0:00:19 > 0:00:21Hello, and welcome to the Film Review on BBC News.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24To take us through this week's cinema releases, as ever,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Mark Kermode is with me, and what will you be telling us
0:00:27 > 0:00:28about this week, Mark?
0:00:28 > 0:00:29Very interesting week.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33We have Jackie, in which Natalie Portman plays the First Lady.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36We have Split, a psychological thriller from M Night Shyamalan.
0:00:36 > 0:00:43And Lion, the true story of a little boy lost.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45Well, Jackie, how timely?
0:00:45 > 0:00:49Yes, extraordinary, isn't it.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52So this is directed by Chilean film-maker Pablo Larrain, and it's
0:00:52 > 0:00:55the story of the assassination and aftermath of John F Kennedy,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58as seen through the eyes of Jackie Kennedy, played,
0:00:58 > 0:01:00as everyone will know, by Natalie Portman.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03There's been an awful lot of interest in her performance,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05lots and lots of nominations, and the film plays out
0:01:05 > 0:01:08like a kaleidoscope.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11It's essentially juggling a series of different time frames
0:01:11 > 0:01:14that are all meant to be representing her fragmented state
0:01:14 > 0:01:17of mind, so we have the motorcade in Dallas, the aftermath
0:01:17 > 0:01:20in Washington, we have the funeral, the huge sort of funeral
0:01:20 > 0:01:24arrangements, and we also have a wrap round which is
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Jackie Kennedy being interviewed by a journalist who,
0:01:28 > 0:01:31in the film is unnamed, but it's obviously inspired
0:01:31 > 0:01:33by the Life Magazine interview.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38At the very beginning of the interview she says
0:01:38 > 0:01:40to him, "Just remember I'm editing this conversation."
0:01:40 > 0:01:43And he says, "OK, it's going to be your version of events."
0:01:44 > 0:01:47Here's a clip.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49You'll have to share something personal eventually.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51People won't stop asking until you do.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56And if I don't, they'll interpret my silence however they want?
0:01:56 > 0:02:00"Her brow furrows, her lips are drawn.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03She holds back her tears but she can't hide her anger."
0:02:03 > 0:02:05Most writers want to be famous.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07You want to be famous?
0:02:07 > 0:02:09No, I'm fine as I am, thank you.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11You should prepare yourself.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13This article will bring you a great deal of attention.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17In that case, any advice for me?
0:02:17 > 0:02:21Yes. Don't marry the President.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25Are you afraid I'm about to cry again?
0:02:25 > 0:02:26No, I'd say you're more likely to scream?
0:02:26 > 0:02:29Scream what?
0:02:29 > 0:02:32"My husband was a great man."
0:02:32 > 0:02:35And interesting, because people might think we know everything
0:02:35 > 0:02:38there is to know about that story, is there anything new in
0:02:38 > 0:02:40this, does it resonate?
0:02:40 > 0:02:43What it does is, it attempts to portray her, firstly as somebody
0:02:43 > 0:02:45going through an horrendous personal crisis, and we do
0:02:45 > 0:02:49have the assassination, and it is shocking, as it should be.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52But also somebody who, in the period immediately afterwards,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55is constructing the legacy, is basically building the Camelot
0:02:55 > 0:03:00story, which then became the story everybody told about JFK.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Jackie is portrayed very much as First Lady of the televisual age,
0:03:04 > 0:03:09somebody who is a master of the printed word
0:03:09 > 0:03:10and also the moving image.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13Some of the things - you may have noticed from that
0:03:13 > 0:03:16clip her performance is very arch, very stagey, very mannered,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19and when I first saw the film I actually found that alienating.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24It was only later on, and I have seen it twice now,
0:03:24 > 0:03:26I realised what it is alienated.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28She is alienated from her surroundings.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Because the film has this kaleidescopic and necessarily
0:03:31 > 0:03:33fragmentary structure, it is possible that it may not
0:03:33 > 0:03:37gel, that it may not engage you emotionally.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40The key to it doing the emotional engagement is Mica Levi's score,
0:03:40 > 0:03:42which is absolutely brilliant, and it's one of those films
0:03:42 > 0:03:46in which the music is the thing that pulls it all together.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Pulls all these different fragments, shards, elements together,
0:03:49 > 0:03:51and involves you in the story emotionally.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54I think Natalie Portman's performance is very peculiar,
0:03:54 > 0:03:56very strange, but it's because she is performing
0:03:56 > 0:03:59a performance.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02She is playing somebody on a stage, also somebody in the eye of a storm.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06The music for me is what made it, you know, cohere, what made it gel,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10what made it into something other than just a kind of arch
0:04:10 > 0:04:13and slightly abstract exercise in revisiting history.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Well, we will find out next week whether she has been nominated
0:04:16 > 0:04:17for an Oscar, of course.
