The Witch, Allegiant, Anomalisa The Film Review


The Witch, Allegiant, Anomalisa

Similar Content

Browse content similar to The Witch, Allegiant, Anomalisa. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

Now on BBC News, it's time for The Film Review.

:00:00.:00:19.

Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.

:00:20.:00:22.

To take us through this week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode.

:00:23.:00:25.

So, Mark, what do we have this week?

:00:26.:00:30.

We have The Which, which is possibly a horror story and possibly

:00:31.:00:40.

something else. We have Allegiant, not the most

:00:41.:00:48.

recent clumsy of titles. And Anomalisa, and adult animation.

:00:49.:00:59.

Now, the Which. It is very interesting. It was set in the 17th

:01:00.:01:04.

century in New England. We meet a family at the beginning of the film

:01:05.:01:08.

who are being cast out of the New World community, they seem to have

:01:09.:01:12.

some kind of religious disagreement. They go out to live on the edges of

:01:13.:01:18.

civilisation, just in front of a huge wood. They are very

:01:19.:01:24.

God-fearing, they are convinced that evil and Satan and demons lurk

:01:25.:01:28.

everywhere, particularly in the wood. As the movie progresses, we

:01:29.:01:32.

start to wonder whether the evil is coming from without or from within.

:01:33.:01:34.

Here is a clip. That is scary. Almost nothing

:01:35.:02:27.

happening at all. What follows is like a cross between Arthur Miller's

:02:28.:02:36.

crucible and if it kills brother Graham with a bit more thrawn end.

:02:37.:02:43.

What I like about this is that the director is convinced that the devil

:02:44.:02:47.

is in the detail, getting the historical detail right, you can

:02:48.:02:51.

smell the environment that makes you believe in the kinds of things they

:02:52.:02:55.

believed in. Secondly, it is a film that does show its monsters, to some

:02:56.:03:01.

extent, it always acts you to question whether what you have seen

:03:02.:03:11.

is real or part of the general hallucination. The family starts to

:03:12.:03:17.

turn in on itself and there are accusations and counter accusations.

:03:18.:03:21.

Everyone thinks they can see them everywhere. There is an obsession

:03:22.:03:24.

with some and that brings the very thing it fears upon them. The

:03:25.:03:30.

scariest goat performance I have ever seen. A genuinely scary goat.

:03:31.:03:40.

Is it a Satanic goat or is the idea that it is Satanic within the mind

:03:41.:03:44.

of the family? That is the centre of the film and white it works well.

:03:45.:03:51.

You recommended another film, the barber took. It is very scary and

:03:52.:03:57.

this ends like the same kind of territory. Many people have compared

:03:58.:04:05.

it to that film and others, and I can see where that comparison comes

:04:06.:04:09.

from. For me this is a slightly different take. Other films are

:04:10.:04:17.

internal, but this has its feet in history. They are similar because

:04:18.:04:22.

both films asked the audience what they think is going on. If they are

:04:23.:04:30.

scary, and I thought this was scary, it is because the ideas get under

:04:31.:04:33.

your skin because there are images that stay with you at the film has

:04:34.:04:40.

finished. It is not a run of the mill scary film, it wants to give

:04:41.:04:44.

you a bone chilling feeling that all is not well with the world. The

:04:45.:04:58.

Allegiant. You will remember this is another young adult dystopian

:04:59.:05:03.

fantasy and this particular one is about Chicago being divided into

:05:04.:05:08.

factions. Society has been broken up. Now the factions are broken down

:05:09.:05:14.

and are heroin bricks out of the city and goes to Tomorrowland,

:05:15.:05:17.

project Daniels explains the plot at great length while she listens to

:05:18.:05:23.

him. It is the weakest of the series so far. It is not totally without

:05:24.:05:31.

positive points, I do think the heroine is good, but it feels like

:05:32.:05:36.

it was treading water and I never clicked with the idea that society

:05:37.:05:41.

is divided into those people who are giving, those who are fighting, it

:05:42.:05:45.

doesn't make sense. There is a lot of Jeff Daniels saying the reason

:05:46.:05:55.

why never made sense was... It took the central character and gave her a

:05:56.:05:59.

lot of time listening to her but took away the sense of agency that

:06:00.:06:03.

drove the series on. There is nothing here to challenge The Longer

:06:04.:06:13.

