He
is the man responsible for making the word “entrapment” part of the American
popular vocabulary. John DeLorean was also the best known auto executive of his
time. He probably still is, but not for the right reasons. Sheena M. Joyce
& Don Argott chronicle his life, times, and legal battles with the help of
Alec Baldwin’s dramatic re-enactments in Framing
John DeLorean, which screened during this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
John
DeLorean could have been the king of General Motors and maybe he should have
settled for that. Even before he started the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC),
DeLorean and his super-model wife, Cristina Ferrare, were public figures often
seen in the media. The campaign promoting the eponymous DeLorean sports car
took his profile to new heights. DeLorean even sort of brought temporary peace
to Northern Ireland with his Belfast DMC factory. Then it turns bad, really
bad—and he only has himself to blame.
The
grungy FBI sting video of DeLorean is indelibly etched into our collective
memory, but it isn’t very cinematic, so Baldwin plays DeLorean in dramatic
recreations of his most fateful moments. The real DeLorean was lankier, but Baldwin’s
documented history of scandal and questionable comments in the media adds a
weird meta-ness to his performance.
Joyce
& Argott offer a balanced presentation of the drug case leveled against
DeLorean, providing a chance for the prosecution to speak, as well as DeLorean
(in archival footage) and his defenders. However, the facts of the subsequent
embezzlement case they methodically establish are unambiguously conclusive.
They really convey the classically tragic nature of DeLorean during these
sequences, despite the somewhat shticky tone of Baldwin’s scenes.
From
time to time, Framing also serves as
a surprising cultural time capsule, like when they incorporate footage of
DeLorean’s appearance on the Phil Donahue show—seriously, how many people even
remember who he was anymore? Plus, many will feel warm waves of nostalgia when
screenwriter Bob Gale discusses the DeLorean’s starring role in Back to the Future (which he co-wrote
with Robert Zemeckis).
Framing risks becoming
excessively hybrid, but it is never dull. Honestly, it is also fun and
entertaining to conjure up the 1980s, which Joyce & Argott certainly do.
They can’t top the ironic bite of their best film to date, The Art of the Steal (a metaphoric steal, more or less), but their
take on DeLorean is compulsively watchable. Recommended for the pop culture
rather than the genre-blurring, Framing
John DeLorean screened as part of the 2019
Tribeca Film Festival.
