Rating: NN
JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE (Alexandra Pelosi, Aaron Lubarsky, 2002) Rating: NN
This very rough, shot-on-video documentary about a journalist covering the 2000 Bush presidential campaign was shot hand-held by ABC producer Alexandra Pelosi, whose mother and grandfather were Democratic politicians.
Given how high the standards are for this sort of account (Timothy Crouse’s 1972 book, The Boys On The Bus, is still in print, by the way), Journeys is alarmingly superficial and hardly the intimate Bush portrait the film promises.
We glimpse him when he visits the reporters, and he does seem “smarter than we think he is” but doesn’t come off as someone who actually thinks about much of anything.
For all Pelosi’s distaste for the campaign grind, she reveals no capacity for independent thought. Journeys With George is perky and amiable but no smarter than its subject. (Wednesday, December 11, Bloor)
