Where’s My Roy Cohn? | 3 out of 4 Stars | Rated PG-13
By Kyle Osborne
Attorney Roy Cohn died more than 30 years ago, yet his presence, or rather his lack of presence, looms large in the current White House. Cohn, after all, was once the mentor to New York’s notorious real estate magnate, Donald Trump. And it is Trump who was quoted as saying the line that serves as the title of this documentary. Frustrated at then Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal from the special investigation of his alleged campaign interactions with Russia, Trump was said to have asked, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” What did that mean?
A young Roy Cohn advises Senator Joe McCarthy
The film answers that question by recounting the pugnacious lawyer’s career trajectory that started as a prosecutor in the Rosenberg trials, proceeded to being Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel, and a string of controversial moves before being disbarred for unethical conduct months before his AIDS-related death about a month later.
Closeted virtually his entire life, Cohn went after gays, while being a fixture of New York nightlife back in the days of disco-Studio 54, to be exact. In other words, it was a life of internal conflict and professional hypocrisy, just to use one example.
Director Matt Tyrnauer gets plenty of witnesses to testify to Cohn’s ruthlessness on camera. It serves as a kind of psychoanalysis of a man who outwardly loved a fight, placed winning above all else and lived by a few simple rules—namely, never, ever admit fault. Never tell the truth on yourself. Lie without flinching. Look people right in the eyes and lie to them.
Sound like anyone we know?
Roy Cohn and Donald Trump in the 1980s
It wouldn’t be fair to accuse Tyrnauer of piling on. We do learn that Cohn was deeply devoted to his mother, and she to him. As the old saying goes, even Hitler had a pet dog. And some of the subjects reveal at least a glimpse of humanity into Cohn. They recount with some sense of awe at how the man kept racking up “wins.” He became a king-maker and had enormous influence over politics, even if some of his machinations were out of public sight.
In 2019, audiences still find fascinating the dark, flawed figures that gave a guy called Shakespeare plenty to work with. The fact that Roy Cohn was completely irredeemable only makes him that much more tragic. And as the subject of a film, kinda fascinating.
For more production information, visit: Official Website
For DC area locations and showtimes,visit: Area Showtimes