The film review on bbc news. To take us through this weeks interesting Cinema Releases is james king. Welcome. What have you been watching . Ive been watching Charlize Theron in a spy thriller thats 007 meets basic instinct. The names blonde, Atomic Blonde. From the Academy Awards to the afterlife, oscar winner Casey Affleck returns under a sheet in a ghost story. And get ready to tap, clap and stomp your way through an uplifting new dance documentary, step. Quite an eclectic mix this week, james. Lets start with the big blockbuster. It looks like one. Yes, Atomic Blonde, so Charlize Theron stars in this. Its a spy thriller directed by a guy called david leitch. Previously hes worked on a movie called john wick with keanu reeves, that was a big hit a couple of years back. There are similarities, they are both very stylish. Style over content, really. Very violent, very polished, very cartoonish. But Atomic Blonde has some basis in real events because it is set in 1989 After The Fall of the berlin wall. Charlize theron is a spy sent there by the British Government to track down a list of missing agents. Lets have a look. 0k. So, is this your first time in berlin . Yes. Well, it is a remarkable time to be here. Wonderful music. Superb nightlife, marvellous restaurants. You must try the central cafe for a drink. Youll need it later. You remembeer abramowitz, dont you . Of course you do. Yeah. We can kind of guess what happens after that. It has been hard to find clips of any duration which are not violent. Shes quite adept with her stilettos, is charlize. It is ridiculous. However, i think there is some fun to be had with its ridiculousness. Firstly, Charlize Theron is great and there is a pairing that she has with james mcavoy, we didnt see it in that clip, but hes a fellow british agent in berlin and hes crazy and over the top and she is ice cool and very measured so they have this great chalk and cheese partnership. That really works. Shes such a watchable actress, isnt she . Very watchable actress. Looks great in this, of course is an oscar winner, she can actually act. I wouldnt say she particularly has to act that much in this, but we know she can. And the style is great, this industrial punk aesthetic to it, this pumping 19805 electro soundtrack. We can see a bit of action, the car chases and the fights are stunning and relentless. It almost beats you into submission. With it being visually striking should it remind us of pulp fiction, is that what hes after, the slick look with the violence that goes with it . What it does not have that pulp fiction had is the witty, clever script. It is easy to be snobbish and say the plot is flimsy and stretched. It means you can get away with quite a lot. I think it relishes its own silliness and pulpy quality. It acknowledges that and when a film is shameless about it it can get away with much more. Is it a missed opportunity because the time period in which it is set, berlin, such a great city, it could be the most fantastic story. Are they not bothered about that. A slightly missed opportunity but still worth seeing, a male fantasy of a female spy, i dont think many spies are six foot tall former models wandering around in stockings and suspenders. But there is just enough awareness for it to get away with it and i would happily watch another, that movie hasnt done really well but if there is a sequel i wouldnt complain. 0k. We move to something that could not be more different. I am intrigued that this was shot in secret, is It Apocryphal that the director was so concerned about how it might end up that he thought, i just wont tell people i am making it. It is very low budget. This is david lowery, last year he moved into the mainstream because he made a film with disney called petes dragon, so a remake of the old disney story. But that was out of characterfor him. Hes much more of an independent, low budget film maker, this is a return to that. This is a ghost story as the title suggests. Not a horrorfilm, a drama. Casey affleck plays a recently deceased man who returns in spirit to his home to watch over his grieving partner, rooney mara. He is still wearing the sheet that he had placed over him in the morgue. Talking about difficult clips to find, it is hard to show you any clips out of context because pacing and the rhythm of the film is so key. It is a very slow film. There are many takes were seemingly not much happens, the camera is very static and quiet. Theres probably more music than dialogue in it. Its even shot in the old 4x3 ratio, the square tv ratio to make it feel claustrophobic. So its pretty bold and risk taking. I can understand why david lowery might want to keep it secret in case it did not work. I think it does work. You have to take a bit of a Leap Of Faith to get into its rhythm and slowness but when you do it is rewarding and a film about memory and legacy and slowl change. Ok, i am a bit worried the trailer might put people off, its quite bizarre it isnt that kind of movie. What is your third choice . A documentary, called step. People use the word feelgood too much, to the point of redundancy but this is genuinely a feel good movie. A documentary about a girls dance troupe, called the lethal ladies working out of a high school in inner city baltimore. The