Lloyd George: The People's Champion (2006)

UK
Television Documentary
Director: Jeff Morgan
Cinematographers: Mike Harrison, Colin Skinner
Presenter: Huw Edwards

Huw Edwards argues that history has done the eponymous politician no favours, positing the theory that he was in fact a great social reformer who just made a few mistakes along the way, in this well-made and interesting if slightly dry documentary. Iain.Stott

Gods of Brazil: Pelé & Garrincha (2002)

Best Avoided
France/Denmark/UK
Television Documentary
Original Title: Pelé, Garrincha, Dieux du Brésil
Writer/Director: Jean-Christophe Rosé
Narrator: Garth Crooks

An uninspired and rather cheep feeling documentary, consisting entirely of archive footage (admittedly often excellent, but why no interviews?), with a rather poor and perfunctory voiceover that adds no real contextualisation or serious analysis - hugely disappointing. Iain.Stott

The Pianist (2002)

France/Germany/Poland/UK
Feature Film
Director: Roman Polanski
Writers: Ronald Harwood, Wladyslaw Szpilman
Cinematographer: Pawel Edelman
Composer: Wojciech Kilar
Cast: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox, Ed Stoppard, Ed Stoppard, Julia Rayner, Jessica Kate Meyer

Despite some stunning scenes towards the end between Brody and Kretschmann, this incredible story of the eponymous musician Szpilman, chronicling his remarkable survival in Warsaw during the Second World War, is never really as affecting as it should be, suffering irrevocably from all the characters speaking English in silly accents rather than speaking Polish. Iain.Stott

Pickup on South Street (1953)

USA
Feature Film
Director: Samuel Fuller
Writers: Samuel Fuller, Dwight Taylor
Cinematographer: Joe MacDonald
Composer: Leigh Harline
Cast: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter, Murvyn Vye, Richard Kiley, Willis B. Bouchey, Milburn Stone

The fabulous Ritter’s is the pick of a number of excellent performances in Fuller’s muscular, grimy, and sweatily sexy film, following the often confounding actions of Widmark’s amoral pickpocket after he unwittingly becomes involved with a ring of Communist spies. Iain.Stott

Mole (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Writer: Richard Monks
Director: Marc Beeby
Cast: Lesley Sharp, Neil Dudgeon, Robert Lonsdale, Paul Rider, Manjeet Mann, Gunnar Cauthery

A touchingly amusing tale of loss, grief, guilt, obsession, and mole hills, depicting the different ways that a husband and wife deal with a crushing family tragedy. Iain.Stott

FCB: The Inside Story (2004)

Cautiously Recommended
UK/Denmark/Germany/Spain
Television Documentary
Promotional Title: Barca - The Inside Story
Directors: Daniel Hernandez, Justin Webster
Cinematographer: Jorge Mota
Narrator: Justin Webster

A fly-on-the-wall, warts 'n' all (minus the warts, and not a great deal of the all) documentary following, for a season, the newly elected board-of-directors at Barcelona Football Club, which, despite skirting around potentially difficult issues and only ever showing these slick young men as thoroughly nice guys, is often surprisingly (if perhaps superficially) fascinating. Iain.Stott

Communism and Football (2006)

Cautiously Recommended
UK
Short Television Documentary
Director: Séan Hughes
Cinematographers: Stephen Bye, Louis Caulfield
Narrator: Veronika Hyks

A rather one-sided but nevertheless entertainingly informative portrait of the oft exploitative and nefarious influence over football held by the various Communist regimes of the former Eastern Bloc. Iain.Stott

Solitary Endeavour on the Southern Ocean (2008)

Recommended
UK/Australia/USA
Short Television Documentary
Directors: David Michôd, Jennifer Peedom
Composer: Lisa Gerrard

A hard-to-watch account of adventurer/head-the-ball Andrew McAuley, who set out to become the first person to single-handedly kayak across the Tasman sea, tragically failing, leaving us to ask just why he attempted it in the first place? Iain.Stott

Pollock (2000)

Recommended
USA
Feature Film
Director: Ed Harris
Writers: Susan J. Emshwiller, Barbara Turner, Steven Naifeh, Gregory White Smith
Cinematographer: Lisa Rinzler
Composer: Jeff Beal
Cast: Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Connelly, Amy Madigan, Robert Knott, Jeffrey Tambor

Harris’s painfully stunning performance as the titular artist, Jackson Pollock, in this intelligent and nuanced portrait of said artist’s troubled relationship with his wife and fellow painter, Lee Krasner, beautifully adds a human face to the familiar paintings, and helps to create an astutely entertaining film. Iain.Stott

Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002)

USA
Feature Documentary
Director: Paul Justman
Writers: Walter Dallas, Ntozake Shange, Alan Slutsky
Cinematographers: Douglas Milsome, Lon Stratton
Composer: Alan Slutsky
Narrator: Andre Braugher

A gorgeous, delectable, and wondrous documentary, mixing delightful reunion/tribute concert footage with a wealth of touching, perceptive, and funny interview subjects, putting a human face on the history of Tamla Motown’s criminally underappreciated house band, The Funk Brothers. Iain.Stott

Hallam Foe (2007)

