“Mr. Turner,” July 25-26, 2015 (2014), DVD. Rarely have I so disagreed with many of the reviewers on IMDB. Most seem to have found this latest release from Mike Leigh boring and flat. I found it gripping and moving as we follow the life and struggles of J M W Turner, Britain’s greatest artist. Years ago I “discovered” Turner at the Tate and was simply overwhelmed. How had I not seen his work before?. I was dumbstruck seeing even pieces hidden behind poles. “Death on a Pale Horse” left me physically transfixed. Only recently we had the pleasure of seeing the wonderful “Turner and the Sea” exhibit at the Peabody-Essex in Salem. In “Mr Turner” we see Timothy Spall, a Leigh ensemble favorite, evoke a Turner who is coarse but keen, a man who often uses grunts instead of words to express himself as a man who can love but can also be a cruel exploiter of women in the most base and classist manner. Interestingly, his sexual relationship with his maid is not a part of the historical record and is a creation of the actors and the filmmaker. He was a leading Georgian academician who loved being an insider yet who truly followed his muse to visualize a new way of painting. He transforms art, understands nature from inside the storm (literally), and, to me, is one of the greatest and most precocious painters of the nineteenth century. This is an exciting and sad story using lenses and framing that allow the viewer to enter into Turner’s paintings, to see the colors, textures, and scenes that he sees. As usual with Leigh’s work, much of this film is improvised over long periods by the actors who are truly partners in this venture. The scenes are shot with loving attention to recreation of the settings and character portrayed. He left his entire unsold output, and it’s thousands of pieces, to the British nation and turned down the chance to become a rich man. The soundtrack to the film gives us music at once of and not of the subject. It really works Finally, see the short included with the DVD on creating the film It includes wonderful interviews with Leigh, Spall, and a host or really smart production members.