“Cavill: Victory Is Everything, Stupid” Review: Dr. James Cavill

James Cavill’s vivid new documentary has one question; Cavill: Winning is everything, stupid manpremiering in Telluride: For much of the film, Cavill worries about the dangers of Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Apparently, the movie (acquired by CNN Films) was conceived and shot before Biden dropped out of the race. Last year, even before his June debate with Trump, Carville was deeply concerned that Biden’s presence on the ballot could cost Democrats the election. On July 21, Biden withdrew, and everything changed. But by then, the film was nearly complete. A brief post-credits report reports the news of Harris’ promotion, but the film still seems skewed.

Still, it gives us some great background on Cavill and leaves us with no doubt that he’s one of the most colorful characters on the scene today—and still making noise. His background growing up in a Louisiana town with a large black population clearly helped shape him, and filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer visited the town with him. He remembers vividly the suffering of his neighbors. Tynauer, who made early documentaries about Roy Cohn, designer Valentino and sociologist Jane Jacobs, has a keen eye for detail.

The event that made Carville famous was the 1992 presidential campaign, when Carville helped secure Bill Clinton’s victory. As one expert observed, Clinton and Carville “are both a bit of a rogue.” Carville was able to neutralize much of the negative publicity surrounding Clinton’s extramarital shenanigans, and he also helped emphasize Clinton’s intelligence and fairly mainstream positions on many issues that concerned Americans at the time, especially the economy. (Cavell’s famous quote “It’s the economy, stupid!” works poignantly.)

Clinton himself provided the director with valuable and fresh interviews, as did Cavill’s young assistant at the time, George Stephanopoulos. Other political figures also commented on Carville’s intelligence.

As might be expected, another important part of the documentary involves Carville’s 30-year marriage to Mary Matalin, who was working for the Bush campaign when he met Carville in 1992. Their antagonistic romantic relationship has been highlighted before and even helped inspire a fictional film, 1994’s Speechless (Starring Michael Keaton, Geena Davis). Both Matalin and Cavill gave candid interviews with the director. Perhaps their most serious conflict came when Matalin went to work in the Bush-Cheney White House and Carville was vehemently opposed to the war in Iraq. Their side scenes in front of the camera always seem poignant and unrehearsed.

As most people probably know, Cavell has never been a radical leftist. He complained about the “wokeness” left in the film, which may help explain that he and Matalin were never really polar opposites.

The film is smoothly edited, with modern-day images of Cavill often doing his daily walking exercise in hotel hallways deftly mixed with footage of the Clinton campaign and other adventures. Well-known figures such as Paul Begala, Donna Brazile and Al Sharpton confirmed Cavell’s iconoclasm.

In addition to overemphasizing Joe Biden’s age (Cavill is only a year or two younger) and stubborn insistence on staying in the presidential race — until he doesn’t — the film may also help introduce younger viewers to a Experienced agent. The depiction of a marriage of political opposition may inspire some people to believe that it is possible to find common ground with people whose views you primarily despise.