La La Land, Live by Night, Manchester by the Sea The Film Review


La La Land, Live by Night, Manchester by the Sea

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Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.

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To take us through this week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode.

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We have La La Land which everyone is talking about.

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Live By Night, the new film by Ben Affleck.

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And Manchester By The Sea, with the standout performance

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Damien Chazelle's swooning tribute to classic old Hollywood musicals.

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Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling of the star-crossed pair who meet

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He is a hardcore jazz freak, she is an aspiring actress.

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They hate each other when they meet but they become friends

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I feel like I said negative stuff before.

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You're grinning all the way through it.

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I went into it thinking, the problem is everybody said

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it is so good it will be a disappointment and it isn't.

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Firstly, this is Damien Chazelle's second musical.

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He made another one before, he made Whiplash

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From the beginning, it said it was presented in CinemaScope

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and the screen opens up into this glorious Cinemascope,

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It is like the kids from fame but done in LA.

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Then what the story does is it occupies a space between on the one

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hand this nostalgic clunkiness of Woody Allen films and

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In fact there is a scene where we are literally flying.

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I thought the performances were terrific.

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She plays somebody who has two go to an audition

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A really hard thing to do! And she does it brilliantly.

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I thought the song and dance numbers were well choreographed,

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I loved the lyrics, I love the way in which...

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People have said they are no Fred and Ginger.

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Damien Chazelle said he wanted to make something that has

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the magical of musicals but also had its feet on the ground.

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it is not afraid to be melancholy or poignant,

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it is not just everything is tied up neatly, it is...

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Its strengths are in its sad streaks which makes

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I thought the opening five minutes was worth

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Also, we have talked about Casablanca and being remade badly,

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It is a movie that is good enough to nod very explicitly

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to Casablanca and not go, you blew it.

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So, Ben Affleck stars in an adaptation of a novel.

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He is a small-time hood in prohibition Boston and doesn't

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He finds himself travelling to Florida where he becomes exactly

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The interesting thing about the film is it has an extraordinary pedigree.

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Chris Cooper, Elle Fanning, and Affleck himself.

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I think one of the reasons it has sniffy reviews is when you have

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that kind of talent, people expect something more

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You said invoking Casablanca, this film invokes the Godfather

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and Scarface and it is neither of those films.

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It is handsome but in a way which is artificial.

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But it does have a sense of its handsomeness is more

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There is stuff in there to like it but at no point did

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When you look at the pedigree involved in it, it just ought

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Argo which Ben Affleck also directed was one of the best films

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However this brings us nicely to Manchester By The Sea.

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This is the third film by the playwright Kenneth Lonergan.

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He did Margaret, which spent five years in the editing room.

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Is he a genius or someone who cannot finish a film?

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This, as his third film, made me go, actually,

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I'm not going to be here much longer.

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You said you left his money so he could move.

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There are clogged up toilets anywhere.

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I'm on the hockey team, on the basketball team.

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I've got two girlfriends and I'm in a band.

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What the hell do you care where you live?

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So, he is a janitor in Quincy but he is called to his hometown

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of Manchester-by-the-sea where he has to revisit

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after his brother collapses and he finds himself having to look

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The film is told in two time frames, the present in when he is going back

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to the past and the flashbacks in which we actually see the past.

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So much of the story is told in the way through

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The scenes in Boston when he is completely withdrawn

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and everything about the way he hunches his shoulders,

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the way he slightly purses his lips, it is a start contrast

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to the flashback scenes when he is garrilous,

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We know his we will see his old life with his beloved wife

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Michelle Williams and his new life where he is isolated and

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somehow we are going to find out how the isolation happens.

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In one of the key sequences they use Albinoni's Agagio in G

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minor, that is a false move for me because it is used

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It was used in Flashdance, Gallipoli.

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It was used by Wendy Craig in Butterflies.

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It was weird in that a film that was everything to do

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with the delicate nuances, it was too obvious.

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That aside, Casey Affleck is really terrific.

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Kenneth Lonergan deonstrates he is actually a very good craftsman.

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And to have La La Land and Manchester By The Sea,

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This director has finally shown as he is worthy of the praise that

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Your best of the week is A Monster Calls.

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A Monster Calls came out just before Christmas.

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It is about a young boy who was traumatised by his

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mother's ill-health, and he starts seeing visions

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of a tree monster, played by Liam Neeson,

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which says I will tell you stories and you will tell me your truth.

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so in a way which is beautiful and utterly heartbreaking.

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I have had so many reports from people saying I knew

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I was going to cry but I had no idea how much.

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They are playing younger and older verges of the same

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central character who is estranged from her daughter.

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It does the thing that Pedro Almodovar does

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best which is a passion for human stories.

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This has wonderful performances, wonderful writing.

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It is again heartbreaking but beautifully so.

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Honestly, looking back at the selection of movies

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we have looked at, that is a good selection of films.

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A quick reminder before we go that you'll find more film news

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and reviews from across the BBC online at bbc.co.uk/film -

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and you can watch our previous shows on the BBC iplayer.

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good evening. Things are turning milder from the West overnight

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tonight with cloud and rain piling in. It is bumping into cold and

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further east is a temporary so time in eastern Scotland and a

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