film
Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee, directed by Shane Meadows
Tom Jennings chuckles along with the pointed proletarian poignancy of Meadows’ latest chamber-piece.
Freestyle Manifesto. Film review – Tom Jennings
Film Fictions of the Iraq War
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’.
The Ill-Health of the State. Film review / essay – Tom Jennings
Frozen River, directed by Courtney Hunt
This heartfelt debut film about dodgy decisions prompted by force of circumstance is several cuts above standard American independent cinema fare
Borderline Psycho Sis. Film review – Tom Jennings
In the Loop, directed by Armando Iannucci
Venturing out of Westminster reveals the limits of The Thick Of It’s satire, concludes Tom Jennings
The Thin of It. Film review – Tom Jennings
Her whole life ahead, by Paolo Virzi (2008)
Story of a 25 year-old woman working in a call-centre, the movie is a grotesque and tragic-comic depiction of Italian precarious workers (original title: Tutta la vita davanti).
Marta, protagonist of the story, is an excellent philosophy graduate who, not being able to find a better job, ends up working in a call centre of Multiple, a multinational company selling futuristic and useless home appliances.
The Class, directed by Laurent Cantet - Tom Jennings
Tom Jennings attributes this film’s success to its subversion of educational orthodoxy veiled in high-liberal and Hollywood homilies.
Class Encounters of the Secondary Kind. Film review – Tom Jennings
Creating a Movement: The Struggle for Inclusive Education in the UK, 1990–2006, by Stefan Sczcelkun
Tom Jennings appreciates this snapshot of a campaign against the segregation of disabled people.
Anti-Ability Apartheid. DVD review – Tom Jennings
Amber Films and UK social-realist cinema
Tom Jennings questions the documentary claims of film fictions of lower-class life.
Hunting, Fishing, and Shooting the Working Classes. Film review essay – Tom Jennings
A sideways look at Pixar's films
A column from the Christmas 2008 issue of Freedom that looks at the subversion to be found in places as unexpected as Pixar's films.
A Sideways Look
Jar City, directed by Baltasar Kormakur (2007)
Jar City juggles the clichés of police procedurals and conventions from Icelandic myth to suggestively modern effect, finds Tom Jennings
Hardboiled and Hardwired. Film review – Tom Jennings
