Hello and welcome to the film review on bbc news. Taking us through this weeks releases, weve got mark kermode. Who else . Mark, youve got some big movies this week to talk about. And they couldnt be more different. We havejudy, in which Renee Zellweger plastudy garland. We havejoker with an arresting central performance byJoaquin Phoenix. And good posture, a little indie pic directed by dolly wells. So, from bridgetjones to judy garland. This has been in the works a long time, adapted from the stage play called end of the rainbow. Its the end ofjudy garlands life, its when she was playing at the talk of the town, she is low on money so she has to do the gig despite the fact that shes not entirely certain she can do it. She didnt want to leave her kids in america but she had to earn money. And the film catches up with her very much like with stan and ollie, that weird hinterland when suddenly hollywood stars find themselves working and not ideal situations in the uk. When she has to go on stage, because she has had pills and booze problems in the past, she doesnt think her voice is up to it, shes not sure that she can do it butjessie buckley, who is playing her assistant is absolutely insistent that it is time to go on. Thank you, ladies. Clear the way, clear the way. Thank you. Here we go, boys. Whats the matter . I cant. What . What you mean you cant . There is an audience out there waiting to hear you sing. My mouth is dry and it could fall apart. Listen to me. I cant. Youll be fine. Now, on you go. Applause and cheering. The show must go on. It was a very tragic life story, wasnt it . It was, the film does a lot of flashing back to her childhood, on set at the wizard of oz, being bullied and starved by louis b mayer. There is one thing which she is told, here is a birthday cake, dont eat it. Because she is not allowed to eat anything. We see a heartbreaking moment with Mickey Rooney where she says, are we dating . And he says, no, were just good pals. The film is fairly on the nose about that sort of thing. It says this came from that and this led to that. It is stagey in its construction and at the heart of it is this performance by Renee Zellweger which i neverforgot that i was watching Renee Zellweger performing a legend. It wasnt like watching Joaquin Phoenix in walk the line, orjerry lee lewis played by dennis quaid. But the more i thought about it, perhaps that performance fits the film, because there is line the film where she says, im onlyjudy for like an hour and the rest of the time im somebody else. So, a lot of the film is about her performing the role ofjudy, and in a weird way, watching Renee Zellweger giving a performance asjudy kind of fits. The other thing is the film does have a lot of darkness in it and one of the things it lacks is thatjoy, that sparkle, that joie de vivre that you got from judy garlands performance. There are two characters who are fans who absolutely love her and one reason they have been written in is because they stress how important she was to the Lgbt Community but also i found that through them, watching her on stage, you saw in his face the joy that you should have been feeling from the performance. It is an interesting film, it is very strong performance, a strange performance but very strong. You mention Joaquin Phoenix, we are going to talk aboutjoker, shrouded in controversy. It opened at a festival and gets an eight minute standing ovation, wins top prize and the next thing is there is a backlash saying its irresponsible, a cruel and nasty film. Irresponsible, some say, because it is thought it could inspire violence. Well. Ok, the story is about a character made byJoaquin Phoenix, arthur fleck, who wants to be a stand up comedian but doesnt understand what anybody else finds funny, is living an embittered life with his mother, he gets beaten up and abused, and he turns. Very much in the style of Something Like death wish, or more recently Something Like falling down. Because he is dressed as a clown, that inspires an uprising. It is a film which is dealing with volatile issues. It is also made by the director of the hangover movies which never dealt with subtlety of kindness very much. My question is this, its an origins film aboutjoker, what do people expect it to be . At the centre of it, you have a mesmerising performance byJoaquin Phoenix. The film, its prime frame of reference is Martin Scorseses king of comedy, one of the darkest comedies ever made. De niro plays a guy who kidnaps his way onto television. Here, Robert De Niro plays a character who is a smarmy tv talk show host, so it reference points the 70s, martin scorsese, nothing about it is subtle. Yes, it is a nasty, dark, difficult film. Is it very violent . No, certainly no more so than any mainstream cinema. In the end, it is a character study, it is a very dyspeptic view of the world. That is what it is meant to be. I went in thinking i hate that hangover movies, and i came out thinking, wow, who thought the guy that made the hangover movies could make that movie. Good posture. A completely different independent picture written and directed by dolly wells. Grace van patten is a young woman who finds herself needing somewhere to live, she ends up living in a house in which lives a reclusive author played by Emily Mortimer. She has to do chores and make dinner but they hardly see each other and yet they develop strange relationship by reading and writing each others journal. It is an epistolary tale about two People Living in the same house. Here is a clip. Singing. What . Lilian, might be something there. Getting don stoned first night in our home, desperate for affirmation, scared of women, feral, chewing gum on the steps, footprints on the wall. Toothpaste all over the mirror. So, you get a sense from that. It has a very indie feel to it. What i liked about it was many of the characters in it are quite difficult