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The frequent criticism about celebrities delivering “woke” lectures from the consolation of their pampered lives receives a well-calculated brush-back pitch with “Citizen Penn,” a documentary taking a look at Sean Penn’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti and the group that grew out of them.
Penn could be a polarizing determine, however he’s in no way a dilettante, having rolled up his sleeves and put his time the place his mouth is along with his cash. In the course of, he has tart phrases for individuals who attend glitzy fundraisers however don’t ante up for deserving teams and people desperately in want that they’re designed to serve.
Director Don Hardy weaves an prolonged interview with Penn along with footage of the work undertaken in Haiti after it was devastated by a large earthquake in 2010. As a credit-sequence bonus, the movie tacks on Penn’s efforts in distributing Covid-19 exams and later vaccinations in Los Angeles, reflecting the development of the group he birthed – initially known as J/P HRO, which managed Haiti’s largest camp for displaced individuals, now referred to as CORE – bringing its charitable endeavors house to US shores.
As the documentary reminds us, Penn has a somewhat tumultuous private historical past, and his common forays into politics have typically drawn criticism. His controversial adventures overseas have included visiting Iraq previous to the battle in 2002 and later lambasting the Bush administration, assembly with Venezuelan chief Hugo Chavez, and secretly interviewing drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in Mexico.
Still, as clips of Penn’s rescue efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina remind us, he’s no stranger to parachuting into stricken areas, doing much more to assist throughout a disaster than simply smiling for a photograph op – exhibiting a degree of compassion that garnered an honor from Nobel Laureates in 2012.
Despite his ideological alliance with the left, Penn additionally has little endurance for what could be known as Hollywood’s charity-industrial complicated, constructed round lavish occasions to gin up donations. He’s proven basically berating the crowd at a 2019 fundraiser, later expressing his distaste for the “hat-in-hand-ness” of the entire system.
As Penn is proven saying when he acquired his Oscar for “Milk” in 2009, the actor doesn’t at all times make himself a straightforward man to love. The similar can go for a lot of of his brethren after they wade into politics, yielding acquainted fees – particularly from conservative media – about limousine liberals lecturing America and certainly the world.
Celebrities broadly and Hollywood particularly present straightforward (and never by the way, site visitors and scores pleasant) targets. Still, as Regina King stated when introducing the recent Oscar ceremony, “I know that a lot of you people at home want to reach for your remote when you feel like Hollywood is preaching to you, but as a mother of a Black son I know the fear that so many live with, and no amount of fame or fortune changes that.”
Being Sean Penn would possibly present you a platform, in different phrases, however as the title of this movie seeks to underscore, doesn’t deprive you of the rights related to being a citizen. And in Penn’s eyes, to paraphrase a line incessantly related to a comic-book hero, with the energy and privilege of stardom comes a sure accountability.
“Citizen Penn” premieres May 6 on Discovery+.