Red Sparrow, A Fantastic Woman, Game Night The Film Review

pentathlon. We will hear from Mo

Farah as he prepares for a new half

marathon run in London. That is on

Sportsday at 6.30, but now 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 Mark Kermode.

So Mark, what do we have?

Which have Red Sparrow with Jennifer

Lawrence.

With we have the fantastic woman

which is up for Best Foreign Film

language at the Oscars and game

night. Red Sparrow.

It is

interesting. It is based op a book

by a former CIA operative. Jennifer

Lawrence is is a Russian ballerina

who is violently recruited to become

a sparrow, an understood cover

intelligence agent. She is taught

how to seduce her prey. She meets

Joel Edgerton and we know she has to

win her confidence. It seems they

both understand what the other is.

Here is a clip.

Dominika.

You know my name?

You told

me.

You stole my ID from the pool.

That would be illegal. Were you just

looking for me

I would know where to

find you if I was.

Did you wanted me

to know you were following me or are

you clumsy.

Clumsy. You Americans

think we are so interested in you.

What made you want to become a

translator.

My mother is ill. My

uncle helped me get the job.

Your

uncle is a very powerful man.

In my

country if you do not matter to the

men in power you don't matter.

I

would like to see you again.

Are we

going to become friends?

Is that

what you want?

I don't have. Any.

There is a Russian restaurant, have

dinner with me. So it is an odd

movie. On the one hand it looks like

a mainstream glossy thriller, it is

directed by Francis Lawrence who did

some of The Hunger Games movie, and

it has English and American actors

speaking Russian accents like that.

But the other side is it is nasty.

It was precut from an 18 to get a 15

certificate, and in the very first

assignment she has. There is a

graphic sexual assault when she is

sent to the training cap. It is

really quite tough and distressing

and oddly explicit and then the

violence, the outbreaks of violence

during the movie are wince inducing

fare. I imagine that some people who

are Jennifer Lawrence fans might

find it hard to take. It is saying

this is really rough, and nasty

stuff. Then you think, well,

Jennifer Lawrence's fans have come

through Mo:

She is having a run of

peculiar films. And that strange

science fiction movie.

Like the fact

she makes bold and strange choice, I

like the fact she doesn't play it

safe. She is the centre of movie. It

is very changeable tonely so some

times it is high camp, sometimes it

is people chewing the scenery and

sometimes it is really, you know,

nasty and I mean properly nasty

gritty and I know some people have

found that intolerable. I think it

is interesting, I think it is

nothing like as mainstream as I

expected it to be and that is for

the better, but it is not for

everyone.

I cannot handle violence

at all as you know.

You are not

going to embrace it. So.

It is not

going to happen. However.

A

Fantastic Woman. Daniela Vega who is

brilliant as Marina. She finds

herself shut out of her own life,

when he older partner dies and her

family, the family of her partner

suddenly descend and said you can't

come to the funeral, the wake, you

cannot stay in the apartment you

have been living with Orlando in,

you need to give back the car. The

reason they find her threatening,

not just because he is the other

woman but she is a transgender

woman. They quest consequently think

she is a threat to their what they

call their normal lives. Throughout

the film she says my name is Marina

but they refuse to call her that.

One of the sons calls her Maurice.

At one point the wife calls her

Daniel. It is about finding her own

space, what is interesting is that

her name is echoed in the visual mow

teaches. It opens with water fall, a

sea scape, the film itself goes from

being classical romance, to social

realist drama, to a thriller, at one

point it turns into a musical with

levitation sequence, I thought it

was wonderful. I thought Daniela

Vega was wonderful. Mesmerising in

the role. You understand and care

about her character and the

situation she is in and I thought it

was a really good piece of work. I

loved it so much I went straight

back and watched again a second time

because I throughout there was so

much in it.

There is a

recommendation. Fantastic. I look

forward to that. Game night. I have

read quite a lot about this film and

I still don't understand what it is

about.

OK so it is, basically here

is the best way of describing it.

Game night. It lifts its rifts from

the game, the movie and date night.

Hence game night. There are two

characters who are obsessed with

games, they agree to take part in a

murder mystery but when it starts

off maybe it is not a game. Maybe it

is real. Maybe this loaded gun is

not a prop. That is the thrill. It

is a kind of, an idea we have seen

done before, if you think about

films Like Afterhours or Into the

Night, however it begins with them

having game night with their

friends. Here is a clip.

Come on. And go, go, go.

Ey, famous actor we meed about eight

years ago.

Who?

The only actor we

have met at an airport? He was in

front of us. We wondered why he

wasn't in the first class lounge?

Yes, yes... Who that was?

God dam

it.

There is a room of people to

helps you out.

He was Incredible

Hulk

Richard Gere never played the

Incredible Hulk.

Ed Norton. That is

why the games are so annoying.

You

laughed all the way through that. A

comedy can only count if it makes

you laugh more than six times. You

laughed more than six times. I

looked at the trailer and thought it

is going to be that movie we have

seen umpteen versions of but I got

away with it because the cast gave

it their best, the gags are funny, I

think that gag about Richard Gere,

that is a good, and that standard of

gag is kept up all the way through.

These very sort of conFried set ups,

they bump into people they think are

being criminals, but they are real

criminals, or are they? I kept

laughing. It kept me laughing and

nobody was more surprised than I was

that that was the case.

OK. I am

still 100% sure. OK.

Fantastic Woman

is one you will love.

I am sure

about the Shape of Water.

I love it.

It is wonderful. Do you feel as

strongly as I do?

I loved it in a

curious way but I enjoyed every

moment.

It is great it has been

nominated. If it looks wonderful,

brilliant score, fantastic

performances and I have seen it

three times and I will watch it

again, it is a lovely fairy tale. It

is Splash meets the creature from

the black lagoon.

Should I say see

it on a big screen, visually it is

so impressive. When it comes out on

DVD I will tell you, I will lie. You

will have it in the best DVD

category.

That for this week is

Florida project. It is a shame it

wasn't more represented at the

awards. Willem Dafoe is the only one

who has been represented. I think it

is great. It is a humanist,

wonderful modern version of Our Gang

from the director of Tangerine. A

shame it has falling into one nod.

That tells you what you need to know

about awards, they are nonsense.

It

is beautifully made and it is

starring some people, some of the

people in it have not had formal

acting training alongside like

people like realm Defoe.

You get

someone who is a seasoned

professional against a first timer

and it work, there is no sense of

having an imbalance between the

performances because actually it is

because the director does a

brilliant job of putting everyone

right in the space and you know, the

whole film takes place just beyond

the boundaries of Disney World so it

is like you have been cast out of

the magic kingdom into a nether

world.

Into people in real American

poverty. Alongside Disney World.

Living in a hotel designed as a

resort hotel but has become a hotel

for people who are in poverty, who

are homeless, yet there is vibe sip,

life, the characters are wonderful.

I thought it was terrific. I thought

it was going to be an awards

contender, get everything and that

shows...

To be fair you did say that

I wasn't going to remind you.

Am the

first to admit I can't predict

awards. It should have been

nominated for more.

Should have been

a contender. More next week. Before

we go, there are all the film news

and reviews from across the BBC

online, you know the address I am

sure.

All our previous programmes are on

the iPlayer as well.

That is it for this week, enjoy your

cinema going. See you next time.

Goodbye.

cinema going. See you next time.

Goodbye.