Operation Filmmaker

Operation Filmmaker is the cinematic equivalent of spending 90 minutes in the company of a really unpleasant, unlikable figure, as director Nina Davenport follows Iraqi film student Muthana Mohmed as he bungles his way through one golden opportunity after another. Mohmed’s problems start after filmmaker Liev Schreiber, having watched the would-be director on an MTV documentary, agrees to put him to work on the set of Everything is Illuminated, though it’s not long before Mohmed (whose every move is documented by Davenport) reveals himself to be a lazy, self-centered, and flat-out incompetent worker. Mohmed is consequently not a sympathetic figure in the slightest; while there’s admittedly something kind of fascinating about the way he uses his sob story to bamboozle a succession of people (including The Rock!) into giving him money, Mohmed is precisely the sort of would-be celebrity who hardly deserves even a fraction of his 15 minutes of fame (this guy is essentially Paris Hilton’s male counterpart). Davenport’s lack of focus certainly doesn’t help matters, as the filmmaker augments Mohmed’s story with footage of the ongoing war in Iraq (for what purpose and to what end is anybody’s guess). Operation Filmmaker is ultimately an entirely needless piece of work that succeeds only in feeding Mohmed’s enormous ego, and it’s hard to imagine what kept Davenport going through the months (and years!) of filming.

*1/2 out of ****