The Blueblack Hussar

The film follows Adam Ant on his first tour for fifteen years after suffering mental health problems. What is particularly astute about Jack Bond's approach is that it never flags up the moments when the singer's volatile temperament shows itself, prompting the viewer to remain attentive, drawn in by Adam Ant's wry humour and impressively wide frame of cultural reference until a too manic burst of enthusiasm, a disarmingly sharp turn of phrase or going AWOL after heading off for cigarettes hints that all is not quite serene beneath the surface. It certainly allows us to sense the sheer insidiousness of mental illness but never at the expense of betraying the trust of this still charismatic live performer, a man who clearly feels that his artful punk era output has never quite got the cultural respect it deserves. We never see Bond button holing his subject with any sort of journalistic ruthlessness to dish the dirt, instead hanging back and observing so that those brief moments when the troubled singer does open up feel as if they're truly earned.