Reviews: One Screening Only
The Unknown Known (Errol Morris, USA, 2013, 103 min)
WUD Film Mini-Indie Fest, Union South Marquee Theater, Saturday, November 22, 9:00pm»
A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn, UK/USA/Germany, 2014, 122 min)
WUD Film Mini-Indie Fest, Union South Marquee Theater, Sunday, November 23, 1:00pm»
As part of the excellently programmed WUD Indie Festival this weekend, filmgoers will have the chance to take in two films preoccupied with the war on terror—an imperfect documentary on Donald Rumsfeld that everyone should see, and a John Le Carré adaptation that is my favorite film of 2014.
The WUD Film Committee has outdone itself with this year’s Mini Indie Film Festival. Whether it’s the acerbic wit-fest that is Listen Up Philip, or the avant-garde collage pop of the Jodie Mack short Dusty Stacks of Mom, the festival provides Madison filmgoers with a multitude of cinematic joys (not to mention reprieves from the bitter cold). I’ve chosen to take on two of the more serious films in the lineup. While not being shown as a double bill, with the different ways in which they focus on intelligence and garner comparisons to predecessors, they easily could easily be.
The Unknown Known
While I found the film slightly disappointing, it remains a crime that The Unknown Known hasn’t come to Madison theaters until now, and our filmgoing community owes the WUD Film Committee great thanks for bringing it to local screens. In the film, documentarian (and UW-Madison alum) Errol Morris turns his Interrotron toward former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, providing a portrait that is sometimes infuriating, sometimes humorous, and even surprisingly poignant in one or two scenes. Intercut with Morris’ interview with Rumsfeld are text from Rumsfeld’s endless catalog of memos, hauntingly beautiful landscape shots, and animated infographics, all set to an eerie yet otherwise unremarkable score by Danny Elfman.
When watching this film, as many people do, I couldn’t help but think of The Fog of War, Morris’ earlier work on Robert S. McNamara. Both films are about Secretaries of Defense with sets of political rules who were in power during wars unlike any the U.S. had previously fought. Despite their obvious similarities, The Unknown Known seems to me an inferior film. It makes Rumsfeld come off as a man merely full of interesting musings, as opposed to the way The Fog of War makes McNamara come off as a precise and deliberate thinker. This is partly the case in general—McNamara is a far more complex and fascinating figure—but it is also partly what I bring to both films as a viewer.
Having lived through the last 13 years, as opposed to the Vietnam era, I felt like there was less for me to discover about Rumsfeld. In effect, there were less “unknown knowns” (the debated titular phrase defined early in the film as “things that you think you know that it turns out you did not”). Rumsfeld’s biographical details seem less well integrated into the overall structure of the film, and I come away wanting more than I got, whereas I felt I learned much more from The Fog of War.
That said, this is a deftly edited piece, and Morris makes a noteworthy choice in going with a scope aspect ratio in a film that I would have easily expected to be 1.78 or 1.85. The impact of this framing was especially great in the parade of definitions that come later in the film, as well as in all of the landscape shots I referenced earlier. For good or for ill, Morris also feels like more of a personality in this film. His early exchange with Rumsfeld about being “obsessive” is an excellent example of this, and it also comes out during their many exchanges on intelligence.
Rumsfeld raises the interesting notion of equating intelligence with imagination, specifically the failure of intelligence as the failure of imagination. Morris quickly dispenses with that notion through a characteristically blunt question: wasn’t it failure to look at the intelligence that was available? While I find near self-evident validity in Morris’ retort, Rumsfeld’s analogous relationship between intelligence and imagination holds interest that persists beyond the credits.
In the end, it’s fair to say that I found The Unknown Known to be entertaining, if not as enriching as I might have liked. As I said, though, WUD is doing Madison a service by bringing this film to the big screen, providing an opportunity for people to discuss the film and its subject after it ends. If nothing else, it will do what all of Morris’ films inevitably do: provoke good conversation.
A Most Wanted Man
I’m an espionage junky. Do keep this in mind when I make the following statement:
In a year that has been packed with a fair amount of excellent filmmaking, both popular and indie, A Most Wanted Man is easily my favorite film of 2014. It has the slow burn of an impeccably wrapped cigar and the long, complex finish of a fine whiskey.
Adapted from the John Le Carré novel of the same name, A Most Wanted Man stars the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as Günther Bachmann, a Hamburg-based agent in charge of a small intelligence unit. When Issa Karpof (the terrific Grigoriy Dobrygin)—a former prisoner of half-Chechen/half-Russian descent—enters Germany illegally, Bachmann and his team start tracking Karpof, suspecting him as a possible terrorist or as someone with ties to terrorism. As Karpof’s reason for journeying to Hamburg becomes clearer, Karpof shifts from potential threat to potential asset. With this in mind, and while negotiating the problematic politics of his own agency and those of American “observer” Martha Sullivan (Robin Wright), the indefatigable Bachmann sets his sights on an even bigger target.
One of the ways in which I find the film so satisfying is the strategy with which Bachmann pursues that target. Intelligence in this film is presented as an act of unwavering commitment to detail, of ever escalating accumulation. Bachmann lays it out well: “It takes a minnow to catch a barracuda, a barracuda to catch a shark.” To mix the metaphor, Gunther Bachmann is himself a patient spider. Whether it be the beleaguered banker Tommy Brue (Willem Dafoe), the idealistic lawyer Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams) or the young source (Mehdi Dehbi) close to his real target, Bachmann weaves an ever-growing web of intrigue, using all means at his disposal—be they just or vicious—in the name of making the world a safer place.
As with the relationship between The Unknown Known and The Fog of War, A Most Wanted Man may draw comparisons to another even better Le Carré adaptation—Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)—and they would be well earned. However, particularly due to its contemporary setting, A Most Wanted Man puts greater emphasis on the intersection of the pragmatic and the political, a characteristic of espionage that I prize more and more as I get older (and if you do too, look into a show called The Sandbaggers). It also has a considerably more modern visual sensibility, thanks to director Anton Corbijn (The American). Be it through costumes, props, or angular architecture, Corbijn has a penchant for making aesthetically gorgeous films with an unmistakable style. The cinematography here is simply stunning from first shot to last. And what a last shot…
While there is not a bad performance here, one cannot help but savor one of the last works of a truly great actor. Hoffman imbues Bachmann with keen mind, hardened heart, relentless drive, and just the right hint of rakish wit. Hoffman gives a complex, beguiling performance that is at once removed and relatable, much like the best spies. My favorite scenes are those Hoffman shares with Nina Hoss, who gives my second favorite performance as his colleague and confidant Irna Frey. The respect and professionalism they share, coupled with intimations of regretful longing between the pair, provide a much richer relationship between these two characters than one might expect.
Unlike The Unknown Known, which missed Madison, A Most Wanted Man made the rounds, left town, and then amazingly returned for a second run. WUD brings us our third engagement, for which they again deserve kudos. In an already stellar lineup, they also have the very best film of the year in tow. If you see one film at the Mini Indie Film Festival, see this one.
But don’t see just one.