As I said when giving a brief, very positive verdict on the film in the movies thread, I saw Weiner this weekend.
The first truly great political documentary was Primary about the 1960 Wisconsin primary fight between Humphrey and Kennedy. Then there was The War Room about Clinton's 1992 campaign. And then Street Fight about Cory Booker's 2002 campaign for Mayor of Newark. Weiner is good enough to challenge any one of those films to break into that top three and could be a contender for the best campaign documentary of all time.
Cliff's notes for anyone unaware of the basics: Anthony Weiner was a Democratic congressman representing a Brooklyn district in the House from 1999 through 2011 when he resigned following a sexting scandal. Two years later he ran for mayor of NYC. A former congressional staffer had since transitioned into documentary filmmaking and was allowed to follow his campaign which looked to be poised to be a comeback. During the campaign - and during filming - a second "scandal" broke wherein it was discovered his sexting had continued long after he had claimed he had ceased having such contact with women other than his wife, Huma Abedin, who, to add even more allure, was a senior aide to Hillary Clinton. She and Hillary were so close that Bill Clinton had officiated Anthony and Huma's wedding.
A lot of the questions that arise in the film are the kind asked in
our thread here wondering how deeply flawed a person can be before he loses our respect in his professional endeavors. My tendency has long been to not care at all about what goes on in one's personal life if he or she is capable in their chosen profession and this film only solidifies my opinion. To my mind we lost one of the most promising, most effective, most charismatic liberal politicians, so of course I would lament the loss. But so many people who otherwise supported him seemed genuinely outraged by his behavior which, to me, is perplexing.
This on the heels of losing another extraordinarily gifted liberal politician - Elliot Spitzer - to a sex scandal. Of course, the facts there were quite different. Spitzer had actually slept with other women and it appears he used public funds to support his travel to do so. So the two scenarios are by no means equivalent. Weiner's is almost certainly the most minor misdemeanor compared to Spitzer's felony. But nonetheless we've lost two of this generations most promising liberal politicians to sex scandals, which I find truly pathetic. (Spitzer's also resulted in a
documentary which, while good, was nothing compared to Weiner)
But back to the movie. It presents Anthony Weiner in all his hedging glory. Even after the second set of revelations, he can't seem to just be straight with his own staff. It's unclear if he was ever completely open to his wife during this period, but he admits that during the initial scandal he kept her in the dark simultaneously with the rest of the world. A lot of the coverage at the time was focused on what he was doing to Huma with his acting out and while she is not nearly as open with the filmmakers as Anthony, you end up psychoanalyzing every expression and every piece of body language in the film no matter how hard you might try not to.
It seems clear that his problem is that he doesn't know when to call it a day. When a man in a deli insults him, he refuses to let it go and ends up making things ten times worse for himself. He makes himself look like a petulant jerk on Lawrence O'Donnell. He confirms our suspicions by laughing as he watches the appearance and tries to seek Huma's input.
To his credit, Anthony never asks for our sympathy or tries to act as if he doesn't deserve our judgment even if we (well, at least I) might think he doesn't. He plows on. During an appearance on City Island he goes into a room of critics and, in response to a loaded question, turns them all around to supporters by the time he leaves. These scenes are the ones that really broke my heart. A gifted, passionate politician who has been forced from his work because he sent some women some pictures of his dick. No women alleged the pictures were unwanted by them. No women alleged he had tried to have any physical contact. No women alleged that their interaction with him was anything but positive. But because we as a society are intent on treating sex like we're all under the watchful eye of our Sunday school teacher.
