JOHN GREEN, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare, Man on the Run, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and Cold Storage
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Radical responses from a star turn
JOHN GREEN recommends a documentary on actor Sean Penn's support for progressive social and political causes
DENNIS BROE searches the literary canon to explore why a duplicitous, lying, cheating, conning US businessman is accepted as Scammer-in-Chief
MIK SABIERS raises a glass of Lambrini to commentary, diatribes, punk rock riffs, some pontification and a whole lot of fun
BRENT CUTLER unpicks the complex social relations imagined in a novel about the builders of Stonehenge
SUSAN DARLINGTON laments a version of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes that is unable to solve its own problems
New releases from The Thumping Tommys, Dan O’Farrell and The Difference Engine, and Sean Taylor
Citizen Penn: The Role of a Lifetime
Directed by Don Hardy
WHEN you hear the name of actor, director and screenwriter Sean Penn, you might either be struck with admiration or cringe.
But what is undeniable is that he is a man of strong views who acts on them without a thought about image or status. On top of his film career, he is a political and social activist and his commitment and progressive politics can hardly be faulted, as demonstrated in this documentary about his work in Haiti.
Yet some may perceive it as Penn acting the superman hero in his own brash Hollywood drama and perhaps something more low key and self-effacing would have been more appropriate. But that would not be Sean Penn.
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