and annoying. She is called and is referred to as an oaf. The writer played by Emily Mortimer is frosty and difficult, which is playing completely against type for Emily Mortimer. It raises the question, can you like a film with unlikeable characters . The answer in this case is yes. This is an indie film in which somebody produces a ukulele. I have a rule which is dont produce a ukulele unless you do something interesting. And actually it did. I did laugh a lot, it was very funny. Also, it has that thing about it has got a nice offbeat strange off kilter feel to it. A relationship between people who are not likeable and in many ways you could take against them and find them irritating but it doesnt mean you find the film irritating. Mark kermode ukulele rule. Good to know that rule. The best out that the moment . The farewell. It is life enhancing and charming and about the anticipation of death but also it is funny and it is very, very honest about families and this range of relationships between families. Somebody is a terminal diagnosis and they are the only one who doesnt know because their family thinks they shouldnt know. Great performance. I went to see it knowing nothing about it other than the title and i was completely knocked out. I have been to see your best dvd which i absolutely adore. Rocketman. It is so worth seeing twice or even three times to get the most out of it. It is really layered, brilliantly directed by dexter fletcher, who took over the direction of bohemian rhapsody, and i think in many ways he saved that film. Also, Bernie Taupin played byjamie bell, who currently is also in cinemas playing a tattooed neo nazi skinhead. The range is extraordinary. Its a proper musical. Like tommy. I think it owes a great debt to that film. It is one of my favourite films of the year. You were told that whether you believe Renee Zellweger was judy garland but although he is quite different in some ways from eltonjohn, you do believe it is him. I absolutely do. It is that weird thing about whether when you are watching somebody performing a performer, whether you think you are watching a performer or seeing the real person. I think sissy spacek in the coal miners daughter is something where completely lose it. When he was cast i thought it was interesting but five minutes into the film, you think it is fine, everything, the stance on a mixture of the bare chested bravado but also that kind of rabbit in the headlights found ability. It really made eltonjohn one of the most interesting performers of the glam rock era. And eltonjohn loved it. Who wouldnt hes got very good taste. Thank you very much. That is it for this week. Thank you for watching. Goodbye from both of us. Hello, good evening. During today, we have watched the remnants of what was Hurricane Lorenzo falling apart in front of a rise. You can see on the satellite picture of the cloud associated with that weakening area of low pressure now pushing its way out to the near continent. But here is our next weather maker, this big swirl of cloud, and area of low pressure and a frontal system that will bring heavy rain at times through this weekend. There will be some spells of sunshine as well. Now, as we go through tonight, its going to turn increasingly cloudy, misty, and murky for the western half of the uk. The odd spot of drizzle for coasts and hills. Further east, we will keep hold of some clear skills. There could be the odd fog patch here and there and temperatures will dip away. Particularly i think across parts of scotland where we could get all the way down to freezing. But in this cool clear zone in the east, we will have some fog patches to contend with. Perhaps most especially across the north east of england. They should tend to clear. Then, we see some brightness but cloud will quickly be spreading from the west ahead of this band of rain. Now, through tomorrow afternoon, we will see some strong winds across the far west on the far north of scotland. These are the average wind speeds. The gusts can be close to gale force. We will see rain spreading across the south west of scotland into northern ireland, parts of northwest england, heading down into wells, and eventually the south west of england as we go on through the afternoon. Ahead of that through the midlands to eastern parts of england, some dry weather. Perhaps some brighter quinces but increasing amounts of cloud. Temperatures around 16 17 degrees. But if youre out and about saturday or sunday night, we will watch this band of rain pushing from the west to the east very slowly. Some heavy and persistent rain affecting many areas. And then on sunday, well that frontal system instead of clearing away, it just hangs back. It holds on. So, rain is likely to persist across some parts of southern and Central Scotland down the eastern side of england. There are met Office Yellow warnings in force, that is the lowest tier of warning that the met office will issue but we could see a been further a0 mm of rain or more in some places. And after what has a really wet spell of weather, any more significant rainfall could cause flooding and travel problems. But notice in the west, things will brighten up. We will see sunshine late in the day. And as we head into next week as it stays very unsettled, more heavy rain at times. It will often be windy. This is bbc world news today. Our top stories. Protests continue into the night in hong kong after a government ban on face masks comes into effect. The duke of sussex is to take two british newspapers to court over the alleged illegal interception of voicemail messages. New Text Messages increase pressure on President Trump over requests he made to ukraine for information on his rivaljoe biden. And we look at the technology that enabled a paralysed man to move all four of his limbs using brain power and a very special suit. Hello and welcome to world news today