Not Recommended
UK
Feature Film
Director: David Mackenzie
Writers: David Mackenzie, Ed Whitmore, Peter Jinks
Cinematographer: Giles Nuttgens
Cast: Jamie Bell, Sophia Myles, Claire Forlani, Ciarán Hinds, Jamie Sives, Maurice Roëves, Ewen Bremner

Despite some brave, spirited performances, Mackenzie’s fairly disappointing film never really convinces, mainly due to some rather implausible plotting and some strangely misplaced soundtrack choices; but it just about manages to hold the attention, never the less. Iain.Stott

Motor City’s Burning: Detroit from Motown to the Stooges (2008)

Recommended
UK
Short Television Documentary
Director/Narrator: Ben Whalley
Cinematographer: Tim Sutton

An entertaining look at the Detroit music scene, taking in such diverse acts as the Supremes, The Stooges, George Clinton, MC5, Alice Cooper, and Eminem, and exploring the socio-economic conditions that helped to mould them. Iain.Stott

The Lady in the Van (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series Title: The Saturday Play
Writers: Gordon House, Alan Bennett
Director: Gordon House
Composer: Simon Morecroft
Cast: Maggie Smith, Adrian Scarborough, Alan Bennett, Marcia Warren, Matt Addis, Janice Acquah, Stephen Critchlow, Caroline Guthrie, Philip Fox, Jonathan Tafler, Malcolm Tierney

A whimsically playful and very funny portrait of Bennett’s real-life relationship with an eccentric, homeless old woman who lived in a van in his front garden for 15 years. Iain.Stott

The Motown Invasion (2009)

Recommended
UK
Short Television Documentary
Director: James Maycock
Narrator: Sean Carlsen

A loving and reverent documentary, chronicling Tamla Motown’s mildly disappointing 1965 UK tour, with a cracking array of interview subjects and, of course, a wonderful soundtrack. Iain.Stott

The Last Smoker (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series Title: The Afternnon Play
Writers: Julia Dover, Yasutaka Tsutsui
Director: Matt Thompson
Translator: Andrew Driver
Cast: John Byrne, Eileen McCallum, Madeleine Worrall, Stewart Conn, Madeleine Brolly

Dover’s Scots adaptation of Tsutsui’s short story, an agreeably histrionic satire set in a Japan of the near future in which smokers are treated like pariahs, is a mordantly funny work that asks important questions about the relationship between government, media, and the individual in terms of liberty. Iain.Stott

Comrades (1986)

Essential Viewing
UK
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Bill Douglas
Cinematographer: Gale Tattersall
Composers: Hans Werner Henze, David Graham
Cast: Robin Soans, William Gaminara, Jeremy Flynn, Keith Allen, Stephen Bateman, Philip Davis, James Fox, Michael Hordern, Freddie Jones, Alex Norton, Vanessa Redgrave, Imelda Staunton, Robert Stephens, Simon Parsonage

Douglas’s remarkable film – a lovingly unhistrionic portrait of the Tolpuddle Martyrs (a group of early 19th century British labourers sentenced to seven years’ transportation for having the temerity, what with them barely able to put bread on their families’ tables, to form a trade union in order to acquire a fair wage) – is a beautifully made and invaluable record of extremely important historical events. Iain.Stott

True North (2006)

Cautiously Recommended
UK/Ireland/Germany
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Steve Hudson
Cinematographer: Peter Robertson
Composer: Edmund Butt
Cast: Peter Mullan, Martin Compston, Gary Lewis, Steven Robertson, Angel Li

Hudson’s feature debut never really convinces in terms of realism - there is far too much that seems illogical, and the score, at times, is horribly intrusive - but as allegory, it is far more effective, painting a damning picture of the uncaring, exploitative, and all-consuming West. Iain.Stott

Brick Lane (2007)

UK
Feature Film
Director: Sarah Gavron
Writers: Laura Jones, Abi Morgan, Monica Ali
Cinematographer: Robbie Ryan
Composer: Jocelyn Pook
Cast: Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik, Christopher Simpson, Naeema Begum, Lana Rahman, Lalita Ahmed

A tender adaptation of Ali’s popular novel, taking a look at the lives of a number of Bangladeshi immigrants in London at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Gavron’s visually stunning and beautifully moving film delightfully captures the unpredictability, resilience, and changeability of human emotion. Iain.Stott

Tsotsi (2005)

Recommended
South Africa/UK
Feature Film
Director: Gavin Hood
Writers: Gavin Hood, Athol Fugard
Cinematographer: Lance Gewer
Composers: Paul Hepker, Mark Kilian
Cast: Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto, Kenneth Nkosi, Mothusi Magano, Zenzo Ngqobe, Zola, Rapulana Seiphemo, Nambitha Mpumlwana

Although the brilliant Chweneyagae’s street thug discovers his sentimental side after finding a baby in the back of a car that he has stolen, film-maker Hood never succumbs to his own schmaltzy side, and as a result this harrowingly authentic feeling film is never less than gripping and is ultimately really rather moving. Iain.Stott

Trouble in Amish Paradise (2009)

Recommended
UK
Short Television Documentary
Cinematographer/Director: Andrew Tait
Composer: Adrian Williams
Narrator: Ludo Graham

