Hidden Figures, The Great Wall, Moonlight The Film Review

Prix. Six Nations News and Welsh snooker open as well. All of that

Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.

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

We are still in award season so we have Hidden Figures, a different

look at the space race. We have The Great Wall in which Matt Damon goes

head to head with crazy monsters. And Miller Lite, for my money one of

the best films I have seen this year. -- and Moonlight. Let's start

with Hidden Figures. True and fascinating story. Please tell me it

is good. The Hidden Figures are both the head and mathematical equations

needed to get a man into space and also the head and people used in

making it happen. The tag line is meet the woman you do not lobby had

the mission you do and is based on the story of African American women

working in Nasa working on a mathematical formula necessary for

the space race. The three main characters are all struggling to be

recognised for their talent both at work and at home. Who is a clip.

The pastor mentioned you work at Nasa with computers? The web woman

handle that sort of stuff? That's not what I mean. What do you mean?

I... I am just surprised something so taxing. Mr Johnson, if I were you

I would quit talking right now. I will have you know I was the first

black female student at West Virginia graduate school. I computed

over 10,000 calculations by hand. Yes, they let women do some things

at Nasa, and it is not because we were Scots, it is because we wear

glasses. -- wear skirts. It is a very likeable film and tells the

story had not heard before, the celebration of people breaking down

barriers of race and gender. Kevin Costner is the head of the space

task force who just wants to do the job done whatever. It is a broad

strokes film and the complexity is left for the equations but it knows

how to engage the audience and get them involved with the characters

until this uplifting story. Also how to make the solving of the equation

is exciting. It is quite difficult to make someone solving equations on

a blackboard look exciting but they do it well. The performances are

very likeable and busy film that takes a true story until it in a way

that engaging. It is eye opening and the story I did not know before. It

does it really well and in a way which is crowd pleasing. You will

come out of it with a skip in your step filling uplifted. Because it is

not just lecturing about the sexism and racism? It absolutely is not. It

tells it in a way that engages you with the characters. It is a broad

strokes but done so in the week when it knows when to use sentimentality

or melodrama and does it rather well. It is very entertaining which

is what you need a mainstream film to be to draw in the audiences.

The Great Wall... You are already laughing. The most expensive film

ever made purely in China. 1700 years to bill 500 miles long. What

were they keeping out? This is a spectacularly silly and spectacular

film. Matt Damon is in search of magical black power and the sky

built to keep out out mythical creatures. He encounters one early

on and he cut its hand off so they think let's get him involved in the

fight. But will he joined forces or end up trying to still be magical

powder. Frankly, who cares. The thing about Zhang Yimou is he knows

how to stage an exciting action sequences, however, my own opinion

is Duncan Jones in Watercraft was doing some of this rather better and

when we get to the final battle it is essentially a rerun of a battle

in Lord of the rings up with Matt Damon doing in dodgy accent. It is

colourful, they are well choreographed sequences but it is a

piece of artwork tomfoolery and it is a rather long. You would have got

away with it if it was slightly shorter. It probably is not as long

as it felt, it just felt like a long film. That is a bad sign for any

film. However, all not long enough is Moonlight. It is astonishing work

from Barry Jenkins. It is a coming of age story about a young man in

the neighbourhood in Miami with poverty, identity bristling with

these issues. Three actors play the central character and the chapters

are identified by the names he assumes or is given. In the first

section having been essentially abandoned by his drug addict mother

he is befriended by a local dealer who you will recognise from the

previous clip. Let's take a look. What happened? What happened? Why

did you not come home like you were supposed to?

And who are you? Nobody. I found him yesterday. I found them. Some boys

chased him he was geared more than anything and would not tell me where

he lived until this morning Mo Farah -- he was scared. He usually can

take care of himself. -- he was scared until this morning.

Little man,... Wonderful work there. You know he is

a drug dealer but is also a very paternal figure and becomes a role

model to some extent. The film tells the story in a way which is poetic

and understand there is hardship but also intense beauty. It is a very

sensual film. The sound of the ocean is the backdrop to everything. That

is the key sequence he is taught to swim. It is just an ecstatic moment.

It has such, and of the cinematic medium both with imagery and music,

the music is superb, from classical to original compositions to pop

music, blended together to take you inside the psychology of the

characters. Most importantly, it is very sympathetic to central

characters which gives voice to characters which in other movies

would be sidelined or stereotyped. The first time I saw it I was

overwhelmed, the second time I spent a lot of bit trying because I found

it so moving, so profoundly poetic and sympathetic. It is heartfelt,

elements of tragedy but also very tactile sensuous feel to it. It is a

remarkable second feature from Barry Jenkins. Still only in his 30s.

Terrifyingly talented. It is the major awards contender and for my

money the best film I saw this year, it came out in America last year. I

think it is very important, but also a wonderful piece of entertainment

and a piece of art. Everything, how it looks, sounds, written, you can

feel the honesty and integrity and it is so authentic and please tell

me you Love it, too. I loved it and we know you love it too. Best out at

the moment as the film I said last week, even watching the trailer, oh,

my goodness. Moonlight is the best thing out but this is also the next

best thing. The black comedy about Father bopper estrangement. Have you

seen the film? Ignore the trailer and see the film -- father and

daughter estrangement. For someone who wants to watch a DVD? There is

this documentary called Hammered A Person. She was the camera person on

a number of films and has taken out the footage and put it together to

make an odyssey of her career in which the same stories become the

central story. It is a wonderful story about documentary making and

how you can find a story where you least expect it. It is very eye

opening and I think you will like it very much. Mark, thank you very

much. A quick reminder before we go

that you'll find more film news and reviews

from across the BBC online. And you can catch up

with our previous programmes