Movie Review: In ‘Orwell: 2+2=5,’ a powerful portrait of the author and his still relevant writings

Filmmaker Raoul Peck uses George Orwell’s writings to weave together a biographical portrait of the author and a dispiriting picture of power and truth in the modern world in “Orwell: 2+2=5.”

He’s hardly the first to connect the dots between Orwell’s prophetic writings and the current state of things — remember, sales for “Nineteen Eighty-Four” soared in the months following Donald Trump’s first election when phrases like “alternative facts” were being used with no irony. Knowing that, Peck draws heavily on what has come before. The film is packed with clips from film adaptations of “1984,” including Michael Anderson’s black and white version from 1956, and Michael Radford’s, released in 1984, documentaries, like Robert Kane Pappas’s 2003 warning “Orwell Rolls in His Grave,” and news foot