Josh Appignanesi is the director who has found a jaunty, funny film-making language in low-budget personal work – co-directed with his wife, Devorah Baum – about his crises with status and masculinity. The New Man, from 2016, was about impending fatherhood; Husband, from 2022, showed his complicated feelings about Baum’s career outpacing his. The second was a goofy performance in the autofictional-autofactual grey area; Appignanesi’s cheerfully dishevelled figure was at the centre of almost every shot, sometimes leaving us to wonder if and where he had staged or reconstructed certain important moments – a heightened video-diarising or guided reality.
Now, he has taken what appears to be a quantum leap to a new level of seriousness. A professional setback just before lockdown (the sudden disappearance of funding for a projected feature) leaves him with time on his hands and Appignanesi takes an interest in Extinction Rebellion. He brings his camera to marches and meetings and is soon a deeply committed member, culminating in a triumphant speech at an XR protest outside 55 Tufton Street in central London, the notorious headquarters of climate-denying thinktanks, storming it in front of the crowd. Then his agent offers him a lucrative gig making a TV ad for Esso – and Appignanesi is tempted.
