Review: ‘Get Me Roger Stone’ traces GOP strategist’s influence from Nixon to Trump
“My name is Roger Stone and I’m an agent provocateur,” proclaims the proudly infamous Trump confidant in his introduction to the endlessly fascinating, bracingly up-to-the-minute Netflix documentary bearing his name.
Those offering their own appraisals in “Get Me Roger Stone,” including the president, Paul Manafort and Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, have other names for the spotlight-grabbing political consultant.
They range from dirty trickster to, in the words of New Yorker and CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, “the sinister Forrest Gump of Republican politics,” due to his uncanny ability to figure into every key presidential moment of the past half-century.
Filmmakers Daniel DiMauro, Morgan Pehme and Dylan Bank have skillfully traced Stone’s trajectory from his involvement in the Nixon campaign — he was called before the Watergate grand jury at the tender age of 19 — through to the Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Trump campaigns.
It turns out that Stone, who has his mentor Nixon’s smiling face tattooed on his back, also played a role in the 2000 Florida recount and taking down Eliot Spitzer, but the most intrepid connection of dots involves his introduction of Trump to Roy Cohn, who in a 1984 interview calls the Donald “the closest thing to a genius I’ve ever met in my life.”
Soon after, Stone began prodding the real estate magnate to run for president, viewing him as “a prime piece of political horse flesh.”
Three decades later, the film leaves little doubt that its notoriously self-interested subject, now 64, has a couple more races left in him.
-------------
‘Get Me Roger Stone’
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Playing: Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills; also on Netflix
See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour »
Movie Trailers
Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