A rare look at Amish culture, albeit in the guise of two excommunicated families, but a fascinating and enlightening one never the less, and, in its depiction of basic human goodness in the face of overwhelming odds, is surprisingly heart-warming and ultimately even rather moving. Iain.Stott

......One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)

Recommended
UK
Feature Film
Writer/Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Cinematographer: Ronald Neame
Cast: Godfrey Tearle, Eric Portman, Hugh Williams, Bernard Miles, Hugh Burden, Emrys Jones, Pamela Brown, Joyce Redman, Googie Withers, Hay Petrie, Peter Ustinov
......One of Our Aircraft Is Missing provides a leisurely paced and unromantic depiction of an RAF bomber crew, shot down over Nazi-occupied Holland, as they make their way back towards the North Sea and home. Iain.Stott

The History Man (1981)

Highly Recommended
UK
Television Mini-Series
Director: Robert Knights
Writers: Christopher Hampton, Malcolm Bradbury
Cinematographer: John Kenway
Composer: George Fenton
Cast: Antony Sher, Geraldine James, Isla Blair, Paul Brooke, Peter-Hugo Daly, Laura Davenport, Michael Hordern, Miriam Margolyes, Veronica Quilligan

A continuously surprising and unpredictable journey through early ‘70s university campus politics, revolving around the fabulous Sher’s duplicitous, self-serving, perma-gum-chewing, moustachioed, womanising, Marxist sociology lecturer, Howard Kirk, perhaps the most unfathomably fascinating television character since James Bolam’s Jack Ford. Iain.Stott

Iran and the West (2009)

UK/USA/France/Belgium/Japan/The Netherlands/Sweden/Norway/Canada/Australia/Finland/Poland/Iran
Television Documentary Mini-Series
Directors: Dai Richards, Delphine Jaudeau, Paul Mitchell
Cinematographers: Emyr Jenkins, Farzin Khosroshahi, David Niblock, Richard Numeroff, Sheila Smith, Vladamir Trivic
Composer: Samuel Sim
Narrator: Tony Gardner

A fascinating, even-handed look at the continuously tortuous relationship between Iran and the West since the Islamic revolution of 1979, boasting a fabulous array of interview subjects from both sides of the divide, including a number of former presidents. Iain.Stott

Venus (2006)

UK
Feature Film
Director: Roger Michell
Writer: Hanif Kureishi
Cinematographer: Haris Zambarloukos
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Jodie Whittaker, Leslie Phillips, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Griffiths

Despite the odd trite moment towards the end, this stunningly well acted and beautifully photographed work, a tenderly written sort-of romance between the brilliant O'Toole’s on-his-last-legs actor and the eye-opening Whittaker’s alluring ingénue, is a foul-mouthedly funny and very moving film. Iain.Stott

Creep (2004)

Not Recommended
UK/Germany
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Christopher Smith
Cinematographers: Danny Cohen, Richard Craske
Composers: The Insects
Cast: Franka Potente, Vas Blackwood, Ken Campbell, Jeremy Sheffield, Paul Rattray, Kelly Scott, Sean Harris

For the most part, Smith’s (allegorical?) horror film is appropriately creepy and suspenseful, making the most of some spirited performances, but unfortunately some of it is merely unpleasant; a gynaecological torture scene, in particular, makes nauseous viewing. Iain.Stott

Ian Rankin's Edinburgh (2007)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Promotional Title: Ian Rankin's Hidden Edinburgh
Director: Richard Downes
Cinematographer: Jerry Kelly
Featuring: Ian Rankin

A brief and slight but nevertheless moderately entertaining and fairly interesting journey around some of Edinburgh’s more infamous locales in the company of Rebus author, Ian Rankin. Iain.Stott

New Town (2009)

UK
Short Television Film
Writer/Director: Annie Griffin
Cinematographer: Tim Palmer
Composer: Jim Sutherland
Cast: Rose Leslie, Mark Gatiss, Max Bremer, Daniela Nardini, Lucie Crystal, Cameron Bowie, Omid Djalili

This disappointingly half-baked short film from Griffin, potentially the first part of a six-part series, doesn’t really work as a stand-alone episode, but there are enough good ideas and interesting characters in its misanthropic, satiric, and delightfully playful shell to suggest that more instalments would be more than welcome. Iain.Stott

Contraband (1940)

Cautiously Recommended
UK
Feature Film
Director: Michael Powell
Writers: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell, Brock Williams
Cinematographer: F.A. Young
Composers: Richard Addinsell, John Greenwood
Cast: Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Hay Petrie, Joss Ambler, Raymond Lovell, Esmond Knight, Charles Victor, Phoebe Kershaw

Contraband is an entertaining if rather light and forgettable first collaboration between Powell and Pressburger, which, in its first half, a relaxed and amiable journey towards destinations unknown, gently points towards the future wonders that the partnership would produce, but in its second half, as spies are unmasked and motivations revealed, it all becomes a little familiar and rather tedious if, never the less, still reasonably entertaining. Iain.Stott

How Vietnam Was Lost (2005)

UK/USA
Television Documentary
Original Title: Two Days in October
Director: Robert Kenner
Writers: Allen Rucker, Paul Taylor, David Maraniss
Cinematographer: Buddy Squires
Composer: Mark Adler

