Documentary comprehensively captures campaign craziness
Remember the 2012 Republican caucuses in Iowa?
Or have you pushed it out of your memory to make room for something more pleasant, like that hangnail you had a couple months ago?
No matter what side of the political aisle on which you sit, you probably are not eager to relive candidates barnstorming the state, promising the moon (and in Newt Gingrich’s case, that’s not just a saying) to secure the vote of anyone within earshot.
But “Caucus” makes a return trip to Iowa a welcome journey.
A.J. Schnack’s documentary follows the candidates as they crisscross the state, all disparaging Barack Obama and promising a sure-fire victory come Election Day. It’s music to the ears of people like the guy at a rally wearing an “Anybody but Obama” sweatshirt. But, as is so often the case in politics, none of the frontrunners can stand prosperity. Gaffes, accusations and good old-fashioned foot-in-mouth disease keep the whole thing in turmoil.
And, like just about everything else in the movie, that’s really entertaining.
Though perhaps not if you are a hard-core Republican, watching Michele Bachmann prance around like the world owes her something (in partic-
ular, the GOP nomination) or Gingrich condescending to everyone he sees. (There is a really weird, yet fascinating, scene in which he talks at length to a local reporter about how great the town zoo is.)
At some point you have to wonder, was anyone really going to vote for any of these candidates?
The eventual Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, makes the occasional appearance, evidently in the belief that such a contest is beneath him. Like most of the others, he looks uncomfortable in jeans or in anything other than a suit. He definitely looks uncomfortable trying the vegan corn dog foisted upon him at a fair. But he looks most uncomfortable of all in the debates trying to fend off questions about health care from the likes of Rick Perry.
Ah, Perry. He enjoyed a brief moment as the flavor of the month. But his performances in debates and in anything, really, that wasn’t tightly scripted, were, shall we say, spotty. For all I know the guy is a card-carrying Mensa member, but you couldn’t prove it by his antics in Iowa.
Of course, you can’t. It’s a race to be dumbest, to be an outsider, to shun education and book learnin’ and get back to the good ol’ family values, and each candidate will do almost anything to win that competition. (Herman Cain, though, has a nice singing voice.)
The eventual hero of the film, if there is such a thing, is probably Rick Santorum, who plods along with low polling numbers, talking to groups of 10 or 15 people, sometimes sounding like the last sane man left. (And sometimes not.) No matter what you think of his politics, you feel for the guy, stumping away, and even though we know how things turned out, you kind of hope he does OK.
Does he? Chances are you don’t remember, so I won’t spoil it for you.
Schnack presents all this without commentary, stitching together appearances and speeches and strategy sessions. As is often the case, he doesn’t need to make the point about the quality of politics at work in “Caucus.” The candidates do it for him.