Wild Card: The Downfall of a Radio Loudmouth (TV Movie 2020) Poster

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7/10
VIEWS ON FILM review of Wild Card: The Downfall of a Radio Loudmouth
burlesonjesse530 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
"Craig comes from a line of shock jocks". I've never heard of the guy until now. "Craig" refers to radio personality and New Yorker Craig Carton. He is featured in a documentary that probes his early life till his present day actuality in 2020. Wild Card: The Downfall of a Radio Loudmouth is said documentary and yup, it's my latest review.

Wild Card: The Downfall of a Radio Loudmouth is about well, a loudmouth, a kind of controversial Howard Stern for the sports world. It's a straightforward docu that is of course, HBO ready. There are plenty of interviews, tight editing, flashbacks, decent NYC cinematography, and a sort of involuntary sympathy for its subject.

"Loudmouth" chronicles Craig Carton as he goes from being a successful broadcasting co-host to being a prison inmate at the United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg (that's in Pennsylvania). Carton who was a compulsive gambler, was convicted of securities fraud and wire fraud. As the film concludes, he is a free man after serving just one year of a 3-year sentence.

Wild Card: The Downfall of a Radio Loudmouth is directed by two people (Marin Dunn, Marie McGovern). They do an adequate job considering that they might have not had control over final cut (their documentary is a mere 76 minutes long).

Dunn and McGovern's only misstep is allowing Carton to be featured too much, as if he were the financier, producer, and director himself. Carton seems like an okay dude who deserves a little redemption. However, Craig kind of uses his screen time in "Loudmouth" as a rudimentary platform or declaration. It's sort of off-putting but it doesn't deflate what is already a report worth revealing.

Bottom line: Every gambling addict might benefit from sitting down and watching "Loudmouth". This "downfall" via Craig's plight could only turn into a "rise".
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5/10
Mildly interesting bio-doc of the NY sports shock-jock's rise and fall
paul-allaer8 October 2020
"Wild Card - The Downfall of a Radio Loudmouth" (2020 release; 76 min.) is a documentary about the life and times of Craig Carton, the erstwhile radio sports shock-jock. As the movie opens, Carton is in a penitentiary, doing time (but we don't know for what). In a voice -over, Carton says he wants to tell his side of the story, the full story. We go back in time, to 2007, when he and Boomer Esiason launch the "Boomer & Carton" sports talk show on New York's WFAN radio, and soon became the talk of the town. We then go back even further in time to "New Rochelle, NY, 1970s", as Carton recalls his middle class upbringing but also his personal demons from that time... At this point we are 10 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this documentary is written and directed by Martin Dunn and Marie McGovern, the same team that brought us last year's "Seaver" sports documentary. Here they look at the life and times of Craig Carton, a sports radio talk show host who apparently was very good at being a radio show host, but not so much at other things, including a self-destructive gambling addition (blackjack, in particular), which led to his spectacular fall from grace (into hard jail time). Given the notoriety of this guy in New York City, it may well be that New Yorkers will be fascinated by this. I had vaguely heard of this guy, and only because he teamed up on the radio with Boomer Esiason, yes the erstwhile Cincinnati Bengals QB (I live in Cincinnati, and saw Boomer lead them into Super Bowl XXIII back in the day--I was at that Super Bowl!). But other than that, I found this documentary mildly interesting at best. I will give credit to Carton for owning up to all he did wrong. He is not hiding behind anything or blaming others.

"Wild Card - The Downfall of a Radio Loudmouth" premiered this week on HBO and is now available on HBO On Demand and other streaming services. If you have any interest in sports or in a "radio loudmouth" (the New York kind, in particular), I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.
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5/10
Watch only if you're interested in Craig Carton
hafaball-19 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I was a huge fan of Craig Carton on "Boomer and Carton" and was saddened by his firing and eventual arrest, so I was interested in the documentary, but unfortunately it probably wouldn't make anyone outside his fandom want to watch. The doc doesn't go into gambling as a whole enough, even romanticizes it to a point where it could hurt more than help. It does go into Carton's past traumas and downfall as the title suggests, but minimizes his prison sentence. At only 75 minutes, it's engaging enough, but the biggest drawback is Chris Christie constantly giving his 2 cents. As a New Jerseyan, he's the last person I want to see and interjects at the worst times. Hearing about Carton's traumas which led him down this path is the most heartfelt the doc gets and his new start is encouraging.
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7/10
A very interesting story, well worth a watch!
beoir-4367222 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I enjoyed this documentary very much. They do feature Craig Carton a lot, telling his own story, but he is much more critical of his mistakes then anyone else that was interviewed. And he tells you at every step which were the stupid mistakes that he made. It was a compelling story.

As a sub-plot to his story: I never knew there there is a side of gambling where someone gamble's with other people's money like a sort of investment broker, with agreed upon percentage returns. So, like every good documentary, I came out of it learning a little bit more about the world, even if it's a part I will never come in contact with.

Lastly, I don't understand any of the bad reviews... the documentary tells you exactly what he was convicted of, and they don't say that it was a simple mix up of funds, and I don't know how it can be considered a puff piece, when he details mistake after mistake, screw-up after screw-up.
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2/10
never heard of him
brabon-4569424 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
After five minutes and watching that sob christie talk about how great of a guy he is...didnt want to find out anymore about him. guys yelling on the radio isnt shocking anymore...so stop calling them shock jocks. the guy is a weak clone of mad dog russo terrestrial radio is a vast wasteland, controlled by a few conglomerates who no longer care about ratings...only coverage...so dont pound your chest about being number one getting paid 2 mil in ny radio in 2007 isnt anything to crow about either....howard stern was making more than that 20 years ago so he has an addiction that destroyed his life...welcome to the world of radio, where having an addiction has almost been a requirement wont waste your time listing off the names of jocks who have battled addiction...there isnt enough room why did hbo sports think this would be an interesting story to tell?
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1/10
Self pity piece on a guy that had it all & pissed it away.
rickbell199 October 2020
What are we supposed to feel sorry for this guy? It was ALL self inflicted! Why can't HBO do shows on people that have overcome tremendous hardships in life that made a huge difference and contributions helping others have a better life. First responders, cops, military, kids with diseases who came through REAL hardships to do great things in life. Not some loud mouth looser!
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1/10
Did Carton finance this?
sfolla13 October 2020
Wow. A puff piece to make this loser a victim. Don't waste your time unless you are fan and want to excuse him.
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2/10
Not A Doc
froston18 May 2021
To call this a documentary is a stretch as it seems to have been almost entirely based on stories from Craig, the fraud, who the documentary is supposed to be looking at. Unverifiable stories about being such a good gambler that people invested their money into his skills. His whole legal problem was a simple mixup off funds. Yeah right. HBO normally puts out such good stuff, but this diminished their brand.
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3/10
Confessions of a slimeball.
m-bach77726 January 2022
A story about self-pity and self promotion.

'Wild card' is a waste of time. Totally indifferent.

Why anyone would ever listen to this loadmouth and his annoying voice on any radio is inconceivable.
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