There are a lot of films that feature evil villains. Whether it’s a recent slasher film or even just a crime thriller, films have never shied away from showing people doing truly despicable things. However, in the case of the new Sony Pictures Classic documentary, “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” the horrific villain at the center of the film was very much real and probably affected the US more than most people in the country’s history.
As seen in the new trailer for “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” the film tells the story of someone that had a huge effect on the current state of politics but is probably a figure that you have never heard of. Roy Cohn was a lawyer that found himself tied to some of the most politically divisive figures and issues in US history. From being the lawyer for Senator Joseph McCarthy and assisting on the infamous McCarthy investigations back in the 1950s to becoming the political and personal mentor for none other than Donald J. Trump, Cohn was a person that not only wielded great influence but was also not afraid to use it in the most terrible ways.
The documentary was selected to compete in this year’s Sundance Film Festival for the Grand Jury Prize. Director Matt Tyrnauer screened his previous film, “Studio 54,” at the festival in 2018. However, he’s probably best known for his 2008 doc, “Valentino: The Last Emperor.”
“Where’s My Roy Cohn?” opens in limited release on September 20 before rolling out nationwide in the weeks that follow.
Here’s the synopsis from Sundance:
Roy Cohn personified the dark arts of 20th-century American politics, turning empty vessels into dangerous demagogues—from Senator Joseph McCarthy to his final project, Donald J. Trump. Where’s My Roy Cohn? unearths the origins of the seditious right wing’s ascent, revealing how a deeply troubled master manipulator shaped our current political world. This shocking film exposes Cohn’s malign influence and contextualizes him as a modern Machiavelli, tracing his rise to national prominence—first as prosecutor of the Rosenbergs, then as handmaiden to Joseph McCarthy. After these twin disgraces, Cohn re-emerges as a New York power broker, mafia consigliere, white-collar criminal, and, eventually, the mentor of Trump.