Revolution Summer: Klein Unearths A Political Satire Over 20 Years In The Making
Making a movie is all about timing. If you’re lucky, you get the cast and crew you want, scrape together the money, go into production, and then excitedly head into the edit to put the finishing touches on your picture. If you’re writer/director Daniel Klein, you manage to do all the above, only to find your whole project turned sideways by 9/11. That’s the story behind Taste The Revolution, with Klein shaping his movie over twenty years after he first yelled action, into a time capsule that still feels very relevant today.
Originally shot in the months before the terrorist attack as a narrative comedy with “documentary” elements, Klein has taken the latter footage and put it center stage in his recut. Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali — who gets an “and introducing” credit — takes the lead in his first film out acting school as Mac Laslow, the charismatic leader of activist group K.A.O.S. (Killing the Apathy of Society).
Framed as a mockumentary, Taste The Revolution follows two filmmakers who use relatives’ soda company money to film Mac as he captures the attention of disaffected youth and organizes the K.A.O.S. World Summit. It’s basically a reformers’ Woodstock, and the vaguely drawn K.A.O.S. manifesto means the event draws everybody under the sun, from Free Mumia campaigners to pot legalization enthusiasts to free-thinking socialists. But what starts as a utopian revolution soon becomes a nightmare as splinter groups form, internecine feuds emerge, and Mac himself is revealed to be less than the sum of his fiery speeches.
For those that are too young to remember, the late ‘90s/early ‘00s saw activists hit the streets to make powerful stands against the World Trade Organization and World Bank. Music festivals were as tied to their politics as the artists who played them. Taste The Revolution acts as a broadside against shallow liberal crusades in a manner that feels too sweeping at times. As anyone who has been near activist circles can attest, they are rife with big personalities, conflicted objectives, and little hypocrisies that explode into full blown issues. But they are also filled with courage and conviction from people who genuinely want to make the world a better place, and the unforgiving nature of Taste The Revolution’s satire unfortunately sweeps away any notion that good can still manage to rise from a thicket of misguided impulses.
Even if nuance isn’t at the top of Klein’s agenda, Taste The Revolution still draws plenty of laughs. The chaos of K.A.O.S. provides plenty of space to riff on the trust fund kids, hippy burnouts, and Ivy League overachievers who reach in and try to take their share of any given movement. The film is most effective and humorous when it shows how easily the purest ideals can be corrupted, and one wishes more had been made of Mac’s ties as an adopted child to the rich, white, upper class establishment and his conflicted feelings it causes to roil inside him.
Despite being shot on early 2000s digital video, the scrappy visuals of Taste The Revolution lend the picture an air of authenticity and it plays as an asset to its equally loose storytelling. And in his first role, Ali is already a magnetic and commanding presence; you can see his future stardom emerging from every frame he’s in. Viewers with keen eyes will pick up on early appearances by actor Rhys Coiro and filmmaker Colin Trevorrow (who also serves as executive producer), while those with keen ears will wonder how on earth anybody managed to clear a stacked soundtrack that includes Air, The Shins, Jesus Jones, The Kinks, The Pixies, The Flaming Lips, Elliott Smith, Wilco and Billy Bragg, and more.
What might have been irreverent and provocative had it been released at the time, now plays as a pre-smartphone nostalgia trip. Taste The Revolution is a reminder of what offline, in-person protest once looked like in all its imperfect glory. Klein’s picture won’t change the world, but it might get a few keyboard warriors to rethink their approach to changing the system.
★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Reviewed on December 9th at the 2024 Red Sea International Film Festival (4th edition). 86 mins.
