paul2001sw-1 Reviews

Dead Man Running (2024 TV Special)

A sadly commonplace story behind the lurid headlines

[6/10 · 27 April 2024]

The story of Kim Avis is a sad one, but maybe less interesting than it might seem. A man with some money who played the role of hippy-drifer and charity fundraiser, he sexually abused and otherwise coerced young women in his adopted city of Inverness. Then, facing criminal prosecution, he fled to the U. S., and made a rather weak attempt to fake his own death. This programme tells his story and is quite interesting although not particularly profound. Perhaps if you lived in Inverness and knew him as a local celebrity, you might feel different, but me this felt like the tawdry story of of a selfish and manipulatice chancer, a Jimmy Saville figure writ small.

The Mauritanian (2021)

On civilisation and barbarity

[7/10 · 24 April 2024]

One can argue that a society shouldn't torture even its most committed enemies; or that torture is wrong because you might inflict it on the innocent. But one thing that is certain is that torture is a very bad way of finding out the truth: the guilty may confess, but the innocent will do so too, just to get the torture to end. Yet, in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2021 and the subsequent wars, the U. S. government rounded up those it suspected of involvement, imprisoned them without trial, and subjected them to torture. Kevin Macdonald's film 'The Mauritanian' tells the story of one such victim. At first the film is hard to get into: it raises the possibility of the suspect's guilt (a possibility it does not so much allay as subsequently ignore) and saves the story of his torture to the end; the tale of that torture is then told impressionistically, rather than as a precise claim of exactly what was done. Also, a man languishes in gaol for 14 years: where's the plot in that? But the essential truth of how people were treated has been very well established, and the film does us an important service by bringing this to a wider audience. If civilised people are defined by how we treat our enemies, the story is a major fail for the west.

Ministry of Evil: The Twisted Cult of Tony Alamo (2019– )

A compelling tale, but clumsily told

[6/10 · 21 April 2024]

Most religious cults ultimately boil down to a simple story of the founder's desire for money, control, and sex, and the story of Susan and Tony Alamo is no different. In some senses Susan seems to have been the more interesting figure; in the begining, she was the charistmatic (and scary) figure supposedly blessed by God; husband Tony, by contrast, was just the low-rent hustler who took over when she died, eventually deteriorating into an archetypal dirty old man. The complete absence of the idealism that, however misplaced, you often find in such tales makes this a one-dimensional series, and the production doesn't help, with plenty of weak reconstructions, intrustive music, and witness interviews too full of sound bites. Nonetheless, the story remains as compelling as it is horrific, even if it could have been told with a little more class.

The Dropout (2022)

Elizabeth's Big Adventure

[6/10 · 21 April 2024]

Elizabeth Holmes founded a healthcare company that lied to its investors, endangered the lives of its patients, and attempted to ruin anyone who dared expose the truth. It's a compelling story; the challenge for the makers of 'The Dropout' was how to humanise the monstrous individuals involved? This was done to great effect in 'Succession', which made one feel a degree of sympathy for mediocre people who were little more than the sum of their pathologies. But in this, 'The Dropout' isn't quite as successful. We see Holmes as someone with big dreams who fell in with the wrong people, almost as if the truth is that "this was a very bright gal, but things got out of hand". While she is shown as being criticised for taking her inspiration from Yoda, there's a part of this screenplay which seems to empathise, to suggest that the problem was that she wasn't quite good enough to be the next Steve Jobs, instead of considering that wishing to be the next Jobs/Musk etc. For its own sake is a deeply disturbing ambition in itself. I'm not convinced this is the most insightful portrait of Holmes that could have been produced; but I'm certain it's not the most telling indictment of our society that can be inferred from her story. I recommend Jim Carreyou's book, which is more to the point.

Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods (2024 TV Movie)

The truth about the war

[7/10 · 19 April 2024]

Fundamentally, war is always dehumanising, a licence to do things normally beyond the pale. 'Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods' follows a group of Ukrainian soldiers as they "heroically" risk their lives to repell the Russian invaders. Their cause is just, their willingness to sacrifice admirable; but the daily business of being a soldier is a grim one, even if the killing is now done as often by drone as by machine gun. It's sometimes said that there is no such thing as an anti-war movie, but this documentary is so unvarnished that it's hard to love its protagonists, and easier perhaps to feel sympathy for the men they are trying to kill. If Putin had a conscience there'd be a lot weighing on it.

