Powerful documentary recounting the events of the 1973 hostage taking inside John and Al’s Sporting Goods store in Brooklyn, New York. It speaks to all the people involved, cops, hostages, gunmen. And because the incident became a media circus, it’s full of contemporary footage showing exactly what went on. For me, this is another one…
From the success of Pictures From Afghanistan, David Pratt returns with Pictures From Iraq. He’s a photojournalist who has spent most of his career in the Middle East. He returns to speak to his contacts and fellow journalists there. Pictures From Afghanistan felt very personal, it was a memoir of his experiences of the country.…
The Hermit of Treig is a documentary about Ken Smith, who has lived for the past 40 years by himself in a log cabin of his own making on the hill overlooking Loch Treig. Now in his 70s, he must reckon with how his way of life will shape his end days. Originally from Derbyshire,…
Eat something before going to see this! Thank god I did, because you’d be ravenous within the first 5 minutes. Julia is a documentary on the life and legacy of Julia Child, America’s first TV chef. And it’s actually a pretty interesting life. Although cooking on television was what she was famous for, she didn’t…
Don Letts narrates the story of his life in Rebel Dread. It’s a pretty amazing life, being at the nexus of iconic cultural moments in music. Growing up in Brixton in London, when it was a Little Jamaica, it was a community of first generation Black Britons, Jamaican immigrant families, and working class white folks.…
My Old School got a standing ovation – and too bloody right! Absolutely cracking movie. It is a documentary about the Brandon Lee incident, when a 32-year-old man enrolled in secondary school as a 16-year-old boy. The reasons why are as bizarre as the story itself, but what makes the movie is it is not…
The Dissident tells the story of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. It is gripping, enlightening, and moving. This film was quite an eye-opener for me, going into a wealth of context I did not know. I followed the story in the news at the time, but my reaction was “Brutal regime murders journalist. No mystery…
Four and a half fucking hours that took! Fucking hell. I don’t know why you would insist on that being a movie rather than a miniseries. I mean, it’s the filmmaker’s perspective, but I dunno. Maybe he thought the minutiae of municipal governance wasn’t something that would get people tuning back in, and he needed…
My favourite bit in this is when he tells of getting the first exhibitions of his work, this wee Glasgow fella, son of a shipyard worker, and his painting is hanging in Kelvingrove Museum. It’s of Athole Gardens, which is on a slope, so the buildings look all askew in the frame. And there he…
Eeeeeee. A profoundly uncomfortable watch. Handsome is a documentary about Nick and his brother Alex, who has Down’s Syndrome, as they talk to other siblings in the UK, USA, India and Vietnam about providing lifelong daily care for a sibling with Down’s. So, as someone with lifelong mental health issues, my teeth are immediately set…