Unless you’re a real film buff, the name Jeremy Thomas might not mean anything to you. But it should. He is one of the producers behind some of the more acclaimed (1987’s The Last Emperor), the more audacious (2010’s 13 Assassins), and the more salacious (1996’s Crash) movies of the last 40 years. 

A true independent, Thomas is at once the progeny of British cinema royalty—his father and uncle were behind the immensely popular Doctor and Carry On series—and a punk subversive whose interest in sex, politics, and automobiles shaped the movies he produced just as corporatization was beginning to take hold.

This makes Thomas an ideal subject for the movie-mad documentarian Mark Cousins. His latest, The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, is a delightful and informative road film through the life and career of the British producer.

The vehicle for this exploration is Thomas’ annual 850-mile, five-day road trip from England to the south of France for the Cannes Film Festival. Thomas loves to drive. Makes sense: In front of every driver is a large rectangle screen where one views the world—a movie screen on wheels. 

These are the kinds of analogies Cousins excels at. He’s on the journey with Thomas in the passenger seat, playing the audience’s co-pilot through his subject’s biography, filmography, and the conversations the two have on the road.

Cousins weaves clips from Thomas’ movies throughout Storms like memories. His life and work are inseparable, a kind of lifelong infatuation—a kinder word than obsession—where the line between reality’s end and cinema’s beginning is constantly blurred.

Thomas, who was 72 when Storms was made, isn’t slowing down. A cancer survivor, he has entered a phase of life where reflection is a welcome thing. Cousins, a prolific filmmaker, uses Thomas’ life and work as another entry point to explore how the movies we love become a kind of oxygen we need to survive.

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas is an enlightening portrait of a producer—the type of creative often overlooked or derided in the cinematic firmament—and an engaging reminder that the movies that made us are only as strong as those who made the movies.

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas (2021)
Written and directed by Mark Cousins
Produced by David P. Kelly
Cohen Media Group, Not rated, Running time 94 minutes, Premiered July 10, 2021 at Cannes Classics

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The above review first appeared in the pages of Boulder Weekly Vol. 31, No. 5, “Soldiers of cinema.”