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RADICAL WOLFE
Director: Richard Dewey MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:15 Release Date: 9/15/23 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 14, 2023 The work of journalist, author, and public personality Tom Wolfe is somewhat examined in Radical Wolfe. If one is looking for any personal details about the very private writer, the best Richard Dewey's documentary can offer is that, well, Wolfe was a very private person. Such information shouldn't matter too much, anyway, if the exploration of the subject's professional life compensates for that absence. Here, we're basically given a list of Wolfe's greatest hits—assorted magazine articles that put him on the map during the 1960s, his non-fiction books, and the more popular and regarded pieces of fiction. Jon Hamm occasionally reads snippets, while Wolfe, appearing in archival footage donning white suits and the demeanor of a proper Southern gentleman, recites some passages from memory while on the talk show circuit. It's something, although not quite enough to really give one a sense of anything more than his particular way with language (Certain colorful phrases and examples of onomatopoeia appear on screen, for what it's worth). The bulk of the context of the purpose of Wolfe's writing and its place within the culture of the time it was written in this movie belongs to a series of talking heads. Most of them are writers, too, from Michael Lewis, the author and journalist whose article inspired the documentary, to a few others. There aren't many here, to be honest, and the inclusion of a critical Emily Witt, a writer for the New Yorker, almost seems like an afterthought for Dewey, in order to reflect the idea that Wolfe's work was often met with controversy. Why that's the case—beyond some writerly and institutional feuds, as well as some apparent naïveté about racial and gender politics—is left mostly unspoken, since so many of the interview subjects can't help but fawn over Wolfe. Dewey's form and structure are the stuff of cliché, with montages of talk show appearances and news reports offering up brief descriptions of Wolfe and his work, as key biographical points are highlighted. From beat reporter to one of the most famous authors in the country, Wolfe's life is presented in a flash (It almost comes across as a joke when the full extent of the man's family life with his wife and two children is summarized as him having a "perfect wife" and two kids). His literary bent is given a bit more weight, which is to say that a lot of the interviewees keep repeating that Wolfe wanted to bring country folks to the awareness city-dwellers and take down the cultural elite a few pegs. Dewey breezes through these examples, too, as if a handful of people simply saying what makes Wolfe's writing dynamic and important is enough to prove the point. At 75 minutes (with credits), Radical Wolfe barely has time to accomplish the minimal goals Dewey has set for himself. It's a rote and lazy documentary. Copyright © 2023 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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