Real Serpent: Investigating a Serial Killer (2024– )

Pointless and morally confused

[3/10 · 6 April 2024]

'The Real Serpent' is a strange, and morally confused, programme. Charles Sobhraj is almost certainly a serial murderer, one who has served time in prison for only some of his crimes, and also a vain publicity hound who has alternatively confessed to his guilt and protested his innocence. In this series, he agrees to be investigated and interviewed by some retired detectives, who review the evidence (which is mostly well-known; the story was only recently dramatised on television) and then basically tell Sobhraj that they've concluded he's guilty and is an awful human being to boot. In fact, they don't convince, as their technique is basically to talk over Sobhraj while accusing him of attempting to dominate the conversation! One can argue that the weight of proof means Sobhraj does not deserve fair treatment; but by the same token, why put him on TV (where he clearly wants to be) at all? The real story of the killings is terrible and compelling; but wheeling Sobhraj out to insult him adds no further insight.

The Card Counter (2021)

Mood is good, but the plot is disconnected

[7/10 · 4 April 2024]

The seedy world of professional gambling has always been a subject of interest to Hollywood, and Paul Schrader's film 'The Card Counter' has the expected vibe, as it follows a smart but essentially lonely character, with a younger sidekick in tow, who introduces us to how it's done. It also has a back story, our gambler having learnt his art while in prison for torture committed on behalf of his superior in the U. S. army, who has himself evaded punishment. In fact, this is really the main story of the film, and the gambling just a maguffin; the result is a film that feels unbalanced, where most of what we are shown is irrelevent to the deeper plot. Although it's well put together on a scene-by-scene basis, it doesn't quite cohere as a whole. A similar mood, but a more connected story, can be found in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Hard Eight', a superior movie in my view.

The Zaks Affair: Anatomy of a Fake Collection (2024 TV Special)

Constructing value

[7/10 · 27 March 2024]

This programme is an interesting investigation into how a large number of fake artworks have been sold in the market. While it manages to convince that the art in question is indeed fake, it doesn't wholly succeed in explaining the shady business that put them up for sale, although its fringes are exposed. One thing which is presented as particularly embarassing is that one such picture has recently featured in two major movies; but if this image caught the attention of the film-makers, shouldn't that be a better test of its value than who painted it? The art-world is a strange one, as what gets celebrated (and paid for) as great art is a social construct rather than an objective test. On one hand, therefore, this is a film about outrageous criminality; in another, it's a film about who gets to make the rules.

Nomadland (2020)

The absence of social security

[9/10 · 25 March 2024]

The phenomenon of old people, travelling across America in camper vans in search of temporary work speaks in part of the weakness of the country's system for providing its citizens with economic security; but also of the more difficult problem of providing people with social and emotional security. 'Nomadland' was an acclaimed non-fiction book, which director Chloe Zhao has turned into a fictionalised film. The early section focuses mainly on the economic question, and is grim, plausible, but also leaves one wondwering wherether documentary, telling actual stories rather than an archeypical recreation of them, might not have been a better way of covering this material. The film is stronger when it focuses more on the particularities of Frances McDormand's character, which is also an archeytpical story, but one which could not be conveyed in facts and figures. The cinematography is nicely judged, conjuring the beauty but also the unforgiving harshness of the American west. The wider message, presented matter-of-factly and without polemic, is harshness of contemporary capitalism for those who fall through the net.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (2023)

Astonishing but partial

[8/10 · 24 March 2024]

In Southern Estonia, women gather is the remote forest, get naked in heated cabins then cool themselves in the icy waters, sing songs about sauna, and talk, if this film is anything to go by, almost exclusively about the pain of being a woman in this world. It's a powerful piece, and the matter of fact way in which they share their darkest secrets is peculiarly affecting. Nonetheless, I felt I was only being told half the story. Who are these people, what are their relationships to each other in the outside world, what role does sauna play in their wider lives, and do they never just chat? The deliberately claustrophic construction of the film emphasises the sense of sisterhood, but are such profound shared experiences truly universal? Director Anna Hints has created something astonishing here, but also made it hard to place in ordinary life.

