Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Justice League, Mudbound The Film Review

and Tottenham getting the day's

Premier League action underway in

the North London derby. Now, the

film review.

Hello and welcome to

the Film Review on BBC News.

To take us through this week's

cinema releases is Mark Kermode.

So, Mark, what do

we have this week?

We have Film Stars Don't Die In

Liverpool with Annette Bening.

Batman and wonder woman aback. And

Mudbound. Interesting this week. The

first film is set in the 1970s.

Based on the memoir by Peter Turner.

Late 1970s, early 1980s. Annette is

great. Jamie Bell, struggling actor,

becomes infatuated with her. They

are sharing digs in Primrose Hill.

He is bewitched.

Hey.

You are the next-door guy, right?

Which makes you the girl next door.

SHE LAUGHS.

Hey, have you seen the movie

Saturday Night Fever?

Yes, I have seen it.

Actually, I have saw it three times.

Oh, you like disco dancing?

Oh, God, like drunk dancing.

So if I make you a drink,

you will come into my room

and hustle with me?

I need a partner for my dance class.

I mean, if you fix me

a drink, I will come

in and clean your bathroom.

Huh.

I already love it. Real chemistry

between them. The film divides its

time between the story of the rise

and fall of their relationship and

they few years later on when she

falls ill and calls upon him to

bring her back to Liverpool because

she thinks she will get better in

Liverpool. Warmth, wit, real

compassion by Paul McGuigan. I love

the way they start is the slipping

back and forth in time. The

performances were really wonderful.

And it is transfixing, you believe

in her as someone with a real movie

star passed. The voice she has a --

adopted as Marilyn Monroe. She is

referred to as the other blonde,

Marilyn Monroe. Watch the film does

is make them feel like equals.

Genuinely in love with each other.

Despite the very big age gap.

Interestingly, the film inverts the

usual age - gender relationship. It

does not make a big deal of it. A

moment early on, she says she wants

to play Juliet. He says, do not you

mean the major? She says, do you see

me as an old woman? I think and

that's's performance is brilliant.

It is Oscar time. It is really,

really good but a lot of it is to do

with the direction, attention to

period detail. If you have a period

setting and people gets things

wrong, it takes you out of it. I

thought it was charming, sweet, I

was moved by it, it was touching, a

beautiful love story. There were

times it's reminded me of the

film-making of Terence Davies

because I love Terence Davies and do

not say that likely. I think you

will like Film Stars Don't Die In

Liverpool.

I am a fan of her.

Batman and Wonder Woman need to

assemble a new team. This had a

troubled production history, Justice

wonder Woman was doing well, the

darker ones weren't doing so well,

making Batman and Robin look

Shakespearean. The film was two

hours and 50 minutes long, someone

said it was a mistake, it is two

hours, it felt like 12. It felt like

the director's cut of Heaven's gate

without the scenery. There is too

much and too little for them to do,

no reason to care about anyone.

Everyone appears to be

indestructible and able to fly or

fall with style, as they say in Toy

Story, and it is a hodgepodge. With

so much stuff in it, it is

stunningly dull. Really, really

turgid, boring, and at no point does

the film-making lift itself. You

want to be engaged, absorbed in the

fantasy. I spent the whole of it

thinking, how we nearly there yet?

Started, went on, it stopped. The

other thing, you have to wait to the

end credits, one of those movies one

character I was thrilled was not in

the film, and at the end of the end

credits, they were.

Two hours of

your life you are never getting

back. But what about Mudbound? A

novel by Hillary Jordan, it is from.

Two families, their lives and

fortunes intertwine. The main

character goes off to fight in World

War II. Heroic service, returns to

Mississippi to discover that nothing

is changed.

You use the back door.

Come on, son.

Son, we don't want no trouble here.

Go on.

You know what, you

are absolutely right.

When we was overseas, they didn't

make us use the back door.

General Patton put us

on the front line.

Yes, sir.

You know what we get?

You know what we did?

We kicked the hell out

of Hitler and them Gerries.

While y'all at home, safe and sound.

What I like about this, the tension

in that scene is really well done.

The film covers some events and

actions which are horrible, tough,

but it has a genuine poetry to it.

We hear the voices of several

different characters telling their

story. The film is keen to look at a

story from different angles,

beautifully shot by Morrison.

Wonderful job with the photography.

You feel the land, environment, you

feel the mud of the Mudbound title.

Not a foot foot wrong. The film

manages to bring you into the world,

intertwine personal and political

stories about racial and economic

tension. Was making it feel as if it

is a personal story. It is difficult

to do that without feeling like you

are doing it. With this, you are

involved in the lives of the

characters, you see the personal and

political intertwine.

The people who

say it is remarkable but actually to

leak?

Is that unfair? I do not

agree. There is genuine poetry in

it. Not just the lyricism of the

visuals, but the way the film is

constructed. I know a lot of people

will end up seeing it at home

because of the Netflix release. It

is not too bleak. It has heart,

tenderness, a poetic quality which

is key to the film.

Make sure you

see it on the big screen?

If you

can.

Have you seen this? The Florida

Project. A family living on the

poverty line, motels beyond the

walls of Disney World. Naturalistic

performances, the world is seen

through the view of a six-year-old.

It manages to capture that child's

eye perspective. Yes, poverty, they

live in a theme hotel, now a motel

for people on minimum wage,

struggling to make the rent. Yet, it

is summer break and these young kids

are running around, it is a

wonderland to them. The film reality

of the economics but they are

looking at it with children's eyes.

Some people have not got it and I am

surprised. It is one of the best I

have seen this year and many people

feel the same way.

Staying at home,

one of the big hits of the summer?

A

lovely film. The

Sick a mystery illness lands the

girlfriend in a medically induced

coma. It does not sound like subject

matter for comedy, but it manages to

do with racial prejudice, arranged

marriage and so on. You get to love

the characters. It is laugh out loud

funny. The comedy is born from the

fact that you recognise the

characters, they are not living in

the sun completely unbelievable

environment, you believe in the

situation they are in. It is well

played. I laughed all the way

through but I was moved by it, it

has a melancholic edge to it. Just

another layer with the fact that,

with a certain amount of poetic

license, it is based on a true

story, and he is doing that really

well.

I am going home with your

review of Justice League.

A quick reminder before we go that

you'll find more film news

and reviews from across the BBC

online at bbc.co.uk/mark kermode.

And you can find all our previous

programmes on the bbc iPlayer.

That's it for this week though.

Thanks for watching.

Goodbye.