Love film and TV? Mamma Mia, it ain’t. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. And then things really start getting weird. - Film review: Yesterday Jon Favreau’s film is funnier than the original, even while it enhances the story’s dark themes. BBC Culture’s film critics Nicholas Barber and Caryn James pick 16 of this year’s highlights, including Ammonite, Mangrove and an Irish animation in which every frame is a work of art. Jane Hill serves as the main host, and Mark Kermode as the regular film critic.However, during the Coronavirus restrictions, the programme is presented by the film critic alone. That sequence is also shattering in the way it mirrors protests against racial justice today. The upshot is that Rocks is the most authentic teen movie in years, showing all the difficulties of adolescence in a deprived area, but all the laughter, warmth and ebullient energy, too. As the camera roves all over town in long, unbroken takes, and the likeable stars rattle through pages of funny and idiosyncratic dialogue, you know you’re seeing the emergence of a hugely exciting new talent. She makes bad choices, but she has good friends. Including Zack Snyder's return to zombies, Cruella de Vil's origin story and a documentary about "Disneyland for Retirees", Nicholas Barber picks the films not to miss this May. After initially failing to flee from the East to the West in a self-built hot-air balloon, two families struggle to make a second attempt, … See the 2017 BBC News advert for its Film Review programme together with original film titles. With Friedrich Mücke, Karoline Schuch, David Kross, Alicia von Rittberg. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. ... it’s the fourth film to use that same plot and title, so it could be categorised as a remake of a remake of a remake. Between September 2016 and its cancellation in December 2018, The Film Show used a rotating presenter format. With all due respect to May, Taylor and Deacon, the film improves exponentially when it ignores them and concentrates on Mercury. Listen to the film reviews to practise and improve your listening skills. Share using Email. But these objections aren’t wholly fair. The girls' battles against destructive adults are exhilarating fun, and every frame is a work of art. Were they hovering in the skies above 1950s New Mexico? Nothing goes wrong, but nothing is quite right, either: the characters' clothes and ages keep changing, and the heroine is never quite sure of her own name. Adam Curtis’s new series of films (released en masse today on BBC iPlayer) are a dazzling, overwhelming experience. (NB), Chadwick Boseman's astounding performance would have put him at the front of the Oscar race even if the role hadn't turned out, so sadly, to be his last. The scene of police attacking protestors during a street demonstration is bravura filmmaking that puts us in the midst of the brutality. Writer and director Francis Lee's exquisitely photographed and bracingly unsentimental romance finds Mary in middle age, scraping together a living in the seaside town of Lyme Regis. Based on August Wilson's play, the story is set in 1924 at a recording session for the real-life blues legend Ma Rainey, played brilliantly as a sly and imperious diva by Viola Davis. Johnny Flynn is irresistible as her gruffly charming, improbable love, Mr Knightley (younger than the novel has him). Where are the famous faces and the spectacular escapades? But it is most notable for Winslet's empathetic and natural portrayal of a self-contained, defensive woman who begins ever so gradually to breathe. Film review: Robert Pattinson stars in High Life. Directed by Jon S. Baird. Bohemian Rhapsody could, for much of the running time, be about an indie band that scored one top-10 single. The uncanny thing is that Malek resembles Mercury more and more as the film goes on – nothing like him at the start but almost indistinguishable from him by the end. After the thief, Karl Bertil-Nordland, is arrested, Barbora seeks him out and asks to paint his portrait. And Bill Nighy gloriously steals every scene as Emma’s comically overprotective father. In other words, some musicians get together; they record their greatest hits while wearing a succession of less-than-convincing shaggy wigs; and their fortunes rise, fall and then rise again. Adapted from Peter Carey’s novel, it’s a hallucinatory punk-rock video – a searing picture of colonial-era Australia’s blasted landscapes, endemic corruption, decadent sex and bloody violence. BBC Four should be making interesting films like this one instead of buying them in from America By Anita Singh, Arts and Entertainment Editor 4 May 2021 • 10:45pm Mark reviews the new film and DVD releases every week on the BBC News Channel With the help of various managers (including two played by Aidan Gillen and Tom Hollander), and various montages, the band makes the familiar journey to global superstardom, but it doesn’t seem all that global or all that super. “We need to get experimental,” says Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, as Queen are recording their debut album. (CJ), Spike Lee’s latest is a passionate, kinetic, thoroughly involving epic, combining intense drama with flashes of wit. The tight-knit community, including Sônia Braga as its often-drunk doctor, is oppressed by a corrupt politician, and confused about why Bacurau has suddenly disappeared from any map, printed or online. