The Storms of Jeremy Thomas

Considering that no one else is likely to make a feature-length portrait of Thomas, it is regretful that this one doesn’t feel more definitive.

One of Cousins' best and most entrancing films.

You may come away from “The Storms of Jeremy Thomas” thinking of him as a fascinating man, but perhaps not as the cinematic prince that Cousins insists on crowning him.

As portraits go, while this is expertly framed, filled with captivating brushwork, ultimately its subject is giving little away.

“The Storms of Jeremy Thomas” provides a colorful and entertaining canvas for some beautiful and beautifully set-up movie clips — you want to rush out and watch all of them again.

“The Storms of Jeremy Thomas” persuasively makes the case for closer scrutiny of a producer’s career, though it leaves viewers with some homework to do.

To me, the most impressive part of “The Storms…” is the time given to showing, sometimes repeatedly, excerpts from many of the classic films from a prolific producer.

...it is Tilda Swinton, who starred in Thomas’ “Young Adam,” who proffers the film’s most trenchant observations, calling Thomas ‘rock ‘n roll’ and discussing his ‘very English qualify of transgression.’

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas is an act of frustrating evasion as a documentary.


It avoids personal details or background context to focus solely on its subject’s films, in the process persuasively saluting Thomas as a maverick and champion of projects that take risks.