hello, and a very warm welcome to the film review on bbc news. as ever is mark kermode. hi, mark. very interesting week. we have don t worry darling eagerly awaited after all the stuff that went on in venice. we have blonde, which may be a marilyn monroe biopic, or maybe not. and catherine called birdy, a medieval tale with a difference. oh, i thought it was a biopic, but anyway, more on that later. ok, so don t worry darling, which is a new film by olivia wilde, who made booksmart, which i loved. florence pugh and harry styles are alice and jack chambers. they live in a kind of absolutely rarefied, dreamy, late 50s, early 60s americana, you know, glistening cars, mad men suits, fabulous dresses. the wives stay at home and prepare the house and cook the meals and wait for the return of their husbands, who are out doing work which cannot be spoken of when they come back. and florence pugh s character seems to think this is idyllic and wonderful. and then, one of her friend
americana that doesn t exist and isn t real. and here s the thing it s basically the stepford wives. the difference is the stepford wives at the beginning of the stepford wives, you think, ok, you know, is there something off kilter? you can t quite figure what s wrong with it. in the case of this, from the beginning, it is absolutely clear that this is an artificial world, that none of this can be what it seems, that somehow, they re in a bubble or an illusion. now, florence pugh works wonders making the character of alice engage you, so that even though she s in this completely artificial environment, you believe in her character and you engage with her character. harry styles, he s fine. there ve been some sort of cruel things said about his performance. it s ok. it s staggeringly unremarkable. the problem is that you very quickly figure out there s one of a number of possible scenarios that are the solution to how this is all happening, and then when it s revealed. 0k,
i mjane hill, and taking us through this week s cinema releases as ever is mark. hi, mark. very interesting week we have. don t worry darling we have blonde, which may be a marilyn monroe biopic, or maybe not. and catherine called birdy, a mediaeval tale birdy, a mediaeval tale with a difference. oh, i thought it was a biopic, but anyway, more on that later. ok, so don t worry darling, which is a new film by olivia wilde, who made booksmart, which i loved. florence pugh and harry styles are alice and jack chambers. they live in a kind of absolutely rarefied, dreamy, late 50s, early 60s americana, you know, glistening cars, mad men suits, fabulous dresses. the wives stay at home and prepare the house and cook the meals and wait for the return of their husbands, who are out doing work which cannot be spoken of when they come back. and florence pugh s character seems to think this is idyllic and wonderful. and then, one of her friends and neighbours becomes suicidal after le
we ll have much more on this latest action from the justice department. meanwhile, there s also progress this morning in the legal fight over the documents seized from mar-a-lago. the doj and donald trump s attorneys appear to be close to agreeing on a list of potential special masters for that case. and in ukraine, citizens and soldiers celebrating major gains against russian forces. but the latest intelligence from the pentagon says wart is far from over. the war is far from over. good morning. welcome to way too early on this tuesday, september 13th. thank you for starting your day with us. we ll begin with the widening criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. nbc news has confirmed that about 40 subpoenas were issued over the past week to people associated with former president donald trump. according to the new york times which first reported the news, former trump adviser is among those subpoenaed. his attorney has declined to comment.
insurrection, privy to nearly every major decision leading up to and during that day. according to the testimony of cassidy hutchinson, his top aide, meadows appears to have been at the center of the scheme to overturn the election. the 26-year-old, cassidy hutchinson, was brave enough, patriotic enough, to come forward. 62-year-old mark meadows is not. just a refresher, here s some of what we learned from ms. hutchinson about mr. meadows, something the committee would want to ask him about if he had the courage or decency to talk. i remember leaning against the hallway and said, i had an interesting conversation. it sounds like we re going to the capitol. he said something to the effect of, there s a lot going on, guys. but i don t know, things might get real, real bad on january 6th. do you know if mr. meadows ever intended to go to the willard hotel on the night of the 5th? i had made it clear to mr. meadows that i didn t believe it was a smart idea for him to go to