Smoke Screen; Documentarian Ross Mcelwee Revisits His Tobacco-Farming Great-Grandfather's Legacy with His Trademark Freeform Elan.

Summary

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Over the years the films of first-person documentarian [Ross McElwee] have grown into something of a running, albeit digressive, conversation with the audience. As a pal noted after seeing McElwee's new Bright Leaves, "They all sort of pick up after one another, and whenever a new one comes out it's like you're back again, chatting with an old friend."

The fun of McElwee's pictures is that even he never seems to know where they're going, which makes it pretty much impossible for a viewer to guess what's gonna happen next. (It doesn't sound like much, but in an age when some asshole can score an Oscar nod for stuffing his face with McDonald's and filming himself throwing up, McElwee's freeform exploratory ventures start to feel all the more precious and singular.)

The catch here is that [Gary Cooper]'s role might have been inspired by Ross' great-grandfather John McElwee--who had something to do with the original Bull Durham tobacco-and the filthy-rich bigwig villain is very probably based on Washington Duke, who made a mint from this very tobacco. (You've heard of his university, I assume.)

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Smoke Screen; Documentarian Ross Mcelwee Revisits His Tobacco-Farming Great-Grandfather's Legacy with His Trademark Freeform Elan.

Over the years the films of first-person documentarian Ross McElwee have grown into something of a running, albeit digressive, conversation with the audience. As a pal noted after seeing McElwee's new Bright...

See the full content of this document

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