Five Minutes of Heaven, by Guy Hibbert, BBC 2
Submitted by Tom Jennings on May 23 2009 15:06
Tom Jennings is disappointed, but not surprised, at this drama reducing the legacy of the North of Ireland Troubles to personal therapeutics.
The Wire, by David Simon and Ed Burns, BBC 2
Submitted by Tom Jennings on May 23 2009 15:00
Tom Jennings endorses the accolades accorded to ground-breaking American TV drama The Wire – but with reservations.
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).
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.
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.
The Dream of Fluxus, by George Macuinas
Submitted by Tom Jennings on Mar 21 2009 14:29
The Baltic’s recent Fluxus show can’t entirely conceal the radical ambition and potential of avant-garde art, finds Tom Jennings.
Amber Films and UK social-realist cinema
Submitted by Tom Jennings on Mar 21 2009 14:22
Tom Jennings questions the documentary claims of film fictions of lower-class life.
Review: Anarchy alive! Anti-authoritarian politics from practice to theory - Uri Gordon
Despite its interesting account of organisational preoccupations among global protesters, Tom Jennings doubts Anarchy Alive!’s coherence as theory.
Small Axe by Verbal Terrorists
Geordie hip-hop crew the Verbal Terrorists’ Small Axe brings forthright radical messages to agitate, educate and entertain. Tom Jennings goes with the flow.
The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane - Tom Jennings
Aspiring to reveal the long roots of 20th century America’s fantasies of itself, Lehane’s new book nails some while reproducing others.
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