The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover

Each sequence seems like a separate tableau designed to stage, in an almost theatrical way, an idea or lesson, the portrait of Hoover emerging from this patchwork of scenes as a pattern composed of multiple facets and perspectives. Also unusual for this kind of historical film is that the dialogue is written as if all the characters really are just guys talking. Quite an original approach to cinematic biography, and fairly successful. Leaves the impression that Cohen had done his homework.

Far superior to Eastwood's sanitised depiction, Cohen doesn't shy away from the darker side of Hoover, creating an interesting, episodic biopic with no real dramatic arc. The mix of fly-on-the-wall documentary 'realism' and old mob movie cliches creates a formal (and moral) tension that is never resolved, and on a certain level it is completely amateurish, but when it works it is an effective and gripping, even original, approach to this 'genre' that was unfortunately a one-off for Cohen.

It contains all the worst elements of a biopic while at the same time being low-budget and poorly made. It is unbelievably cheap looking with its use of stock footage. There is mild entertainment in certain scenes that eventually build to some form of a narrative, but mostly it is a scattershot of moments with no logic to them.

that's good grass