film focuses on three of the girl dancers in particular, about their hopes and aspirations. Trying to break the cycle of poverty they come from and get out of baltimore and into college. Very charismatic leads, the people in the film are very charismatic. As we will see in this clip. This is the girls in training. You will watch me step. Actually, im going to make you watch me step. Im going to get my step, its going to get up in your grill. Im going to take you by your neck and youre gonna watch me do what i do. Thats what youre supposed to project, every time you get in front of somebody. Thats what you step on. If youre not stepping on it, sit down, go home, good night. Stand to attention and give me that face. Nothing to stop i like that teacher, i am not missing with her. Shes brilliant, everyone is brilliant. Its a really uplifting story. Its uplifting because it does not scrimp on the hardships. These people that we focus on have had tough lives. There is a lot of anger and its set among the backdrop of the black lives Matter Movement and the female empowerment movement. So there tough issues going on. That makes it all the more feel good when the highs come along and when it gets more optimistic. Its not really a film about stepping as a dance. If you dont know much about stepping, very popular in american colleges, but its not about the technique and history of stepping. Really its a film about what dance means to people when they dont have much else. Im really looking forward to that one. And for best out this week you have delighted me because it is a reissue and what a pleasure it was to watch this film so many years later. This is prick up your ears. Re released, a movie about playwright joe orton, rereleased for the 50th Anniversary of his death, the film actually came out in 1987, so the film itself is 30 years old. Stephen frears is the director, alan bennett is the writer, based on the diaries ofjoe orton, which we see in the movie. We see john lahr who was the editor, played by Wallace Shawn in the movie. And then it flashes back to the life ofjoe orton. Gary oldman is amazing as orton. I am always reminded of a couple of things, first that time in the 80s when gary oldman and contemporaries like Daniel Day Lewis and tim roth were the angry young men of British Cinema and the future of British Cinema. Werent they . Now Daniel Day Lewis has announced his retirement and gary oldman will be playing Winston Churchill so you feel very old watching this secondly, more importantly, what alan bennett did with this script is capture the whit and boisterousness that made joe orton such a great playwright in the 19605. Gary oldman great, vanessa redgrave, for me, it is alfred molinas movie. He plays kenneth halliwell, ortons lover. They had an ultimately tragic and shocking relationship. He steals the show. But what is so striking, as you say, the film is 30 years old and it is a litany of wonderful actors because the mother of orton is played Byjulie Walters and his sister is played by frances barber, these people are part of britains acting firmament. Alan bennett has become even more part of the furniture. What he does brilliantly is give us movies that feel traditional but they are pretty out there when you look at what is going on. Now quick thought about the dvd. Raw, belgian french horror movie about a student who goes to Vetinary College and discovers a cannibalistic tendencies. Beautifully unsettling. Determined to freak you out with the acting, performing and lighting and editing. It is like Carrie Directed by Salvador Dali it weird, but it is wonderful. James, thanks very much. James king, thanks for being with us and thats just about it for this week. Enjoy your cinema going. Goodbye. Good morning. It wasnt too bad a weekend. Dry and sunny spells for most of us. Changing the date. Especially in the north and west. Rain in Northern Ireland and scotla nd rain in Northern Ireland and Scotland First thing in the morning. Drifting steadily eastwards during the morning leaving showers behind. Light and patchy in wales in south west england. The best of the sunshine in east anglia and the south east corner. The cloud in the rain will be fairly showery into the afternoon. Some heavy and thundery in the far north west. 18 degrees. In the sunshine, 24. The rain will go in the sunshine, 24. The rain will 9 up in the sunshine, 24. The rain will goupa in the sunshine, 24. The rain will go up a bit through wales into Northern England through the night. That clears clears away and leaves sunny spells and scattered showers into tuesday. Some of those again could be heavy. In the sunshine, white warm with highs of 24 celsius. That is it. Please take care. Im mariko oi in singapore. The headlines americas top military chief arrives for talks in south korea as tensions between the us and north korea intensify. Torrential rain causes landslides in india and in nepal streets turn into rivers as the death toll rises in both countries. Im Babita Sharma in london. Also in the programme the white house defends president trumps response to the attack on anti racism protestors in the us state of virginia. 70 years since the partition of india, we head to pakistan to find out what people think of the Founding Fathers vision for the nation