Review: "Client 9" Digs into Eliot Spitzer Scandal

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 51 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010)
Running time: 117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – R some sexual material, nudity and language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Alex Gibney
PRODUCERS: Maiken Baird, Alex Gibney, Jedd Wider, and Todd Wider
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Maryse Alberti
EDITORS: Plummy Tucker with Alison Amron
COMPOSER: Peter Nashel

DOCUMENTARY – Politics

Starring: Eliot Spitzer, Wayne Barrett, Joe Bruno, David Brown, Darren Dopp, Peter Elkind, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, Noreen Harrington, Ken Langone, Roger Stone, Cecil Suwal, Hulbert Waldroup, and Wrenn Schmidt

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer is a 2010 documentary film from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side). Client 9 takes an in-depth look at the rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer, former State Attorney General and Governor of New York. The film includes an interview with Spitzer, who was elected as the 54th governor of New York in 2006 and later resigned when he was exposed as being involved in a high-priced prostitution ring.

The film reveals Spitzer’s beginnings as a crusading state’s Attorney General who went after Wall Street, big banks, and big insurance companies for fraud, predatory lending, price fixing, etc. Then, Client 9 chronicles his downfall by interviewing the key players, including Spitzer’s Wall Street adversaries (such as Hank Greenberg and Ken Lagone) and political enemies, (like Joe Bruno). Gibney also talks to some of the people behind Emperors Club VIP, the high-priced escort service from which Spitzer obtained call girls. The film also looks the crusade that defined Spitzer’s public and professional life – fighting corruption on Wall Street and in New York state politics. This film also suggests that shadowy and powerful figures from Wall Street and Albany (the state capitol) likely played a part in revealing Spitzer’s patronization of high-priced prostitutes.

In some ways, Client 9 is less about Spitzer than about the corruption against which he crusaded, particularly corruption on Wall Street. Even the Emperors Club, which provided Spitzer with call girls, is connected to Wall Street because it services some of the financial industry’s big players. Although Spitzer does participate in this documentary, the former governor turned cable television pundit is careful, even guarded about what he says, which is understandable, but this reticence ends up making him an ensemble player in what should be a starring role in his melodrama.

The film does offer startling insight into the way the U.S. Justice Department prosecutes crimes involving politicians. Also, the press and news media, which is obsessed with sex and scandal and overly reliant (by my estimation) on tips and leaks that offer salacious details, doesn’t come out looking too good.

Compared to Gibney’s other films, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer isn’t great, but it is good. Ultimately, it barely skims the surface of the darkness behind Spitzer and the institutions and people behind his rise and especially his fall.

7 of 10
B+

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

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"Waiting for 'Superman'" Advances in Oscar Documentary Race

Press release:

15 Documentary Features Advance In 2010 Oscar® Race

Beverly Hills, CA (November 18, 2010) – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 83rd Academy Awards®. One hundred-one pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

“Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer” Alex Gibney, director (ES Productions LLC)

“Enemies of the People” Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, directors (Old Street Films)

“Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy, director (Paranoid Pictures)

“Gasland” Josh Fox, director (Gasland Productions, LLC)

“Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould” Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont, directors (White Pine Pictures)

“Inside Job” Charles Ferguson, director (Representational Pictures)

“The Lottery” Madeleine Sackler, director (Great Curve Films)

“Precious Life” Shlomi Eldar, director (Origami Productions) “Megamind”

“Quest for Honor” Mary Ann Smothers Bruni, director (Smothers Bruni Productions)

“Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, directors (Outpost Films)

“This Way of Life” Thomas Burstyn, director (Cloud South Films)

“The Tillman Story” Amir Bar-Lev, director (Passion Pictures/Axis Films)

“Waiting for ‘Superman” Davis Guggenheim, director (Electric Kinney Films)

“Waste Land” Lucy Walker, director (Almega Projects)

“William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe” Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler, directors (Disturbing the Universe LLC)

The Documentary Branch Screening Committee viewed all the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.

