Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn

Ivy Meeropol's 2019 documentary is about the lawyer Roy Cohn. He served as chief counsel in the communism investigations of the fifties, then became an influential fixer in New York politics and business, running other people's affairs until his death. What distinguishes it is the director's position. Meeropol is the granddaughter of the couple Cohn prosecuted and who were executed; she makes the film without hiding that link and states openly that it is a personal reckoning. The narrative gives wide space to Cohn taking part in investigations targeting gay people while denying his own homosexuality. He died of AIDS and denied the illness to the end; the documentary shows this not as irony but as part of the same structure. Who it's for: those interested in American political history and biographical documentary. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a neutral portrait; the film looks from a personal position and declares it.