Adam Curtis, ‘Shifty’
Shifty is, perhaps, the ultimate Adam Curtis film. Eschewing the expansive globetrotting that defines much of his work, it instead dives deep into all he’s ever tried to say about the British state. The result is a grand temporal sweep of UK politics, from the rise of Thatcherism to the present day, in an attempt…
Netflix’s ‘Sex Education’ is an accidental elegy for post-industrial Wales
Watching Netflix’s new ‘British’ teen comedy-drama Sex Education, viewers in Wales – and especially Newport – may well be struck with a sense of melancholic uncanniness, of ‘a time that is out of joint’. For despite the shows liberatory and groundbreaking depiction of teenage sexuality, Sex Education is haunted by a Welsh culture and politics…
John Lewis, art and advertising
With the recent hype surrounding the latest batch of Christmas-themed TV adverts, it is notable how their reception appears to have displaced ‘proper’ art. I have witnessed, on social media and elsewhere, more excitement, anticipation and discussion regarding these adverts (particularly the ubiquitous offering from John Lewis) than I have any film, TV show or…
Disposable Everything 