film
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
Linha De Passe, directed by Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas (Brazil, 2008)
Walter Salles returns to Brazilian social realism with “the best football film ever”, says Tom Jennings (with tongue firmly wedged in cheek)
Nils All. Film review – Tom Jennings
Somers Town, directed by Shane Meadows (2008)
Tom Jennings appreciates Shane Meadows’ sly cinematic commentary on our changing times in Somers Town’s low-key coming-of-age tale.
New Wave Goodbye. Film review – Tom Jennings
Standard Operating Procedure, directed by Errol Morris (2008)
In addition to its revealing ‘worm’s eye view’ of the Abu Ghraib scandal, Tom Jennings sees Standard Operating Procedure as a more general fable of modern governance.
Telling Tales of Torture. Film review – Tom Jennings
Gone, Baby, Gone: novel by Dennis Lehane (1999); film directed by Ben Affleck (2007)
Essay on contemporary US crime fiction comparing Dennis Lehane’s 1999 novel Gone, Baby, Gone with Ben Affleck’s 2007 film adaptaion.
Public Service Denouncement. Book and film review – Tom Jennings
Couscous, directed by Abdellatif Kechiche (France 2007)
Tom Jennings is captivated by Couscous and its sympathetic but unflinchingly honest portrait of an extended family struggling to make various ends meet.
The Fine-Grain of Community. Film review – Tom Jennings
Art - further reading guide
Libcom's guide to further reading around the subject of art, film, music and literature.
More information
General Problems of Culture
- Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture – Nelson/Grossberg, Eds.
- Recapturing Marxism – Levine/Lembcke, Eds.
Literature and Art
- The Dada Painters and Poets – Motherwell, Ed.
- The Dada Almanac – Huelsenbeck, Ed.
- The Situationist International Anthology – Knabb, Ed.
Gone, Baby, Gone, directed by Ben Affleck (2007)
Tom Jennings is relieved that Ben Affleck’s first film as director, the thought-provoking Gone, Baby, Gone, avoids the ham sentimentality of much of his acting
In The Best Interests of the Child
Craven New World. Film review - Tom Jennings
A comparison of UK near-future nightmares, including Taking Liberties, Faceless, Children Of Men, The Last Enemy, Exodus and Polly II: A Plan For Revolution in Docklands.
Craven New World, by Tom Jennings
Projectile debating
This post is coming a little later than would be usual, as I just took my first proper (non-anarchist-related) break in what seems like ages after Projectile finished and only just got back from it.
For those of you who aren’t up on what the Newcastle-based Projectile anarchist film festival does, it really provides the main northern answer to the London Anarchist Bookfair as the place for libertarians to get together (though Manchester, Bradford and Glasgow all have their own regular bookfairs, none are on quite the same scale).
Lust, Caution, directed by Ang Lee, 2007. Film review – Tom Jennings
Review of Ang Lee’s Chinese wartime espionage drama, the follow-up to Brokeback Mountain.
Sex, War by Tom Jennings
Sicko, dir. Michael Moore, 2007 Film review – Tom Jennings
Tom Jennings’ review of Michael Moore’s new documentary tragi-comedy on the American health (dis)service
Body Politics by Tom Jennings
Taking Liberties, written and directed by Chris Atkins, 2007. Film review - Tom Jennings
Reviews this documentary lambasting Labour's assault on freedom.
Doing the Rights Thing
The Yes Men, dirs. Dan Ollman, Sarah Price, Chris Smith, 2004. Film review
Review of the documentary about the corporate lampooners
The Maybe Men
Vera Drake, dir. Mike Leigh, 2004. Film review – Tom Jennings
Vera Drake vividly portrays the paradoxes of backstreet abortion without passing judgement.
Dilemmas of a Bleeding Heart
A History of Violence, dir. David Cronenberg, 2005. Film review
Tom Jennings applauds the success of A History of Violence in linking the attractions of action cinema to ideologies of control and conquest by force.
What A Man’s Gotta Do
A Dirty Shame, dir. John Waters, 2005. Film review
Of several summer film releases tackling themes of sexual expression and repression, this review judges A Dirty Shame the daftest, as well as the most radical.
Bad Taste and Good Sense by Tom Jennings
9 Songs, dir. Michael Winterbottom, 2005. Film review
Review of 9 Songs, the ‘dirtiest film ever shown in Britain’.
Going Through the Motions
Volver, dir. Pedro Almodovar, Spain 2006 (English subtitles). Film review
Review of Almodovar’s latest cinematic delirium
Women’s Troubles
V for Vendetta, dir. James McTeigue, 2006. Film review – Tom Jennings.
Tom Jennings reviews the latest botched adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novels.
‘V’ Signs and Simulations by Tom Jennings
