By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Perhaps it’s not surprising that in this tumultuous political season, disgraced former Brooklyn-Queens Congressman Anthony “Weiner” is the topical title of a new documentary by his ex-chief-of-staff Josh Kriegman.
In 2011, Weiner resigned from his seven-term House of Representatives seat because of an infamous sexting scandal. Two years later, ever-ambitious Weiner decides to enter the New York City Mayoral race.
When then-supporters Josh Kreigman and Elyse Steinberg propose chronicling Weiner’s run, they’re given unprecedented access, staying with him once a second wave of sexting revelations breaks.
Central to the salacious story is Weiner’s wife, Hillary Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin, a steely, self-possessed woman. “She was very eager to get her life back that I had taken from her,” he confesses, taking full blame for the harm he caused.
But once the campaign gets underway, bawdier transcripts and lewd crotch pictures surface under Weiner’s pseudonym ‘Carlos Danger.’ Those revelations, coupled with his abrasive, confrontational volatility, torpedo his chances.
As Marshall McLuhan said, “The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers.”
Since Weiner obviously brought this on himself, one cannot help but feel for Huma as she endures a second round of public humiliation, retreating to their $12,000-a-month Park Avenue South apartment.
Although the filmmakers were inexperienced, their collaboration with editor Eli B. Despres (“Blackfish”) is revelatory, particularly when Weiner sneaks through a McDonald’s to avoid contact with sexting pal/porn star Sydney Leathers before making his concession speech on election night, 2013. After conceding, Weiner arrogantly gives the finger to photographers.
And Donald Trump declares, “We don’t want perverts elected in New York City. No perverts!”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Weiner” is a shame-filled 7, delineating an excruciating political suicide.
When Jane Austen was young, she scribbled the novella “Lady Susan,” an archly observant satire of 18th century epistolary novels in the form of letters from the hyper-articulate heroine.
It’s become “Love and Friendship” and perfectly suited for writer/director Whit Stillman (“Damsels in Distress,” “Last Days of Disco,” “Metropolitan,” “Barcelona”), who is fond of the witty banter that harks back to the Restoration comedy of manners, using clever captions to introduce his large ‘Dramatis Personae’ characters from the landed English gentry.
The plot revolves around the devious manipulations of beautiful, recently widowed Lady Susan Vernon (vivacious Kate Beckinsale) who, admittedly, has “no money and no husband.”
But she does have a trusted confidante/conspirator, Alicia Johnson (Chloe Sevigny), an American exile married to an imperious aristocrat (Stephen Fry), who threatens to ship her back to the wilds of Connecticut if she sides with “the most accomplished flirt in all England.”
Arriving at Churchill, the lavish country estate of her late husband’s brother Charles (Justin Edwards) and his wary wife, Catherine (Emma Greenwell), scheming Lady Susan immediately beguiles Catherine’s wealthy younger brother, Reginald DeCourcey (Xavier Samuel, channeling a young Hugh Grant).
But before she can explore her own options, narcissistic Lady Susan must marry off her teenage daughter (Morfydd Clark), who spurns an obliging proposal of Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett) simply because he’s a blithering idiot or, as they put it, “a bit of a rattle.”
Diverse emotional entanglements abound, despite strict societal rules regarding acceptable behavior. One husband is deliciously dismissed as “too old to be governable, too young to die,” a hapless wife skewered with “If she were going to be jealous, she never should have married such a charming man.”
And so it goes until the surprisingly bawdy conclusion.
On the Granger Gauge, “Love and Friendship” is a snappy, snarky 7, appealing primarily to women and indefatigable Austen fans.
The question posed by “The Angry Birds” is: How do you turn an app-based video game into a successful animated movie? Not a good movie, perhaps, but one that has box-office appeal.
First, producer John Cohen concocted a simple story on which Jon Vitti wrote the silly, birds vs. pigs script. Then Finland’s Rovio Animation’s Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis took over as directors.
When he fails to deliver a “hatchday” treat and rebels against the happy camaraderie of Bird Island, Red the sardonic Cardinal (voiced by Jason Sudeikis) is sentenced to an anger-management classes conducted by Matilda (Maya Rudolph), a calm, free-range chicken who urges her students to therapeutically “paint your pain.”
Other rebellious misfits include Chuck (voiced by Josh Gad), the manic yellow canary; hulking Terence, whose guttural grunts supplied by Sean Penn; and the literally explosive blackbird Bomb (voiced by Danny McBride), complete with an orange ‘wick’ on his head.
Their ire is aroused when a pair of seemingly friendly singing-and-dancing green pigs – leader Leonard (voiced by Bill Hader) and his sidekick Ross (voiced by Tony Hale) – come ashore, snort around and steal the birds’ precious eggs to take home for a feast.
So furious Red and his feathered friends consult the once-Mighty Eagle (voiced by Peter Dinklage) and Judge Peckinpah (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key).
Vengeance is key as they flock to Pig Island, where the flightless birds devise a giant slingshot to catapult themselves at the oinking porkers to rescue their unborn chicks.
Amid the fast-paced, cartoony fun, bathroom humor, puns and pop culture visual gags abound – like a poster for Kevin Bacon in “Hamlet,” a book titled “50 Shades of Green,” and an obtuse glimpse of twin pigs, instead of girls, from “The Shining.” Unfortunately, it’s not interactive.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Angry Birds” is a fitfully floppy 5, but Sony profits are flying high.
( Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
