:00:00. > :00:00.championship as well. It's coming up at half past six with me, world
:00:00. > :00:18.athletics Sportsday. Now it's time for Film Review.
:00:19. > :00:20.Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.
:00:21. > :00:23.To take us through this week's cinema releases is James King.
:00:24. > :00:36.What have you been watching? I've been watching Charlize Theron in a
:00:37. > :00:42.spy thriller that is James Bond meets basic instinct. The name is
:00:43. > :00:47.blonde, Atomic Blonde. From the Academy Awards to the afterlife, the
:00:48. > :00:57.Oscar winner Casey Affleck returns under sheet in A Ghost Story. And
:00:58. > :01:03.get ready to tap, clap and stomp your way through an uplifting new
:01:04. > :01:08.dance documentary, Step. Quite an eclectic mix this week, James. Let's
:01:09. > :01:14.start with the big blockbuster. It looks like one. Atomic Blonde,
:01:15. > :01:19.starring Charlie is the wrong, as spy thriller directed by David
:01:20. > :01:23.Leitch. He worked on John Wick with key newbies a couple of years ago
:01:24. > :01:29.and there are similarities with this film. -- with piano Reeves. They
:01:30. > :01:35.have stylish content, polished, cartoonish. Atomic Blonde has some
:01:36. > :01:40.basis in real events because it is set in 1989 after the fall of the
:01:41. > :01:44.Berlin Wall. Charlize Theron is a spy sent there by the British
:01:45. > :01:54.government to track down a list of missing agents. Let's have a look.
:01:55. > :02:02.OK. So is this your first time in Berlin? Yes. It is a remarkable time
:02:03. > :02:06.to be here. Wonderful music. Marvellous restaurants. You must try
:02:07. > :02:23.the central cafe for a drink. You will need it later. Do you remember
:02:24. > :02:29.Mr Abramowitz? Of course you do. Yeah. We can kind of Guess what
:02:30. > :02:34.happens after that. It has been hard to find clips which are not violent.
:02:35. > :02:40.She's quite adept with her stilettos. It is ridiculous. But
:02:41. > :02:45.there is some fun to be had with its ridiculousness. Firstly Charlize
:02:46. > :02:49.Theron is great and there is a pairing that she has with James
:02:50. > :02:53.McAvoy, he wasn't in that clip that he's a fellow British agent in
:02:54. > :02:57.Berlin and he's crazy and over the top and she is high school and
:02:58. > :03:01.measured so they have this great chalk and cheese partnership. But
:03:02. > :03:07.really works. She's a watchable actress. Very watchable. She has an
:03:08. > :03:13.Oscar winner, she can act. She doesn't have to act much in this but
:03:14. > :03:18.we know she can. And the style is great, this industrial punk
:03:19. > :03:23.aesthetic to it, this pumping 1980s electro soundtrack. We can see a bit
:03:24. > :03:26.of action, the car chases and the fights are stunning and relentless.
:03:27. > :03:34.It almost beat Steve and his admission. -- beats you into
:03:35. > :03:42.submission. With it being visually striking should it remind us of Pop
:03:43. > :03:47.Fiction, with the violence? What it does not have is the witty, clever
:03:48. > :03:55.script. It is easy to be snobbish and say the plot is flimsy and
:03:56. > :04:01.stretched. It means you can get away with quite a lot. I think it
:04:02. > :04:04.relishes its own silliness and pulpy quality. It acknowledges that and
:04:05. > :04:09.when a film is shameless about it it can get away with much more. Is it a
:04:10. > :04:14.missed opportunity because the time period in which it is set, Berlin,
:04:15. > :04:22.such a great city, it could be the most fantastic story. Are they not
:04:23. > :04:25.bothered about that. Slightly missed opportunity but still worth seeing,
:04:26. > :04:31.a male fantasy of a female spy, I don't think many spies are six foot
:04:32. > :04:35.tall former model is a wander around in stockings and suspenders. But
:04:36. > :04:39.there is just enough awareness for it to get away with it and I would
:04:40. > :04:45.happily watch another, that movie hasn't done really well but if there
:04:46. > :04:49.is a sequel I will not complain. OK. We moved to something that could not
:04:50. > :04:55.be more different. I am intrigued that this was shot in secret, is it
:04:56. > :05:00.apocryphal that the director was so concerned about how it might end up
:05:01. > :05:05.that he thought, I just won't tell people I am making it. It is very
:05:06. > :05:11.low budget. This is David Lowery, he moved into the mainstream lost it
:05:12. > :05:15.with a remake of Pete 's Dragon. -- he moved into the mainstream roster.
