A pair from the HBO stable as it transitions to Max, ditching the tiffany label for a cruder one, for some reason. Here is a docudrama and a documentary.
REALITY (C) -As gimmicks go, this one pegs into the red zone on the Annoying Scale. The filmmakers rely exclusively word-for-word on transcripts of the initial interaction between FBI agents and National Security Agency translator Reality Winner when they raided her home in 2017. Mundane doesn't begin to capture the tedium on display here. This is really a docudrama, but it's worse than a dull documentary.
I'm sure the goal was to tap into the banality of evil, or some other Arendtian concept. (We previously played with the idea of the evil of banality.) Here we must wrestle with the banality of banality. Winner eventually pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting a classified document (a report on Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election) to the Intercept. She would serve about three years of a five-year sentence.
Sydney Sweeney (TV's "White Lotus") plays the wide-eyed, jittery Winner as she is confronted outside her home by two friendly FBI agents. Much dialogue involves the humdrum details of caging her dog and not letting the cat get out of the house, and which rooms will be swept in which order, and the cataloging of the weapons she owns (which, surprisingly, seem to be a low priority). The dialogue is stilted and limited by the unwarranted devotion to replicating every word and stammer.
There is a reason why we fictionalize stories. Real life is often boring and cluttered with pleasantries and throat-clearing. We pep things up, strip out the banalities, and strive to make it ... entertaining. There are times when the gimmick works, when the droll proceedings turn absurd in a way that's both amusing and chilling. But even at a brief 83 minutes, this one is a chore to get through, despite Sweeney's best efforts.
LOVE TO LOVE YOU, DONNA SUMMER (C+) - Either Donna Summer wasn't a very exciting person, or her daughter -- who made the film -- failed to capture a spirit deserving of a full documentary. There are flashes of true personality of the former disco queen in the huge tranche of home movies she created over the decades; but this overview rarely coalesces into anything beyond a low-key greatest-hits package.
One hundred seven minutes is way too much time to devote to the career of the woman who broke disco into the mainstream and who had a solid run in the late '70s and early '80s. Her daughter Brooklyn Sudano (with an assist from veteran Roger Ross Williams ("The Apollo")) dutifully follows the early years (including a stint in "Hair" in Munich, where she lived for several years) and the breakthrough fame during the first half of the film.
However, the second half descends into mawkish family melodrama, with too much time devoted to Sudano, her sisters and Summer's exes. Summer (who died in 2012 at 63) seemed like a nice, interesting, talented woman, but nothing here scratches below the surface. One compelling scene, another home movie, features an older Summer breaking out into an a cappella version of "She Works Hard for the Money," and her natural beauty and vocal talent explode into the camera. Alas, such moments are few and far between.
Equally frustrating is the fact that most of the talking heads -- as well as the archival footage -- are sound only, with no video. Perhaps this was a limitation of Sudano's budget (or a COVID consideration), but we get a lot of static old photos accompanying disembodied voices -- including Summer's -- droning on. Too much of this is a missed opportunity.
BONUS TRACK
She did, indeed, work hard for the money. That voice ...
That a cappella snippet of the song is at the 1:20 mark of the trailer:
And the last call for the disco era, "Last Dance":
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