0:00:00 > 0:00:00massive all British world title fight to look forward to this
0:00:00 > 0:00:06weekend. That is all coming up on Sportsday at 6:30pm with me, Olly
0:00:06 > 0:00:17Foster. Now on BBC News it is time for the Film Review.
0:00:17 > 0:00:23Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.
0:00:23 > 0:00:31To take us through this week's cinema releases is Jason Solomons.
0:00:31 > 0:00:37Good to have you with us, what have you been watching?We go to set on
0:00:37 > 0:00:41to wear Saoirse Ronan stars as Lady Bird dreaming of romance and not
0:00:41 > 0:00:45serving coffee. We set sail on the oceans with Colin Firth
0:00:45 > 0:00:49single-handedly taking on the world in around the world yacht race
0:00:49 > 0:00:53starring as Donald Crow Hurst in The Mercy.
0:00:53 > 0:00:59And there is more water as Sally Hawkins stars in Guillermo del
0:00:59 > 0:01:04Toro's fishy fairy tale and an unlikely relationship with an
0:01:04 > 0:01:07aquatic alien. It is a very interesting wick. I
0:01:07 > 0:01:15loved Lady Bird, I loved it!I'm glad you did. Of all the films this
0:01:15 > 0:01:19film season Lady Bird has given me more pause than any one. I have seen
0:01:19 > 0:01:24it three times and it has taken that long for the subtleties and emotions
0:01:24 > 0:01:29to sweep over me. It is a film told from Greta Gerwig's point of view,
0:01:29 > 0:01:33the writer and director. Saoirse Ronan stars in it. It is a film told
0:01:33 > 0:01:37from a very fresh feminine perspective. It is a film we have
0:01:37 > 0:01:43seen hundreds of times before, a high school movie with cliques and
0:01:43 > 0:01:47drama and prom night. It is everything simple on the inside but
0:01:47 > 0:01:53outside it is sweet and beautiful. Really, it is about a mother and
0:01:53 > 0:01:58daughter relationship. Lady Bird is the name given to her by herself.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03Her mum wants to call her Christian. The mum is played by Laurie Metcalf
0:02:03 > 0:02:08who was in Roseanne years ago. -- her mum wants to call her Christine.
0:02:08 > 0:02:14Anyone who has been a daughter and had a mother, I think this film will
0:02:14 > 0:02:17resonate beautifully, movingly and hysterically. Here they are arguing
0:02:17 > 0:02:25as they do throughout the entire film about which college Christine,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Lady Bird should go to.I want to go where culture is. New York or
0:02:28 > 0:02:33Connecticut or New Hampshire.You will not get into those schools. You
0:02:33 > 0:02:42can't pass your driver 's test.You will not let me practice!
0:02:42 > 0:02:47Christine...My name is Lady Bird! Actually it is not. You should just
0:02:47 > 0:02:53go to city College, with your work ethic, to city College, to jail, and
0:02:53 > 0:03:00back to city College. We both laughed at that line, go to
0:03:00 > 0:03:05jail! It is for anyone. I didn't want to state is a female film in
0:03:05 > 0:03:09some stereotypical way. I think a lot of people will love it. There is
0:03:09 > 0:03:13an interesting twist on the male characters which I will not give
0:03:13 > 0:03:19away. It is so well observed.There is the charm of the writing, it is
0:03:19 > 0:03:24small-town life, Sacramento is the capital of California but for Lady
0:03:24 > 0:03:32Bird it represents a prison she wants to break out of. Here she is
0:03:32 > 0:03:38with Timothee Chalamet who plays an indie band pretentious rocker. It
0:03:38 > 0:03:42builds up all the stuff we have seen before and gives it is very fresh,
0:03:42 > 0:03:49gentle and fog will take. It breaks your heart quite often. It is about
0:03:49 > 0:03:53stuff that is often not said. All the frustration that errant her mum
0:03:53 > 0:04:01have, where her mum passively aggressively merges her and -- nags
0:04:01 > 0:04:07her and says is that dress to pink? People I know who have seen the film
0:04:07 > 0:04:11have written to their mums and said, mum, actually love you, I do not say
0:04:11 > 0:04:16it enough. In Hollywood films about fathers and sons, they always climax
0:04:16 > 0:04:22with the sun saying I love you. But this is different. It breaks your
0:04:22 > 0:04:29heart that the end. I think it is divine, absolutely gorgeous.It is a
0:04:29 > 0:04:35delight and Greta Gerwig's first. Her first on her own. She is the
0:04:35 > 0:04:47fifth to be nominated for the Oscar. I would have a flutter on Lady Bird
0:04:47 > 0:04:53taking Best picture. What did you make of The Mercy?
