FILM REVIEW: GORE VIDAL AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMNESIA

Gore Vidal in Gore Vidal and the United States of Amnesia. 

Thanks for the memory

By Don Simpson

In capturing the life of a man who deftly re-imagined how we approach history and politics, it is unfortunate that Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia relies so heavily upon such an uninventive documentary format. Combining direct interviews with archival footage, director Nicholas Wrathall is lucky to at least have Gore Vidal’s natural charisma as the heart and soul of this documentary.

For those who are unfamiliar with his uncanny knack for highly-intellectualized wit and humor, The United States of Amnesiapresents Vidal in stark contrast to the perpetual stream of verbal diarrhea that spews from modern day pundits. Even when pitted against his nemesis William F. Buckley, Jr. during ABC’s coverage of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Vidal transcended the stuffy intellectualism and presented his arguments with a poetic panache that made his elegantly barbed jabs all the more entertaining. Unfortunately, Vidal’s high-minded style of political discourse died with him on July 31, 2012.

Vidal’s lack of intellectual equals becomes increasingly evident as all of the other interviewees sprinkled throughout The United States of Amnesia pale in comparison to him. Their unabashed hero-worship does very little to contribute to the discussion of Vidal’s life, instead everyone seems much more enamored by his vibrant social life — as if to suggest that his friendship with Paul Newman or notorious feuds with Truman Capote and Norman Mailer are more important than his intellectual prowess. Even Vidal’s criticisms of John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush are reduced to comical soundbites that are primed for tabloid headlines. In this context, The United States of Amnesia seems to cheapen Vidal’s opinions and arguments, abbreviating the sound bites into petty and slanderous slurs; its just a shame that Wrathall does not allow him to justify the statements.

While many viewers might only know of Vidal from reading his historical novels such as Lincoln or Burr, Wrathall opts to present a very human portrait of Vidal; focusing on his personality, The United States of Amnesia avoids any scholarly analysis of Vidal’s work. Hearing Vidal’s friends and admirers speak about him, it becomes increasingly evident that he was an enigma to everyone. Vidal seemed to enjoy the mysterious nature of his public persona, especially when it came to his sexuality. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), is recognized as one of the first major American novels to directly feature homosexuality, but Vidal was opposed to defining people in terms of being “homosexual” and “heterosexual.” Vidal wholeheartedly believed that sexuality is not as clear cut as those polarizing terms infer, suggesting that everyone is bisexual to some degree. This made Vidal’s purportedly asexual relationship with long-term partner Howard Austen all the more perplexing to those who knew him.

Our world may still need a more academic interpretation of Vidal’s work, but Wrathall’s documentary serves as an essential introduction to the man, the myth and the legend. The United States of Amnesia presents Vidal (who I share a birthday with) in such an approachable light that perhaps it will propel more people to become curious about his novels and essays.

THEATER REVIEW: OTHER DESERT CITIES

Elephant

By Ed Rampell

Sometimes, agitprop plays come across like pamphlets and onstage screeds. On the other hand, “interior” dramas solely dealing with their characters’ inner lives seem devoid of a social context. However, the great thing about Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities is how the playwright adroitly interweaves the play’s political background and subtext with a very realistic family drama, with all the agility of a playwriting Spiderman, who pins tales as well as webs. Traversing a tightrope between two genres, it’s as if Other Desert Cities' dramatist has found a happy medium between, or even perhaps united, the best of the Clifford Odets of Waiting for Lefty with the Eugene O’Neill of The Iceman Cometh. Baitz combines the generation gap, antiwar protest from Vietnam to Iraq, the Reagan era and more with a conflict between a daughter and her parents that would not have been unfamiliar to ancient audiences attending Greek amphitheatres.

Baitz’s skillfully brewed concoction -- decidedly shaken, not stirred -- works exceedingly well in this two-acter, especially as the complex story is brought to life by an ensemble of gifted veteran thespians. The plot concerns Brooke (Robin Weigert), a troubled author who has relocated to the East Coast, who visits her doting parents in their Palm Springs home -- stylishly rendered with desert background by set designer Takeshi Kata -- during the holidays following George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection. At first, the sixtyish Lyman (Robert Foxworth) and Polly Wyeth (JoBeth Williams) are thrilled to see their errant writer of a daughter, as well as their son Trip (Michael Weston), a reality TV producer.

But tensions soon flare, enflamed by politics: Staunch Reaganites who defend Bush’s imperial misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lyman and Polly quickly clash with the lefty Brooke. Polly’s substance abusing sister ,Silda Grauman (Jeannie Berlin), enters the combustible fray with pithy critiques of Polly, an ex-screenwriter, and of Lyman, a former B-actor who went on to become GOP chairman.

