You take a big risk trying to be as objective as possible when you make a documentary about a contemporary issue: the situation you originally set out to examine can change quickly — and it’s too late for you to do more than just casually point out that it’s changing in the film’s final moments. your. Meanwhile, the audience already knows about this development before sitting down to watch what you’ve built.
Consider the case of “Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid,” a revelatory and fascinating documentary portrait of James Carville, the Louisiana-born Democratic political activist whose uninhibited self-confidence, aggressive evangelism, and profanely funny pronouncements earned him the nickname “The Raging Cajun.”
Throughout most of his film’s running time, director Matt Tyrnauer watches Carville watch with increasing anxiety the 2024 presidential race, fearing the worst as early polls suggest incumbent President Joe Biden will be defeated by former President Donald Trump. Even before most people inside and outside his party began suggesting, politely or otherwise, that Biden should drop out of the race, Carville began pondering his doubts about whether the incumbent was actually too old and cognitively impaired to cope with mental and psychological problems. . Physical requirements for a second period.
Then in May 2024, an ABC/Washington Post poll showed that only 42% of likely voters supported Biden’s reelection — and 49% supported Trump. “That poll,” Carville admits in his characteristically frank voice, “knocked me right off my fucking horse.” It wasn’t long before the renegade agent began pushing for Plan B to be implemented: Biden should withdraw from the competition without choosing a worthy successor, and demand that a new nominee be selected at a wide-open Democratic National Convention.
Of course, that wasn’t how things worked. (Kamala Harris makes a fleeting appearance just before the closing credits, in footage taken shortly before the film’s late-August premiere at the Telluride Film Festival.) It’s a testament to how engaging the film is — and yes, how entertaining — that it even goes so far as to “plot twist ” is a stark one that makes Tyrnauer able to tell a story that feels hugely satisfying, if not entirely complete.
It helps that “Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid” is interspersed with scenes depicting the high drama of the 2024 presidential race with Carville’s relentless evolution from political novice to indefatigable kingmaker.
He made his first major elevation to his national profile by being a key campaign adviser to Bill Clinton in the former Arkansas governor’s successful 1992 presidential campaign. George Stephanopoulos, who joined early on as an aide to Carville, notes that the candidate and adviser “each had a bit of a rogue “, which will likely serve both men well when Carville has to play defense as some of Clinton’s skeletons (especially her extramarital shenanigans). Accusations of evading military service) were not disclosed.
Carville cleverly plotted to draw attention away from these and other scandals during the game-changing campaign by emphasizing Clinton’s potential as a better problem solver than current President George H.W. In this context, Carville coined a slogan that would inspire his employees – “It’s the economy, stupid!” — and became the early 1990s equivalent of a viral meme.
(Tyrnauer slyly uses excerpts from “The War Room,” Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker’s fascinating 1993 documentary about the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of Carville, Stephanopoulos and others in the Clinton camp — including Carville’s now-ridiculed accusations that Bush was simply too big of a Age. To be an effective supreme leader.)
Also emphasized throughout the documentary is Carville’s unlikely relationship with Republican activist Mary Matalin, whom he met during the Clinton-Bush race. They have been married for more than three decades — something that amazes most critics, which in turn amuses the seemingly mismatched couple. It is clear that despite their significant differences — he objected to the Gulf War while Matalin supported the invasion during her time as a White House staffer under President George W. Bush — they sincerely love and respect each other. Indeed, the unbreakable bond that binds them seems like a relic from an earlier era when political conflicts were not enough to prevent people from being, at the very least, civil in their interactions.
“Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid” suggests that Carville himself realizes that his approach to political warfare, party loyalty and campaign rhetoric may define him as a relic to many in his field — including many of his fellow Democrats. He speaks disparagingly of the “woke absurdity” of die-hard progressives that might drive moderate Democrats and even hard-line liberals to the Republican Party. But if Biden’s supporters still hold a grudge against him for his vocal support of plans to replace the sitting president, he frankly doesn’t care. For him, winning is really everything.
As political consultant and commentator Paul Begala says of his old friend, Carville “is the smartest son of a bitch who does this for a living.” Age may have slowed him down a bit, but Carville is still in the game, and still playing to survive.