WEINER
Sundance Selects
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya
Grade: A-
Director: Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg
Written by: Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg
Cast: Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin, Barbara Morgan, Amit Bagga, Sydney Leathers
Screened at: Park Ave., NYC, 4/27/16
Opens: May 20, 2016
As documentarians, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg may not be up to the comedic talents of Michael Moore but they come pretty close. “Weiner” is a highly entertaining, fast-paced look at the self-destruction of a liberal politician with more energy than a Duracell battery and the heart of a Mother Teresa. Anthony Weiner would have made an ideal chief executive for New York City just as he was a fighter for the little guy in front of the House of Representatives. In an early segment of this stunning movie filmed in the House of Representatives, he is seen vocalizing at the top of his lungs to acquire funding for firefighters and others who developed serious diseases for their clean-up work at the World Trade Center after 9-11, chastising the usual reactionary Republicans who killed the bill because of their concern that corporate taxes would have to be raised. His resignation from Congress was not to “spend more time with the family” or for health reasons in the way we usually understand health. He left on the advice of prominent officials like Chuck Schumer after being implicated in a sexting scandal. Determined to ask the public for a second chance, he ran for Mayor of New York City in 2013 only to be implicated for sending bulging-underwear photos of himself using the name “Carlos Danger.”
Weiner, perhaps hoping for a favorable reaction of film goers, allowed Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg to be his flies on the wall, traveling with him during his mayoral campaign as he traversed boroughs of New York City getting enthusiastic hugs and shouts from largely ethnic crowds such as the mostly West Indian contingent that parades each Labor Day down Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway.
Scandalous activities aside, what propels Anthony Weiner into the role of a major political figure evoking the interest of film makers is his marriage to Huma Abedin, a well-known adviser to Hillary Clinton and a woman who might be expected to leave her husband after not one sordid event but several more to come. Huma had the choice facing Hillary herself after her husband’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky became public, and the option facing the wife of then Governor Eliot Spitzer, forced to resign when faced with reports that he patronized an escort service. Huma, whose emotions remain contained as though ceding political passion to her husband, stood by her man, even when Lawrence O’Donnell asks Weiner on TV “What’s wrong with you?” Ah, but that’s the question that we wait to find out throughout the film and never do get an answer. Nor is there any hint that Weiner looked deeply enough into himself, and if he did consult a psychotherapist, one would bet that his documentarians would be pointing the lens at him while taking over an adjoining couch.
In the end, Weiner stayed in the mayoral race finishing with just 4.8% of the vote, at the very bottom, as though to refute the vocal energy of one of his Bronx supporters who said, “Who cares about the scandal? We vote on the issues!” I would like to give a pat on the back to that guy, who despite his possible lack of higher formal education was smarter than New York’s voting majority.
Rated R. 96 minutes. © Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – A-
Acting – A
Technical – A-
Overall – A-
