New releases from Laura Veirs, The Waterboys, and Yard Act
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Rising to the bait
An outstandingly original film addresses burning issues of class conflict head on, says MIKE QUILLE
Ron's rages are sincere and — according to his wife — healthily cathartic. But can these splenetic outbursts loosen the grip of capitalism at its most monstrous?
ANGUS REID considers the power of the podcast as a vehicle for consensus building in opposition to mainstream media narratives
GLENN FOSBRAEY recommends a biography worth reading for both existing George Michael fans and those yet to be converted
FRANCIS DEVINE introduces a new collection of essays that draws on Pease McKenna’s example to indicate future paths for the movement
KEVIN DONNELLY and MARIA DUARTE review Shoot the People, The Last One For The Road, Rosebush Pruning, and Moana
JAMES WALSH recommends an exceptional documentary about the experience of Western doctors in Gaza
ESCHEWING the straightforward narrative arcs of social realism employed by a Ken Loach or a Mike Leigh, in Bait director Mark Jenkin’s Brechtian approach never lets us forget we’re watching a film.
That sense of confronting material reality is there in the hand-processed images, scratchy and lined and a soundscape that engages yet disturbs.
The dialogue, recorded and then dubbed, imbues the uncomprehending, Pinteresque conversations — clipped and occassionally comic — with an eerie sense of alienation, abetted by moments where the plot runs ahead of itself.
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