What would happen if they held a national political party convention in New York and nobody talked to the actual delegates? Well, the answer would be that you'd be watching Jed Weintrob's "The F Word."
This movie says that it documents the protests outside the Republican National Convention in Fall 2004. So much for truth in advertising.
Although "Joe Pace" (played with earnest - no, rabid - outrage by Josh Hamilton) does find some Republicans to speak to, he doesn't even pretend to interview them. Hamilton's character just makes the same statements with his questions the leftists made with their obscenities and violence in the streets.
The surreality comes in as left-wing protesters begin hitting New York policemen and Pace is crouching in the foreground saying "things are really getting tense with the cops here." Not the protesters, who are HITTING the cops, but the cops, who are doing their jobs.
Yeah, that's a documentary. 10 points for style, minus 250,000 for objectivity.
Weintrob's clever work with camera angles, cuts and editing show his intention to make propaganda early in the film. "The F Word," more than anything else, is a textbook on how to slant the facts and tell lies with film.
"The F Word" is slick propaganda, a post-modern version of "Triumph of the Will." As such, it merits study because this is the 21st century version of how to lie with a camera and a microphone.
You trot out the calm, aesthetic camera effects and soundtrack when you want your audience to identify with interviewees; then go to black and white when you want to show people with whom you disagree in a bad light, and posterize when you want to confuse your viewers (as with the disjointed-appearing Walt Whitman-quoting guy in Central Park near the middle of the film).
"Strange day... is anybody listening? Is anybody listening?" central character "Joe Pace" intones, as he strolls down Central Park not listening to anything but the sound of his own voice. The intelligent viewer cringes, expecting him to drop trou at some point and pleasure himself to the sound of his own verbal brilliance.
The central character then muses about the importance of people listening to each other when the folks with whom he most obviously sympathizes are talking non-stop to themselves and listening very little, to anyone else.
After half an hour of self-righteous talk therapy in the streets, Pace changes roles, has a bystander interview him, and delivers a nasty sound bite about how horrible it is that the Republican Party DARES to have their convention 'in one of the most liberal cities in America.'
This is the ONE truthful moment in "The F Word," when Jed Weintrob's mask of objectivity slips and he shows us that he'd cheerfully confine anyone who doesn't agree with his politics to a concentration camp. No one's allowed to walk around New York unless they've passed a political litmus test given by Jed Weintrob.
Nobody's too paranoid or obnoxious to be given a sympathetic ear by Jed Weintrob's faux journalist "Joe Pace" as long as they're rabidly leftist.
Even the guy from the "New York Peace and Justice Radio Show" who goes on and on about how the NYPD are computer-analyzing the videotapes they're making of the crowd is presented as a valid voice - the ironic wink from Weintrob's character which would have humanized him AND the left-wing head cases surrounding him is curiously absent from a movie preening itself as witty and profound.
This mockumentary ends with a little rock ballad that helps it earn its title - one of the protesters earnestly shouts just before "The F Word's" end credits that the 1960's comedian Lenny Bruce once said "You take away the right to say F---, then you take away the right to say 'F- - you' to the government."
Now, I'M exercising my Constitutional right to tell the director and cast:
"Guys, you f---ed up.
A documentary should tell BOTH sides of the story. If you don't want to do that, be honest with your audience and call it a 'political commercial' - George Soros is rich enough to air it in every major TV market in America.
Your movie sucks out loud."
This film DOES succeed in comparing and contrasting what real assholes behave like at political protest meetings, compared to the left-wing media's whipping boys, the Tea Party (who are almost uniformly good mannered, pick up their trash AND everyone else's, and don't hit anyone, including the cops).
I can't wait for Weintrob to follow this up with a movie-length ad for Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Oakland/Occupy Any Place but Mom's Basement.
I'm sure that whatever ACORN is calling themselves these days has lied to enough members of the New York teachers' union to be able to hire Weintrob and his production company.
