Tom Jennings's blog

Tom Jennings chuckles along with the pointed proletarian poignancy of Meadows’ latest chamber-piece.

Tom Jennings examines television and cinema stories about the US/UK ‘war on terror’ in terms of the notion that ‘war is the health of the state’.

Tom Jennings salutes the eyepatched crusader’s superhero child abuse revengers on their final outing.

The final series of The Street demonstrates the possibilities and limitations of its form – both of which may now disappear from television drama

This heartfelt debut film about dodgy decisions prompted by force of circumstance is several cuts above standard American independent cinema fare

Genre-bending postmodern agitprop, or hamfisted hackneyed magic realism? Tom Jennings reckons responses to Looking For Eric depend on how generous you’re feeling

This impressive UK hip-hop album is distinctive in both lyrical and musical humility, but with skills to spare

This beautifully judged rites of passage (non-) shaggy dog story combines searing critique with genuine pathos.

State of Play’s pretensions to contemporary relevance break down into a bungled bog-standard retro-romp, finds Tom Jennings

Venturing out of Westminster reveals the limits of The Thick Of It’s satire, concludes Tom Jennings

Fact-based South African television drama? Emphatically not, says Tom Jennings

Tom Jennings is disappointed, but not surprised, at this drama reducing the legacy of the North of Ireland Troubles to personal therapeutics.

Tom Jennings endorses the accolades accorded to ground-breaking American TV drama The Wire – but with reservations.

Tom Jennings detects much of the hellish intensity of David Peace’s ‘Yorkshire noir’ in Red Riding[’s television adaptations, but with its most subversive elements lost

The Baltic’s recent Fluxus show can’t entirely conceal the radical ambition and potential of avant-garde art, finds Tom Jennings.

Tom Jennings questions the documentary claims of film fictions of lower-class life.

Aspiring to reveal the long roots of 20th century America’s fantasies of itself, Lehane’s new book nails some while reproducing others. Boston Mendacity Party.