Lady Bird (2017)

Sparky

[7/10 · 18 March 2024]

Pre-'Barbie', Greta Gerwig was best known for her appearances in the films of her partner Noah Baumbach, set in a fictionally-dressed New York where everything is beautiful and cool. It's therefore something of a relief to find her first film as director features ordinary (and ordinary-looking) people, living in an ordinary town. The film's eponymous heroine is just a young woman, trying to negotiate her way through life. It offers a surprisingly nuanced take on a Catholic education; the girl's mother, however, is presented with less subtlety. Gerwig's style is to make the film with lots of short scenes, each one ending as soon as it delivers its point or punchline; this keeps the plot moving at a lively pace, but the movie never seems to dwell with its characters, and the purpose of each moment in the screenplay is always apparent. Whether due to budgetary constraints or aesthetic choice, the film begins and ends, rather bizarrely, with Lady Bird taking a fall which, instead of being shown for dramatic effect, occurs just off camera. Watchable throughout, 'Lady Bird' is not a bad film, but it's a little too direct to be a great one.

Huset (2023)

Grim, but well acted

[8/10 · 16 March 2024]

The great Sofie Grabol is one of an ensembl cast in 'Prisoner', a Danish drama that explores the nightmare of the prison system, mostly from the perspective of the guards. Grabol is good as expected, but the whole cast play their roles nicely, although it was probably guilding the lilly a bit to have all three of the major characters compromised (albeit in different ways) by their relationships to prisoners. In spite of this, the individual elements of the story have a grimly plausible feel, and reminds one of how unwilling we are as a society to take the custody and rehabilition of criminals with the seriousness it deserves.

20 Days in Mariupol (2023)

Truth as propaganda

[8/10 · 14 March 2024]

'20 Days in Mariupol' is unquestionably a propaganda film; but I believe it also tells the truth. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the closest thing to facism seen in Europe for many years; and it's heartbreaking to watch this film of a city under fire being gradually destroyed. Many of those caught on camera are not happy to be filmed; basically, because they're not happy full stop, as their lives are taken away from them. The film-makers risked their own lives to make this movie; but over two years later, the battle continues across the country. I don't know what the solution is; but the men who started the war, just because they could, are sadly not the kind of people to be haunted by such evidence at this of the enormity of their crimes.

Alice & Jack (2023–2024)

Love without life

[6/10 · 9 March 2024]

There are some television dramas that are simply bad: the plotting is implausable, the dialogue clunky, the acting wooden. 'Alice and Jack' doesn't have these problems; but in spite of this, it isn't very good. One problem it faces is a standard challenge for writers of romantic dramas: the viewer is expected to know that the central characters would be good together rather better than the characters themselves, as the drama lies in us watching them overcome the obstacles in their way. The obstacles faced by Jack in this drama are very simple: the Alice we meet is a selfish lunatic, the consequence of some deep family trauma. This makes it hard for the viewer not to simply wish that Jack will run a mile, so the story compensates by making Alice a genius. For example, when she decides to make amends, she simply lets him share in her ultimately successful plan to make millions speculating on oil futures. The whole framing is rather odd, as if her extraordinary qualities somehow excuse her obnoxiousness. The drama's other problem is something it actually does quite well, but does too much of. Most of us have some experience of falling in love, and of that sensation where everything in life seems heightened, in beauty as well as pain. Much of 'Alice and Jack' occurs in a gorgeous, almost hyper-real portrayal of the world; and in small doses, this would be fine, capturing how things might feel to its protagonists as key moments. The problem is that "much of" is a big understatement. Alice and Jack's entire world seems to consist of falling in (and out) of love with each other. This is not a story where mutual affection has to be squeezed in around the mundance realities of life; Alice's financial aptitude ensures there are no arguments about who's going to pay the rent this month, while all sympathetic figures in the story are good looking, and when tragedy strikes in the end, the central characters are both given those mysteriously beautiful and dignified deaths that sadly few people get off the television screen. I know some people have said they would have liked for Alice and Jack's best friends to be better developed, but personally I don't think much promise was missed there: they basically function as emotional support animals, dedicating their lives to the welfare of their fundamantally superior friends.

In summary, you could take a selection of scenes from this and make what looked like a trailer for the greatest love story ever told; but in fact, what we get in full is less of a story and more of a trailer spun out over six parts, all affect and no actual realism. The leading actors do their best with the material, but can't altogether save it.

The Space Shuttle That Fell to Earth (2024)

On the limits of human ingenuity

[8/10 · 27 February 2024]

Numerous people die daily in car crashes; but there's something horrific about reviewing the two disasters that affected the U. S. Space Shuttle programme, and the sense that people were sent to deaths they had absolutely no chance of doing anything about. This series follows the second, and less talked about, tragedy. The story is that the type of incident that doomed the Columbia could have been foreseen; NASA's management were insufficiently alarmed by the warning signs, and the huge cost of halting the programme was very likely a factor, even if a subsconscious one, in driving what in hingsight was obviously an error of judgement. If the failure was theoretically an avoidable one, it nonetheless does not feel surprising that it happened. One is left with a sense of admiration for the foolhardy courage of those who chose to fly; and wondering how long it will be before anyone follows again in their path.

