Parker | 1982 | UK

2nd viewing; 1st in cinema. And it’s been at least 20 years since that first watch, because apparently now I’m old enough to talk about time in decades instead of years. Over those two decades, the importance of this album has only grown in my mind – it is well and truly a favourite, and it resonates differently with every life threshold I cross (most recently: becoming a father to a son).

The father-son thread is laced through the album, of course, but is explicitly (if not confrontingly) foregrounded in the film. A bit much for me at a random Wednesday matinee screening, but we make do.

Simply put: this is sublime. Close-up photography highlights the grotesqueries of life, animated segments take you through the looking glass of abstraction and out the other side, and the narrative steps forward to be admired in all of its glory. Truly a tremendous 100 minutes. I shan’t go 20 years before watching it again (hell: I’d go again tomorrow).