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday. But stick with it. He has the job of clearing the wolves from a forest near Kilkenny, but when Robyn goes exploring, she finds that one of those wolves can transform into a human girl (Eva Whittaker). A heart-rending but hopeful tribute to the bravery and resilience of youth. The clever part is that it’s a loving celebration of the author’s prose, but it is also wonderfully cinematic in its use of vibrant colours, split screens, captions, voiceovers and fantasy sequences. East Germany, 1979. The film is wrenching in its honesty yet exhilarating in its empathy. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises. As the charismatic frontman Freddie Mercury in the long-awaited Queen biopic, Rami Malek ‘makes the role his own’. The film’s emphasis on this straight relationship has prompted much grumbling on social media. Venue: London Film Festival Production companies: BBC Films, IM Global, Neal Street Productions, Quickfire Films, Red Production Company Cast: … Laurel and Hardy, the world's most famous comedy duo, attempt to reignite their film careers as they embark on what becomes their swan song - a grueling theatre tour of post-war Britain. Set over the course of one evening, The Vast Of Night follows a local radio DJ (Jake Horowitz) and a telephone operator (Sierra McCormick) as they investigate the eerie noises that are being broadcast from somewhere nearby. The camera silently captures the heartbreak on Autumn’s face, as well as the dreary texture of her town and the bright, overwhelming reality of New York. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “If You Only Read 6 Things This Week”. All five are audacious and gripping, but the standout is Mangrove, the real-life story about police harassment of a restaurant owner in the 1960s. -  Film review: Stan & Ollie -   Film review: Robert Pattinson stars in High Life -   Film review: Two stars for Venom. Film review: A Star Is Born. Directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles have created a dazzling piece of filmmaking, which shared the Jury Prize at Cannes last year. Hardly ever shown separately, the non-Freddie band members turn up as a trio every now and again, struggle through some stodgy banter, and then vanish, leaving behind only a faint impression of who’s who. We certainly don’t learn how or why they developed their unique combination of musical styles. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. As Emma, Anya Taylor-Joy captures the heart and warmth beneath Austen’s bossy, match-making heroine. Directed by Claire Oakley. BBC Culture’s review called it “a warm and lively David Copperfield for today”. And after just a few more minutes, he renames himself Freddie Mercury and the band Queen. Jellyfish review – schoolgirl standup has the last laugh. Director Autumn de Wilde doesn’t reinvent the period genre; she leans into its comforting, old-fashioned appeal. Kurzel and his team make Kelly more feral and frightening than ever, but more sympathetic, too. Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world. Preparation. As four black American veterans return to Vietnam to recover the body of their lost friend, as well as a cache of gold, Lee takes a long, historical view of the US and its racism. Directed by Michael Herbig. Lee invents Mary's affair with the married Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan), and Ammonite gained notice for the women's graphic sex scenes. Read about our approach to external linking. It adds a couple of helpful scenes and two ordinary songs. Caryn James praised it in her BBC Culture review as “a smart satire” and “a sly, acerbic, fun-to-watch send-up of the political divide in America”. About Audience Score. Oscars Best Picture Winners Best Picture Winners Golden Globes Emmys APA Heritage Month STARmeter Awards San Diego Comic-Con New York Comic-Con Sundance Film Festival Toronto Int'l Film Festival Awards Central Festival Central All Events Directed by Chris Crow. (NB), Did the world need one more Jane Austen adaptation? Every minute of his performance and of this film is alive with energy and passion. Scripted by Anthony McCarten (Darkest Hour, The Theory of Everything, and other such efficient but superficial non-fiction dramas), Bohemian Rhapsody sticks to a structure that might have seemed clichéd during Queen’s heyday, and which has been unforgivable since it was parodied in Walk Hard. A comedy thriller about a gang of privileged liberals (including Hilary Swank) who kidnap some right-wing ‘deplorables’ (including Betty