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Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project

UNAUTHORIZED: THE HARVEY WEINSTEIN PROJECT (Barry Avrich). 97 minutes. Opens Friday (February 11) at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. See Indie & Rep Film listings. Rating: NN


Harvey Weinstein may have revolutionized the indie film scene, made people care about small movies and marketed the shit out of them, but that doesn’t make him an interesting documentary subject.

Greed, financial mismanagement, mercurial behaviour – all of which apply to the former main man at Miramax – matter only if they have an impact on the rest of us. That’s why audiences eat up docs about venal bankers, and why Unauthorized – called that doubtless because Weinstein refused to be interviewed – hasn’t got much going for it.

Sure, it features Martin Scorsese, Patricia Rozema, James Ivory and many other film personalities. But how many times do we have to hear former employees, current colleagues and film journalists call him a bully? We get that he was a prick after two people say so. We don’t need the third, fourth and fifth.

Even for the film freak who might be attracted to Unauthorized, there’s not much new information. Yes, he was the first to campaign aggressively and shamelessly for an Oscar (Shakespeare In Love) and, yes, he put the Sundance Fest on the map when he bought Sex, Lies & Videotape.

But that makes us want to see the movies he marketed – not a movie about him.

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