0:04:17 > 0:04:18Let's talk about Split.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21James McAvoy, great British actor back on the screen.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23Yes, so this is a new film from M Night Shyamalan,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27who I think is still best known for The Sixth Sense,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30and had a run of critically acclaimed films and then made some
0:04:30 > 0:04:33real stinkers, and kind of came back recently with a sort of stripped
0:04:33 > 0:04:35down found footage movie.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38This is, I think it's an interesting story.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40James McAvoy plays somebody who has 23 separate personalities.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44At the beginning of film we see him kidnapping some young women,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48one of them is played by Anya Taylor-Joy,
0:04:48 > 0:04:52who was so brilliant in The Witch, who realises pretty early on the key
0:04:52 > 0:04:54to her survival is going to be negotiating with different
0:04:54 > 0:04:57personalities that seem to be existing within this
0:04:57 > 0:04:59one warring character.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01Now, McAvoy has real fun with the role.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03He really enjoys it.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06On the one hand, he is playing someone who is a fashion designer,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09another is a young child with a lisp, and there's a veyr
0:05:09 > 0:05:11prim, proper woman called Patricia, and all these controlling elements,
0:05:11 > 0:05:13and they keep talking about the Beast, the Beast,
0:05:13 > 0:05:23this thing called the Beast, which may or may not surface.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Shyamalan, I think, is not quite the master of the genre
0:05:27 > 0:05:28that he once looked like being.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31Sometimes the screenplay is very clunky, some of the direction
0:05:31 > 0:05:34is a little bit creaky and the story is preposterous, but in a way
0:05:34 > 0:05:37which is - but if you saw it as like an old fashioned B-movie,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40when you kind of think, OK, it's one of those films,
0:05:40 > 0:05:45it kind of functions OK, but it is held shoulder high
0:05:45 > 0:05:49by McAvoy's performance, and also by the fact that
0:05:49 > 0:05:52if you accept that the set-up is fairly preposterous,
0:05:52 > 0:05:55and what you're going to get shouldn't be taken too seriously,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57there are certain joys about it.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00It is much better than the films he was making a few years ago,
0:06:00 > 0:06:05when he really did seem to be somebody, who, having
0:06:05 > 0:06:08started with brilliant work like Sixth Sense,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11had then just gone completely out of control, and was making
0:06:11 > 0:06:13nonsensical science fiction movies.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16And described as a horror film when I've read about it.
0:06:16 > 0:06:17Is that accurate?
0:06:17 > 0:06:19It's a psychological thriller with some horror elements, yes.
0:06:19 > 0:06:20That's probably the best way...
0:06:20 > 0:06:23I think he would like to describe it as a mystery.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25I would describe it as a clunky B-movie, raised shoulder high
0:06:25 > 0:06:28by the central performance, which of course is several central
0:06:28 > 0:06:30performances in one.
0:06:30 > 0:06:31Lion, based on a true story.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34An extraordinary true story.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39This whole thing about truth is stranger than fiction.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42The story of a young boy in the mid-80s, from Kandahar,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45who got onto a train on which he was trapped, which then
0:06:45 > 0:06:47travelled 1600 kilometres, and by the time he got off it
0:06:47 > 0:06:49he was away from home, couldn't speak the language,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52didn't know how to describe how to get himself back home,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55and ended up in the hands of the authorities and ended up
0:06:55 > 0:06:59being adopted by a couple in Tasmania.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02Decades later, the taste of an Indian sweet food suddenly
0:07:02 > 0:07:04sends him into a reverie, which takes him back
0:07:04 > 0:07:09to his childhood and he suddenly becomes obsessed with trying to find
0:07:09 > 0:07:11the life that he lost, and had almost forgotten about.
0:07:11 > 0:07:12Here's a clip.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16Saroo!
0:07:16 > 0:07:19You need to face reality.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22What do you mean, reality?
0:07:22 > 0:07:27Do you have any idea what it's like knowing my real brother
0:07:27 > 0:07:33and mother spend every day of their lives looking for me?
0:07:33 > 0:07:38How every day my real brother screams my name?
0:07:38 > 0:07:43Can you imagine the pain they must be in, not knowing where I am?
0:07:43 > 0:07:4525 years, Luce.
0:07:45 > 0:07:4925!
0:07:49 > 0:07:54Why didn't you tell me that was happening for you?
0:07:54 > 0:07:56We swan about in our privileged lives.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59It makes me sick.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02I have to find home.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04They need to know I'm OK.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07I mean, he's a hugely likeable actor, Dev Patel.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11He is absolutely brilliant in this, and also the film itself does a very
0:08:11 > 0:08:15good job of not becoming what you think it might be,
0:08:15 > 0:08:19which is the film in which somebody looks something up on Google Earth.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21It's a film which has real emotional resonance.