:05:16. > :05:19.That is out of character comedies and independent film maker, this is
:05:20. > :05:24.a return to that. This is a ghost story as the title suggests. Not a
:05:25. > :05:28.horror film, drama. Casey Affleck plays a recently deceased man who
:05:29. > :05:34.returns in spirit to his home to watch over his grieving partner,
:05:35. > :05:40.Rooney Mara. Still wearing the sheet that he had placed over him in the
:05:41. > :05:44.morgue. Talking about difficult clips to find, it is hard to show
:05:45. > :05:51.you any clips out of contact because pacing and the rhythm of the film is
:05:52. > :05:55.so key. It is very slow. There are many takes were seemingly not much
:05:56. > :06:00.happens, the camera is very static and quiet. There's probably more
:06:01. > :06:05.music than dialogue in it. It's even shot in the old fall by three ratio,
:06:06. > :06:10.the square TV ratio to make it feel claustrophobic. So it's pretty bold
:06:11. > :06:14.and risk taking. I can understand why David Lowery might have want to
:06:15. > :06:18.keep it secret in case it did not work. I think it does work. You have
:06:19. > :06:23.to take a bit of a leap of faith to get into its rhythm and slowness but
:06:24. > :06:28.when you do it is rewarding and a film about memory and legacy and
:06:29. > :06:33.slowly change. I am a bit worried because the trailer might put people
:06:34. > :06:40.off, it's quite bizarre! It isn't that kind of movie. What is your
:06:41. > :06:44.third choice. A documentary, Step. People use the weird feel good too
:06:45. > :06:51.much, to the point of redundancy but this is generally feel good. A
:06:52. > :06:54.documentary about a girl 's dance troupe, the Lethal LEDs in
:06:55. > :06:58.inner-city Baltimore. The film focuses on three of the dancers
:06:59. > :07:10.about their hopes and aspirations. Trying to break the
:07:11. > :07:14.cycle of poverty they come from and get into college. Very charismatic
:07:15. > :07:17.leads, the people in the film are very charismatic. As we will see in
:07:18. > :07:20.this clip. This is the girls in training. You will watch me step.
:07:21. > :07:26.I'm going to make you watch misstep. It's going to get up in your grill.
:07:27. > :07:31.I'm going to take you by your Mac and go, watch me do what I do -- I'm
:07:32. > :07:37.going to take you by your neck. And you are going to go, watch me.
:07:38. > :07:43.That's what you project. That is what you step on. If you are not
:07:44. > :07:55.stepping on it, sit down, go home, good night. Stand to attention and
:07:56. > :07:59.give me that face. Nothing to stop! I like that teacher, I am not
:08:00. > :08:04.missing with her. She's brilliant, everyone is brilliant. I really
:08:05. > :08:09.uplifting story. Uplifting because it does not scrimp on the hardships.
:08:10. > :08:14.These people that we focus on have had tough lives. There is a lot of
:08:15. > :08:17.anger and it's set among the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter
:08:18. > :08:22.movement and the female empowerment movement. So there tough issues.
:08:23. > :08:27.That makes it all the more feel-good when the highs come along and when
:08:28. > :08:32.it gets more optimistic. Not really a film about stepping as a dance. If
:08:33. > :08:35.you don't know much about stepping which is popular in American
:08:36. > :08:40.colleges, it's not about the technique and history of that dance.
:08:41. > :08:44.Rather it is about what dance means to people when they don't have very
:08:45. > :08:49.much else. I'm really looking forward to that one. And for best at
:08:50. > :08:53.this week you have delighted me because it is a reissue and what a
:08:54. > :09:01.pleasure it was to watch this film so many years later. This is Prick
:09:02. > :09:05.Up Your Ears. About playwright Joe Wharton, rereleased for the 50th
:09:06. > :09:11.anniversary of his death, the film itself is 30 years old. Stephen
:09:12. > :09:16.Frears is the director, it's based on the diaries of Joe Orton, we see
:09:17. > :09:22.the editor played by Wallace Shawn and then it flashes back to the life
:09:23. > :09:27.of Joe Orton. Gary Oldman is amazing as Orton. I am always reminded of a
:09:28. > :09:31.couple of things, first that time in the 1980s and Gary Oldman and
:09:32. > :09:34.contemporaries like Daniel Day Lewis and Tim Roth with the angry Young
:09:35. > :09:39.men of British cinema and the future. Now Daniel Day Lewis has
:09:40. > :09:44.announced his retirement! And Gary Oldman will be playing Winston
:09:45. > :09:48.Churchill! So you feel very old watching this! Secondly, more
:09:49. > :09:52.importantly, what Alan Bennett did with his script is captured the wit
:09:53. > :09:59.and boisterousness that made Joe Orton such a great playwright in the
:10:00. > :10:05.1960s. Gary Oldman great, Vanessa Redgrave, for me, it is offered
:10:06. > :10:10.Melina's movie. He plays Kenneth Halliwell, Orton's lover. They had
:10:11. > :10:17.it and she was ultimately tragic and shocking relationship. He steals the
:10:18. > :10:23.show. -- they had a two modulus and ultimately tragic relationship. The
:10:24. > :10:28.film is 30 years old and it is a litany of wonderful actors because
:10:29. > :10:32.the mother of Orton is played by Julie Walters and his sister is
:10:33. > :10:36.played by Frances Barber, these people are part of Britain's acting
:10:37. > :10:40.firmament. Alan Bennett has become even more part of the furniture.
:10:41. > :10:44.What he does brilliantly is give us movies that sing traditional but
:10:45. > :10:53.they are pretty out there when you look at what is going on. Know
:10:54. > :10:57.quickly, the DVD. Raw, student who goes to better in every college and
:10:58. > :11:02.discovers a cannibalistic tendencies. Beautifully unsettling.
:11:03. > :11:13.Determined to freak you out with the acting, performing and lighting and
:11:14. > :11:18.Eddington. It is like Carrie directed by Salvador Dali! James,
:11:19. > :11:20.thank you. That's just about it for this week. Enjoy your cinema going.
:11:21. > :11:40.Goodbye. Let's check the weather for Friday
:11:41. > :11:42.night, it's looking pretty cloudy this evening with some spots of
:11:43. > :11:43.rain.