Pearl Harbor, le monde s'embrase (2021 TV Movie)

Corny narration, compelling images

[7/10 · 25 February 2024]

This documentary gives us a fairly light-handed treatment of its subject material: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is completely covered in episode one, after which the second part gives us a potted treatment of the entire war in the Pacific, and some coverage of post-war events as well. And the voice-over leaves much to be desired, with its tiresome references to "Uncle Sam" and "the Empire of the Rising Sun". What it has in its favour are its images, it's amazing how much of World War Two was caught on camera, and re-touching the original footage makes it seem vivid and fresh. For those of us lucky enough never to have had to fight, it's actually pretty terrifying to watch. And for that reason alone it's worthwhile to do so.

Official Secrets (2019)

Amateurish

[3/10 · 25 February 2024]

You could make a nuanced film about official secrets: one that accepts that the government has the need, in general, to protect them, but about how they way they do so leaves the public with little protection from abuse of power. Or you could make a heart-on-sleeve film about a particular case, as this film does with its clear message: that the British government went to war in Iraq for bad reasons, and lied to the people about why it was doing so. I actually agree with that message, and as a true story, this film should be especially powerful, but 'Official Secrets' is sadly just amateurish. The sets are crude (bland signs put up on generic buildings to tell us what they are); bad acting (characters shout randomly to show they are angry); and masses of expositionary dialogue (even to the point where in one case someone tells someone else something they they would obviosuly already know, the script tries to cover this up by having the recipient of this information effectively reply "why are you telling me that?"). It cumulates in a courtroom scence where the judge tries to prevent the prosecution barrister from dropping his case, and the barrister defends his client by going far beyond his brief, acting as a (predictably unpersausive) government spokesperson. One can consider Katharine Gun a hero; but this is like a school play of her life.

Total Trust (2023)

A story but not a complete one

[6/10 · 22 February 2024]

Modern technology can increasingly track every aspect of our lives; and in few places is this put to greater effect than in China, whose state seeks to repress political dissent and encourage socially conformant behaviour. This documentary follows a group of (relatively affluent) Chinese who have found themselves on the wrong side of the government; while also looking more broadly at what how the powers of the state have grown. That rising affluence must lead to demoncracy has long been a totem in the West; it's alarming to see this assumption come under threat. It's an important story, but it doesn't completely work as a film: our dissidents can do little more than wait in fear, while the bigger picture (China's attempt to rate all citizens for their social compliance, or the growth of surveillence even in supposedly free countries) is hinted at but not systematically disected. I felt I could have learned more in 90 minutes.

Storyville: Another Body: My Ai Porn Nightmare (2024) Season 28, Episode 3

The AI is not the scariest part

[6/10 · 18 February 2024]

Modern tehcnology allows the creation of fake videos: there could be pictures of any of us out there, expertly morphed onto pornographic scenes, although it's much more likely if you're an attractive young woman. This film explores the impact such activity had on a number of such women targetted by a supposed friend. It's a shocking story, but I think it misses the greater point, which is not about AI at all but more about social media in general. Once a jilted teenager might write something offensive on a toilet wall about a girl who had spurned him; today there are large internet forums where people share so-called deepfakes. The actions of the perpetrators are truly terrible, but I can't help but think that the desire that somehow we should find a way of making the world of the web safe for all is a little naive. The power of social media is that it transcends the boundaries of normal human interaction; but its precisely the constraints of such interactions which can turn a mob into a community. AI gives harrassers a new and scary tool to play with; but as long as we seek our validation online, we will put ourselves at their mercy.

Wilderness with Simon Reeve (2024– )

As usual, Reeve combines enthusiasm and message to good effect

[7/10 · 17 February 2024]

Travel programmes are ten-a-penny these days, but I always enjoy Simon Reeve's. He usaully heads off the beaten track, and explore the complex tension between the conservation of nature and the provision of human livelihoods. In this series, he goes to four places where humans have, as yet, left a lighter footprint on the planet than many others; but the pressures are still mounting. Although he does not travel unsupported, you do get a feeling that he still perceives his trips as adventures, and he radiates a natural-seeming enthusiasm in spite of telling often gloomy stories. And much of that excitement comes through to the viewer.

