:00:00. > :00:00.Kick-off is just before eight o'clock and we will be live on BBC
:00:00. > :00:17.News, but first, time for The Film Review.
:00:18. > :00:20.Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.
:00:21. > :00:27.To take us through this week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode.
:00:28. > :00:40.And we have? Phil, the new film by Quentin Tarantino, and you have seen
:00:41. > :00:47.that as well. We have Partisan, an extremely strange and rather
:00:48. > :00:54.disturbing thriller. And then what's entry for best foreign film, Oscar.
:00:55. > :01:01.I am a huge Tarantino fan, warts and all! Phil, the eighth film by
:01:02. > :01:07.Tarantino, I may get the ninth. Set in post-Civil War Wyoming and set in
:01:08. > :01:15.super, ultra-white screen, opens with the last stage to red rock
:01:16. > :01:19.carrying Kurt Russell's bounty. A storm is coming and they picked up
:01:20. > :01:28.en route Samuel L. Jackson and they are heading towards red rock but
:01:29. > :01:30.they will have to stop at Minnie's haberdashery where the other
:01:31. > :01:36.characters are waiting. Here is a clue.
:01:37. > :01:46.This here is Daisy Domergue, she's wanted dead or alive for murder.
:01:47. > :01:49.When the sun comes out, I'm taking this woman to hang.
:01:50. > :01:55.Is there anybody here committed to stopping me from doing that?
:01:56. > :01:59.Looks like Minnie's Haberdashery's about to get cosy.
:02:00. > :02:06.One of them fellas is not what he says he is.
:02:07. > :02:13.Not a warning, not a question, a bullet.
:02:14. > :02:29.It is kind of an Agatha Christie set up, all these disparate characters,
:02:30. > :02:36.they come together and one of them may not be who he says he is. Let's
:02:37. > :02:41.start with a good points. The photography is extraordinary. That
:02:42. > :02:44.ultra-white panoramic vision is really extraordinary, not just for
:02:45. > :02:48.the landscapes but also for the interiors. A lot of the movie takes
:02:49. > :02:56.place in doors. Surprisingly. It was surprisingly quite claustrophobic. I
:02:57. > :02:59.think it works really well. Tarantino himself said just because
:03:00. > :03:08.you have a wide screen doesn't mean has to be landscaped. He absolutely
:03:09. > :03:14.proves that point. The original score is very good. Great
:03:15. > :03:18.performances. I thought Samuel L. Jackson was terrific in the lead and
:03:19. > :03:21.Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kurt Russell and Tim Roth, doing this
:03:22. > :03:26.extraordinary British accent, more than holding their own. The problem
:03:27. > :03:28.is, Tarantino is not the person you would go to for brevity or
:03:29. > :03:33.understatement and he has not changed that here. I think there is
:03:34. > :03:38.no way round this. It is baggy and too long. A lot of the movie is
:03:39. > :03:42.essentially a riff on that set of Reservoir dogs. A group of people in
:03:43. > :03:47.a closed space double-crossing each other. It takes 40 minutes to get to
:03:48. > :03:56.Minnie's Haberdashery. Almost half of the running time of Reservoir
:03:57. > :04:04.dogs before we kick off. Like Django there are hints towards a political
:04:05. > :04:11.subtext. But, the political staff all takes second seat to the
:04:12. > :04:16.sensation. And when violence comes, it is shocking. Django you could say
:04:17. > :04:21.was a bit too long at the end, this is very long at the beginning. After
:04:22. > :04:26.two and a half hours I confess, I wanted to go home at. At a key point
:04:27. > :04:31.in his career Harvey Weinstein described his house as the house
:04:32. > :04:37.that Tarantino built. Nobody will rein him in. There are great things
:04:38. > :04:41.in it, I think it is too long. I sent the violence is not very
:04:42. > :04:45.effective. The thing is, I twice had in my head, he made Jackie Brown, a
:04:46. > :04:49.film with real people and real characters you really care about.
:04:50. > :04:54.There is much here to enjoy on a cinematic level, on a post modern
:04:55. > :04:58.referential level. What I didn't do with care about the characters
:04:59. > :05:03.themselves. That's why I think... It still suffers from all the problems
:05:04. > :05:09.that beset Tarantino. Just as well some of them reach an unhappy end. I
:05:10. > :05:14.will not give anything away! Partisan. A very strange
:05:15. > :05:16.psychological thriller about stolen innocence and manipulation of
:05:17. > :05:21.children. A cult leader gathers around him this man's like family of
:05:22. > :05:25.women and children, in which the children are raised to do his
:05:26. > :05:29.bidding, which includes a horrible act of violence, which they are
:05:30. > :05:36.brought up to think of as a game. The director described the film as
:05:37. > :05:41.being inspired by news stories of children in Colombia. It has a
:05:42. > :05:45.creepy fairy tale feel. It is set in no man's land, in fact it is in
:05:46. > :05:51.Georgia. In Asia rather than the United States. Exactly. The dialogue
:05:52. > :05:57.is largely second language English and is an Australian production.
