Sean Penn’s new documentary Superpower is taking a beating at the hands of left-wing critics.
Screen Daily headlined its review this way: “Frenetically-paced, awkwardly narcissistic.”
While I hope Ukraine is able to rid itself of the Russians without starting World War III, that is neither here nor there. This is about Sean Penn, who always-always-always does this.
Penn loves to grab hold of a cause and then preen around that cause in a way to position himself as the center of that cause, the One True Believer. Therefore, the rest of us are lacking.
Penn can’t just support Ukraine against Putin’s illegal invasion; he has to give Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky one of his two Best Actor Oscars. Penn can’t just give Zelensky one of his Oscars (a silly gesture if there ever was one); he has to threaten to melt his other Oscar if the Academy does not allow Zelensky to speak at the Academy Awards. That’s how pure and virtuous Sean Penn is. That’s how lacking in purity everyone else is.
Did anyone else give away their Oscar? No!
Did anyone else threaten to melt their Oscar? No!
Sean Penn is the moral standard of which we all fall short.
And now, at least according to some early reviews, Penn’s egotistical buffoonery has been captured forever in Superpower, a documentary he co-directed that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.
Here are some delicious excerpts…
Given how much informative, sober coverage the war has so far generated, it’s hard to imagine that viewers will really benefit from this frenetically-paced, awkwardly narcissistic piece.
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Penn always seems to be self-consciously acting out a Hemingwayesque fantasy of a tough reporter bringing the news to the world. When Superpower shows him taking his advocacy of Ukraine to mainstream America via a TV interview with conservative Fox host Sean Hannity, it implicitly suggests that no-one else was really bringing the news about Ukraine to the west – and certainly not as charismatically and urgently as Penn seems to think he does.
In scenes where they fret over how to get their production vehicle across Kyiv to the safety of their plush international hotel in the wake of the invasion, “Superpower” risks becoming its own making-of doc, complete with not-so-candid shots of a wild-haired Penn fretfully smoking, drinking and staring off into the middle distance. Just as obtusely self-aggrandizing, given the tragedy and carnage around them, is an interlude where Penn ropes in his pal Miles Teller, effectively on behalf of “Top Gun: Maverick,” to offer words of encouragement to Ukrainian soldiers — possibly a moment of warmth for those present that doesn’t really benefit from being documented here.
For most of its tiresome 115-minute runtime, Superpower will put Penn on the front stage as he takes up the self-appointed task of being the spokesperson of Ukraine and Zelensky in the Occident. We all remember when Penn burst into every news station calling the world’s free nations to arms in defense of Ukraine, with many good intentions and not so much strategic vision. However, in Superpower’s confusing editing, Penn becomes the leader of the insurrection of Russian people against the war after the invasion. He’s also the man who convinced the US to send weapons to Zelensky.
That doesn’t mean Superpower isn’t a bit irksome in spots, and there are times when you wish that at least one of its seven credited camerapersons would have aimed the lens at someone other than Penn, who is constantly onscreen. This is especially problematic when the filmmakers try to drum up suspense out of something as inconsequential as, say, the actor and his crew riding their production van from the Hyatt Regency to the InterContinental in downtown Kyiv just after the invasion starts.
They seem to be asking us to care whether a Hollywood star will make it back to his 5-star hotel alive, while the rest of the country could very well go down in flames. It’s a false move — and there are others, such as when we follow Penn, dressed in full military garb, as he tries to get as close to the eastern front as possible, with Justin Melland’s score kicking into high gear to accompany the action.
The delivery, though, leaves a lot to be desired. Penn is not a cogent interviewer, and his hero-worship of Zelensky, whom he describes as “one of the deep beauties of a person you could meet”, gets heavy on garbled gushing, for all its very obvious sincerity. His more considered bits to camera wobble into pretension – “the interdependence that allows for independence”, say – pushing a strenuous hard-earned wisdom.
Spilling over two hours, needless swathes of the film merely document its own making, with boozy downtime and debates about production security that seem to be fishing for bravery points.
Not only is Penn lacking in self-awareness, but he’s also lacking in a sense of history. John Ford, Jimmy Stewart, George Stevens, Frank Capra, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Montgomery, Mickey Rooney, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, and a whole lot of other Hollywood big shots managed to do their respective duty during World War II without making it all about them. Dietrich scrubbed floors at the Hollywood Canteen. Davis launched the Canteen (with John Garfield). Gable, Montgomery, and Stewart saw action. Ford and Stevens were in harm’s way to film the action. Rooney and Crosby suspended their careers and risked their lives to entertain the troops, sometimes on the back of a jeep in the middle of nowhere. Nevertheless, it was never about them.
Over the course of four wars, Bob Hope went overseas to entertain our troops with countless TV specials, and he still got out of the way. Although he risked his life more than once, his act was always self-deprecating. He was too smart to take himself seriously. He knew who the real heroes were.
Penn seems unaware that we all see through him. We question whether he truly cares about Ukraine or if this is just the latest cause to exploit so he can pose as the hero.
There are two big differences between the legendary stars of yesterday and the clowns we’re stuck with today: gratitude and humility. There are exceptions today, like Gary Sinise. But we’re saddled with way too many Sean Penns.
And the war fever Penn stokes…
It’s terrifying.
I am all for humiliating Putin in Ukraine and wish Zelensky luck. But this war fever, this self-aggrandizing purity crusade from America’s Ukrainiacs could lead to worldwide disaster. While I hope Ukraine is successful, if Ukraine loses, Putin gets what he wants, and things settle down, I’ll be relieved. Unlike scary lunatics such as Penn, who would launch nukes at Moscow to prove their moral purity, I am not willing to defeat Putin at any cost.
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