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WHERE’S MY ROY COHN? – Review – We Are Movie Geeks

Review

WHERE’S MY ROY COHN? – Review

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Left to Right: Roy Cohn, Donald Trump.
Photo by Sonia Moskowitz. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics

“Have you no sense of decency, sir?” was the question asked of Sen. Joe McCarthy at the Army-McCarthy hearings but right beside him was Roy Cohn. If the question instead had been asked of McCarthy’s young associate, the honest answer would have been no. A famously vicious lawyer and Donald Trump’s mentor. Roy Cohn is the subject of director Matt Tyrnauer’s fascinating documentary WHERE’S MY ROY COHN?

That question directed at Sen. McCarthy was asked by Sen. Joseph Welch, and brought an end to McCarthy’s reign of terror in the 1950s. The documentary takes a close look at the man sitting beside McCarthy, a ruthless lawyer and power broker who many have described as the embodiment of evil. With young attorney Roy Cohn whispering in his ear, Sen. Joe McCarthy conducted Senate investigations during the “Red Scare” on a witch hunt for hidden communists, and then another directed at weeding out homosexuals working in government during the 1950s, arguing that their homosexuality made them targets for blackmail and therefore security risks.

The hearings launched Roy Cohn into the public spotlight, although he had already played an important historical role by unethically pushing the judge for the death penalty for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg during their espionage trial, despite scant evidence against Ethel. Today, many younger people might better know Roy Cohn as a character in Tony Kushner’s play “Angels In America,” if they have heard of him at all. But his influential role in Donald Trump’s career elevates Cohn’s historical significance and, in fact, the documentary’s title comes from a quote attributed to Trump in 2018.

There is a kind of chilling fascination in taking a close look at a man many considered the embodiment of evil, but the fact that Roy Cohn, a brilliant but vicious lawyer and political power broker know for his always-attack style, was also Donald Trump’s mentor makes the documentary WHERE’S MY ROY COHN? timely as well as morbidly engrossing.

Why would one want to see a documentary about such a distasteful figure? Tyrnauer makes a compelling case for the enduring impact Roy Cohn and his “take no prisoners” style have had on the country, and it indirectly offers insights on our current political landscape. The documentary is engrossing, although there is a kind of sick fascination aspect to delving into Cohn’s monstrous, immoral world.

Tyrnauer crafts a fascinating, frightening biographical documentary that takes us into the heart of darkness of Roy Cohn, beginning with his childhood. The only child of a woman from a wealthy family and an unhappy marriage, Cohn’s mother both doted on her son and was dissatisfied with him. With a brilliant mind, an astounding memory, and boundless ambition, Roy Cohn developed an aggressive legal style where he attacked first, never apologized, and lied freely without remorse.

Cohn first shot to public prominence as Sen. Joe McCarthy’s right-hand man at the infamous 1950s “Red Scare” witch hunt, but he had already illegally influenced the judge in the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Described in this documentary as a classic “self-hating Jew,” Cohn was also a closeted gay man, who died of AIDS in the 1980s, yet assisted McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover, another closeted gay man, in their witch hunt for homosexuals in government, arguing they were a security risk because of the potential they could be blackmailed in that homophobic era.

The film is packed with archival footage of Cohn at work, stills of him partying at nightclubs and on yachts, and interviews commenting on his life. Among those featured in the documentary are political strategist Roger Stone and gossip columnist Liz Smith. Cohn was close to Barbara Walters and Ron and Nancy Reagan, among others of the rich and powerful.

Roy Cohn is undeniably a remarkable if horrifying historical figure, whose life of excess embodies an era and whose junkyard-dog legal and public style continues to influence our world today. After Sen. McCarthy’s fall from influence, Cohn shifted from politicians to defending the heads of crime families in court, famously getting one gangster off with a light sentence even though he murdered his victim in front of witnesses.

One interviewee in the documentary describes Cohn as being where the political powerful meets the criminal underworld. Known for his loyalty to his friends and clients as well as his vicious legal style, Cohn cultivated friendships with Ronald and Nancy Reagan and other power elites of the ’70s and ’80s. Cohn hobnobbed with the rich and famous at exclusive hot spots like Studio 54, leading a lavish and high-profile life.

As the documentary explores the personal and political sides of Roy Cohn, it makes a strong case for how he shaped our current political landscape. On one hand, the documentary has the “can’t look away” draw of a train wreck but it also provides valuable insights on how his attack-style of public behavior continues influence the world we live in.

WHERE’S MY ROY COHN? is essential viewing for everyone in this country, for this insights it provides on Trump’s playbook, if for no other reason. It opens Friday, Oct. 18, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars