The Sexiest Man in Winnipeg documents a broadcaster-turned-bank robber. That doesn’t make it interesting

Cease me for those who’ve heard this one. A Canadian sports activities broadcaster walks right into a financial institution. He is cradling a bleeding hand, carrying a bomb and smiling a crooked smile. 

“Hello,” he says. “I am TV’s Steve Vogelsang. Hand over all the pieces within the until.”

OK, possibly he did not use these precise phrases.

However in accordance with The Sexiest Man in Winnipeg, Vogelsang’s real-life robberies did, kind of, observe these beats. And the documentary — premiering Friday on Prime and made with Vogelsang’s co-operation — markets itself as following that weird spree; a descent from CKY Winnipeg’s supposedly fan-favourite Nineties onscreen jokester, to a 2010s convicted felon with six financial institution robberies spanning two provinces. 

Astoundingly, we be taught a lot of this from Vogelsang himself — a few years after his six-and-a-half yr jail sentence, and seemingly greater than recreation to re-enact the assorted crimes he orchestrated at banks between Alberta and Saskatchewan. 

WATCH | The Sexiest Man in Winnipeg trailer: 

However as he narrates how he constructed the pretend bomb in a close-by motel room and even why he as soon as went for a facial instantly after a stickup, the query, after all, turns into “Why?” 

Why would a profitable, well-liked and seemingly regular journalist all of a sudden — to steal a Vince Gilligan-ism — break dangerous?

Consistent with that AMC present, a part of the rationale could also be that he was by no means all that standard. The by-then divorced, twice-retired (from journalism after which educating) enigma on the centre of our story is probably not all that tough to unravel. He is prickly; he is confident to a fault and impulsive. He obtained a no-contact order for a pupil he dated; he as soon as instructed his ex-wife — whereas they had been nonetheless married — he would ceaselessly stay the neatest individual she’d ever met.

However that is about the place the twists and turns finish. We get an intriguing opening, detailing Vogelsang’s typically cinematic theft plans, and we hear from various individuals who really knew him. There are his college students, ex-wife and the cops and prosecutors tasked with catching him. There’s even the slick narration of Will Arnett, perpetually dwelling on the strangeness of each the case, and Vogelsang’s participation within the documentary.

Although, maybe considerably confusingly, Arnett is forged as a bison, telling the story in a tongue-in-cheek voiceover that continuously cuts to pictures of the animal as if it is the one telling the story. It is a frustratingly synthetic conceit, seemingly chosen to each tie in to the overall tone of the documentary and, as Vogelsang explains in a pointedly unexamined comment, as a result of the misunderstood brutes are his “spirit animal.” 

In brief, neither our star or story are, as Shrek would say, like an onion: The Sexiest Man in Winnipeg is critically brief relating to layers. There’s even a miserable lack of novelty. Like how band Flight of the Conchords typically jokingly described themselves as New Zealand’s fourth hottest guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-gangsta-rap-funk-folk comedy duo, Vogelsang is a runner-up even within the extremely area of interest style he is created for himself. 

In terms of essentially the most well-known Canadian late ’80s/early ’90s ex-performer-turned-bank-robber, subsequently starring in a streamer-released documentary about their time in jail and subsequent rehabilitation, Vogelsang is, at greatest, quantity two. 

The winner would in all probability be actor Deleriyes (Joey) Cramer (Flight of the Navigator). However the place his documentary, Life After the Navigator, successfully mines his pathos and self-reflection, The Sexiest Man in Winnipeg is seemingly extra within the story’s elevator pitch than its substance.

Lack of depth

That is significantly disappointing given who’s behind the mission. Co-director Charlie Siskel (who labored with first-timer Ben Daughtrey) is probably greatest identified for the Oscar-nominated documentary Discovering Vivian Maier, concerning the curiously darkish lifetime of a prolific and beforehand unknown avenue photographer. 

And like his followup doc American Anarchist — concerning the considerably regretful writer of bomb-making handbook The Anarchist Cookbook — his work succeeded by the depth he present in his topics.

Maier first gave the impression to be a traditional nanny, then an outsider artist, after which a deeply unwell sufferer of unmanaged psychological well being points. American Anarchists‘s William Powell was first a countercultural iconoclast, then a reluctant apologist — alternatively lamenting his e-book’s affiliation with violent crimes, and sparring with Siskel as he pushes him to declare his personal guilt.

However disadvantaged of the unbelievable complexity of Maier, and maybe cautious of criticism he obtained for the combative tone of American Anarchist, any curiosity The Sexiest Man in Winnipeg would possibly supply expires about 20 minutes in. Why did Vogelsang rob these banks? As a result of he wanted cash. Is not there a deeper, extra intriguing motivation? To be sincere, probably not. This was years after his journalism profession — throughout which he was a hyper-local kind of movie star, cannibalized by an business shrinking quick sufficient you would be more durable pressed to search out folks therein with out monetary issues than with them. 

For this reason the premise of the documentary — that Vogelsang is one way or the other an absurdly odd “sort” of financial institution robber — quickly falls flat. He was an growing old, out-of-work man whose skills lay in a dying area. Any assumption about what the everyday felony seems to be like, and Vogelsang’s obvious distance from it, springs from doubtlessly dangerous stereotypes. 

After these facets are handled, The Sexiest Man in Winnipeg turns into an extended apology video — a tenuous excuse to exist, particularly given Prime already instructed one area of interest, offbeat Canadiana crime story with its latest maple-syrup heist miniseries, The Sticky.

And even nonetheless, whether or not Vogelsang has earned any redemption is irrelevant. The true emotions in his soul are past the scope of a documentary, not to mention a evaluate. However other than a late and tenuous revelation round an outdated household pal’s presumably unfavourable affect on Vogelsang, there are few depths to plumb. And with out them, the vast majority of this documentary quantities to a platform for Vogelsang to make the case that he is sorry.