In cinema, there are always going to be troublemakers and button pushers, meaning that these are people who come in and shake up screens with often dangerous and highly uncomfortable ideas, which is definitely the case with legendary film producer Jeremy Thomas, the man behind some of the most controversial and revered movies ever made.
His name may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but you definitely know many of his films, including Bad Timing (1980), Eureka (1983), The Hit (1984), The Last Emperor (1987), and Crash (1996), among other boundary-breaking works, made by some of the most renowned directors of all-time. Acclaimed documentarian Mark Cousins attempts to give Thomas his time to shine with his 2021 portrait The Storms of Jeremy Thomas.
It’s a road movie (something that Cousins has now become a pro at) where both he and Thomas take a drive to Cannes (the event that Thomas has been attending for many years) and wax poetic about the films he produced; the stars he worked with (including Debra Winger and Tilda Swinton, who provide loving and exclusive details about the man himself and his approach to cinema); the films that shaped him; his near brush with death; and what cinema can and should be.
As much as I love Cousins and his way with the great artists he works with, I didn’t get much personal background about Thomas and how he came be the groundbreaking producer he is, as well as his life and how he really feels about it. However, I did get a lot out of the many film clips and the ideas behind them, as well as the provocation that Thomas put into the films that are shown in the documentary.
In the end, I was often entranced by The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, but I didn’t think it was the thorough deep dive that it could have been. But, since there may not another doc about Thomas, you have to appreciate the fact that Cousins is the first person to give him his cinematic flowers.
The DVD from Cohen Media Group doesn’t have any special features, but it does have a theatrical trailer, as well as other trailers (My Neighbor Adolf, Nowhere Special, Secret Defense, and Up, Down, Fragile) which come before the main menu.
