Movie Review: Ami Horowitz's Debut, U.N. Me, Takes A Michael ...

Location

AMC Mesquite 19919 Interstate 635 Mesquite, TX 75149

Ami Horowitz has taken up no small feat with his first film, the satiric documentary, U.N. Me, setting his sights on that behemoth, byzantine multi-national organization, the United Nations. Horowitz addresses some of the more dishonorable missteps by the UN in recent years, including the Oil-For-Food scandal, the disturbing inaction regarding Rwanda and Darfur, and sexual misconduct of peacekeepers in Coite d?Ivoire. Just minutes into the film we see the president of Iran, a man who has denied the Holocaust and executes gay men in his country, asked to be the keynote speaker at the U.N.?s Premiere Human Rights Conference. That seems appropriate.

Horowitz claims Michael Moore?s Bowling For Columbine as his inspiration in deciding to make this film. Much like Michael Moore, Horowitz?s onscreen snarky quipping is entertaining and provoking, and he is charming, assertive, and sometimes comically invasive. And like Moore, Horowitz?s attempts at humor occasionally undercut the film?s journalistic integrity. For example, mocking a man who doesn?t understand American satire, such as the Head of the U.N. Peacekeeping mission in Coite d?Ivoire, Abou Moussa, isn?t always the most effective approach in journalism. However, Horowitz finds redemption in his interview with the take-no-nonsense Nobel laureate, Jody Williams, a women who came face to face with the injustices of the U.N. while heading the peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

U.N. Me?s pace is erratic, the torrent of emotionally charged scenes is often beset with satirical interludes of cartoony playfulness and modern pop-culture mockery that underplays the seriousness of the subject matter. The film is short on solutions to cure what Horowitz calls a corrupt and bullying organization (suggesting removing certain countries from the U.N., or creating a rival organization), but U.N. Me proves potent in its proclamations concerning the U.N.?s worldly indecency and sometimes appallingly self-preserving attitude. It is an enjoyable watch, an informatively sarcastic window washing expose of an organization most of us, it seems, know little about.

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