THE SCREENING ROOM
UNFRIENDLY FIRE: Freida Pinto goes to war on 1970s racism as Jas in Sky/Showtime’s new miniseries.
FROM TOP: SKY UK LIMITED; IMAGNO/GETTY IMAGES
ONE OF THE most impressive aspects of Showtime/Sky’s new sixpart Guerrilla television series is that it’s set in London in 1971 but doesn’t make a big deal of it. The soundtrack doesn’t throb with Rolling Stones songs; the wallpaper patterns don’t pain the eyes; the collars, lapels, sideburns and moustaches are all reasonably proportioned. What’s even more impressive is that Guerrilla was created by an American writer-director, John Ridley, who once made a ilm about Jimi Hendrix’s life in London, Jimi: All Is by My Side. But it never once comes across as a tourist’s caricature of hippy-era Carnaby Street grooviness. Ridley, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave, turns the music down low and restricts his color palette to muted browns and grays.