Just as George and Martha purported to have an offstage son in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the Wyeths’ son/ brother/nephew is similarly an unseen presence in Other Desert Cities who casts a long shadow. It turns out that during the 1970s Henry joined a Weathermen-like extremist antiwar group of domestic terrorists who, we are told, after a “propaganda of the deed” to protest Vietnam goes terribly wrong, dies -- probably in a self-inflicted way. The loss of Henry seems to weigh especially heavily on Brooke’s shoulders, causing her to become depressed and institutionalized. But she has come out of her catatonic state by writing a tell-all confessional about her long lamented older brother -- which also threatens to shatter her already polarized family. Brooke’s Republican parents appear to be trying to live down the legacy of their wayward radical son and vociferously object to publication of the book and the ensuing nightmare, presumably because they will have to relive the worst moment of their lives, one which they have been trying to leave behind in the rear view mirror for decades.

The really delicious thing about this play is how its storyline and characters wander about the desert in unexpected ways. There’s nothing worse than seeing a show and correctly guessing the lines of dialogue and figuring out its denouement well in advance. But as the name of this work -- which refers to a road sign -- indicates, Other Desert Cities heads in unforeseen directions, with unexpected plot twists and turns. Act I is a dramedy, with plenty of pithy one-liners and zingers hurled back and forth, often with then-topical references about WMDs, Colin Powell and “whining lefties.” Act II is decidedly more of a drama, with the chickens coming home to roost for the dysfunctional Wyeths.

The ensemble is superbly directed by Robert Egan; well-versed in all things Baitz he has repeatedly collaborated with the playwright, who also created the ABC family series, Brothers & Sisters. The cast is simply stellar.


Other Desert Cities runs through Jan. 6, 2013 at the Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave. LA, CA. 90012. For more information: www.centertheatregroup.org;213/628-2772

    

FILM REVIEW: THE IDES OF MARCH

A scene from The Ides of March.

Liberal light

By Don Simpson

A wise man -- a Shakespearean soothsayer, no less -- once warned "beware the ides of March" and writer-director George Clooney co-opts this infamous quote from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar presumably to emphasize (or warn us thereof) the overtly-dramatized events of his film. Clooney could have retained the title of Beau Willimon’s source play, Farragut North, but what fun would that have been?

Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), a 30-year-old political campaign strategist, has swallowed the proverbial purple Kool Aid of "change" being served up by a progressively-minded idealist whose seemingly uncompromising platform makes President Obama look like a centrist. The mythical Pennsylvania Governor Mike Morris (Clooney) is nothing short of a liberal's wet dream candidate for the United States presidency. He is staunchly pro-choice, pro-same sex marriage and anti-capital punishment; he wants the United States to be completely weened from oil dependency within 10 years, not only to save the environment and jump-start the national economy, but to inflict more damage to foreign terrorists than any military action could possibly wield; he advocates for mandatory national service for high school graduates, which he offsets with free college tuition and health care for all. He even refuses to commit to a religious ideology (his religion: the blessed Constitution of the United States); and the state he currently governs boasts a balanced budget! Hey, Stephen! Don't Bogart the Kool Aid! I wanna chug some too!

The other players (and pawns) of this Shakespearean drama include: Governor Morris' campaign manager, Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman); a seductive young intern, Molly (Evan Rachel Wood); Governor Morris' opponent, Senator Pullman (Michael Mantell); Senator Pullman's campaign manager, Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti); and New York Times reporter, Ida (Marisa Tomei).

Set in a fictional and unspecified time period in which the United States finds itself in a situation somewhat similar to the 2008 presidential campaign (and the campaign poster for Governor Morris bears a remarkable resemblance to the Barak Obama Hope poster designed by Shepard Fairey), The Ides of March does not discuss the politics of whoever the sitting president is; and besides a fleeting mention of an attempt by Republicans to influence the polls in key primary elections in order to get the weaker Democrat candidate nominated, the G.O.P. is rarely mentioned. Heck, even Senator Pullman warrants less than a minute or two of screen time.

Other than some stump speeches by Governor Morris, The Ides of March seems almost apolitical. Also, in choosing to place the narrative during a fictional time period, Clooney drains the story of any political oomph that it might have otherwise possessed. The Ides of March may be a strong (though incredibly traditional) political thriller with an unfathomably talented pool of thespians, but the film is rendered inconsequential and pointless. The only truly cutting political soliloquy is when Governor Morris addresses a question regarding whether he would still oppose the death penalty even if his own wife were murdered (a clever reference to a similar question posed to Michael Dukakis by moderator Bernard Shaw during the October 13, 1988 Presidential debate).

The Ides of March reinforces the belief that politics is nothing more than a dirty game of chess ("get down in the mud with the fucking elephants!"), with players and pawns doing dizzying Dosados as the relentless manipulation and backstabbing causes roles to change in a near-endless series of contrived plot twists that would cause even Shakespeare himself to blush with embarrassment. Compromises are necessary -- so are sex scandals -- and that just means that it is impossible for anyone in politics to remain ethically pure. It all boils down to Clooney's two recommendations for those of you who are interested in entering politics: Beware the ides of March and do not fuck the interns.