Nothing strange rehearsalbut Paul T. Goldman reasonably close. Filmed over a decade by Directed by Jason Woliner (Borat next movie), Peacock’s documentary series, released January 1, tells a crazy real-life story, as well as many fictional versions of it, until it doesn’t blur the line between fiction and reality. It’s like it’s scribbled all over it.
Warning: Some spoilers follow.
“No one can make this up!” Paul T. Goldman, a resident of West Palm Beach, Florida, exclaims, and it was the first of the numerous dubious claims scattered across Woliner’s six-episode series (only five of which were made available to the press). solstice).
Executive produced by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldbergand Megan Ellison, Paul T. Goldman is the wild and gripping tale of its title subject, who contacted the director in 2012 in hopes that he would turn his personal challenge into a film.
Woliner took the bait, and in the years that followed, he directed this small-screen mash-up, revolving around Goldman’s sensational accusations against his wife, Audrey Munson: namely, her She is living a double life as a prostitute and a lady who, in partnership with her sleazy boyfriend Royce Rocco, is part of an international sex trafficking ring.
Goldman first made these allegations in its self-published book duplicatethen a screenplay based on that book, and finally a novel anthology (Chronicles Paul T. Goldman) it’s pure hokum, turning Goldman into a dandy spy tracking down enemies. Paul T. Goldman is an adaptation of those originals, a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of that adaptation, and a portrait-cum-nonfiction test of Goldman herself.
As far as the eccentric protagonists go, Goldman is a jerk. Frequently squinting, giggling, hunching his shoulders in glee, and blaspheming every statement in a high-pitched voice, he’s a cartoon character who steps into the life of whimsical documentaries. The more he tries to act normal, the more he looks like a fictional creature — Martin Short in particular don’t act like a human boy in Clifford.
Most people use aliases in Paul T. Goldman, like everything presented as a hoax. It’s hard to judge whether this whole affair was a giant set-up, but what is clear is that Goldman believes he is a “warrior” and not a “weak” when it comes to tried to bring down his ex-wife, who left him in a brief part-time marriage in which she allegedly spent Wednesday evenings through Saturday mornings in Cocoa Beach caring for the grandmother his Alzheimer’s disease.
Chapter 5: The Chronicles of Paul T. Goodman with (lr) Paul T. Goldman as Paul T. Goldman and Jason Woliner as Jason Woliner.
Peacock
Audrey, it turned out, was Goldman’s second wife, as he had previously been betrothed to Talia, a mail-order bride he had married shortly after meeting her in Russia – where he had originally come to marry a bride. distinctive mail order bride. Goldman has a son with Talia named Johnny, and her desire to give him a new motherly role model is the impetus to break up with Audrey, this despite her bizarre demands.
Paul T. Goldman detailing this story through a combination of traditional interviews with Goldman and others, dramatic recreations written and starred by Goldman, as well as cinematography of the production process. produced those scenes, in which Goldman and Woliner’s relationship was revealed. Goldman is clearly delighted to have a film director committed to bringing his adventures to the screen.
More difficult to define, however, is Woliner’s attitude towards Goldman, to whom he shows kindness and patience even in the most difficult times, but who he sees as a con man. colorful island and, later, something akin to a self-obsessed eccentric. – harbors conspiratorial fantasies about exact revenge on the woman who abandoned him.
It takes all three seconds to realize that Goldman may be the least successful actor alive, so Woliner’s humorous decision about his psychosis while also posing as his ally is often leave Paul T. Goldman feels somewhat meaningful. Then again, Goldman is a grown man who has every right to stop this whenever he wants, and ostensibly, Woliner intends this madness to be a character study of delusions. , anger and derangement — all refracted through a cinematic filter.
The series is both revealing and exploitative, distinguishing between the two in the same way that it switches between staged action and unintended action. Two opposites always seem to be true at the same time, and Woliner’s remarkable thing is that he has continued to push the proceedings into never-so-familiar corners, with the facts — and reality itself — roll back itself until the binary distinction becomes almost irrelevant.
Goldman repeatedly admitted that only a fool would do what he did; interrupting his remarks with cheesy and ridiculous zingers; contradicting previous assertions; and presented himself as a noble doer with evidence to support his accusations. He obviously doesn’t have that evidence, but he’s still trying to convince private investigators and law enforcement officials to see everything from his alternate universe POV.
Chapter 2: Paul T. Goodman’s Moscow with, Paul T. Goldman as Paul T. Goldman.
Peacock
Revelations of fraudulent checks, secret park meetings, and secret correspondence are just the tip of this silly iceberg, embellished with quirky and/or insensitive remarks by Goldman about his “prostitute” ex-wife. In this combination, the presence of legitimate actors in supporting the fictional parts is another hilariously quirky twist.
There’s so much to cringe in Paul T. Goldmanand pretty much all the fun, the funniest was Goldman’s mocking public presentation of ex-wife’s infidelity, in which a paid attendee asked him, “Not a mail-order bride Is it a form of sex trafficking?” the crusaders were blinded.
Goldman was an eccentric individual who seemed to have been absent the day they announced their self-awareness, invited the real Talia to watch actresses audition for her role, talked to her co-stars about her dream of winning an Emmy. and bask in the praise from colleagues for her amazing story. As for Nathan Fielder’s work, it’s a hilarious home of legitimate and illusory experiences and compulsions, with Goldman—sad, angry, pitiful, and silly—at the hazy center of it.
If one hasn’t seen its sure-to-be-revealed ending, one can only speculate about Paul T. Goldmanthe final perspective of the main character, whose every action seems to be fueled by hurt, disappointment and, as a result, the need to imagine himself as a genius-hero-victory savior. What is beyond doubt, however, is that Woliner’s superprofile is another reflection and the result of a 21st century filled with the Internet, in which everything and nothing is real—a mere situation. exacerbated by the ubiquitous presence of cameras.