How Vietnam Was Lost is a powerful and devastatingly moving account, by those involved (and from all sides), of two disparate events – a sit-in and a jungle battle – in October 1967, which would go on to have a great and lasting influence upon American public perception of the Vietnam war. Iain.Stott

Ghosts of the 7th Cavalry (2009)

Highly Recommended
UK/Germany/Japan/USA/Australia
Television Documentary
Writer/Director: Tom Roberts
Cinematographers: Petra Graf, Tom Roberts, Jonathan Partridge
Featuring: Major Robert 'Snuffy' Gray

Using the unique story of Major Robert 'Snuffy' Gray, a veteran of three wars and an adopted member of the Lakota Indian tribe, as its centre-point, this beautifully paced and often painfully moving depiction of the broken lives of a number of veterans, paints a portrait of war as an endless and deeply human tragedy. Iain.Stott

And When Did You Last See Your Father (2007)

UK/Ireland
Feature Film
Director: Anand Tucker
Writers: David Nicholls, Blake Morrison
Cinematographer: Howard Atherton
Composer: Barrington Pheloung
Cast: Jim Broadbent, Colin Firth, Juliet Stevenson, Gina McKee, Sarah Lancashire, Elaine Cassidy, Claire Skinner, Matthew Beard, Bradley Johnson

A well-acted, beautifully drawn, and humorously touching portrait of a world-weary son’s regret-tinged remembrance of the up-and-down relationship that he shared with his once gregarious father, as he helplessly watches his emaciating shell quietly waste away on his death-bed. Iain.Stott

The Hide (2008)

Recommended
UK
Feature Film
Director: Marek Losey
Writer: Tim Whitnall
Cinematographer: George Richmond
Composer: Debbie Wiseman
Cast: Alex MacQueen, Phil Campbell

Marek (grandson of Joseph) Losey’s debut - a predictably unpredictable and stunningly photographed film, set in a birdwatchers’ hide, with a cast of just two disparate and ill-matched characters - is a blackly funny, wickedly playful, and unsettlingly perceptive film that demands to be consumed rather than just passively watched. Iain.Stott

Home (2003)

Highly Recommended
UK
Short Television Film
Director: Richard Curson Smith
Writers: Richard Curson Smith, J.G. Ballard
Cinematographer: Jeff Baynes
Composer: Andrew Phillips
Cast: Antony Sher, Deborah Findlay, Matilda Ziegler, Keith Allen, Guy Henry, Simon Nagra

Richard Curson Smith's short film is a wickedly inventive and blackly humorous adaptation of Ballard’s short story, The Enormous Space, which sees the brilliant Sher’s jilted husband suffer the most horrendously stomach-churning mental breakdown, either caused by or the cause of his decision to never again leave the safe confines of his (expanding?) home. Iain.Stott

The Beast Within (1890)

France
Novel
Original Title: La bête humaine
Author: Émile Zola
Translator: Roger Whitehouse (2007)

Zola’s wonderfully insightful journey into the criminal mind - depicting a number of grisly murders and torrid affairs on the railways of northern France - is an unflinchingly violent look at the innate bestial side of man that is usually hidden by societal conformity. Iain.Stott

Turtles Can Fly (2004)

Iraq/Iran/France
Feature Film
Original Title: Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand
Writer/Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Cinematography: Shahriar Assadi
Composer: Hossein Alizadeh
Cast: Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Saddam Hossein Feysal, Hiresh Feysal Rahman, Abdol Rahman Karim, Ajil Zibari

Ghobadi’s beautiful and often funny film, taking a child’s-eye view of life in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi border with Turkey just before the American-lead invasion, is a heart-warming yet devastatingly sad tale of human resourcefulness, resilience, compassion, and cruelty. Iain.Stott

Prostitution: Behind the Veil (2004)

Recommended
Sweden, Denmark, Norway, UK
Short Television Documentary
Original Title: Prostitution bakom slöjan
Director/Cinematographer/Narrator: Nahid Persson

An eye-opening look at the little seen world of Iranian prostitution and drug abuse, but one of questionable authenticity – everyone seems to be just a little too comfortable performing illegal acts in front of the camera – an affecting one none the less. Iain.Stott

Iran and Britain (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Presenter: Christopher de Bellaigue

An informative and enlightening look at the history of the often tortuous relationship between Iran and Britain, highlighting colonial crimes, Persian paranoia, and the ever-present influence of oil and religion. Iain.Stott

Moses Jones (2009)

Cautiously Recommended
UK
Television Mini-Series
Director: Michael Offer
Writer: Joe Penhall
Cinematographer: Tim Fleming
Cast: Shaun Parkes, Matt Smith, Eamonn Walker, Jude Akuwidike, Wunmi Mosaku, Sonila Vjeshta, Obi Abili, Dennis Waterman, Femi Elufowojo, David Fishley

This grimly diverting BBC crime series, centring on murder and corruption within the Ugandan immigrant community in London, boasts some cracking performances, with Parkes and Akuwidike being particularly excellent, although soon-to-be-the-Doctor Matt Smith is really rather bland, and the script contains perhaps one or two too many clichés and implausibilities to be totally convincing. Iain.Stott

To Be First (2007)

