Sarah Palin — You Betcha! REVIEWED BY ANTHONY KAUFMAN


Not exactly a watershed entry in Nick Broomfield’s non-fiction oeuvre, Sarah Palin — You Betcha! is more of a lark than a revealing exposé. And for those expecting a hit job, Broomfield offers few devastating punches. Instead, this mildly amusing documentary assembles a ‘greatest hits’ of Palin gaffes and embarrassments, intercut with verité- style interviews with a small handful of people who have known or worked with the former Alaskan governor. Politics junkies, Palin-haters and US liberals


may check out the film when it is released theatri- cally in the US later this autumn, but the film, des- tined for Channel 4 broadcast in the UK, is likely to stay on small screens in other territories. Like Michael Moore’s Roger & Me, or Broom-


field’s own Margaret Thatcher documentary Tracking Down Maggie, the film is structured around Broomfield’s misbegotten attempts to seek out and interview Palin. Broomfield confronts her at a few book signings and public speaking engagements, but, of course, the joke of the film is that he never really gets close to her (nor to a number of other prospective targets). In one early moment, he considers walking


across an ice-covered lake to visit her house. In another joke (too staged and less funny), he


REAL TO REEL


UK. 2011. 90mins Directors/screenplay Nick Broomfield, Joan Churchill Production company Awakening Film International sales Content Media, www. contentmediacorp.com Producer Marc Hoeferlin Cinematography Joan Churchill Editor Michael Flores Music Jamie Muhoberac


resorts to asking questions at an event with a bull- horn. He even goes to Alexandria, Egypt to inter- view a Palin childhood friend because few people in Wasilla will talk to him. Certainly, there is some inherent humour in see-


ing an old Englishman in remote Alaska, stum- bling around on the ice, wearing a black-and-red check hunting jacket and baseball cap. But the gag only goes so far. The film’s more substantive investigation into


Palin is wanting of new material. While it is sur- prising the UK film-makers are given ample cam- era time with Palin’s parents, Chuck and Sarah,


many of the film’s other subjects have axes to grind against Palin, which makes them far from reliable. The fact Broomfield brings up stories from National Enquirer suggests how little dirt he has on the former vice-presidential candidate. But he does have one strong argument: a cho-


rus of voices, too many to be discounted, bring up Palin’s ‘you’re-with-us-or-against-us’ attitude that lead to innumerable firings and feuds throughout her political career. Ultimately, You Betcha! is a slight diversion,


undermined by too many cheap shots, poor quality archive footage and unsubstantiated connections.


September 11, 2011 Screen International at the Toronto Film Festival 13 n


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