BDirected by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg Review by Jon Kissel |  |
A baffling politician gets a baffling documentary in Weiner, as camera crews follow the serial sexter through his campaign for mayor of New York City. Directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg get an extraordinary level of access to Anthony Weiner and his plainly uncomfortable wife Huma Abedin, longtime aide to Hillary Clinton. The film tracks Weiner from his resignation from Congress, due to humiliating Twitter blunders, through an initially successful mayoral campaign, before more revelations sink his career for a second time. Kriegman and Steinberg must have initially thought they had an inspiring second-chance story of a disgraced politician coming all the way back, silencing his puerile critics with reams of optimistic policy proposals and irrepressible charisma. Instead, they got a tragedy, in which a man lets down his loyal staffers, his potential constituents, and his family for a little titillation.
The role the media plays in the documentary suggest that Kriegman and Steinberg would've had more to say with the redemption tale. There are repeated instances of reporters or voters or other candidates wanting to talk about the scandal, and Weiner takes great delight in shaming them for focusing on something so insignificant in the face of the seriousness of a mayoral campaign. The directors seem to agree based on how often this dynamic comes up, and it's easy for the viewer to concur. How many times does Weiner have to prostrate himself before everyone can move on? Mark 'Appalachian Trail' Sanford has moved on and is still in elected life, and the prostitute-hiring David Vitter stayed in the Senate long after his admittances. Those guys probably stopped their illicit behavior, but still, why can't Democratic voters be as forgiving as Republican ones? Not that they should have been in Weiner's case, but still.
Of the central couple, Weiner is far less puzzling than Abedin. He's a combative and compulsive narcissist who's as energetic and charismatic a campaigner as he is a husband unconcerned with his wife's dignity. He comes off as desirous of wanting to look just like another normal guy, but utterly failing. He asks staffers to leave, so he can have an intimate talk with his wife, but the camerapeople get no such request. She, however, is an enigma from her first frame, balefully watching Weiner from the next room as he plays with their infant son. At a fundraising dinner, he watches her schmooze with genuine admiration and love in his eyes. When the tables turn in a brilliant bit of editing, the expression on her face is far more conflicted, and it doesn't look positive. It's apparent why he would consent to this. He's at home waving in the various ethnic parades it appears take place in NYC every weekend. There's no apparent reason for her to have agreed, beyond doing it for him. It would seem like she was the one owed a favor in the marriage at this point, but who really knows?
Stripped of all historical context, Weiner is most plainly an all-access look inside a political operation. With a candidate as fundamentally flawed as the one at its center, and coupled with his inscrutable partner, the film becomes fairly monumental. Few politicians would let reporters or filmmakers this far into their campaigns, but few politicians are as self-centered as Anthony Weiner. The viewer is left feeling less enlightened about a somewhat opaque business or about the weird vagaries of human behavior than they are just feeling a little gross. Gross for getting this personal a look into a difficult time in two people's lives, and gross because of the film's epilogue. Weiner indirectly may have led to a man of equal narcissism getting elected as the most powerful man in the world, scumbaggery begetting scumbaggery. A trivial anecdote becomes something far darker, and a butterfly named Carlos Danger flaps his wings and causes a tsunami in Washington. B
Of the central couple, Weiner is far less puzzling than Abedin. He's a combative and compulsive narcissist who's as energetic and charismatic a campaigner as he is a husband unconcerned with his wife's dignity. He comes off as desirous of wanting to look just like another normal guy, but utterly failing. He asks staffers to leave, so he can have an intimate talk with his wife, but the camerapeople get no such request. She, however, is an enigma from her first frame, balefully watching Weiner from the next room as he plays with their infant son. At a fundraising dinner, he watches her schmooze with genuine admiration and love in his eyes. When the tables turn in a brilliant bit of editing, the expression on her face is far more conflicted, and it doesn't look positive. It's apparent why he would consent to this. He's at home waving in the various ethnic parades it appears take place in NYC every weekend. There's no apparent reason for her to have agreed, beyond doing it for him. It would seem like she was the one owed a favor in the marriage at this point, but who really knows?
Stripped of all historical context, Weiner is most plainly an all-access look inside a political operation. With a candidate as fundamentally flawed as the one at its center, and coupled with his inscrutable partner, the film becomes fairly monumental. Few politicians would let reporters or filmmakers this far into their campaigns, but few politicians are as self-centered as Anthony Weiner. The viewer is left feeling less enlightened about a somewhat opaque business or about the weird vagaries of human behavior than they are just feeling a little gross. Gross for getting this personal a look into a difficult time in two people's lives, and gross because of the film's epilogue. Weiner indirectly may have led to a man of equal narcissism getting elected as the most powerful man in the world, scumbaggery begetting scumbaggery. A trivial anecdote becomes something far darker, and a butterfly named Carlos Danger flaps his wings and causes a tsunami in Washington. B
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