FILM REVIEWS Weiner
NO SECOND ACTS WEINER BY M. FAUST GO AHEAD, MAKE JOKES, it’s hard not to. In fact, it’s just about impossible not to. When I notified my editor the other day that my review of the new documentary Weiner “won’t be very long,” I wasn’t trying to make a joke. But there it is anyway.
If Anthony Weiner was sensitive about his name, he should never have run for public office—he was elected to Congress seven times in a district representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens. When your home town newspapers include the New York Post and Daily News, whose daily covers invented the art that migrated to the internet and called itself clickbaiting, you know they won’t pass up a single chance to work the name. But rise above it he did. Weiner first came to national attention on the floor of Congress, angrily telling off Republicans who blocked a bill to provide medical care for 911 responders. (It was tied to a corporate tax increase.) That pugnacious style made Weiner, at the time in his 40s, a rising star among liberal Democrats, one whose career might even have eclipsed his mentor, Senator Chuck Schumer. Until…
AT THE MOVIES
Over time, we may forget the exact nature of the scandals that drove other politicians from office. Anthony Weiner will never benefit from that fading of the public memory. A permanent reminder of his scandal is right there in his name. As the quote from Marshall McLuhan that opens the film puts it, “The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers.” (For anyone reading this who doesn’t know what Weiner did, all of us at The Public would like to tell you how thrilled we are that, having apparently ignored all other forms of mass media for at least the past decade, you chose to pick up our humble publication.) Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011. Two years later, having repaired his marriage and kept out of the public eye, he decided to run for mayor of New York. Surely the people of New York were tough nuts who by this point could laugh at his misdeeds and set them aside in favor of his real strengths as a politician. He agreed to let his former aide Josh Kriegman and his partner Elyse Steinberg shoot a film about the campaign, giving them what appears to be nearly unlimited access. A comeback seemed well under way.
Eastern Hills, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria
OPENING THIS WEEK
INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE— What do Will Smith and Randy Quaid have in common? They’re among the few cast members of 1996’s Independence Day who aren’t also in this sequel. Producer-director Roland Emmerich (Stonewall) did manage to dig up Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Vivica A. Fox, Brent Spiner, and Judd Hirsch. AMC Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria
DE PALMA—Documentary about Brian De Palma, the director who made a career out of emulating the work of filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and—well, mostly Hitchcock. Directed by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow. North Park
THE SHALLOWS—Blake Lively as a surfer trapped on a rock 200 feet from shore by a shark. Apparently that’s the entire movie. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan). Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker
FREE STATE OF JONES—Drama based on the true story of a Mississippi farmer (Matthew McConaughey) who led an armed secession from the Confederacy during the Civil War. With Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, and Keri Russell. Directed by Gary Ross (The Hunger Games). Dipson Amherst, Dipson
WEINER—Documentary about Anthony Weiner, the New York congressman whose promising career was cut short by internet infidelities. Directed by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg. Reviewed this issue. Dipson Amherst, Dipson Eastern Hills, Screening Room
A selective guide to what’s opening and what’s playing in local moviehouses and other venues
BY M. FAUST & GEORGE SAX
20 THE PUBLIC / JUNE 22 - 28, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM
Until he did it again. It is to his credit that Weiner let the cameras keep rolling even after the second scandal broke. You have to believe that he truly believes he can do some good for the people of New York: as he says to one questioner at a public meeting, why else would I come out here and have to face the same questions over and over again? Kriegman and Steinberg don’t try to psychoanalyze their subject. They don’t dig into his past to probe his motivations. They don’t wonder if the bad habits that got him into trouble may have existed for years (he was a bachelor until he married Huma Abedin in 2010). You may well watch this movie and think, “Serves him right.” Or maybe, “Well, what did he expect?” But you’ll probably also come away discouraged about the state of both politicking and the mass media in our times. As Weiner tells the filmmakers in a post-mortem interview, ““It’s hard to believe my whole life has been engulfed by this thing. It’s kind of like, ‘Besides that, Mrs. P Lincoln, how was the show?’”
ALTERNATIVE CINEMA
CONTINUING
MEGAMIND (2010)—Animated comedy about a supervillain who sees the error of his ways. Why does that sound familiar? With the voices of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and David Cross as Minion. (Sounds more familiar all the time .. ) Directed by Tom McGrath (Madagascar). Fri-Sat 11:30 am. North Park
ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—Tim Burton did not direct this sequel to his 2010 Alice in Wonderland, which may be the most promising thing about it. Starring Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, and Rhys Ifans. Directed by James Bobin (Muppets Most Wanted). Dipson McKinley, Four Seasons, Transit Drive-In BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE—Asking one film to serve as a sequel to Zach Snyder’s dreary Superman kickoff Man of Steel, a reboot of the Batman franchise, a cinematic introduction to Wonder Woman (among others), and a setup for the upcoming two-part Justice League film puts a lot of weight on this tentpole project that is rumored to have cost $400 million. The good news is that as overlong and grim as it is, it’s at least more intriguing and suspenseful than its direct predecessor. Viewers unfamiliar with the DC Comics universe may often have little idea what they’re watching in Snyder’s heavy-handed treatment. Fans, on the other hand, will recognize images and entire sequences reproducing the work of writer/ artist Frank Miller. Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck
NIAGARA (1953)—Marilyn Monroe’s last film before becoming a major star in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was this suspense thriller in which she plays a wife scheming to murder her husband (Joseph Cotton) while vacationing just a few miles north of Buffalo. With Jean Peters and Richard Allen. Directed by Henry Hathaway. Wed June 22 7:30pm. Screening Room TOMMY BOY (1995) and BLACK SHEEP (1996)—The complete Chris Farley-David Spade oeuvre for this week’s Retro Drive-In Tuesday. Tuesday at dusk. Transit Drive-in