The timing of the “Stormy” documentary is delightfully apt, one might even say judicious, coin the 34-count felony conviction of you know who. It nicely – pardon the pun – fleshes out further aspects of the story that’s been major running headline news.
And again, the win goes to Stormy Daniels. Biggest reason why? Her honesty about herself, which makes her story about tRump even more credible. She’s the total opposite of DJT, a well-documented pathological liar and fabulist who’s obviously never been honest with and about himself. One of many aspects of “Stormy” that summons up irony.
The film follows her turbulent and traumatic journey from soon after her encounter with tRump went public in a largely cinema verité fashion, capturing her tears and triumph. And dips back into a youth that was turbulent and traumatic as well. Plus drops in news clips to fill in the contextual elements. It may not be any kind of cinematic achievement, and would have benefitted from a considerable viewing time trim. But it’s an important doc both politically and culturally.
The ex-Presidunce’s latest jury-vindicated accuser is clearly – even if we take into account the spin that is hardwired into every such endeavor as this – a strong, feisty survivor. And to this viewer, an immensely likable soul, charming and very human. Again, unlike tRump.
Some may judge Daniels harshly for her adult film career. When one learns more about her background in the doc, it merely seems a logical economic choice. Stormy grew up in a Louisiana trailer park, not exactly raised, as it were, by a neglectful and abusive divorced mother. So adult entertainment, first as a dancer, was one way she could lift herself out of poverty by her high-heeled shoe straps. And then into adult films as an actress and eventually a director.
If you hold what’s called “sex positive” views, as I do, her work isn’t a negative factor. The film takes us along as she utilizes her profession to do a strip club dance tour after getting pulled up into the tornado of controversy. Those who might scorn Stormy for monetizing her new high public profile should take note how tRump has shamelessly used his name and fame to scam and grift lucre for decades – another irony.
His shameless ways are part and parcel of the Nevada hotel room encounter that incited the hush-money trial. He was the wealthy celebrity dangling a bauble – a part on “The Apprentice” – to get laid. The whole sordid incident is suffused by imbalance: fiscal, social class and stature, and gender. Why more Americans aren’t thoroughly disgusted that a man electoraled into the highest office in the land behaves like a horny adolescent with clumsy, low-class delusions of himself as a smooth playboy, some sexy lothario, almost baffles me. But then again, too many of my gender are mired in that fantasy whose time has passed.
The Stormy you meet is – irony again – the true American success story that Trump is not, with his inherited seed capital, and how he conned, scammed, grifted, lied and stole his way into being a mogul. Daniels lifted herself out of poverty into upper middle-class suburbia, with a marriage she tries to save and a daughter she so wishes to give the safe, secure and loving youth she never had. Compound ironies.
One telling irony, in a way, is Trump calling Stormy “horsefaced.” Simply put, knowing the term (and how some women it may more accurately describe can be gorgeous), she is not. But she is a horsewoman, as the film shows. To this guy from an equestrian family, that’s largely a check on the positive list (there are horrid horse people; Krtisti Noem, take a bow of shame). Just like Stormy, I spent a good amount of my turbulent teens around horses. They are very emotionally perceptive creatures can heal, teach, and grant wisdom (and throw you). A positive equine human relationship has a core of love and trust.
The ultimate irony is that Daniels comes from what’s obviously a demographic breeding ground for tRump cultism: The dispossessed lower classes who obviously feel disconnected from the more fortunate and/or privileged classes as well as much of the current modern zeitgeist of a rapidly shifting and mutating culture. Daniels says she is a registered Republican.
I trust the truthfulness and soulfulness of Stormy as I see her in this doc. I wouldn’t trust tRump with a stick of chewing gum.
Feature Film: “The Holdovers” – A New England prep school teacher minds students staying on over the winter holiday break to his initial frustration followed by touching epiphanies. Scripted, acted and shot well, it’s small in scope and action yet yields large emotional rewards.
Album: Hit Me Soft and Hard by Billie Eilish – The Gen Z superstar soared to fame with recordings made in a bedroom with her brother because her songs and voice and his musical/production skills are first-rate and rich with heart and sincerity. Her third and most atmospheric album may express thoughts and feelings relevant to youthful lives, but older music fans will easily wooed by her musical charms.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email robpatterson054@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, August 1, 2024
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