Wouldn’t it be weird if a popular celebrity won an important political election? We’ve experience it with Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger but what if that celebrity were a comedian? Maybe men with political backgrounds like Stephen Colbert or John Stewart. That would be interesting, right? Well what about if this comedian had absolutely no political background whatsoever and decided to run for mayor of Reykjavik as a blatant joke?
Well, that situation is exactly what happened in Iceland when, in 2009, actor and comedian Jon Gnarr launched his campaign under the Best Party. With filming launching on the day he decided to form the Best Party, we get to experience exactly what the man himself had to go through as he began to gain momentum in the polls. GNARR, the latest, and most entertaining, political documentary, takes us all the way up to election day when history is made in Iceland…and director Gaukur Úlfarsson is able to say he got it all on tape!
Iceland, a nation known for its honest and wealthy nature, made a complete 180 degree turn and went bankrupt in no time at all during the global economic meltdown. Gnarr noticed that the politicians were boring and weren’t doing their job of supporting the citizens so he concoted this idea to poke fun of the establishment and that’s when it quickly escalated into something much more.
This is one of the most witty and entertaining documentaries I have seen to date. If you aren’t laughing out loud by the fifth minute you have no soul. His methods for proving the false morality of the other parties is nothing short of ridiculous but its that bit of insanity which drives his numbers up in the polls and starts winning people over.
Although the film does get a bit tedious and slightly boring about 80% into it, Gnarr manages to bring the audience back with his absurd campaign promises and caring heart. Instead of focusing on things like improving the economy, his goal is to make people happy by bringing a polar bear to the zoo, building a Disney land with free admittance for residents of his city and refusing to talk to members of competing parties until they have seen all five seasons of The Wire, all while making sure people know that he is doing this because he wants a bigger salary, jobs for his friends, and his own office. Pretty brilliant, huh?
If you had to pick one pleasure oriented documentary to watch at the Tribeca Film Festival this year, you should make it GNARR.
Rating: A raw, laugh out loud documentary for those who hate boring bureaucrats (7.7/10)
You can catch this documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 22, 24, and 25th.
Recent Comments