BUSH'S BRAIN

“Shock and Awe?”
Nah…more like “Awe Shucks.”

Blessed with a terrific title, BUSH'S BRAIN attempts to unveil a subject that is as ripe as a Tri-Delt coed at the University of Georgia. Alas, co-directors Joseph Mealey and Michael Shoob fail miserably in what should have been a slam-dunk undertaking.

Mealey (as in a preponderance of mealey-mouthed on-camera interviews) and Shoob (rhymes with “boob”) should both be banished from picking up a camera again. How can you miss when you are shooting at fish in a barrel? Not since Roger Smith (ex-CEO of GM and the subject of the irreverent, subversively scathing film ROGER & ME) has there been a non-elected official so vulnerable to documentary damnation. (Well, I guess the same thing could be said for Barry Bonds and Michael Jackson).

Like an inflamed, pus-filled boil, Karl Rove has a hard center. This dweeby-looking doughboy and his no-holds-barred “junkyard dog approach to politics” is a one-trick pony that has proven again and again to be effective in manipulating the press, the voters, even the FBI. It doesn't matter one iota which side of the political spectrum you are on, Karl Rove has clearly had an impact on both the domestic and foreign political scene. Whether it is for the overall good (justifying the means) or not, he's a poster boy for being a can't miss target. But Mealey and Shoob do miss. With absolutely no help from

Tom Sitter, an “editor” in name only, all they deliver is a dozen or so talking heads that are presented in an unfocused, uninteresting, totally ineffective manner. The result is that BUSH'S BRAIN is about as hard hitting and thought-provoking as watching a rerun of the THE SOUPY SALES SHOW with White Fang, Black Tooth, Pookie, et al. Lacking even a modicum of filmmaking skill, this 80-minute mess is the equivalence of a cinematic circle jerk.