they're talking about everything, but they're talking about nothing. and the weird thing about the film is it's got this kind of cumulative effect, these incidental scenes, none of which appear to be about very much all add up to something which feels kind of profound. it's a lovely performance byjoaquin phoenix and of course and you think very recently he was winning awards forjoker, which was a very big performance! yes! 0h, frightened me to death! yeah! but this is kind of like completely the other way. yes. everything very, very low—key, everything feels very, very naturalistic. lovely use of music. there's an original score by aaron and bryce dessner. and then they've got things like the san francisco saxophone quartet playing clair de lune, which sounds like it shouldn't work and yet, somehow, when used in the right context, it's rather beautiful. i mean, it's very touching, it feels very incidental, but i... you come away from it feeling like 0k, humanity is basically good, which i think is a good thing. i liked it a lot. i was very, very charmed by it. well, we could do with that! we could do with that. people will watch and say, "why the black and white?" because it's an aesthetic decision that makes it look slightly distanced. it also gives it a — i know some people have sniffed at it. some people have said "oh, well, itjust makes it look arty". i actually think it works quite well. i mean, here's the other question — why not black and white? why should colour be the default? if that's the register the director wants to shoot it in, you know, do it in black and white. it looks lovely. yeah. 0k! well, interesting! your second choice for this week? encounter. so riz ahmed, who is brilliant in everything, is a decorated marine, hadn't seen his boys for a couple of years. he suddenly turns up in the middle of the night and says he is taking them on a road trip. then he says it is not a road trip, it's a rescue mission. he is a decorated marine who is now working on a mission because the earth has been invaded by extra terrestrial spores that are getting inside people, they get into the bloodstream, they take over the hosts and they turn people into basically it's like invasion of the body snatchers. but the film is a cross between invasion of the body snatchers and a psychological film about father and sons and there's also a family road trip in there and, at times, it's an adventure movie. it is written by... joe barton did the original script and then michael pearce, who made beast, did work with him on it and directed it. the really smart thing about it is it starts out like a m night shyamalan movie and then, about half—an—hour through, you think "no, this is a movie that family. this is a movie about family. "this is a movie about his relationship with his sons. own relationship with the world." and there's a film by william friedkin — which i'm sure you have not seen because nobody�*s seen it — called bug and it's based on a tracy letts play and it is brilliant, and this owes a great debt to bug, which, again, is a film about ideas getting under your skin and the whole idea of an extra terrestrial invasion that spores, that get into your bloodstream, and the paranoia that that would induce... i think, i think it's really remarkable, and riz ahmed is just great. there is nothing he can't do. well, he's so talented. he is so talented. really smart. i don't know — this is worthy of his talents, is it? yes, it is, absolutely. incidentally, he has that short film, the long goodbye, which i think is now eligible for an oscar, so very soon, i think, yeah. i mean, he's great, he's just great and this is very, very good. it's a very good film. encounter is well worth seeing. the only thing i'd say is don't find out too much about it before you see it. 0k, well, that's always a good tip, if that's the case. and the christmas film. mark sighs. it is december, gotta have a christmas film. ok, but this is... it is a christmas film and it isn't. it starts out michael buble, a bunch of poshos arriving at a country house where they're all gonna have christmas together. they've got their kids, but something is out of whack. the kids are swearing in a way that kids would not do, they are all telling each other stories that you would not expect them to and they are starting to behave like there is no tomorrow. here's a clip. simon. sure. um, where to start? er... god? god, yes, dear god, - may we thank you for... ..my wife's culinary talents. also an important...ah... um... for our beautiful friends? yes. for our beautiful children. um, for the food on our table. for, er, the lives that we've shared. for...? 0h! for...uh... ..the promise of love. and happiness! and health! and safety — health and safety. in your beautiful — really beautiful... fun! let's not forget how much fun it's gonna be up there! in yourfun, beautiful, safe...! kingdom. amen. let's eat! right. crack on, everyone. ooh, i'm not sure i want to be at that dinner party! no, but here's the thing — keira knightley has the right register, fun! fun! everything's tracking because the end of the world is coming. now, here's the thing — the writer and director said that they were inspired by partly when the wind blows — you know, the adaptation of the raymond briggs' novel. also partly because her kids came back from seeing war horse and said, "what would we do in that circumstance?" so it starts out like a christmas movie, but it's the christmas movie goes to hell. and it sounds like an interesting idea. i have to say for me, it did not work and it doesn't work for two reasons. the first one is that for the first part of it when it is a comedy with irritating poshos, i did not find them funny and i did not believe in them. and the second part of it, when it becomes the kind of apocalypse movie in which it is dealing with a lot of very dark material, it didn't feel earned. it felt like because i don't believe in these characters and because you are still doing the knockabout comedy stuff, none of this is earned. now, that said, i know some people who thought "oh, "this is great," you know? "it's like an acerbic christmas" — i like an acerbic christmas film. i like, you know, silent night, deadly night. i like gremlins. there's that joke about, you know, christmas slay — he knows if you've been bad or good and he's got an axe. all that stuff is fine. the problem with this is it doesn't know how to do the balance between the comic and the horrific. so it's an interesting idea, but it... for me, it doesn't work. others think differently, but i've watched it twice now and both times, it didn't work. ok, so, yeah, twice is enough, by the sounds of what you're saying. i gave it a fair run. you did, you absolutely did. best out? yeah, so petit maman — so you've now seen it. please