Tanner on Tanner

This follow-up to Robert Altman's "Tanner '88" (1988) originally aired as a four-part TV-series on HBO. Michael Murphy and Cynthia Nixon reprise their roles as Jack Tanner and Alex Tanner, with the former presidential candidate now teaching at Michigan State, while his daughter is a Manhattan-based documentary filmmaker who also teaches at the New School.

Basically, there's only one real character in this film and that's daughter Alex Tanner. It's hardly a person one can sympathize with, since she is a self-indulgent howler with seemingly only one goal, rehabilitating her father, Jack Tanner, whom she adores unconditionally.

According to Altman the film is primarily a spoof on the new documentary film-making, which he didn't intended as such, he admitted in an interview. The question is, what was the original idea for the film?

Well, the writing suggests a much more dramatic approach, but on that level it doesn't work. But with Altman, you already know this is gonna be a loosely constructed stew, highly dependent on high-profile cameos, but the irony is that this film essentially has become what Altman claims his own film ended up to be, a spoof about film-making itself, and documentary film-making in particular. "Tanner on Tanner" is about nothing. Of course it's not a documentary, but filmed as one and looks like one, shot in verité style. It's not drama. It's no allegory on politics. It's - if anything - a self-indulgent look at the very process of film-making.

At one point, in the last part of the series, the student of Alex who is making a film about her film, proclaims: 'Look at Michael Moore. Old-fashioned documentary film-making is dead.'

In many ways this seems true, at least if you aspire your documentary to get any attention at festivals. Facts are for television, and it's only recently that the documentary has become an accepted cinematic approach. For a long time, there was only one form. The factual, the journalistic approach. Now there are many, but more so than ever, the documentary has become a political pamphlet, a very powerful piece of propaganda. This makes it much easier for us to judge them on their cinematic qualities, instead of their qualities as objective journalism or an authentic portrait of a certain subject or person.

Camera Obscura --- 6/10

Robert Altman and Garry Trudeau didn't quite hit it out of the park on Tanner on Tanner, but that's mostly in trying to compare it to the sprawling brilliance of the original Tanner 88. Maybe part of that is because the ensemble nature (as a given for almost any Altman production) is broken down a little more and we're left mostly on the trail of Tanner's daughter, Alex, who is a documentary filmmaker-cum-documentary-film professor who is making "My Candidate", a doc on her father's failed 88 campaign. In a strange way it works almost in spite of how the character comes off; Alex Tanner can stand up right alongside Miranda on Sex and the City as the two (can't say it on IMDb) "B-word"-iest characters Cynthia Nixon has ever portrayed. The difference this time, I think, is in a consistency with the character's trials and tribulations as a "Mad Filmmaker" and how it's a logical extension of her original role in the mini-series. Nixon is very good in the role, even when we just want to scream "stop whining, you're at the Democratic Convention!"

As with Tanner 88, we get a whole host of cameos (my favorites being Martin Scorsese, Chris Matthews, Mario Cuomo, Al Franken and Ronald Regan Jr all for various reasons), and some familiar faces like Pamela Reed as TJ. But what's really fascinating about the TV special (not exactly a mini-series, but not a TV movie quite either) is how Altman digs about as deep into the psychology of film-making as he did in the Player- this time with a more hands-on approach. There's once again the young observer, quiet and with a curious eye almost akin to Altman's, filming all of the little things as Alex tries to shoot her movie, and there ends up being a scene, a great one in fact, where two women named Alex and both daughters of democratic hopeful candidates (one Kerry one Tanner) schedule an interview with Regan Jr, only to find they have to conduct it at the same time. This, on top of another scene where Alex's crew runs into a documentary film crew doing a documentary on documentaries, makes it about as close to "Factories in Chicago making miniature models of factories" from Austin Powers as comically possible without overstating the message.

There's also some topical stuff thrown throughout, and some uncomfortable bits and some nice foreshadowing watching it four years later (i.e. Kerry's "if he wins Tanner may become this and that" plot points, and Obama's key-note address shown as the event it was), and Altman and Trudeau are able to convey, often vividly, how to create a layering effect of politics, media, film-making, family and creative strife, and the pure and cruelly paradoxical nature of the political machine. If it's not quite as focused all the time, or always with a clear story arc, as in Tanner 88 it makes up for its faults with superb performances- as if sliding back into comfortable slippers- and a few bitingly satirical surprises (Robert Redford anyone?)

