:00:08. > :00:20.Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.
:00:21. > :00:29.To take us through this week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode.
:00:30. > :00:33.We have La La Land which everyone is talking about.
:00:34. > :00:39.Live By Night, the new film by Ben Affleck.
:00:40. > :00:41.And Manchester By The Sea, with the standout performance
:00:42. > :00:59.Damien Chazelle's swooning tribute to classic old Hollywood musicals.
:01:00. > :01:02.Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling of the star-crossed pair who meet
:01:03. > :01:16.He is a hardcore jazz freak, she is an aspiring actress.
:01:17. > :01:19.They hate each other when they meet but they become friends
:01:20. > :01:34.I feel like I said negative stuff before.
:01:35. > :02:04.You're grinning all the way through it.
:02:05. > :02:10.I went into it thinking, the problem is everybody said
:02:11. > :02:13.it is so good it will be a disappointment and it isn't.
:02:14. > :02:20.Firstly, this is Damien Chazelle's second musical.
:02:21. > :02:22.He made another one before, he made Whiplash
:02:23. > :02:30.From the beginning, it said it was presented in CinemaScope
:02:31. > :02:32.and the screen opens up into this glorious Cinemascope,
:02:33. > :02:43.It is like the kids from fame but done in LA.
:02:44. > :02:47.Then what the story does is it occupies a space between on the one
:02:48. > :02:51.hand this nostalgic clunkiness of Woody Allen films and
:02:52. > :03:00.In fact there is a scene where we are literally flying.
:03:01. > :03:02.I thought the performances were terrific.
:03:03. > :03:07.She plays somebody who has two go to an audition
:03:08. > :03:19.A really hard thing to do! And she does it brilliantly.
:03:20. > :03:22.I thought the song and dance numbers were well choreographed,
:03:23. > :03:25.I loved the lyrics, I love the way in which...
:03:26. > :03:27.People have said they are no Fred and Ginger.
:03:28. > :03:32.Damien Chazelle said he wanted to make something that has
:03:33. > :03:35.the magical of musicals but also had its feet on the ground.
:03:36. > :03:44.it is not afraid to be melancholy or poignant,
:03:45. > :03:47.it is not just everything is tied up neatly, it is...
:03:48. > :03:50.Its strengths are in its sad streaks which makes
:03:51. > :03:53.I thought the opening five minutes was worth
:03:54. > :04:03.Also, we have talked about Casablanca and being remade badly,
:04:04. > :04:12.It is a movie that is good enough to nod very explicitly
:04:13. > :04:15.to Casablanca and not go, you blew it.
:04:16. > :04:27.So, Ben Affleck stars in an adaptation of a novel.
:04:28. > :04:30.He is a small-time hood in prohibition Boston and doesn't
:04:31. > :04:39.He finds himself travelling to Florida where he becomes exactly
:04:40. > :04:48.The interesting thing about the film is it has an extraordinary pedigree.
:04:49. > :04:52.Chris Cooper, Elle Fanning, and Affleck himself.
:04:53. > :04:57.I think one of the reasons it has sniffy reviews is when you have
:04:58. > :04:59.that kind of talent, people expect something more
:05:00. > :05:05.You said invoking Casablanca, this film invokes the Godfather
:05:06. > :05:12.and Scarface and it is neither of those films.
:05:13. > :05:18.It is handsome but in a way which is artificial.
:05:19. > :05:24.But it does have a sense of its handsomeness is more
:05:25. > :05:30.There is stuff in there to like it but at no point did
:05:31. > :05:35.When you look at the pedigree involved in it, it just ought
:05:36. > :05:43.Argo which Ben Affleck also directed was one of the best films
:05:44. > :05:53.However this brings us nicely to Manchester By The Sea.
:05:54. > :05:56.This is the third film by the playwright Kenneth Lonergan.
:05:57. > :05:59.He did Margaret, which spent five years in the editing room.