0:08:21 > 0:08:28The opening scenes with the young boy, the five-year-old boy getting
0:08:28 > 0:08:30lost in the train station has a Spielberg-y element to it.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33The young kid with the enormous machinery of these train stations.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35It's heartbreaking stuff.
0:08:35 > 0:08:40It doesn't descend into melodrama.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42Nicole Kidman as Saroo's adoptive mother does a very,
0:08:42 > 0:08:44very good job of an understated performance, which manages
0:08:44 > 0:08:45to show two things.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47Firstly anguish, but she also manages to demonstrate love,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50which is a really hard thing to act on screen, and I think
0:08:50 > 0:08:52she does it brilliantly.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56I have seen this twice now, both times I confess I have been
0:08:56 > 0:08:57reduced to floods of tears by it.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01I think you would have to be pretty hard hearted not to.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05It is a really, really moving story, and it is told in a way
0:09:05 > 0:09:09which is populist and accessible, but also, I think,
0:09:09 > 0:09:11profoundly touching, and even second time around,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14even when I knew, because the first time round I didn't know
0:09:14 > 0:09:16anything about the story, I saw it completely cold.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19Even second time round when I did, I found it a very
0:09:19 > 0:09:20overwhelming experience.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22Definitely one to see then.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Best out - I have a feeling I know what you might pick?
0:09:25 > 0:09:26It's La La Land.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28The biggest problem La La Land has is, everyone says
0:09:28 > 0:09:32La La Land is brilliant, so now there is almost a backlash,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35people saying "Oh, surely it can't be as good as that."
0:09:35 > 0:09:38It is, I'm sorry, it is.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41It's a modern musical that owes a debt to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
0:09:41 > 0:09:43and Singin' in the Rain, but also to Casablanca
0:09:43 > 0:09:44and New York, New York.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47And the big crowd scenes, the big numbers are quite something.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50And I've heard some people say "Oh, there's not a memorable tune in it."
0:09:50 > 0:09:51There's lots!
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Of course there are.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55I could be singing that soundtrack endlessly since seeing the film.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57I thought it was really charming.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59I thnk Damien Chazelle has done an absolutely brilliant job.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01I would recommend anybody saw it.
0:10:01 > 0:10:02It's bitter-sweet.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04It does have a strong poignant thread of sadness,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08which is what makes the joyful element more joyful.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11I loved it. I absolutely loved it.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13Your thoughts about DVD.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15I don't know this one, I confess.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18So Kubo and the Two Strings is an animated film,
0:10:18 > 0:10:20stop motion animation film, and, I mean, I'm a huge animation
0:10:20 > 0:10:23fan, not least because it's such a diverse genre.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25What I loved about this is the animation itself
0:10:25 > 0:10:27is breathtaking, you can just watch it over and over again,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30which is why it's lovely to have it for home viewing.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34It's a lovely complicated multi-layered story,
0:10:34 > 0:10:36which is told through words, actions, but also through music,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39and it's one of those films I think genuinely audiences of all ages can
0:10:39 > 0:10:43watch, and a film which treats its audience with respect.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46It imagines that its audience is smart enough to keep up
0:10:46 > 0:10:49with the story, is emotionally engaged enough to understand
0:10:49 > 0:10:52the deeper themes of the story, and are also willing for the story
0:10:52 > 0:10:54to play out in its own time.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57I thought it was dazzling.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59I thought it was wonderful, and several nominations.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02I think it's a film which really deserves repeat viewing.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05I can imagine, I have the Blu-ray of this, I can imagine going back
0:11:05 > 0:11:08to it time and time again, and every time you see it seeing
0:11:08 > 0:11:13something you missed the first time.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14Well, that is a recommendation.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16Mark, great to see you, as ever, thank you very much.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Just a reminder, you can find more film news and reviews
0:11:19 > 0:11:21from across the BBC online, including you can see
0:11:21 > 0:11:22all these previous shows.
0:11:22 > 0:11:23That's at bbc.co.uk/markkermode.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Also, of coarse, it is award season.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28We were talking about Natalie Portman, find out who has
0:11:28 > 0:11:30been nominated for the Oscars on our special programme coming
0:11:30 > 0:11:38on Tuesday, 1.15 lunchtime, on the BBC News channel.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40Join me and the film critic Jason Solomons for all of that.
0:11:41 > 0:11:42That's the Oscar nominations 2017.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44That's it for this week, though, thanks for watching.
0:11:44 > 0:11:54Bye.