'Four Seasons Total Documentary' Takes Us Inside the Trump Presidency's Most Humiliating Moment

[Zorro]

The new doc “Four Seasons Total Documentary” examines Rudy Giuliani’s disastrous press conference outside of Four Seasons Total Landscaping and how it came to be.

The Donald Trump presidency was a disgraceful disaster, what with all the grifting and colluding and treason and insurrection. Yet it was also an embarrassment of comedic riches, most of it due to Trump and company’s preternatural ability to say and do the dumbest and most ludicrous things imaginable. Sitting at a tiny desk. Complaining about toilets. Promoting bleach as a COVID cure. Remarking that George Washington “took over airports” during the Revolutionary War. Suggesting we nuke hurricanes. Drinking a bottle of water with two hands. Being laughed at by the UN General Assembly. Claiming the moon was part of Mars. Blaming windmills for causing cancer. Hugging and kissing the American flag. Wearing orange clown make-up. “Very stable genius.” “Yo-semite.” “Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV.”

Yet of all the inane moments of Trump’s Oval Office tenure, perhaps none was more humiliating—and thus encapsulated his administration better—than the press conference held by his team on Nov. 7, 2020, four days after the presidential election. At that infamous affair, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani spoke to the media in front of a garage door at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Since the company had zero connection to the Trump campaign, it made no sense that it would be the venue for this get-together, which was designed to give Giuliani a platform from which to spout nonsense about non-existent election fraud and the legal challenges he and his cohorts would be mounting. Nonetheless, Giuliani took to a podium in the parking lot of this seeding, irrigation, and lawn maintenance outfit and rambled on about his delusions of corruption, culminating with him raising his arms to the sky and bizarrely bellowing, “Oh, the networks!” after word spread that national TV news stations had declared Joe Biden the election’s victor.

MSNBC’s Four Seasons Total Documentary (Nov. 7) is a humorous one-year anniversary look-back at that absurd fiasco, when a nondescript company temporarily became the center of the political universe. Those in search of hard-hitting investigative journalism shouldn’t get their hopes up; director Christopher Stoudt’s half-hour documentary doesn’t ultimately get to the bottom of precisely why this press conference took place at northeast Philadelphia’s Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Yet it remains a lively portrait of the business’s brief, shining fifteen minutes of fame, and its shrewd response to being thrust into the global spotlight—the latter of which helped it become a minor, amusing 21st century American success story.

Four Seasons Total Landscaping is owned by 65-year-old Marie Siravo, who runs it alongside the youngest of her three sons, Mike, as well as Mike’s friend Sean Middleton. They’re typical working-class Philadelphians who, on camera, come across as driven, dedicated, loyal people trying to make a living at their chosen trade. Their world was turned upside down by a phone call from a Trump staffer, asking if their premises could be used for a presser; apparently, the president’s team coveted a more out-of-the-way, Republican-friendly area and audience for Giuliani in the wake of a prior incident in which spokespeople Corey Lewandowski and Pam Bondi were drowned out by disruptive downtown-Philly protesters blaring Beyoncé songs. Sensing an opportunity, they agreed, not realizing the crazy attention they were unwittingly attracting.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/four-seasons-total-documentary-takes-us-inside-the-trump-presidencys-most-humiliating-moment

Looking forward to watching this!

[IggleDuer]

1. Nothing is humiliating to TFG ...

… he just doubles down.

[BobTheSubgenius]

9. That is certainly something that needs to be top of mind in discussions like this.

"...most humiliating moment." is an awfully bold statement. There are so many that would have been humiliating enough to an average person that they might have had a stroke. Can humiliation cause strokes? I think weapons-grade humiliations like this probably could.

[calimary]

2. Lots of dumb stuff generated during the trump White House years.

This was one of the dumbest.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. You know, the fact that Giuliani continued his presser, instead of canceling is

very telling of his methods. What comes to mind is that he thought we wouldn't put it together. That should tell you why he lies so much. He's so deep in his own con, that he can't read the room.

If they made a movie about how they lie and take us down their rabbit hole, it should be called, "Just Go With It."

[twodogsbarking]

4. How I wish The Four Seasons had been a septic tank cleaning company.

[Yoyoyo77]

10. Comment of the day!!!

[homegirl]

12. My thought was a

Port A Potty rental office.

[twodogsbarking]

15. When you have to flush

call Four Seasons. We know our shit.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

5. What time

( east coast ) does it come on?
I know msnbc is airing it.

[Zorro]

6. 10 PM East Coast time

[I_UndergroundPanther]

7. Thanks will set an alarm

For the show

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Four Seasons was some kind of statement or strategy that we still haven't figured out

It meant something to someone, but who?

[dragonlady]

11. I've always assumed they planned it for Four Seasons Philidelphia

The "luxury hotel" would be their more likely venue. Then some idiot made a mistake in publicizing the event and it was too late for a correction.

[bucolic_frolic]

14. Thinking more on it, I think it an inside joke for 24/7 corruption between us guys

Kind of an elbow in the ribs for those in the know. But like I said, it depends on who it was meant for.

[Pinback]

13. Four Seasons Total Documentary Is A Gem - Solzy at the Movies

Rudy Giuliani sits at the desk of Four Seasons Total Landscaping owner Marie Siravo, moments before the start of the Trump-related press conference in Philadelphia on Nov. 7, 2020.

Note the "Boss Lady" sign - nice touch!

Make America Rake Again! Lawn and Order! Your Campaign is Dead, But Your Grass Doesn’t Have to Be.

Remember the infamous press conference last year? None of us could believe it. Surely, the Trump campaign meant the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia in Center City. G-d only knows they didn’t mean to book a random landscaping business! As it turns out, the hotel was never in consideration. Given the location of the small business, it was a convenient spot for the campaign to get in and out. What they–and the reporters on site–did not know was that they were standing outside the Four Seasons Total Landscaping when the networks called the presidential election for Joe Biden. Well, that and both a sex shop and crematorium being among the neighboring businesses. But at long last, we finally to see the side of the story from the small business’s point of view.

More at link: http://www.solzyatthemovies.com/2021/11/05/four-seasons-total-documentary-is-a-gem/

I wonder if they'll include anything about Reddit user Ochre Jelly's genius Lego parody - see here on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ochre_jelly/albums/72157716871455121