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
hello there. we start with the cost of living crisis because the uk is facing a summer of discontent over pay, according to the head of the biggest private sector union. sharon graham, who runs the unite union, has told the bbc it s not militant to ask for pay rises in line with inflation, currently running at over 9%. she says tens of thousands of her members, from bus drivers to refuse collectors to factory workers, are involved in pay disputes around the country. this warning comes as railway workers announce more strike days over the summer. here s what she had to say to our economics editor faisal islam. before people turned around to workers and say to workers, not only have you got out and defended the pandemic, because it was key workers and ordinary people that did that, now it is over, we want you to pay for it. now that is actually abhorent to me. the idea that we set out you go, you defend what is going on out there and by the way, now you are back and everyon