The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Review: "Taxi to the Dark Side" Chases the Truth

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 90 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – R for disturbing images, and content involving torture and graphic nudity
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Alex Gibney
PRODUCERS: Alex Gibney, Eva Orner, and Susannah Shipman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Maryse Alberti and Greg Andracke
EDITOR: Sloane Klevin
Academy Award winner

DOCUMENTARY

Starring: Alex Gibney (narrator), Moazzam Begg, Pfc. Willie Brand, Pfc. Jack Cloonan, Damien M. Corsetti, Sgt. Thomas Curtis Carlotta Gall, Tim Golden, Tony Lagouranis, Sen. Carl Levin, Anthony Morden, Dan Mori, Spc. Glendale C. Wallis, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, John Yoo, and George W. Bush (archival footage)

Taxi to the Dark Side is a 2007 documentary film from director Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room). It won the “Best Documentary, Features” Oscar at the 2008 Academy Awards. Taxi to the Dark Side takes an in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The focal point for this film is the 2002 death of Dilawar, a 22-year-old Afghan taxi driver from the village of Yakubi.

More than a year after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, Dilawar and his three passengers were taken into custody at a checkpoint on a U.S. base. On December 5, 2002, Dilawar arrived at the prison facility at Bagram Air Base. He was declared dead five days later, and he turned out not to be an enemy combatant or terrorist. An investigation would also uncover that Dilawar was tortured and that his death was the result of assaults and attacks visited upon him by U.S. interrogators at Bagram.

From Dilawar’s death, Taxi to the Dark Side examines changes in U.S. policy toward detainees and suspects after 9/11, America’s policy on torture and interrogation (with a specific look at the CIA’s roll), and research into torture and sensory deprivation used by the CIA and the U.S. military. Gibney interviews numerous players, political figures, experts, military officials and personnel for this film. That includes the soldiers involved in Dilawar’s death, their attorneys, and military experts. The director also interviews Moazzam Begg; he is a British citizen held at Bagram during the time of Dilawar’s detention and death, who was also later held at Guantanamo Bay, before being released.

For all the area that it covers, Taxi to the Dark Side tries to get at the heart of America’s use of torture and how it interrogates detainees during the Global War on Terror. This movie has a central question. Was Dilawar’s death the result of a few “bad apples,” as in low-ranking officers and ground level soldiers, or was his death the result of the implementation of a new worldwide system of interrogation. Gibney argues that whatever the “bad apples” did, they were following orders that came down the chain of command, beginning at highest levels of the U.S. government and military.

Gibney does not only focus on the tragedy and crime of Dilawar’s death. He is like a journalist, asking who, what, when, why, and how. Gibney searches long and hard so that he can tell us everything about torture. How is torture defined? What acts constitute torture? What are the recent techniques in interrogation of prisoners and what are their origins? Who are the players that make the decisions? Who is to blame – the interrogator or the one who gives the orders to torture and to abuse?

Taxi to the Dark Side is both a piece of complex journalism and the kind of great documentary that captures the imagination. It is smart, almost scholarly, but it is also hot and passionate. Alex Gibney’s films are usually smart, but they can own your attention and imagination just as well as any Hollywood event movie. And Taxi to the Dark Side needs our attention – for our own good.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Documentary, Features” (Alex Gibney and Eva Orner)

Saturday, November 06, 2010

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Alex Gibney Hits the Jackpot with "Casino Jack" Documentary

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 81 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Casino Jack and the United States of Money (2010)
Running time: 118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)
MPAA – R for some language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Alex Gibney
PRODUCER: Zena Barakat, Alison Ellwood, and Alex Gibney
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Maryse Alberti
EDITOR: Alison Ellwood

DOCUMENTARY – Politics

Starring: Tom DeLay, Thomas Frank, Adam Kidan, Bob Ney, Ron Platt, Sue Schmidt, Melanie Sloan, Neil Volz with Stanley Tucci and Paul Rudd

For almost 20 years, Jack Abramoff was an American lobbyist. He was also a businessman, film producer, and political figure. His ascendancy as an influential and powerful man, both as a lobbyist and within the Republican Party, began when the Republicans seized control of both houses of Congress in 1994. Over the next 12 years, Abramoff lobbied Congress for Indian casinos, sweatshop owners in Saipan, and even shadowy Russian interests. He eventually went to prison for defrauding his Native American clients and corruption of public officials.

Written and directed by Alex Gibney, Casino Jack and the United States of Money is a documentary film about Jack Abramoff, his career, his lobbying activities, and the people around him – including Congressmen, congressional staffers, fellow lobbyists, and assorted figures within conservative and right-wing Christian politics. Gibney won an Oscar for his 2007 documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side, but Gibney deftly plumbed the depths of economic and political scandal in the Oscar-nominated documentary, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.

