Tribeca 2011: Gnarr Review
By David Kempler
Politics Like it Oughta Be
In 2008, Iceland went through a financial disaster that made most other countries happy that they weren't Iceland. At least partially as a result of this, Jón Gnarr, Icelandic comedian and former punk rocker, announced that he was running for the position of Mayor of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. He formed a new political party and named it the Best party. He went so far as to contact Ike Turner to acquire the rights to his song, "Simply the Best" and use it as his party's theme song. Director Gaukur Úlfarsson filmed the campaign from start to finish, and the result is the sometimes hilarious, at other times slow as molasses, "Gnarr".
What may have been a prank at its outset quickly evolves into a real serious campaign, featuring debates and endless interviews. Watching it unfold, you keep expecting it to go off the rails into slapstick, but it never does. Yes, there are endless scenes of shtick, and a lot of it plays like filler to enable it to reach feature-length, but just when you start to lose patience with the lack of movement of the plot, enough is applied to keep you in the mood to stay tuned in.
"Gnarr" is at its best when he responds to interviews with glib answers and when he is going over the campaign with his staff. One of his nuggets concerns his strategy if he is ever asked what a politician should do if he is caught in a scandal. His answer is that one should lie, bribe, and deny until the very end. Part of his platform is that he will not negotiate with anyone who does not like the television series, "The Wire".
Thankfully, as we near the climax, it's finally election time and the day of the election is quite amazing to behold. Because I adhere to a strict policy of not revealing endings, especially surprise ones, I won't tell you what happens, but it's worth checking out. If you are not going to see it, at least read up on what happened. It is pretty fascinating. I think you shouldn't
ignarr this one.