It was a joy to discover 8 hours of Robert Altman's best work that I had not previously seen or even heard of. In the last week in the UK the BBC has screened the series Tanner 88 on its late night cultural ghetto channel BBC Four, followed by the recent update, Tanner on Tanner filmed largely during the 2004 democratic convention. This work has a breadth that has not been seen since Nashville, and, with a screenplay by Garry Trudeau, it also has a rare depth.

It is, of course, difficult for me to judge how well Tanner on Tanner would stand up as a film on its own. Much of the pleasure of the film is in seeing how the characters have matured over the 16 years since the original series, notably Alex Tanner played by the 22 year-old Cynthia Nixon in 1988. As a British viewer I learned a lot about the American political system from watching these films, although Tanner on Tanner is as much a satire about film-makers as it is a film about politicians.

It was clear from the beginning that the successful project would not be Alex Tanner's film about her father but her student's study of Alex, which we see at the end as Diary of a Mad Filmmaker. However, the anticipation of the irony did not detract from the pleasure. To my mind, the best scene in the film is where Alex Tanner and Alexandra Kerry find themselves double-booked to film an interview with Ron Reagan. They alternate Kerry's serious questions about stem-cell research with Tanner's ditzy questions about what it's like to have a celebrity father. I don't know what the future may hold for her father ( this is written 2 days before the election) but Alexandra Kerry would certainly seem to have a future as a comedy actress.

Altman is very proud of the fact that people in his movies talk over each other, because, he says, people do that in life. Well, people also cough, burp, go off on tangents, etc. The point is that just because people actually do something doesn't make it compelling cinema. That's one issue.

The bigger issue is that this just isn't a very clever or direct or hitting or relevant satire, in 1988 or 2004. Garry Trudeau is still living in the 1960s and thinks everyone except a small core of Republican elected officials is a 60s-style hippie liberal. I mean the guy still trots out Zonker in his strip - a character that is a complete anachronism, yet Trudeau still employs him as if he is representative of a large stripe of American youth.

Don't get me wrong. I am a conservative, but I'm not saying that this is bad because it's got a liberal bent. It could take a liberal tack and be funny and relevant, but it's not. It is mainly a vanity piece with a bunch of prominent celebrity liberals (including the odious, repellent Ron Reagan, Jr.). At times it feels unscripted, and the rest of the time it has a snarky air of self-importance and "aren't we oh-so-clever?"-ness.

Someone said that this show insists it has a cult following. I think its cult status is more wished-for than actual. I'm certain there are two or three people out there who taped all the original episodes in 1988 and still have them, but if that is the standard, then every show ever aired is a cult classic to some degree. If Tanner didn't have the names Altman and Trudeau attached, it would be another forgotten HBO production from the 1980s. Instead, it's presented as hard-hitting, incisive political commentary from guys who are at the top of their game. The reality, however, is about as far from that as possible. Pat Paulsen's presidential satire is more relevant than Tanner ever was, and he's been dead for a decade.

Altman considered Tanner '88 has his most creative work. It isn't surprising that the miniseries is the only work to spawn an Altman directed sequel. Tanner on Tanner is a pretty good coda to the original miniseries; it has the same bone dry humor of the original. It has the sharp barbs at both politics and documentary filmmaking. (Tanner on Tanner is more a media satire than a political one) And it was nice seeing the characters 16 years later.

However, Alex Tanner is more of an object of derision than Jack Tanner was in the original. At no point in the original did it come across as if Jack Tanner was the butt of the joke-instead the absurd process of electing the president was what Altman and company was kicking. *Here* it feels much more targeted at Alex as a character. Of note there is a painfully awkward scene in which two women filmmakers are having to compete for a man's time because of a scheduling mix-up. The scene *in theory* is a very funny but as it plays out it is painful to watch because of the social coding and performances. It is a very sour scene. So sour in fact it feels like it belongs in a different series.

I don't think this is worthwhile to watch on its own; it's really an extension of Tanner '88 and while good in that context it depends on the first series for its vital spark.