Aftersun (II) (2022)

Not much happens

[4/10 · 16 February 2024]

Some films are full of dramatic action; others make the most of less. And some films of both types are highly efficient, telling you what you need to know in a single scene, whether that scence contains an explosion or just a telling glance. While some films let you spend time with their characters, to watch how they are, even if some scenes are formally unecessary or redundant if seen purely in terms of advancing the story. And generally I like films that are neither overly melodramatic nor hyper-efficient; I don't mind seeing a subtle story play out slowly. But I simply couldn't see the point of 'Aftersun', even though it was undoubetdly well acted. An eleven year-old girl goes on holidy with her still youthful, but mostly absent father. You quickly notice that each of them are emotionally protective around the other, and that something doesn't feel quite right. The mood is heightened through the intensinally confusing way the story is assembled, apparently as remembered by years later by the then-girl as an adult. But "not much happens" turns out to be pretty much a synposis of the entire film. Amind the general langour, I actually missed that we're meant to conclude that the father had committed suicide not long after the holiday; and even had I grasped it, the sadness of the daughter's remaining memories simply did not need ninety minutes to convey. Sometimes it really is better to let a single look tell the story, and move on with the story.

Boris Becker: The Rise and Fall (2023– )

The Case for the Prosecution

[6/10 · 15 February 2024]

The story of Boris Becker is fundamentally a sad one, even if the man himself struggles to attract too much sympathy. A brilliant young tennis star who made (and spent) a fortune, who has spent his adult life in an enless succession of short term relationships with younger, glamourous women, and who ended up jailed after trying to cheat while facing bankruptcy. There is a sense of someone who could never, after his extraordinary youth, never reconcile himself to a comfortable but otherwise unremarkable afterlife. This documentary explains how it happened, but it has a tabloid feel to it. Becker himself does not contribute (he gives his own interviews, for money, only where he can control the narrative) and we get, therefore, the case for the prosecution: we see a portrait of an arrogant man, many of whose past associates are only too willing to go on camera and say what is wrong with him. Maybe there is no case for the defence; but it feels a bit distatseful watching two hours learning about an apparently unlikeable (but not truly evil) man.

The Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020)

Trolling Mr. Kim

[7/10 · 12 February 2024]

The North Korean government is brutal, murderous, and yet has a handful of foreign lackeys who support its aims. This peculiar documentary covers the attempts of a retired Danish chef and a convicted drug dealer to investigate these networks through undercover infiltration, an absurdly dangerous thing to do, but also, something that appears in many ways more akin to trolling than journalism. Although it's clear from the start that they made it out alive, some elements of the story leave an awkward taste in the mouth: some Ugandan villagers are promised a new hospital, and threatened with eviction, as part of a fabricated scheme that appears to be spiralling out of control through the protagonists' love of the game. It's as if George Smiley was playing for laughs. The story is fun to watch mostly because it's so weird; but I'm not sure it reflects quite as well on its heroes as they might think. That it doesn't reflect well on North Korea either goes without saying.

Shadow Commander Irans Military Mastermind (2019 TV Movie)

Maybe not so shadowy

[7/10 · 12 February 2024]

Qassem Soleimani was a senior Iranian military commander, before his execution by American drones. The story of Iran's Islamic republic is fascinating, and sometimes frightening, but this programme is somewhat too prone to promoting him as an international man of mystery, even though its final interviewee essentially makes the case he was just a man, doing what he thought was right for his country, however strongly we may disagree. Consistent with this thesis, it would be hard to argue his death has much changed the world for better or for worst: only rarely do men rarely control the tides of history, which rather create their own heroes and villains.

TikTok: Murder Gone Viral (2024– )

Tabloid TV

[5/10 · 10 February 2024]

Detective stories can be fascinating: I love '24 Hours in Police Custody' and similar shows, which use contemporary footage to chart police investigations as they happened. 'TikTok: Muder Gone Viral', however, can only reconstruct events after the fact, with tabloid journalists filling in the gaps. The underlying crime is tawdry and ultimately tragic: after the end of a sexual relationship with a striking age gap, the rejected party attempts to extort the other, who then has her friends drive them off the road. The link to TikTok is rather faint: the woman, and her daughter, had both become semi-famous on the social network, but that's all. One can wonder if this fame had gone to their heads, or if it's a certain sort of crazy person who seeks viral fame in the first place; but the programme provides no insight into this. One reason '24 Hours' works is that it often invokes sympathy, for the victims and sometimes even for the criminals; but we don't learn enough about any of the protagonists here to truly understand them.