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FRAMING JOHN DELOREAN
Director: Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:49 Release Date: 6/7/19 (limited); 6/14/19 (wider); 6/28/19 (wider) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 13, 2019 There's a primary assertion in Framing John DeLorean: The story of John DeLorean, an automobile executive who became a car entrepreneur and an almost-definite criminal, would make for a good, maybe even great, movie. For a couple of decades, ideas and screenplays for such a movie have been going around Hollywood, with none of them actually being made. Here's kind of the first, in that it's a documentary with a decent number of dramatic recreations featuring a recognizable cast of actors. The title has a few interpretations. First, it's about how the government may have overstepped in their investigation of the man, which led to a big-deal trial involving the trafficking of about 200 pounds of cocaine. Second, it's about how people's view of DeLorean changes, depending on how much they know and which part of his life on which they choose to focus. Finally and mainly, it's about challenging someone to put the man and his various dimensions within the frame of a movie screen, as the complex main character in a narrative feature. Directors Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce have put together a fairly competent recounting of the real DeLorean, the man who tried to start his own car company and either intentionally (the most likely scenario) or accidentally (a very generous reading) got himself in a lot of legal trouble. It's a fascinating story, but the filmmakers make the weird and distracting decision to transform their non-fiction account into a sales pitch for them or someone else to make a "real" movie about the man. Hence, we get the usual, straightforward documentary tactics—interviews with family members, friends and acquaintances, and experts juxtaposed with archival video and photographs—as well as dramatized scenes, featuring Alec Baldwin as DeLorean, Morena Baccarin as his wife, Josh Charles as a betrayed engineer, and others playing cops and criminals and automobile executives. The actors play the scenes and also discuss how rewarding it is to do so. The concept is different for sure, but it also feels a bit disingenuous. Framing John DeLorean chiefly exists, not to tell the subject's story, but to encourage others to make a different movie or to put up the money for one. In the meantime, as an adjudication of DeLorean and an assessment of what his life meant, this documentary just passes the buck. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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