Lady Bird, The Mercy, The Shape of Water The Film Review

massive all British world title

fight to look forward to this

weekend. That is all coming up on

Sportsday at 6:30pm with me, Olly

Foster. Now on BBC News it is time

for the Film Review.

Hello and welcome to The Film

Review on BBC News.

To take us through this week's

cinema releases is Jason Solomons.

Good to have you with us, what have

you been watching?

We go to set on

to wear Saoirse Ronan stars as Lady

Bird dreaming of romance and not

serving coffee. We set sail on the

oceans with Colin Firth

single-handedly taking on the world

in around the world yacht race

starring as Donald Crow Hurst in The

Mercy.

And there is more water as Sally

Hawkins stars in Guillermo del

Toro's fishy fairy tale and an

unlikely relationship with an

aquatic alien.

It is a very interesting wick. I

loved Lady Bird, I loved it!

I'm

glad you did. Of all the films this

film season Lady Bird has given me

more pause than any one. I have seen

it three times and it has taken that

long for the subtleties and emotions

to sweep over me. It is a film told

from Greta Gerwig's point of view,

the writer and director. Saoirse

Ronan stars in it. It is a film told

from a very fresh feminine

perspective. It is a film we have

seen hundreds of times before, a

high school movie with cliques and

drama and prom night. It is

everything simple on the inside but

outside it is sweet and beautiful.

Really, it is about a mother and

daughter relationship. Lady Bird is

the name given to her by herself.

Her mum wants to call her Christian.

The mum is played by Laurie Metcalf

who was in Roseanne years ago. --

her mum wants to call her Christine.

Anyone who has been a daughter and

had a mother, I think this film will

resonate beautifully, movingly and

hysterically. Here they are arguing

as they do throughout the entire

film about which college Christine,

Lady Bird should go to.

I want to go

where culture is. New York or

Connecticut or New Hampshire.

You

will not get into those schools. You

can't pass your driver 's test.

You

will not let me practice!

Christine...

My name is Lady Bird!

Actually it is not. You should just

go to city College, with your work

ethic, to city College, to jail, and

back to city College.

We both laughed at that line, go to

jail! It is for anyone. I didn't

want to state is a female film in

some stereotypical way. I think a

lot of people will love it. There is

an interesting twist on the male

characters which I will not give

away. It is so well observed.

There

is the charm of the writing, it is

small-town life, Sacramento is the

capital of California but for Lady

Bird it represents a prison she

wants to break out of. Here she is

with Timothee Chalamet who plays an

indie band pretentious rocker. It

builds up all the stuff we have seen

before and gives it is very fresh,

gentle and fog will take. It breaks

your heart quite often. It is about

stuff that is often not said. All

the frustration that errant her mum

have, where her mum passively

aggressively merges her and -- nags

her and says is that dress to pink?

People I know who have seen the film

have written to their mums and said,

mum, actually love you, I do not say

it enough. In Hollywood films about

fathers and sons, they always climax

with the sun saying I love you. But

this is different. It breaks your

heart that the end. I think it is

divine, absolutely gorgeous.

It is a

delight and Greta Gerwig's first.

Her first on her own. She is the

fifth to be nominated for the Oscar.

I would have a flutter on Lady Bird

taking Best picture.

What did you make of The Mercy?

10-macro stars Colin Firth. You

remember in pride and prejudice when

he emerged from the lake. In this

one he gets a right old soaking. He

plays Donald Crow Hurst, Truelove

eccentric from Devon. He -- Donald

Crow Hurst. He invented his old

Delhi are about to enter around the

world yacht race. He has a happy

marriage with Rachel Weisz and kids

and he decides to do this in an

Ealing spirit of the little man

taking on the world he is getting

sponsorship from a local car dealer

played by Ken Stott and getting

sponsorship from tinned soup firms

and ROM firms, and then he sets sail

up off on his race and it becomes a

totally different movie. It becomes

profound and moving and mystical and

perplexing. Why is this man taking

on this challenge. It is a true life

tales so I do not want to tell

people what happened even though

they can look it up and find out,

but what happens is extremely

strange. The film struggles to take

that on board. Colin Firth does some

of the best acting in years. It

might be something to do with the

water. It brings the best out of

Colin.

Fascinating.

It is a film of

two halves. David Thewlis is good.

Rachel Weisz does not have much to

do apart from answer the phone and

look worried a lot. Colin Firth is

good but then the film gets bogged

down in its own mysteries but they

are true mysteries. No one knows

what happened in this movie. It

drifts rather to a climax, to use a

nautical phrase.

We will not give

anything away.

The Shape Of Water, this is a

curious film and I mean this in a

good way. I enjoyed it but you do

get to the end and thing, I am not

sure what it is about.

It is about

Sally Hawkins who plays a mute

cleaner called Elise and she has a

job in an American underground

nuclear facility which I think

peppered the US in the Cold War in

the 50s and 60s. A creature is

brought in rather like the Roswell

incident. They bring it in in a tank

to do experiments. They suspect it

can help them defeat the Russian

somehow and win the space race.

It

is never clear.

They mistrust this

creature entirely about from one

mute outside clean-up played by

Sally Hawkins who strikes up a

strange relationship immediately

with this creature in the tank.

How was your trip?

Just one number

please.

Security, call security.

Head of security.

MOANING NOISE..

Get them out.

Michael Shannon's agent Strickland

glowering as only Michael Shannon

can do.

That clip gives the

impression it is all foreboding and

dangerous and scary but a lot of it

is not. It is an unbelievably

beautiful film. The production

design is extraordinary.

That is why

it has got so mini nominations at

the Oscars and the BAFTAs, 12 and

13. The design is good. The music is

great and the cinematography. There

is a lot of great stuff in it. I

think there is too much in it.

It is

a busy film.

It pastiches B-movies

which the director Guillermo del

Toro was watching and he thought

wouldn't it be nice if the girl and

the creature get together like they

do in King Kong and Splash. It is

entirely unique of the director's

vision. Any hint of cynicism will

ruin the spell of the film. You have

to watch it entirely spellbound like

Sally Hawkins does. She is terrific

in it. But if you enter with an

outside thought you will say, it is

a bit silly, I think someone is

dancing with a fish. I know it will

not be for some people.

Very

interesting. I think it is worth

seeing in a curious way. We have not

managed to the Black Panther yet,

much to my other half's discussed

but we are trying to get there!

It

is such an important movie. I have

to mention it as the best film out

there. It is brilliant. For I marvel

movie it packs so much thought into

it. It is about Wakanda, an African

country whose borders have to be

protected by T'Challa. People have

compared it to the Lion King. If

that is cute, this is the cool

version. Everyone in it is

fantastic. Culturally, it has an

all-black cast. That has never been

the case before. But watching it you

forget connotations of race. You are

just watching a movie which

transcends race which I think is so

important about it. And everyone in

it is amazingly hot and sexy soap

Wakanda was the hottest place in the

Marvel universe. Michael B Jordan

takes his top off and everyone was

swooning. Colin Firth has nothing on

him!

And a quick mention of a DVD?

Most beautiful islands. It is about

an immigrant cleaner and a pair who

work in New York, the black economy

-- Most Beautiful Island. It is

about the nether world they can get

sucked into it. It is made by Ana

Asensio who stars in it and directs

it. I thought it was fantastic. A

fresh new indie film that I can

recommend because you have never

seen it before.

Jason, thank you

very much indeed. I really

interesting week. Enjoy your cinema

going whichever of those interesting

films you decide to take on this

weekend. Thanks for being with us,

bye-bye.