that is so lovely and sweet

to see... This is telling a story that we should have heard about a

long, long time ago. I think it's really important this is being told,

but it's being told in a very Hollywood kind of style. That's

important. The form and structure is very Hollywood and I think that is

possibly why it's being accessible for so that's a great thing. What

about the schmaltz stopped writing that's the great thing. What about

the best to mug you mention that term Hollywood, I was watching it,

of feel Theodore Melfi said in those blank spaces, where you have do kind

of Hollywood. But there are parts of this very schmaltzy. Identified so

that, I think it's a deft, in the narrative, he didn't want to make it

to Hollywood. But there are parts of this very schmaltzy. Identified by

that, I think it's a deft, clever, crowd movie. I think you could have

a documentary version and I would happily watch that but what you

won't have is the joy of the performances. Actually, what is

admirable about the movie is the fact this isn't just the story of

one black woman who has to represent all black movie. I think you could

have a documentary version and I would happily watch that but what

you won't have is the joy of the performances. Actually, what's

admirable about the movie is that this isn't just the story of one

black woman who has to represent all. What is a joy on the practice

of that is seeing Taraji Henson do you have a crush on do you have a

crush on her? A the dynamic between the three of them, with Octavia

Spencer and the dynamic between the three of them, with Octavia Spencer

and. I think an element of. I'm fine. I'm fine with incredible

business. Because it has done incredible business. It is

ultimately a universal story. It's a story about people going up against

the odds and quite outrageous pods. Just having to walk a mile, for

instance, to go to the coloured bathroom. Couldn't even go and, it's

clearly resonated with people because it is ultimately a universal

story. It's a story about people going up against the odds and quite

outrageous pods. Just having to walk a mile, for instance, to go to the

coloured bathroom. Couldn't even go and Kevin Nasa wheel pit the same

colour. You don't lose any of the heft and urgency of the human rights

issue. You have it colliding with this interesting moment in history,

the space race and America being terrified of Russia. Simultaneously

with advancements in the civil rights movement. You say that but a

lot of this film is about the was encroaching on the space of these

incredible black actresses. That was times? Yes yes and yes. Yes and yes,

they couldn't even go in the toilet. We keep talking about this toilet

scene because everyone must've seen that in the trailer. The whole point

was she couldn't go to the toilet. In real life she stood up to them

and said yes, I'm going to this white, in the form of someone like

Kevin Costner. That was frustrating a little bit because it felt like he

was encroaching on the space of these incredible black actresses.

That was the reality of the times? Yes and yes. Yes and yes, they

couldn't even go in the toilet. We keep talking about this toilet scene

because everyone must have seen that in the trailer. The whole point was

she couldn't go to the toilet. In real life she stood up to them and

said yes, I'm going to this white toilet. I think that so much more

exciting. When the is wealthy enough with this fantastic experience, I

think they should have used that. It's to be in the middle. I think

there is some charm and spark to this thing, so much wit point. I'm

going to be in the middle. I think there is some charm and spark to

this thing, so much Next up is Fences, based

on August Wilson's Pulitzer It's directed by and stars

Denzel Washington. He's Troy, a garbage

man in 50s Pittsburgh, coming to terms with a life

unfulfilled, and how the ramifications of that

frustration poisons nearly Viola Davis co-stars

as his long suffering wife. I wish Taraji Henson has got the

Oscar nomination. We need to move I go out of here every morning and I

butt, a man is supposed to Fences is about a story in care of his family.

Fences is about a Pittsburgh, and at the centre is Troy, a basketball

player, but he missed out basketball player, but he missed out because

they didn't want black about how he basically affect his family, his

wife it's about how he basically affect his family, his wife, his

son. Can I ask you a question? It's about the relationships, father

and sons, a tight-knit family that falls apart. As long as you're in

I've been right here with you. I've got a life too. 18 years of my life

to stand in the same spot as you. Don't you think I've wanted other

things, don't you think I had dreams and hopes? What about my life? Wow.

Denzel and Viola and the top of their game. You have a son and I

have a son. Tell me what you thought of Fences. Before that, I want to

talk about Denzel. People have been talking about their favourite films

of his. Luke says that his favourite is Glory, saying he deserved his

Academy Awards. David says, anything where he kicks butt. He says that

Flight is amazing. What did you think of Fences? Did it transferred

to the screen from the stage? That's the thing, there is no one I would

rather see performing plan Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. Every

information is exactly right, every pause is the right pause. It feels

to me like Denzel has taken the camera and film the play. I think a

film and they play should be different things. Such power and

grace, it is like watching a trapeze artist. I want to see the film.

People will say that it is great performances and writing and that

should be enough but when you go to the RSC, they don't show a movie and

say it is a great performance. Why shouldn't you be able to take that

amazing writing, comparing it to the other films we've seen is, the power

of language, the force and beauty, like scores of paratroopers coming

out of a plane at once, it was amazing. Why should that not be an

ace cinema screen? Theatre is a much smaller audience. Bringing the power

of words into people's lives. You need to break it out more. You turn

it into cinema. Moonlight, there are lines which are every bit as

graceful and powerful as there are in Fences and Moonlight has the

image. Not with the Cirque du Soleil, the words you see in Fences.