:06:00. > :06:02.Is he a genius or someone who cannot finish a film?
:06:03. > :06:05.This, as his third film, made me go, actually,
:06:06. > :06:16.I'm not going to be here much longer.
:06:17. > :06:24.You said you left his money so he could move.
:06:25. > :06:31.There are clogged up toilets anywhere.
:06:32. > :06:35.I'm on the hockey team, on the basketball team.
:06:36. > :06:40.I've got two girlfriends and I'm in a band.
:06:41. > :06:50.What the hell do you care where you live?
:06:51. > :06:54.So, he is a janitor in Quincy but he is called to his hometown
:06:55. > :06:57.of Manchester-by-the-sea where he has to revisit
:06:58. > :07:01.after his brother collapses and he finds himself having to look
:07:02. > :07:06.The film is told in two time frames, the present in when he is going back
:07:07. > :07:12.to the past and the flashbacks in which we actually see the past.
:07:13. > :07:15.So much of the story is told in the way through
:07:16. > :07:19.The scenes in Boston when he is completely withdrawn
:07:20. > :07:22.and everything about the way he hunches his shoulders,
:07:23. > :07:25.the way he slightly purses his lips, it is a start contrast
:07:26. > :07:28.to the flashback scenes when he is garrilous,
:07:29. > :07:36.We know his we will see his old life with his beloved wife
:07:37. > :07:38.Michelle Williams and his new life where he is isolated and
:07:39. > :07:42.somehow we are going to find out how the isolation happens.
:07:43. > :07:53.In one of the key sequences they use Albinoni's Agagio in G
:07:54. > :07:56.minor, that is a false move for me because it is used
:07:57. > :08:06.It was used in Flashdance, Gallipoli.
:08:07. > :08:08.It was used by Wendy Craig in Butterflies.
:08:09. > :08:11.It was weird in that a film that was everything to do
:08:12. > :08:13.with the delicate nuances, it was too obvious.
:08:14. > :08:15.That aside, Casey Affleck is really terrific.
:08:16. > :08:22.Kenneth Lonergan deonstrates he is actually a very good craftsman.
:08:23. > :08:25.And to have La La Land and Manchester By The Sea,
:08:26. > :08:33.This director has finally shown as he is worthy of the praise that
:08:34. > :08:39.Your best of the week is A Monster Calls.
:08:40. > :08:41.A Monster Calls came out just before Christmas.
:08:42. > :08:44.It is about a young boy who was traumatised by his
:08:45. > :08:46.mother's ill-health, and he starts seeing visions
:08:47. > :08:48.of a tree monster, played by Liam Neeson,
:08:49. > :09:03.which says I will tell you stories and you will tell me your truth.
:09:04. > :09:06.so in a way which is beautiful and utterly heartbreaking.
:09:07. > :09:09.I have had so many reports from people saying I knew
:09:10. > :09:12.I was going to cry but I had no idea how much.
:09:13. > :09:35.They are playing younger and older verges of the same
:09:36. > :09:37.central character who is estranged from her daughter.
:09:38. > :09:39.It does the thing that Pedro Almodovar does
:09:40. > :09:41.best which is a passion for human stories.
:09:42. > :09:52.This has wonderful performances, wonderful writing.
:09:53. > :09:57.It is again heartbreaking but beautifully so.
:09:58. > :10:00.Honestly, looking back at the selection of movies
:10:01. > :10:04.we have looked at, that is a good selection of films.
:10:05. > :10:08.A quick reminder before we go that you'll find more film news
:10:09. > :10:10.and reviews from across the BBC online at bbc.co.uk/film -
:10:11. > :10:13.and you can watch our previous shows on the BBC iplayer.
:10:14. > :10:48.good evening. Things are turning milder from the West overnight
:10:49. > :10:54.tonight with cloud and rain piling in. It is bumping into cold and
:10:55. > :10:55.further east is a temporary so time in eastern Scotland and a