Barry Levinson's "PoliWood" Takes on the 2008 Political Conventions and Celebrities

There isn't any doubt that Barry Levinson was once one of the most astute directors in bringing satire successfully to the movies. His successful "Wag the Dog" in 1997 pretty much personified political satire during the Clinton Administration, and he set a bar that should have been continued right on through the George W. Bush years. Unfortunately, Levinson's other attempts at comedy and political satire in films since then hasn't gone over as well with anybody. As with other directors who take the risk of doing satirical movies, it's possible he won't do any more after his flop this year (with Robert DeNiro no less) of "What Just Happened" that unoriginally skewers Hollywood and the celebrity lives within the bubble.

Then again, Levinson might be redeemed by finding satire within real life thanks to a new documentary he'll be releasing in 2009.

What better subject to mine for satire in the real world than a documentary about the 2008 political conventions? It's hard to say at this point exactly what Levinson has up his sleeve with this new documentary (called "PoliWood"), though it's starting to resemble something that Michael Moore might do...without the director meddling directly in the action. Instead, Levinson took a camera crew into both the Democratic and Republican Conventions from this year and decided to focus on the celebrities who attended or exerted their influence on the proceedings.

Nope, this isn't territory Michael Moore has delved deeply into yet--mainly because celebrity influence at conventions is obviously more plentiful on the Democrat side than the Republican side. Levinson nevertheless managed to find enough celebrity involvement at the Republican Convention to give a new spin on just how much celebrities are woven into the political universe.

It's quite clear that Levinson has a disdain for the world of celebrity along with all the insanity the celebrity world basks in either unknowingly or willingly. Too bad his recent flick "What Just Happened" doesn't really add anything new to that category of satire when other movies in a similar vein have already driven Hollywood into the ground. And, yes, we all get it by now. The true trend right now is showing real life through the documentary form where the satire can present itself on its own. While a movie that ruffles many a feather, Bill Maher's "Religulous" is the most recent example of how examining real life can turn up as much deep-thinking satire as anything a writer could conjure.

Now Levinson is going to go after the real world of celebrities and what they do at those political conventions from both sides of the aisle. Reportedly, the non-partisan Creative Coalition is the sponsor behind "PoliWood" to help us gain some kind of educational insight into how celebrities shape politics. But with Levinson in the director's chair, you have to wonder if perhaps any intention of it being informative will just present itself as satire without Levinson having to do anything except give directions to aim the camera.

Most of the documentary is supposed to be just interviews with celebrities as they interact within the conventions. Nevertheless, if you go with past experience of celebrities at conventions, there could be some interesting things said they ordinarily wouldn't say in front of a camera--meaning plenty of foot in mouth. That means at both conventions, despite it probably being expected at the Democratic Convention and not always expected at the Republican one.

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At least some media press reports are giving fair warning that if you hung out with the celebrities in the documentary, you'll likely be preserved on film forever. As you might expect, one of the celebrities at the Democratic Convention who gets interviewed is Susan Sarandon. However, you also get the younger celebrity crowd such as Anne Hathaway and the highly liberal Scottish actor Alan Cumming who was a delegate for the Creative Coalition at the 2004 Democratic Convention. You even get an interview from liberal icon David Crosby.

No word yet who the celebrities are who get interviewed at the Republican National Convention. The joke might be that you could them all on one hand at that location, even though any celebrity in a celebratory mood at a convention is going to say things they might wish they hadn't later.

These celebrities should have minded their P's & Q's when seeing Barry Levinson heading toward them with a microphone and camera. But they nevertheless reportedly knew Levinson would be interviewing them via the Creative Coalition. We'll just have to wait and see whether those celebs bit their tongue or said things that'll provide a darkly satirical look at why celebrities are at these conventions in the first place--along with showing us how much pull they may have at the issues brought up there...

Source:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1204953/

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13097.html