It is an extraordinary performance. What do you think? When you get over

the play thing, you are watching a play it's all about the... I know,

my God, it is about the fragile male ego and that is all Denzel

Washington. That can be quite preachy in anybody is's hands but

seeing him at the beginning, you want to be in his company, he seems

like so much fun. It is as much about her. She brings out the light

in him and when he starts to back away you see the darkness creeping

into him and I think that's fascinating, seeing them playing off

each other. It is so multilayered, more so than Moonlight in what it

says. Not going to get into that! We can do that later! Round the back of

the sofa. Denzel's performance is extraordinary, he has this

physicality. The thing with Washington, such a movie star and it

is rare for movie stars to disappear into roles because even when they

are great actors you are aware that they are movie stars. Violet Davis

-- Viola Davis, there are moments when it is almost like it is a real

person, you forget she is an actress. The writing is fantastic

but it is Theatre. Moonlight is so self-consciously cinema, this is

just a great human story. So are surely has to have room to project

great human stories. Denzel made the point, he did not want the

directorial flourishes. I think that's right, he concentrated on the

right things because you walk away from the cinema thinking, I want to

see more of those two, they deserve Oscars for that. In that case, don't

open it up at all, genuinely film the play and have it live on

Broadway and have cinema screenings and then you have the spontaneity,

the actors being in front of you, even in the cinema. You don't get

the sense of 1951 Pittsburgh in quite the same way. You are in

someone's backyard. Michael Keaton stars as Ray Kroc,

the man who supersized a small Californian family-run restaurant

into the burger building, shake sucking, happy meal touting

empire that is McDonalds today. McDonald. Care for a tour? We wanted

something different and that is where my brother comes up with one

of his brilliant ideas. The order is ready in 30 seconds. There was no

McDonald's before Ray Brock -- Ray Kroc turned it into McDonald's as we

know it. A new American church, and it isn't just open on Sundays, boys.

We don't make McDonald's look like a bad thing, if anything it looks like

an amazing thing. Revolutionary? That's exactly what it is. Nothing

to do with whether the hamburgers are any good, it is to do with this

thing that occurred. There should be a McDonald's everywhere, franchise

the thing. Franchise, franchise, franchise. Ray, no! I had no

interest in trying to make him likeable. I didn't try to go out of

my way to make him an likeable, I just read the script and help to

tell the story. Did you mortgage our home? He works hard, he saw what

someone could be and he put in the time and the sweat to be successful

and that I really admire. You want to be owning the land upon which the

burger is cooked. What I don't admire is how he then took it and

almost sadistically empowered himself not just for the money but

for the power is off. There is a wolf in the hen house and we let him

in. -- empower himself. Contracts are made to be broken. So, why

should any of these lovely people watching Film 2017 go and see a film

about McDonald's? Because it's a corporation and, you know, people

didn't do that for the Social Network, although they did and

that's what's brilliant about this film, following a similar path, two

brothers, Mac and Dick McDonald. And he is a Big Mac, that brother. He

has a similar thing of somebody coming and stealing the idea. Pretty

much word for word and Michael Keaton is the perfect guy to do

that. It is equally funny, very witty, fast paced editing and it's

entertaining. And it's nasty. You look at him and you think, you are

despicable but there is something I admire about what you managed to do.

What does your attitude towards Ray Kroc say about your politics?

Interesting question, are you mentioning the keyword? -- the T

word? Is Ray Kroc a Donald Trump like character? Whether you see him

as a narcissist, someone who is willing to do over those lovely

wholesome American brothers, or whether he is an innovator, living

the American dream, someone with the purpose and focus to make it big? He

is a kind of American genius, a conman who can see the perfect way

to tap into people's psychology. Michael Keaton is great casting, you

think of Bird man, these splashy performances, it's always about

Michael Keaton. Early in the movie you see him as this slightly sweaty,

seedy salesman who isn't quite dead yet stop he lifts somebody else's

idea and starts an empire and there is a fascinating American story. He

can see what the brothers don't, how to transfer it into millions and

millions of identical burgers. There is a point when Dick says, why don't

you steal my idea, and he said he could of done that but it is about

the name, McDonald's, it can mean anything. You see the real-life

footage of him saying it towards the end and it is chilling. Startling

that he got away with this. Similar to Hidden Figures, amazing that we

don't know this story. Do we want to know? No one is particularly

likeable? It's interesting because the brothers are very likeable,

that's a bit dishonest. A bit boring. But they are wholesome,

those wholesome milkshakes. They are the guys who come up with the

automation and when they are explaining the business model, the

first thing that comes up, they sack the waitresses and you see them

vanishing. UCB wholesome diet sacking them. If you think, if you

are Mike Ashley you are seeing him thinking, they are geniuses. We are

running out of time and I need your film of the week. No prizes for

guessing. It must be Moonlight, everyone's favourite. Hidden

Figures, but Moonlight is a masterpiece. Big enough to see from

space. May your eyes ever be shrouded in sweating because Fences.

It isn't bold. I'm going to ask if I can be in a

Colonel Sanders biopic. Next week, Edith Bowman.

That's it from me, but I'll leave you with an early look at the much

Scarlett Johansson stars as a cyborg cop in this live action remake

I saw someone down there. He wasn't human. He's a known terrorist and

killed again. He didn't just kill them, he hacked into their brains. I

will find him. And I will kill him. You never talked about your past. I

don't remember much, just fragments. There was an attack, you were dying

and we save you. And now, you save others. Everything they told you was

a lie. You had a family. What are you? What a beauty you are. They

didn't save your life. They stole it. How many were there before me?

She was supposed to have a clean brain. I order you to terminate.

They created me but they cannot Are you ready for the next

ten years? I'm pregnant. You won't notice I'm gone.

We've already started interviewing. People are always looking

for the next hot young thing. I'm ready.

It's only for a couple of months. She thinks you'll be away

a lot longer than that. I want you to stop cuttingly me out

of conversations with my client. She's moving in on everyone.

I'm trying to look out for you.