BEWARE WEIRD POLITICAL FILMS!
As the number of documentaries exceed feature films thus far in August, here are some brief reviews of a couple of less than stellar films:
After the Wizard, directed by the screenwriter Hugh Gross, is presumed to be a sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s story of 1900, which had a profound political meaning at the time. After all, Baum wrote thirteen sequels. But neither adults nor children will enjoy Gross’s nonsequitur nonsequel. Whereas Baum’s Wizard of Oz (President Teddy Roosevelt) asked Dorothy and her friends to go back to the heartland to raise hell on behalf of their concerns, After the Wizard has a 12-year-old Elizabeth (played by Jordan Van Vranken) in a Kingman, Kansas, orphanage believing that she is Dorothy. Meanwhile, the Scarecrow (played by Jermel Nakia) and the Tin Woodman (played by Orien Richman), disgusted over the greed and selfishness in the land of Oz, leave their political roles. The Scarecrow now has a brain, and the Tin Woodman has a heart, and they go to Kansas to ask Dorothy’s help. But on arrival they instead help Dorothy from being consigned to a mental institution by the orphanage’s headmistress (played by Helen Richman) for her apparent delusionary thoughts. MH
The Campaign, directed by Jay Roach, pits Cam Brady (played by Will Ferrell) against Marty Huggins (played by Zach Galifianakis), vying for victory in a Republican primary election for a Congressional seat in North Carolina. The aim of the film is to expose corruption in American politics today, especially the way in which moneyed interests try to buy officeholders into gaining support for their economic interests. Instead of the Koch brothers, the film features the Motch [seemingly pronounced “Marx”] brothers (played by Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow), who try to buy the election by buying a candidate to have a Washington agent who would lobby for their schemes. But issues are never discussed, so the only differences between the candidates are their personal characteristics. The fact that election news is primarily presented on the screen by MSNBC news anchors, one CNN broadcaster, and none from Fox News says a lot about the message of the film. But the plot thus far outlined might be boring, so the film is a comedy, even has moments of porn, but ultimately puts a corny ending to the “Mr. Smith [aka Marty Huggins] Runs for Office” theme. The irony is that The Campaign, which is not worth the price of admission, tries to satirize the only form of mass entertainment that costs not a penny—political campaigns, as conducted in the media today. MH