Review of “Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid”: James Carville Doc

There's a problem with James Carville's lively new documentary, Carville: Winning is everything, stupid.Premiered at Telluride: For much of the film, Carville worries about the dangers of having Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Of course, the film (acquired by CNN Films) was conceived and shot before Biden dropped out of the race. For the past year, well before the June debate with Trump, Carville had been deeply concerned that Biden’s presence on the ballot could cost Democrats the election. That all changed on July 21, when Biden dropped out. But by then, the film was nearly finished. A brief closing credits note Harris’s rise, but the film still feels distorted.

However, it provides a great background on Carville and certainly convinces us that he is one of the most colorful figures on the scene today, and still making waves. His background, growing up in a small Louisiana town with a large black population, clearly helped shape him, and director Matt Tyrnauer visits the town with him. The memories of what his neighbors endured have stayed with him. Tyrnauer, who has made previous documentaries on Roy Cohn, fashion designer Valentino, and sociologist Jane Jacobs, has an eye for detail.

The event that put Carville on the map was the 1992 presidential campaign, when Carville helped secure Bill Clinton's victory. As one expert notes, both Clinton and Carville had “a little bit of a scoundrel in them.” Carville was able to neutralize much of the negative publicity surrounding Clinton's extramarital affairs and helped highlight Clinton's intellect and fairly traditional positions on many issues that preoccupied Americans at the time, especially the economy. (Carville's famous quip, “It's the economy, stupid!” has been a hot one.)

Clinton himself provides the director with valuable and fresh interview material, as does Carville's young assistant at the time, George Stephanopoulos. Other political operatives also give their assessments of Carville's acumen.

As you might expect, another crucial part of the documentary concerns Carville's 30-year marriage to Mary Matalin, who was working on Bush's 1992 campaign when she crossed paths with Carville. Their love story of opposites has been highlighted before, even helping to inspire a 1994 fictional film. Mute (featuring Michael Keaton and Geena Davis). Both Matalin and Carville provide candid interviews with the director. They probably had their most significant conflict when Matalin went to work in the Bush-Cheney White House, while Carville was vehemently opposed to the Iraq War. Their on-camera wordplay always seems spicy and off-the-cuff.

As many probably know, Carville has never been a radical leftist. In the film he rails against the “woke” left, which may help explain why he and Matalin were never truly polar opposites.

The film is fluidly edited, with present-day footage of Carville often doing his daily exercise of walking through hotel hallways, cleverly mixed with footage of Clinton's campaign and other adventures. The talking heads, which also include Paul Begala, Donna Brazile, and Al Sharpton, confirm Carville's iconoclasm.

Aside from its overemphasis on Joe Biden’s age (Carville is only a year or two younger) and stubbornness in staying in the presidential race until he’s done, the film could be relevant in introducing young viewers to a seasoned operative. And its portrayal of a marriage of political opposites might inspire some people to believe in the possibility of finding common ground with someone whose views they mostly despise.