Gilpin) and then pick them off for sport, its release was postponed last year after two mass shootings in America, and it was condemned by US president Donald Trump on Twitter. (CJ), The Personal History of David Copperfield, One of cinema’s worst ever injustices is that The Personal History of David Copperfield was snubbed at this February’s Baftas. So far, none of 2020’s releases has been better at eliciting whoops and winces from its audience. (NB), This quietly profound drama follows 17-year-old Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), pregnant in a small town in Pennsylvania where abortion is restricted, as she and her cousin secretly take a bus to nearby New York City to terminate the pregnancy. Clearly, no one said the same thing to the people who made the film. Structured as a day in the life, The Assistant stars Julia Garner as the lowly new employee who toils from before dawn until after dusk, answering phones, printing out scripts, unpacking bottles of water, and tidying away all the evidence of her boss’s liaisons: imagine a more authentic, low-key companion piece to The Devil Wears Prada. Now, Gecko has translated its stage show Institute into a 60-minute dance theatre film available on the BBC iPlayer as two individuals try to process traumatic events. (NB). De Wilde puts her career as a photographer to good use in this beautifully shot romance. But thanks to its sympathetic, charismatic leading man and some of the 20th Century’s most invigorating pop music, the film just about deserves the review that was given to the group’s most memorable single, and which is quoted halfway through: it’s “perfectly adequate”. Liv Hill is astonishingly good as a teenage carer whose talent for comedy transforms her troubled life. Adapted from Iain Reid's novel, it stars the superb Jessie Buckley as a young woman who drives through the snow with her faintly menacing boyfriend, Jesse Plemons, to meet his eccentric parents, Toni Collette and David Thewlis, on their family farm. Film review: real steel . With Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Nina Arianda. Similarly, there have been complaints about the decision to make it a mainstream crowd pleaser with a 12A / PG13 certificate, when in reality, its hero was so debauched that he could have given Casanova lessons. He has just moved with his Indian Parsi family from Zanzibar to England and has reinvented himself as a long-haired London clubber – much to the tutting disapproval of his loving but conservative parents (Ace Bhatti and Meneka Das). The film includes some sharp commentary on the marginalising of certain social groups, but it’s the sheer technical bravura that makes Andrew Patterson’s debut such a treat. Bohemian Rhapsody takes pains to remind us that the group’s other members wrote many of their hits – one by one, they’re given the chance to say, “Hey, I’ve got an idea for a song!” But they don’t do much else. Mercury’s long-awaited biopic may be named after Queen’s superlatively innovative anthem, but it has barely a fraction of that song’s arrogant grandeur or adventurous spirit. (CJ), Rocks was directed by Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane, Suffragette) and written by Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson, but, as Gavron regularly says, much of its plot and dialogue was suggested by the young people she met in inner-city London. (CJ), The Hunt was controversial before anyone had seen it. (CJ), Kitty Green’s astute, tightly controlled drama is set in the drab New York offices of a predatory film mogul; no prizes for guessing who the unnamed and unseen mogul is meant to be. The Film Review (formerly Film 24) is a 10-minute film-related programme usually shown on BBC News each Friday evening at 5:45pm. And while Iannucci roots it firmly in the poverty and class system of Victorian England, it’s also bracingly modern, not least in its multicultural casting (Dev Patel is terrific in the lead role). (NB), This odd, compelling documentary begins when Barbora Kysilkova, a struggling Czech artist in Oslo, has two paintings stolen from a gallery. It reviews three new films each week and is repeated several times during weekends. Not that the film has much time for family ructions. You can analyse the movie’s subtext about Brazilian politics or just enjoy its engaging, genre-bending audacity. The percentage of Approved Tomatometer Critics who have given this movie a positive review. Mercury was due, for a while, to be played by Sacha Baron Cohen and then Ben Whishaw. - Film review: Two stars for Venom Scripted by Anthony McCarten (Darkest Hour, The Theory of Everything, and other such efficient but superficial non … In Boseman's perfectly modulated performance, Levee is a charming, dancing, smiling young man with a future, whose anger finally explodes. (CJ), True History of the Kelly Gang (Credit: Porchlight Films), Justin Kurzel’s biopic of Ned Kelly, the notorious 19th-Century bushranger, is light years away from the average period drama. Alienated from the band he calls his family, just as he had fallen out with his biological family a decade earlier, Mercury is alone with his pet cats, a gang of hangers-on and a soulmate, Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), who goes from being his fiancée to his platonic friend. Not really, but this enchanting, colourful version is a very welcome addition. Bukky Bakray stars as a schoolgirl who has to fend for her younger brother (the adorable D'angelou Osei Kissiedu) when their mother disappears from their flat. It definitely could have been worse. