The Raven #11: On Class A generally poor edition of The Raven from July 1990. The article by Tom Jennings is good, as are the historical pieces by Gary Pattison and R.W…
The Hidden Injuries of Theory - Tom Jennings Tom Jennings talks about the real contradictions in Class War and questions whether revolutionary theorising doesn't disguise more particular…
Clampdown: pop-cultural wars on class and gender, by Rhian E. Jones A superb addition to Zero Books' list of slim volumes reaching the sociocultural-political parts…
Top Boy, series 2, by Ronan Bennett, Channel 4 Rather than glamourising, demonising or stereotyping ghetto criminals, this carefully crafted ensemble drama projects anti-social labelling back…
Top of the Lake, by Jane Campion, BBC2 This bewitching imaginary of symbolic expression and obscene realism has far more depth than your average TV police drama.
The East, directed by Zal Batmanglij A rare cinema fiction tackling radical environmentalism ties itself in knots trying to offer a 'balanced' argument
The Spirit of '45, directed by Ken Loach This elegy to the gains for ordinary people made in the UK after 1945 – now largely clawed back – fails to inspire due to its lack of analysis of…
Ill Manors, directed by Ben Drew, and The Angels' Share, directed by Ken Loach Official 'truth' being more dishonest as well as stranger than fiction, Tom Jennings looks instead…
Reacting to Reality Television, by Beverley Skeggs & Helen Wood A welcome and invaluable critical analysis of some of the effects of the genre on its viewers.
UK screen representations of youth in austerity Two decades-worth of British poverty porn reveals more than might be thought.
The War on Terra, by Verbal Terrorists “Rhyming for a reason, we ain’t here for the hell of it: Fuck ya deficit!” (Efeks, ‘Mass Production’)
Wuthering Heights, directed by Andrea Arnold Never mind the prissy costume drama bollocks. This raw punk historicism is a landmark, in several senses, of British cinema.
