Newswipe with Charlie Brooker (2009)

Death, crime, war, puppies, the weather. It could only be the news.

I actually began university with the intention of having a career in journalism. However, after sitting through class after class trumpeting fair, balanced and objective reporting as essential, it became clear that real-world journalism was something else entirely.

I remain a news junkie, but my inner cynic always approaches the news with nothing short of an overflowing salt shaker. Quite simply, the news is a manipulative affair, whether it's tugging blindly at its audience's heartstrings, begging for viewers to send in feedback in a bizarre effort to make the news interactive or just plain old scaremongering. As a viewer, it's impossible to feel like anything other than a puppet, the recipient of constant instructions telling us how to think and act. Rarely does the news allow the viewer to come to his or her own conclusions.

What's troubling is the ease with which people do seem to accept whatever the news tells us. Which is what's makes Charlie Brooker's Newswipe must-see television. Brooker writes...

TV news now comes packaged as a dazzling CGI cartoon, with the names of star anchors included in the programme title, and an absurdly theatrical air of bombast underpinning every second of every broadcast. Traditional newspapers, beaten to the punch by the immediacy of the internet and 24-hour news networks, are becoming less and less bothered with breaking actual news than celebrity gossip, or provocative comment, or shouty campaigning. The internet, meanwhile, can be a great source of rapidly updated information, but is also home to an endless range of partisan news sources, paranoid imaginings, and outright hoaxes. Is it possible for anyone to truly know what the hell's going on?

A spin-off of the superb Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, Newswipe takes an acerbic, hilarious, eye-opening look at the news. Like his terrific Guardian columns, Brooker hits the bull's-eye on pretty much every issue – adding a healthy shot of humour to the proceedings.

Because I'm a kind soul, here is the entire fourth episode of Newswipe (in three bite-sized chunks) dedicated to the recent G20 summit in London. If you're a news junkie like me, this is fascinating viewing. If you're not, watch it anyway. If anyone should tell you how to think and act, it's Charlie Brooker.

Man on Wire (2008)

Believe it or not, the artistic crime of the century is not considered to be Bride Wars.

Man on Wire is a remarkable documentary about Frenchman Philippe Petit, who in 1974, illegally walked a tightrope between the two towers of New York's World Trade Center. There's no denying that it's a mind-blowing act in and of itself, but the incredible amount of planning and preparations that went into staging the feat, make for equally captivating and empowering viewing.

Told through a series of interviews, original footage and stylish re-enactments, Man on Wire intersperses a brief history of Petit's life with a re-telling of the measures he and his team went to in order to infiltrate the two towers and stage the dazzling performance.

The film's story begins as Petit – who, 35 years on, remains a charmingly eccentric showman, physically re-enacting key parts of his tale during his interviews – shares the amusing circumstances that planted the idea in his mind: as a boy, Petit saw an article about the construction of the World Trade Center in a newspaper in a dentist's waiting room. Fascinated, Petit faked a sneeze while tearing out the article and fled from the waiting room.

A street performer by profession, Petit planned and executed a number of illegal high-wire acts before conquering the World Trade Center, including tightrope walks at Notre Dame de Paris and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, both of which are wonderfully documented here (upon his arrest after the Australia stunt, Petit swiped a policeman's watch, unbeknownst to its wearer). But with one eye constantly on the construction of New York's Twin Towers, Petit set about planning his thrilling act.

With all the excitement of a classic heist film, Man on Wire director James Marsh engagingly retells the complex preparations Petit and his collaborators undertook in order to safely plan the stunt's execution. Part of this film's real thrill – which I won't spoil for you here – is seeing the ingenious plot unfold as the team overcame various obstacles, from smuggling more than a tonne of equipment to the highest floors of the towers to figuring out how to secure a cable between the two buildings over 400 metres above ground level. As a fictional film, it would have made for entertaining viewing; knowing that the whole affair is true makes it spellbinding.

The moment Petit steps out onto the high-wire was sadly not caught on film, but the series of photographs capturing this extraordinary act are breathtaking, particularly accompanied by Man on Wire's brilliant soundtrack. When the police arrived, Petit's collaborators recount how he moved toward the safety of the buildings to give himself over before cheekily turning around and heading back out along the tightrope.

His subsequent arrest and admittance to a mental asylum adds an extra layer to this entrancing documentary. An amazing story amazingly told.

Death of a President (2006)

What if George W. Bush was assassinated?

Before the secret service busts down my door, rifles in hand, this isn't a question posed by me, but rather the premise of the compelling, provocative and controversial faux-documentary, Death of a President.

A seamless mix of real archival footage, doctored material and original film, Death of a President is presented as a contemporary documentary exploring the fictional assassination of the 43rd president of the United States of America in Chicago, Illinois on 19 October, 2007.

The central conceit gives the impression that Death of a President is nothing more than an offensive, headline-grabbing stunt depicting the murder of the controversial world leader. Reaction prior to its premiere on British TV network More4 was predictably outraged. Yet as the film unfolds, it becomes apparent that the assassination of Bush is never celebrated and the repercussions of the event are entirely negative.

The first half of the film deals with the lead-up to the assassination, as Bush attends a conference at a hotel in Chicago where a major anti-war demonstration is taking place. As the President delivers his speech inside, the nearby rally becomes increasingly aggressive. With Bush's death serving as the documentary's midway point, the filmmakers take the time to paint a convincing picture of the kind of meticulous security preparations that would actually take place on this sort of occasion. It's a lengthy set-up, but necessary to give the film the development it needs to prove its premise is not a cheap gimmick.

The inevitable scene in which Bush takes two bullets while walking down the rope line is not dwelled upon. It's a handful of suitably chaotic seconds shot using a range of equipment – digital cameras, handheld cameras, security cameras, even mobile phone cameras – in order to realistically represent how the incident might be captured on film. The shooting is shown only once and in no way is it glamourised or applauded. His eventual death in hospital is leaked to the media; the unconfirmed accounts are shown in a brief montage, but, despite being fictional, the viewer still feels the kind of shock that's strictly reserved for when a major news story like this breaks. Curiously, the White House's confirmation of these reports is never shown.

The film's second half develops into a fascinating whodunit as Dick Cheney assumes the office of the President, and the United States government begins to hastily look for someone to blame for the attack. Hundreds of suspects are detained and dozens of theories are debated, giving the film the opportunity to explore such weighty topics as civil liberties and racial profiling. While the blame is periodically aimed at militant activists, Al-Qaeda, the Syrian government and others, the actual culprit's tragic story is much closer to home.

The impressively slick footage is interspersed with interviews with a range of people involved in the event, including secret service staff, Presidential advisors, members of the press and suspects. The background given to some of the interviewees is compelling, including one forensics expert who walked away from his job after being instructed to draw a premature conclusion on the examination of evidence that wasn't actually conclusive. The actors portraying the interviewees are mostly convincing, and in some cases, exceptionally so. The material with which they're given to work is largely first-rate.

While Death of a President could have been a documentary about the assassination of a fictional world leader, the film would lose much of its resonance. Bush's unpopularity may be prime bait for a script of this nature, but the film's true intent is to explore the repercussions that a President's choices – and death – would have on the world. If you can handle a film about the assassination of a real-life public figure, Death of a President is a unique and provocative docu-mystery well worth checking out.

Unsurprisingly, the film hasn't tapped the US market. However, Death of a President is finally slated for release in American cinemas less than three weeks from today, on 20 January, 2009: the date of Barack Obama's inauguration.