Recommended
UK
Television Film
New Title: The First New Heart
Writer/Director: Patrick Reams
Cinematographer: Giulio Biccari
Composer: Ruth Barrett
Cast: Rupert Graves, Ben Miles, Darrell D’Silva, Claire Berlein, Warrick Grier, Nigel Sweet, Nola Collins, Adam Neill, Stephen Jennings

Reams’s compelling television film, depicting the race to perform the world’s first human heart transplant, is a naturalistically shot and acted work that not only captures the pertinent facts of the events, but also manages to paint a moving and insightful portrait of human desires and failings. Iain.Stott

Joan of Arc, and How She Became a Saint (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series: The Saturday Play
Writer/Director: Patrick Barlow
Cast: Dawn French, Anne Reid, Maggie Steed, Nell Barlow, John Ramm, Kevin Eldon, Cheryl Campbell, Marc Wootton, Patrick Barlow, Andrew Dunn, Samuel Barnett, Jim Broadbent, Beth Nestor, Carrie Quinlan, Humphrey Ker, David Reed, Thom Tuck

An hilariously irreverent and wonderfully performed look at the life and times of Jeanne d’Arc, cowherd turned freedom-fighter, who, under heavenly orders, attempted to drive the “bastard English” out of France, and one that highlights the tragic absurdity of pretty much everything. Iain.Stott

The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995)

Recommended
UK /Germany/France/USA
Feature Film
Director: Benjamin Ross
Writers: Jeff Rawle, Benjamin Ross
Cinematographer: Hubert Taczanowski
Composers: Robert Lane, Frank Strobel
Cast: Hugh O'Conor, Tobias Arnold, Ruth Sheen, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Norman Caro, Charlotte Coleman, Antony Sher

The irreverent, blackly comic tone - that may offend some people - of this entertainingly insightful film, perfectly captures the mindset of detached real life killer, Graham Young, in this slightly fictionalised and delightfully acted account of said poisoner’s nefarious teenage years. Iain.Stott

Samuel Johnson: The Dictionary Man (2006)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Writer/Director: Richard Alwyn
Cinematographer: Richard Rankin
Cast: Roger Ashton-Griffiths

An informative and pleasingly human portrait of perhaps the most famous of dictionary writers, Samuel Johnson, charting his journey from humble origins to literary stardom. Iain.Stott

Rumpole and the Right to Privacy (2007)

UK
Radio Play
Series: The Afternoon Play
Writer: John Mortimer
Director: Marilyn Imrie
Cast: Timothy West, Prunella Scales, David Shaw-Parker, Nigel Anthony, Elaine Claxton, Anton Rodgers, Stephen Critchlow, Kim Durham, Joanna David

An entertaining and typically humorous radio play, that highlights the often hypocritical relationship that public figures have with the media. Iain.Stott

Rumpole and the Teenage Werewolf (2006)

UK
Radio Play
Series: The Afternoon Play
Writer: John Mortimer
Director: Marilyn Imrie
Cast: Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Felicity Montague, Nicholas Le Prevost, Philip Jackson, Matt Smith, Karl Johnson, Sean Baker, Ellie Beaven

A quite hilarious if rather predictable radio play, with the verbose Rumpole defending a teenage boy accused of sending offensive e-mails to a school mate; the twist can be seen a mile away, but it’s hugely entertaining none the less. Iain.Stott

Monsieur Monde Vanishes (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series: The Afternoon Play
Writers: Ronald Frame, Georges Simenon
Cast: Richard Greenwood, Claire Knight, Emma Currie, Eliza Langland, Crawford Logan, Nick Underwood

A mildly diverting if disappointingly uninvolving adaptation of Simenon’s tale of existential crisis and provincial debauchery, with Greenwood’s titular performance being particularly bland. Iain.Stott

The Machine That Made Us (2008)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Director: Patrick McGrady
Cinematographer: Jeremy Irving
Presenter: Stephen Fry

An entertaining if rather speculative look at the invention and construction of the world’s first printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 15th century Germany. Iain.Stott

How Reading Made Us Modern (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Director: Sarah Howitt
Presenter: Professor John Mullan

A well-enough-made if rather uninspired and not particularly insightful look at the growth in popularity of reading since the late 17th century, exploring the social significance of increased accessibility to literature for the average person. Iain.Stott

Disco Pigs (2001)

Not Recommended
Ireland
Feature Film
Director: Kirsten Sheridan
Writer: Enda Walsh
Cinematographer: Igor Jadue-Lillo, Peter Robertson
Composer: Gavin Friday, Maurice Seezer
Cast: Elaine Cassidy, Cillian Murphy, Brian F. O'Byrne, Eleanor Methven, Geraldine O'Rawe, Darren Healy, Sarah Gallagher, Charles Bark, Tara Lynne O'Neill

Cassidy and Murphy are stunning and it’s beautifully photographed, but despite the film’s various pleasures, this violent, twisted fairy tale of a film, an examination of obsessive love and mental illness, is a really rather unpleasant and hard to watch experience. Iain.Stott

Red Rock West (1992)

Recommended
USA
Feature Film
Director: John Dahl
Writers: John Dahl, Rick Dahl
Cinematographer: Marc Reshovsky
Composer: William Olvis
Cast: Nicolas Cage, J.T. Walsh, Lara Flynn Boyle, Dennis Hopper, Timothy Carhart