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200702-the-best-films-of-2020-so-far (CJ), Anyone who has seen The Secret of Kells or Song of the Sea will recognise the Celtic mysticism and the ornate, angular animation favoured by their director, Tomm Moore. But when it finally came out this spring, just before cinemas shut down, Craig Zobel and Damon Lindelof’s film turned out to be an exhilarating rollercoaster ride that kept you guessing as to who was on whose side and who was about to be killed. (NB), I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Credit: Mary Cybulski/Netflix), Charlie Kaufman's mind-bending horror drama is like no other film this year – or any other year, for that matter. The boldest decision taken by the film-makers is to include nearly all of the set. Obviously, this is the sequel to Fun in the City, which is a film I didn't like so it's fair to say my expectations were low. (CJ), Are aliens watching us? If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. The friends are complicated individuals created with great immediacy – Oscar buzz has deservedly started for Delroy Lindo, whose character is tortured by the past and by post-traumatic stress disorder. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday. But Malek makes the role his own: he seems to be possessed by both the pouting, preening showman Mercury was in public and the sulky lost soul he could be in private. The title of the show changed each year to incorporate the year of broadcast. Even the one that's been bugging you. twists the rules of film narrative in all sorts of clever and surreal ways, exquisitely photographed and bracingly unsentimental romance. Kelly himself (an electrifying George MacKay) is taught to survive in this savage alien terrain by his brutal mother (Essie Davis), a rollicking bandit (Russell Crowe), an exploitative policeman (Charlie Hunnam) and a dissolute English official (Nicholas Hoult, refining the evil Hugh Grant persona he introduced in The Favourite). Malek’s finest moments are also Mercury’s finest moments: when he struts across the stage at Wembley Stadium, as much of a monarch as his band’s namesake, for Queen's career-reviving Live Aid set in 1985. (NB), Kate Winslet gives one of the most dazzling performances of her career as the real-life Mary Anning, whose 19th-Century discoveries of fossils transformed palaeontology, although the credit went to men. That is, when it stops being about some decent but dull chaps bickering about lyrics, and starts being about an outsider overwhelmed by loneliness, tormented by his sexuality and by press intrusion, and addicted to whichever pleasures could get him through the night. With Molly Windsor, Joseph Quinn, Stefanie Martini, Theo Barklem-Biggs. As far as I could make out, Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy), the drummer, is a womaniser and the one most likely to argue with Freddie; Brian May (Gwilym Lee – a dead ringer), the guitarist, is the mild-mannered peacemaker; and John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello), the bassist, is – well, all he does is smirk from the sidelines, which could be because Taylor and May helped produce the film, and Deacon didn’t. The Film Review. Do the preparation task first. When the village is invaded by mercenaries, the film morphs into a blood-soaked homage to Westerns. Where’s the glamour? Far from a message movie, writer and director Eliza Hittman’s film is an eloquent, intimate story about choices, secrets, and the sad, desperate decisions young women sometimes make to save their own futures. Its plucky heroine is Robyn (voiced by Honor Kneafsey), the daughter of an English huntsman (Sean Bean) stationed in Ireland in the mid-1600s. The Weinstein-alike CEO may be the villain of the piece, but the film looks beyond one man to focus on a wider corporate culture of sexism, condescension, and quiet complicity. It introduces Freddie (Rami Malek) when he is still named Farrokh Bulsara. Even by the standards of its writer-director, Armando Iannucci, this joyous and endlessly inventive film is a glittering achievement that raises the bar for Charles Dickens adaptations. While it’s true that Bohemian Rhapsody doesn’t put much on screen that would scare off family audiences, it does acknowledge that Mercury popped pills, visited fetish clubs, threw the wildest parties in town and, after some soul-searching, embraced life as a gay