Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie

Stylishly retro, this blast from the lowbrow recent past combines interviews and surreal animation to chart the steep rise and fall of late schlock-TV phenom Morton Downey Jr., who is here presented as a forerunner of the Tea Party and Glenn Beck. The second-generation showbiz son of “Irish Tenor” crooner Morton Downey Sr. (depicted as a cold, disapproving father whom junior blamed for his actress-mother's alcoholism and death), Downey Jr. groped for his own niche and finally found it as a combative, right-wing TV talk-show host (interviewee Sally Jessy Raphael says he basically stole the act of earlier blowhard Joe Pyne). Downey Jr. did his syndicated show in blue-collar New Jersey, featuring his trademark chain-smoking, sexism, and hyper-patriotic rants against "liberals" (although Downey Jr. had grown up as a Kennedy supporter), filmed before a raging-mob audience. The loudmouth populist schtick lasted a few years, until the host faked his own beating by Nazi skinheads (evidently taking cues from the Tawana Brawley assault hoax, a race-bait scandal that Downey Jr. and Al Sharpton jointly exploited). Downey Jr.'s persona is so odious that humanizing him is mainly left to a literary find: obscure, free-verse sensitive poetry published by the young Downey Jr. in 1969, read here by his contemporaries (including comic actor Chris Elliott). Absent from this inquest: Jerry Springer, who works in the same slimy milieu without being consumed by it. Like Downey Jr.'s program itself, this sideshow from filmmakers Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger is hard to resist watching. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary (by filmmakers Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger), “Memorable Moments” clips from Morton Downey Jr.'s TV show (6 min.), a “Behind the Animation” segment with animator Murray John (5 min.), “An Evening with Kellie Everts” guest segment (2 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a solid biographical profile.] (C. Cassady)