Though it never reaches the heights of his subsequent The Last Seduction or the Coens’ Blood Simple, which it resembles more than a little, Dahl’s seedily entertaining thriller, following Cage’s cash-strapped drifter as he becomes perilously involved with various low-lifes in the small town of Red Rock, is a nevertheless squalidly piquant experience. Iain.Stott

Breakdown (1997)

Cautiously Recommended
USA
Feature Film
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Writers: Sam Montgomery, Jonathan Mostow
Cinematographer: Doug Milsome
Composer: Basil Poledouris
Cast: Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan, M.C. Gainey, Jack Noseworthy, Rex Linn, Ritch Brinkley

This entertainingly silly thriller, which sees Russell’s polo-shirt-sporting action-man go up against some unwashed, baseball-cap-wearing ruffians in order to rescue his kidnapped wife, either exploits or is indicative of bourgeois paranoia about uncouth provincial types - either way, it’s a harmlessly thrilling ride. Iain.Stott

The Need for Nonsense (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series: The Afternoon Play
Writer: Julia Blackburn
Director: Mary Ward-Lowery
Cast: Andrew Sachs, Alexi Kaye-Campbell, Mark Meadows, Ross Mackendrick, James Rastall, Kim Hicks

Sachs and Kaye-Campbell are quite wonderful in this charmingly funny and gently touching portrait of the eccentric and irreverent relationship between the nonsense poet, Edward Lear, and his Greek manservant, Giorgio. Iain.Stott

Why Do We Dream? (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Series Title: Horizon (1964-)
Director: Charles Colville

A dreamily and beautifully shot documentary, exploring the many and varied theories behind the significance of dreams and nightmares, and an entertainingly thought-provoking one at that. Iain.Stott

Heavy Load (2008)

Recommended
UK
Short Television Documentary
Director: Jerry Rothwell
Cinematographer: Stephanie Hardt
Composer: Max de Wardener
Featuring: Simon Barker, Jimmy Nichols, Paul Richards, Michael White, Mick Williams

Rothwell's documentary provides a simple, human, and life-affirmingly entertaining portrait of the thrash-punk band Heavy Load, a band comprising of members with and without learning difficulties, specialising in joyously uncompromising covers of iconic pop and rock songs. Iain.Stott

Orchestra Seats (2006)

Recommended
France
Feature Film
Original Title: Fauteuils d'orchestre
Director: Danièle Thompson
Writers: Christopher Thompson, Danièle Thompson
Cinematographer: Jean-Marc Fabre
Composer: Nicola Piovani
Cast: Valérie Lemercier, Cécile De France, Albert Dupontel, Claude Brasseur, Christopher Thompson, Dani, Laura Morante, Suzanne Flon, Sydney Pollack, François Rollin, Guillaume Gallienne, Annelise Hesme, Françoise Lépine, Michel Vuillermoz

Thompson’s delightful, Altmanesque, ensemble comedy-drama, a gently human look at a number of disparate lives at a point of reformation, regeneration, and transformation, is a wondrously acted, beautifully written, and thoroughly entertaining film. Iain.Stott

Why Reading Matters (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Series Title: Horizon (1964-)
Director: Chris Hale
Presenter: Rita Carter

A fascinating and enlightening if occasionally rhetorical examination of the effects of reading on the brain, and one that, despite listing the many and varied benefits of reading, never really lives up to its title and convinces us of reading’s indispensability. Iain.Stott

Beautiful City (2004)

Iran
Feature Film
Original Title: شهر زیبا
Writer/Director: Asghar Farhadi
Cinematographer: Ali Loqmani
Composer: Hamidreza Sadri
Cast: Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Ansari, Faramarz Gharibian, Ahu Kheradmand, Hossein Farzi-Zadeh

Farhadi’s complex yet subtle tale, exploring the moral ambiguities of corporal punishment, is a film that provokes us to ask difficult questions about difficult issues, questions that the film never really answers, as born out by the enigmatically unresolved ending, but he so beautifully paints a picture of a world that contains so many sympathetic yet conflicting characters, that a satisfactory resolution would simply not be possible. Iain.Stott

Children of Heaven (1997)

Iran
Feature Film
Original Title: بچه های آسمان
Writer/Director: Majid Majidi
Cinematographer: Parviz Malekzaade
Composer: Keivan Jahanshahi
Cast: Mir Farrokh Hashemian, Bahare Seddiqi, Amir Naji, Fereshte Sarabandi, Nafise Jafar-Mohammadi

Majidi’s heart-warming film, encompassing cute children, dire poverty, lost shoes, and some rather improbable and nonsensical plotting, somehow manages to avoid the sentimentality that such a tale would normally embrace, and instead comes across as an ode to love, kindness, and determination that, against all the odds, is beautifully moving rather than painfully corny. Iain.Stott

Rageh Inside Iran (2007)

Cautiously Recommended
UK
Television Documentary
Director: Paul Sapin
Cinematographer: John Sayers
Presenter: Rageh Omaar

A generally fascinating and revealing documentary, exploring the everyday lives of a diverse cross-section of Tehranians, that points up the universalities of the human condition and the cultural specificities of Iranian life; but, unfortunately, much of it feels staged, and in fact some of it quite clearly is so, although, I should think, for artistic rather than journalistic reasons. Iain.Stott

