Displaying items by tag: Arthur Cary

REWRITING TRUMP

US, 2025, 97 minutes, Colour.

Michael Wolff.

Directed by Arthur Cary, Yasmine Permaul.

A Trump-focused documentary released soon after the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2025. There have been a number of documentaries about Trump himself as well as analyses of his followers, especially three films by director, Don Partland. Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump, God & Country, #UNTRUTH: The Psychology of Trumpism. In comparison, this film is slighter though always interesting.

The focus of attention is on writer, Michael Wolff, author of three books on Trump, a writer rather than a political analyst, interviews with Trump, observing him closely, his observing those heading his 2024 presidential campaign. To that extent, the film is very interesting in looking at Trump at the beginning of 2024, his campaign manager and advisers (not a flattering treatment of them), various stages in 2024, Trump’s candidature, the debate with Biden and the fiasco for Biden, the managers hoping for competition with Biden, the emergence of Karmela Harris, the debate with her, Trump’s extraordinary odd performance and her emerging more successfully, the rally at Butler, Pennsylvania, the assassination attempt and Trump rising up and raising his fist and calling “Fight, fight, fight”.

There is also a focus on the Stormy Daniels trial, very interesting for the interviews with her and her commentary, and her attitudes towards Trump. Then there is the verdict, 34 charges and Trump guilty. But, outside the courts, the continued support for Trump and the ignoring of the reality of the charges. The huge following the developed during his first candidature and was dramatised by the rights on January 6, 2021.

There is also the Republican convention and Trump’s nomination as the presidential candidate.

The film touches on election night, the anticipation of the tight race, an overwhelming victory for Trump, and a critique of the ordinariness of his acceptance speech, and his continued repetition of his MAGA themes.

However, this film would be much more interesting had writer, Michael Wolff himself, been a more interesting presence on screen. He is not very interesting at all, photographed a great deal, at home, with wife and children, mooching around at conventions, cursirily speaking to admirers, but generally aloof, sometimes very tangled and hesitant in his comments to camera, making some observations, reference to his encounters with Trump.

However, his themes are in the title, a critical look at Trump himself, Trump’s self-absorption, his repetitions, his going off track, his mean-mindedness, especially, for example, against his competitor, Nikki Haley.

At the end, the sometimes lugubrious Michael Wolff writes his book on Trump, his third, then at the end of the film a number of passages of Trump, in full flight, invoking fake news, condemning writers, spurning Wolff.

So, the state of the question about Trump and his presidency at the beginning of 2025.