:05:58. > :06:03.There is a film called doctors, that is a good reference to. It is a
:06:04. > :06:08.dark, strange, fairy tale fable, which has alarming moments in it but
:06:09. > :06:12.all the time has that strange otherworldly feel. I rather liked
:06:13. > :06:18.it. I've seen some critics took against it but I like it. Mahmood is
:06:19. > :06:23.one I want to see quite soon. Denmark's entry for foreign film. We
:06:24. > :06:28.divide our time between Denmark and Afghanistan. In Afghanistan there is
:06:29. > :06:35.a danger patrol dealing with the mundane nature of war. In Denmark
:06:36. > :06:39.the wife is awaiting his return and she is dealing with life and death
:06:40. > :06:42.situations in terms of raising her own children. They both make
:06:43. > :06:46.decisions which are harassed and made in haste. His decisions wind
:06:47. > :07:47.him up in a court room. Here is a clip.
:07:48. > :07:59.Some people will recognise two of the three of those as the cast of
:08:00. > :08:02.Borgen. And Hijacking, and he co-wrote the Hunt. It is a film
:08:03. > :08:09.about responsible at it and guilt and grief, in which there are
:08:10. > :08:13.battlefields from home and abroad juxtaposed and asks questions about
:08:14. > :08:17.how responsible we are for our decisions. You saw even for that
:08:18. > :08:21.clip, it is hand-held and has that realist feel to it. Sometimes you
:08:22. > :08:26.feel like you are almost watching a documentary. It is very intelligent
:08:27. > :08:30.and low key. I think it is impressively ambiguous. It does not
:08:31. > :08:34.try to pretend there is a moral certainty. That is what it is about,
:08:35. > :08:39.the fog of war. But what it does really well... We have this
:08:40. > :08:46.juxtaposition of the husband and wife, living these two separate
:08:47. > :08:49.lives, but both facing similar problems, children in danger and
:08:50. > :08:53.both facing people dealing with their own decisions. I thought it
:08:54. > :08:57.was very gripping and intelligent, rather low-key. Not every critic has
:08:58. > :09:03.loved it, but I liked the fact it was such a low and thoughtful film.
:09:04. > :09:08.You're best of the week is Joy. I haven't seen it am hoping to see it
:09:09. > :09:15.this week. The pitch for Joy doesn't lead me to the movies. Joy is out at
:09:16. > :09:19.the moment. It is the strangest mainstream movie I have seen for a
:09:20. > :09:26.long time. Stranger than fiction stories of a woman who invents the
:09:27. > :09:34.miracle mop. Exactly. Jennifer Lawrence is terrific. David O
:09:35. > :09:37.Russell she has worked with before. There is a terrific supporting
:09:38. > :09:41.performance from Robert De Niro. Like I said about Tarantino, I
:09:42. > :09:44.didn't care emotionally about the characters. Joy, for all of the
:09:45. > :09:49.things that are wrong with it, and it is all over the place, but it is
:09:50. > :09:54.a film that made me care whether the miracle mop was adequately
:09:55. > :09:58.demonstrated on television. Seriously. That I think is a strange
:09:59. > :10:03.achievement. A breakthrough for modern cinema. It will not work for
:10:04. > :10:07.everyone but it was so off the wall and unexpected and so unlike what
:10:08. > :10:12.you normally think of as a rags to riches story, this is ranks to the
:10:13. > :10:16.home shopping channel. Robert De Niro does some of his best
:10:17. > :10:22.supporting work in a long time. You are not quite sold! No, but I will
:10:23. > :10:31.go and see it. It is shorter than The Hateful Eight. Quite a few
:10:32. > :10:41.things are. Your DVD is? 45 years. I beg your pardon, Love Mercy. Love
:10:42. > :10:46.Mercy, a biopic of Brian Wilson divided into two sections. John
:10:47. > :10:52.Cusack as the older and the other with Paul Dado as the young Wilson.
:10:53. > :10:57.It takes a very inventive look at his life. On one hand there are bits
:10:58. > :11:00.of it that look like they are absolutely... When they are
:11:01. > :11:04.recording pet sounds on the early Beach boys, it was like found
:11:05. > :11:08.documentary footage we have not seen before. All day no's performance was
:11:09. > :11:12.brilliant. There were moments when I was watching it when I thought it
:11:13. > :11:16.must be archived footage of Brian Wilson. John Cusack slightly less
:11:17. > :11:20.so, but he has a slightly more difficult role. In that he is
:11:21. > :11:24.playing the part of Wilson's life that is harder to represent
:11:25. > :11:29.on-screen. If you are a beach boys fan you will really enjoy it. And 45
:11:30. > :11:31.years is great as well! I am going to spend a couple of hours with the
:11:32. > :11:32.mop. A quick reminder before we go that
:11:33. > :11:35.you'll find more film news and reviews from across
:11:36. > :11:38.the BBC online, including