On the Ceiling (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series Title: The Saturday Play
Writer: Nigel Planer
Director: Mary Peate
Composer: Adam Cork
Cast: Phil Daniels, Bryan Dick, Gary Waldhorn, Roger Lloyd Pack

An irreverent yet insightful and absolutely hilarious look at the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, seen through the eyes of two of his assistants, providing us with a stream of evocative imagery: from Michelangelo’s description by Pope Julius and Cardinal Alidosi as ‘obsessive, compulsive, and a bit smelly’ to numerous conversations about buttocks and the merits and failings of various great artists. Iain.Stott

Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Writer/Presenter: David Attenborough

Attenborough’s concise but thorough documentary, a beautifully enthusiastic look at the evolution of life on earth, devoting rather less time to Darwin than the title would suggest, is a nigh indispensable work of television, and further evidence of the BBC’s continuing level of excellence of production of accessibly informative factual programming. Iain.Stott

...Around (2008)

Recommended
USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: David Spaltro
Cinematographer: David A. Barkan
Composer: Vita Tanga
Cast: Rob Evans, Molly Ryman, Marcel Torres, Berenice Mosca, Ron Brice, Veronica Heffron, David Joseph Boyd, Erin Sullivan, Ali Tobia, Amy Hoerler, Julie Tran

Spaltro’s ultra-low budget, self-financed, quickly shot debut, a semi-autobiographical tale of a young film student’s failure to make ends meet in New York City, where he end up living on the streets, is, particularly in the light-hearted and breathlessly paced first couple of acts, rather rough and ready, but as the film progresses and the pace slackens and the tone becomes more dramatic, allowing the complicated characters more room to breathe, the film ends up, thanks in no small part to Evans’s wholehearted performance, becoming a thoroughly rewarding and really rather moving experience. Iain.Stott

Shirley Valentine (1989)

UK
Feature Film
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Writer: Willy Russell
Cinematographer: Alan Hume
Composer: Willy Russell
Cast: Pauline Collins, Tom Conti, Alison Steadman, Julia McKenzie, Joanna Lumley, Bernard Hill, Gillian Kearney, Tracie Bennett

Collins is outstanding as the titular housewife in this funny, touching, and melancholic adaptation of Russell’s acclaimed play; an insightful look at the politics of sex and marriage, and a beautiful lament to forgotten hopes and dashed dreams. Iain.Stott

The Devil's Whore (2008)

Recommended
UK
Television Mini-Series
Director: Marc Munden
Writer: Peter Flannery
Cinematographer: Julian Court
Composer: Murray Gold
Cast: Andrea Riseborough, John Simm, Dominic West, Peter Capaldi, Michael Fassbender, Tom Goodman-Hill, Maxine Peake

The ridiculously gorgeous Riseborough’s wonderful performance as the eponymous lady, Angelica Fanshawe, forms the heart of this entertaining mini-series, that takes a not-entirely-historically-accurate look at events of the English Civil War (1642–51); it garners acclaim for its bloody and unromantic depiction of death, violence, and war, but loses as much for its unrelentingly quick pacing, that gives the viewer little chance to breathe. Iain.Stott

Three Came Home (1950)

Recommended
USA
Feature Film
Director: Jean Negulesco
Writers: Nunnally Johnson, Agnes Newton Keith
Cinematographer: Milton Krasner
Composer: Hugo Friedhofer
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Patric Knowles, Florence Desmond, Sessue Hayakawa, Sylvia Andrew, Mark Keuning, Phyllis Morris, Howard Chuman

With Hayakawa’s heartbreakingly beautiful performance, this surprisingly even-handed (for Hollywood, at least) account of the true story of an American writer’s time in an internment camp during the Second World War, is a really rather moving look at the cruelty, compassion, humour, and resilience of human experience. Iain.Stott

My New Best Friend (2008)

Recommended
UK
Television Documentary Mini-Series
Directors: Jo Abel, Sasa Maja Djurkovic

A touching look at a number of ethnically, culturally, geographically, and economically diverse eleven-year-olds from across the UK as they make the often traumatic transfer from primary to secondary school, highlighting the similarities, differences, universalities, and specificities of the process of making new friends and keeping old ones. Iain.Stott

Phumzile (2009)

UK
Radio Play
Series Title: The Afternoon Play
Writer: Matthew Hurt
Director: Claire Grove
Cast: Nadine Marshall, Syan Blake, Matt Addis, Stephen Hogan, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett

A heartfelt look at the complicated relationships between African poverty & AIDS and European attitudes, and one that asks some awkward questions about some important issues, issues which unfortunately tend to be highlighted at the expense of interesting, rounded characters; a noble effort nonetheless. Iain.Stott

Monkeyface (2006)

UK
Radio Play
Series: The Afternoon Play
Writer: Linda Marshall Griffiths
Director: Nadia Molinari
Cast: Aidan Parsons, Rachel Brogan, Siobhan Finneran, Craig Cheetham, Charlie Ryan

A stunning, impressionistic portrait of the harsh childhoods of two fatherless Manchester siblings, rather reminiscent of the films of Terence Davies, it manages to be simultaneously bleakly depressing and achingly beautiful as its heartbreaking tale unfolds. Iain.Stott

