JULIA (B) - The women behind the hit documentary "RBG" move on from the Supreme Court to the culinary TV legend Julia Child. And they bet you'll be at least a little surprised about the famed chef's origin story. Alas, the trailer promises too much.
Child did not hit TV screens until she was 50 years old, in the early 1960s, and this production does a thorough job (nearly the first half of the film) filling in her early history. It certainly humanizes her, but there's not more to report than that she was a driven, vivacious woman, whose dogged persistence led to her becoming one of the first popular celebrity chefs. Don't expect her to be outed as some sort of CIA spy or closet sexpot.
And while she's a worthy figure for study, this documentary never quite launches beyond a run-of-the-mill biography. Talking heads faithfully talk her up. Archival footage rounds out her back story. But repeated modern re-creations of her cooked dishes have a numbing effect. (I have no use for cooking shows, so you might not be bothered as much by the onslaught of shots of culinary delights.)
In the end, coming from privilege, she lived an ordinary extraordinary life, with a faithful, supportive spouse, a satisfying second-half career, and the adoration of millions. She was truly devoted to her craft, and you can't help be happy for her. So there's that.
THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT (B-minus) - This 40-minute documentary on Netflix is little more than a curiosity about the wife of President Nixon's attorney general and campaign manager, John Mitchell, who was vocal about the wrongs of Watergate within days of the break-in. She would become a thorn in the side of Nixon, who mentions her more than 100 times in his Oval Office tapes.
Martha Mitchell was mocked as a mouthy woman and slandered as a drunk who was half out of her mind, particularly by her lout of a husband. (They separated as the scandal unfolded. He eventually went to jail and she would be dead at 57 before Gerald Ford left office.) The title here comes from a psychologist's theory about the gaslighting technique of demonizing and caricaturing a whistleblower who later is vindicated. The application here is imprecise, but close enough for the movies.
This serves as a genial trip down memory lane on the 50th anniversary of the break-in at Democratic headquarters during the 1972 election season. We get a pretty well-rounded picture of the outspoken, big-haired Mitchell and a grim reminder of the crooks who felt the need to steal an election. But it's not just the run time that makes this feel like only half a film.
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