Actor embedded himself with the Ukrainian president during a time of crisis, but his film feels like a missed opportunity
ean Penn is a brave man. He regularly shrugs off the comforts of Hollywood to parachute into sites of devastation and disaster, from Iraq and Venezuela to Haiti, where he notoriously commanded bountiful media attention over the course of a self-directed and extended embed during the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.
Penn takes the stance of an innocent, yet a defensiveness runs through his spiel. The very day after Russia’s initial strike on Ukraine, a ragged-looking Penn pulls up to the president’s bunker for an interview his team has secured – but hasn’t prepared for. “I assume that journalists and quasi-journalists around the world would scoff but there was not one cell in my body willing to prepare a question for the president,” Penn narrates in his gruff cowboy drawl. “Not on a day like this.
With its rushed rhythms and diligent marshaling of facts that will probably feel familiar to regular readers of any international publication, the project’s most novel revelation is how fame lubricates access. One can’t help wondering about the seasoned reporters in the field who were and are left to piece the story together without prime seats at the tables where dignitaries and politicians break bread.
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