Games. -- hunger. They are becoming interchangeable. NEC silly something

:06:14.:06:17.

special. I have not seen Anomalisa but I am fascinated by the idea. The

:06:18.:06:28.

director is normally a writer. It started life as a sound play, which

:06:29.:06:33.

was people sitting on the stage reading the sound and they could see

:06:34.:06:41.

the sound effects being done live. It is now coming to the screen with

:06:42.:06:46.

stop motion animation. It is visually very extraordinary. There

:06:47.:06:50.

is this replacement frame by frame the facial expressions are changed.

:06:51.:06:56.

We meet are central character, Michael, who is misanthropic and

:06:57.:06:58.

miserable and having a midlife crisis. As far as he can tell in the

:06:59.:07:05.

world around him, everyone else is the same person. Here is a clip.

:07:06.:07:12.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to be the first to welcome

:07:13.:07:15.

The local time is 7:43pm and the temperature is

:07:16.:07:21.

I laughed. He then tries to seduce a woman who seems to be someone else.

:07:22.:08:12.

She is the Anomalisa of the title. I think the film is visually stunning

:08:13.:08:18.

and there is so much to enjoy as far as the way it is presented. I am

:08:19.:08:26.

less crazy about the play itself. I think he is such a difficult

:08:27.:08:32.

character to get on with. After a while your patience with Michael, at

:08:33.:08:35.

least my patients, we're somewhat thin. I don't think it is his best

:08:36.:08:42.

script, but I do think it is a really interesting animation and an

:08:43.:08:47.

interesting exercise in the disjunct, it is for adults, between

:08:48.:08:54.

the subject matter and how it is presented. It is strangely

:08:55.:08:57.

artificial but realistic. It does have a magical quality. I just wish

:08:58.:09:03.

that I liked it more. It does look like anything I have

:09:04.:09:10.

seen. I think the look is very fascinating. You can absolutely get

:09:11.:09:15.

lost individuals. I just wish that I like the story and the character

:09:16.:09:20.

slightly more. Hail Caesar, your best film of the

:09:21.:09:27.

week. It is a pleasure to have a movie that is funny. It is a homage

:09:28.:09:34.

to 50s Hollywood. The central character has to fix problems for

:09:35.:09:40.

the stars. Then he gets kidnapped. How will they finish the movie? I

:09:41.:09:44.

just laughed all the way through and it was a pleasure. Generally the

:09:45.:09:52.

director 's best work is shot in the dark, but there is almost no

:09:53.:09:57.

darkness in this film. There are no goats? No scary goats. You should

:09:58.:10:02.

see it because I think you would love it. You either love it or hate

:10:03.:10:10.

it and I think you would love it. Mississippi Grind is your DVD. This

:10:11.:10:16.

is a character piece about two misfits who get together to go on

:10:17.:10:23.

the road in search of gambling big winnings, but that is not what the

:10:24.:10:27.

film is about, it is about the fact that they are both lost and looking

:10:28.:10:30.

for something. It is very 1970s style. Many films say they are

:10:31.:10:38.

referring back but they don't, but this film really does. It has

:10:39.:10:43.

texture and the locations are run down and drab yet intimate. Unlike

:10:44.:10:47.

the central character in Anomalisa, although both these guys are

:10:48.:10:52.

fundamentally damaged in some way the company is enjoyable. You want

:10:53.:10:56.

things to go right for them. It got overlooked in the cinema but got

:10:57.:11:00.

good notice from the critics, however it and find huge audiences.

:11:01.:11:07.

If you can see it on DVD it is really, it has heart and soul and it

:11:08.:11:10.

is fantastic. I liked it very much. A quick reminder before we go that

:11:11.:11:15.

you'll find more film news and reviews from across the BBC

:11:16.:11:17.

online on our website. And you can catch up

:11:18.:11:20.

with our previous shows on iPlayer.

:11:21.:11:23.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS