Terror's Advocate (2007): B

Director(s): Barbet Schroeder. Cast: Jacques Vergès, Abderrahmane Benhamida, Bachir Boumaâza, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, Lionel Duroy, Hans-Joachim Klein, Magdalena Kopp, Gilles Ménage, Anis Naccache, Siné and Martine Tigrane. Distributor: Magnolia Pictures. Runtime: 135 min. Rating: NR

Dictators. Terrorists. War Criminals—I don't know where the hell to start, except to say that Jacques Vergès has basically defended them all. Director Barbet Schroeder's new documentary centers on the man himself, a slick, even quite narcissistic defender of all, starting from iconic Algiers bomber Djamilla to Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, as well as Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy and famous terrorist "Carlos". "I'd even defend Bush!", he says. Respectably, the tone to match with this type of subject is slick as the man himself, and Schroeder vividly aestheticized his material by transcending a myriad of talking heads and old archival footage throughout; the film is chronologically structured, and as it goes along, it seems to luxuriate and crescendo in its rhythm. When Terror's Advocate chooses to become an unnecessarily complex political thriller, it does stray away from its primary subject; yet nevertheless, Schroeder's film is elegantly made and fascinating.