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

Cautiously Recommended
USA
Feature Film
Director: Jean-François Richet
Writers: James DeMonaco, John Carpenter
Cinematographer: Robert Gantz
Composer: Graeme Revell
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne, Maria Bello, Drea de Matteo, John Leguizamo, Brian Dennehy, Jeffrey 'Ja Rule' Atkins, Currie Graham

This mildly entertaining remake of Carpenter’s film suffers in comparison to the original by taking itself rather too seriously, but it’s well enough made with some decent performances, Hawke’s being typically eye-catching, but Fishburne’s turn is restrained to the point of paralysis. Iain.Stott

Monk: Season 6 (2007-2008)

USA
Television Series
Creator: Andy Breckman
Cast: Tony Shalhoub, Traylor Howard, Ted Levine, Jason Gray-Stanford, Stanley Kamel, Emmy Clarke

Despite a couple of episodes early on in the season that border on self-parody, the sixth season of this imaginatively entertaining detective show is, with its usual mix of sharp writing and excellent comic performances, just as ingenious, funny, and addictive as ever. Iain.Stott

Old Joy (2006)

Recommended
USA
Feature Film
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writers: Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt
Cinematographer: Peter Sillen
Composer: Yo La Tengo
Cast: Daniel London, Will Oldham

Reichardt’s elegiac film – a gentle exploration of a dying friendship, set against the backdrop of a flailing country, with gorgeous cinematography and a hypnotic natural soundtrack – proves to be an enigmatically moving experience. Iain.Stott

One False Move (1992)

Recommended
USA
Feature Film
Director: Carl Franklin
Writers: Tom Epperson, Billy Bob Thornton
Cinematographer: James L. Carter
Composers: Peter Haycock, Derek Holt
Cast: Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Beach, Jim Metzler, Earl Billings, Natalie Canerday, Robert Ginnaven, Kevin Hunter

A beautifully nuanced, even-handed, and non-judgemental exploration of cultural and racial differences, as well as suspense-filled crime thriller from Franklin, that follows a small town police chief and two Los Angeles officers as they await the arrival of three suspected murderers in a small Arkansas town. Iain.Stott

Cannabis: The Evil Weed? (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Series: Horizon (1964-)
Writer/Director: Annabel Gillings
Cinematography: Tim Cragg
Featuring: Dr. John Marsden

A fascinating, even-handed, and well-made (despite the occasional ostentatious close-up) documentary, examining the origins, benefits, dangers, and highs & lows of Cannabis and its various uses, that comes to a conclusion that will not go down well with the Daily Mail reading members of the populace. Iain.Stott

Darwin's Struggle: The Evolution of the Origin of Species (2009)

UK
Short Television Documentary
Writer/Producer: Jeremy Bristow
Composer: Max Richter
Narrator: Deborah MacLaren

A thoroughly compelling and deeply human documentary, examining the brave, tentative steps that Charles Darwin took towards publishing The Origin of Species, a book and theory that would change the face and path of scientific theory and social history. Iain.Stott

The Dish (2000)

Cautiously Recommended
Australia
Feature Film
Director: Rob Sitch
Writers: Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy, Rob Sitch
Cinematographer: Graeme Wood
Composer: Edmund Choi
Cast: Sam Neill, Patrick Warburton, Roy Billing, Kevin Harrington, Genevieve Mooy, Taylor Kane, Billie Browne, Anderw S Gilbert, Eliza Szonert

A professional if slightly uninspired and rather Hollywoodised account (the Hollywood-like score is particularly ghastly) of Australia’s part in the televising of the first moon landings in 1969, but a fairly entertaining one never the less, and the no-worries Aussie kookiness that infuses much of it is often quite amusing. Iain.Stott

Rab C. Nesbitt: Fitba (1991)

UK
Television Series Special
Writer: Ian Pattison
Cast: Gregor Fisher, Tony Roper, Eric Cullen, Stanley Baxter

An often laugh-out-loud funny one-off special, following the ever-sozzled, philosophising Glaswegian, Rab C. Nesbitt, to Italia ’90, in the company of a dying ex-footballer, in search of fitba and pizza. Iain.Stott

The Puffy Chair (2005)

Recommended
USA
Feature Film
Director: Jay Duplass
Writers: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass
Cast: Mark Duplass, Kathryn Aselton, Rhett Wilkins, Julie Fischer, Larry Duplass

The Duplass brothers’ feature debut, a rambling road movie, following an impractical young man, his gorgeous girlfriend, and his spaced-out brother on a quest to buy the titular piece of furniture for his father’s birthday, has a real authenticity about it that is by turns funny, annoying, insightful, and eventually really rather moving. Iain.Stott

Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1986)

Recommended
UK
Feature Film
Director: Alan Clarke
Writer: Andrea Dunbar
Cinematographer: Ivan Strasburg
Composer: Michael Kamen
Cast: Siobhan Finneran, Siobhan Finneran, George Costigan, Lesley Sharp, Kulvinder Ghir, Willie Ross, Patti Nicholls

Adapted by Dunbar from her own socially satirical play, this ridiculously funny sex farce, following the sexual misadventures of two teenaged babysitters, which admittedly on paper sounds like a product of Hustler’s Barely Legal, is in fact a nuanced, incisive, and insightful if somewhat bawdy little gem. Iain.Stott
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