SUBURBAN FURY

(director/writer: Robinson Devor; screenwriters: Bob Fink, Charles Mudede, Jason Reid; cinematographer: Sean Kirby; editor: Robinson Devor; music: Paul Matthew Moore; cast: Sara Jane Moore; Runtime: 118; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Jason Reid, Zachariah Sebastian; 2R Productions; 2024)

“A fascinating historical story.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Director/writer Robinson Devor (“Police Beat”/”You Can’t Win”) uses no talking heads (as requested by the subject) only archival footage and interviews with the 93-year-old would-be presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore that take place in the backseat of a car or in a hotel room. Devor co-writes it with Bob Fink, Charles Mudede, and Jason Reid.

It’s a fascinating historical story on the radicalized would-be presidential assassination suburban single mother Sara Jane Moore. In 1975 she failed in her attempt to assassinate President Ford with a pistol outside a downtown San Francisco hotel, and served a thirty year prison sentence until released in 2007 on parole. This assassination attempt came seventeen days after the Charles Manson cult member “Squeaky” Fromme failed in her assassination attempt on President Ford.

Before Moore tried to kill President Ford, she was an FBI informant, assigned by an agent to infiltrate leftist groups and report their activities to her handler. She was politically radicalized after Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. The revolutionary group made her father, Randolph Hearst, pay a ransom in the form of a food-distribution program for the needy. Moore volunteered to keep the books for that organization, and was recruited by the intelligence agency while on the job.

The documentary plays out in a series of vignettes, as the film concludes when Moore fires at President Ford.

The oily Moore can’t be trusted to tell the truth about her life story. When asked “Am I sorry I tried?” she says “Yes, because I only ruined my life. And, no, I’m not sorry I tried, because at the time it seemed like a correct expression of my anger.”

Her bio is filled with narrative inconsistencies, as viewers are left on their own to figure out what this slippery character was all about. She is clearly someone who can’t be trusted.

It played at the New York Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 10/29/2024  GRADE: B+
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