‘Playing POTUS’ review: A documentary from the director of ‘Barb and Star’ that makes an entertaining but limited impression

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It’s been nearly two months since Morgan Neville was so amused and utterly superficial Lornein which the Academy Award-winning documentary tried and failed to take home an Oscar Saturday Night Live The Creator let his guard down. So I think we’re overdue for a new date Saturday night Live documentary.

Josh Greenbaum Play potos Not exactly a Saturday Night LiveDocumentary-based — not the different way SNL50 Documents or films focusing on prominent figures SNL Alumni were such as Chevy Chase and Eddie Murphy Saturday Night Live– Documentary films list. But for all its apparent focus on a wide range of comedic impressions and impersonations of presidents, I estimate that at least 75 percent of the documentary’s 93-minute running time is devoted to… Saturday Night Live.

like PLAYING POTUS: SNL’s 50 Years of Presidentsthis mysterious adaptation of Peter Font’s book titled Playing President: The Power of “Acting Presidents” in America It’s fine. It’s missing some key interview themes and quirks or missing some key themes altogether, but when you have such smart and enthusiastic talent as Dana Carvey, Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, and Darrell Hammond, you’re bound to find some ideas and entertainment galore.

However, as Playing POTUS: Not just SNLIt barely works, to the point of almost meaningless. The failure to analyze or even acknowledge the myriad comedic interpretations of bosses in contexts lacking Lorne Michaels is so bizarre that the entire documentary becomes more surprising than enlightening. Although he’s like Neville LorneAt the very least, it’s an entertaining trifle.

The frustrating thing about Play potos is that it starts off reasonably promisingly, with John F. Kennedy impersonator Von Meeder, who the comedian recorded First family It is one of the strangest winners of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It’s not deep historical context, but quite historical context, followed by a quick run through the Smothers Brothers and… and that’s pretty much it for the comical presidential impersonation by Saturday Night Live.

The meat of the documentary is different SNL Presidents talk about their individual impressions, origins, and unprovable influences on the perception of those presidents.

This is the best part of the documentary, whether it’s Chevy Chase laughing at the possibility that he may have contributed to Gerald Ford’s quick electoral defeat; Dana Carvey talks (perhaps for the millionth time) about how George Bush so hampered him that he put together a persona that often had no connection to its source. Alec Baldwin reads negative tweets from Donald Trump, and reads his responses with pride; Or that Kate McKinnon is still emotional as she talks about her version of Hillary Clinton and Hillary’s defeat in 2016.

Greenbaum and his subjects are willing to acknowledge some of the least successful impressions over the years — “of all the presidents who have ever been SNL“I think I was my least favorite,” Will Forte says of following Will Ferrell as George W. Bush — as well as the long struggles to find the right Obama or Joe Biden.

With the help of two experts, Play potos It works well with explaining the number of times SNLXerox impressions have achieved a level of hyperreality, with Xerox increasingly replacing the actual historical figure in the collective consciousness. In light of this, it is strange that not a single second was devoted to the appearance of then-candidate Donald Trump. Saturday Night Live.

Although the documentary suffers a bit from the absence of Tina Fey as part of a long segment on her impression of Sarah Palin and its impact on the 2008 election, it probably should have made Greenbaum realize that Palin was not elected President of the United States (nor was Hillary Clinton, we should add), nor was she elected Vice President either. Play potos It also covers Maya Rudolph’s impression of Kamala Harris, which doesn’t technically fit the title. Maybe we could have redistributed all of that to 15 minutes without–SNL Terrain.

Keegan-Michael Key is great at discussing the origins of Luthor, Obama’s interpreter of anger. Rich Little is on hand to discuss overall impressions. Seth Meyers is part of a decent segment on the history of presidential roasting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

But if the topic is meant to be broad, it’s surprising to ignore it The Simpsons, South Park And any movie that takes a comedic approach to a specific president – rod, W., Deputyetc. In the world of this movie, In living color Obviously he never existed, and neither did Trey Parker or Matt Stone This is my bush!a multi-camera sitcom about George W. Bush and his family. Mad TV He’s only vaguely mentioned, though full credit goes to Will Sasso, the only speaker in the documentary able to express remorse at how wrong it was for Monica Lewinsky to be ridiculed in conjunction with Bill Clinton.

There is something surprisingly and immediately anachronistic about how much Greenbaum has overlooked the way the new media has taken and continues to treat Donald Trump. Sarah Cooper may have been just a passing thought, but if you can’t find something substantive to say about how a multiracial woman became a passing sensation to lip-sync with Donald Trump, you’re not trying too hard.

Instead, it was Greenbaum, who did a better and smarter job with many of the same people Too funny to fail and Will and Harperwastes time on a voiceover device that’s too bland to be worth the effort, and a three-act structure that serves its editors more than the audience. It all makes for a potentially meaningful documentary that’s not bad, just lacking.