Adam Curtis is a talented film-maker. He has an ability to locate interesting clips, audio, and stories; and to draw previously un-remarked parallels between them. His weakness lies in his tendentiousness; not every parallel is a cause, and his tendency to make numerous, semi-random connections can obscure any final point. His most over-used word is "then" - things do happen, one after the other, but the order of succession is not always noteworthy. I watched a live interview with him a couple of years ago, in which he covered some of the themes in his film 'HyperNormalisation', and his answered ranged from perceptive to exasperating ("the politicians have let us down by not providing us with something to believe in", he said, but seemed to have no idea himself about what that something could be). The way to take his films, I think, is to look for the nuggets, those strange stories you haven't heard of before which just might be worth giving a little more thought to. 'HyperNormalisation' itself is nearly three hours long, and could fairly be described as rambling. But it's great to look at and it does make you think.
Review of HyperNormalisation
