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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Beautiful City (2004)

Highly Recommended

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

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Children of Heaven (1997)

Highly Recommended

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

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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

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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

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Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life (2009)

Recommended

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

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...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

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Shirley Valentine (1989)

Highly Recommended

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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