Film Review: South of the Border

It's impressive that Oliver Stone managed to make such an interesting topic so underwhelming. In his documentary South of the Border, Stone capital hops around South America, visiting with various leaders and discussing the recent wave of populist, socialist, indigenous and most importantly non-US backed leaders elected in the region over the past decade. He spends the first big chuck of the film "hanging out" with Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, painting a strictly positive and one-sided picture of a man that is unfairly demonized by an oil-hungry United States. This is of course mostly accurate, but all the high-fiving and man hugging between Chávez and Stone make the piece feel more like an international infomercial than any kind of worthy documentary. When we finally leave Venezuela to visit with some of the continent's other leaders, the rife-with-potential one-on-one interviews generally fizzle out before they even begin. A few interesting moments are sprinkled throughout the hangout footage, including Argentina's Néstor Kirchner reminiscing of a meeting he had with US-President Bush, who proceeded to try and sell him on the fantastic benefits of entering your people into war and the wonders it can do to an economy. Perhaps the most fitting sound bite comes from Ecuador when President Rafael Correa explains how the unprecedented rise of leftist leaders in Latin America is a direct result of Bush and years of one-sided US policy. No kidding?

Stone paints the US media as failing to ask the tough questions, with a cameo from polarizing filmmaker Michael Moore ripped from CNN surprisingly providing one of the most memorable opinions in the film. Things go array, however, when Stone heads down to Bolivia to get some footage of Evo Morales chewing on Coca leaves and kicking around a soccer ball on the lawn -- The exact type of fluff questions he spends time complaining about earlier on. We're also given a peek into the sloppy production of the film when Evo himself points out that the coca leaves they brought in to have him chew on are not even fresh. I imagine Stone on a street outside the Presidential palace purchasing the leaves from a kid, on a whim, without any sort of research. He also failed to bring along a qualified camera person on the journey, as huge portions of the film are over-exposed, out of focus and drastically aesthetically unpleasing. Whether or not there was any sort of redeeming ending I am not sure. I fell asleep towards the end, which normally I would find as a reason not to review a film, but in this case I imagine sleep is exactly what George Bush, the fine folks at FOX News or any of the people Stone is arguing against in this film would do themselves upon viewing it. 2/5 stars. -Clayton Hauck