man. Bohemian Rhapsody may bore you or irritate you for an hour so. 07/05/2021. She is appropriating his image just as he stole her art, but that is only the beginning of a real, sometimes spiky friendship, as the story expands to include Barbora’s relationship with her boyfriend and Karl’s drug addiction. Comedy films. There are no big speeches or explosive confrontations, but there is tension throughout as we wait for the titular assistant to rebel against her boss... or accept that she is going to keep working for him, come what may. First look review Action and adventure films Ford v Ferrari review – motor-racing drama gets stuck in first gear Matt Damon and Christian Bale star … The production was so troubled that the credited director, Bryan Singer, was replaced by Dexter Fletcher, so the finished film is a lot more coherent than it might have been. But, eventually, it will rock you and it might just move you, too. Mark Kermode gives his unique take on the best and worst of the week's film and DVD releases. Under their influence, it’s almost inevitable that he should become the leader of a cross-dressing revolutionary gang. The six hour-and-bit long documentaries set … As firmly rooted as it is in the history and landscape of Ireland, this is a cartoon about magic that actually feels magical. With Mark Lewis Jones, Ian Virgo, Michael Jibson, Joshua Richards. Read about our approach to external linking. Film reviews. Steve McQueen's entire Small Axe series, five exhilarating and eclectic films dealing with the black British and Caribbean community from the 1960s through to the 80s, reveals his unique ability to match art with social conscience. Boseman is Levee, a talented musician traumatised by a racist attack he witnessed in childhood. And he has such an astonishingly expressive face that he can even act while wearing an enormous set of joke-shop false teeth: Mercury may have had an overbite in real life, but in the film he has incisors to rival a cartoon rabbit. Transcript. It looks like a daytime soap opera and it runs through the same chord progression as every previous rock biopic. Real Steel is a science fiction story released in 2011. This small-town sci-fi mystery asks those familiar Twilight Zone-ish questions, but it answers them with so much verve and originality that they seem brand new. Da 5 Bloods is one of Spike Lee’s best, which is saying a lot. It may be confusing, but it's undoubtedly moving. It stars Hugh Jackman as “Charlie”, an ex-boxer that participates in fights between robots, and Dakota Goyo as Max Kenton, Charlie´s son. Director Benjamin Ree followed his subjects for years to create this richly-layered, moving chronicle of inspiration, guilt and reinvention. On a remote holiday park in Cornwall, a young woman is drawn into a mysterious obsession when she suspects her boyfriend has cheated on her. The BBC’s long-running Film series has been cancelled as the broadcaster seeks an alternative format for movie reviews as part of an overhaul … (NB), One of the strangest, most inventive films of the year is this sly Brazilian gem, set in a poor, isolated village called Bacurau. Based on real events which saw two lighthouse keepers stranded for months at sea in a freak storm, the film tells a tale of death, madness and isolation; a desolate trip … Letitia Wright gives a stunning, powerful performance as a leader of the British Black Panthers. Film 2018 or The Film Show is a British film review television programme, which was usually broadcast on BBC One. It’s also surprisingly affecting, largely because of Malek’s rich performance. Mercury once declared that Queen were the Cecil B DeMille of rock bands, because they always wanted everything to be bigger and better, but there is a smallness and cheapness to the film that suggests it cost less to make than one of their albums. After just a few minutes, Bulsara meets a student rock band called Smile (conveniently enough, their lead singer has just quit). As you'd expect from the screenwriter of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, Kaufman twists the rules of film narrative in all sorts of clever and surreal ways, but I'm Thinking of Ending Things is ultimately a powerfully melancholy treatise on the brevity of life and love. But by this point, they’ve earned the right to turn a drama into a triumphal concert video. But Wolfwalkers is his most delightful yet. Directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles have created a dazzling piece of filmmaking, which the. Gives his unique take on the best and worst of the British Black Panthers scored one top-10.... You can analyse the movie ’ s releases has been better at whoops. On Mercury the year of broadcast chord progression as every previous rock biopic protests against racial today. So far, none of 2020 ’ s subtext about Brazilian politics or just enjoy engaging! Has prompted much grumbling on social media Essential List and his team make Kelly feral! 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