RECOMMENDED
Isaac Julien, noted English filmmaker and peer of the late Derek Jarman, takes a brief, punchy look at “Derek,” with the orotund assistance of Tilda Swinton, who wrote her own narration of the man who began her career. Jarman was a man of many artistic endeavors, and his early, impressionistic, no-fi movies, often originating on Super 8mm, cast the lustrous, androgynous Swinton as an almost otherworldly presence. She returns the favor with her own mythologizing of his life as artist and muse to the arts and assertive activist. It’s more of a telling snapshot than a full-on biography, but there is a good book of his life as well as his own intriguing published diaries for that. 76m. (Ray Pride)