ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED
Cert 18
122 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong sexual images
I know cinemas and studios need to make money but I have to admit it was a rare pleasure having an auditorium to myself late on Sunday evening.
The added bonus was that Derby Quad's screening of All The Beauty And The Bloodshed was in its 'Box' so I could sprawl out on a leather couch.
Thus, I was at my most relaxed watching this double-edged documentary about the life of photographer Nan Goldin and the struggle to bring to light a scandal which cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
The life of Goldin, whose very personal work has received international acclaim, is chronicled from a traumatic childhood through to the tragedy of Aids and the loss of many of her friends.
She narrates this element and complements her words with photographs of those who were important to her story.
I had not previously heard of Goldin so, while her account is interesting, particularly with regard to her sister's suicide and the devastating fall-out from the Aids outbreak, it is not riveting.
This was because I was missing greater details of how her career took off and why.
The movie acts as an exhibition of her work her photography - largely of people in her immediate circle - but that didn't really grab me.
However, I was much more attracted to her superb campaign against the Sackler family - the owners of a company which created addictive painkillers.
Laura Poitras' movie highlights the 400,000 deaths attributed to the drugs and follows the campaign by survivors and relatives of the victims.
The Sacklers are high-profile sponsors of several major museums which become the target of creative protests that are recorded on film.
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed is also the platform for some harrowing stories while ultimately proving that disruptive protests can be a force for good.
Indeed, by the end of the movie, I was more impressed by Goldin's efforts in this regard than the quality of her photography.
Reasons to watch: Head-turning investigation into a major scandal
Reasons to avoid: Personal recollections about unknown people
Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: Yes
Overall rating: 7/10
Did you know? Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, introduced OxyContin, a reformulated version of oxycodone in a slow-release form despite the later being withdrawn from the market in 1990 due to addiction issues
The final word. Laura Poitras: "It was really important that we were going to draw this connection between the AIDS crisis and the contemporary overdose crisis. Partly because Nan lived through and survived both, but also to have the immediacy around how the most vulnerable are destroyed by society.” The Skinny
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