Matt Tyrnauer’s Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid proves James Carville’s lasting impact through the lens of the 2024 presidential campaign.
There isn’t a more of-the-moment documentary in 2024 than Matt Tyrnauer’s Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid.
While it picks up with James Carville in the spring of 2023 (with the political strategist “hotel jogging,” of all quirks), it begins with a loaded 2024 question: Can Biden win the presidency for a second term? Even over a year ago, Carville knew the answer to this question, and it’s no. He’d been sounding the alarm way before many of us saw the writing on the wall.
Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid meanders in its format (one minute we’re talking Biden, the next we’re headed back to the Ragin’ Cajun’s roots in Carville, Louisiana), but the waltzy stroll through his life is the perfect representation of his style. He’ll get there, just keep listening. After all, Carville is a bit of a late bloomer, winning his first campaign at 42.
However, his relationship with Republican strategist Mary Matalin is the most fascinating aspect of the documentary — and even takes focus away from him at times (which he probably hates!).
“We come from a different era where you could talk about politics and disagree,” says Matalin in the doc.
Really, you could do a whole 90 minutes on this relationship, and at times, it feels like Tyrnauer is tempted to do so. The marriage between Republican and Democratic strategists feels Sorkian in nature while also reflective of how far we’ve fallen, a relic of the ’90s when you could be from different political parties and not be on the brink of divorce. Thirty years ago, the political dividing lines were hazier, even if the Iraq War is something the couple doesn’t discuss to this day. (Matalin came out as Libertarian in 2016.)
The most ironic part of the documentary is that Carville calls for Biden to step down, citing that he’s too old to be president. While Carville recognizes his own advancing age (he’s two years younger than 46th president), the man is clearly at the top of his game, still influencing Democratic campaign strategy — even if it’s from Zoom calls on MSNBC.
Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid is now playing in New York and will expand to Los Angeles on October 25.
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I will definitely watch this when I'm able to. Carville always entertained me. You bring up a good point about his marriage of opposites; he was also a good friend of a famous conservative talk show host.
Carville was fine in his time but today….Not so much. I still hold Biden could have won and yes Harris seems to have fired up the voters more yet a bit hypocritical for Carville slamming Biden on age when he's no spring chicken.