Stronger, Human Flow, The Dinner The Film Review

will be talking to Ryan Sidebottom

about what he thinks rugby union

need to do. Now though, it's 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 this week?

We have Bill, which is a film about

the Boston bombing survivor Jeff

Bowman -- Stronger. Human Flow, and

effective documentary by Ai Weiwei.

And the Dinner.

We can discuss that.

Stronger, this is about the

aftermath of the Boston bombing.

Jake Gyllenhaal as Jeff Bowman, a

young Bostonian who was at the

finishing line and was involved in

the blast and lost both his legs.

And then having survived the bombing

then had to rebuild his life both

physically and indeed mentally, and

deal with the fact that he had

suddenly become right at the centre

of the spotlight which saw him in

many ways as the body meant of the

Boston strong mantra. Here is a

clip.

All right, when you're ready,

scooch ahead before you stand up.

OK, I'm going to

straighten out like that.

OK.

Yeah.

OK, scooch ahead.

Up, hips back, hips back, chest out.

Chest up.

OK, chest up, chest up.

Good, good, OK.

You OK?

You are so tall!

Oh, my God.

I've got pins and

needles in my legs.

Good job, Jeff.

You're doing amazing, Jeff. You look

amazing.

Keep going.

Keep going.

I can't.

I've got to sit down.

Good job.

Good job.

The story is extraordinary not least

because the first thing he does when

he wakes up in hospital is say, I

saw the bombs, he wanted to pass on

that information. What the film is

really, really interested in is the

way in which he struggled to recover

and also his relationships with his

own- of girlfriend and his mother

and his family. You saw Amanda

Richardson as his mother, who is

terrific. What is central to it is

the film doesn't play him as a hero,

it plays him as somebody who is in a

position which they had nothing to

do with and suddenly finds himself

in the centre of this great personal

struggle and suddenly finds himself

the centre of all of this media

attention and is, you know, on the

one hand doing this very, very

heroic thing, but on the other hand

finding it very hard to cope with

that attention. What I like about

the film is that it doesn't try and

pink two-dimensional pictures. He

has fractures relationships with his

family and girlfriend, he goes

through different phases. What

happens with the movie is that it

involves you in the story in a way

that you genuinely believe that what

you're seeing is a realistic

portrait. It's not exploitative,

it's not melodramatic.

I think it's

based on a book that he wrote, isn't

it?

Details of it are true, you've

seen enough Hollywood movies which

are doing fired over adversity but

do so in a way which is kind of

saccharine and very sentimental and

the lies very heavily on

sentimentality and melodrama. I

found this very moving. There are

moments when it will make you cry

and moments when it'll make you

laugh, but the most important thing

was that it seemed honest and

truthful and was done in a way in

which it was low-key enough in which

it felt like it didn't exploit the

situation. I was surprisingly moved

by it. It doesn't change the form at

or do anything major to the

structure of the kind of story that

we've seen before. But it plays it

well and it plays it in a heartfelt

weight and it feels like an honest

endeavour that was moving and

affecting. -- in a heartfelt way.

By

Ai Weiwei form. Sadly I haven't seen

it yet. I can only assume that it is

unbearably moving.

It is very

moving. Ai Weiwei is an exceptional

artist. This is about the current

refugee crisis, the humanitarian

disaster on folding and the world.

It is a portrait of global

displacement, shot in 25 countries,

25 film crews, some of the food did

is hand-held, some of these

extraordinary aerial shots, drone

shot of huge numbers of people

moving through incredibly hostile

terrain of refugee camps. We do get

interviews, we do get discussions,

but the most affecting staff is this

of humanity on the move, and the

persistence of barriers and Borders

and boundaries and people rather

than receiving a welcome facing a

wall. It is a film which has a

cumulative impact. Over the course

of the movie, you do become

overwhelmed by the scope of this. I

think again, it's a very interesting

piece of film-making because it's

using film to tell this story in a

way which is specifically gradual.