0:04:53 > 0:04:5610-macro stars Colin Firth. You remember in pride and prejudice when
0:04:56 > 0:05:04he emerged from the lake. In this one he gets a right old soaking. He
0:05:04 > 0:05:11plays Donald Crow Hurst, Truelove eccentric from Devon. He -- Donald
0:05:11 > 0:05:17Crow Hurst. He invented his old Delhi are about to enter around the
0:05:17 > 0:05:22world yacht race. He has a happy marriage with Rachel Weisz and kids
0:05:22 > 0:05:26and he decides to do this in an Ealing spirit of the little man
0:05:26 > 0:05:33taking on the world he is getting sponsorship from a local car dealer
0:05:33 > 0:05:40played by Ken Stott and getting sponsorship from tinned soup firms
0:05:40 > 0:05:45and ROM firms, and then he sets sail up off on his race and it becomes a
0:05:45 > 0:05:50totally different movie. It becomes profound and moving and mystical and
0:05:50 > 0:05:55perplexing. Why is this man taking on this challenge. It is a true life
0:05:55 > 0:05:58tales so I do not want to tell people what happened even though
0:05:58 > 0:06:05they can look it up and find out, but what happens is extremely
0:06:05 > 0:06:08strange. The film struggles to take that on board. Colin Firth does some
0:06:08 > 0:06:12of the best acting in years. It might be something to do with the
0:06:12 > 0:06:22water. It brings the best out of Colin.Fascinating.It is a film of
0:06:22 > 0:06:26two halves. David Thewlis is good. Rachel Weisz does not have much to
0:06:26 > 0:06:30do apart from answer the phone and look worried a lot. Colin Firth is
0:06:30 > 0:06:34good but then the film gets bogged down in its own mysteries but they
0:06:34 > 0:06:38are true mysteries. No one knows what happened in this movie. It
0:06:38 > 0:06:45drifts rather to a climax, to use a nautical phrase.We will not give
0:06:45 > 0:06:48anything away. The Shape Of Water, this is a
0:06:48 > 0:06:51curious film and I mean this in a good way. I enjoyed it but you do
0:06:51 > 0:06:57get to the end and thing, I am not sure what it is about.It is about
0:06:57 > 0:07:09Sally Hawkins who plays a mute cleaner called Elise and she has a
0:07:09 > 0:07:11job in an American underground nuclear facility which I think
0:07:11 > 0:07:14peppered the US in the Cold War in the 50s and 60s. A creature is
0:07:14 > 0:07:19brought in rather like the Roswell incident. They bring it in in a tank
0:07:19 > 0:07:23to do experiments. They suspect it can help them defeat the Russian
0:07:23 > 0:07:30somehow and win the space race.It is never clear.They mistrust this
0:07:30 > 0:07:34creature entirely about from one mute outside clean-up played by
0:07:34 > 0:07:37Sally Hawkins who strikes up a strange relationship immediately
0:07:37 > 0:07:51with this creature in the tank. How was your trip?Just one number
0:07:51 > 0:08:02please.Security, call security. Head of security.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25MOANING NOISE..
0:08:29 > 0:08:33Get them out.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44Michael Shannon's agent Strickland glowering as only Michael Shannon
0:08:44 > 0:08:50can do.That clip gives the impression it is all foreboding and
0:08:50 > 0:08:55dangerous and scary but a lot of it is not. It is an unbelievably
0:08:55 > 0:08:59beautiful film. The production design is extraordinary.That is why
0:08:59 > 0:09:04it has got so mini nominations at the Oscars and the BAFTAs, 12 and
0:09:04 > 0:09:0913. The design is good. The music is great and the cinematography. There
0:09:09 > 0:09:15is a lot of great stuff in it. I think there is too much in it.It is
0:09:15 > 0:09:22a busy film.It pastiches B-movies which the director Guillermo del
0:09:22 > 0:09:29Toro was watching and he thought wouldn't it be nice if the girl and
0:09:29 > 0:09:34the creature get together like they do in King Kong and Splash. It is
0:09:34 > 0:09:39entirely unique of the director's vision. Any hint of cynicism will
0:09:39 > 0:09:44ruin the spell of the film. You have to watch it entirely spellbound like
0:09:44 > 0:09:49Sally Hawkins does. She is terrific in it. But if you enter with an
0:09:49 > 0:09:57outside thought you will say, it is a bit silly, I think someone is
0:09:57 > 0:10:02dancing with a fish. I know it will not be for some people.Very
0:10:02 > 0:10:07interesting. I think it is worth seeing in a curious way. We have not
0:10:07 > 0:10:10managed to the Black Panther yet, much to my other half's discussed
0:10:10 > 0:10:15but we are trying to get there!It is such an important movie. I have
0:10:15 > 0:10:22to mention it as the best film out there. It is brilliant. For I marvel
0:10:22 > 0:10:27movie it packs so much thought into it. It is about Wakanda, an African
0:10:27 > 0:10:32country whose borders have to be protected by T'Challa. People have
0:10:32 > 0:10:36compared it to the Lion King. If that is cute, this is the cool
0:10:36 > 0:10:41version. Everyone in it is fantastic. Culturally, it has an
0:10:41 > 0:10:47all-black cast. That has never been the case before. But watching it you
0:10:47 > 0:10:51forget connotations of race. You are just watching a movie which
0:10:51 > 0:10:55transcends race which I think is so important about it. And everyone in
0:10:55 > 0:11:01it is amazingly hot and sexy soap Wakanda was the hottest place in the
0:11:01 > 0:11:06Marvel universe. Michael B Jordan takes his top off and everyone was
0:11:06 > 0:11:15swooning. Colin Firth has nothing on him!And a quick mention of a DVD?
0:11:15 > 0:11:21Most beautiful islands. It is about an immigrant cleaner and a pair who
0:11:21 > 0:11:28work in New York, the black economy -- Most Beautiful Island. It is
0:11:28 > 0:11:33about the nether world they can get sucked into it. It is made by Ana
0:11:33 > 0:11:39Asensio who stars in it and directs it. I thought it was fantastic. A
0:11:39 > 0:11:43fresh new indie film that I can recommend because you have never
0:11:43 > 0:11:48seen it before.Jason, thank you very much indeed. I really
0:11:48 > 0:11:53interesting week. Enjoy your cinema going whichever of those interesting
0:11:53 > 0:11:57films you decide to take on this weekend. Thanks for being with us,
0:11:57 > 0:12:02bye-bye.