Jubilee

Derek Jarman
1978

While there's plenty to like in Derek Jarman's thoroughly British post-apocalyptic freakout, his use of the burgeoning punk movement as a cornerstone is certainly suspect in regards to questions of sincerity and exploitation. With the help of a Sybil Queen Elizabeth I flashes forward to a homeland in decay: authoritarian capitalism and oppressive police rule over nihilistic squatters and hopeless human cattle (a fitting if overblown prediction of Maggie Thatcher's reign if ever there was one). Much of the movie centers around a rat's nest of n'er do wells as they deface books, philosophize, write on walls, fuck, and perform live on television for the rest of the nation. Much like punk-at-it's-worst there's a lot of chutzpah and great fashion but murky motives and shrill, often contradictory, politics. These angry youngsters do maintain a veneer of authenticity however, and make the hapless kids from "Return of the Living Dead" (1985) look like saddies playing dress-up. The inclusion of a megalomaniacal media mogul pushes the picture's sense of absurdity with his Top of the Pops empire quite literally ruling the globe. While Jarman's artistic talent and audacity is firmly on display in "Jubilee," it's also a picture of rough-edges and overreaching: in this most dysfunctional of worlds there are plenty of dysfunctional scenes and touches.