Review of Operation Filmmaker (2008) by Kurt F — 16 Mar 2011

Well, I certainly have a strong reaction to THIS frustrating documentary. Muthana Mohmed is profiled by MTV as an aspiring filmmaker whose dreams have been thwarted by the American bombings. Liev Schreiber catches this and decides to fly Muthana into Prague to work on a film he's directing called "Everything is Illuminated" as an intern. Now, I can tell you from personal experience that even low-grade positions on major Hollywood productions are very difficult to get. Yet when Muthana arrives, he doesn't seem to want to work, and the filmmakers do everything they can to give him opportunities, but he blows them off and then continues to ask for handouts. People seemingly GIVE him many of the handouts because they feel guilty about the Iraq war, despite getting increasingly frustrated with Muthana. There is an amusing scene where Muthana tells the producer of the film that he loves George W. Bush. They obviously did not get what they thought they were getting.

Despite the fact that Muthana doesn't seem to want to work for anything, he's adamant about asking for handouts, and gets them! The bozo filmmaker, Nina Davenport, is one of the people giving it to him. Now, granted, he does make ONE good point when he says that she will, in fact, make money off of the documentary. But, still, she even says in a DVD extra interview that she was giving him money because she felt bad that the U.S. invaded Iraq, I didn't feel such liberal guilt during the scene where we see Muthana living rent-free and not employed in a house of expats in Prague with a framed picture of the World Trade Center being attacked.

The foolishness continues! He gets a job as a P.A. on a movie called "Doom" and then The Rock pays for him to go to film school in London. Then an acting school in New York decide they want him, despite the fact that he has displayed no talents whatsoever. They watch an awful monologue he filmed of himself, stopping the tape briefly into it presumably because they can't take it anymore, but no! They have decided immediately that he is now a marketable actor!

I suppose that many of the people in this film mean well by "helping" Muthana, but we see here that hand-outs aren't doing him any good. He's accomplishing nothing, and taking opportunities away from actual hard-working and talented people. And it's not his fault - people are encouraging his behavior, so why not keep it up?

The director finally admits that she is looking for an "exit strategy." I'll bet she is!