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Reviews
A Poet in New York (2014)
A rare treat
An absolutely superb film dealing with a subject which reeks with creative pitfalls. Tom Hollander's bravura uncompromising performance was matched by a supporting cast - Phoebe Fox and Ewen Bremner were fabulous in particular - that allowed the director (Aisling Walsh) to paint a picture of this great poet's desperately sad life without whimsy, and without clichés. Beautifully photographed and realised, this was the best biopic I have seen for a long time.The script written by Andrew Davies used the poetry to great effect and balanced Thomas's brilliant language with some effective and poignant dialogue - no mean feat. The integration of period footage of New York in 1952 was seamless - presumably colorised Black and White, but the cinematography, costume design and art direction added a modern atmosphere to the film instead of the often used lazy cod stylised attempts at period visual approximation which make the imagery seem so unrealistic and unbelievable. For reasons that seem baffling, it wasn't given much promotion by the BBC. No doubt the schedulers were too busy pushing the other ridiculous rubbish TV executives pepper their schedules with these days. This was great television drama. On a philosophical note: I know about that desperation and pressures Walsh/Davies so cleverly delineated, and I know how seductive New York can be from its seedy dives, its cocktails, its somewhat superficial parties, and its artistic magnetism. Tragic that all these attractions have the power to destroy so much talent, and in Dylan Thomas's case, at such a tragically young age.
House of Saddam (2008)
Exceptional television drama
The first episode of this drama series could have fallen into all the traps that recreations of modern history, and ancient history for that matter, fall into: Glib unrealistic portrayals of character; ridiculous over simplification; and sloppy historical inaccuracies. Alex Holmes with his production team and a brilliant cast avoided this brilliantly in the light of one over-riding handicap they had - All of us have our preconceptions and our own sketchy 'take' on the Saddam sagas presented by the media and by governments over the last 25 years in various forms of uneven levels of factual integrity, political expediency and rigor. Amazingly, despite this, I was able to accept the inevitable economies of scale limiting Holmes and his ingenious team, and was spellbound by the simple exposition of Saddam's corrupt, and corrupting modus operandi. The family dynamic was cleverly integrated with the political backdrop and viewers more interested in the subtext will not be disappointed. A grisly reminder that we have lived through an era when monsters exist within the human race and our world seems to be reluctant to learn from history and be more alert to their ability to operate, and cause tragedy and mayhem while we too often watch and allow them. Great telly too on a straightforward entertainment level.
Why We Fight (2005)
Profound engaging political documentary
This film, like its brilliant counterpart The Fog of War is a great and important documentary. Not only has its director paid the respect all documentary filmmakers must do to their audiences, engage them in territory they need to understand, but he has provided stories, characters and insights for his viewers in arena that they are inevitably unfamiliar with - an extraordinary feat considering the likely handicaps that Jarecki must have had when he started his mission. Not the least the he was opening up a can of worms within a notoriously protected and secret environment: the American war machine. Anybody who has any interest at all in US politics must see this film and any curious viewer who wants to have their eyes out on storks for a couple of hours must see this rigorous and profound documentary. Produced with the BBC and its great commissioning editor Nick Fraser, (Jarecki's collaborator on an earlier film about Henry Kissinger), this deserving Sundance winner proves that articulate, powerful political expression is alive and well in the United States. Hooray!