0:00:00 > 0:00:01look ahead to the main award on Sunday in Liverpool as well, and all
0:00:01 > 0:00:04of the weekends Premier League football. Now on BBC News, it's time
0:00:04 > 0:00:15for the film.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News. Taking us through this
0:00:29 > 0:00:32weeks cinema releases is Mark Kermode. What have you been
0:00:32 > 0:00:37watching, Mark?Very, very interesting week. We have Bingo: The
0:00:37 > 0:00:42King Of The Mornings, a film about the dark side of clowning. We have,
0:00:42 > 0:00:45of course, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, you might have noticed that this is
0:00:45 > 0:00:55opening in cinemas! And a low-key British! , The Unseen.Bingo: The
0:00:55 > 0:00:59King Of The Mornings, this is a really curious looking one?Very
0:00:59 > 0:01:01interesting one, submitted for the foreign-language Oscar although it
0:01:01 > 0:01:06has not made it through to the short list. It comes across as a cross
0:01:06 > 0:01:09between the Chuckle Brothers and the last third of Goodfellas. It is
0:01:09 > 0:01:14inspired by a real-life story of eight kids TV icon, this is a
0:01:14 > 0:01:19fictionalised version in which there is struggling actor who has made his
0:01:19 > 0:01:22name in soft-core sex films and manages to get a break as bingo,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26this cloud on morning television, and realises that he may actually
0:01:26 > 0:01:30have found something for which he can become celebrated and famous.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34The downside is, he is not allowed to say who he is, he has to be
0:01:34 > 0:01:38completely anonymous, so he is caught between fame and anonymity.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41However he wants to stretch his wings and see what he can do with
0:01:41 > 0:01:44the role. Here's a clip.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59Now, you can see from that, it has got a strange turn to it, it is a
0:02:59 > 0:03:04fantastic performance I Vladimir Brichta as Bingowhat I like about it
0:03:04 > 0:03:07is that it has a bit of the backstage madness of live
0:03:07 > 0:03:14television, something like Network. It also has that sense as in
0:03:14 > 0:03:18Accelerate, in that success goes to his head, he falls into drink and
0:03:18 > 0:03:21drugs and reckless behaviour, but he is tortured because he can't tell
0:03:21 > 0:03:25anyone who he is. It becomes that classic tale of someone who is
0:03:25 > 0:03:29famous in one area and completely anonymous and another. It is not
0:03:29 > 0:03:32without flaws, there are certain moments when the drama oversteps
0:03:32 > 0:03:36itself somewhat, but I didn't know this story at all, it is inspired by
0:03:36 > 0:03:40a true story, and I found it gripping and weirdly enjoyable, not
0:03:40 > 0:03:44least because there is something... Amine, clowns are a strange presence
0:03:44 > 0:03:50anyway...Could go either way!And we saw the success of what has now
0:03:50 > 0:03:54become the biggest selling horror movie of all time. So, this is
0:03:54 > 0:03:57something about different, it is not entirely successful but when it
0:03:57 > 0:04:01works, it has a kind of crazed energy, which is down to the central
0:04:01 > 0:04:05performance largely, which is very, very magnetic.And apparently there
0:04:05 > 0:04:10is a new Star Wars film out of! They should do some publicity, really.
0:04:10 > 0:04:18Are you a fan?To a degree, I lived with someone who really, really is,
0:04:18 > 0:04:23so it is on the list.This ticks up where the last one left off.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27Arriving on the island and she is looking for her true self. The thing
0:04:27 > 0:04:30with any Star Wars film is that there is a balancing at.Light and
0:04:30 > 0:04:34the shade, between the action and the introspection and also between
0:04:34 > 0:04:39satisfying the fans and the first timers.I think that Ryan Johnson
0:04:39 > 0:04:44has done a fantastic job, and Ukip all the stuff that you want from a
0:04:44 > 0:04:48Star Wars film, the sabre battles, the deep space explosions, the
0:04:48 > 0:04:51dogfights, but you also get an awful lot of internal character develop
0:04:51 > 0:04:56and. What I liked most about this is that it has a number of disparate
0:04:56 > 0:05:00narrative strands, as they all do, but each character arc is followed
0:05:00 > 0:05:04through properly. It is a film in which characters do what that
0:05:04 > 0:05:09character would do. It's a film in which action is character,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13characters are defined not by what they say but by their actions. Now,
0:05:13 > 0:05:20I saw it with a home crowd, I saw it at the premiere and in the final act
0:05:20 > 0:05:23of it, people were laughing, cheering, bursting into spontaneous
0:05:23 > 0:05:28applause. My suspicion is that that will be marched around the country,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31because it's very well-made, very confident, there is a little baggy
0:05:31 > 0:05:35nest in it, there is one section which I think is perhaps somewhat
0:05:35 > 0:05:38overstretched, but I think it works really well as a film. That said all
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Star Wars films have a divisive element. And nothing is going to
0:05:41 > 0:05:47satisfy everybody. I have never been a hard-core Star Wars fan but I did
0:05:47 > 0:05:51enjoy this very much. I thought as a piece of masterful storytelling in
0:05:51 > 0:05:56which it obeys the rules of the characters, the characters make
0:05:56 > 0:06:00sense. It may be fantastical and inventive but the characters make
0:06:00 > 0:06:06sense, and that, for me, is the key. And does it look fantastic?Oh, yes,
0:06:06 > 0:06:11it looks fantastic. In a way we sort of take that for granted. It looks
0:06:11 > 0:06:15really great, but it also feels really solid. It feels like a
0:06:15 > 0:06:21proper, you know, well-made, stand-alone film.That's excellent.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25The Unseen, it is nearly Christmas - have you brought me another horror
0:06:25 > 0:06:32film, is this what you are doing? This is a psychological chiller.