tell me that you love it above all things. oh, oh, i loved it. i loved it. and do you — but what's so interesting is, i mean, it's really... it's slight — and i don't mean that in a demeaning way. 72 minutes long. it's slight and it's so short and actually, i wanted more. when it ended, i thought "oh, no, no, no!" "i want it to be a little bit longer!" but the reason it is perfect is exactly that — it leaves you wanting more. it tells you, in those 72 minutes, more, ithink, about life, the world, parents, children. i mean, on the one hand it is a fairytale. it's a, you know, what's actually happened? is it a time—travelling movie? yes. is it a ghost story? on the other hand, it's a story about a child dealing with grief. and it's... ithought it, i mean, ijust love... i think this is my favourite film of this year and i think celine sciamma is my favourite director. you're going to work your way through her back catalogue? oh, i'm absolutely determined now. i thought it was beautifully made. the two little girls in it are extraordinary. genius. she is so clever with child actors. and it looks beautiful — wistful, but in a very gentle way. i think it is about children dealing with grief — that was perhaps the main thing i took away from it — but there is a lot to absorb. and i noticed everyone in the cinema just sat and watched all of the credits roll because i think we were alljust thinking and thinking about that and absorbing it all. and there's that wonderful use of that tune at the very end — the kind of, the kids anthem, which is just overwhelmingly great. i mean, there is nothing wrong with this film. it is as near to a perfect film as i have ever seen and i, i really... i'm so glad you loved it... i loved it, i loved it. ..because otherwise, we would've had to stop doing this programme. chuckles. quick final thoughts about dvd or streaming? on dvd, candyman, the new version of candyman, 2021 reboot. the original was based on clive barker's short story, the forgotten. this one is produced and co—written byjordan peele and it takes an old horror text and does something new and inventive with it and i really liked it. lovely! well, good. that means... but not as much as petit maman. laughs. and the good news is we can be back together next week. thank you very much, mark, as ever, and enjoy your cinema—going, whatever you choose to see. see you next time. bye— bye. hello there. it's been another chilly day today, but whereas we had sunshine across large parts of scotland and northern ireland, there's been much more cloud across england and wales, and we had some rain and drizzle for a while. 0 o wrist of frost most nights in the know will be some snow again and some northern hills, and a winding night on tuesday and that will be quite a talking point, i think. a band of wet weather pushing eastwards during monday, briefly some snow over northern hills and then replaced by some sunshine and blustery showers coming into northern areas, those wintry and western parts of scotland again and a chilling wind blowing as well. temperatures in many places similar to what we had on sunday, but probably milder in the south—west of england and south wales. but things not to go downhill as we head into tuesday. this is the next named storm, a rapidly deepening area of higher low pressure heading in, that storm has been named by the irish net service where we are more likely to have the big wind gusts on tuesday, gusts widely 50 mph, possibly higher near the coasts, possible disruption as well. earlier in the day these bands in the west where we have a lot of rain, moving further northwards and eastwards into the uk, into the colder air still, so we are more likely to have some snow into northern england and scotland, 2— 5 centimetres more than likely in the southern uplands and the highlands of course. quite cold here, but the story is the strength of the wind and those stronger winds push eastwards through the day and then into the evening. then into wednesday the storm and area of low pressure starts to weaken and the winds started to ease across areas, and during the night on wednesday the south of the low to the south—west and the english channel, with the low pressure sitting over the uk, a bit ofa... story, with the low pressure sitting over the uk, a bit of a... story, coldest with some wintry showers in the highlands of northern scotland and northern england. so that continues to fill, so pressure rises across it, the storm weakens, the winds become lighter, so much lighter winds on thursday, may be a few mist and fog patches, much quieter day, most places dry, maybe a bit of sunshine around, but still quite cold air, temperatures ran 6— 8. so a very quiet day on thursday after the storm of tuesday. coming in from the storm of tuesday. coming in from the atlantic on friday we have this weather front, the atlantic on friday we have this weatherfront, but it the atlantic on friday we have this weather front, but it is very weak once again. it is mainly going to be western areas that see this band of cloud and rain and may be some snow over the scottish hills, the band of clouds with rain the peters out and we see some sunshine and showers coming into western parts of the uk, but still only 5 in the central belt of scotland, 6 in the south—east of england and east anglia. furtherahead, we south—east of england and east anglia. further ahead, we have another deep low pressure, but this i another deep low pressure, but this i is heading towards iceland, with some stronger atlantic winds heading our way at more unsettled weather to come in the outlook for the weekend and beyond, probably dominated more by low pressure, but we have the jet stream on here and there will be some disruption of the jet stream pattern, occasionally getting in some other air and then into some colder air as thejet some other air and then into some colder air as the jet stream pattern changes to a certain extent and get some distortion, but we are never likely to get into the colder air that we have got at the moment, so the outlook looks a little bit milder, but it is very unsubtle, showers, longer spells of rain and it is often going to be on the windy side. that is it, goodbye. this is bbc news the headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the pope makes a robust defence of migrants as he visits a greek camp denouncing europe's lack of compassion. translation: let us not let our sea be transformed into a _ desolate sea of death. another 86 cases of the omicron variant are confirmed in the uk. new travel rules are introduced, but can they slow the spread? volcano rescuers face vast ash clouds as they search for survivors on indonesia's java island. the former republican us senator and presidential candidate bob dole has died at the age of 98.