Jamboree: Carville's Last Crusade; Netflix Numerology
A new doc depicts the famed strategist's desperate battle to stop Trump
In the department of sure-to-be interesting things: documentarian Matthew Tyrnauer is completing a fascinating project he’s been shooting for the past year. He’s followed the steps of James Carville — the Ragin’ Cajun who burst to fame as the principle strategist of Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory and star of another documentary about that campaign, RJ Cutler’s The War Room, which gave viewers an unprecedented look at the workings of a modern presidential campaign. Carville went on to become the foremost spokesman for a brand of working-class, economically-focused progressive politics which has fallen out of favor with the Democratic party elites since then.
Tyrnauer, whose previous credits include Valentino: the Last Emperor and Where’s My Roy Cohn? captures Carville in the documentary at the other end of his career in presidential campaigns, as the lion of Democratic politics embarks on one last crusade to stop Donald Trump from regaining office. In the path to that, the film chronicles his thus-far quixotic fight within his own tent to persuade President Joe Biden to step aside as his party’s candidate.
Among the revelations I found most interesting: the War Room quarter of Carville, Stephanopoloous, media advisor Mandy Grunwald and pollster Stanely Greenberg begin most days with a four-way conference call, 30 years later.
The film does not yet have a distributor but is about to hit the streets.
The Penske Globe Floggers
Back a week or two ago, the question lingered: how are the Penske publications going to cover the Globes owned by their company like this is totally normal?