0:06:32 > 0:06:40What is the distinction?! Broom stick with me, this was 12 years in
0:06:40 > 0:06:43development, it is a young couple who suffered a terrible loss of a
0:06:43 > 0:06:48child and after that, their relationship is in crisis.The
0:06:48 > 0:06:54character played by Jasmine Hyde is having panic attacks, and with those
0:06:54 > 0:06:58panic attacks come strange fits of blindness. Meanwhile, her partner is
0:06:58 > 0:07:03haunted by the voice of the child. Here's a clip.
0:07:09 > 0:07:28I hear him.Where?In this room. I hear him.When?At night. Sometimes
0:07:28 > 0:07:48during the day. You don't believe me.What does he say?He says he
0:07:48 > 0:07:54loves me...Now, you were asking what the difference is between a
0:07:54 > 0:07:58horror film and a chiller. I think it is a tenuous distension, however,
0:07:58 > 0:08:02it is to do with a sense of creepiness. In its early stages,
0:08:02 > 0:08:06this film is actually very, very what a common very well played by
0:08:06 > 0:08:10the central actors. And it has a real atmosphere of unease, of the
0:08:10 > 0:08:14uncanny, which is very hard to achieve. I have to say in its later
0:08:14 > 0:08:19stages it kind of loses some of that, the more the plot starts to
0:08:19 > 0:08:26explain itself, the more mechanical it becomes and the less it became
0:08:26 > 0:08:28interesting. But for its first movement, it does establish that
0:08:28 > 0:08:32sense of the cold hand on the back of the net. The genuinely uncanny
0:08:32 > 0:08:36sense that you're not quite sure what's going on. You believe in the
0:08:36 > 0:08:40characters, you believe in the situation. And you share their
0:08:40 > 0:08:44distress. But you also have that sense we're in is, that sense of
0:08:44 > 0:08:49unease. It's a very flawed film, and I think overall, as I said, there
0:08:49 > 0:08:57are missteps in the later acts that let it down. But at the beginning it
0:08:57 > 0:09:00has an atmosphere which I think validates it, and it is really nice
0:09:00 > 0:09:06to see something like that going up against a behemoths like Star Wars:
0:09:06 > 0:09:11The Last Jedi. And it's not a horror film.OK!I may be just saying that,
0:09:11 > 0:09:18but it's not a horror film!Next, of the rerelease of a classic.I think
0:09:18 > 0:09:24this is one of the greatest movies ever made, A Matter Of Life And
0:09:24 > 0:09:29Death. When was the last time you saw it on a big screen?When I was
0:09:29 > 0:09:38at university, 300 years ago. I love that image of wind therein have an,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42looking down.You need to see it on the big screen, the idea of having
0:09:42 > 0:09:47the other world as being black-and-white, and the
0:09:47 > 0:09:49Technicolor, so gorgeous, the performances are brilliant. And
0:09:49 > 0:09:53every time you see it, it just gets better and better and better. And
0:09:53 > 0:09:58incidentally, that is a film which you can view as a fantasy or you can
0:09:58 > 0:10:02view as a psychological, you know, psychological romance. I would say
0:10:02 > 0:10:10it's not a million miles away from... I'm trying!It is fantastic,
0:10:10 > 0:10:14it is wonderful, worth seeing on a big screen, you make a good point, I
0:10:14 > 0:10:22haven't seen it on a for aeons. On the smaller screen, DVDs...Dunkirk.
0:10:22 > 0:10:28Acquired in visit watching it on a small screen?I have seen it twice
0:10:28 > 0:10:30on a big IMAX screen and wants on a television screen, although the
0:10:30 > 0:10:35television screens are now much bigger. When you see it on a small
0:10:35 > 0:10:37screen, you start to notice things about the cleverness of the
0:10:37 > 0:10:42structure, the fact that it has these three interweaving time
0:10:42 > 0:10:46periods and the fact that it into weaves them so well, sometimes on
0:10:46 > 0:10:49the big screen you're just so overwhelmed by the spectacle of it,
0:10:49 > 0:10:54don't realise just how smart the construction of the film is.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58Watching it on a smaller screen you really admire the narrative... It is
0:10:58 > 0:11:03a simple narrative but it is told in a way which is really complex and
0:11:03 > 0:11:06really crystalline. And actually I saw things in it on the small screen
0:11:06 > 0:11:10that I hadn't seen on the big screen. Yes, the big-screen
0:11:10 > 0:11:14experience is still the primary one but it does work on the small
0:11:14 > 0:11:17screen, for different reasons.Mark, good to see you as ever. Interesting
0:11:17 > 0:11:25week.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29All our previous programmes are on the BBC iPlayer, of course. Enjoy
0:11:29 > 0:11:39your cinema going! Goodbye!