Letterboxd’s resident Ken Loach/Mike Leigh expert. Reviewer at The Geek Show & essayist of several Arrow Films DVD/Blu-ray titles. Currently contributing to Scarred For Life: Vol II, a book…
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Bloodstone 1988
Just a heads up/plug to say that the first pressing of the new Blu-Ray from Arrow Films of this '80s action adventure is released on 20th July, 2020 with a booklet featuring a new critical essay of the film written by yours truly.
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A Taste of Honey 1961
Made in 1961, A Taste of Honey tells the story of a working class Salford schoolgirl who meets, falls in love with, and falls pregnant to, a black British sailor. When he later leaves her, she plans to raise the child with her gay best friend. This was rightly called 'kitchen sink realism' at the time.
If made today in 2020, sneering half-witted cunts would call it 'woke'.
And they call it progress? You can keep it. Shelagh, take a bow.
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The Real Des: The Dennis Nilsen Story 2020
This documentary is a solid accompaniment to the ITV dramatisation of the case and is narrated by the star of that show, David Tennant. I have to say though that earlier in the week Channel 5 stole a march on them by repeating an edition of Born to Kill which featured on Nilsen and was blessed by the involvement of the lead detective who brought him to justice, Peter Jay, who has sadly died in the years between these documentaries.…
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Querelle 1982
An anachronistic, stylised and hardboiled gay fever fantasy, Querelle - an adaptation of Jean Genet's novel, Querelle De Brest - was the film farewell of Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1982.
Was this the natural conclusion to the German auteur's body of work, which had moved from new wave realism to melodrama, or was this meant to be the start of a new phase? Sadly we'll never know.
As a film, Querelle is hard to view for first timers now, with…
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I, Daniel Blake 2016
St Helens Disability Advice and Welfare Network, St Helens Jobcentre, Ashton-In-Makerfield Jobcentre, Huyton Jobcentre, Apex Charitable Trust, Shaw Trust St Helens, Starting Point St Helens.
Just some of the places I've worked at that involve helping people into work, getting people 'job ready' or dealing with people's benefit claims.
Jobseekers allowance, Incapacity benefit, Employment and Support allowance, Carers allowance.
Just some of the benefits I've claimed since (and between) those jobs.
I've ran jobclubs, CV making courses and jobmatch programmes,…
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Peterloo 2018
I find it amusing that people are trying to suggest that, because he followed Mr Turner up with this, Mike Leigh is currently on a historical trend. If you think that Peterloo is something that belongs to the past, then you're living in cloud cuckoo land.
The Peterloo Massacre of 16th August, 1819, may have occurred almost two hundred years ago now, but the event itself is still fresh in the memory. Why? Because we've seen it so many times…
