0:00:00 > 0:00:00pentathlon. We will hear from Mo Farah as he prepares for a new half
0:00:00 > 0:00:05marathon run in London. That is on Sportsday at 6.30, but now it is
0:00:05 > 0:00:16time for the film review.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26To take us through this week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29So Mark, what do we have?
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Which have Red Sparrow with Jennifer Lawrence.
0:00:33 > 0:00:42With we have the fantastic woman which is up for Best Foreign Film
0:00:42 > 0:00:47language at the Oscars and game night. Red Sparrow.It is
0:00:47 > 0:00:52interesting. It is based op a book by a former CIA operative. Jennifer
0:00:52 > 0:00:57Lawrence is is a Russian ballerina who is violently recruited to become
0:00:57 > 0:01:03a sparrow, an understood cover intelligence agent. She is taught
0:01:03 > 0:01:07how to seduce her prey. She meets Joel Edgerton and we know she has to
0:01:07 > 0:01:11win her confidence. It seems they both understand what the other is.
0:01:11 > 0:01:19Here is a clip. Dominika.You know my name?You told
0:01:19 > 0:01:29me.You stole my ID from the pool. That would be illegal. Were you just
0:01:29 > 0:01:34looking for meI would know where to find you if I was.Did you wanted me
0:01:34 > 0:01:39to know you were following me or are you clumsy.Clumsy. You Americans
0:01:39 > 0:01:44think we are so interested in you. What made you want to become a
0:01:44 > 0:01:49translator.My mother is ill. My uncle helped me get the job.Your
0:01:49 > 0:01:55uncle is a very powerful man.In my country if you do not matter to the
0:01:55 > 0:01:59men in power you don't matter.I would like to see you again.Are we
0:01:59 > 0:02:06going to become friends?Is that what you want?I don't have. Any.
0:02:06 > 0:02:13There is a Russian restaurant, have dinner with me. So it is an odd
0:02:13 > 0:02:18movie. On the one hand it looks like a mainstream glossy thriller, it is
0:02:18 > 0:02:24directed by Francis Lawrence who did some of The Hunger Games movie, and
0:02:24 > 0:02:28it has English and American actors speaking Russian accents like that.
0:02:28 > 0:02:35But the other side is it is nasty. It was precut from an 18 to get a 15
0:02:35 > 0:02:39certificate, and in the very first assignment she has. There is a
0:02:39 > 0:02:44graphic sexual assault when she is sent to the training cap. It is
0:02:44 > 0:02:49really quite tough and distressing and oddly explicit and then the
0:02:49 > 0:02:53violence, the outbreaks of violence during the movie are wince inducing
0:02:53 > 0:02:59fare. I imagine that some people who are Jennifer Lawrence fans might
0:02:59 > 0:03:04find it hard to take. It is saying this is really rough, and nasty
0:03:04 > 0:03:11stuff. Then you think, well, Jennifer Lawrence's fans have come
0:03:11 > 0:03:18through Mo:She is having a run of peculiar films. And that strange
0:03:18 > 0:03:23science fiction movie.Like the fact she makes bold and strange choice, I
0:03:23 > 0:03:28like the fact she doesn't play it safe. She is the centre of movie. It
0:03:28 > 0:03:32is very changeable tonely so some times it is high camp, sometimes it
0:03:32 > 0:03:37is people chewing the scenery and sometimes it is really, you know,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41nasty and I mean properly nasty gritty and I know some people have
0:03:41 > 0:03:44found that intolerable. I think it is interesting, I think it is
0:03:44 > 0:03:47nothing like as mainstream as I expected it to be and that is for
0:03:47 > 0:03:51the better, but it is not for everyone.I cannot handle violence
0:03:51 > 0:03:55at all as you know.You are not going to embrace it. So.It is not
0:03:55 > 0:04:04going to happen. However.A Fantastic Woman. Daniela Vega who is
0:04:04 > 0:04:08brilliant as Marina. She finds herself shut out of her own life,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12when he older partner dies and her family, the family of her partner
0:04:12 > 0:04:15suddenly descend and said you can't come to the funeral, the wake, you
0:04:15 > 0:04:19cannot stay in the apartment you have been living with Orlando in,
0:04:19 > 0:04:23you need to give back the car. The reason they find her threatening,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26not just because he is the other woman but she is a transgender
0:04:26 > 0:04:30woman. They quest consequently think she is a threat to their what they
0:04:30 > 0:04:34call their normal lives. Throughout the film she says my name is Marina
0:04:34 > 0:04:41but they refuse to call her that. One of the sons calls her Maurice.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46At one point the wife calls her Daniel. It is about finding her own
0:04:46 > 0:04:51space, what is interesting is that her name is echoed in the visual mow
0:04:51 > 0:04:58teaches. It opens with water fall, a sea scape, the film itself goes from
0:04:58 > 0:05:04being classical romance, to social realist drama, to a thriller, at one
0:05:04 > 0:05:09point it turns into a musical with levitation sequence, I thought it
0:05:09 > 0:05:14was wonderful. I thought Daniela Vega was wonderful. Mesmerising in
0:05:14 > 0:05:17the role. You understand and care about her character and the
0:05:17 > 0:05:21situation she is in and I thought it was a really good piece of work. I
0:05:21 > 0:05:25loved it so much I went straight back and watched again a second time
0:05:25 > 0:05:28because I throughout there was so much in it.There is a
0:05:28 > 0:05:32recommendation. Fantastic. I look forward to that. Game night. I have
0:05:32 > 0:05:35read quite a lot about this film and I still don't understand what it is
0:05:35 > 0:05:39about.OK so it is, basically here is the best way of describing it.