Obviously we do get discussions of

these terrifying subject --

specifically visual. The stuff that

works less well is when Ai Weiwei is

talking to some of the refugees, we

believe that has less impact than

when you see the scope of the what

the film is the big thing. It's

called Human Flow.

OK, the Dinner.

What did you think?

Is adapted from

a novel, it is a story of the hidden

violence of the bourgeoisie, and it

asked the question, what would you

do to protect a loved one? In

upstate New York, two talking cheese

brothers and their respective

partners meet in an upmarket

restaurant, one is tetchy and

awkward and difficult, Richard Gere

is a smooth politician, but there is

a terrible family secret that they

have to discuss. Here is a clip.

This is long overdue.

What were you talking about?

We were just...

We were just enjoying one of those

awkward pauses, as they say,

not talking about anything.

Not talking about anything?

Well, we're going to talk tonight.

We're going to put

it all on the table.

Is something wrong?

Are you OK?

There's a lot...

No, no, don't.

He doesn't like the big table.

No, really, it's all right.

We're fine here.

You know, actually, the other

room could be better.

This one is private enough.

Just a second, I'm going

to go and check it out.

I'm not moving.

What's interesting about this is,

this discussion that they are not

having, that they move towards

having, played out over the course

of this ridiculously elaborate

dinner. Each course is described by

the maitre d' in incredible terms.

At the centre of the discussion is

this hidden secret about something

which has happened with the

children. And I think the film has

got really good performances in it.

A great cast, a good ensemble cast.

A really good performance out of

Richard Gere, this director got

previously in which he was playing a

homeless man. The problem with the

film to some extent is it is

probably two courses too long. It is

two hours and it should be 89

minutes. When we are at the table,

when the kind of unspoken arguments

are sort of boiling and seething

away, I actually think it works,

well. It then has this kind of

flashback structure in which it

moves back to events in the past and

we see things unfolding from lots of

perspectives. For me that works

slightly less well. I know some

people have really taken against the

movie, and one of the reason is they

are pretty claustrophobic company.

They are not people you actually

want is bent that much time in the

company at all. Steve Coogan's

character is so difficult and

awkward, and Richard Gere's

character is so smooth and smarmy.

But during the course of the drama

it plays with our expectations of

how each character's motivations

will fall. It is flawed, no

questions about it, and it is two

courses too long. But in the middle

of it there is a main course which

is well worth trying. I think I've

actually kill the metaphor stone

dead now!

Thank you very much. Best

out, I'm so delighted that you have

chosen this, because it will

encourage me to see it again, a film

I haven't seen probably since I was

at university.

One of the greatest

movies ever made, made immediately

in the oft of the war. The Ministry

of Defence said, can you make a

movie which encourage the Brits and

Americans to like each other more.

It has just been released, it is so

moving, it starts with a doomed M

and falling in love with somebody on

a radio -- a doomed M on. The

emissary coming to get him gets lost

in the fog of the channel. The film

plays out, you can read it as a

psychological drama or an

otherworldly drama or you can read

it as some slightly metaphysical

romance. It's funny and smart and

looks brilliant, extraordinary

cinematography. How many times have

you seen it?

I think this was only

my second. But you effectively

forced me to watch it again, I

thought some of the script was

wonderful.

I hate to say this, it is

the kind of film they just don't

make any more! And yet, it's

incredibly future looking. It

reminds you of the Wizard of Oz,

everything down on Earth is

technicolour and everything else is

black and white. It is one of the

greatest movies ever made is not the

greatest movie ever made, and it's

out against quite very quick thought

about DVD. Atomic blonde, this is

our version of the graphic novel, it

is a tale of spies and neon. Shell

is the run is having a ball in it.

It doesn't make a lot of sense but

it's very stylish and entertaining.

I think there is a place, you know,

for the stylish, empty film, and I

enjoyed it very much, although it's

probably a guilty pleasure.

I loved

that, stylishly empty! Thank you,

Mark, see you next week. Plenty to

discuss this week, as we have just

proved. Enjoy your cinema viewing

this week. Bye-bye.