October 2024 documentary review 10-pack: BASE jumpers, James Carville, Casa Bonita, Child Stars, Lev Parnas and more

Reviews of Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid, Fly, #Untruth, ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!, Child Star, Look Into My Eyes, Happy Clothes, From Russia With Lev, Apollo 13, and One Person One Vote?

My monthly roundup of capsule reviews of new documentaries of note:

Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid

The big question this documentary raises is, how much should we listen to James Carville? On the one hand, he was the chief strategist for a winning Democratic presidential campaign. On the other, it was 32 years ago. Is Carville an experienced voice with unique wisdom, or is he the cranky old guy waving his cane at the youngins? 

There’s probably some truth to both, as demonstrated in this new doc, which lands on CNN on October 5. 

Carville is regularly interviewed on television, owing merely to being colorful: He says wild stuff in a heavy Cajun accent. And yes, he’s married to Mary Matelin, a staunch Republican he met when they were on opposite sides of the 1992 election.

James Carville was part of a classic political documentary, The War Room, in 1993, and while never boring, Matt Tyrnauer’s film isn’t likely to be remembered in 30 years. 

Fly

There are two different types of documentaries this year that likely had a high degree of difficulty: The ones set in actual war zones, and ones set among extreme sports enthusiasts, who all seem to be part of romantic couples. 

Earlier this year was Netflix’s Skywalkers: A Love Story, and now comes Fly, which had a brief theatrical run on IMAX, before landing last week on Hulu and Disney+’s National Geographic tab. The film was shot over many years. 

These characters, who are BASE jumpers — the folks who jump off of buildings and mountains — and are quite a bit more compelling than the ones in Skywalkers. There’s also the matter of the fate of one of the subjets, which adds poignancy, as well as some ethical questions. 

One Person, One Vote?

This one is the latest of the seemingly endless series of political documentaries this fall season, which landed on PBS’ Independent Lens at the end of September. 

It provides a primer on the history of the Electoral College. It makes a compelling case for why our system is unfair, although it pitches the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which is kind of a no-hope long shot that will never happen. 

The film also argues, much less convincingly, that the Electoral College is why January 6 happened, but it’s not! Trump would have called the election rigged even if we had the national popular vote. 

We’re also introduced to electors for each 2020 candidate. One guy, a Kanye West elector who only signed up because he was hoping Kanye would befriend him, is one of the more entertaining documentary “characters” of the year. 

From Russia With Lev

This is a much better political documentary, which debuted on MSNBC at the end of last month, also under Rachel Maddow's production auspices. 

The documentary is the story of Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian hanger-on of Donald Trump who conducted shady dirt-dagging on behalf of Rudy Giuliani, before ultimately flipping on Trump. He was one of the  “thumb-headed henchmen,” as podcaster Ken White memorably dubbed him. 

The documentary serves as a worthwhile explanation of how the “Russia story,” for the most part, was always true, and Giuliani and other clowns' obfuscation was nonsense. That said, in the last five minutes, we see Parnas sitting down with Hunter Biden and apologizing to him. I think I’d rather watch raw footage of that meeting than the documentary as it exists. 

#Untruth: The Psychology of Trumpism 

Speaking of MSNBC, here’s a documentary that may have been released on VOD channels, but it’s not especially different from just watching MSNBC for any given 90 minutes. 

This documentary is a follow-up to #Unfit, which was released just before the 2020 election, and it makes a bunch of disconnected arguments about Donald Trump’s unfitnessness for office. These are certainly arguments to which I’m sympathetic, but some of them are very bad, such as one talking head’s call to repeal Section 230. 

You know those people who complain about New York Times headlines not being critical enough of Donald Trump, because they don’t say “Bad Donald Trump is Bad”? This documentary is for them. 

Look Into My Eyes

This is an A24 documentary, directed by Lana Wilson, that got a theatrical release in early September, telling the stories of a group of psychics who work in New York City. What the film makes clear is that way too many people are going to psychics when what they need is a therapist and not someone who is going to serve them woo-woo bullshit. 

I’m upfront about my belief that psychics are among the most contemptible people in existence who lie about having powers and use them to sucker vulnerable people. And while some of the people in this documentary are interesting characters, that’s something I just couldn’t get past.

A more honest documentary about psychics would expose them as predatory frauds who are stealing people’s money.

Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field

I’ve known Patricia Field’s name for quite a long time, but I don’t think I knew much about her besides that she designed the clothes for Sex and the City. 

The documentary about the now 85-year-old Field was way more fascinating than I expected it to be. A 2023 Tribeca debut that landed in theaters last month, Happy Clothes shows Field continuing to work while planning her memoirs. She was working at the time on Emily in Paris, although she was not part of And Just Like That…, and in fact, seems to remain close with creator Darren Star and actress Kim Cattrall, who also weren’t part of the new show. 

“As long as the colors work together, you can fuck around with the patterns,” she says at one point. Patricia Field could have worked at Dan Flashes. 

Child Star

The latest of many recent documentaries about famous child actors of the past is this, co-directed by Demi Lovato, which landed on Hulu in September. 

While better than Andrew McCarthy’s Brats, Child Star doesn’t bring much new. For one thing, most of these stories have been told many times before. The version of this about Brooke Shields, last year, was much better.

Even Lovato had a four-part docuseries about her life that debuted at South by Southwest a couple of years ago, which was much more in-depth and interesting.

¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!

Casa Bonita is a massive restaurant in Colorado that is as much a theme park as a restaurant. It is famous for having been the location of a South Park episode many years ago. 

The restaurant closed during the pandemic, but South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided to revive it in their native Colorado, even if doing so meant going way over budget and spending millions of dollars. 

The documentary opened in theaters in September and will land on Paramount+ sometime this fall. It made me question how such a restaurant with that much overhead could be economically viable. But that said, this project is much more interesting than the last several years of South Park. 

Apollo 13: Survival

Also, in September, Netflix debuted a new documentary about the Apollo 13 mission, featuring archival footage of the“Houston We Have a Problem” mission. 

Directed by  Peter Middleton, the documentary assembles its footage well and dramatically. 

There’s just one problem: It’s not quite as compelling as Ron Howard’s movie from 1995, and if you’re going to watch one of the two movies, the ’95 one is better.