However, Casino Jack and the United States of Money is not just about Abramoff. It is really about the buying and selling of the American government with lobbyists as the go-betweens for the buyers (powerful business interests) and the sellers (Congress). Gibney dazzles with stories of Indian tribal councils spending millions of dollars to keep their casinos and to keep other tribes from having casinos. There is the sex slave industry in Saipan and a murdered Greek casino tycoon. Cold War intrigue mixes with African revolutionaries. Congressmen take lavish, overseas golf trips – transportation by private, corporate jet. But the real story is about the looting of the American government, our broken system of government, and the perilous state of our democracy.

Jack Abramoff was in prison while Gibney was making Casino Jack and the United States of Money, and although he was able to interview Abramoff in prison, Gibney was unable to film the former lobbyist for inclusion in the film. Not having Abramoff is a glaring omission, but this film is really about Casino Jack Abramoff AND the United States of Money. For all that the film covers Abramoff, his career, activities, associates, and business partners, the underlying theme of this documentary is the legalized bribery and influence peddling that has basically turned the American government over to people who can afford to buy it.

Gibney’s gift is to take subjects like accounting, finance, government, and law and make them interesting. Like the Enron movie, this Jack Abramoff movie is about corruption, and Gibney fills the film with interviews of the people involved and the people who are reporting on the takeover. What could be a boring piece of journalism is instead a compelling narrative that will wake up the viewer to corruption about which he should and must care. Gibney convinces the viewer that the corruption matters to him because it affects him and perhaps it will make that viewer become engaged and maybe even outraged.

Gibney can even find the humor in the con game. His interview with former Republican House Majority Leader, Tom Delay, reveals a man in denial about his activities with Abramoff. It is funny to watch Delay deliver half-truths and spin with smooth-as-silk dishonesty, as if he did not unethical, let alone wrong. I don’t know if Casino Jack and the United States of Money will make people take to the streets and demand change (probably not), but it is an important documentary in the modern history of American politics. It exists as a warning, a signpost on the road to American ruin. Ignore it at your peril.

9 of 10
A+

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Review: Alex Gibney's "Enron" Documentary Still Riveting

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and some nudity
DIRECTOR: Alex Gibney
WRITER: Alex Gibney (based upon the book, The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind)
PRODUCERS: Jason Kliot, Susan Motamed, and Alex Gibney
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Maryse Alberti
EDITOR: Alison Ellwood
Academy Award nominee

DOCUMENTARY

Starring: Peter Coyote (narrator), Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind Gray Davis, Mike Muckleroy, Amanda Martin-Brock, Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andrew Fastow

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is director Alex Gibney’s documentary and adaptation of Bethany McLean and Peter Elkin’s book about energy trading company Enron, The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. The film takes a behind-the-scenes look at Enron, from its auspicious beginnings and meteoric rise to its shocking fall into bankruptcy.

By the turn of the century, Enron was the seventh largest corporation in America, but the company was built on fraudulent accounting and phantom profits. By the time the company died, its top executives had milked the company for over a billion dollars in personal income, while investors, retirees, and employees lost everything including retirement benefits and 401k’s. Enron the film has the usual blend of archival, video, and news footage one would expect of a documentary. It also has interviews and a wealth of information from documents and insiders including former executives and employees of the company. The film even includes an interview with former California Governor Gray Davis who took the fall for the mess a few energy companies, Enron in particular, made of the state’s electrical supply earlier this decade.

The film is a riveting and fascinating documentary, and though it may seem like a left-leaning political movie (and it does take swipes at the Bush Administration), Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a crime story about a business climate in which corporate executives not only steal money and commit fraud, but it is also about people whose greed seems to know no limits. The film does have a few weaknesses, which keeps it from being a truly great documentary. First it’s not long enough to cover the complicated mess that was Enron. Secondly, Gibney needed to slow down and explain in simple terms complicated accounting and business practices and explain exactly what products Enron sold or what services it provided. Thirdly, the film is too much geared towards people already very familiar with the Enron story.

But for people who already know what’s going on, this is good stuff that will leave you wanting more – much more. Gibney smartly interviews so many people intimately involved with Enron at one point or another in the film, and the interviews with former Enron traders and other employees make this film more than just some documentary. It is a vital American movie.

8 of 10
A

Friday, January 27, 2006

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Alex Gibney and Jason Kliot)

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