'Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney' Review: A Documentary Experience For The Ages, You Have To See It To Believe It [TIFF 26]
MATTHEW RANKIN CAPTURES MULRONEY-FEVER IN A TWISTED NOSTALGIA DOCUMENTARY PIECE ON A MONUMENTAL ERA IN CANADIAN HISTORY.
Over the years Canadian writer-director Matthew Rankin has become somewhat of a mainstay at the Toronto International Film Festival. This year, he returns with a fever dream of a documentary with the zany Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney. Rankin has a knack for taking elements of Canadian culture, more specifically political culture and history, and extorting it into something new. His last film, Universal Language, portrayed a fictionalized Canada where Persian is the dominant language, rather than English. He used this film to explore themes of Canada’s multiculturalism, albeit in a revisionist and almost absurdist way. Prior to this, his 2019 film and feature debut The Twentieth Century fictionalized Canada’s longest serving Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Rankin was quoted saying that he “wanted everything to feel artificial all the time.” Jump to now, the world premiere of Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney, Rankin decides to jump into reality with a documentary on the rise of Canada’s 18th Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney. In typical Rankin fashion though, there is nothing straight up about this film.
From the jump, the contestants in the 1976 conservative party leadership race are displayed as a lineup of combatants on a gameshow. Rankin takes what was clearly hundreds (maybe thousands?) of hours of real footage from the era and creatively spins it into a mashup that feels like an utter fever dream. It asks you to buy in right away, from the jump. Brian Mulroney is satirized in this film most certainly, but the documentary is painting right away the faux ways in which we see and judge politicians. It isn’t on the basis of policy but rather looks and image, it is all merely but a show.
Mulroney is introduced to us as the man with “Paul Newman eyes” and “Robert Redford hair”, the people just love this all-around “great guy” whose family comes from humble beginnings in the small Quebec town Baie-Comeau. In his journey to be top boss for the conservatives, one real roadblock is the silent yet deafening scrutiny he feels from former Prime Minister and all powerful overseer, John “Dief the Chief” Diefenbaker. The sly placement of his likeness and where he shows up throughout this documentary truly does paint him as this ‘Sith lord’ who watches from above as the new guard aims to garner his approval. The beauty of it all is that this truly might've been the case, minus the Sith lord of it all, maybe? There truly was this darkness surrounding the whole convention floor and it truly wasn’t final until Dief the Chief said so.
Mulroney’s journey progresses and despite setbacks and the rise of a new conservative face in Joe Clark, the elegant and skinny fella from High River, Alberta. Despite Clark’s leadership of the conservative party, Mulroney can’t help but jump to undermine him in his own ambitions. He truly displayed himself as a showman, and the title of this film “Ladies and Gentlemen” fits the bill. Today's political culture and landscape is built around showmanship, and this documentary almost holds up a mirror. Was it always like this? Are we stuck in a cycle? Is it all just a game?
The greatest and most profound image seen here is that despite initial rejection, despite an old guard that showed distrust towards Mulroney, at the end of the day his showmanship won out. Conservatives found themselves backed into a corner, consistent political losses and setbacks as a party have relegated them to being the little brother to the Liberals and the Pierre Trudeau political dynasty (which is interwoven hilariously here). They had no choice but to turn to a showman, despite there being a lot of apprehension towards him and his self-centered movement, they needed him… and he ultimately proved that he needed them. At the end of the day the political titans that reach the top often crave affection just as much as they do power. Thousands of people cheering you on, millions casting votes in favour of a party led by you, it has to feel intoxicating to a degree, and it fulfills a yearning for star power in a way that isn’t too dissimilar from other avenues.
In its purest form this film feels like if you went down a YouTube rabbit hole several hours past when your brain told you it's time to go to bed, you can’t quite compute things accurately anymore but you are still feasting on information to the point of overload. As someone who was once a teenager who found themself falling down some of those YouTube rabbit holes specifically in history and politics, this felt like some sort of odyssey, and it truly captured something uniquely special and quirky in that.
While it may not be for everyone, Matthew Rankin’s hilarious and fever dream-like documentary is certainly the work of a filmmaker who is taking the steps towards becoming a visionary in his own right. Rankin has found his niche, and in a time where Canada continues to search for ways to be more validated globally, he might just serve a greater purpose in the recent boom we are seeing. While it may not be a Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie level impact for Canadiana in film culture, it does offer something else, and Matthew Rankin has firmly cemented himself with his own blend of cinematic nirvana.