This is an aggressively stylized documentary about the wild story of the Americans who tried to overthrow the government of Venezuela back at the beginning of the pandemic. I remember laughing this off at the time but when I saw there was a documentary about it I had to watch it.
Mild SPOILERS so if you’re interested just see the movie.
Like other films of Corben’s I’ve seen, this is hyper-stylized and it is, in my mind, a detriment. He really likes certain documentary clichés – particularly the use of fake audio and visual static – that I really dislike and that I don’t see the purpose of. When you watch this, you’ll see how much better the interviews look compared to the rest of the film – I really don’t know why this guy is so content with his films looking like shit.
The good news is that this story is so wild and crazy that it doesn’t matter that much that the style felt like it would give me a seizure at times. There’s so much here about this failed invasion, if it can even be called that, that is nuts, but I think one thing really sums it up. The Venezuelan opposition signed a contract with the American former Green Beret who is the subject of the film to invade Venezuela. That, in and of itself, is pretty amazing, though people putting their criminal conspiracies into writing does seem to be pretty common. What’s better is that there was a clause added about deniability. They put a clause about deniability in their contract documenting their criminal conspiracy. This was one of the laugh-out-loud moments in the film, and there were a few. (There usually are in a Corben film.) Anyway, the story is crazy and that’s my only plot spoiler but it does give you an idea of how insane this whole thing was.
The film does a good job of linking the whole misadventure to its greater context. They spend a fair amount of time associating what the ex Green Beret attempted with his service in the Forever Wars and his inability to rejoin civilian life. They also do a pretty good job of associating this whole farce with members of the Trump White House. To me, this is the real strength of the film, which shows that this whole thing didn’t just happen, it wasn’t just a bunch of crazies.
The movie is a little long and Jenn felt it a little too sympathetic to the ex Green Beret. But it’s entertaining and it’s just such a crazy story. I’m glad I watched it.
7/10