0:05:39 > 0:05:45Game night. It lifts its rifts from the game, the movie and date night.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49Hence game night. There are two characters who are obsessed with
0:05:49 > 0:05:53games, they agree to take part in a murder mystery but when it starts
0:05:53 > 0:05:57off maybe it is not a game. Maybe it is real. Maybe this loaded gun is
0:05:57 > 0:06:02not a prop. That is the thrill. It is a kind of, an idea we have seen
0:06:02 > 0:06:08done before, if you think about films Like Afterhours or Into the
0:06:08 > 0:06:10Night, however it begins with them having game night with their
0:06:10 > 0:06:21friends. Here is a clip. Come on. And go, go, go.
0:06:21 > 0:06:31Ey, famous actor we meed about eight years ago.Who?The only actor we
0:06:31 > 0:06:35have met at an airport? He was in front of us. We wondered why he
0:06:35 > 0:06:40wasn't in the first class lounge? Yes, yes... Who that was?God dam
0:06:40 > 0:06:54it.There is a room of people to helps you out.He was Incredible
0:06:54 > 0:07:00HulkRichard Gere never played the Incredible Hulk.Ed Norton. That is
0:07:00 > 0:07:05why the games are so annoying.You laughed all the way through that. A
0:07:05 > 0:07:10comedy can only count if it makes you laugh more than six times. You
0:07:10 > 0:07:14laughed more than six times. I looked at the trailer and thought it
0:07:14 > 0:07:20is going to be that movie we have seen umpteen versions of but I got
0:07:20 > 0:07:25away with it because the cast gave it their best, the gags are funny, I
0:07:25 > 0:07:30think that gag about Richard Gere, that is a good, and that standard of
0:07:30 > 0:07:37gag is kept up all the way through. These very sort of conFried set ups,
0:07:37 > 0:07:41they bump into people they think are being criminals, but they are real
0:07:41 > 0:07:46criminals, or are they? I kept laughing. It kept me laughing and
0:07:46 > 0:07:51nobody was more surprised than I was that that was the case.OK. I am
0:07:51 > 0:07:58still 100% sure. OK.Fantastic Woman is one you will love.I am sure
0:07:58 > 0:08:02about the Shape of Water.I love it. It is wonderful. Do you feel as
0:08:02 > 0:08:07strongly as I do?I loved it in a curious way but I enjoyed every
0:08:07 > 0:08:14moment.It is great it has been nominated. If it looks wonderful,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16brilliant score, fantastic performances and I have seen it
0:08:16 > 0:08:21three times and I will watch it again, it is a lovely fairy tale. It
0:08:21 > 0:08:27is Splash meets the creature from the black lagoon.Should I say see
0:08:27 > 0:08:32it on a big screen, visually it is so impressive. When it comes out on
0:08:32 > 0:08:37DVD I will tell you, I will lie. You will have it in the best DVD
0:08:37 > 0:08:41category.That for this week is Florida project. It is a shame it
0:08:41 > 0:08:45wasn't more represented at the awards. Willem Dafoe is the only one
0:08:45 > 0:08:51who has been represented. I think it is great. It is a humanist,
0:08:51 > 0:08:57wonderful modern version of Our Gang from the director of Tangerine. A
0:08:57 > 0:09:03shame it has falling into one nod. That tells you what you need to know
0:09:03 > 0:09:07about awards, they are nonsense.It is beautifully made and it is
0:09:07 > 0:09:12starring some people, some of the people in it have not had formal
0:09:12 > 0:09:17acting training alongside like people like realm Defoe.You get
0:09:17 > 0:09:21someone who is a seasoned professional against a first timer
0:09:21 > 0:09:26and it work, there is no sense of having an imbalance between the
0:09:26 > 0:09:30performances because actually it is because the director does a
0:09:30 > 0:09:33brilliant job of putting everyone right in the space and you know, the
0:09:33 > 0:09:37whole film takes place just beyond the boundaries of Disney World so it
0:09:37 > 0:09:41is like you have been cast out of the magic kingdom into a nether
0:09:41 > 0:09:46world.Into people in real American poverty. Alongside Disney World.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51Living in a hotel designed as a resort hotel but has become a hotel
0:09:51 > 0:09:56for people who are in poverty, who are homeless, yet there is vibe sip,
0:09:56 > 0:10:00life, the characters are wonderful. I thought it was terrific. I thought
0:10:00 > 0:10:04it was going to be an awards contender, get everything and that
0:10:04 > 0:10:10shows...To be fair you did say that I wasn't going to remind you.Am the
0:10:10 > 0:10:13first to admit I can't predict awards. It should have been
0:10:13 > 0:10:19nominated for more.Should have been a contender. More next week. Before
0:10:19 > 0:10:23we go, there are all the film news and reviews from across the BBC
0:10:23 > 0:10:27online, you know the address I am sure.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31All our previous programmes are on the iPlayer as well.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36That is it for this week, enjoy your cinema going. See you next time.
0:10:36 > 0:10:43Goodbye.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46cinema going. See you next time. Goodbye.